Ask HN: What would you do every day, assuming you didn't need to work? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> 6 months ago, the fin-tech company I founded 1.5 years earlier got acquired and I´ve been asking myself that same question for the past few months now. I don´t need to work ever again in my life as this is my second successful exit (I´m 30 years old) but now comes the hard part. What do I do next?

I have been mostly experimenting with new ideas, trying to find some interesting new verticals within which I can start a new business or perhaps change course completely and help other entrepreneurs reach their goals. So I´m considering starting my own angel investment firm as it has been a life long dream of mine. However, the harder I look, the less excited I get about the state of early stage tech companies - especially here in Europe where I currently live. I wish Scandinavia´s startup scene was in better shape but I´m getting somewhat discouraged having seen how tiny the supply of well thought- out early stage businesses is.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm in the lucky enough position that I have 10 weeks continuous off over the summer. I'm also constrained by the fact that I'm not rich.

I spend more time with my kids, retired parents and friends, I cook more elaborate meals, go to the seaside/trails, cycle and walk more, read books, go to the gym/Jiu Jitsu, play/learn guitar, tackle the never ending list of things to be done around the house, learn something technical, do some online courses, occasional consulting. That's about it.

I think I'd need something bigger to work towards if it was the rest of my life though. I'd probably start a small software company.

</comment><comment><USER4> Read, read, read and read! Explore more "inputs" from different topics. Exercise regularly, eat healthy and have virtually no stress. ...and read even more. :)

</comment><comment><USER5> Play too many video games. If my income is the same as it is now, spend too much money on clothes and going out. Do some programming but probably not as much, and only on things I am interested in, such as open source game clients. I currently read a lot (though not traditional books usually, but I have done a lot of that in the past) so I would probably read more. Oh, and waste time on hackernews/stackexchange/reddit.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is why it's important to have other interests besides just what you do at your day job. This question stops being a question if you're already looking forward to the weekends so that you can get out and do $X, and you rearrange things and take unpaid leave so that you can get in a big six week $X trip every year.

Sadly, lots of people make it all the way to retirement without ever really finding their $X. They're suddenly dumped out on the world with nothing to do and have to scramble to find a hobby. But it doesn't usually seem to work. You don't want to learn Fly Fishing at 65 because you have nothing better to do. You want to have it have been your passion for the last 30 years and now you get to go out and pursue it for real, all day every day.

Like a few others on this thread, I got myself into this position pretty early in life (through slow, deliberate, effort rather than exit event, but with essentially the same result). Fortunately, I already knew what I wanted to do every day.

To sum up: Find your thing _today_ and start doing it. Today. Don't wait until some magic event in the future that may never come.

</comment><comment><USER7> I did this for 1 of the 2.5 years I was unemployed (the rest I was actually studying programming, which counts as work).

I read a lot of fitness articles about joints and fixed things that were broken about my body with careful therapy exercises. You have to keep fit, but you have time to do it the fun way, so I took up ice skating, kayaking, and skiing. With enough time to read and practice you can get lots better than most adult learners.

I didn't visit any friends and don't regret that at all. I played with a lot of nieces and nephews.

There is still more entertainment in the world than you can consume even 24/7, and you can still wish for more free time even when you have nothing but. I would stop working in a second if I didn't have to.

Although, one thing I will also do is feel guilt that everyone else is working and I've got it so nice. Even though I came by the money honestly, it's just a waste of potential. I'm not sad I quit the job I couldn't stand but I'm glad I went back to work eventually.

<comment><USER8> Genuinely curious how you fixed your joints. Do you have any reading or tricks that you learned?

<comment><USER9> +1, would love to know as well what you did to fix your joints

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I would wake up early and go surfing. Then I'd come home, shower, go meet some friends for coffee, work on a side project for a few hours (whatever that may be at the moment), make myself some lunch, go for a walk, do a bit of learning, prepare dinner, eat/hang out with some friends/family/SO, read a bit of HN, go to sleep, and wake up and do it all over again.

I'm working on incorporating aspects of that ideal day into my every day. As others have mentioned, there's no use in waiting until 'one day' to start.

</comment><comment><USER11> Assuming we're talking about having enough money to retire with a decent income, I would enroll in an online art history degree course from an institution like the Open University in the UK. Then I'd spend my time traveling around the world looking at the paintings and visiting historical locations while I learn. I'd live in Florence for a few months while learning about the history of Renaissance art and so on.

</comment><comment><USER12> Gardening, teaching, volunteering. Make a go of a few of my side projects, knowing that if they failed it would be okay.

</comment><comment><USER13> I would volunteer to teach programming, particularly at the high school or junior college level. I teach graduate students now but the real need is for people that really love the material to impart that excitement to students that are just starting to discover it.

</comment><comment><USER14> related "what's your end game?" thread: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16418842](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16418842)

<comment><USER15> I just wanted to say thanks for posting this thread again. I had previously favorited your comment from that thread, forgotten about it, and it was exactly what I needed where I'm at in my life right now.

<comment><USER14> You're very welcome. I hope you're able to turn this "slacker for intellectuals" ethos into reality. (I'm doing my best as well.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Work on things that I want to work on and learn things that I want to learn.

</comment><comment><USER17> Start another company.

</comment><comment><USER18> Most likely backpacking</comment>


Vegetarians Who Turned into Butchers - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/dining/butchers-meat-vegetarian-vegan.html <comment><USER3> Eliminating factory farmed meat from my diet is an aspirational thing for me; right now I don't have the available time or mental energy to commit to planning my diet to actually achieve that. Taking up deer hunting certainly helped me get closer to that goal, but mainly I just try to have no more than one serving of meat on any given day and go completely meatless several days a week.

<comment><USER4> You can go and buy free range chicken meat at plenty of grocery stores - <USER2> are still not ideal from a animal suffering point of view, but its just a change that requires money, and rarely more.

Otherwise, look at the farmer's market at your local community center. A lot of them have close to ethically grown chicken meat.

<comment><USER5> While most city-dwellers can get free range meat easily, it can be near impossible in the country without driving long distances.

