Kim Dotcom's Mega 3, with Bitcoin. Two bad ideas that go worse together - <AUTHOR> http://rocknerd.co.uk/2016/08/10/kim-dotcoms-mega-3-with-bitcoin-two-bad-ideas-that-go-worse-together/ <comment><USER2> One of the most sensible pieces I've read about either subject.

<comment><USER3> Strange definition of "sensible" you've got there. It read more like a petulant teenager's froth-lipped rant, to me.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to Find a Developer Job with a Felony?  - <AUTHOR> Background: In 2011, I was arrested for violating the CFAA (I found that Sylint Corporation [usinfosec.com] was running a very out-of-date and publicly vulnerable DotNetNuke for the Infragard Tampa Bay website and raised the alarm publicly, and well, they didn't quite appreciate that) and sentenced to probation in 2012. I'm currently in a period of limbo following the end of the contract portion of a temp-to-perm gig, and I've been trying to find something a little more certain.
I live in Orlando, FL, and I never have the opportunity to speak with a company directly. Instead, everyone outsources their talent acquisition to IT recruiters/headhunters that, as a third party, refuse to represent me to prospective employers because of this blemish on my record. The recruiters' oligarchy on the job openings in the area have created a sort of impenetrable barrier. (Ironically, many of the recruiters I have spoken with are from all over the country.)
So what should someone in my situation do? What's the best way to find a company in Orlando that hires directly? <comment><USER2> I hate to say it, but maybe you should tone it down a little bit on your Twitter account. People are always going to Google your name when your resume comes in. Odds are they're going to find your Twitter account. Odds are they're going to find tweets like "Seriously tempted upload a sql.tar.gz that's just an archive full of obscene furry porn from the deepest trenches of fchan's /ah/ board."

If I was an employer and I saw a job applicant tweet something like that, their resume would immediately go in the shredder.

Think about it from the employer's point of view: "What happens if this guy is disgruntled with us for some reason? Is he going to joke about something that'll embarrass us? Maybe he'll turn our website into an archive of obscene furry porn?" Given you're tweeting things like that, why would I hire you?

(and yes, I know that that tweet's referring to the previous "HEAD /passwords.txt" tweet, but it's incredibly easy to take things out of context on the internets)

<comment><USER3> I've spent about 10 minutes reading articles from OP and I have to say he comes across poorly. To be very blunt, OP you come across as a jerk. The funny thing is I'm naturally sympathetic - I don't think what you did is even a crime! For examples:

[https://scott.arciszewski.me/blog/2014/03/black-and- white-26...](https://scott.arciszewski.me/blog/2014/03/black-and- white-2600-article)

 _The total "intrusion" lasted only 23 minutes, according to court documents._

I'd be concerned if someone intruded into my computer for 23 seconds. Attempting to minimize what you're accused of with statements like this will likely turn people against you.

 _As usual, the game was rigged, and I lost_

Sometimes introspection allows us to see that we legitimately lose; that things aren't always rigged against us. It also lets us see that our attitude can be our own worst enemy.

 _My last semester was erased (which screwed up my taxes for the next year and is probably illegal)_

"Woe is me" doesn't play well when you are experiencing the negative consequences of having committed an alleged crime. Also don't accuse others of illegal activities unless you can prove them; it destroys your credibility.

 _For the digital equivalent of knocking on someone 's front door, it swinging ajar, looking in, seeing nobody home, going on my way, and then being put on house arrest_

Again, you're minimizing what you did. A more apt analogy based on your own description of what you did would be coming up to a locked door, seeing it is Brand X locks, purposely seeking out an exploit on how to pick Brand X locks, spending time picking the lock and then broadcasting to the world what you did.

I could go on, but the summary is that being a humble and contrite person will often allow a guilty person to go off scot-free. When I was arrested for hacking, that's what happened to me and I was literally let go with no record. On the flip side, rightly or wrongly coming across with a negative attitude can help an innocent person go to jail. Fair or not, that's the world we live in.

<comment><USER4> "runner up: Not using Tor, an overseas VPN, or an SSH tunnel when I knew how" wasn't a particularly great thing to say here.

<comment><AUTHOR> The number one response I hear from infosec people (which was the intended audience of 2600) was, "Dude, you should've used a proxy!" I recognize that failing to do so was reckless and stupid.

<comment><AUTHOR> @danielweber: I think it's very easy to misconstrue what I'm saying for "I regret getting caught". My point is that I knew how to hide, but didn't, so anyone who calls me stupid for not doing so is correct. Poor risk management.

<comment><USER4> No, I'm saying it was a bad idea to talk about what you did wrong to get caught. It creates the perception that you think exploiting flaws in someone's site without permission wasn't the big thing you did wrong.

Which, you can believe that or not, but in terms of mitigating risks perceived by employers, not creating that impression should be your #1 priority.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The only companies that have ever cared about running background checks in this industry in my personal experience have been the likes of Microsoft and Genentech--giant corporations (on contract--not sure about their 'full-time' hiring policies). Everywhere else I've worked, both contract and full-time (quite a few places) have not cared. Perhaps you can target small to medium companies. Especially startups (if that's your thing) don't care too much about such frivolities. This comes form working mainly in the Bay Area, however.

Speaking of which, if a recruiter is unwilling to work with you, stop talking to them. Recruiters are dime a dozen. When one drops out, ten pop up. There is no need to deal with the bad ones (almost all of them). I've noticed this in the Bay Area, Austin, Portland, and Seattle. I'm sure it's no different in Orlando. Basically, don't tell them about your past. They don't need to know anyway. Just ask about the hiring process and decline if it includes a background check. There's no need to be honest with recruiters. Seriously, if I had to guess, I'd say there are at least ten recruiters for every engineer, designer, etc.

Now, if you need help getting in touch with more recruiters that's very simple. Use dice, linkedin, stackoverflow careers, or whatever. Just post your resume up and make sure your availability date is in the near future. You may want to use a separate email (and maybe even phone number) just for this as it's guaranteed to get recruiter's attention and offers (oftentimes referred to as recruiter spam).

<comment><USER6> >> the likes of Microsoft and Genentech--giant corporations

I've found a lot of smaller companies (5-40 people) have owners who are careful to not hire people with criminal backgrounds. I'm assuming they don't want someone who's potentially a danger to other employees or customers, or capable of committing theft on their premises.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I was convicted of nearly the same offense over 10 years ago. Actually, I live in the same area and was prosecuted by the same exact attorney. I spent nearly $50,000 setting the precedent that allowed you to serve your six months in home detention rather than actual federal prison. You're welcome :).

First of all, you need to shift your story. You make it sound like you were persecuted for white hat actions. You weren't. You made a mistake, you learned a lot from it, you've changed, and nothing like that will ever happen again. That's your story. Write a letter of explanation and get some friends to review it. You should include the fact that you were never in prison and if you're able to pay restitution, make sure to explain that. Keep that letter handy and include it whenever you apply.

