Apple's 30% vig for ebooks just killed the iFlow Reader app - <AUTHOR> https://www.iflowreader.com/Closing.aspx <comment><USER2> Hopefully every (re)seller on the planet is now aware that they should not attempt to build a marketplace on the IOS platform without getting a licence agreement with Apple.

I'm very interested in seeing how Netflix and the Kindle play out on the iPad though. If Apple gets too agressive in trying to lock down revenues, they may just end up driving people off their platform on to Google's.

Thank goodness for competition - can you imagine if the iPad was the only tablet option for the next couple years. At least this way, Apple will have to exercise some restraint.

<comment><USER3> Sorry for taking this off topic, but this is the perfect example of a comment where it would be very interesting to see how many hners that upvoted this opinion. I was one of them, since I believe it is a preferrable position to take. But it would be very interesting to see on what magnitude it resonates with the community as a whole.

Downvotes accepted as retribution for me going meta on this conversation.

<comment><USER2> 61 points.

I'll admit to having edited it half a dozen times to appropriately capture the nuances. As a Silicon Valley professional (Started at Netscape in 1996), and a huge fan of Apple Products (I'm typing this on an MacBook Air in a Redwood City Coffee Shop, I tracked my workout this morning using GymBuddy on my iPhone4, and I read Practical Programing for strength training last night on my iPad2), yet at the same time not unaware of how much damage a Monopolist can do (I believe that they eventually stifle innovation) I wanted to toe the fine line between being a hater, a realist, and, because we are on YC, effectively communicate the market realities of building on someone else's platform.

I also always keep grellas, patio11, and tptacek in mind when reviewing tone to keep out snark or discourtesy, and maximizing content.

How's that for Meta. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love the convenience of ebooks, but the ease of shenanigans in the distribution channel and the ability of a customer to lose an entire library's worth of books over business rules or technical issues distresses me.

When you read a paper book, you can be certain that the content in it is the same as when it was printed, and hasn't been edited or censored since you bought it. It can't be taken away from you by the publisher, except by physical force. You can resell it at will. Publishers and retailers who wants to try different pricing strategies can do so without facing the powerful control of Apple or Amazon.

I plan to keep on reading ebooks, but I'll buy the books I actually care about in physical form.

<comment><USER5> Alternatively, buy your eBooks and strip the DRM right off the bat. I'm taking no chances and I'm sick of heavy boxes when I move.

<comment><USER6> Alternatively, pirate everything and laugh all the way to the bank

<comment><USER7> The moment that none-pirated material is

a) accessible and buyable by me (Linux, .nl based) b) at least as easy to find and get as pirated material

I will immediately buy. In all other situations: I am not going to fiddle with drm-ripping python scripts, convertors, virtual-machines, geo-ip-faking- proxies and so on, just to be able to pay for stuff that I can get without all that hassle for free.

I even track down authors for books I like and wire them the money personally, if for some reason their publishers hide behind all this DRM nonsense.

<comment><USER8> The last two sentences seem to contradict each other: You don't want to jump through hoops but try to track down authors to send them money on a sidechannel?

In general I'm with you though (Germany, mostly on Linux as well) and I try to do something similar whenever possible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There are two components to this company: an eBook reading app, and a bookstore. They clearly took much more pride in the app, and that's where they have true value. With the store they are just middlemen, and though perhaps they could add value by helping people find they books they'd most enjoy, they don't seem to be innovating there. In the end their eBooks are just Adobe DRM protected ePubs.

So monetizing the middlemen part won't work, but aren't there any number of ways to monetize the reading app part? I, for one, wouldn't mind a flow-based reader. I've bought eBooks from a few places now, but also hate the page- turning interface.

This comes across as a stunt to try to change the agency model for book selling. Good luck on that, though, because now you need to convince both Apple and all the publishers to give them 20% again. But why would they do that? Extra middlemen are not going to offer 20% of value in a digital distribution chain.

<comment><USER10> By extra middlemen are you referring to anyone who sells something on an Apple platform which Apple also sells?

<comment><USER9> I'm referring to collecting money through Apple's payment system:

Customer --> Apple --> Reseller --> Publisher

as opposed to:

Customer --> Reseller's website --> Publisher.

iFlow says in the linked article this second model is unworkable for them because iFlow can't get by on 30% of the transaction. iFlow wants 50% like they were getting before the agency model.

<comment><USER11> "iFlow wants 50% like they were getting before the agency model."

You may not have intended this, but that sentence reads as though iFlow is merely making less money than it wold like. The problem's worse than that. iFlow would be losing money with each book sold.

iFlow doesn't have the clout to negotiate contracts with individual major publishers: books are made available through a wholesaler. The wholesaler distributes the publisher's cut, takes its own, and gives iFlow itself a cut of _less than_ 30% of the sale price. Since Apple suddenly wants an entire 30% of the sale price, iFlow would literally be losing money with each transaction to make up Apple's "cut".

As part of the agency model, all books must be sold at the same retail price, so iFlow can't simply bump up the price of its books to compensate, either.

<comment><USER9> iFlow never sold books directly through their app, because the iOS terms never allowed in-app sales. If iFlow was selling books before, they were doing it through a website, unless their app was incorrectly approved.

iFlow doesn't need any clout when negotiating a cut, everybody gets the same deal:

>All sales agents get a 30% commission on the sale of a book. No one gets a different deal. Prior to the agency model, publishers typically offered retailers a 50% discount.

Apple only gets a cut if they handle the processing, i.e. sold on iOS. Books are not a subscription, they can be sold on a website outside of iOS without restriction.

Am I wrong on any of this? I got downvoted but I'm not sure why.

<comment><USER12> _Am I wrong on any of this?_

Yes.

If you sell digital goods for use on an iOS device then you _must_ also offer them via in-app sales, _for the same price_ as you do elsewhere.

Since their app is only an iOS app, everyone will continue to buy via the in app purchases even if they did offer it online, and for each of those purchases they have to pay the Apple tax.

<comment><USER9> I don't believe that's correct either. I'm guessin your source for Apple's policy is this:

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/02/15appstore.html>

But this policy only applies to subscriptions, not to purchases. In particular:

>Publishers set the price and length of subscription (weekly, monthly, bi- monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly).

does not sound like it is in any way compatible with the book world's agency model.

Edit: found an Ars Technica article here:

[http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/02/apple-responds- to-...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/02/apple-responds-to-app-store- furor-says-it-wants-a-cut-of-e-book-sales.ars)

but it seems that this policy was unclear even at the time according to the terms, and it's certainly not enforced with the Kindle app, so it's unclear what's going on here.

<comment><USER13> > it seems that this policy was unclear even at the time according to the > terms

That's pretty much the problem in a nutshell - the policy's unclear, and it's always unclear until Apple brings the hammer down. Not a good environment in which to try to build a business.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> As much as Apple is problematic here, the "90% of ebooks being controlled by 6 publishers who all fix prices and pricing rules" seem to be at least as big an issue as well.

I'd think there'd be an opp or two for someone to get in to publishing and selling _just_ ebooks not owned by the big 6, but that market may be too small to try to nurture at this point.

<comment><USER15> Honestly what is problematic about Apple here?

I mean if I start selling ebooks in the corner at Starbucks they may tolerate that but when Starbucks gets into the ebook business there should be a huge red flag going off telling you that the rules will eventually change: either they'll disallow my ebook sales or demand a cut.

Another huge red flag is a business model based on buying egoods from a wholesaler and reselling them in another vendors shop.

Another question: why couldn't they continue as a reader app and a web app store run by a separate company? (the store licenses the DRM to the reader company) If the answer is that the business doesn't work without the legion of customers the app store brings to the door that's another red flag.

<comment><USER16> I disagree with your analogy. iOS is not a store. The App Store is a store. I'd instead make this analogy: The owner of a bookstore is also the mayor of the town. He enacts a law (via declaration) requiring all bookstores to accept his bookstore's credit cards (of which he gets 30% of the sell price).

Luck for Apple they aren't dominant in ebooks. If they do the same thing to iTunes competitors (and it looks like they might), they could be in real trouble with regulators.

<comment><USER15> Speaking of bad analogies, iOS is not a town that Apple just happened to get elected mayor of. It's more like Disney World and Apple is Disney. Good luck starting your business inside Disney World without living by their rules.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> One word: disintermediation. iFlowReader was acting as an intermediary, selling a publisher's ebook to a reader and taking 50% of the revenue. Why should Random House pay someone 50% of the selling cost for doing an arbitrage play on a bunch of ones and zeros with no additional effort? Random House can cut out the middle man (who adds no value) and sell it themselves. It's a smart business move.

Now iFlowReader claims to offer a more compelling interface, so pivot and find a way to sell the reader software either to end-users who can import their already-purchased ebooks or license it to the publishers. Offer branded versions of the software to the publishers if it's that good and charge the publishers based on a percentage of the gross purchased through the software, which should be quite easy to track.

<comment><USER18> Except RandomHouse isn't cutting out a middleman here, they're just using a different one.

<comment><USER17> I was of course referring to a middleman between Random House and Apple. Whether Apple is also a middleman is a different discussion.

<comment><USER16> How was iFlow Reader a middle man between Random House and Apple?

