Show HN: Make a programmable mirror - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/HannahMitt/HomeMirror <comment><USER2> What an absolutely awesome idea. I love things like this that just blend software and information into the physical environment seamlessly.

I see stuff like this and just think, yeah, now we're living in the future :-D Kind of reminds you how cumbersome and inappropriate it can be to have to pull out a dedicated black slab of glass to access all your information.

The future (at least the one I want) without a doubt is information distributed throughout and blended with the rest of the 'physical' environment so it can be accessed in a truly interactive, head-up manner, not always funnelled and filtered through a singular device - be that VR, AR, or just a load of nicely designed physical interfaces like this one.

<comment><USER3> I believe the term for things like this is an 'information radiator'. The benefit of ambient displays is they're always on so you don't need to seek any information out. It's just there.

They're quite popular in the agile community. Digital signage and wallboards everywhere. The downside is you can become conditioned to them and not notice things over time.

This is quite old but sums is up: [https://www.atlassian.com/wallboards/information- radiators.j...](https://www.atlassian.com/wallboards/information- radiators.jsp)

<comment><USER4> You mean like a wall clock?

<comment><USER3> Yes, but why just stop at one clock?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-MxGvtK2Bk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-MxGvtK2Bk)

<comment><USER5> Take them with you wherever you go!

[https://i.imgur.com/9tTFJdh.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/9tTFJdh.jpg)

<comment><USER4> Like a portable wall clock? A port-a-clock if you will? What a brilliant idea. We could affix it to a strap of leather so you can carry it around your waist. Given a few years we could probably make it so small you could wear it on your wrist!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm guessing this is based off [1] which uses a normal monitor and a Raspberry Pi.

This one looks much quicker and simpler than [1], but what if you need to do anything to the tablet (updates, new app, etc)? Remove it and re-adhesive?

Personally, I've been working on doing the same with an RPi and Hover so I can wave my hand in front of the mirror to swipe to new screens/info.

[1] [https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic- mirror/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic-mirror/)

<comment><USER7> That's funny, I've actually been doing the exact same thing, RPi2 and a Hover. I have a few blog posts about it here which I was going to post after the project is finished.[1]

I actually just bought all the wood to build the frame and I'll hopefully be doing next weekend.

[1][http://alaycock.github.io/blog/](http://alaycock.github.io/blog/)

<comment><USER8> If I'm not mistaken, I see that I'm not the only one still using a Dell XPS M1330 after so many years :)

<comment><USER7> I got the M1530 back in 2008. Not my primary machine, but it's definitely reliable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Does the device's camera work from behind the one-way-mirror? Specifically, does the device camera work well enough from behind the one-way-mirror to do accurate face recognition? (the idea being that it can display different information for different users and have at least a soft "biometric" privacy lock).

Also, would color images be displayable through the one-way mirror or only white will make it intact?

<comment><USER10> I believe the device is on the side that you only see your own reflection, but I could be entirely wrong. I base my assumption on the premise you can see the contents of the tablet from your side.

<comment><USER9> As I understand it, one-way mirrors let light pass in both directions. To be used as a "one-way" mirror it relies on the light differential between the two sides. Namely, it will always look like a mirror to the brighter side and like a window from the darker side into the brighter side. So, technically, the "mirror" side is facing you wherever the screen is dark on the other side. When the screen is bright, then the mirror works as a window. The problem is that I am not sure how bright is bright, i.e. would a normal color photograph, displayed against the mirror panel from the other side, be too dark to be seen through?

Also, I am not sure of is if it distorts the image in some way to have the mirror panel in between the device's camera and the outside.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This needs a Kickstarter. I would back it immediately.

<comment><USER12> Seconded.

<comment><USER13> Thirded. As someone said elsewhere, this is one of those "okay wow the future is here" things. This, more than a hover car, would do the trick. Major quality of life improvement.

<comment><USER14> I think if this is considered a major quality of life improvement, you might be measuring the wrong metrics

<comment><USER13> This is a mirror that, from only the pictures shown:

\- Tells you the date and time \- Tells you the weather (and suggestions!) \- Tells you the temperature \- Can list your to-do list and major reminders \- Shows (personalized!) stock market updates \- Shows xkcd \- Is a mirror

It could clearly do so much more, but on a typical weekday morning before work that's an easy, efficient way to get a number of morning "tasks" done. Big deal to me!

<comment><USER15> So everything your phone does already with a swipe of a finger?

I might be underestimating how this might be important in your daily morning routine, but I can fairly well tell the weather by looking thru the window. My alarm is set on phone and I'll have pretty good estimate how much time I've spend in shower.

To-do looks somewhat useful if you actually update it. It's something your phone already does. Personally it is almost always empty as I do not put work items on it.

Stock price and xkcd looks just as gimmicky as first two functions. It always make me cringe a little when smartphone manufacturers advertise their lock screens with such widgets.

<comment><USER16> Yes, your phone can do everything that this mirror can and more. Well, except work as a mirror.

The entire point of this is that this is a household object that you need _anyway_ , but that it leaks information that might be useful to you. So you would skip the step of taking out your phone and checking xyz. Yes, you'll only save 30 seconds or so of your time. But that's every day and that's one step you don't have to remember to do.

<comment><USER15> > except work as a mirror.

It does have a front facing camera ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Looks perfect for daily affirmations.

"Good morning, Dave. MY, you look handsome today!"

<comment><USER18> "You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggone it, people like you!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Nice work! I first came across this concept a few years back when someone posted an instructable which I believe he was building a Magic mirror for his daughter [1]. I re-implemented the idea but with a spooky tone, ie. it is framed as a regular mirror in the living room and when a guest stares at it long enough, something spooky jumps into the view. This was done using a VGA monitor, camera and a netbox pc. It was a fun project. If I were to go at it again, I would just use a cheap android tablet solely based on price, simplicity and power consumption. Will also make it useful this time with display of data that interests me than a novelty toy.

[1] [http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Magic- Mirror/](http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Magic-Mirror/)

</comment><comment><USER20> This is really neat, but not having a spare Android tablet lying around, I'm left wondering: is there any cost-effective way to magnify a small screen, say that of a SGS3, to a larger size? Anyone have any tricks of light, like angled mirrors or prisms, up their sleeves to achieve such an effect in a thin depth? I don't get the impression that resolution is all that important if all it's going to be used for is a few lines of monochrome text and symbols.

<comment><USER21> If you have a spare screen, this is a nice low cost alternative: [https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic- mirror/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/magic-mirror/)

<comment><USER20> Thanks. Any suggestions for a purchasable low-cost, low-power, low-medium resolution, largish screen?

EDIT: Self-suggestion : [https://www.adafruit.com/products/1287...](https://www.adafruit.com/products/1287...). and the linked to tutorial has some suggestions.

<comment><USER22> You can get refurbished 17" monitors from Newegg for about $50: [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824195...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824195011)

If you're using an rPi and don't want to get an adapter, the cheapest HDMI- input display is this 20" 1600x900px for $90 new: [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824112...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824112027)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is really cool! Although the title could be better, initially I thought this is talking about mirrors that can be programmed to adjust its properties (like tilt, curvature), much like those fancy telescope mirrors, although I'm unable to find a link now.

<comment><USER24> There's been research [1] into making programmable thin-film membrane mirrors [2] using the piezoelectric effect.

[1] [http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access- control.cgi/2004/04126...](http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access- control.cgi/2004/041267.pdf) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membrane_mirror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membrane_mirror)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> That weather readout would look great with some slick weather icons:

[https://erikflowers.github.io/weather- icons/](https://erikflowers.github.io/weather-icons/)

<comment><USER7> I'm using these for my smart mirror project, and tied them by index to the Yahoo Weather API.[1][2] There isn't a perfect one-to-one relationship between the API codes and the icons, but it's pretty close.

My one complaint about the icons is that they flow outside of the boundaries of what you'd expect them to be contained in, which can lead to some accidental overlap if you aren't careful with your margins.

[1] [https://github.com/alaycock/SmartMirror/blob/master/public/j...](https://github.com/alaycock/SmartMirror/blob/master/public/js/data.js)

[2] [https://developer.yahoo.com/weather/documentation.html#codes](https://developer.yahoo.com/weather/documentation.html#codes)

<comment><USER25> I have updated these quite a bit, the bounding boxes are fixed and there are various API mapping a including yahoo. Check it out.

<comment><USER7> Thanks for the reply! I'll take a look at it soon, I'll definitely grab these again. I think the version I used was from July, so it's definitely outdated.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Here's a face tracking version I made a couple of years back: [https://vimeo.com/13156714](https://vimeo.com/13156714)

It just uses a webcam and detects faces with (the now obsolete) Haarcascading face algorithm.