<comment><USER6> This does not match the experience of my friends and relatives who live in rural areas. It's not like this meat is _coming from_ the city. It starts out in the country, and it can be found there. I think it's likely that there are more sources than you think nearby you, and not at any more of a distance _than you already go for many other things_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> it's an interesting way of contributing, but, the mathematics are clear: there's not enough space in the world to ethically raise $animals_to_slaughter so it's not realistic for the larger problem at hand: how consuming animals is contributing to environmental catastrophe and all it entails (factory farming leading to pumping animals full of pesticides, runoff ruining oceans, clearing rainforests to name some)

i think it's inevitable that lab grown meat and/or plant based alternatives get enough economic and environmental momentum to relegate "grass fed"/ethical whatever to a really high price niche forever, so i'd personally just focus efforts at arriving to that point ASAP, be it working for one of these companies, investing, or what have you.

<comment><USER8> I just spent 3 weeks driving the American Midwest. There is vast grasslands uninhabited by anything but cows, and plenty of space for a great many more thereof. The environmental impact is negligible, as they turn a small fraction of human-inedible natural foliage into nutrients/calories/proteins with practically no other effects.

Earth can bear a much larger livestock load than y'all give it credit for.

<comment><USER9> The cows have a big environmental impact. And it's far from negligble. They generate a lot of methane.

<comment><USER8> What's the methane etc produced by rotting grass equivalent to bovine intake? Plans die; everyone seems to forget this.

<comment><USER10> Plants do not produce methane themselves.

[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2009/01/methane-emissions- do...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2009/01/methane-emissions-dont-blame- plants)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The current factory farm system and the nearly infinite levels of suffering we put animals through is a weird aberration we will look back on in hundreds of years as completely insane. It's like a macabre torture machine most people just avoid ever learning about because the don't want to know how dark it really gets while eating their nuggets.

<comment><USER12> For cows at least, I'm not sure where this infinite level of suffering you mention comes in. They grow on a ranch well taken care of and have all the food and medical care they could want (more than most Americans can say!). Then they are taken to a feedlot and given all the fattening grain they could ever want (if you've ever owned an animal you know that unlimited food is their nirvana) before being humanely slaughtered in an approved and as painless as possible way.

Something else to think of is if not for being grown for food they wouldn't have existed at all. Is not existing better than that life they get? It's an interesting question.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26669595/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26669595/)

That study measured fecal cortisol (indicator for stress) upon arriving at a feedlot and after fattening and the animals seem to be within normal limits the whole time.

<comment><USER13> This is a very hot take—the feed lots you describe are horrific! Not only are they in tiny, cramped pens, these pens are filled with mud and shit! The food they're eating is not nirvana, it's the barest possible nutrition to fatten them up according to their warped genetic urgency to get bigger at an unnaturally fast pace that trashes their natural health. This isn't an all you can eat buffet and a spa—getting pumped full of antibiotics because their environment is so toxic is hardly what I'd guess they "want."

This kind of argument relies on the idea that human beings and animals are fundamentally different, that somehow cow suffering is unrelated to human suffering. But most of what we feel and do every day is not actually dictated by consciousness. If you were put into a tiny, roasting summer pen so tiny you couldn't even walk in circles, filled with drugs, covered in your own excrement, ravaged by hunger even though all you do is eat dirty grey hard food, I don't think you'd respond with some kind of elegant, mathematical, civilized emotion. You'd be out of your mind with terror, sadness and grief. Cows can feel all those things, and they do in factory farms. It's common sense, and I agree with those who say we will look back on this era as a disgusting, ignominious chapter in human society.

<comment><USER14> >[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26669595/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26669595/)

>That study measured fecal cortisol (indicator for stress) upon arriving at a feedlot and after fattening and the animals seem to be within normal limits the whole time.

It seems like your opinion is not supported by the scientific evidence that reflects stress levels.

<comment><USER15> I'm not going to buy the whole paper, but this seems to be studying whether there is additional stress in humid, tropical climates, not whether feedlots affect stress levels. Note that there is no non-feedlot control. The fact that it says that stress indicators were in the "normal ranges for cattle" could mean simply that they are not more stressed than feedlot animals in non-humid, non-tropical climates.

The one paper that cites this one is also about how temperature and climate differences affect reproduction rates: [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0191961)

<comment><USER14> >That study measured fecal cortisol (indicator for stress) upon arriving at a feedlot and after fattening and the animals seem to be within normal limits the whole time.

Perhaps you have a different definition of what normal means?

<comment><USER15> I think you're willfully ignoring the main intent of this paper (effects of climate, not effects of feedlots) and instead replying with trite, condescending responses and nitpicks, so I highly doubt anything productive can come out of this thread.

I don't think that's normal. I think that's trolling. & I think I'm done here.

<comment><USER14> If you've got any evidence which would support the idea that they were stressed, I would imagine you'd provide it. As you haven't, we both know what the answer is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> fascinatingly, I have done this! Was vegetarian, went so far as to take a job as a clerk at an ethical butchery.

I eventually went vegan (and returned to engineering again) but I have the deepest respect for those who work with meat but treat the taking of a life with reverence. It is excellent harm reduction.

Asking folks, especially indigenous folks, to abstain from a traditional food lifeway is a hard conversation not to be an asshole in unless you are offering something equivalent (in taste and cultural position) that does not involve mega-scale mutilation and trauma to sentient beings. Beyond-Meat-style precise simulation helps. Careful, farm-driven husbandry and ethical slaughter helps enormously too, but obviously scales less well.

It's important to me to as cause as little unnecessary suffering as possible, and to treat the taking of a life with great solemnity. Ethical butchery does these things.

<comment><USER17> What does returning to engineering have to do with veganism?

<comment><USER16> As it happens, there kind of _is_ a non-coincidental connection, apart from the obvious 'I was no longer a butchery clerk and needed to make money'.

As an engineer I can afford to buy meat substitutes. I can _afford_ veganism, or at least the kind that is comfortable to someone who grew up loving meat and cheese. One day, these substitutes will be more broadly available, but that day isn't today.

Also, I am re-inspired by the careful meat/egg/dairy simulation work that has been done by Beyond Meat and similar innovators, and now regard engineering as the correct approach for solving this and other ecological crises at scale.