As for jobs, I've been able to stay employed by networking through friends. I doubt you'll be able to find and hold any IT job found through recruiters or job postings. Network like crazy. Get to as many Meetups as you can, visit hackerspaces (like FamiLAB), go to CodeCamp, BarCamp, startup events, etc. and volunteer to help with lots of things. Become that super-helpful guy that will do anything to make stuff work.

Anyone that hires or contracts you needs to know up front that they're going to have to deal with your probation officer. Mine actually visited my office and talked to my boss in person. It is possible to somewhat shield yourself with layers. Like if you have a friend running a consulting company, become a contractor or employee of his and he knows about your conviction and assumes the risk, but if he doesn't inform end customers, your probation office may be fine with that.

You can also go indie and build stuff. Apps, Wordpress themes, anything that can go on Kickstarter, ebooks, affiliate marketing websites, etc. All that direct-to-consumer stuff was great for survival-level income while I was recovering.

Check my comment history for other advice on this topic. I only use this account for posts like this.

<comment><USER7> I was going to suggest that you do some SEO work on your name but I don't know if it's possible to bury all that news coverage. I was able to bury mine with a mountain of other content but yours got more coverage. Eventually maybe you can push that stuff off the first page of results and present a better view of yourself to anyone that searches.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, that would probably help tremendously as well.

<comment><USER7> It's hard to believe now, but some day this will all fade. I go days and weeks without even remembering that I'm a convicted federal felon. Today I only really think about it when I'm volunteering somewhere and it's time for a background check, when I think about travelling to Canada, or when I see a firearm I wish I could own. I've passed a half-dozen background checks and been able to volunteer without a problem, I think I could travel to Canada now but there's a chance they would deny me, but I doubt I'll ever get firearm ownership rights back.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Obligatory link to Jason Calcanis's "Why I Emplyed a Felon", from 2009:

[http://calacanis.com/2009/03/05/why-i-employed-a- felon/](http://calacanis.com/2009/03/05/why-i-employed-a-felon/)

\-----

Excerpt:

> However, Mark screwed up by not doing a simple Google search on John's name. > If Mark had, he would have easily found out about these crimes, we would > never have hired John, and I would not be writing this letter. Why would we > even take the risk of hiring a felon hacker? No one would, right?

Months after John's hiring, our VP of Operations found out about the crimes John had committed. We sat down with John and learned about what he did when he was younger, how he was abused as a child, his anger issues, and how he found some level of peace in being part of the team at Mahalo.

Now I was left with the decision to fire John on the spot and cut my losses and responsibility. This was the easy choice, obviously. If I really wanted to cover my butt, I could turn on one of my best friends, Mark Jeffrey, and fire him for making the only mistake he's ever made working for me. The other option was to keep John on and deal with the potential firestorm of criticism that we're now facing.

I chose to put my job and reputation on the line and keep John employed.

At this moment, I'm honestly glad we didn't know about what John did when we hired him and I'm happy we've kept him on board. It's taught me a lot about society, computer crime and rehabilitation. In John, I see almost every computer programmer from my time "hacking" on BBSes as a kid, attending hacker conferences and hiring "white hat" hackers for a living.

Almost all talented developers push the envelope when they're young. Anyone in technology knows this dark, dirty little secret

\</comment><comment>

<comment><USER4> There's not much to learn from Calacanis' story, unfortunately.

Scott Arciszewski's story is very sympathetic. He crossed an invisible (and very poorly understood) line in poking at websites for security flaws. He made a mistake that's very easy to understand, and, while I don't share his politics, it's straightforward to see how someone could get caught up in the moment --- in this case the original Assange drama --- and find themselves in a perfect storm of legal drama. Scott barely "pushed the envelope" at all, and appears to have just been very unlucky.

Calacanis' employee is much less sympathetic. He was convicted of running a botnet and, IIRC, using it to steal money from victims. That employee was put into a role where he was given access to the authentication information of thousands of users. Calacanis' employee didn't "push the envelope". He tore it open, took the money from inside it, and passed some of it out to his friends.

Be careful about false equivalences. The comparison you're making here is very unfair to Arciszewski.

<comment><USER8> I didn't mean to imply equivalence between the two employees, but just giving one (well-known, and perhaps not widely applicable) example of an employer's mindset on this. Though the fact that Calcanis is a more public figure (and thus subject to more scrutiny by the press), and his employee had more egregiously stepped over the line, seems to be a scenario in which a hire of a felon was less likely than the scenario the OP faces.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Assuming the terms of your sentence aren't like Mitnick's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick#Arrest.2C_convict...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick#Arrest.2C_conviction.2C_and_incarceration) (where he wasn't allowed to be near a computer for a period of time after he got out of prison)

"I live in Orlando, FL, and I never have the opportunity to speak with a company directly". I don't think you're trying hard enough. This kind of 'all or nothing' thinking doesn't help you.

Get involved with other developers in the community. Go to some toastmasters meetings to polish your face-to-face social skills. Don't mention your felony unless you're asked about it. Remove it from your resume if you've put it there. If and when you are asked about it, clearly explain that it was you trying to act in good faith to protect the interests of the Tampa Bay website.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't have any restrictions on my computer use, not even in regards to encryption or virtual machines.

Thanks for the suggestions.

<comment><USER7> Do you still have to provide all of your email addresses to your PO every month? That sucked, especially on a hand-written form.

<comment><AUTHOR> My probation officer only ever requested one email address from me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Considering the list of crimes that one could commit to receive a Felony, I'd say you probably have one of the best ones when it comes to your profession; one that could actually complement your experience record. So chin up.

<comment><USER11> While what he was convicted of is fairly minor from the details given, the felony question on an application generally looks like this: Have you ever been convicted of a Felony? [ ]Yes [ ]No

Its hard to explain it if you are only given an 'X' to answer it.

<comment> jack-r-abbit Every one that I have seen has a follow up: _If yes, please explain._ But maybe that is more to do with location. As noted by another HNer, we're not as concerned about that in the SF Bay Area.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Please put your contact information and skill set in your profile. Are you available for working remotely?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure thing. And yes, I am.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> > raised the alarm publicly, and well, they didn't quite appreciate that

You might want to start by adjusting your perspective. A quick Google search suggests you found the exploit and notified @lulzsec (a hacker group). Whether or not that is "true" makes no difference, as it is the "Google" truth.

Saying, "I was young, dumb, wanted attention, and made a huge mistake" is much better than "they didn't quite appreciate that".

<comment><AUTHOR> Alright, I'll take that into consideration.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've never been convicted of a crime, but have friends who have, and while I haven't dug into their career issues, my understanding is that none of them have been prevented from working in technology as a result of background checks.