<comment><USER19> In that the owners of IFlow Reader tried to monetize by getting a piece of every ebook sale, and when that strategy failed, they decided to stop selling iFlow Reader.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> tl;dr : retailer's cut under agency model - platform provider's cut of in-app purchases = 0

The author attributes the agency model to Apple, which I think is understating the role of the publishers, who would have rejected it if it hadn't been very much in their own interests. Expecting the publishers to keep giving you outsized discounts[1] for no reason but inertia was a mistake. Even Amazon couldn't keep that gravy train rolling. The market was begging for a shaking and Apple shook.

[1]:Does this sound stable? _"There is no comparison between the retailers' costs and risks associated with physical books and those associated with ebooks. There is no economic justification to providing the same level of discounts. But that's where we are."_ That's from April 2009. -- [http://www.idealog.com/blog/ideas-triggered-by-amazon- buying...](http://www.idealog.com/blog/ideas-triggered-by-amazon-buying- lexcycle)

<comment><AUTHOR> >>>The author attributes the agency model to Apple

This is because it was Apple that devised the Agency Model and was the first to propose it to the Big Six publishers as a way of getting them on iOS. This led to Macmillan battling with Amazon one infamous weekend and had Amazon retaliate by removing all Buy buttons from Macmillan books. Amazon soon capitualted, other publishers -- except for Random -- piled on, moving to the Agency Model. When Random finally joined, all their books went up anywhere from $2 to over $7 in price.

<comment><USER20> _This is because it was Apple that devised the Agency Model and was the first to propose it to the Big Six publishers as a way of getting them on iOS._

"....which I think is understating the role of the publishers, who would have rejected it if it hadn't been very much in their own interests."

Apple just gave them a better deal than the one Amazon was willing to fight dirty to maintain.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I've never used the app, but I'm not seeing why their apparently unique approach to eBooks couldn't run on WebOS, Meego, or Android. I assume there's a good reason, since you don't throw away years of work easily, but I'd love to hear what that reason is.

<comment><USER22> Build a business on Meego? Are you trolling?

People in these parts honestly believe Android is a hospitable business environment, but if your business involves selling things, you have to content yourself with a tiny fraction of iOS's revenue potential. That's why these guys aren't pivoting. Their business wouldn't have existed in 2011 without iOS.

<comment><USER23> I sell an SEO app ( <http://semtab.com> ) on both iOS and Android, and the Android version is outselling the iOS one by a wide margin. It caught me a bit off guard because everyone I know keeps repeating that iOS users buy more than Android ones, but that just hasn't been my experience so far. I even put the iOS version on sale at $0.99 in hopes to increase purchases, but it is _still_ not resulting in as many purchases as the Android version at the original $1.99 price.

<comment><USER24> You may want to consider a new icon for the iOS app (also, please make sure you have an @2x variant of it, too).

edit: i've had a couple minutes to try using it.

You may want to consider overhauling the application's user experience. It doesn't look or 'feel' like a proper iOS app, and I'm guessing that's why the Android version is outselling the iOS one.

* the icons _really_ need @2x variants.

* The user workflow is brittle, especially given how few view controllers there are, here. I shouldn't be able to choose to look at the 'Web' or 'Social' tabs until I've selected a domain.

* The domain entry experience feels cumbersome. Why is it capitalizing my domain name?

* Why do I delete a domain from the 'Web' and 'Social' tabs, and why isn't there an alert prompt?

Add Domain:

* The navigation bar tint color shouldn't change.

* This should be a modal view controller.

* The text shadow behind the label looks weird.

* The label's text should be something more like: "Domain name:", especially since you already give an example in the text field with its placeholder.

* You should call -becomeFirstResponder on the text field when this view controller appears.

Anyway, I know you didn't ask for any of this, but hopefully it proves helpful in driving up your sales.

Good luck!

<comment><USER23> Thanks for the suggestions and critical feedback. This was the first release that I wanted to get on the app store/market as quickly as possible, so it has not been perfected yet.

I am aware it doesn't have the best design/UI right now, but that will soon be corrected in the next release - at least most of your suggestions anyways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I think the lesson here is never build a business on another companies platform unless you have rock solid licenses guaranteeing they won't change the rules like this. Same thing for Twitter or Facebook. They can put you out of business if they choose to and it's not wise to give another company a kill switch for your investment.

<comment><USER26> Following your advice no one could develop anything for iOS. Or Android. Or WebOS. Or any other computing platform. Every platforms vendor could change the rules your depends on.

<comment><USER27> Or in any legal system (see another of today's posts re changing the rules of online money transmissions in California).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is exactly the reason that I haven't bought an iPad 2- I intend to use it for the netflix and kindle apps, and I'm not sure if they're still going to be there in 6 months. For a $500 device, the risk was just too high. I got a kindle instead, and I just use my laptop for netflix...

<comment><USER28> Apple needs to realize that their greed may kill their platform. Nobody would buy an iOS device with no killer apps - especially when android is getting better every day. As an iOS developer, I fully expect the platform to go the way of the dinosaurs.

<comment><USER29> What previous similar missteps has Apple made that support your theory? Apple's been batting well over .500 and their sales and stock price both indicate appreciation and support.

<comment><USER30> Yeah, they're doing great, but you can't backup your theory with two measures that are heavily dependent on past results. If you think Apple are going to keep doing as well as they are now in the face of some pretty ferocious competition then you can't just cite current sales and stock price.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I wonder why so many publishers and resellers insist on building only native apps. With the current technology you could invest in a web app that is cross platform. DRM can be cracked and it's just an annoyance to people who want to pay for content.

However, if you insist on developing commercial apps on the IOS platform than you have to realize that sooner or later Apple will want a cut. In business their is no free lunch, people/companies always want something in return.

Google is no different, see: [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/05/google_skyhook_case_...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/05/google_skyhook_case_goes_on/)

 _A Massachusetts court has denied Google's efforts to dismiss a hot-button lawsuit that accuses the company of unfairly using its Android operating system to strong-arm mobile handset makers into using Google location services rather than those of rival Skyhook._

 _The suit specifically claims that Andy Rubin, who oversees Google's Android project, told Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha that if Motorola didn't drop Skyhook from its phones, Google would remove official Android support from the devices. This would mean the devices could not use proprietary Google apps or the Android name. The suit says that whereas Google paints Android as open source, Google still maintains exclusive oversight of the OS._

This may be even worse if entirely factual, because Google doing the exact opposite of what it claims to be.

</comment><comment><USER32> The link's plenty interesting, but next time please try to avoid editorializing in the title. A "vig" is the cut taken by a loan shark or bookie and has strong connotations of crime and dishonesty (at least in the US). Apple's not breaking any laws here (right?) so calling it a "vig" is pretty far off base.

<comment><AUTHOR> "Vig" was famously used by Nathan Myhrvold in an internal memo to Bill Gates in which he proposed a structure whereby Microsoft could obtain a portion of content transactions that occur on the Internet. He used the term "vig" and it's appropriate here. [http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/the-day- apple-beca...](http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/the-day-apple-became- nathan-myhrvold/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I'm not sure how much money they have made over the time before Apple imposed a 30% fee on book sales and the like, but I fail to see why they couldn't port their app to another platform. You know, instead of kicking the sand around and calling it quits.

</comment><comment><USER34> When you decide to develop for a platform, you are dependent on the platform provider's goodwill if they are not open source.

Why would anyone who has paid any attention to Apple, depend on their goodwill?

</comment><comment><USER35> Badmouthing iOS platform and appstore policies wont help.

They knew the risk when the appstore was launched, the only exit strategy was acquisition by a established publisher or seller, which did not materialize.

Apple is a thought leader, Android and others just copy their policies, so expecting the margins on other platform is not viable on longer term.

If I was CEO of iFlowReader I would retune the business models for current realities, tying up with self book publisher like lulu, xlibris, who can offer 50% margins on ebook sales.

</comment><comment><USER36> Out of curiosity, why can't they have it as a reader of books that you download on your computer and transfer over via iTunes/any local area network. I admit this is not what they wanted most likely, but they could look into developing applications for Android devices and such as well that allowed royalty-free purchase in an application. As an iOS developer myself, I _believe_ this would bypass the restriction, but I don't know for sure.

<comment><USER37> The problem is that this is not the model that is the most hip. What an iDevice user wants is one click purchase to download system. Apple knows this and knows that requiring such would defeat their competition.

<comment><USER36> Valid point I guess. I also wonder how a company like Amazon handles this situation.

<comment><USER38> Jeff calls Steve and they trade curses and laughs until coming to an agreement and handing off the details to VPs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> The biggest problem I see with this is Apple won't even allow them to raise prices. So they are knowingly taking them out of the business when they take their 30% cut. If they are going to charge 30% for this, they might as well allow them to raise prices to remain profitable.

Why aren't these service companies switching to a HTML5 web app though? Wouldn't that allow them to continue their business untouched by Apple?

<comment><USER16> Untouched by Apple and untouched by customers...

You're talking about a company that named itself using Apple's product naming convention. They went all-in on the iOS model. They probably hired strictly ObjC programmers, they probably have no business experience with the web either. I'm not saying they couldn't switch, it just doesn't sound like this is the company with the chops to easily do so.

<comment><USER39> OK, that makes sense. But if Apple does the same to Amazon or Netflix I can see them going the web app route if they are not allowed to raise prices, because it would eat all their profits, too. Amazon has already showed a web app version of their store, and Netflix is experienced with HTML5, too.

<comment><USER16> Amazon was working on the HTML5 version well before this decision came about (they previewed it during the Chrome Web Store launch). What they showed doesn't looked optimized for touch use. That could change, of course. I imagine their strategy is to stay quiet and hope Apple doesn't go after them; and when/if that happens they'll adjust. They _could_ be one of the few companies capable of eating the cost to stay on the platform but that would mean strengthening a direct competitor. I'm very interested to see how they handle it.