I once again think that my technical training can help save the world, rather than just provide me with savings. I believe in the high-science approach again. This might seem like the obvious solution to the HN audience, but I assure you, lots of folks are drawn to traditional bodies of knowledge and lifeways, and regard them as known-good, and regard the food difficulties the world faces as symptoms of a hasty rush into the embrace of high technology, which in turn entails finance and markets, which in turn entails global capitalism or something like it (e.g. whatever the appropriate term is for the hybrid approach pursued by China.) I myself found this position alluring for quite some time -- "just keep the old ways!" \-- but it's a dead end.

Artisanal & heirloom approaches to food production have a lot to teach us, but none of those lessons are 'ok great now let's feed a couple billion new folks'. Instead, they are best at teaching us what we've already lost. That in turn might help us avoid the next loss -- or pursue the next restoration.

<comment><USER18> The idea that being vegetarian or vegan is more expensive than eating meat seems utterly absurd to me.

Meat, excepting processed barely-food bollocks like frozen chicken nuggets or whatever, is substantially more expensive than any food item I regularly buy.

Dried pulses are like 1-2 USD per kilogram. You're eating stuff like lettuce, cucumber etc anyway unless you're a savant, same for pasta, rice, etc.

The only place I can think of in which it's potentially more expensive is stuff like McDonalds not having a vegan option.

I'm guessing this is either an American market distortion, or one of those "but I work 80 hours a week so can't do anything other than the most convenient thing ever" weird might-as-well-end-yourself-because-you-are-a-cog things.

What gives?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This reads like a hitpiece against vegetarianism/veganism to me, or a way to assure omnivores that their current diets are OK and not completely terrible for the environment.

> she returned to eating meat after learning that the soybean and corn > monocultures that accounted for much of her vegan diet were wreaking havoc > on the environment

This is patently false, even though she might have believed it. Over 70% of soy grown in the US goes directly into animal feed [1], with some being used for biofuel as well [2]

> After spending her high school and college years subsisting on a vegetarian > diet of flavored yogurt, Gardenburgers, pizza pockets and mac and cheese > with frozen vegetables mixed in ... "As soon as I started eating meat, my > health improved," she said. "My mental acuity stepped up, I lost weight, my > acne cleared up, my hair got better. I felt like a fog lifted."

It should be obvious that if you go from a diet heavy in processed foods to one based on whole foods (plant-based or otherwise) your health will improve, but this wording makes me feel like it's trying to show that an omnivorous diet is healthier than a vegetarian/vegan one.

The article does raise a good thought though, being the following:

> The system's advocates say it can regenerate vast swaths of grassland, which > has the potential to sequester carbon rather than emitting it as factory > farm operations do.

I haven't yet seen good analysis on whether the grassland tended by grazing livestock does good than the livestock themselves (in the form of methane emissions), but it would be wonderful if it did.

Finally, the article thankfully acknowledges the elephant in the room:

> Critics of the alternative approach say that not all studies show improved > carbon sequestration on grazed grassland, and that the system can't produce > enough meat to meet current demand

Regardless of whether or not meat raised in this way is better for the environment and/or peoples' health, there is no way enough meat could ever be raised this way to meet the modern demand for it. The demand for meat worldwide is going _up_, and the typical Western diet that is heavy in meat will continue to be a hugely destructive force on our environment until we _all_ slash our consumption of animal products.

[1] [https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/coexisten...](https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/coexistence- soybeans-factsheet.pdf) (PDF warning)

[2] [https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/where_do_all_these_soybeans_go](https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/where_do_all_these_soybeans_go)

<comment><USER7> agreed re: processed stuff. i've about had it with "vegetarians" who eat frozen pizza 3x a day whining about being unhealthy. also agreed that the framing about "rediscovering meat" is misleading as hell.

> "It can be hard to balance your diet as a vegetarian, especially when you're > younger, and I wasn't doing it right," he said.

i really don't understand this - there's no justification given, nor is there a reason why it's harder when younger.

<comment><USER20> 1\. Changing your diet is not so easy when the society around you has optimised for something else.

2\. Culture - if your family has historically relied on meat for sustenance, you can't exactly go vegetarian with the flip of a switch. It requires a shit ton of planning, asking questions, identifying what you like, resetting your taste palate and expectations meanwhile still entailing a fair bit of confusion. OTOH, Grandma taught Mom who taught her children on how to cook meat.

3\. Younger ages are tough since you would probably be living with family and decisions regarding what is bought and cooked are probably being made by parents who might not exactly share your inclinations to go meat-free.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm a vegetarian butcher, but in a different vein. These days I only eat meat I personally catch and then kill, having sworn off farmed meat entirely.

<comment><USER3> When I have a freezer full of venison backstrap I don't really want to eat anything else anyway

<comment><USER21> By far the nicest thing I have ever eaten was impala. This was from a restaurant, before I started restricting my diet, but I would love to go and hunt me some of those.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I realize that most people will read this and go "haha, see that triggered vegan", but please take a moment to honestly consider how horribly bad this article is.

The article (besides being about vegetarians and vegans who turned butcher, for some self-contradictory reasons) is about the benefits of grass-fed, expensive meat versus soy- and corn- fed meat. The main benefit is that it's healthier for the animal, and therefore "nicer" for the animal, and also more environmentally friendly.

However, it is not at all more environmentally friendly. The impact on the environment is actually a lot higher, because now you need to dedicate large portions of land to grass-fed animals. And yes, there are plenty of areas that don't seem to grow any proper food but do grow grass, which makes it sound like it's a perfectly valid plan. But even if you cut down every forest on earth and use every arible piece of land for grass-fed animals, you would still not have enough space on earth to support our current demand for meat in such a way.

They hint towards this a little bit, and suggest that people can counterbalance this by only eating a little piece of meat. But then that is the "real" solution here: to severely reduce your meat consumption. The whole part about grass-fed vs corn-fed is not at all relevant to the story after this point, it's all about reducing consumption. After all, if you only ate a little bit of meat, it would STILL be more sustainable to eat corn/soy-fed meat instead of grass-fed meat.