I think your felony conviction isn't your worst problem. Your worst problem is that you're trying to get jobs in Orlando and using recruiters to do it. Both of these are bad strategies. Working with recruiters is the bigger mistake.

It is almost certainly not true that recruiters maintain an "oligarchy" over tech jobs in Orlando. All things being equal, hiring managers would rather not rely on recruiters to fill positions, because recruiters are very expensive. It may be the case that it's hard to get a job from online job ads in Orlando without working with recruiters, but job ads are not the best way to find jobs anyways.

Here are some thoughts (grain of salt; I'm not you, and you know more about your situation than I do):

1\. You're in the hottest market for tech talent that I've seen in my whole career. That could change tomorrow, and eventually, after some number of "tomorrows", _will_ change. When that happens, your criminal record could suddenly become a much bigger problem than it is now. So I'd move quickly to find a full-time role and to start establishing a career track record. The longer you maintain full-time employment with established firms, the less relevant your background becomes.

2\. I urge you to cast a wider net than Orlando. You don't necessarily have to move to get a job that isn't based out of central Florida. But you're also quite young; if you don't have a very good reason to stay there, consider finding a job in a larger metro area --- Austin, Atlanta, DC --- and moving for awhile. I left Chicago for SF early in my career and eventually moved back, and while I don't love SF, I'm glad for the experience of trying it out.

3\. Stop working through recruiters. Recruiters are bad news for developers even without a criminal record. But when you understand how most recruiters work, transactionally, like real estate agents, you can see that any potential obstacle to placing you is going to make you disproportionately less lucrative in their business model.

4\. I think you'll find that most software companies aren't particularly rigorous with background checks. If you're not trying to land a role where a CFAA conviction is relevant, I don't think you're obligated to bring your background up.

5\. The best way to find a company that hires directly is to simply assume that they will _all_ hire directly, if you find the right person to talk to. Two things you can do right away: first, make a list of tech companies in your region and start finding people you can grab coffee with, and second, start showing up at meetups and asking people about their jobs, what they're working on, and what they like about the jobs. One thing you're going to find out quickly is that employees in tech shops are usually incentivized to help recruit people. By talking to them about working at their company, you're often doing them a favor, by setting them up to collect 4-5 figure bonuses.

So: Act as if your conviction is not a problem. Start looking outside Orlando, which might be problematic even for developers without criminal records. Stop trying to work through recruiters. Assume every company hires directly. Make a list of companies you might want to work for in your area and start finding people who work there to talk to. Show up at meetups and make conversation with people about their jobs, and see where things go from there.

There are going to be jobs where a criminal conviction is a roadblock (unfortunately, many jobs in my field are like that; consulting clients, for instance, all tend to background check consultants; another place you'll have trouble is finance). But my guess is that the majority of dev jobs are _not_ like that.

<comment><USER14> Another quick tip: whenever you see a job posting that doesn't mention the company by name, google some of the sentences used in the posting - often, you'll find the company the recruiter is trying to hire for, and often they'll have a direct www.some-company.com/jobs page where you can apply directly.

<comment><USER15> This used to be a peeve of mine... that recruiters were so lazy that they would just cut-and-paste the job description and hope to hook a nice commission off of an applicant.

Now I treat it as a job-lead generator.

<comment><USER14> In their defense, why would they not do that? If the job description is already written up and looks good, why re-write it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> If mthreat's around he can give you some feedback on this. (He did 5 years) Honestly this really isn't a big deal and IMHO you should be talking to companies directly. Avoid larger corps and anywhere you require clearance. Other than that the world's your oyster. I run an infosec business and I can tell you that having done a little time is a badge of honor in some circles.

My suggestion: Hit defcon in August in Vegas and network your ass off. Use your friends and their friends to get a job, not recruiters. Also start demonstrating that you've cleaned up your act by continuing infosec research and doing a few responsible disclosures. Showing that you've matured and have a track record of working with vendors to responsibly disclose vulnerabilities is a huge mark in your favor.

Also ping me personally at mmaunder at gmail so I have your info - send your resume and what you're after and examples of some of your work.

<comment><USER17> (mthreat here, on my not banned HN account)

The OP said he's on probation. The most important thing is to complete the probation successfully (i.e., don't violate it and go to jail). Once he's finished probation, he may be able to get it removed from his record, or probation may not count as a "conviction" at all. I'm not sure how it works in Florida, but he should ask his lawyer about it. Never assume it's stuck on your (OP's) record forever.

That said, even with a conviction for the kind of crime you describe, it shouldn't hold him back. My conviction did keep me from working at places like IBM (I was actually hired, but then unhired when they found out I had a conviction). So I went to work with startups, worked with really cool & smart people, and made about 100 times as much money as I would have made at IBM. Even if your record keeps you from 20% of the jobs, that leaves 80%.

<comment><USER7> It's a federal felony. There's only one way to expunge that, a Presidential pardon. It's a long process and kind of a long shot. I haven't even applied for mine.

He should definitely apply for his rights restoration when eligible. I got mine done. Florida isn't currently restoring firearm ownership rights but that's good to get done if they ever start doing it again.

<comment><AUTHOR> I doubt the current administration would do that for me. :P

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> My $0.02: Hiring typically follows the path of least resistance. Every hiring decision I've ever witnessed went something like this:

"We need somebody with [insert some skillset]. Do we know of anybody?"

This would routinely be followed by a flailing search that would involve job boards, dead-end interviews, and eventually settling on a hire that may or may not work out.

I couldn't agree more with tptacek's advice: do not use recruiters. They tend to have very tenuous understanding of their clients' needs, and their clients don't want to use them, anyway. They would love to fill their open positions quickly with talented people, but due to day-to-day responsibilities, don't have the bandwidth to handle these relationships.

So the fastest way to get hired in my experience, would be to inject yourself in that process between the decision-makers and the jobs they need filled.

I don't think asking people to coffee is _necessarily_ the most effective way to do this, since a lot of people you might like to talk to and would like to hire you are short on time. So my advice would be to cultivate relationships with people at any level at companies you might like to work at. I say any level because the decision-makers routinely ask developers if they know anybody who could fill the position. So attend meetups, or better-yet, start a meetup or ask companies you might like to work at if you could come in and teach a free lunch and learn on topic X. Very few would turn down a free training session for their employees.

Good luck! BTW, I don't think the felony makes a difference unless you are going for a job that requires clearance.

</comment><comment><USER19> Just approach companies directly, your 'crime' if you can call it that was more the mistake of Sylint Corporation, not yours. Employers will understand that good people in our industry tend to be 'curious' and will want to work _with_ your skills etc :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, that's more-or-less what my plan is, but I'm not sure where to find companies that are hiring.

<comment><USER20> You don't necessarily have to find companies that are openly hiring. You can look for interesting companies and contact them directly. The failure rate would be high, but it's a starting point.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, that's a good point that I hadn't considered. Thanks :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Akamai and Citrix have some job openings in the Fort Lauderdale area, with Akamai specifically looking for people with your background. If you're stuck in FL, that's probably your best bet.