<comment><USER27> Did you implement your own Haar wavelet feature cascading classifier?

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> On first glance I thought the mirror said "Wear pants today" as if the mirror should know whether or not my legs will get cold...

<comment><USER29> Look at the weather report, if [high, expected, min] temperature below X degrees, suggest pants. Simple!

<comment><USER30> I don't think it's that simple, you should see all the optimists in March in Canada who are wearing shorts when it's about 5C out!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> We made a similar project last year with voice controller

[https://www.facebook.com/mcouzinet/videos/10152455989859166/...](https://www.facebook.com/mcouzinet/videos/10152455989859166/?l=3611472434671373927)

</comment><comment><USER32> I wonder if a touchscreen version is doable using the frustrated total internal reflection technique [1]. Relatively cheap projects have been done with that technique, but never with a mirror, AFAIK.

It's somewhat different since it requires a sizable box behind the surface and an internal projector instead of the screen. As for turning it into a mirror, it might be as simple as adding a two-way mirror under the Plexiglas pane (or possibly between the pane and the diffuser layer). But this is where experimentation becomes necessary!

[1]: [http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/](http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/)

</comment><comment><USER33> It would be really cool to add facial recognition at like 0.5hz to the phone so that it only turns the screen on when you're looking at it. Or alternatively customize the content based on who's present in front of the mirror.

<comment><USER34> Maybe add a motion sensor to it?

<comment><USER35> Perhaps a light sensor? You are not going to use your mirror in a dark room. Unless you want the display to show up in the dark, but personally I wouldn't want that.

<comment><USER36> That wouldn't work during the day if your bathroom has a window (it'd be on all day).

I think the simplest way to do it would be to tie it in directly to your light switch. (Note that the light switch wouldn't be controlling power to the Android device, it would merely be a data signal determining whether the display should be on.)

<comment><USER35> I'm used to small bathrooms with no windows.

If you have a window, tying it to the light switch would be ideal. Or you could simply add a small button next to the light switch.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I wish this went into a bit more detail about working with the mirror itself. Do you actually need a 2-way mirror? Or can you simply use something with that coating on one side?

<comment><AUTHOR> Some mirrors may have a thin enough back coating for light to shine through, but the two-way is ideal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> A few years ago it was really popular for home entertainment electronics like stereo systems and DVD players to use this trick to make the display appear to be "floating" on a mirrored surface. (Example: [http://regmedia.co.uk/2011/07/21/philips_bdp7600_blu- ray.jpg](http://regmedia.co.uk/2011/07/21/philips_bdp7600_blu-ray.jpg) ) More recently, I've seen people with phones whose screen protector is made out of this material.

(Personally, the idea of putting a device with a camera and microphone behind a two-way mirror just feels a bit too much like a telescreen for me.)

<comment><USER39> > Personally, the idea of putting a device with a camera and microphone behind > a two-way mirror just feels a bit too much like a telescreen for me.

Tape over the camera, break microphone? But yeah.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Might want to electrical-tape over the phone's front-facing camera, and maybe even excavate out its microphone. Just In Case.

</comment><comment><USER41> Great idea! It's stunning how this sort of futuristic seeming technology is actually possible using $50 in consumer electronics!

But passive display of information is only part of the story. You have the hardware: a microphone and a speech recognition API. Build voice interaction with this. Even simple commands like "Show me the weather tomorrow", or "Show me my calendar" add an amazing new depth to it. I can imagine myself, shaving and idly telling my mirror to show me my appointments today. :)

</comment><comment><USER42> I did something similar, but used Windows 10 and rainmeter, which lets you place widgets/images on your desktop. [https://i.imgur.com/LKxxvVI.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/LKxxvVI.jpg)

reddit thread: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Rainmeter/comments/3hzy4b/something...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Rainmeter/comments/3hzy4b/something_a_little_different_smart_mirror_with/)

</comment><comment><USER43> Decades ago I saw this done for auto rear-view mirrors, at Ford's research lab in Dearborn. Way ahead of its time.

If you have to operate electronics in a damp environment, use "Fine-L-Kote" conformal coating on the electronics. Mask all connectors, switches, and the screen face itself, then spray. Inspect with a UV light to see if you missed anything. Most automotive electronics gets a conformal coat, but, annoyingly, most handheld devices do not.

</comment><comment><USER44> I did some research into two way mirror vendors a while ago to hide my TV and stumbled upon this operation out of Ohio. I never ended up finishing the project and as such never ordered from them so I don't know much about the company. They do have a wide range of two-way mirror options.

[http://www.twowaymirrors.com/acrylic/](http://www.twowaymirrors.com/acrylic/)

</comment><comment><USER45> If you want to build an interactive programmable mirror, looks like Nanogest might be useful: [http://www.nanocritical.com/nanogest/](http://www.nanocritical.com/nanogest/) It's available for both iOS and Android.

It recognizes 4 swipe gestures (top, down, left, right) and a wave gesture.

It's a library so you'd still have to build the information display part.

<comment><USER46> Thanks for the link! Is this really a state of the art right now? I was a bit disappointed when I saw the video... Gestures look awkward.

<comment><USER45> Beats me - I just wanted to see if a library like this even existed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> I wonder if humidity and steam would be a problem if this was done in a bathroom.

<comment><USER48> We used construction paper to black out the back around the tablet. My guess is that the paper wouldn't like the humidity but the rest would be fine. Perhaps you could swap in some black plastic material that would work with spray adhesive.

<comment><USER49> Wouldn't a coating of black spray paint work just fine?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Really cool idea, but more importantly, why do some people call a one-way mirror a two-way mirror? Its only a mirror on one size.

<comment><USER51> Because you can use either side of the glass as a mirror.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> Not sure if it's this article or not (wouldn't surprise me), but there's a number of "one way mirror" plastic/acrylic sheets on Amazon, with Prime shipping. But all of the larger, more practical ones are sold out as of a few minutes ago, hah. ;-)

Awesome project.

</comment><comment><USER53> Super cool! Looks like a great anniversary present for the missus. I'm comfortable doing android development, but for those that aren't, have you thought of adding some config buttons for setting the birthdays and whatnot and releasing it in the google store?

</comment><comment><USER54> I do like this. It is clever.

But when I did something similar for my family, which displayed everyone's chores for the day, and any events we had going on, I simply mounted a tablet on the wall of the kitchen, and wrote a web page to display the info.

</comment><comment><USER55> Years ago I stayed in a hotel once that had mirrors like this by the elevators. They were displaying the current weather and day's forecast I believe. I've wanted one ever since!

</comment><comment><USER56> Great idea! Repurposing old tablets / mobiles is the cherry on top. Fascinating how combining otherwise dumb material with smart technology produces something so compelling.

</comment><comment><USER57> This is really cool!

I built one of these with Facial Recognition for my Capstone project. [http://lookingglass.co](http://lookingglass.co)

</comment><comment><USER58> This is way more affordable than the same thing I saw at Harrod's for like $10,000. Awesome project! Can't wait to try this.

</comment><comment><USER59> Ask HN : Absolutely the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Can someone explain, how the phone screen is being displayed in the mirror? It is behind the mirror, it's not in front of it? Since the mirror won't understand touch, there is no touch based control and one needs to pull the phone out to change app etc right.

Thanks

<comment><USER59> Answering my own question, secret is in the two way mirror, so no touch and no camera as the other side would reflect back.

<comment><USER60> You can update it by remoting into the phone or having it pull down configuration changes from a server periodically.

<comment><USER61> Or using a USB or Bluetooth mouse - Android supports them out-of-the-box.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER62> Love this idea, but removing the device (if you have to) is what rubs me the wrong way.

Anyone have any idea on the implications of mounting the device, say, 3mm away from the mirror? I think that would be about the depth of a case... and if you mount it inside a case, you can remove it seemlessly.

</comment><comment><USER63> One of the prediction -> [https://github.com/hemanth/ama/issues/13#issuecomment-124816...](https://github.com/hemanth/ama/issues/13#issuecomment-124816126)

</comment><comment><USER64> I've been working on a voice-controlled one of these. I just got my Raspberry Pi, but am still working on the software side quite a bit. I'm not really having great success with CMU Sphinx's hotword detection.

<comment><USER65> You could try blather. It's by Jezra Lickter.

<comment><USER64> Interesting, I'll take a look. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> Any suggestions for stores similar to Canal Plastic Center in San Francisco?

<comment><USER67> You could try TAP on South Van Ness, they have two-way acrylic mirrors on their website: [http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plas...](http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/two_way_mirrored_acrylic/558)

<comment><USER68> I'd suggest finding glass instead of plastic if you can deal with the weight in order to avoid having a distorted reflection. It should also be cheaper -- it looks like they're charging $33 per square foot for 3/16" plastic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> Pretty cool. I'd want to try this out on a kindle paperwhite and see if it would work.