Of course, that's exactly what vegetarians and vegans are doing: they're reducing the amount of meat they eat.. but instead of stopping at, say, 10% of what the average person eats normally, they stop at 0%. And they are often demonized because of that last 10%, whereas stopping at 10% apparently makes you some kind of noble hero.

Also, there are some pretty insane lines in this article:

> [...] a vegan for five years <attended a> "Kill Your Own Thanksgiving > Dinner" event at a local farm. > "It was really morbid. I was the only one > who signed up," she said.

If you're a vegan, and you care about animals, why were you signing up for a "kill your own turkey" event? That sounds like one of the least vegan thing you could do.

> After spending her high school and college years subsisting on a vegetarian > diet of flavored yogurt, Gardenburgers, pizza pockets and mac and cheese > with frozen vegetables mixed in, she began eating meat again in Europe, > where she worked on farms for a few years. >"As soon as I started eating > meat, my health improved," she said.

So she stopped eating junkfood and her health improved. This is framed as if it's somehow bad to be vegetarian/vegan for your health, but I hope any skeptical reader will see her problem was a horrible junkfood diet, not that she was vegetarians. How many meat-eaters can be healthy on only eating pizzapockets, yoghurt and hamburgers?

> "I have a business based on the fact that I'm sad about the way animals are > being treated," he said.

No, you have a business making a profit from the death of animals.

> "Since I became a butcher I've been called some horrible things on the > internet, and it doesn't seem right," [...] "There's a larger problem here: > the problem with concentrated feedlots, and with animals being commodities. > That's what we should be attacking, not each other. "

That's like saying "Hey, I treat my slaves really well! We should be fighting the bad slave-holders, not the good ones." No, (ethical) vegans are against using animals as products, and that's what they're commenting on. Not whether or not your meat is healthy.

<comment><USER23> Regarding grass feeding: There are a lot of areas were cattle are raised naturally on a grass diet for milk production and meat (think Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland). In those areas growing corn or soy beans would be impossible. There are humane and sustainable ways of raising cattle for slaughter / milk production and people have been practicing them for a long time in such regions. Apart from the moral question whether killing animals for food is ok, I see nothing objectionable to consuming such locally produced products. At the same time there are plenty of ways that parts of the current western lifestyle could not be scaled up to the whole planet (meat eating habits being just one of them).

In terms of environmental impact vegans / vegetarians avidly consume coconut oil, soy beans, nuts etc. All things that are typically produced far away and sometimes not sustainably produced at all (think the meat ersatz burger being rolled out right now). If you stick to regionally produced products, you are much more likely to have a positive environmental impact.

<comment><USER22> I think the moral question of whether raising and killing animals for slaughter is a bit too hard for me to just set aside, to be honest.

And saying vegans are not being sustainable for eating "exotic" food seems absurd to me, hardly any meat eater eats local food, especially if you consider animal feed of the meat, milk and leather you use. That's not an argument against vegans or vegetarians, but an argument against people who don't eat locally produced products (on both sides).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Grass-fed beef is worse for the environment than feedlot beef, which is already pretty damned terrible. You need more cows to produce the same amount of beef, which means more methane emissions. There isn't enough pasture land available to meet our demand for beef; cattle farming is already the primary cause of deforestation, which would only be exacerbated by a shift away from feedlots.

There is no ethical way to eat beef.

[https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aad401](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aad401)

[https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/stop- deforestation/wha...](https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/stop- deforestation/whats-driving-deforestation)

[https://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/project- files/fc...](https://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/project- files/fcrn_gnc_report.pdf)

<comment><USER25> The higher cost of grass-fed, free-range, etc. meat and poultry serves to internalize the externalities and disincentivizes frequent consumption. So no, it's not worse in and of itself, if it replaced feedlot farming, then we'd see prices spike, consumption plummet, and ideally we'd also see antibiotic and feed corn use sharply drop as well. We could all wish for such a world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> TL&DR: a few vegans became meat hipsters. The author thinks being a meat hipster is a very good thing.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you market a developer tool? - <AUTHOR> Hi HN,
   I build and run a developer tool which helps teams deliver products faster by allowing front-end devs to mock REST APIs easily, without needing to wait for the backend guys to get things ready. It has a few features my own team finds very useful (ex: a single person can mock a server and share it to the entire team, and updates then get synced automatically etc.) which reduce the overhead of maintaining the mock in sync with the actual API being built.
The product is split into an Electron app (fairly performant), and a web service which allows for teams to be created and mocked APIs shared.
So far, I've had an abysmal time marketing the service. My marketing strategy so far has been:
1. Posting to HN, Reddit (r/programming and r/programmingtools), Product Hunt, IndieHackers - Bad initial traction (the post on HN got buried), very few signups, quite a few downloads of which about 5% stuck around and still use the app.
2. Posting as a response to appropriate questions on stackoverflow - The four answers I wrote still net me about 10 visits a day.
3. Blogging on the official product blog - Pretty much nobody reads this, I've tried cross posting to r/programming but generally not very receptive over there.
That said, based on my own teams usage, and the usage of a few teams we have gotten to use through word of mouth is quite positive and it has quickly become an integral tool. So I'm not really willing to give up on it yet.
So how should I get more developers to try out and use the tool? How do I market this tool to developers? Should I be trying to go after Engineering Managers instead?
Thanks in advance for your help.
EDIT: It's called Mocktastic. (Site: https://mocktastic.com, Blog: https://blog.mocktastic.com) <comment><USER2> Blog more often, and blog about you using your tool to solve problems. Use titles that don't talk about your tool, but about the problem you're solving in the article.

It's likely people will search on google for these problems, find you post and thus try out your tool. Also, post your blogs ton HN/Reddit, 1 every n posts will hit.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd suggest making the core functionality available via a command line and then make it easily installable via a package manager (apt, brew, etc)

That way it is scriptable and easier to integrate into developer processes.

Alternatively make it available as a browser extension which creates some discovery.

ngrok and postman are examples of products in this space that have successfully monetizes.