Orlando isn't so great for tech jobs -- though Disney is actively hiring. The FLL/Miami area long ago had a huge IBM and Harris presence, which resulted in a handful of tech companies having some sort of presence in the area.

</comment><comment> bjelkeman-again Personally I would go to some open data/software/wiki/something or another meetup and find fellow developers. They will know where the jobs are and will find out that you are a person, not some statistic or piece of paper that can be rejected out of hand. Somewhere there is a good job for you too.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep, I've been doing that. I'm going to FossetCon in September. I've been attending user groups and meet-ups in the area, but mostly to learn stuff and make friends. I tried to attend the local 2600 meetings, but every time I went nobody showed up. (And it's a rather far bike ride from where I live.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> If you can move to SF, for a little while at least, you'll find a white-hot job market, especially in security, and background checks aren't so big here. (Was this responsible disclosure, tho?)

Email me if you can move to the Bay Area

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately, due to family matters, I'm stuck in Florida for at least the next year.

<comment><USER23> You might consider continuing with contract jobs for a year, and then seeking opportunities elsewhere once you have the option.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Check out Collegis in Maitland. Not that far away.

[http://www.collegiseducation.com/careers/](http://www.collegiseducation.com/careers/)

</comment><comment><USER25> Stop talking to third-party recruiters. If you have a LinkedIn account, or resumes posted on any job boards, you will get more spam from them than you will ever need regarding job leads.

But should you be so foolish as to respond, you will find that you have to do twice as much work to get to the person who can say yes, and they will wind up giving some of your money to someone else. And the recruiter is so desperately afraid of getting cut out that they will hide information from you and from the employer, or even lie outright. And that can bite you later.

Every company out there is fully capable of hiring a person that will add to their profits without paying someone else to do it. The key is to find the person that can say yes and talk to them, without the flappers and gatekeepers interposing themselves.

The only companies that will make a preemptive strike based on a background check are required to do so by contract or by government regulations, mostly to protect against data breaches. Banks, companies with access to medical records, and defense contractors, mostly.

The greatest strike against you is not, in fact, your felony. It is that you are a whistleblower that embarrassed your employer. You can explain that your felony was a result of choosing between breaking the law and violating your own ethics, and get some understanding there, but the instant they discover that you cost a former employer any significant amount of money for lawyers and PR firms, you will be judged "not a good fit for this position".

EDIT: OP was not employed by Sylint, so I guess this is not quite so bad.

Companies work with recruiters because they would rather touch that sleaze and clean it off later than to manage their own bozo filters. There is nothing particularly special about what they do--they are specialist salesmen. Their value lies in knowing a bare minimum about their product (you), and in knowing how to sell a pig in a poke to someone with a vague taste for bacon, or perhaps a ham sandwich. In short, they know who is hiring, or who might be soon.

But this month, everyone is hiring, or at least willing to consider it. First, drive around an office park near your home, writing down the names of companies. Next, find websites for those companies. If you can't find a website, you don't necessarily need to cross it off your list. The first thing any tech person would do is get their company a domain name and static home page with minimal business information. Those companies won't hire you, but they might be willing to do a consulting contract with you to get their name and logo on the web.

For the rest, check to see if they have a jobs and careers section, where you can apply directly. That's just to see what they really need today. The more non-tech people they hire now, the more tech people they will need to support them. What you are really searching for is direct contact information for one or more technical middle managers, and the CTO, CIO, or COO of the company. This information is often available just by cold-calling the main business number for the company and asking for it. I know a person who had a job doing just that, except it was for the printing and paper industry.

Once you know who has the authority to hire, call that person and try to determine if they have any immediate need for tech people. If they do, try to find out what skills they would need to have. You are now doing exactly the same thing most recruiters are doing. Go down your whole list, and apply directly to the companies that are hiring, with the person who has the authority to say yes. If you can somehow manufacture a social link to that person, your chances will improve dramatically.

If you never speak directly with someone who can hire you, you will never be hired. It's that simple.

<comment><AUTHOR> "It is that you are a whistleblower that embarrassed your employer."

To clarify: I was not employed at Sylint. I was a bored college student at UCF at the time.

Everything else: Thank you. :D</comment></comment>


Heavy Stuff - <AUTHOR> https://popula.com/2018/07/18/ingredients-lead/ <comment><USER2> I remember learning about leaded gasoline and how poisonous it is. Not used (much) in cars anymore but still used in small aircraft.

I'm reminded of this everytime a plane like that lifts up from the runway that's just a few miles away...

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting article and really highlights how stupid we are as a society to keep destroying ourselves with this stuff.

The writing style was distracting though. I enjoyed it but felt guilty for doing so because it felt too indulgent for lack of a better word.

</comment><comment><USER4> I recommend reading Elephant in the Brain which points out human's capacity for self deception. One example is the idea that we see ourselves as caring about our health. The truth is that we like to signal that we care about our health to others for a variety of social reasons, but in practice our actions show that we care a lot less then we actually believe.</comment>


Edward Snowden: How Your Cell Phone Spies on You - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU <comment><USER2> For those interested in a privacy focused phone, Pine64 still has preorder PinePhones available: [https://store.pine64.org/?product=pinephone-braveheart- limit...](https://store.pine64.org/?product=pinephone-braveheart-limited- edition-linux-smartphone-for-early-adaptor)

It has privacy switches for the microphone, camera, bluetooth, and LTE. It also supports open source mobile operating systems.

<comment><USER3> While Pine64 phone is promising, it does not remove all the proprietary blobs. For those who need even more freedom and privacy, Librem 5 should be more suitable: [https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/](https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/)

<comment><USER4> I don't think the Librem 5 removes all the binary blobs either, right? From what I can tell, they're nearly identical right now in that regard, though I trust Purism to actually work on removing blobs, so maybe long term they're a better option. But AFAIK, neither has completely unlocked the bootloader or the modem, and I'm not sure about WiFi/Bluetooth.

<comment><USER3> They do remove all binary blobs at least by the definition of the Free Software Foundation, who already recommed it:.

"The Purism Librem 5 cell phone is another exciting addition to the Giving Guide this year: we're giving it a tentative recommendation because the company has publicly committed to doing the right things for prioritizing user freedom and privacy."

[https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ethical-tech-giving- guid...](https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/ethical-tech-giving-guide- freedom-is-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Impossible at Home - <AUTHOR> https://impossiblefoods.com/recipes/ <comment><USER2> impossible for me to have at home because i never have time to cook...</comment>


YOU ARE THE ROBOTS Human Automation Is the Future – And It Is Dangerous - <AUTHOR> http://thelongandshort.org/machines/automation-and-the-future-of-personal-finance <comment><USER2> I think this is kinda poorly written and it needlessly focuses on the financial industry.