How obvious is the rectangle of light? I can't see it at all in the first pic, but can make it out a little in the last pic

<comment><USER70> An OLED screen could solve this, having no light where the screen is black.

<comment><USER71> OLED have terrible burn in though, they don't like being turned on for long lengths of time.

<comment><USER47> Someone above suggested adding a motion sensor, so that it would only turn on when you were in front of it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER72> This is a project I could get into. Full Maker on. I like the details provided and the images. I'm thinking about using some other display than android phone since I don't have one.

<comment><USER73> [http://michaelteeuw.nl/post/111886383522/magic-mirrors- aroun...](http://michaelteeuw.nl/post/111886383522/magic-mirrors-around-the- world)

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> This is awesome!

It would be nice if this mirror could sync with your main device using wi-fi. So it would always be up-to-date with your stock options, birthdays and stuff like this.

</comment><comment><USER75> I have an old nexus I don't use often and would like to attempt this. Anyone know of any good mirror suppliers in the south jersey/philadelphia area?

</comment><comment><USER76> Can the "two way mirror" be created with "reflective window tint" (insulfilm in Brazil) glued onto a transparent acrylic sheet?

</comment><comment><USER77> This is absolutely fan fucking tastic!!

</comment><comment><USER78> I'd like that the "consider no biking " message had the bike image with a strikethrough.

</comment><comment><USER79> Does the tablet's touchscreen work through the mirror, or is this read-only?

It's still really cool either way.

</comment><comment><USER80> Would using an iPad Pro be overkill?

</comment><comment><USER81> I wonder how this would work with the new Raspberry Pi display

<comment><USER73> It'd just be an easier version of this

[http://michaelteeuw.nl/post/111886383522/magic-mirrors- aroun...](http://michaelteeuw.nl/post/111886383522/magic-mirrors-around-the- world)

</comment></comment><comment><USER82> looks awesome! is that an iron ring I see?

<comment><AUTHOR> It is! UofT Comp Eng.

</comment></comment><comment><USER83> Heavily influenced by Snow White!

</comment><comment><USER84> very awesome!</comment>


Ericsson Sues Apple, Seeks to Block iPhone and iPad Sales - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/27/ericsson-sues-apple-over-patent-licensing-seeks-to-block-iphone-and-ipad-sales/

<comment><USER2> It's just going to get overturned from the President's office like the block Samsung had imposed on Apple.

Notably missing from all of the coverage is how much they're trying to charge Apple for their FRAND covered patent. Are they price gouging, or is Apple demanding a huge quantity discount?</comment>


A new (2018) update to our Terms of Service is here - <AUTHOR> https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/309746/a-new-2018-update-to-our-terms-of-service-is-here <comment><AUTHOR> They added forced Arbitration clause.</comment>


Ask HN:  first experience as a programmer, how can i handle it? - <AUTHOR>

hi i'm a italian guy who is graduating in computer science at the university of Milan. Next week i'm going to start a project with a small company in my city. I have to take a stand alone application (written in delphi), and make a web based version, with languages such as HMTL,PHP and MYSql. The problem is: I'M FU<i></i>ING SCARED ABOUT IT!!! I've studied these technologies, but only in theory. During classes we've written little code snippets, but never worked on a full software, or never programmed at high-level. I've always been fascinated about this world, and i really like study it, but i realize now that i've never really programmed. I've never had time for realizing personal projects, and now, that i've had 3 free weeks, i started to code something, but every time i need to use a new library or API, i spend time reading documentation, and figuring out that there a lot of links to other functions or libraries that i don't know, and i spend time reading and browsing without writing a single line of code. It is like programming a software, even the smallest, end up in a never ending chain of links and documentation. I would love to hear your opinion, or even story about similar situations, because now, i'm really going to start programming, and i'm really scared about it.<p>(sorry for my bad english) <comment><USER2> I'd write down several simple features that the web application will need to do.

Then put them into Trello.

Then prioritise which ones are the most valuable to the business.

Then try and code those first.

Perhaps at this point, try and break that 1st task down into 3 or 4 subtasks.

Write a checklist of every little detail that the pages should have.

As you do even the smallest of things, tick of that element in the checklist.

Ask questions to those that your working for.

Make suggestions for improvement if you notice them, but understand that their maybe genuine business / user reasons for some oddities you'll find.

<comment><USER2> Also make sure you someone from the business who'se interested in the project. Make them interested if needs be i.e. find out what pain points they experienced with the old app, and have a think about what you can do together to improve that area of functionality.

Together write a regular report to the rest of the business about what's happening, and give a fortnightly update.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Calm down. It's going to be all right.

What you're experiencing right now is a pretty common thing among programmers. Everything seems straightforward from a high-level overview, but when you get down to the details, they can seem overwhelming.

The lucky thing is, although it seems never-ending now, it isn't. Eventually you'll learn enough about the API or subsystem or problem domain that you're looking at to make a little progress. You'll write a line or two of code, or maybe an entire subprogram, and you'll retain what you've learned. When you move on to the next small programming task, it'll take less research, because you'll remember what you learned earlier.

Eventually, you will learn most of what you need to know about the APIs you're using. You may not necessarily remember every single function argument or command option, but you'll know the rough outline of what you can do, and you'll know where to go to look up the details when you need them.

As you progress, you'll be able to move your emphasis from reading documentation to coding and debugging and refactoring and all those other fun things. There will always be new subsystems, new libraries, new APIs to get used to, so your job will always involve a little of this sort of thing. What seems insurmountable to you now will eventually seem quite normal.

Don't worry. Nobody else was born knowing all the details. If you can just keep going until it starts to get easier, you'll do fine.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think that early in our career, it's valuable to work alongside one or more experienced people. Not just to learn about programming technique, but also to see that it is possible to remain calm even when there are still a lot of unknowns on a project.

If you will be working alone on this then I would consider letting whoever the boss is know that you find it a bit daunting, but regardless will be trying your hardest. Being scared is more of a hinderance if you're also expending energy trying to hide it.

</comment><comment><USER5> Good luck in your role and no personal animosity but "graduating in computer science at the university of Milan" and "i've never really programmed" \- really? What on earth did your degree consist of?

<comment><AUTHOR> you're right, but i don't consider "code a calculator", "solve this math problem with java" real programming... here in italy this is the school now... lot of theory...maybe too much...</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to grow a community as a software developer? - <AUTHOR> I want to grow a community but I don't know where to start. What are the best sites in 2020 to post articles about programming, math, etc. I really appreciate any help(tips, sites, etc) you can give. <comment><USER2> So you want to grow a community of software developers? Or a community of software users?

<comment><AUTHOR> software developers

<comment><USER2> A "community" needs a place to congregate and communicate --- like Hacker News --- which you have obviously already discovered.

Build a web site to host and dispense your content and post links to it here. There aren't many web sites tbat allow you to do this as freely and openly as here. Or you could build your own alternative. Take a look at dev.lemmy.ml</comment></comment></comment>


Don't launch a company, launch an experiment - <AUTHOR> http://viniciusvacanti.com/2012/01/23/have-idea-for-a-startup-dont-launch-a-company-launch-an-experiment/

<comment><USER2> I feel like a lot of people use the term "startup" as a cover for "unbootstrappable". If your idea requires big-league success (think twitter), or is otherwise a failure, surrounding yourself with buzzwords will not escape you from reality.

My personal opinion is to make an MVP that has a revenue model from day one, and by releasing early and often grow your product while being paid to do so. If no one buys it, stop. It's not as sexy as a social media home run, but it just might make you some money without VC intervention.

<comment><USER3> The word startup really has lost all meaning. Everything is a startup now. If LOLCats launched today it would probably be called an Internet Meme Startup. More troubling however is where people have gotten this idea that you don't need to think about how to monetize something from the start. There are a ton of people out there who literally think they can just launch a website (in many cases it's just a static site, not even a useful app) and it'll magically make them money. Do they think ad revenue is generated simply by posting the ads? Do they believe that they'll start getting checks from VCs in the mail out of nowhere? Do they actually think what they saw in The Social Network was an exact reproduction of reality? What is it? Please tell me because it bugs the living hell out of me! I constantly get people asking me to build them a website that will make them money but the site they ask for is either a clone of an existing site with nothing but a name difference or they just ask for, and I swear to god this happens, "just gimme a template and I'll drag and drop the parts of my app in using (here they either mention Ms Word, Frontpage, or Dreamweaver)". Talk about a WTF moment.