As for Netflix.. if you're talking about their HTML5 player that was in the news a few days ago to be on Chrome OS, that requires a plugin. <video> doesn't support DRM -- and never will/can. I think Netflix may be the one company that is given an exception due to their influence over Apple TV sales.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Why should I be that bothered about this?

As a consumer I want less people between me and the actual producer of the work so another intermediary going out of business bothers me not at all.

My ideal world is that I buy a novel direct from an author, perhaps paying a small commission to a single intermediary. Author to publisher to iFlow to Apple to me isn't efficient.

Yes there is an issue here with how Apple and the publishers behave but there is also a significant issue with how much value iFlow were adding in exchange for their cut. A slightly different (maybe better) reader simply isn't worth the 30% they seem to be planning on.

<comment><USER41> As a consumer why would you care about the route content takes from producer to consumer? The only thing that matters is the content and how you consume it. If iFlow offered a better way to consume it then you should be happy to get it from them, and sad that you can no longer.

I really don't see where 'efficiency' comes into it?

<comment><USER40> My point is that for a business to work the value you add must be in some way proportional to the money you make - if it's not you're going to be vulnerable and that's what happened here. I don't care about efficiency as a consumer but I recognise that if a business is making a transaction less efficient while adding little actual benefit that's likely (not certainly but likely) to be a problem for them.

In essence the iFlow USP seems to be their reader app - everything else was being done by someone else either the same or better. How is that seriously going to a warrant 30% cut (which is what they were getting from the publishers) in the face of greater choice and likely better prices from Amazon and Apple?

Selling books from large scale conventional publishers is a bulk market right now and if you can't answer the question "how do I compete with Amazon?" you're in trouble and "a nice reader app" simply isn't a good answer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> I found it interesting (perhaps ironic), that that blog post, from a company who is in the ebook business, whose very domain is "iflowreader.com", doesn't flow the text to a narrow browser. It was unreadable on my handset due to the horizontal scrolling required, and I got horizontal scrollbars when I resized the PC browser to smaller than its width.

</comment><comment><USER43> Apple is doing the job of the publishers (marketing). If anything the publishers should reduce the amount that _they_ take.

</comment><comment><USER44> Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't they do what Amazon does and just redirect the user to Safari for purchasing books? I suppose that's a very small inconvenience compared to iBooks' direct purchase, but I find it worth the tradeoff to have my purchases available on more devices.

<comment><USER45> This "loophole" was closed by Apple during the last round if App Store approval rule changes back in December of last year. The Kindle app seemingly gets a pass, but a number of other applications have been rejected since then.

<comment><USER46> The inconsistencies in enforcement that appear, time and again, to give a free pass to heavyweight competitors have to be breaking a law somewhere.

Isn't this what racketeering and monopoly laws are supposed to prevent? If any lawyers are on this thread, it would be great to hear their input on this.

<comment><USER47> I'm not sure what they'd be violating. Stores obviously have a right to decide what products they will sell, and to forge different deals with different vendors.

Should Wal-Mart be forced to carry my self-published book because they carry some Random House best sellers?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> <a href="[http://www.wristwatchreplicas.com/paul-picot-wristwatch- repl...](http://www.wristwatchreplicas.com/paul-picot-wristwatch- replicas-217.html>Paul) Picot wristwatch replicas</a>

</comment><comment><USER49> They should wait until June 30th and see what happens between Apple and Amazon.

</comment><comment><USER50> Have you consulted with any lawyers? You might have legal redress against Apple. (Or you might not, depending on details of the Sherman Antitrust Act and other laws with which I am not sufficiently familiar.)

</comment><comment><USER51> Their aesthetics are bad and their iTunes ratings are low. Pretty sure they would have lost to Kindle, iBooks, Nook, etc. anyway.

</comment><comment><USER52> [mike, if you're the author, you've got a grammatical/cut+paste mixup: "The first of this letter part"]

<comment><AUTHOR> I am not associated with iFlow Reader.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> To all developers who own apple products .. why? Seriously?

It's like jews cheering for the nazis. I don't understand?

</comment><comment><USER54> As a iPhone-user gone Android, I can't wait to see all the awesome services which will be coming my way as Apple makes iOS an unfeasible platform to build on.

So far their greed has been tolerated due to an early iOS lead on app- profitability. Now that the iPhone is getting (severely) dated with next to no advantages to bolster, and with Android overtaking iOS in every way (including the one which counts: marketshare) I can't see this holding up for very long.

Soon enough enough people will say "Fuck Apple" and just head to Android, leaving iOS as a niché market. Why develop for 10% of the world's smartphones when you could be doing 80%? Even if Android customers were 400% less willing to buy apps (and no, no current market trends indicate that is the case), Android would still be more profitable to developers.

Apple is doing some serious gambling here, and I honestly don't think it will play out to their advantage.

<comment><USER55> The problem is that it's not an if-else scenario with Apple and Android. Right now Apple is booting _developers_ out with their restrictions, and in this case, the developer is making the same app as Apple has for free (iBooks). And if there's not sufficient Android users to make developing this app for the Android worth doing, then the developer isn't going to swap platforms, they'll just pack up and go home.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see more Android developers. I just don't think it's very likely until and unless Android picks up more steam...and that probably won't happen until the Android App store is as saturated in iOS's.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> BOO FREAKETY HOO. They put all their eggs in apple's basket. Sorry dudes, bad strategy.

<comment><USER57> So what exactly do you propose?

That every developer simultaneously develops for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, WebOS, Blackberry, Meego?

Developers aren't so cavalier as you about suggesting that you port your code to multiple platforms because we do know how much time, effort and platform- specific knowledge it takes to build a decent app.

Many iPhone, Android, Windows Phone apps are written by single developers that can't take 6 months per platform to learn how to code for it.

For most of us making a bet on single platform is the only viable strategy.

Bad strategy? Maybe. The only one possible? Unfortunately.

You would be pissed off too if your business failed not because the owner of the platform you bet on built a better product than you (and with their money, teams of programmers, marketing and ability to advertise to users of that platform they do have a huge advantage) but because they just used their monopolistic control over their platform to set business terms that are unheard of on other similar platforms and kill your business without them needing to lift a competitive finger.

I'm sure you'll tell me that Apple has the right to screw everyone on their platform and if I don't like it, I should just use another platform.

And that's exactly what I'm hoping people will do once they realize that Apple not only has the power to screw their developers and their users but is actually screwing them, as this on-going saga of 30% monopoly tax on content sales shows.

<comment><USER35> "Five of us spent nearly a year and a half of our lives and over a million dollars in cash and sweat equity developing the iFlowReader app"

if they were serious about the risking all their eggs in same basket, they could have used consultants/outside developers to port their app to other platforms with less than 10% of the said investment

<comment><USER58> Note that they state both cash and sweat equity of one million+.

Between five people and 1.5 years, a million dollars in sweat equity for developers is probably understated. They invest the time & skills (that they could have been using to freelance or consult for others) into their own company. Some people would consider this 'free' - but it's not free, the opportunity cost is still there. When you're closing shop without a gain, you are going to start looking back and counting all those lost opportunities in terms of dollars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> This is sad...but it has a very self-pittyish tone, which makes it come across as annoying. Like the brat at the party that everybody wants to smack.</comment>


Inbox is a reinvention of email from Google - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/22/7039391/google-inbox

<comment><USER2> Heh. This title brought back memories from 2009.

[http://readwrite.com/2009/05/28/google_wave_google_tries_to_...](http://readwrite.com/2009/05/28/google_wave_google_tries_to_reinvent_email)

[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/09/google-w...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/09/google- wave-moves-closer-to-reinventing-email/27516/)

<comment><USER3> so it's like wave, but implemented on top of normal email?

<comment><USER4> It's nothing like Wave.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> How does this compare to Mailbox from Dropbox?

<comment><USER6> Mailbox-style email triaging with Google Now machine learning and auto- organization. It's very powerful, because it pulls out important information in the email and displays them at the inbox level so you can, for example, reply to calendar invites without opening the email.

<comment><USER5> How can Mailbox compete against this then?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> so basically google wave for those born after 2009?</comment>


The London Beer Flood (2014) - <AUTHOR> https://www.history.com/news/the-london-beer-flood-200-years-ago <comment><USER2> The principle beer in the article is a London porter, yet there's a picture of, what appears to be, a bavaiern style larger. This upsets me

</comment><comment><USER3> This link redirects to another website for the local History Channel. Any way to access this content outside of the US?

<comment><AUTHOR> This isn't exactly the same content. I submitted both these links about this incident. They are each decent write ups. This is a UK site.

[https://www.historic- uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-L...](https://www.historic- uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-London-Beer-Flood-of-1814/)</comment></comment>


Google Unveils Message For Japan - <AUTHOR> http://www.messagesforjapan.com/ <comment><USER2> The japanese I know don't need auto-translated moral support, they need petrol. Or, if north of tokyo, they need petrol and electricity. Or, if even further northeast, they need a time machine so they can go back and tell their past selves not to live anywhere near the damn sea.

I don't know, maybe I'm just cynical, but .. what is the point. This is the equivalent of the school dance committee deciding on a "save the environment" theme. A PR exercise that you can't criticise because how dare you disrespect the dead/the whales/whatever. I just hate this kind of thing.