But, it's a good article about an important topic:

> _A robotic system may actually be constituted by an algorithmic 'mind' that > coordinates a 'body' of people, like Uber drivers acting out the will of > their invisible algo-boss._

It seems to me that this is what "software is eating the world" really means.

</comment><comment><USER3> Of all the kinds of automation you could choose to argue against ...

There will always be a need for people lending money to have salespeople, loan adjudicators etc. But interacting with the teller is only necessary (or enjoyable) for certain demographics. For most people it is no fun to wait in line to get your $100 while the tellers chat away ("quill and pen" indeed).

As far as the cashless society goes, I reckon the effect on the poor would/will be far worse than the effect on consumers of retail banking services.</comment>


Uber CFO is stepping down after less than two years - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-cfo-brent-callinicos-steps-down-memo-says-1426539354

<comment><USER2> Is there a way to read it without subscribe or log in?

<comment><USER3> Try: [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fuber- cfo-brent-callinicos-steps-down-memo- says-1426539354&ei=h2oHVZTuF47ooASepYDoDw&usg=AFQjCNHDYMfCNJHAyweY9vMTwpIhQcsQhQ&sig2=768Z3rJbMFzEyRugx1IGcg&bvm=bv.88528373,bs.1,d.cGU&cad=rja)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What do you use to take notes? - <AUTHOR> I use Notational Velocity for my notes and I love the ease of use but I'd like something that will allow me to share a note with a client and also has code highlighting. And image uploads. I want to be able to upload screenshots. I looked around but can't find anything that's a mix of Evernote, Wunderlist and GitHub Gists. What do you HN people recommend? <comment><USER2> Paper in big binder.

I've tried for very long to find a good electronic solution. Up to and including writing my own wiki with various extensions customised to my diting style, and hunting around for every note taking app under the sun.

The problem, I find, is that nothing beats the flexibility of being able to take out multiple sheets of paper and move them around, annotate them, put them back in. It creates a flexibility in workflow no tool I've tried have managed to match.

The physical presence of the paper also makes it much easier to avoid forgetting a page exists.

I'm not happy with it, but I keep coming back to it after each desperate attempt at making something else work better.

<comment><USER3> I do all my thinking on paper, but I have a large blocker at the moment: indexing my notes. Have you found a good solution for this?

<comment><USER4> My non-novel solution - number every other page, and keep a few pages up in the front as an index. Topic on the left, and a list of page numbers on the right. Requires some effort to maintain, but it seems to work pretty well for me. Familiarity with the index pages counters the need for any sorting.

<comment><USER5> Rather than leaving pages blank up front (a guestimate), I fill my index up from the back. Literally the last page is the first page of the index and I work towards the front from there. No risk of running out of room in the index, or finding that I didn't need 5 pages when 2 would have done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Somebody's going to mention org-mode and it may as well be me. HTML export with syntax highlighting is a nice thing to have, and images linked to the document work like they should. Having code blocks be executable is a bonus, especially for showing technically minded clients or higher-ups exactly how their intentions were translated into reality.

Evernote it is not: The sharing story is pretty BYOB, in that what you get out is an HTML (or whatever other format) document, and sharing it, whether readonly or not, is on you. There's document publishing functionality, but it requires some setup and an upstream host that can take files via FTP/SFTP/etc. Same goes for syncing, if that's something you want; Dropbox works for me, and there are many alternatives.

Your use case sounds like it would require some tooling around org-mode to achieve. If you want something that does what you need straight out of the box, it probably won't make you happy. But you asked what we use to take notes, and for me that's org-mode; the things it does well are many, some of them unique in my experience, and that makes it worth my while to invest effort in adding the occasional capability I want which doesn't exist by default.

(And for meetings where people are touchy about laptops, or realtime capture on a call, I have a clipboard and a paper tablet. But it's ephemeral; anything needing kept goes straight into an org file at the earliest opportunity.)

<comment><USER7> Org mode enables you to "program" a document which is really amazing. It's closer to python notebooks than a note taking device. You need real discipline to keep it readable.

Long term Org mode needs a rethink to more fully realized programming + writing.

Short term it needs some work on document sharing, mobile editing, all that.

I use Org mode for large docs, google docs for quick notes, google sheets for TODOs, pad/pen google photos for quick notes and recording of those notes.

This is a mess really.

<comment><USER6> > It's closer to python notebooks than a note taking device.

It's both, and not limited to Python. What mix of capabilities you use in a given document is up to you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Workflowy. It's the lowest-friction tool I have used for notes and ideas. Using tags, it can be used as a great hierarchical project/task management system.

I still use Evernote for quick storage and access of images, pdfs and long- form notes as the search is great. However, their tag/notebook organisation system has annoying redundencies and is clunky in places. I would love to bin it but can't find a suitable alternative. Bear is promising but not quite there. Apple notes doesn't allow linking between notes.

<comment><USER9> Workflowy has organized my life and brought some order to my brain in a way that is invaluable to me. If only the put a bit more effort into the product... literally nothing has changed in the past 3 years. not a single feature! I could excuse them if the mobile apps were good enough, but that is not the case at all.

<comment><USER10> Check out Dynalist - [https://dynalist.io/](https://dynalist.io/)

It's "Workflowy that hasn't stalled out"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> To answer the question in the title, much as I love computers, nothing beats the flexibility and carefree nature of paper. I can draw diagrams, block out pseudocode, etc.

I've thought about maybe a Surface would be nice for that, but haven't really tried it.

I think you'll have best luck with multiple tools like you're doing now.

<comment><USER12> I've tried the surface for note taking. It was a lovely experience, especially the pen in OneNote, but nothing beats paper. Lighter, thinner, more flexible, cheap, no lag, doesn't need batteries etc. No vendor lock in.

Surface / pen only had the edge in that you can mark up a doc and send it to someone a lot faster than printing, marking and scanning

However, I'm often faster at writing with a keyboard, and I use onenote in text only mode every day

<comment><USER11> Also, the only reasons I'd need backups for paper documents are disasters that would also ruin my drives

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I recently built a ultra-simple tool for exactly this: [https://github.com/pimterry/notes](https://github.com/pimterry/notes)

Keeps notes as markdown organised by folder on disk, delegates syncing to whatever you're already using for everything else (Dropbox, Seafile), and just provides a minimal flexible command-line interface over the top to search them, explore through them, and edit them with any editor you like.

The tool itself is tiny, but with this I get everything that EverNote used to give me, none of the lock-in or painful web UI, and I can get at it from any other device too (by just editing them in Dropbox from anywhere).

Note sharing: Dropbox already does that. Code highlighting: your editor (probably) already does that. Image uploads = putting an image in a folder. Keep it simple.