<comment><USER4> LOLcats is perhaps a bad example as that guy was making $5600/m out of the gate and has grown to a 50 person company with $41M in investment.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, I do tend to use that as an example a lot. Bad example aside, what qualifies as a startup now? Internet meme sites surely gather a few bucks for their creators but is that a startup? What about affiliate links? Those guys can make a good living from affiliate links but are they startups? There's the dictionary definition and then there's the way we commonly use it which varies a bit from person to person. One thing I'm sure about though is that if it isn't built to collect cash it's not a startup. A startup is a type of business. Like Business is the class and Startup inherits business' traits along with a few that unique to it. I was always taught that a startup was a business that starts from nothing and grows faster and generates more momey in a shorter period than a traditional business.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> When I was in bschool, one of the founders of Aardvark came and gave a talk about their early days. What it boiled down to was a few super-smart guys taking EXACTLY the strategy prescribed in this article (namely getting a landing page up and manually handling the backend processes).

They eventually sold the company to Google for $50MM. Great for them. Where is Aardvark today?

I said it then and I'll say it again- experimentation is for laboratories, not for businesses. At the core of a business is a product or service that people exchange money for because it solves a problem. Too many startups set out with the mission of meeting their founders' needs (ie, quick money and fame) as opposed to any real societal needs. The irony is that if the founders worked from the consumer need backward and took a more long-term approach, their chances of success would likely go up substantially. The Lean Startup Method to me involves some mix of laziness, lack of vision, and giving up on your product and vision prematurely.

The faster your product proves viable, the easier it will be for competitors to rip it off anyway (Groupon, anyone?). You want real, sustained traction? Do the things that others are too lazy or unwilling to do because they are too hard or involve some risk.

I'm not advocating over-engineering, and it is great that development tools have progressed to the point that designers and developers can perform experiments for free while honing their skills. But to put an initial idea out there and let the public bat it around and bastardize it until it has some weird mixture of users and you don't even understand your own product is a path to nowhere. Remember- tools are merely used to complete a task. Let the task dictate the tools, and not the other way around.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is a great example and a good philosophy, but I think there is a common false belief that not having users means that there isn't a need.

I think there is a lot of social stuff going on that leads to a particular service or idea being successful. Its more about trends and social networks than people realize.

There are lots of services which are similar to very popular ones but get little traffic. Its not that their idea isn't good, its just that their service isn't popular.

I'm pretty sure that with the right marketing and social happenstance this could become a popular service and make quite a bit of Google Adwords money.

Which is not to say that the concept of an experiment is not a good one or that people should beat dead horses.

</comment><comment><USER7> I was surprised to see the experiment deemed a failure after only one week. Do most folks feel that one week is sufficient time to ascertain this? One week seems hardly enough to even start propagating a website through Google... ?

<comment><USER8> Definitely not 100% conclusive evidence. But, after sending it to our almost 1,000 friends and families and seeing just 2 urls submitted after a week, we knew it was going to be widely used. After all, these are people very motivated to try the product (or I guess they could secretly not like us...)

<comment><USER9> knew it was _NOT_ going to be widely used

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Good article as a reminder what should you focus on. That's one of my New Year's resolutions about code projects. To show something in quite early stage of development - instead of trying to get _everything_ done. Having a feedback straight away, from users that would eventually use your software, will validate your idea. Recommended to all of those who starts projects and abandon them after a while of intensive work which wasn't shown to anybody. It of course applies to small projects, or ideas to test. If you plan to start a big company, then there are other ways for validation.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is really just business 101. Outside of the tech startup world, most businesses aren't launched without significant market research. That's mostly a result of the upfront costs (huge in real-world vs. tiny in tech).

Of course, both approaches have their plusses and minuses.

<comment><USER12> It's really easy to rationalize that your business will work, and takes discipline to try and prove yourself wrong. This is something I've seen in the lean startup movement, but rarely in business.

Most of the traditional businesses I've seen launch had business plans, and their "market research" section was a bunch of untested hypothesis. Have you ever heard a banker and adviser simply state: "I've no idea if people would actually buy this. Do you have tangible proof?"

Instead, they try to sound smart by blabbering about whether they believe your total market size, growth rates, etc...

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> "Just emailing it to lots of friends and family"... Seems like this should be a part of a bigger "experiment". I'd ask friends/family before I built anything. I'm left unconvinced enough was done without more detail.

<comment><USER12> OP mentions in another comment that they sent it to 1k family and friends.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> You know why you hear of companies that just blew past xxx,000 users in no time? Because that is not what usually happens.

If you do not know what you want to work on, then test & drop as quickly as possible.

If you know what you want to work on, then my advice is to shift you thinking to 'I am in this for the next 3 years (absolute minimum)'. Commitment changes your decisions from tactical to strategic.

Building a company requires 1 ounce of skills + 4 parts of persistence + 5 parts of patience. Get married to the problem, but be willing to change the proposed solution.

<comment><USER8> That's good advice on getting married to the problem. We clearly weren't married to it.

That being said, you should still experiment on the problem you are solving as opposed to waiting for 6 months to roll something out.</comment></comment>


Magenta Studio (Beta): Music Generation Using Tensorflow - <AUTHOR> https://magenta.tensorflow.org/studio <comment><USER2> Probably not terribly related, but I wonder if it might someday be possible to hook up an EEG to your brain while supervised (user preferences feedback) machine learning plays through a variety of music and records your brain activity, and from that discover music or simple obscure rhythmic sounds that happen to be particularly pleasing in various ways to an individual.

[https://www.derivative.ca/events/2016/ThoughtForms/](https://www.derivative.ca/events/2016/ThoughtForms/)

What do the thoughtforms represent? The abstract shapes on the screen change and respond to your thoughts to detect calm, attention, excitement, anxiety and focus.

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

<comment><USER3> I think a lot of people are interested in exactly this. Alternatively, I'd be interested in simply training on heart rate or even a person physically pressing a button when they're enjoying the music.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So sweeeeet</comment>


Brazil has the power to save the Amazon rainforest, or destroy it - <AUTHOR> https://www.economist.com/node/21768176 <comment><USER2> On one hand it's horrible that Brazil and other 3rd world countries don't stop the jungle destruction, but on the other they're just doing what Europe has already done to it's own forests, so what gives us the right to moralize... very sad situation... my view is that really the West is the one that can stop it, by investing and insisting on green industries, and not doing any business with those that endanger rain forests. It's all about the money in the end, so if Brazil (and people in power) can make a lot more money from preserving rainforest than from cutting them, then lots of people in power will be incentivized to protect them. Otherwise, as any politicians, they'll try to please their voters and sponsors first.

<comment><USER3> It's not about poor people trying to make a living. It's about rich people trying to get even more rich.

Wood, Soybeans and Cattle. The agricultural industry is behind this.

<comment><USER4> ^ This! Perfect. The glorious agrobusiness keeps boasting how great they are to Brazilian economy. Well, for more of the usual (huge inequity, deforestation, the largest use of agrotoxics in the world and everything on the package - terrible education, almost exclusively extractive economy, a militar police that ranks among the most lethal in the world...), yes, that's the way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The rest of the world has the power to force Brazil to save the Amazon. Stop importing soy and beef from Brazil, tie tariffs directly to satellite-based measurements of rainforest area.

<comment><USER6> Or you could pay Brasil to stop destroying it. That's something the current president, as insidious as he might be, is correct about. Why does Brasil have to suffer alone for the world's lungs? If the world benefits the world should pay.

<comment><USER7> Even brazilian breath oxygen.

What "suffering" has the rest of the world done to brazil ?

<comment><USER8> I will give you one example: 338 years of forced slavery.

<comment><USER9> Colonialism/Mercantilism by: Portugal, England, U.S.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The Amazon still has a long way to go. At the moment, the Cerrado (tropical savanna) region is probably in more danger.

In the Mato Grosso Region, it is cut down in order to make way for soy. In Goias, there are plans to build dams in areas of preservation.

This is the region where my favorite animal lives: the maned wolf.

These places are also quite dry and the Amazon produces the humidity they need. Without the Amazon, the Southeast will become a lot drier. So Brazilians themselves ought worry about it.

<comment><USER11> The amazon does not have a long way to go. There is still much of it left but scientists believe that at some point between 20% and 30% deforastation there could be a turning point with irreversible changes to rainfall patterns that would turn most of the amazon rainforrest into a savanna.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Seems to me that if the Amazon collapses we all lose. Why not sanction Brazil? Or at least put together an international coalition / treaty to buy the Amazon and other rainforests and protect them?

Stopping buying from Brazil won't halt the internal markets purchasing of beef and soy, which as I am aware makes up the majority of the land usage.