        Feeling charitable?
                |
               yes
                |
            care about
            visibility?
                |
                |
         |</comment><comment></comment><comment>---|
        yes              no
         |               |
      make this    buy TB vaccines
       webpage    and mosquito nets
                   work to reduce
                      poverty

<comment><USER3> I was in grad school at Virginia Tech when the shootings happened almost four years (in fact, almost to the day). There was an outpouring of emotional support. Some of it bothered me, some of it was touching. Days after the shootings, I wandered through the student center on campus and it was filled with posters people at elementary, middle, high schools and colleges from _around the world_ had sent to us. And by "filled" I mean nearly every wall and surface on the student center had these posters. The number and diversity was overwhelming.

So, yes, do whatever practical thing you can. But it's a false dichotomy to see it as one-or-the-other. A few years prior, I probably would have felt equally as cynical about sending a poster. I do not know if this webpage makes anyone in Japan feel better, you'd have to ask them. But I know that I was personally touched by similar gestures.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Pretty, but seriously, what's the point?

<comment><USER5> Drawing attention to the massive problems in Japan, showing that people care around the globe, and of course financial support through the donation options. What's so difficult to understand?

<comment><USER6> I don't know if this was the point of the post you responded to, and I'm not trying to be antagonistic, but apart from the donations I'll admit that I don't really understand the point. Maybe it's just cynicism on my part, but it _seems_ like a contrivance to let people feel good about themselves for spending a few seconds writing a friendly message that will likely never be read instead of using the time to do something potentially more useful, like contacting their government representatives to voice their support for continued relief efforts. I suppose if the interactiveness actually ends up driving more donations that would be beneficial.

Although, if this is to be believed even the donations may not be as beneficial to Japan as I would have thought:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16charity.html>

<comment><USER7> Do you know that _feeling_ that a song is specifically about you and what you're going through? It's not, of course. The composer doesn't give a damn about you, but isn't it great to feel good about it?

Not all benefits necessarily have to be quantifiable. We humans happen to be emotional creatures. Emotion counts, too. It moves us. Even if it's gimmicky, even if it's tacky. Even if it's for profit. Even if it is a _PR stunt_.

<comment><USER6> That's fine, but at least be honest about who you're benefiting. If you want to write a message _because_ it makes you feel good, go for it and be happy. If you are doing so because you think it's helping someone else on the other hand, it's seem like good odds that it's mostly just self-deception.

<comment><USER7> My point was that, as innocuous as it may seem, a message of support can make a few of the people in distress feel better. Maybe they've been materially taken care of, but there's still something amiss. That's where I believe emotion counts. If you can also donate something, well, even better.

And there is no dichotomy, I think. I'm glad we can both help _and_ feel good about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Some of these translations seem surprisingly good for autotranslate. This one in particular caught my eye: <http://www.messagesforjapan.com/messages/1194/>

So I went to translate.google.com and tried the original English: "After rain the sun is rising, Croatian people are whit you!" and got back different Japanese: "雨の後に太陽が上昇している、クロアチアの人々が聖霊降臨祭のです!"

I tried another one and it matched, so some (most?) are through Google Translate, but it looks like it may have had a helping hand.

</comment><comment><USER9> google translate's always had a strong confidence in its EN -> JP translation abilities. <http://translationparty.com/>

<comment><USER10> Not too unlike old times:

<http://translationparty.com/#9156110>

<http://translationparty.com/#9156121>

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter#Machine_translation_a...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter#Machine_translation_and_the_ALPAC_report_of_1966)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Isn't using automatic translation for this kind of information... a bit risky?

UPD. They say in terms that 'translation errors may be manually corrected,' so maybe a human is checking each message.

<comment><USER12> More likely they have a way to say how comfortable they are with the translation in the algorithm, and a person is checking those with a low "comfort" value.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> A+ for effort and thoughtfulness.

C- for the most distracting/annoying UI I've seen in awhile, both front page and the map.

I'm also seeing some questionable stuff in the realtime message display.

<comment><USER14> It looks like it was designed/created by the same guys that designed the HTC Sense UI: <http://www.f-i.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Great design, superb execution.

Kudos to everyone involved.

</comment><comment><USER16> a bit off topic, but how come this UI is amazing and all the other google services have such "boring" UI's...

<comment><USER17> Because Google didn't build it themselves, the about page [1] says it was built by Fi [2].

They outsource quite a lot of work like this, a friend runs a development agency and has a number of projects on the go at the moment for Google.

[1] - <http://www.messagesforjapan.com/about/>

[2] - <http://www.f-i.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Why google made stuff never have a share on google buzz things?</comment>


Facebook to Open Startup Garage at Station F in Paris - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/17/facebook-to-open-startup-garage-at-station-f-in-paris/ <comment><USER2> I don't know why, it might just be me, am thinking of startups as a bad thing. If I ever decide to build my own app or solution or something I wouldn't go for a startup setup. I'd set it up as an actual business, make profit and expand, I wouldn't wait for some investors coming in throwing money at me, I don't get why people in tech cant see that. Just because people that built uber etc became rich out of that doesn't mean that the percentage of the startups that actually make it and their creators become comfortable enough is more than lets say 5%. Chances are you'd win the lottery easier than starting a startup.

So dear fb and google and whoever, build business garages where people go with an idea and they've been given a cheaper way to expand their business on their own and see if they can actually make it, rather than trying to find the best ideas to invest for yourselves, that would help.

<comment><USER3> When creating a business, there is this old choice between _bootstrapping_ and _venture capitalists_.

The former forces you to squeeze every penny into gaining traction in the market, as becoming profitable is hard, and your cash reserves limit your ability to advertise.

The latter gives you the means to grow very fast and to gain experience from people who have played the game countless times, but it encourages reaching an exit (either by selling the company or through an IPO).

It sounds like you favor bootstrapping.

> _build business garages where people go with an idea and they 've been given > a cheaper way to expand their business on their own and see if they can > actually make it_

That was the idea behind Kima15 [0], which was co-created by Xavier Niel, who is also behind Station F. It provided 150 K$ within 15 days in exchange for 15% of the company's shares at a post-money valuation of 1 M$.

[0]: [https://medium.com/kima-ventures/kima15-lessons-learnt- and-w...](https://medium.com/kima-ventures/kima15-lessons-learnt-and-whats- next-a1a456800233)

<comment><USER4> I may be old (is 34 already old?) but to me a "startup" by definition is the latter in your post, VC-style funding aimed at hyper-scaling. Hence the "up", from the "start".

Otherwise it's just a regular small business (most countries and stats institutes would have a specific name for these >10 employees companies, like "very small" business or whatever).

There's confusion, imho, when we call any new company a startup just because it's operating in the tech industry (you can totally be a startup in any industry, so long as it has the potential to scale up dramatically). You can be a regular small business even in tech, you can be a startup-er in food. This is a 2x2 matrix.

Also, funding can take many forms, e.g. some startups being groomed by corporations (I know HP did that sometimes, with former employees). You still get the big money and obligations, and you already have one major future client; but nowhere near the same level of nonsensical buzzing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nice timing for the French Tech Visa:

[http://visa.lafrenchtech.com](http://visa.lafrenchtech.com)

Discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13410510](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13410510)

<comment><USER6> and Brexit

<comment><USER7> and the Presidential Campaign [https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/17/frances- presidential-front...](https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/17/frances-presidential- front-runner-francois-fillon-on-french-startups/)

<comment><USER6> And Donald Trump too I guess...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> pokemon-trainer "startup garage"

 _looks at photos of spacious, high end, neomodern office architecture_

we've come a long way since hp

<comment><USER8> > > [https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/photo-j...](https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/photo- > jan-17-8-45-31-am.jpg)

Those containers look like worse than prison cells. A prison cell at least has got an window.

<comment><USER9> Of course the difference here is you can just leave your "prison cell" and go home whenever you want.

<comment><USER10> Not sure. They are startups after all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "And anyone will be able to rent some office space [at Station F] for €195/desk/month in the huge 366,000ft² (34,000m²) building."

Interesting. The last time I looked at this a few months ago their web site seemed to suggest that they were looking for startups to rent space, but not individuals. Details are lacking, but a quick comparison with other coworking spaces in Paris suggests that this is 100-200 EUR cheaper per month.

</comment><comment><USER12> Looking at the pictures of Station F, all I see is noise. How will they tackle the noise problem when having so many people working in one big hall?

</comment><comment><USER13> I just learned from some protest flyers that google is opening a similar campus literally a stone's throw from my apartment (in Berlin, Germany).

It'll feel kinda strange. Like your parents coming to visit you at college.

<comment><USER14> Protest flyers what are they protesting about?

<comment><USER15> Living in Berlin I'd guess that people are protesting about the gentrification.

<comment><USER16> And this is part of what makes Berlin and specifically Kreuzberg charming and unique. Google already has an office in Mitte where it is not out of place.

I really don't like the ideas of these giants co-opting start-up spaces. Once companies have reached the FB and Google size they are kind of the antithesis of start ups. This just feel like they are building "right of first refusal acquisition" spaces.

I realize this sounds curmudgeonly but I feel like their money and influence in these spaces encourages building acquisition targets rather than encouraging people to build their own Google and Facebooks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> While considering a move to France, one of most interesting organisations I stumbled across was The Family ([https://www.thefamily.co](https://www.thefamily.co)).

They exude a really good ethos - or have really good copywriters, at least - and show self-awareness of some of the reservations that come up on HN when somebody mentions Startup and France in the same sentence.