</comment><comment><USER14> Disclaimer: I'm the creator but I use Wall of Text: [http://walloftext.co](http://walloftext.co)

It's an infinite blank space of text in 2D. Also see the beta: [https://beta.walloftext.co](https://beta.walloftext.co)

<comment><USER15> Do you support tex? Because if so it'd be great.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I use Google Keep. It's simple and has an acceptable Android app and web interface. It also accomodates image notes.

I don't think you'll find a notes application that has code highlighting, but perhaps I'm wrong...

<comment><USER17> Google Keep user here as well. It has few things that makes it perfectly fit into what I need:

\- simple to do lists

\- create notes with the phone's camera (I usually do this when taking a photo of a whiteboard)

\- audio recording and transcribing: I can just say my note and Google Keep will make a text out of it with an attached audio recording

\- sharing: this makes my life sooo much easier. I have one note taking app I can use for business, for sharing shopping lists with my wife, house chores with my kids, etc. When Google Keep came out first it was way too simple, but I can hardly imagine my life these days without it.

<comment><USER18> I'd recommend ZimWiki [http://www.zim-wiki.org/](http://www.zim-wiki.org/) \- a desktop app. Keep can't keep up with lots of notes :-)

ZW is speedy, portable, and extendable.

<comment><USER16> I actually use ZimWiki as well, but more as a personal blog for technical stuff to refer back to, not as a day-to-day notes app.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I've been a fan of the concept of Quiver ([http://happenapps.com/#quiver](http://happenapps.com/#quiver)) for a long time, but unable to use it daily as it is Mac only.

I love the idea of having different notebooks, being able to easily merge text, code, mathematics and images into one note, and make 'cookbooks' out of them.

Someone make it for Windows please.

<comment><USER20> I've been considering building my own Quiver-inspired tool, in part because I'm a bit concerned at the lack of updates, in part because there are a few itches I would like scratched, and in part because of the Mac-only situation.

I might at some point, in which case I'll look up your comment, but the main reason I'm holding off is that it's quite a bit of work in a market that strikes me as rather oversaturated...

Then again sometimes the best reason to start a project is to scratch an itch, and always thinking in terms of 'useful' is a surefire way to suck all the fun out of life. Hmm...

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Tried many different ways, usually falling back to using pen and paper. However, it limited me in the way that I couldn't search and sometimes I forgot my notebook, leading to me not finding what I wanted.

So in the end I wrote my own static wiki generator (QuickWiki: [https://github.com/VictorBjelkholm/quickwiki](https://github.com/VictorBjelkholm/quickwiki)). It basically takes a folder full of markdown files, automatic links to other pages and generates a static website (that looks something like this: [https://victorbjelkholm.github.io/quickwiki/home/](https://victorbjelkholm.github.io/quickwiki/home/) )

</comment><comment><USER22> I have an action point from a meeting I'll borrow a scrap of paper and a pen off someone else, do it as soon as I'm out of the meeting, then bin it.

Apart from that I haven't taken a note for the last 3 or 4 years. I had stacks of unsearchable notebooks with near-unintelligible scrawl in them, and rather than improving/indexing my note-taking I just gave up on it, reasoning that if I had gotten away with bad note-taking for 15 years then I could probably get away with none at all.

Turned out I was right. Without having notes as a crutch I end up concentrating harder on understanding and remembering on what people are saying. YMMV but it works well for me

</comment><comment><USER23> PAPER!!! I have tried lots of electronic things, and programs. And there is still one unbeatable: paper. With pen, pencils, and fountain pens.

Bullet journal is also worth checking,however I don't feel like we love each other.

</comment><comment><USER24> Vimwiki + your fav' git hosting with markdown/html-pages support.

Git + Vimwiki setup:

[https://jarvistmoorefrost.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/snippet-c...](https://jarvistmoorefrost.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/snippet- console-diary-vimwiki-now-with-more-git-autohooks/amp/)

<comment><USER15> I've been trying vim wiki but I keep getting weird errors with tex and it seems there is no support on github.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Google Keep matches most of your requirements and it's what I use personally.

It makes it really easy to tag, organize, share and with the archive feature you can get todo list functionality.

<comment><USER26> Google's nasty habit of dropping projects that are not core keeps me from trying and using a lot of their stuff.

<comment><USER25> I thought the same way, but luckily Keep has a way to export everything to HTML.

In the worst case scenario you could export all of your notes to an easy to read format and start importing it to a new system.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Meetings and information I will need to reference: One Note backed up to a network drive. It's got a nice integration with Outlook meetings, lets me start a note with info about time, date, subject of meeting, location of meeting and participants present. I also keep a password-protected file with non critical passwords here, but don't tell anyone.

Day-to-day sketches and TODO's and little note lists: I keep a spiral note book next to my keyboard. I'm a leftie so it's upside down. I use the blue Pilot Drawing pens in various thicknesses. They dry instantly, so no ink smudges. Nice.

In addition to these I keep a day-to-day diary in .txt documents on my computer, I just open them in Sublime text or vim and make a new one every month. I try to just write four or five lines about what I've done every day as well as what I need to do tomorrow.

<comment><USER28> This is just about as close to how I handle most note taking currently.

You can't beat computers for quick searching and Onenote is both "GUI" enough to be friendly to people I have to share with and also does all those other things you mention. (Plus a lot of other cool stuff.)

I also use Sublime/vim in a similar way you mention, although I tend to use that as "RAM" in the sense that I don't save my snippets -- if they're not important enough to document elsewhere then if something really bad were to happen where (at least in Sublime) if a non-saved tab didn't show up at start automatically "oh well". (I've never had that happen though.)

Where I'm failing lately is any kind of physical pen/paper note taking since just the feel of that is great so I've added that into my TODO's of 2017. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I've started using Laverna([http://Laverna.cc](http://Laverna.cc)) recently. Its a note management app built completely in Javascript and is serverless(except for storage, which is via your own dropbox), so I can host it on github pages/ AWS S3.

It has a convenient Markdown editor with live previews, sorting notes by notebooks, and has web and mobile versions. The notes are stored in dropbox and your browser's local storage, also they have imports and exports for backup.

Also its completely opensource and I can be sure that theres no snooping on my notes.

<comment><USER30> I tried laverna some years ago (early development stage) but it was very unstable.

What about now ? It is reliable ?

<comment><USER31> Unfortunately, no. Tried it few days ago, after Evernote privacy policy change. Still very unstable. I switched to SimpleNote instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> When I used to use Windows, I used OneNote[0] a lot! (I had over 20 notebooks with multiple sections and pages in each section).

I loved it!

However, recently I've moved to linux for my daily computing needs and I have yet to find something to fill a void.

I'm using notion.so[1] for most notes and paper for hand written stuff.