<comment><USER13> I find it incredible how people are eager to protect the environment in other people's countries before taking a deep look in-house. Suggesting to buy a strategically important area of Brazil under the umbrella of saving the world is just purely naive or hypocrite. China and US are the main contributors to global warming. Not even the Amazon as it currently stands can keep up with that. Shouldn't we apply sanctions to both of these countries then? Or form a coalition to buy Wyoming (the state with the highest CO2 emissions per capita) e.g., since it is in the interest of the world? If the Amazon rainforest does not belong to Brazil, then why do the natural oil reserves in Texas or Alaska belong to the US?

Just to clarify, I am not pro bringing down the Amazon rainforest, only raising the flag on the tendency to outsource responsibility when it comes to the environment.

<comment><USER5> I'm reasonably sure that there is a large overlap of people who are in favor of buying the Amazon from Brazil and protecting it and people who want drastic measures to reduce GHG emissions in their own countries and a carbon tax with tariffs on imports from countries that don't have an equivalent system.

<comment><USER14> "Buying the Amazon from Brazil and protecting it" shows how little you foreigners understand of our country. It's a huge amount of land that is mostly unoccupied. There are serious concerns that smaller rogue countries will pop up in certain parts of it led by local militias. If we want Brazil to remain as one country then the first thing needed to do is to actually be present in a lot of this territory, and that won't happen if the majority of it can't be economically exploited in any way, especially in a country like Brazil where a fair number of the population, especially in the northeast and north regions, are extremely poor. Like any issue related to global warming, it's a little more complicated than people think.

<comment><USER5> Personally, I think preserving the rain forest is more important than Brazil remaining a single country.

<comment><USER15> Personally, I think reducing CO2 emissions is more important than USA or China remaining single countries. Which is why I'm in favor of external pressure, for example in the form of trade sanctions.

<comment><USER16> That's a delusional stance to take. You want the US and china to reduce GHG's? That's great! You want Brazil to stop deforestation? Also great! You insist on using the same kind of pressure to achieve both goals? Uhh... that's absurd, and just won't work.

Pressuring Brazil via trade might work; especially since it's simply not in Brazil's own (medium to long term) economic interests to deforest.

Pressuring the US and china via trade will simply not work. Who is going to do that pressuring, exactly? The EU is busy trying to stave off collapse and infighting, most of africa has more pressing matters than picking fights with superpowers, Russia and other fossil fuel exporters have strong interests is keeping GHG emissions high at least for a while... so... india, maybe? Yeah, right.

Avoiding deforestation is a good idea regardless of what others do with respects to GHG emissions. Hurting yourself and others because life isn't fair enough is ridiculously short sighted. And you know, maybe you could think of other ways to coax china and the US to reduce GHG emissions. At least china isn't run by self-delusional maniacs, so maybe you can get them on board, and then maybe you can pressure the US _with_ china. Or maybe the US miraculously cures its own partisan infighting and decides to be rational and less self destructive, and can help with china. But waiting for their leadership to do anything while whining that life is unfair sounds like a pretty bad idea right about now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> There are some relevant information that must be taken in consideration.

Brazil has about 66.3% of its overall land in a "reserved/protected" state, which is protected by law.

Source: [https://agroecologia.org.br/2019/01/14/censo-agropecuario- de...](https://agroecologia.org.br/2019/01/14/censo-agropecuario-desautoriza- pesquisa-da-embrapa-sobre-a-preservacao-da-vegetacao-nativa-nos-imoveis- rurais/)

This is over 631 million hectares of land destined for preservation, Equivalent to 48 European countries COMBINED.

Amazon is not just IN BRAZIL, but spans over 9 nations.

No, I am not saying that's a "green light" for full on deforestation nor I am saying that Brazil is doing a the most fantastic job preserving it.

What I am saying is that Brazil IS doing something to preserve the Amazon AND other forest land such as "Serra do Mar" and that a coalition of funds/resources could help improve enforcement of the law in these Protected areas. This much more "attainable" or acceptable by the current Brazilian government, which is currently very nationalist and patriotic. (President is retired Army captain, very right wing)

Brazil would not part/sell with a piece of its national sovereign territory to anyone, even if it's for a "greater good", just as US would not sell the Tongass forest in Alaska or the Humboldt-Toiyabe in California/Nevada "for greater good"

Every country has it's share in controlling carbon emissions and global warming. No country should "outsource" their share of responsibility by enforcing environmental protection standards they are not willing to withhold themselves.

TL;DR: Brazil has some protections in place, could use some help, would not sell the Amazon because it's part/territory of Brazil and 8 other countries.

Full disclosure: Brazilian by birth, American by choice

<comment><USER18> There may be some protections in place, but President Jair Bolsonaro just forced scientist Ricardo Galvão to resign from the National Space Research Agency for having the audacity to report an 88% annual increase in deforestation in satellite data. The President called the numbers a lie.

One can understand how this attitude undermines the integrity of the reserve.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The fall of the rainforest in 100 years or so is a certainty at this point, as well as the temperature rising over 2 degrees.

There is no way that world politicians and governments are going to move in time to prevent this, because it would take unpopular and easily attackable measures to prevent that.

If some government tries to heavily tax beef, there is going to be a riot, and those politicians would be putting a target on their backs for attacks by populists.

There is no way, it all happens slowly, much slower than the electoral cycle, the politicians in charge are usually seeking personal glory and long mandates, these measures would mean political suicide.

12 years is the time we have to prevent the rise of 2 degrees, its not hapening its as good as done.

<comment><USER20> > There is no way that world politicians and governments are going to move in > time to prevent this, because it would take unpopular and easily attackable > measures to prevent that.

I increasingly view demands for coordination as counterproductive. There will _never_ be full consensus about _anything_.

Meanwhile, if e.g. California imposed a carbon tax on its own, would it destroy them? No, people wouldn't stop living in California just because it became more economical to install solar panels or buy a Nissan Leaf rather than a Toyota. And a market of even that size that went hard for fossil fuel alternatives would both show others that it can be done and create an economic advantage for itself by getting ahead of the curve and causing the companies implementing what must be the future for everyone as businesses inside their jurisdiction.

> If some government tries to heavily tax beef, there is going to be a riot, > and those politicians would be putting a target on their backs for attacks > by populists.

The answer is to make it revenue neutral and distribute the money as a cash dividend to the population. Then people whinge about the tax and love the credit and it cancels out across the population -- exactly cancels out, because that's what revenue neutral means. But you still get the consumer preference for things that don't destroy the world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> And the last piece of Hambacher Forest in Germany is also facing eradication, by a mining company. The German government is silent on the matter: [https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48931062](https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48931062)

It's time to stop fighting these wars on their respective front lines, and aggressively pursue the responsible ministers, executives and shareholders.

</comment><comment><USER22> Our economy doesn't factor in the negative externalities, the damage to the environment done for the sake of making a profit.

If we did factor in those costs, if we put a value on the Amazon as the lungs of the world, then it would be more profitable to preserve it than to destroy it.

A carbon tax is a bipartisan solution to this problem. Factor in the negative externalities, and pay a dividend to places that provide a global, environmental service by protecting their forests.

</comment><comment><USER23> I was wondering - what would happen if Beef and Soybeans were import-taxed in the US at an absurd rate, say 300%? Then, all cattle farming will have to occur in the US, thus needing no deforestation to grow meat.

<comment><USER24> China is one of the biggest consumers of soy grown in Brazil.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> The only problem for the Amazon rainforest is high birth rates in Brazil and in the rest of the world. If high birth rates continue, then there will be no more rainforest, I can assure you.

<comment><USER26> Brazil's fertility rate is somewhere between France and Germany.

<comment><USER27> This. I must admit that I had similar thoughts to u/boyadjian about the world's population. A few months ago I read the book Factfulness, which turned my world view upside down.

Particularly on the point of fertility, the best we can do is help the final billion people that currently live in extreme poverty. This causes the transition from large families and high mortality rate to 2-child families with low mortality, independent of religion or anything else. We are almost there, except for that last 13%.

The population explosion we have seen in the last century is due to the transition, where people got large families and suddenly none of the children died before they could get children of their own. The projection from the UN is that the population increase will stop around the year 2100 and top off at about 12 billion. That's a lot of people, but there is no reasonable alternative: nobody will stand for killing even one billion people, let alone the multiple billions that would make a significant difference in humanity's footprint. For perspective, to kill one billion, you would have to kill _everyone_ currently alive in both north and south America. We can't let Africa starve to death (most of them aren't starving to death anymore anyway), so withholding vaccines or development aid won't prevent those four extra billion people from coming into the world, either.

We need to continue to support countries to make the transition as fast as possible. Even if it is a big risk to try and live with 12 billion people on this planet, that is the only way forward that people will support, and so it is our only option.