Their 'Toxicity' post damn well near seduced me (pesky Frenchies!) and is worth a read:

> _France is full of incubators, there's news coverage, there's this startup > out of Bulgaria that just raised 2 million, everybody's a software engineer, > hell, in some countries, everybody's a CEO! But that's the difference > between hype, which is useless, and hope, which is useful..._

> _...If you rely on TechCrunch and Medium to give you hints on how to be an > entrepreneur, you risk three things: the first is that you believe it's all > true. The job of any good entrepreneur is to sell a good story. Nobody sells > you the horrible things going on with the company (at least not until after > the company is well on its way to being dead). The second is that you miss > critical information filters ...The third risk is that you start to think > it's easy...that growth is just a matter of deciding when it's the right > time._

> _Money and people are needed to make any project work, but they are > replaceable: there's always someone willing to write another check, and > there's always someone who you can find to take over a particular job. But > you can't get back time. A bunch of people sitting around, saying that > they're working, talking about new projects every two months, focusing on > getting a grant rather than getting a sale, those are people in a toxic > ecosystem who are just wasting time._

> _Learn to recognize fake work — anything that doesn't bring you closer to > more customers, that doesn't bring you closer to a better product, that > doesn't put people in contact with your solutions. Applying for public > money, going to conferences, taking meetings, this is fake work that doesn't > help you with your business model, doesn't identify problems and solutions, > doesn't show you the actual goals that you have to achieve in order to have > success. Real work does all of those things._

> _If you can make money, you'll have time to figure out the right business > model. You won't have to rely on investors who don't understand your goals. > Finding bad investors can be worse than having none at all._

[https://www.thefamily.co/toxicity](https://www.thefamily.co/toxicity)

Anyone have any experience with these guys? Algolia and Crisp.im passed through their doors, and they seem to be doing well.

<comment><USER18> Just for info, they're not an incubator in the traditionnal sense. You can't work at their (gorgeous) office. You can see it more like a "club", for doing networking. You also have access to some ressources, but most of their "startup spirit" talks you'll find are mostly translations of american books or talks from valley people, not really first hand experience. They do provide you with good trainings on fund raising, but you may want to ask for the detail of everything you're going to bave access to before you agree to give them 1 to 3% of your company.

Also, to my knowledge, the only successfull startup they have was "save", which is a fantastic company lead by very nice people, but it unfortunately filed for bankruptcy a few months ago, after having had a too intense growth.

At the moment, i'd say the biggest problem with every single incubator i know is the lack of unicorns coming out of them. Most people giving advices haven't created anything big themselves, and the few people who created really big companies ( criteo and blablacar for the last 10 years) don't go in those ecosystems to mentor newcomers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Thank you X.Niel for 42 and station F.

</comment><comment><USER20> Are startups also required to provide 5 weeks of paid vacation + public holidays? Also, are there limits on the number of hours worked per week?

I'm all for workers benefits, but I don't see how a startup with limited funding could afford those benefits to their employees.

<comment><USER21> I'd compare the costs of vacation, short work days, to the cost of a Bay Area salary.

<comment><USER20> But the salaries for Bay Area startups are usually much lower than the standard tech companies like FB and Google. Startups make up for the difference by distributing equity (which could potentially be worth more in the long run, but could also be worthless).

<comment><USER15> Even assuming worthless equity, for the cost of one employee in SF you can hire two in Paris.

Startups in France get several kinds of tax breaks. Also, many founders get started while on unemployment benefits.

<comment><USER20> What are you thinking the salary of early stage startups are in the Bay Area? I really doubt the ratio is 2:1 compared to Paris.

<comment><USER15> Gross salary would be more like 3:1. Real cost to the employer at least 2:1.

I just opened AngelList to search for junior developer positions at seed-stage startups and it confirms the ratio.

SF: 80-120k

Paris: 30-45k

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> If start up becomes successful, Will Facebook own part of the equity in this start up?

As a founder, why would i want to give up equity to Facebook? Why would i need to be in this "garage"?

</comment><comment><USER23> "Thirty students will meet with Facebook every week to make the world a better place (or that's how I think about it)."

Fantastic neutral reporting here from TechCrunch. Not at all just a recycled press release.

<comment><USER24> _" But most importantly we're making the world a better place. Through constructing elegant hierarchies for maximum code reuse and extensibility."_[1]

Which one is the parody? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

[1] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3222784/quotes?item=qt2896998](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3222784/quotes?item=qt2896998)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> given the history of creativity in Paris shouldn't it be a mansard instead of garage?

</comment><comment><USER26> this is political theatre

</comment><comment><USER27> Thanks Facebook for this good offering! WE will certainly apply to be part of it.</comment>


HTML5 for everything? - <AUTHOR> http://www.elpauer.org/?p=1134 <comment><USER2> Google Chrome originated in December 2008 and is now at version 16. At the current rate, Google Chrome version 37 will be released in 2016, and Google Chrome version 58 will be released around 2020.</comment>


Ask HN: How to build group chat app in 2020? - <AUTHOR> I am going to build a group chat app (for both iOS/android). I already have an MVP but for next version I want to make sure it can scale smoothly to hundreds of thousands of users (be optimistic!)
Need just standard features: Multiple groups/channels up to a couple thousand people each, quote/reply, pictures, direct messages, profiles, backend panel.
Not technical, but I am somewhat knowledge, worked on basic tutorials but will not be able to build anything robust by myself.
I would very much like to use as much pre build stuff as possible so I focus on the unique selling proposition (why people will actually use) and connect that to the core group chat.
What is the problem? Too much info/options. What framework, languages, database, messaging protocol to pick? From free SDKs, to paid stuff, pre made scripts (though none quality?). Lots of options, no clarity.  All suggestions and thoughts welcome, especially specifics. Thanks. <comment> core-questions Do we really need another chat app? Wouldn't it maybe be better to capitalize on the existence of an open network that is already around, and build a better client for it that kicks the pants off of whatever's already out there?

> will not be able to build anything robust by myself.

Then who's going to build it? Are you hiring a team to do this? Don't underestimate what's involved here to get something working and keep it running. At the very least, if you don't go with a decentralized model, you're in for expensive server bills and considerable ongoing maintenance to keep up with security patches, etc.

How will you monetize this to pay for all that infrastructure?

> Too much info/options

There are already too many options in this space. Why would anyone choose your client when Signal, Telegram, Riot/Matrix, etc. are all free and decent to use? What is your unique value-add?

Will you be writing a client for multiple platforms? Desktop? Web browser? Don't be fooled into thinking you can build one client that works everywhere, you're up against native apps with native integrations that make sharing and interoperation easy - features that take whole teams to get right, much of the time.

> All suggestions and thoughts welcome, especially specifics. Thanks.

Don't do this unless you have a business plan good enough that someone will lend you $1MM to get it off the ground. Seriously. You're talking about entering a massively crowded marketplace, and you're clearly out of your element.

If you must do something, make a paid Riot/Matrix client that doesn't suck as much as the stock one does, and steal users from an existing network.

<comment><AUTHOR> >Do we really need another chat app? Wouldn't it maybe be >better to capitalize on the existence of an open network >that is already around, and build a better client for it >that kicks the pants off of whatever's already out there?

First thanks for the reply I could have explained this a bit better it isn't a chat app replacement, not trying to dislodge messenger, whatapp, etc. Group and direct messaging is core to the product but not the value prop just by itself.

I am specifically asking the group chat part as it has been done meany times so I would like to not make it again but use already built or at least mostly built. Then can focus on other part that makes is unique and makes it valuable.

>Then who's going to build it? Are you hiring a team to do this? Don't underestimate >what's involved here to get something working and keep it running. At the very >least, if you don't go with a decentralized model, you're in for expensive server >bills and considerable ongoing maintenance to keep up with security patches, etc.

At the moment I have someone part time who is smart but is still learning. I may also hire a very small team but thats the reason I am trying to get a full understanding of options and pros and cons, so there is a clear roadmap.

>There are already too many options in this space. Why would anyone choose your >client when Signal, Telegram, Riot/Matrix, etc. are all free and decent to use? >What is your unique value-add?

By too many options I mean frameworks, languages, backends, etc. That why am soliciting feedback from HN on it. Again it isn't a signal or telegram replacement. Group chat is core to the product but not the value-add. It isn't a slack replacement, no web or desktop. Just iOS & Android. The nature of the product it does have to be on both, can't start with only one.

>Don't do this unless you have a business plan good enough that someone will lend you >$1MM to get it off the ground. Seriously. You're talking about entering a massively >crowded marketplace, and you're clearly out of your element.

I have already brought my tent to Sand Hill road and written out my cardboard sign. (j/k) But again not replacement for existing options. I have lead the creations of products before. I asking newbie questions because I want to see the situation with no preconceived ideas for this specific part.

<comment> core-questions > Then can focus on other part that makes is unique and makes it valuable.

You need to know what this is before you start. Why should I consider your product when Slack or Microsoft Teams is free for a small group and has every imaginable feature already? You need some value add, whether it's a feature, a unique capability, or even something philosophical (like being totally open source or whatever).

> Again it isn't a signal or telegram replacement. Group chat is core to the > product but not the value-add. It isn't a slack replacement, no web or > desktop. Just iOS & Android. The nature of the product it does have to be on > both, can't start with only one.

If you can't explain it to me, then how will you explain it to an investor? I get it if you're concerned about giving away your idea, but you'll need to be very confident that you've discovered some unique value proposition that one of the hundred other players in this market has somehow missed out on.