It's sad that in 2016, there's no nexus type tablet running android (with updates) that has pen support :/

[0] - [https://www.onenote.com/](https://www.onenote.com/)

[1] - [https://www.notion.so/](https://www.notion.so/)

</comment><comment><USER33> For formal meetings I use pen and paper. For some specific activities I do where I can't take notes during the activity I use a voice recorder to take notes immediately afterwords. If I'm sitting at my computer (like on a phone call) I use org-capture. If I'm out and about and I just need to jot something down I use the google inbox reminder on my phone. I did have a livescribe (a pen that records audio while writing, synchronized to the place in your paper notes), it was really neat, especially if I was both conducting a meeting and taking action items. The downside was it was a little awkward to tell people every time the meeting ran that you were recording it. But it did that job well. I have used One Note for a while, it's pretty neat but the lack of a clean way to archive notes like org mode has was really a show stopper for me. For me at least having a couple of different ways works best. The small hand held voice recorder is surprisingly handy. The pain is transcribing them although recently I simply copy the files to my computer and link to them in org-mode. For group meetings I also liked used to use a white board and the camera on my phone, although I don't have need for this myself anymore. I would really recommend not getting stuck on one technique for all situations, but use different things that work better in different situations. The key is having one system to put it all together, and for me at least that's org mode.

</comment><comment><USER34> I'm quite a techno geek but when it comes to notes I've never given up good old paper and pen.

</comment><comment><USER35> Good old pen and paper!

I keep a paper based day planner and a notebook with my ideas, thoughts, etc in it. Recently I have been also trying to keep track using an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil using an app called Nebo. I'm not ready to switch yet. (And for that matter I have never been able to switch in 40 years).

Paper to me is long lasting. I can start something in a notebook, shelve it and then pick it up again. No need to update the OS or the app I used to create it (if it still exists).

</comment><comment><USER36> Zim - A Desktop Wiki

[http://www.zim-wiki.org/](http://www.zim-wiki.org/)

Mostly because it just creates a bunch of .txt files, which are easy to handle (sync, backup, read via ssh, ...), and by placing them in subdirs you get a hierarchy. It is mostly for text, but it supports links, links between notes, links to files, pictures, code, lists, checkboxes, latex, gnuplot, ... and if you really need something you can create your own tool.

</comment><comment><USER37> In addition to a simple binder with blank papers and a good pen for when I'm in "thinking mode", I have actually been happy with the following solution, for text note-taking on the computer (which I use almost daily as a journal, for meetings etc etc):

Simple markdown files, with a script to create a new date-stamped document for each day [1], opens it in vim, and then commits the change and pushes to a bitbucket private repo for backup, after I close vim [2].

It also includes a script for converting all documents to a nice epub ebook, for offline reading, browsing, searching etc in calibre e-reader.

Some benefits that made me go this direction, instead of, say evernote or the like:

\- Offline storage

\- Syncable via git (I'm keeping a backup in a private bitbucket repo)

\- Easily convert to any format via pandoc

\- Can edit effortlessly in my terminal-based environment (bash, tmux, vim)

\- Really automateable

\- ...

[1] [https://github.com/samuell/mdnote](https://github.com/samuell/mdnote)

[2] [https://github.com/samuell/mdnote/blob/master/edit.sh](https://github.com/samuell/mdnote/blob/master/edit.sh)

</comment><comment><USER38> This sounds absurd, but hear me out: I start with paper, and then type them in.

I've tried almost everything to automate paper->computer (typing rather than writing, Livescribe pen, iPad pro + apple pencil, many many devices that are now dead) and none have been as good as just a decent (not super special) pen and a notepad. I prefer an engineering pad or quadrille or in a pinch dot- grid, but really anything works as long as you don't lose it.

The trick I learned was every day or so to move them into the computer, which I do by typing them in (and simply taking a photo of drawings). I usually type in Emacs or right into Evernote. I try to do it every evening as one of my last tasks, as part of reviewing my day & looking at the next day. If it's a multi-day sketch-it-out effort I wait until the few days are over. Dictation has become good enough that I can actually read aloud the relevant parts of a bunch of sheets of paper (in the order I care about) and then quickly fix them up. This is actually the only use case for dictation I've found on my computer.

The benefits: First of all, typing them over forces you to review them, organize them slightly, and skip over the irrelevant stuff. This is really important after a design effort since you throw away what you think are truly dead paths, and all your cross-out go away. If I need one, this typing is often the base of my design document. Second: I've seen meeting notes I've taken that don't justify being typed in. In which case, why did I even go to that meeting?

Interestingly, when I was a kid my mum told me she used this technique both in school and in work, which I dismissed as a ludicrous waste of time. Only decades later when I evolved the same approach did I remember her advice.

</comment><comment><USER39> I tend to switch between Field Notes and Moleskine books, I use a Japenese Kuru Toga pencil (mechanical pencil that sharpens itself while you write) and a Uni JetStream Prime 0.7mm.

On the digital side I use OneNote.

If anyone is interested, this guys instagram says it all: [https://www.instagram.com/desk_of_jules/](https://www.instagram.com/desk_of_jules/)

</comment><comment><USER40> Pen, paper. Hopefully there's an agenda, for a conference or meeting, so take notes on that.

Take photo with phone. Send to whoever else needs to know, e.g. meeting minutes.

My notepad is A4 paper cut in half (yeah, A5, but company only stocks A4) with a big bull-clip in the top. When notes are no longer needed, just shred them.

</comment><comment><USER41> For those who use paper, I strongly recommend the LiveScribe pen. It records what you write and the audio. Then you can click text and it plays what was being said when the text you clicked on was written. Makes for fast, stress free note taking.

</comment><comment><USER42> Like others already mentioned, Quiver ([http://happenapps.com/#quiver](http://happenapps.com/#quiver)), but it is Mac-only. Your a Mac-user, but I don't know how often you work with clients using another platform. That could be a problem.

For Windows and Linux, there's Cherrytree ([http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/](http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/)). I'm not using it myself, it's just something that I found when looking for Evernote alternatives. It has syntax highlighting and can handle images.

Good luck with finding a solution.

</comment><comment><USER43> 0\. Leuchtturm (or Moleskine if I can't get a Leuchtturm) notebook, blank pages, the middle size.

1\. vimwiki in a tmux session in an XMonad scratch buffer. Pandoc for occasional PDF output.

2\. Some screenshot / screencast gif scripts around byzanz and scrot.

</comment><comment><USER44> [Turtl]([https://turtlapp.com/](https://turtlapp.com/)) has been my Evernote replacement for a few months now. I like having everything encrypted and I love writing in Markdown.

</comment><comment><USER45> SimpleNote for most things. Workflowy for more structured things. And I have a Huawei Watch that runs Audio Recorder so I can take little notes to myself when I don't have time or hands to write something down.

</comment><comment><USER46> Has anyone tried Bear yet?

[http://www.bear-writer.com/](http://www.bear-writer.com/)

I _just_ recently started using it, finding it rather nice, though it still feels rather 'beta'.