By the way, if anyone else would like a copy of Factfulness, I think the book is hugely important to read for _everyone_. If you think the price is too steep, I would be happy to pay 50% of your copy. (I would say 100%, but people abuse stuff that is free, and it's not expensive anyway.) I can also share a preview of the book to help you decide whether you should buy a copy or not.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Reccommended reading to get up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture - <AUTHOR> A friend of mine just got offered a top executive position at a tech startup and is in culture shock. In his own words "there are these rooms full of kids and I can't understand what they're saying, and the valuations - they don't add up...", etc. etc. "What am I missing here?"
This guy needs to get up to speed fast on startups, product management, engineering, hacker culture and so on after a lifetime of hierarchical command and control in the financial services industry. What are the most concise and illuminating introductory texts I can refer him to?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> I've been looking for an _entrepreneur book list_ for a long time too. I'm not nearly as experienced as your friend, so my books may be too basic.

\- Start here: [http://www.ycombinator.com/resources/](http://www.ycombinator.com/resources/) There are many wonderful articles written by Graham himself.

\- _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_ , Steve Blank.

\- _The Art of the Start_ , Guy Kawasaki.

\- _The Startup Owner 's Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company_, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf.

\- _Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future_ , Peter Thiel.

\- _ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever_ , Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

\- I haven't read the _Founders at work_ series yet, but everyone seems to find it very valuable.

<comment><USER3> Aren't the two books by Steve Blank listed here mostly the same, content wise? I haven't read the Four Steps book, but in The Startup Owner's Manual, Steve Blank mentions it as being a successor, I think.

Obviously, someone who's actually read both could comment better than I.

<comment><USER4> I've read both and I wouldn't recommend The Four Steps since the second book came out. However, it is still very good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Saying " _Hacker /Startup culture_" is a little like saying " _C /C++_" – they are not the same and should not be conflated. Actually, it's more like saying " _Lisp /Java_" – many people are enamored by the latter and thinks that the former is very similar, but it is in fact only similar in some superficial ways, and completely different in design, values, and style.

<comment><USER6> That may be true however, you have to cut the poster a little slack. He did post this on _Hacker News_ which is run by the YCombinator, possibly the most prestigious _startup_ incubator out there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Culture shock is really bad news for a new position or a new hire. It's very difficult to change culture. Your friend needs to be a leader, not someone who is catching up. It's probably not the right place for him to be.

<comment><USER8> This is an excellent answer.

Not because it's probably true (it's as likely the asker's friend has as much to contribute from a different background as they have to learn for their new situation) but because they're likely to hear more of this from people who'd prefer to occupy an echo chamber, so it's probably best to get a certain thick skin up now.

<comment><USER7> It's really hard to parse your tone from your comment, but you seem to be implying that people who think like me are A) wrong and B) advocates of homogeneous, exclusive cultures at companies.

I know about the studies showing that diversity is beneficial, and I've seen it anecdotally in my own career.

But "culture differences" are _not_ the same as having no idea what your coworkers are talking about (which OP mentioned).

There are many instances where big corporate culture and startup culture clash. Those two environments operate very differently, and if you've spent your whole career in one, it's very hard to switch to the other. It has nothing to do with diversity. (Those studies were about race and gender.)

<comment><USER9> I agree that his tone is a bit hard to parse, but i think he AGREES with you, no?

>this is an excellent answer

I thought he was just adding to your answer that OP's friend is much likely to hear the same from his new colleagues who probably just want someone like them at the head. So he'd need a thick skin to survive

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Uh... major red flag imo. I recommend your friend stays put and finds a way to slowly tiptoe into startuplandia. The job offer he got sounds like it isn't a good fit in a lot of ways.

Some companies are crazier than others... a lot crazier.

</comment><comment><USER11> Not knowing much about him, let's throw a bunch of things at the wall and see what sticks:

\- [https://model-view-culture.myshopify.com/products/your- start...](https://model-view-culture.myshopify.com/products/your-startup-is- broken)

\- [https://modelviewculture.com/](https://modelviewculture.com/)

\- Something by Don Reinertsen, maybe The Principles of Product Development Flow, maybe something else.

\- Valve Employee Handbook [http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.p...](http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf)

\- [http://thinkrelevance.com/how-we-work](http://thinkrelevance.com/how-we- work)

\- Ries, The Lean Startup

All of these sources hide lots of dysfunction, so as always take them with a grain of salt. Take Ricardo Semler's fun books. In one of his Harvard Business School lectures, he mentioned how his books are artificially optimistic, because publishers want to sell more books.

</comment><comment><USER12> "How Google Works" by Eric Schmidt is a good place to start.

A bigger question is why was he brought in? Does he need to do a turnaround? Has something gone badly wrong?

What stage are they at? Is there a user base? Do they pay, or is this ad based? Who's the competition? What do you have that they don't? First look at the business from a user perspective, then the technology used to service it. If they're not doing something technically hard, the technology end is about keeping the users happy, scaling and not screwing up.

</comment><comment><USER13> I really liked _The Lean Startup_ by Eric Ries - it's very opinionated (in a good way) about what a startup is and how they are rather different from "normal" companies.

All I need to do now is invent a time machine to send it to myself 20 years ago... :-)

It's also very prescriptive about the activities a startup management team should be focusing on which I suspect is a great place to start if you are coming into a new team in a leadership role.

</comment><comment><USER14> "A friend of mine ..."

</comment><comment><USER15> About culture: [http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker- howto.html](http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html) [http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html) [http://blog.codinghorror.com/](http://blog.codinghorror.com/) And reading random comments on: [https://news.ycombinator.com/best](https://news.ycombinator.com/best) and [https://news.ycombinator.com/news](https://news.ycombinator.com/news) .

</comment><comment><USER16> The question I'd ask him is how he's felt about the lifetime of command and control? If he's always been the guy who kept trying to change things, adjusting to a startup is going to be a matter of helping him understand how to best have an impact (and get used to the fact that people will actually appreciate and support his efforts). If he's the guy who followed the handbook, he's in for a much bigger shock.

For me, I've been bouncing off the walls for 12 years in a large bureaucracy. Reading Eric Ries's Lean Startup and finding Paul's blog was like drinking water for the first time. I hope he has the same experience.

</comment><comment><USER17> An unconventional one, but important: Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

It's 20 years old, and dated in terms of technology but a good overview of valley culture in the mid 90's.

</comment><comment><USER18> Paul Graham (YC/HN founder) has some good essays on startup/hacker culture. [http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html)

[http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html) is probably the one that had the biggest impact on me and is sort of a manifesto for startups.

<comment><USER19> I second Paul Grahams essays. Paul has written a lot of essays. They are all pretty interesting to read, and they have some great information in them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> In the non-fiction sphere they could do worse than to read:

\- _Snow Crash_ by Neal Stephenson

\- _Neuromancer_ by William Gibson

Both books have had a huge impact on hacker culture, as well as doing a good job of documenting it. They will convey aspects of the culture that more traditional startup books can't convey - hacker language, attitude, motivation etc.

They are both great reads too.

</comment><comment><USER21> Get them to signup on Y Combinator's How to Start a Startup ([https://startupclass.co/](https://startupclass.co/)) and watch the videos. Might get them up to speed faster than going through a list of books. However, Red_Tarsius did offer a very good list of titles.

</comment><comment><USER22> Ricardo Semler - Maverick is a good one for non heirarchal approaches. The AES case study of holarchy is v interesting. Swombat's blog (easily findable!) is a trove of material on startups and moving from corporate to startup, as are the Granttree and Escape The City blogs.

</comment><comment><USER23> [http://www.hn-books.com/](http://www.hn-books.com/)

</comment><comment><USER24> He should fake it until he make's it. At least pretend not to be culture shocked.

</comment><comment><USER25> Pfft, no love for "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries yet? Love that book.

</comment><comment><USER26> Suspect valuations are the concern here IMO. This would be a big red flag for me, while the culture shock would be a distant second.

</comment><comment><USER27> Getting up to speed on Hacker/Startup culture is more about doing than about reading, so go ahead and do it.

</comment><comment><USER28> The "Silicon Valley" TV show :P

</comment><comment><USER29> Hacker culture: "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution"[1] and "In the Beginning was the Command Line"[2]

Startup culture: [http://www.wired.com/2014/04/no- exit/](http://www.wired.com/2014/04/no-exit/)

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution)

[2]: [http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html](http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html)</comment>


Ask HN: I'm stuck yet motivated, but Lost Help? (Career Decisions) - <AUTHOR>

Hello, HN. I am not sure how to phrase my question appropriately, so I am just going to do the best I can here.
Basically, I am 27, one course shy from a degree in economics(diagnosed in 2008 with cancer). I have a passion to want understand programming, but no formal training. I am recovering from cancer again (2011 AML) and have several months-to-years (depending on how my GVHD goes) to build up some form of knowledge for a career.
If you had several months-to-years to learn something in programming, what would it be?
I know I am asking a question that only I can answer for myself. However, I need experienced people who have gone the miles and can tell me what it really takes to undergo learning on your own, and then converting that into a job.
If you could have what I have now, what would you pick and where would you go with it? <comment><USER2> How much programming have you learned so far?