</comment><comment><USER4> Build something that makes world a better place.</comment>


Running Kubernetes on a Jet (Simulator for Now) - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjZ4AZ7hRM0 <comment><AUTHOR> Pretty interesting look at what the United States DoD is doing on Kubernetes. I've gone through Fedramp and authority to operate before - and I'm not used to the government being in the same decade (technology wise) as industry.</comment>


Designs Against Humanity - <AUTHOR> https://hostiledesign.org/ <comment><AUTHOR> Found this through the 99% Invisible article [1] on it. Very interesting topic where I find my own opinion is divided between the two sides: on one hand, limiting how long individuals occupy certain public spaces can ensure such places serve near the most amount of people possible, maximising the "throughput", and also helps keep the places relatively "clean" and "safe"; but on the other hand, I can not disagree the argument that "[i]t is a horrendous and prejudicial practice" which "often attacks the most vulnerable people in our community, regularly the homeless".

[1]: [https://99percentinvisible.org/article/design-crimes- artist-...](https://99percentinvisible.org/article/design-crimes-artist- launches-campaign-highlight-hostile-architecture/)</comment>


Ask HN: Share your best OPML/RSS Feeds - <AUTHOR> Even though Firefox v64 will stop supporting RSS/Atom feeds natively [see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18202028 for a discussion on that news], I just found how convenient and efficient RSS can be. Before it gets harder to find feeds, I'm hoping everyone can share their OPML exports from their favorite reader, or share their favorite RSS feeds.<p>Aside from the Hacker News RSS Feed [https://news.ycombinator.com/rss] and adding my favorite subreddits [https://www.reddit.com/r/python.rss], I don't have too many yet. <comment><USER2> There is a curated list of engineering blogs. The OPML file is available on [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kilimchoi/engineering- blog...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kilimchoi/engineering- blogs/master/engineering_blogs.opml)

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://researchbuzz.me/feed/](https://researchbuzz.me/feed/) I love that site. The author works tirelessly. I've found some truly amazing stuff reading that site over the years. And this one: [http://feeds.feedburner.com/thethrillingwonderstory](http://feeds.feedburner.com/thethrillingwonderstory)

</comment><comment><USER4> My RSS reader has been pretty stale for a good while now, and I do hope we might see some other good suggestions here so I can get some fresh ideas and people into my RSS reader.

These are some of my favourite blogs.

—

Michael Tsai [https://mjtsai.com/blog/](https://mjtsai.com/blog/) [https://mjtsai.com/blog/feed/](https://mjtsai.com/blog/feed/)

This blog is pretty well know for doing round ups for tech and tech-adjacent news with quotes from twitter and blogs.

—

n-gate.com [http://n-gate.com](http://n-gate.com) [http://n-gate.com/index.rss](http://n-gate.com/index.rss)

At risk of getting called out I'm including this here, pretty much each week they present an alternative view on the discussion of the top hacker news post. It takes a certain kind of humor, but it also puts things into a nice perspective I think.

—

Pixel Envy [https://pxlnv.com](https://pxlnv.com) [https://pxlnv.com/feed](https://pxlnv.com/feed)

The blogging here is a little Apple focused, but there's also a lot of news and takes on the ever increasing intrusions to online privacy.

</comment><comment><USER5> [http://opml.sharjeelsayed.com](http://opml.sharjeelsayed.com)