Who is your target audience? Individuals or businesses?

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe it wasn't clear. I do already know what the added value is, and that what I want to spend my time on, not use more time needed on the group chat infrastructure part.

Again not a slack/teams replacement.

Very confident I have something unique.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Epiphany: the programming language is the UI... - <AUTHOR>

...and the user interface is the programming language. In the next 5-10 years, the operating system of the future will take shape, and it will be run on mobile, wearable computers connected to a ubiquitous geo-located, GPS3 connected grid. Users  will interface using body language, gestures, voice, sub-vocalizations, eye movement and yes, virtual keyboarding. Augmented reality will be superimposed on the GPS3 connected grid via eyeglasses and contact lenses used as heads-up displays. This new technology is already being integrated in the lab, especially in military electronics. Who will create the operating system? Google? What programming language will take the lead in this environment? Python? What do you think? <comment><AUTHOR> Listen to the full podcast exploring this subject at <http://www.awaretek.com/python/index.html></comment>


Ask HN: Review my product researchbroker.com - <AUTHOR>

ResearchBroker is a site designed to connect researchers with real world research projects.
Existing job sites, such as Indeed.com, monster.com or researchgate.net, are not designed to showcase researcher's areas of expertise and interest, nor do these sites accommodate a researcher's ability to conduct several research projects with multiple companies throughout a year -- even while they are still in school. These tools also do not help companies and organizations find talented researchers with whom they can collaborate on their research ideas.  Unlike these sites, ResearchBroker does not neglect to communicate parameters about a project that are important to researchers. Therefore, through ResearchBroker, researchers can be in control of their schedules, the level of research involvement, and even the use of research for their academic pursuits.
ResearchBroker is a minimally viable product. Most of the research projects on the site are from startups. And most of the researchers are graduate students.
I am looking to understand whether the home page communicates the value of the product and if the site is user friendly. Also, I would like some feedback on how to bring this product to more students and companies. Also, does anyone know of any other startups, companies or organizations who might be interested in this product.
Site URL: http://researchbroker.tc.columbia.edu/ <comment><USER2> You'll need more explanation on How It Works etc. on that homepage. But promising for sure.

</comment><comment><USER3> clickable <http://researchbroker.tc.columbia.edu/></comment>


Firefox 53: Quantum Compositor, Compact Themes, CSS Masks - <AUTHOR> https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/04/firefox-53-quantum-compositor-compact-themes-css-masks-and-more/ <comment><USER2> And, as always, I just added Firefox 53 to Browserling. You can try this new version at this URL without installing or updating it:

[https://www.browserling.com/firefox/53/news.ycombinator.com](https://www.browserling.com/firefox/53/news.ycombinator.com)

I've a bunch of VMs available for free testing. If there are too many people wanting to try it, then you'll have to wait in a queue for a few minutes.

<comment><USER3> just fyi you can access the filesystem with file:/// URLs, and I was able to run arbitrary programs.

<comment><USER2> Yup. That's a feature. Run any app on any platform in your browser. That's where I'm taking Browserling. We've a bunch of users already running all kinds of software in their browsers so rather than restricting VMs, I'm opening them up. These are throw away VMs anyway, once the session is up, VM is gone.

<comment><USER4> Ah, back in the day I had Netscape setup to launch exes in DOSEmu.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm not at all convinced about making the general user choose between 32- and 64-bit versions at installation, given that even techies disagree on the relative merits [1]. (Sometimes with themselves [2].)

If the system only supports one or the other, the installer should be able to work that out. If it supports both, the installer should at least give some hints as to what the tradeoffs are.

[1] [https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ricom/2015/12/29/revisiting...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ricom/2015/12/29/revisiting-64-bit- ness-in-visual-studio-and-elsewhere/)

[2] [https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ricom/2016/01/04/64-bit- vis...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ricom/2016/01/04/64-bit-visual- studio-the-pro-64-argument/)

<comment><USER6> The bitness choice (and that entire screenshotted dialog) is only present if you select "Advanced Options" in the bottom left of the installer's first screen, it's not something that we force every user through.

<comment><USER5> Ah, OK, that makes more sense. Thanks.

What's the default if you _don 't_ select "Advanced Options", btw?

<comment><USER6> We're still defaulting to 32-bit on systems where both are supported, but we hope to default to 64-bit around Firefox 55. We had to delay this due to issues with Flash, sandboxing, and Farmville 2: [https://bugzil.la/1317995](https://bugzil.la/1317995)

The tracking bug for making 64-bit the default is [https://bugzil.la/1340936](https://bugzil.la/1340936)

<comment><USER7> So I can blame Farmville for Firefox not being 64-bit by default on Windows? :)

<comment><USER8> Yes :(

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Still no hardware accelerated video for Linux :(

Everytime Firefox releases something I am reminded of this:

[https://xkcd.com/619/](https://xkcd.com/619/)

<comment><USER10> I wonder if this is why battery and heat are so bad with Firefox on my Ubuntu 16.04 box? I've switched away to chromium because of the sheer difference in battery drain.

(And no, it's not a plugin that's causing the problem)

<comment><USER11> If you watch a lot of Youtube, force the video to MP4 so your graphics card can decode it in hardware. Youtube defaults to VP9 but gfx cards rarely support that codec.

Google's wasting a lot of battery life by pushing VP9 onto everyone.

<comment><USER12> Hardware video decoding does not work in linux period. It doesn't matter whether you play an mp4 or vp9 video.

<comment><USER13> Not sure what you mean by that.

It's true that Chrome/Chromium don't support it. [0]

Linux itself certainly supports it [1], and at least Mozilla have some progress towards it happening [2][3][4], if slow progress.

However, we used to have hardware video decoding via gstreamer and VLC within Firefox as plugins, using VAAPI and NPAPI, so it's still possible to get working today.

[0] [https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=463440](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=463440)

[1] [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hardware_video_accelera...](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hardware_video_acceleration)

[2] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=563206](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=563206)

[3] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210729](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210729)

[4] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210726](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210726)

<comment><USER4> Right, this explains why my laptop has been running at a steady 85c the last few days, back to chrome for a bit then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I love the compact themes - it always unreasonably annoyed me how much vertical space the browser chrome "wastes"!

<comment><USER15> I love it too, excellent feature!

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Cookie containers are a feature that I really like a lot. The problem is the UX for them is terrible. There are no keybinds and they only show up in one place in the interface. I wanted to add keybinds but I found this very difficult.

<comment><USER17> Relevant discussion here: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1245262](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1245262) and here: [https://github.com/mozilla/testpilot- containers/issues/119](https://github.com/mozilla/testpilot- containers/issues/119).

</comment></comment><comment><USER18>
      Media playback on new tabs is blocked until the tab is visible

^^ That feature was in the Beta release notes but didn't seem to make it into 53 release...disappointing because it appears to work great in Beta/Developer Edition. Can anyone from Mozilla explain why it was scrapped?

<comment><USER6> The main bug is at [https://bugzil.la/1308154](https://bugzil.la/1308154). Looks like it's scheduled for Firefox 54 and was accidentally included in the 53 relnotes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19>
      The storage.sync API allows add-ons to
      save user preferences to Firefox Sync,
      where it can be shared and synchronized
      between devices.

Now all Chrome Extensions automatically work on Firefox.

<comment><USER20> That's fairly nice now Firefox extensions stopped working in Firefox.

<comment><USER21> Legacy Firefox extensions still work in this release, it is 57 that will be WebExtension-only.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> As much as I like Firefox. It is now on a cross road.

For debugging development purposes I am keeping a version now for older dev plugins that never got a proper replacement, and aren't compatible with the newer API and newer will be (because the API is so much less powerful, good for noobs / bad for power user).

And I can't wait until Servo gets more stable and feature complete. I am thinking about a Vivaldi browser like HTML5 based UI based on Servo web engine, instead of blink - that would be the ideal next-gen Firefox reboot! (Firefox/Firebird/forgotthename was initially a leaner fork of the "bloated" MozillaSuite, in the meantime Firefox got so much more bloated than the still maintained MozillaSuite (now called SeaMonkey, based on recent gecko engine)).

<comment><USER23> > I can't wait until Servo gets more stable and feature complete

Parts of Servo are being migrated to Firefox. IIRC, Quantum Compositor, mentioned in the blog post, is one of them - you can start using it today!

[http://jensimmons.com/post/jan-4-2017/replacing-jet- engine-w...](http://jensimmons.com/post/jan-4-2017/replacing-jet-engine-while- still-flying)

<comment><USER24> Quantum Compositor is just a separate process for GPU stuff. It isn't ported from Servo.

<comment><USER23> It's the same name as the Servo porting project. I could see that creating the separate process is a first step and involves no Servo code as of yet, but how do you know either way?

<comment><USER25> mccr8 is a Mozilla engineer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Best feature for me is the themes from developer edition, so now I can finally stop using the the developer edition just for the themes

<comment><USER12> All along there was an extension called "Developer Edition Theme Enabler" that you could have used :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I switched to Chrome in 2016 because I needed to easily switch between multiple profiles. With Firefox I have to launch with a command line switch. :(

<comment><USER17> You should check out Container tabs in Firefox: [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Contextual_Identity_Projec...](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Contextual_Identity_Project/Containers). It's like per-tab profiles, no need for multiple copies of the browser, etc. Totally changed the way I deal with sites I need multiple accounts for (like AWS).