There are a lot of free resources available online:

        http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194812/list-of-freely-available-programming-books
        http://www.khanacademy.org/#computer-science
        http://www.codecademy.com

Attending local meetups is a great way to network and perhaps find a job. You can find them here: <http://www.meetup.com/>. You can also google for "* User Group" like "Python User Group" or "Ruby User Group".

Many startups love it when you apply for a job with example code. If there's a company you like with a public API, try building something with it and send it in with a resume.

<comment><AUTHOR> I know a good amount of how basic programming works. I have written some apps in javascript(albeit very simple), simple simple stuff in python and java, when I was learning them.

I feel like I would be a waste of a person at a meetup since my skills are seriously just entry level.

I looked at codeacademy for a while. If I had the cash and didn't have a wife and 10 month old son I would move to Chicago in a heartbeat and do this.

<comment><USER3> codecademy.com NOT codeacademy.com.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Since you have a background in economics you may go for business intelligence or financial software. For BI you need knowledge of databases (SQL, stored procedures, data warehousing), Java EE, familiarity with BI suites (Oracle, SAP). For financial software it's a long term commitment, you need to master advanced data structures and algorithms (tree, graphs, networks, linear programming, dynamic programming, numeric methods), some AI topics (data mining, machine learning), statistical modelling (the math behind it, R language), low level programming (C/C++, memory management, multithreading, interprocess communication). The reward is proportional to the effort (higher entry barrier means bigger gain), so you can do CMS tweakings for lower and fragmented returns, or work on more serious systems for higher paychecks and job security.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you work in fields similar to these? I am willing to dive into any field as right now my resume is a bunch of entry level skills, and I have the time to spend reading books and learning on my own.

What are some examples of a business intelligence software?

<comment><USER4> BI solutions help companies retreive and analyze key data related to their business processes, and generate reports. What you do is implement and deploy custom solutions for your client's specific needs, and you make use of a BI suite or another (libraries and tools to handle data and dynamically generate reports or other forms of data visualization). There are proprietary BI suites, most notable form Oracle, SAP, Salesforce, and there are also open source suites, like JasperReports, Pentaho, SpagoBI (I reccomend you JasperReports). I don't develop business software myself, but my company offers consultancy and implementations of such solutions.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting. Thanks for your comments and replies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Some resources: peepcode.com (not free) youtube or itunes videos of cs classes, e.g. Stanford's CS106X

For me what's worked best has been to read a book or two on a language and immediately start using the language on a problem I hope to solve. This works really well for languages like Ruby, Python, JavaScript, where there's lots of additional online help available on blog posts, stackoverflow etc. The online help is great when you get stuck on a bug or on a part of the language you didn't read about.

I would suggest building to learn. Find a pain in your life and build a solution for it. It doesn't have to be a big pain; it could be something trivial but you should have some sort of vested interest in a successful completion.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER5> Perhaps you should start from a goal and work backwards? Is there something in particular that you'd like to build, create, or work on?

<comment><AUTHOR> I have many ideas. I really probably should just pick one and a technology and just do it. Thanks for your comment.

<comment><USER5> Which idea are you leaning towards?

<comment><AUTHOR> I have an idea for a baby application, that my wife would use, so I assume other mothers would use it as well.

I also worked at a major call center, and man their applications were awful, the during of the time I worked there I sent in major improvements and most were implemented. I imagine there are other places just as bad that could use some good note-taking software about the support call.

Basically, I have a hard time when I dive in because it's not just one language, it's the language, a framework, and a front-end. It's just so much at once, that I get overwhelmed and stuck.

I have been considering just sticking to python, and doing nothing but building little apps that run in console, like start with tic-tac-toe, then AI for tic-tac-toe, then checkers, then AI, and so on. So that I don't have to deal with a framework immediately.

What other users have said is very interesting as well. I could combine my degree in econ with some cs skills and make a decent application(no ideas here though).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Data structures, and algorithms.

<comment><AUTHOR> What language, and where do I start? Do I just build algorithms that do things and post my results on a blog?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Personal anecdote, FWIW. Not intended as "advice" (and please don't read in any assumptions about you):

I'm not really a hacker, though along the way I learned a little (x)html and css. I had a serious, lengthy health crisis of my own. During that time, I ended up starting some websites though I knew absolutely nothing about such things when it all began. Some of those sites still persist, others fell by the wayside. Natural selection kind of determined what got developed more and what got abandoned. I got a certificate in GIS in something like 2002 (IIRC). I was still very ill and on a lot of medication. After completing my certificate, my resume had a high call back rate but I kept tanking the interview. (I was basically higher than a kite from all my meds and it showed.) I even interviewed for an internship with a national lab but didn't get that either. I didn't manage to get a job until 2006, in an unrelated field having nothing to do with any of my training or career goals. I just needed a job because I was going through a divorce and still needed to eat.

Recovering my health took me a very long time, longer than I really expected so I was often frustrated by that. I was also frustrated at feeling underemployed but also proud that I managed to keep working while getting well. My health has made a dramatic leap forward recently and I am now doing more with some of my own projects. I learn what is relevant to the needs of my personal projects and whatever gets support, organically, from people who are genuinely interested in furthering the things I do. I believe someday my side projects will become more than mere side projects. Over the years, I've learned more than I sometimes realize. I still feel like I know nothing. My side projects have given me personal satisfaction under difficult circumstances but have not really paid-off, career-wise. I expect big changes in the not too distant future in terms of being able to pursue a career more seriously rather than just stay afloat with a day-job. In the mean time, what I learned while getting well was how to really live. It keeps my priorities straight and keeps me from making myself too crazy about what I feel is a relatively low level of accomplishment career-wise.

Peace and good journey. Best of luck in everything.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for what you say here, glad you are going further in your journey. I too have many many skills but only at the entry level area, so my resume is just a mess.</comment></comment>


Are you getting your money's worth out of Netflix? - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/personal-tech/65447/are-you-getting-your-moneys-worth-out-netflix Netflix feels like a good value to me, but is it really? FeedFlix.com measures your Netflix activity and crunches the numbers for you. I'm actually paying $5/rental due to my habit of leaving disks laying around for weeks. Hmm. <comment><USER2> You might be able to get a larger sample size by polling the audience of a related board, I can recommend movie-fan sites. You can also try GetSatisfaction or do the usual google fight with "netflix rocks" vs "netflix sucks".

Good luck!</comment>


Show HN: Read – Between the Lines app for reading faster using peripheral vision - <AUTHOR> http://readbetweenthelines.app <comment><AUTHOR> For more, please read this intro: [https://medium.com/chronstruct/introducing- read-6419825807af](https://medium.com/chronstruct/introducing- read-6419825807af)</comment>


DevOps tools review for DataCenter automation: Ansible-StackStorm-SaltStack - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@anthonypjshaw/ansible-v-s-salt-saltstack-v-s-stackstorm-3d8f57149368 <comment><USER2> I've used Puppet, Ansible and Salt. While they get the job done, they all suck in a myriad of ways. They're slow, brittle, have bad documentation (I'm probably being cynical, but Puppet, Ansible and Salt all seem to have been created as consulting companies first and software second; they _thrive_ on the inadequacy of their documentation).

One problem with the "post-Puppet/Chef" generation of tools is the over- reliance of templatized YAML as a DSL. Salt's use of YAML is particularly egregrious. For all the criticisms of Puppet's custom language, at least it's a _language_ , with proper types, a consistent syntax, and a good measure of strictness. I like YAML as configuration file language, but it's _terrible_ for DSLs.

<comment><USER3> I'm surprised to see this particular criticism applied across the board – Puppet's documentation is one of my favorite things about it.

<comment><USER2> Admittedly, Puppet's documentation is better than it used to be; I've been using it since 1.x, and it used to be a lot worse. However, it's still a bit tedious to browse through.

The weakest part has always finding reference documentation — that is, things like this [1]. Everything is a bit buried and scattered. At least they finally have a complete list of configuration settings [2] now, which used to be a huge pain.

[1] [https://docs.puppet.com/puppet/4.10/types/file.html](https://docs.puppet.com/puppet/4.10/types/file.html)

[2] [https://docs.puppet.com/puppet/4.10/configuration.html](https://docs.puppet.com/puppet/4.10/configuration.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "If you're going to skip to the end and see which I declared the winner- you will be disappointed. Consider your requirements and try more than 1 of these products." \--- truer words have not been spoken

</comment><comment><USER5> Regardless of tools, I see two features as essential: agentless clients + programmable dsl. As far as I know, no such tool exists (would love to be proven wrong).