</comment><comment><USER6> [http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot](http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot) [https://www.raspberrypi.org/feed/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/feed/) [https://www.aclu.org/taxonomy/channel- term/1/feed](https://www.aclu.org/taxonomy/channel-term/1/feed) [http://gpuopen.com/feed/](http://gpuopen.com/feed/) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/armdevices?format=xml](http://feeds.feedburner.com/armdevices?format=xml) [http://mobilesemi.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default](http://mobilesemi.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/cnx- software/blog?format=xml](http://feeds.feedburner.com/cnx- software/blog?format=xml) [http://boingboing.net/feed](http://boingboing.net/feed) [http://atomicsupermen.wordpress.com/feed/](http://atomicsupermen.wordpress.com/feed/) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/Gizchinacom?format=xml](http://feeds.feedburner.com/Gizchinacom?format=xml) [http://semiaccurate.com/feed/](http://semiaccurate.com/feed/) [http://anandtech.com/rss/](http://anandtech.com/rss/) [http://www.fudzilla.com/?format=feed](http://www.fudzilla.com/?format=feed) [http://semiengineering.com/feed/](http://semiengineering.com/feed/) [http://www.fark.com/fark.rss](http://www.fark.com/fark.rss) [http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/oddlyEnoughNews?format=xml](http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/oddlyEnoughNews?format=xml) [http://www.clickhole.com/feeds/rss](http://www.clickhole.com/feeds/rss) [http://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/.rss](http://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/.rss) [http://www.phdcomics.com/gradfeed.php](http://www.phdcomics.com/gradfeed.php) [http://www.smbc-comics.com/rss.php](http://www.smbc-comics.com/rss.php) [https://xkcd.com/rss.xml](https://xkcd.com/rss.xml) [http://media.nxp.com/corporate.rss?c=254228&Rule=Cat=new...](http://media.nxp.com/corporate.rss?c=254228&Rule=Cat=news~subcat=ALL) [http://blog.nxp.com/feed](http://blog.nxp.com/feed) [http://www.engadget.com/rss.xml](http://www.engadget.com/rss.xml) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/IeeeSpectrumFullText](http://feeds.feedburner.com/IeeeSpectrumFullText) [http://static.fsf.org/fsforg/rss/news.xml](http://static.fsf.org/fsforg/rss/news.xml) [https://stallman.org/rss/rss.xml](https://stallman.org/rss/rss.xml) [http://freegamer.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default](http://freegamer.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) [http://www.phoronix.com/phoronix-rss.php](http://www.phoronix.com/phoronix- rss.php) [http://feedity.com/futuretimeline- net/VVFXVFdV.rss](http://feedity.com/futuretimeline-net/VVFXVFdV.rss) [http://www.vivantecorp.com/index.php/en/media- article/news.f...](http://www.vivantecorp.com/index.php/en/media- article/news.feed?type=rss) [https://9to5google.com/feed](https://9to5google.com/feed) [http://www.xda- developers.com/feed/](http://www.xda-developers.com/feed/) [http://www.androidauthority.com/feed](http://www.androidauthority.com/feed) [http://www.androidpolice.com/feed](http://www.androidpolice.com/feed) [https://news.ycombinator.com/rss](https://news.ycombinator.com/rss) [http://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/rss2/all.xml](http://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/rss2/all.xml) [https://phoneradar.com/feed/](https://phoneradar.com/feed/) [http://www.umpcportal.com/feed/](http://www.umpcportal.com/feed/) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/Liliputing?format=xml](http://feeds.feedburner.com/Liliputing?format=xml) [https://www.eff.org/rss/pressrelease](https://www.eff.org/rss/pressrelease) [http://makezine.com/feed/](http://makezine.com/feed/) [https://www.microled- info.com/rss.xml](https://www.microled-info.com/rss.xml) [http://news.mit.edu/rss/topic/nanotech](http://news.mit.edu/rss/topic/nanotech) [http://news.mit.edu/rss/topic/electrical- engineering](http://news.mit.edu/rss/topic/electrical-engineering) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/IntoMobile?format=xml](http://feeds.feedburner.com/IntoMobile?format=xml) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/NanotechwebTechUpdate](http://feeds.feedburner.com/NanotechwebTechUpdate) [http://www.mondo2000.com/feed/](http://www.mondo2000.com/feed/) [http://gliden64.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default](http://gliden64.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) [http://www.lakka.tv/articles/feed.xml](http://www.lakka.tv/articles/feed.xml) [http://www.jeffq.com/blog/feed/](http://www.jeffq.com/blog/feed/) [https://github.com/Kloen/citra- android/commits/master.atom](https://github.com/Kloen/citra- android/commits/master.atom) [http://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid+minipcs.rss](http://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid+minipcs.rss) [https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/feeds/](https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/feeds/) [http://www.oled-display.net/feed/](http://www.oled-display.net/feed/) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/KhronosorgNews](http://feeds.feedburner.com/KhronosorgNews) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/oled-info](http://feeds.feedburner.com/oled-info) [https://www.reddit.com/r/pigrow.rss](https://www.reddit.com/r/pigrow.rss) [http://www.pocketables.com/feed](http://www.pocketables.com/feed) [http://www.popsci.com/full-feed/science](http://www.popsci.com/full- feed/science) [http://www.cringely.com/feed/](http://www.cringely.com/feed/) [http://bloggingthemonkey.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default](http://bloggingthemonkey.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/reason/AllArticles](http://feeds.feedburner.com/reason/AllArticles) [http://www.reddit.com/r/Raspberry_pi_projects+Purei.rss](http://www.reddit.com/r/Raspberry_pi_projects+Purei.rss) [https://retropie.org.uk/feed/](https://retropie.org.uk/feed/) [https://www.recalbox.com/rss](https://www.recalbox.com/rss) [http://www.libretro.com/index.php/feed/](http://www.libretro.com/index.php/feed/) [https://androidpctv.com/feed/](https://androidpctv.com/feed/) [http://www.sammobile.com/feed/](http://www.sammobile.com/feed/) [https://www.antifraudnews.com/feed/](https://www.antifraudnews.com/feed/) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/AllDiscovermagazinecomContent?fo...](http://feeds.feedburner.com/AllDiscovermagazinecomContent?format=xml) [https://www.quantamagazine.org/feed](https://www.quantamagazine.org/feed) [http://www.cancelledscifi.com/feed/](http://www.cancelledscifi.com/feed/) [http://www.digitimes.com/rss/daily.xml](http://www.digitimes.com/rss/daily.xml) [http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index](http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch](http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch) [https://www.techdirt.com/techdirt_rss.xml](https://www.techdirt.com/techdirt_rss.xml) [http://www.extremetech.com/feed](http://www.extremetech.com/feed) [http://www.theverge.com/rss/full.xml](http://www.theverge.com/rss/full.xml) [https://osmc.tv/rss](https://osmc.tv/rss) [http://www.picopros.com/rss.xml](http://www.picopros.com/rss.xml) [http://feeds.feedburner.com/picoprojector- info?format=xml](http://feeds.feedburner.com/picoprojector-info?format=xml) [http://xbmc.org/feed/](http://xbmc.org/feed/) [http://www.wired.com/feed/](http://www.wired.com/feed/) [http://xenia.jp/feed.xml](http://xenia.jp/feed.xml)

<comment><USER7> Two things I wasn't aware of:

a. subscribe to a subreddit by appending .rss, eg [https://www.reddit.com/r/news.rss](https://www.reddit.com/r/news.rss)

b. subscribe to a Github's repo commits by appending /commits.atom, eg [https://github.com/github/dmca/commits.atom](https://github.com/github/dmca/commits.atom)</comment></comment>


Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=167719 <comment><USER2> One thing I have been wanting to do for a long time about Nigerian like scams, but never got around doing it, was the following: 1\. create some bait email accounts from gmail, yahoo, and so on, and expose them somewhere on internet so they get harvested by scammers. 2\. write a dumb program that is able to do some primitive parsing of the emails from the scammers, and reply to them. For example, let's say the email from the scammer is:

        Dear friend,
            I am the widow of the former Prime Minister of Nigeria and I need your help to get out of Nigeria where my life is threatened, along with the  $50M currently in my bank account. If you help me I am willing to give you 30% of that money, please reply me to see how we can proceed.
        Regards,
        Mrs Mary Noscam

The program would have just to reply something like:

        Dear Mary,
        I am very interested to help you, how can I help you to get out of Nigeria?
        Regards,
        Mr John Victim.

The point would be to make the scammer spend 10 minutes to read the reply and answer to it. After couple of emails, he will probably realize that he has been wasting his time with a bot, and just move on, but with lots of emails responding, he will have much less time to deal with actual victims, making his time worthless. I think writing a bot that is able to reply to the scammer is quite doable, since:

        1. There are example of bots having actual conversation, such as SHRDLU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHRDLU) that was recently submitted here.
        2. The answer doesn't have to be very elaborate.

Now I think I got blocked by the fact of having to make the bot be able to receive and send emails... maybe I will start that project some day...