You can use Containers in Nightly or via the Containers Testpilot experiment here: [https://testpilot.firefox.com/](https://testpilot.firefox.com/).

disclaimer: I work for Mozilla

<comment><USER28> I love it although now that I have a Mozilla employee here I should mention that:

\- it seems to be missing features when running with Tab Tree

\- the ux of Mozilla vertical tabs experiment is weird and IMO bad. And I rarely complain about UX. The problem is: the tab bar goes up on the side of the awesomebar and slides it back and forth as the tab panel expands and goes back.

I have reported this but so far nobody seems to care.

Another small thing: I more or less love Firefox in general <3

<comment><USER29> > the ux of Mozilla vertical tabs experiment is weird and IMO bad ... the tab > bar goes up on the side of the awesomebar and slides it back and forth as > the tab panel expands and goes back.

Yeah this seems really whack. I like what Safari did: they have a left sidebar with several tabs (favorites, reading lists, shared links). Having these independent sliding spaces overloaded in the same area is clumsy.

The problem though is there is UI hierarchy between tabs and something in the sidebar like bookmarks. I can't think of a good way to place these relative to each other to impart that relationship, which is probably why they are independent for now. Hopefully they do something about that though.

<comment><USER28> Tab Tree and TST just place them left or right of the content.

This might not be perfect for what I know but at least it doesn't move the majority of the browser controls around.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Flow root. How did that take so long to become available?

<comment><USER6> Firefox and Chrome shipped it today: [http://caniuse.com/#feat=flow- root](http://caniuse.com/#feat=flow-root)

...and now begins the indeterminate wait for Edge and Safari :)

<comment><USER31> Looks like Chrome 58 also shipped today.

<comment><USER6> Hey, you're right! Editing the above comment. Thanks :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Ha, what unexpected Rickroll! :D

<comment><USER6> Oh no! That actually should've worked as described (not auto-playing until you switch tabs), but it looks like auto-play suppression is in 54, not 53. Sorry :( [https://bugzil.la/1308154](https://bugzil.la/1308154)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> When is it coming to Linux? And is it going to use Vulkan eventually?

</comment><comment><USER34> Whenever a new Firefox release drops, my favorite thing to do is to see if this (now ten-year-old) bug [0] is finally fixed.

Spoiler: it isn't.

This bug (and many others similar to it) are one of the main reasons I dislike using Firefox. It just feels out of place on macOS. I'm fine with non-native UI elements as long as they're not elements as fundamental as the select dropdown and the right-click menu.

Edit: Turns out this bug has been fixed, but only if you have Electrolysis [1] enabled [2].

[0] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=402625](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=402625)

[1] [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis)

[2] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=402625#c32](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=402625#c32)

<comment><USER35> My favorite thing is coming to the HN threads to read the "tried it out to see if <personal hangup re: obscure app feature 6 people use> is fixed (meaning works the way I want it to work) but it's not, therefore the entire project A SHIT" posts.

The fact that this one then acknowledges that the bug is actually fixed if you use the browser in the recommended mode gives it extra points.

<comment><USER34> Electrolysis isn't enabled by default, so I don't think it qualifies as "the recommended mode".

Furthermore, I never said "the entire project is shit". Firefox is a great piece of software, but I don't use it personally because of the issue I mentioned, among other issues in the same category (like the right-click menu looking different compared to other right-click menus, or not integrating with the macOS spell-check system).

<comment><USER36> Electrolysis has been enabled by default since Firefox 48. Source: [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Schedule](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Schedule).

<comment><USER34> > As of Firefox 54+ (early 2017), our Multi-Content process model is currently > being tested on Nightly (4 processes). Four content processes will be > enabled on 54 Aurora and if stable enough, we will begin to roll it out in > Firefox 54 Beta experiments.

This seems to be the case because I downloaded Firefox 53 for the first time on my new MacBook Pro and e10s wasn't enabled. I had to go to about:config and enable it manually.

<comment><USER37> Firefox 52 shipped with e10s enabled by default for all users except those who are on Windows XP, have a windows machine with a touchscreen, or have extensions that are not compatible with e10s. It uses one browser UI process and one web content process.

Firefox 54 has e10s-multi, with multiple web content processes.

If you go to about:support in your Firefox 53, the "Multiprocess Windows" item in the first section ("Application Basics") should tell you why e10s is disabled for you, if it's disabled.

<comment><USER34> The only thing it says for me is "0/1 (Disabled)". [0]

Edit: Ah, so this is weird. It looks like e10s isn't enabled when you first run Firefox. You need to quit, and then relaunch. On the second launch e10s is then enabled. This explains why I thought it was disabled by default (since it was my first time running Firefox on this machine).

[0] [https://gist.github.com/dstaley/b17ce52947cf520ca793d545daee...](https://gist.github.com/dstaley/b17ce52947cf520ca793d545daee5302)

<comment><USER37> "Disabled" means there was an explicit pref set to disable it.

I can't tell from over here what preferences you changed and in what order and when. You said "I had to go to about:config and enable it manually"... did you restart after that? e10s pref changes require a restart to take effect. What was the state of the preferences before you did that, if you remember?

In any case, glad to hear it's working for you now.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Can markets be accurately modeled and thus predicted? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.bodhi49.com/2012/09/can-markets-be-accurately-modeled-and.html

<comment><USER2> Not this again. No -- the answer is no. The behavior of a fair market cannot be predicted. Only unfair markets work that way, for example markets sullied by insider trading.

Here is the proof -- the "The Wall Street Journal Dartboard Contest":

<http://www.investorhome.com/darts.htm>

A quote: "The pros barely edged the DJIA by a margin of 51 to 49 contests. In other words, simply investing passively in the Dow, an investor would have beaten the picks of the pros in roughly half the contests (that is, without even considering transactions costs or taxes for taxable investors)."

What does it mean that investing in a market average fund does as well as hiring a professional investment counselor? It means _the market cannot be predicted_ and investment counselors are making promises they cannot keep.

The only predictable markets are those that are rigged in some way, that break the rules, or the law.

</comment><comment><USER3> There is a theory which states that if investors ever do manage to accurately model and predict market behaviour, the markets will vanish and be replaced by something even more inexplicable.

There is a further theory which states that this has already happened. Repeatedly.

\--- bastardisation of a Douglas Adams quote.</comment>


Google will protest SOPA using home page - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57360223-261/google-will-protest-sopa-using-popular-home-page/?part=rss&subj=latest-news&tag=title Google will protest SOPA using home page <comment><USER2> Google going dark would have been the most dramatic protest, of course, but I applaud them for this action.

I can't imagine Google taking the financial hit that would come from going dark for 24 hours, and I'm not certain how much more impactful that would have been, anyway.

I wonder, though, if they plan to include the SOPA message on their results pages as well? The Google home page is only seen by people who begin their searches at Google.com instead of using a browser toolbar or one of the myriad affiliate search boxes out there.

<comment><USER3> Even not considering financials, I'd expect at least 1 death from people looking up medical information and not being able to get it if Google was entirely gone for a whole day.

EDIT: Of course most reasonable people will contact a medical professional rather than an internet search engine, that's why I guessed "at least 1" instead of "at least a couple hundred".

<comment><USER4> When you have a medical emergency, you call 911 or go to the emergency room, not peruse Q & A sites for answers.

<comment><USER5> Sometimes is better to do both.

For example: Intoxication by adulterated liquor can cause strong headache and (permanent) blindness; but if you search in Google you may find out that drinking pure Whisky right away can neutralize its effects.

<comment><USER6> This sounds suspicious - care to cite any references?

<comment><USER7> Well, wikipedia has references in this section:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol#Toxicity>

Specifically, anything with a strong ethanol content will help, as the damage caused by drinking methanol results from the byproducts of you body processing the poison. The biological pathways that process methanol have a greater affinity for ethanol, so drinking whisky (or everclear or 151) or any other strong alcohol will keep you alive until your body has a chance to eject the methanol as a waste product.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Tenuous link (was mentioned in the article)

I find it more astonishing that Rupert Murdoch would have the gall to say on twitter: "So Obama has thrown in his lot with. Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery. -"

<comment><USER9> It's a mix of both gall and ignorance made really dangerous with a massive dose of power.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> An easy way to show solidarity with SOPA protesters is whenever the main Google page is loaded (not when a query is already passed to Google) is to have it load black with some text saying how this is Internet might look like if SOPA is passed, followed by it fading into the normal google page, with maybe some text below the bar to contact legislators within the local area.

</comment><comment><USER11> They should replace their logo with a big black rectangle. This would get everyone's attention (not just google.com visitors).

They don't need to commit commercial suicide by shutting off their site ('hey, bing isn't that bad..'), but this is pretty weak.

<comment><USER12> From the post:

 _In response to questions about how the protest link would be displayed on the page, all Google would say is that the link would not replace the company logo._

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm starting to get the feeling tomorrow is going to be crazy. I don't think congress is prepared for this. Their approval rating already abysmal, and I predict this will put a LOT of people into action.

</comment><comment><USER14> Looks like those tech illiterate Senators brought a knife to gun fight.

Actually it is more like they are duelling with their ammo supplier and then are surprised when the don't have any bullets.

</comment><comment><USER15> Anyone gone to Craigslist lately? They've put up a black wall with info about pipa/sopa visible for 20 seconds. Then a link to the regular site appears.

</comment><comment><USER16> IMO, having some notice on the home page is not a great deal at all. I rarely every go to the Google home page. I just use the search bars on the browsers. The rare time is to see some doodle.