Ansible relies on SSH only, which is pretty much a must on 99,9% servers anyway, but its language (and philosophy) is purely declarative. At the moment you need anything generic, abstracted into functions, you are in trouble. (Believe me, you don't want to be hacking stuff into Yaml, it's a mess).

Chef is the opposite: you have access to a Turing complete language, but you need an overly complex server architecture along with running agents on all nodes.

Merge Ansible's ssh client with Chef's programmable dsl and you probably have something huge there.

<comment><USER6> Have you tried salt-ssh?

You can use the other renderers in there as well, you don't have to just use yaml.

[https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/renderers/all/salt....](https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/renderers/all/salt.renderers.pydsl.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have used Puppet, Ansible, Saltstack and Chef. In the beggining using puppet was annoying because you had to explicitly declare all dependencies or Puppet would do things in the wrong order. This has since the latest versions of Puppet been fixed.

Ansible is good but it has already been forked to Stonic, which for me is a sign of disagreement in the community.

A lot of the management tools tends to have their config agents crashing so you need to baby sit your agents instead of just configuring your servers. I tend to use Puppet, Ansible standalone pulling the configuration templates via git that avoids the crashing agents issue.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm a little bit surprised to see StackStorm directly compared to Ansible and SaltStack. There's certainly overlap in capabilities, but in my mental model of the space Ansible and Salt are primarily configuration management, while StackStorm focuses on event-based orchestration.

In my environment we're using both Salt and StackStorm very effectively. Salt for CM and StackStorm as a platform for building automated, event-driven tools. They're really very complementary, especially since both are Python- based.

<comment><USER9> The overlap of capabilities is between StackStorm and Salt -- the later has many orchestration capabilities. For event driven ops it can even be used alone. I don't want to say that one is better than the other, but this comparison does not surprise me at all.

As a friend (big Ansible fan otherwise) would say: "Ansible is just a glorified bash script; nothing more, nothing else". Without making it a bad product, Ansible is that one limited to CM only.

<comment><USER10> StackStorm developer here and I definitely am writing this as an engineer. We in fact use ansible for our own infra where we deploy a bunch of StackStorm nodes. Our CI CD pipeline, staging tests and packages promotion all are driven via StackStorm workflows. We also spin new environments on every merge commit to master (results in OS packages which are then deployed to a box) and have built sophisticated automation with StackStorm workflows. Every time I use Ansible, I cannot get over the fact that it is bash in Python. Our API driven approach, chatops, declarative when needed with workflows and ability to be imperative (write python code) for actions etc are things I really love. We are learning from all of the other tools ourselves but I also hope we are setting trends in workflow orchestration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have done extensive work with both Salt and Stackstorm, and am surprised they don't see wider uptake, especially Stackstorm. Stackstorm is a brilliant system.

</comment><comment><USER12> Puppet vs Salt/Ansible is old story, they're compared as applied to config management.

Anthony is bringing a different angle here: how Salt / Ansible / StackStorm compare as event driven frameworks, applied to all-purpose automation, aka GLUE. Puppet/Chef aren't even playing.

Do you see this relevant? Or do you think "Salt beacons, who cares?" Why?

</comment><comment><USER13> So this isn't a complete picture for complete datacenter automation. you need something that handles server turnup from the minute it's racked and creating images for those servers.

cobbler used to be the go-to tool for provisioning bare metal but rackhd seems to be the new contender in this space. that + packer + terraform + CM = 100% automated DCops</comment>


Why I'm writing a 16-bit Windows Emulator - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@CantabileApp/win3mu-part-1-why-im-writing-a-16-bit-windows-emulator-2eae946c935d#.6z0h9j3es <comment><USER2> Sounds interesting. I wonder how much you can simply thunk your stub 16-bit DLLs to Win32 inplementations, so please, keep sharing.

Similar approach might be a way out for running Alpha/MIPS/PowerPC NT 4.0 binaries.</comment>


local database for iPhone? - <AUTHOR> local database for iPhone?<p>Is there a way to have a local database in iphone which can be updated through REST API or remote database ? <comment><USER2> Certainly.

You can use either sqlite or core data (though core data isn't really a database).

In my own current project I started with core data but am now converting to sqlite.

hth.</comment>


Guitar Hero Live goes offline in December, making 92% of songs unplayable - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/guitar-hero-live-goes-offline-in-december-making-92-of-songs-unplayable/ <comment><USER2> Anyone else think that products should require large warning labels explaining what parts of them will completely stop working with no recourse when the provider devices to pull the plug on services?

<comment><USER3> Yes. Or at least any warning labels about it.

Also, for stuff like the songs in Guitar Hero Live, a company should be held more to task by the consumers to provide a way to download the content you purchased and play it locally before turning off the servers.

Players should punish companies like EA for not providing this and not buy the next software they release. Although I know from past crap EA has pulled, that's not likely to happen here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is why I'm not a fan of the heavier and heavier online focus in many modern video games. They're becoming more and more reliant on services that'll inevitably be shut down at some point, and take a large portion of the original game with it.

That was bad enough with MMORPGs and other online only titles, but yeah, it's becoming an issue with many more too.

</comment><comment><USER5> For those familiar with Freeman's mind, the author also publishes Ross's game Dungeon. He has discussed this issue at some length across a few of his videos. Well worth a watch.

<comment><USER6> Could you post some links?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> ...dammit.

Well, at least I have Rock Band too.

<comment><USER8> ...for now.

<comment><USER9> > Contrast that with the Rock Band series and its still-growing selection of > more than 2,000 DLC songs. Even when some of those songs are removed from > the store for licensing issues, the downloaded versions can still be played > on the original hardware and instruments. Even better, I can still play > downloaded and on-disc songs from the original 2007 Rock Band release on the > updated version of Rock Band 4 to this very day.

But maybe only until your hard disk dies (I'm not clear if you can re-download songs that you purchased before they were removed from the store?).</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Amnesia for Twitter deletes tweets more than N days old - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jmathai/amnesia <comment><USER2> No offence, but this tool has so much friction for achieving a task so simple that you'd be better off doing it manually.

<comment><USER3> For the initial clean-up, you don't want to be doing it manually, especially if you have lots of tweets to delete because Twitter makes it a really tedious task.

There are online tools that do just this, without the need to download anything, but then you have to trust a 3rd party app.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would love something similar for Facebook...

<comment><USER5> If you have a Mac you can use AppleScript to delete things programmatically by simulating clicking in Safari.

I also found this upon a quick search, no idea if it is fully functioning: [https://github.com/IonicaBizau/reset-your-facebook- account](https://github.com/IonicaBizau/reset-your-facebook-account)</comment></comment>


Taking Emotions Out of Our Schools  - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/taking-emotions-out-of-our-schools.html

<comment><USER2> This brings up an interesting debate. It's very difficult (perhaps impossible) to turn off personal emotions, and we entrust our children to other people to teach them. The emotions, intelligence, and beliefs of our teachers directly affect what our children learn. Perhaps we shouldn't be teaching emotional subjects in school, and instead focusing on the tools needed to understand them. Leave the emotional upbringing to the parents. On the other hand, I personally know a lot of people that didn't read at home when they were kids, and if the only way they're going to be exposed to literature is at school, then we should provide that opportunity. A difficult quandary.

In my classes in high school, we spent an awful lot of time on literature. I wish we had spent more time on grammar instead. I can speak at length about Holden Caulfield, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what a past participle is (note: going off to Wikipedia now to find out).</comment>


High-Resolution Image Inpainting Using Multi-Scale Neural Patch Synthesis - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/leehomyc/High-Res-Neural-Inpainting <comment><USER2> See also the PatchMatch algorithm [1] (which doesn't use neural networks but performs remarkably well)

[1] [http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/patchmatch....](http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/patchmatch.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is so cool, really glad its available in open source. Can imagine a lot of fun uses for it!

<comment><USER4> Would be useful for removing image watermarks

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It'd be awesome if it were available on a hosted server just to check a few examples.

This is not my area of expertise so I won't be able to install and train the models given time constraints, but I could give it a shot with a few images of my own.</comment>


China and India Exploit Icy Energy Reserves - <AUTHOR> http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,523178,00.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Summary: There is a lot of very accessible methane hydrate in frozen form off the coasts of India and China. Carbon dioxide can displace the methane in the ice. As a non-technical article I don't entirely trust it, but it does seem like there is a way to extract energy from the ocean floor while safely and permanently storing our CO2 below the ocean floor.</comment>