<comment><USER3> I can't remember what the website is exactly and I am currently at work now so I won't be able to google it up but there was a person that use to do this except that he didn't use a bot but "bait" the scammers himself.

It is utterly hilarious. What he does is he replies to a "scam email" and most of the scammers will do anything once they see an actual human being replying to their spam email. He obviously leads them on and his signature move is to always try to get the scammer to post a picture of themselves with a card held up (for verification purposes of course) and the cards usually say stupid things like "ilikebukake". He collates all the emails, replies, pictures, etc and puts it up on the internet.

When I get home later, I will try and dig that site up.

<comment><USER4> I use to think it was funny messing with people from poor countries who participated in activities that wasted our time for little $ benefit to themselves but not so much any more.

Humiliating other humans beings for enjoyment isn't a great trait to encourage.

These sites are also, whether that say they 'aren't' or not, are racist on some level.

I'm sure there are some real a@#holes participating and running these scams but often the people on the ground are just human beings who have no other way to earn money.

<comment><USER5> > I'm sure there are some real a@#holes participating and running these scams > but often the people on the ground are just human beings who have no other > way to earn money.

So the bot is probably a better idea than targeted humiliation. Making crime quietly unprofitable is a good thing.

(You can help with Nigerian development, eg by giving to Doctors without Borders or other approaches.)

<comment><USER6> Wait, what? No thoer way to earn money? These are common thieves looking for victims to rob them out of as much money as they can. People with skill, a PC, access to the internet and good social skills.

<comment><USER7> That sounds like most telemarketeers to me.

Outbound call centers employ these people by the legions.

And selling crap stock to retirees is no better than pretending you're a Nigerian prince.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> As a point of interest: Nigerian scam letters predate the internet. In the eighties and nineties, colleagues in the oil and gas industry, and I, received frequent postal letters, postmarked Nigeria. One memorable one I received from a high official in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, requested I keep his proposal a secret so "that my image may not be dented." We assumed they combed the Oil and Gas Directory, or the Geophysical Directory, to obtain our names. Perhaps these original, truly Nigerian scams, were less sophisticated than the later Internet imitators, since targeting technical professionals isn't targeting the dumbest of the dumb. Or, the rich veins they mined were not yet depleted.

<comment><USER9> >these original, truly Nigerian scams, were less sophisticated than the later Internet imitators, since targeting technical professionals isn't targeting the dumbest of the dumb.

On the contrary, the scam you describe look much more elaborated than current ones since they got your real peraonal info. Besides technical professionals seem like a great target for scams, since they likely have more money than the average and they are probably not as hard to scam as you might think, given that even a harvard professor fell victim to a 419er [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/31/harvard_prof_scams/](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/31/harvard_prof_scams/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Including typos in the spam messages falls in this same category. If seeing typos in an "official communication" triggers your alarm bells then you probably would not fall for whatever scamola it's a part of. It'd be in their interests to get you to drop off early.

<comment><USER11> Why is it in there best interest for you to drop off early?

You probably won't fall for it, but there is a still a chance...

<comment><USER12> Opportunity cost. If you can devote a few hours a day to each of, say, three gullible marks, you have a much greater chance of a payout than devoting a minute to each of 500 random marks.

<comment><USER13> Wait, what? These messages are sent en masse, and they aren't really hard to write up.

<comment><USER14> That's referring to the time that the scammer needs if the recipient falls for their bait and initiates contact.

You only want the truly gullible to send that first email, or it would be a waste of time for the scammer to talk to all the people who wouldn't wire transfer their money a few days/weeks later.

<comment><USER12> Right, all contact after the first email has to be tailored to their responses. Even gullible marks usually need hours or days (at minimum) of building rapport before they're actually comfortable enough to be conned into executing a transaction. If conning people into directly handing you cash were automatable like phishing, you'd see a lot more con artists and a lot less of other crimes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Interesting Study. There is also a related question addressed on Quora (circa 2010), on why these scams almost always originate from Nigeria and not else where. The geo-political reasons are quite interesting too [http://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-wire-fraud-scams- origina...](http://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-wire-fraud-scams-originate-in- Nigeria)

<comment><USER16> I don't have a Facebook page and I'd rather not use my Google account. Is there a way for me to read that answer without creating one?

<comment><USER17> You can click away from the modal to close it.

<comment><USER16> That doesn't reveal any subsequent answers as I still got: "You must be signed in to read this answer."

But the answers above solved that problem. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I am writing an article about the "art" of business writing, where I use this analysis to refute the usual consulting wisdom of making everything simple to grasp, even if that means taking things out of context. My argument is that sophisticated meaningful writing on difficult concepts acts as filter to identify the readers (and potential business relationships) that will be more willing to pursue visionary projects and supportive of different approaches. In this domain, you do not need or want to address the whole market, just the businesses that want to lead. Individuals who take the time to read and understand or comment, emit signals of active and insightful engagement.

<comment><USER19> Interestingly, I've seen the same argument applied as a refutation to the traditional argument that dating site profiles should be kept short and simple. Perhaps it's applicable to writing in general.

<comment><USER18> Definitely it applies to all kinds of writing, where a feedback loop is desirable, in order to establish a communication channel. In this class, the only thing specific to business writing, is that you try to establish a communication channel with a view to building a business relationship. Nevertheless, I believe there are types of writing where feedback is not desirable. When I write poetry for example, I would rather not hear from anyone who has read something I wrote.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> That abstract was the most convoluted way possible of saying: "because they want dumb people".

<comment><USER21> you're using ocam's razor a little too fine. The abstract actually said they want the "dumbest" of "dumb" people. Since the Nigerian scams are so well- known, only the truly gullibles will fall for their schemes, and those are the ones the scammers want. Their reputations works as a victim filtering system to their advantage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Reminds of of this later and somewhat funnier article about the "one weird trick" ads:

[http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/07/how_...](http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/07/how_one_weird_trick_conquered_the_internet_what_happens_when_you_click_on.html)

They reached the same conclusion and in that case, I can believe it's correct because those ads cost money, so must bring in more revenue, or they'd have stopped a long time ago.