Google should go dark like Wikipedia. That will have the biggest impact, and of course, the impact will be much bigger than the Wikipedia black out.

<comment><USER17> do you think of yourself as an average computer user? almost everyone i know use google's homepage as their personal homepage.

Of course it will have an impact, just like a normal doodle

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Wonder if Google and Wikipedia would consider going dark to show support for the right legislation to stop online thieves.

</comment><comment><USER19> now it will be like who will do the blackout next. Facebook, twitter, yahoo, aol etc

</comment><comment><USER20> So what will Bing do tomorrow?

<comment><USER21> I doubt anyone will check.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> something more original: Google should put their background black and leave the text black,so people would have to highlight the text to be able to see. It would be like trying to find candles in a real blackout!

</comment><comment><USER23> This makes me uncomfortable. The implications of a corporation - especially a corporation as big as Google - being actively involved in politics are scary. You may find yourselves cheering for them now, but what about the day Google is involved in something against your interests or political views? This move makes that a possibility.

<comment><USER24> I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but corporations are the leading driving force behind almost all of USA's politics. I can count on one hand the number of Representatives and Senators combined that have NOT been bought and paid for by giant corporations. The same goes for non-trivial pieces of legislation passing through either the House or Senate with corporate sponsorship.

<comment><USER25> Just a minor correction:

It is pretty widely accepted hypothesis that politicians do not "corrupt" when they are elected to office but that corporations support politicians which favor their positions. Politicians that have money have legitimacy. Legitimate candidates get elected.

Couple that with the fact that corporations often donate to 50+ candidates (on both sides of the aisle) and not only do they have a pre-polling vote (through money) but they also get to play in many elections.

It's the house vs. the people and the house always wins.

<comment><USER26> If you can produce evidence that a corporation has donated to even one candidate, much less 50, the FEC would love to speak to you; it's illegal for corporations to donate to candidates.

<comment><USER27> Ever heard of a PAC?

<comment><USER26> Not only have I heard of PACs, but I've given to my employer's PAC, which than donated money to the campaigns of 50+ candidates.

I don't know if you've participated in the system, but it's not fair to equate that with a corporation donating its own money to a political campaign.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Weak. Google should participate in the blackout.

Twitter seems to not care about SOPA, but Google claims to be actively working against SOPA - they should walk the walk if they are going to talk the talk. With this "message" on their homepage (which as jaysonelliot pointed out is not even seen by many people) they get the branding of being in support of an open web but don't have to actually take action the way Wikipedia, Boing Boing, etc are going to.

Just window dressing from the PR department. Disappointing but not at all surprising.

<comment><USER29> > With this "message" on their homepage (which as jaysonelliot pointed out is > not even seen by many people)

How is 64% of their traffic (89 million visitors in 2009)[1] not "many people"?

[1]: [http://blog.compete.com/2009/04/21/home-page-visitors-top- pu...](http://blog.compete.com/2009/04/21/home-page-visitors-top-publisher- sites/)

<comment><USER28> Wow I am surprised by that. I stand corrected, my apologies. That is what I get for taking anecdotal experience and extrapolating ;) I can't remember the last time I went to Google.com, but evidently heaps of people go there.

But I stand by my opinion that this is a weak response from Google.

<comment><USER30> Not only do lots of people still visit google.com, but the types of people who still visit it are precisely the types of people who need to learn about this law. I suspect those of us savvy enough to use a toolbar are disproportionately more likely to already know about and oppose the bill, while the kinds of people that go to google.com to search for 'facebook.com' are disproportionately more likely to know nothing about it yet.

<comment><USER31> The kinds of people that go to Google.com are also the kinds of people who don't fully understand the repercussions of a law like SOPA. Google not working would drive home the message to them. They could learn about SOPA from an informational page like the one Wikipedia is going to put up during the blackout.

<comment><USER32> No, the kinds of people that go to google.com are the kinds of people who would assume "the internet broke" if google.com looked dramatically different when they loaded it. They may even need someone to point out to them that Google is actively taking a stance on it, despite having seen the page.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Record magnetic field (100T) achieved at Los Alamos - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0R8dyyXtTo&feature=youtu.be The Los Alamos campus of the NHMFL achieved a record setting 100.75 Tesla (T) magnetic field. This is approximately 1.5-4 million times Earth's magnetic field and 70 times the strength of a typical MRi magnet. <comment><AUTHOR> Prepare for the rise of Magneto!</comment>


Bootstrap tools – fast, good-looking sites - <AUTHOR> http://www.itsdanielphelan.com/posts/bootstrap-tools

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the link, the [http://www.lavishbootstrap.com/](http://www.lavishbootstrap.com/) one was pretty cool. I like that it provides SASS</comment>


Ask HN: Best place to find a freelance coder? - <AUTHOR>

I'm looking for a coder to develop a pretty in-depth wordpress website. I have a design done, but am stuck on finding a coder. Do you have any recommendations of where I should look? <comment><USER2> Elance and Guru have some gems hidden inside - you just have to do a lot of digging to generally find them.

I agree with @sheraz the quality in the Hiring/Seeking post is generally higher then you will find on Elance or Guru.

...on the other hand I freelance and have WordPress experience ;-) [email in profile if interested]

<comment><USER3> (you should join matchist) (full disclosure, i am a cofounder and we are looking for more wordpress devs) :)

<comment><USER2> I would like to, but sadly I'm from the UK. Any plans to opening up to us over here?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Agree with @phasevar - you should put some contact info into your profile. HN does a monthly hiring/seeking for companies, freelancers, and such. Below is February's:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5150843>

PS - I'm currently freelancing :-)

</comment><comment><USER5> Well, I posted this thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5231318> (Ask HN: My SaaS idea was bad, need alternative part time job) about me needing a job :)

Have a look.

</comment><comment><USER6> My new startup matchist (<http://matchist.com>) can help you find a quality developer and ensure you only pay when work is complete.

<comment><USER7> clientsfromhell.com would like to have a word with you

<comment><USER2> Not sure if you meant clientsfromhell.net?

<comment><USER7> Yes clientsfromhell.net sorry about that

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> You should put your contact details in your profile.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the ideas. @phasevar, email added.

</comment><comment><USER9> HN Monthly hiring posts

</comment><comment><USER10> Referral.</comment>


Snapchat apologizes: Juneteenth filter prompted users to 'smile' to break chains - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/19/21296713/snapchat-juneteenth-filter-smile-chains-controversial <comment><AUTHOR> Original title was too long. It was:

Snapchat apologizes for Juneteenth filter that prompted users to 'smile' to break chains</comment>


The people whose lives are being ruined by Airbnb - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20141105-dark-side-of-the-sharing-economy

<comment><USER2> The people whose lives are being "ruined" are those who can't get a home because the housing stock is being converted into part time rental and those who thought they were living in a residential zone but who have permanent part-time housing nearby.

(those who live next door to a neighbor who rents out the place once in a while aren't having their lives "ruined").

You can say it's fair or unfair or simply the way of the market but this kind of disruptive turmoil can run peoples' lives. The buggy whip makers' children had to suffer unless the buggy whip makers diversified too.

Personally I have sympathy for the people in my first paragraph above. For hotels in general...less so.

</comment><comment><USER3> lives are being ruined? hardly.

They now have competition. This happens in almost every industry. You either need to learn how to compete, or you will quickly be out of business.</comment>


Beej's Guide to Network Programming - <AUTHOR> http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/output/html/singlepage/bgnet.html <comment><USER2> [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Beej%27s%20Guide%20to%20Networ...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Beej%27s%20Guide%20to%20Network%20Programming&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is good to understand the fundamentals. But in a cross platform software I would use something like libuv since it provides a consistent interface around sockets on all platforms.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a throwback for me, big time; this guide singlehandedly helped me through my low-level networks course in college.

<comment><USER5> When I think about my college networking course I can almost see the words "Beej's Guide to Network Programming" at the top of that page. I must have spent 30% of my time in that class just reading that site. Not sure if I remember who wrote the text book though.</comment></comment>


We called BS on AI. Here's a thread of what we learned - <AUTHOR> https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1092153626812792832.html <comment><USER2> And the point of this exercise is? I mean, it's not like anybody working on / in the AI field pretends that AI is perfect. Everybody is acutely aware that we're still a long way from AI systems that never make mistakes.. then again, we're a long way from human systems that never make mistakes as well.

If people think calling this out is important, more power to them. But honest, it's a lot like running around screaming at people to look both ways before crossing the road.</comment>


LibFlow - <AUTHOR> http://libflow.com/about Hello everyone,<p>I am building a website to share free documents, textbooks and papers. The purpose of it is to host free material that can be readily accessed with no paywalls, subscriptions forms or ads. This started as a personal project, but it is growing and I would like to know if there is someone who would like to support it. It is not a for-profit project, and does not have a business model. However, I have a long term goal of (financially) supporting the creation of more free materials (e.g. textbooks) and make them available for free. Therefore I am also interested in the possibility of generating some revenue without ads. <comment><AUTHOR> Hello everyone,

I am building a website ( [http://libflow.com](http://libflow.com) ) to share free documents, textbooks and papers. The purpose of it is to host free material that can be readily accessed with no paywalls, subscriptions forms or ads. This started as a personal project, but it is growing and I would like to know if there is someone who would like to support it. It is not a for-profit project, and does not have a business model. However, I have a long term goal of (financially) supporting the creation of more free materials (e.g. textbooks) and make them available for free. Therefore I am also interested in the possibility of generating some revenue without ads.</comment>