In the case of 419 scams, a large proportion of the scammers may not be that sophisticated. It's entirely possible they really are just as dumb and incapable of spelling as a naive layperson would assume. The fact that "scam baiting" is a thing provides some evidence of that, although it's likely that many of those reports are fake as well.

<comment><USER23> >In the case of 419 scams, a large proportion of the scammers may not be that sophisticated. It's entirely possible they really are just as dumb and incapable of spelling as a naive layperson would assume. The fact that "scam baiting" is a thing provides some evidence of that, although it's likely that many of those reports are fake as well.

Could be a case of evolutionary dynamics at play in the system. IF the typos mattered, then dumb scammers would have been weeded out.

Conversely, if typos help, then this phenomenon may actually have encouraged dumb scammers and weeded out literate ones that never thought to misspell.

<comment><USER24> > Could be a case of evolutionary dynamics at play in the system. IF the typos > mattered, then dumb scammers would have been weeded out.

OR, those who were able to produce high-quality grammatical English were able to find better jobs than running 419 scams.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> To get a sense of how big a problem this is - americans reportedly had to recover 2 Billion USD* as a result of nigerian scams in 2013 alone, followed by China at $1750M, UK at $1210M and India at $870M.

What % of that was recovered is unknown.

Any team recovering even a small percentage of this makes it a fine acquisition target for the biggest banks in the world for a solution that works.

time saved in prevention of fraud; is time saved for banks not handling fraud, angry customers or hiring lawyers or training staff.

Expect one team applying to YC, trying to tackle this problem.

[*] See page 33 of [http://www.ultrascan- agi.com/public_html/html/pdf_files/Pre-...](http://www.ultrascan- agi.com/public_html/html/pdf_files/Pre- Release-419_Advance_Fee_Fraud_Statistics_2013-July-10-2014-NOT-FINAL-1.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER26> How 2 of them were caught recently by a Mumbai citizen - [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Mumbaikar- bea...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Mumbaikar-beats-two- African-conmen-at-their-own-game/articleshow/40862521.cms).

Given that non-productive responses (false positives) are harmful to the scammers, one can think of spamming them with false positive responses as well, right?

</comment><comment><USER27> Is anyone else bothered by Figure 8, where the researcher assumes that seraches of "Nigeria" would auto-produce "Nigeria Scam"....which is not always the case, due to google personalizing seraches, (eg. if you search nigeria scams for information, you will likely autoproduce that as an auto-complete) "Figure 8: Google search offering "Nigerian Scam" as an auto-complete suggestions for the string "Nigeria". " As per caption

Ultimatly the figure isn't a big deal.....idk, maybe i'm wrong..

<comment><USER28> I believe tailoring search results was not as much of a factor in 2012 when the article was written.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Could it then be the case that many of the them _aren 't_ really Nigerian? Has an anti-brand been created that others use to their advantage?

</comment><comment><USER30> I can't help wondering what percentage of the victims of the vanilla "Nigerian scam" over the internet are in developing countries nowadays where lawyers and bankers generally do use free webmail accounts for their correspondence, sending and receiving money via Western Union is quite normal, and requests for funds to bribe an official barely raise an eyebrow.

<comment><USER31> Don't get too comfortable with that thought. At least a few years ago, plenty of victims came from developed countries such as the US and the UK. My guess is that it's caused by a combination of extreme gullibility and greed, and has little to do with the development level of your country.

[http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/U-S-Internet-fraud-at- al...](http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/U-S-Internet-fraud-at-all-time- high-Nigerian-2576989.php)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> The previous discussion on HN [two years ago] for anyone interested:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4136016](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4136016)

</comment><comment><USER33> To filter dumb people (their targets) from normal people.

</comment><comment><USER34> That's why I always answer them as soon as I have some time. Lot of fun.

And now I realize, it's been a few months since I didn't get one of those mails.

</comment><comment><USER35> This is also mentioned in the book "Think like a Freak" by by Steven D. Evitt and Stephen J. Dubner

<comment><USER36> Here's the link: [http://freakonomics.com/2014/04/04/bring-your-think-like- a-f...](http://freakonomics.com/2014/04/04/bring-your-think-like-a-freak- questions-for-levitt-and-dubner/). They also mentioned it recently in their podcast.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Say what you want about Microsoft but Microsoft Research is a pretty cool outfit.

</comment><comment><USER38> Now that's what they call _product market fit._

</comment><comment><USER39> Can we have a [2012] on the title, please?

<comment><USER40> Done. Thanks!</comment></comment>


PG's thoughts on New Twitter - <AUTHOR> http://twitter.com/paulg/status/25998745559 <comment><USER2> New Twitter is really choppy on our EEE-PC netbook. :(

</comment><comment><USER3> simplify, simplify, simplify</comment>


Babylon.js: Framework for building 3D games with HTML 5 and WebGL - <AUTHOR> http://www.babylonjs.com/

<comment><USER2> Hi! To avoid having too long loading time, we have the support for incremental loading. But we definitely need to work on optimizing the size of our scene format also.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are one of the developers of BabylonJS? I saw an article based on babylon because on Coding4Fun :)

[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davrous/archive/2014/02/19/coding4fu...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davrous/archive/2014/02/19/coding4fun- tutorial-creating-a-3d-webgl-procedural-qrcode-maze-with-babylon-js.aspx)

I thought it was weird that i didn't found any links to babylonjs here :)

Seems like a great framework!

<comment><USER2> Yes, I am. :)

We have great things coming on babylon.js in the next days. It's mainly a personal project we have as a small team with David Catuhe, Michel Rousseau and Pierre Lagarde. We have great feedbacks so far!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> We are sorry for the loading times, we have a lot of people on the site (Running on my own computer)

</comment><comment><USER4> demos look quite nice but wow they take a long time to load, took about 5 minutes to download 50mb for a short scene, makes me wonder if download times are going to be a limiting factor in webgl games.

<comment><USER5> I think their website is getting hammered from Hacker News. I've seen it load faster than what I saw today. :)

<comment><USER2> You're right. Looks like our server has difficulties to handle the load. I'm going to work on hosting it elsewhere.

Once it's loaded, it should be faster to reload as we've implemented support for offline via IndexedDB.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Looks very cool, this is going on the list of libraries to play with!</comment>