</comment><comment><USER47> i'm a mess but i use gmail. primarily because i can easily open it on any device, any time, any where. i make use of labels and also add keywords while i write so i can easily search. google gets my complete trust here.

</comment><comment><USER48> Simplenote!! Works on everything: Desktop app, browser, android or iphone

</comment><comment><USER49> I use [https://www.notebooksapp.com/](https://www.notebooksapp.com/). It works with plain files, txt, markdown and WYSIWYG (HTML). It also allows you to write your own stylesheet and JS. So I have a custom template (CSS) and I write almost everything in WYSIWYG (ie HTML). Works really well for code too, as I get syntax highlighting.

Other apps I have tried and used over the years:

\- [http://www.mweb.im/](http://www.mweb.im/) (markdown) \- [https://ulyssesapp.com/](https://ulyssesapp.com/) (markdown) \- [http://lightpaper.42squares.in/](http://lightpaper.42squares.in/) (markdown) \- [http://alternoteapp.com/](http://alternoteapp.com/) (Evernote GUI) \- Many, many others

Notebooks really stands out because it has a great iOS app, syncs via Dropbox (plain files), and handles TXT/MD/HTML + Custom CSS&JS.

The Mac app is not great, but it's adequate. I frequently talk to the author and they are rewriting it to be more "Mac friendly", but that's a bit away (1 year maybe?).

For the longest time, I tried to stay true to Markdown, but as I get older, I just want things to be easier, and to look nicer, and I now prefer writing everything in WYSIWYG. Since I have custom styles, I can stick to standard structure (ie H1, p, ul, ..), which is in spirit close to Markdown (ie structure only). And I can still customize when I want complicated things (I wrote a couple special classes for some use cases).

Plus, it works with the filesystem, so you get folders, which I personally prefer to all this tagging BS. It makes it easier to have everything in one place: work stuff and personal stuff, and to keep it all neat and tidy. Also, because it's files, it's always available offline (iOS app too).

The iOS app is like a small file manager, so I also keep pictures, PDFs, and some other docs. So I always have all my important stuff on hand, no matter where I am.

Overall, I think it's a great app, which still has room to grow (better GUI on desktop, encryption, ...)

</comment><comment><USER50> Sublime Text. I find taking notes for me to be more about slowing my thought process down in order to zero in on issues I'm thinking through. At work we use Teamwork to organize our projects, so usually if there's something I'm working on for a client or a coworker, I'll transcribe parts of my notes into our teamwork project. Teamwork also lets you add tasks, notes, files, links, etc. We can one off people to each project, so that they can review anything we've added for their review.

</comment><comment><USER2> I'd like to mention Ideaflip, btw: [http://ideaflip.com](http://ideaflip.com)

It's intended for collaboration rather than specifically for note-taking, but it looks like it addresses some of my issues with respect to flexibility for note-taking. I'm not convinced they've got the pricing and market fit perfect yet, but it looks quite interesting.

(Disclaimer: I'm having some conversations with the founder, but we've not done business)

</comment><comment><USER51> We're building Nuclino ([https://www.nuclino.com/](https://www.nuclino.com/)), which is inspired by Notational Velocity / nvALT. You can upload images via drag and drop and embed code blocks. Syntax highlighting for the code blocks is on the roadmap. You can either share individual pages with a client (via a public URL) or invite someone to share several pages and collaborate on them in real-time.

</comment><comment><USER52> Paper

Quiver[1]: suports markdown and syncs via Dropbox

Mindful[2]: chrome extension

[1][http://happenapps.com/#quiver](http://happenapps.com/#quiver) [2][https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mindful- beta/cieek...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mindful- beta/cieekmjjdkckhpidgaffphlaljdfhhab)

</comment><comment><USER53> I have horrible handwriting. It is really bad.

But OneNote and ten-finger-typing makes up for that. If I need to share it, I can easily copy it in to an email, everyone can receive these without needing another account.

You might want to look into [http://www.codefoster.com/codeinonenote/](http://www.codefoster.com/codeinonenote/), a code highlighter for OneNote

</comment><comment><USER54> In the order from brainstorming to real project it's:

\- piece of paper and pen

\- Clear [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clear-tasks-reminders-to- do/...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clear-tasks-reminders-to- do/id493136154) (not only as Todo App, but also to make outlines for topics)

\- Sublime Editor + Markdown + (private) GitHub repository

</comment><comment><USER55> I've ended up going from applications like Evernote to a simple Dropbox folder with markdown files for my personal notes. For me, the main draws are easy access from terminal and using my own text editor. And of course code blocks with syntax highlighting (and LaTeX with MathJax). I haven't played around with sharing, but it's easy to render an HTML page.

</comment><comment><USER56> I like paper and notebooks the best, but I'm using OneNote for work. OneNote is one of those annoying but "good enough" software products that I don't really like, but I'm using it because it's free.

</comment><comment><USER18> While I use zimWiki for personal notes, there are some things it lacks, like interactivity.

I started a blog, using Nikola. Not perfect, but it can support markdown, rst, ipy etc, plus pretty much anything else the web can.

Not _exactly_ a TODO list, but for publishable things, it's pretty flexible if the thought isn't private.

</comment><comment><USER57> I use Todoist for notes that are potential tasks. Some times the line can be blurry so I have to regularly clean my Todoist tasks.

For the rest I use Google Keep which I've found to be quite handy. Nice UI and it's available everywhere. I've already sold my soul to Google so why not let them get my notes as well.

</comment><comment><USER58> The good old physical post it notes work best for me if I need to note something quickly.

If there's something that I need to copy/paste later then I just have "Clipboard.txt" on my desktop. Not prettiest but it's fastest and easiest.

If I need to plan something bigger then I use Trello.

</comment><comment><USER59> Paper during meetings with customers. A5 or even A6. Faster than anything else. Big bonus for drawing diagrams quickly.

The default notes app on my Samsung until I changed phone, Private Notepad now. This is for short random notes.

Several markdown files on my laptop especially for work related stuff.

</comment><comment><USER60> Evernote. My Evernote is the only valuable digital asset I have. Everything else is exchangeable.

<comment><USER61> You may want to read this [https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/14/evernotes-new- privacy-ru...](https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/14/evernotes-new-privacy- rules-let-employees-read-notes/)

<comment><USER35> They backed out of doing this: [https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2016/12/15/evernote- revisits-...](https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2016/12/15/evernote-revisits- privacy-policy/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER62> Xournal on my x86 tablet running Ubuntu.

Love having the xournal files go to my personal server that I can browse through with my laptop or desktop later on, anywhere, anytime, without having to bring around binders and notebooks.

I also like that you can erase and move blocks of ink around.

<comment><USER30> Which tablet do you use for Ubuntu ?

<comment><USER62> Late (i was sick :() but [http://www.gearbest.com/tablet- pcs/pp_227132.html](http://www.gearbest.com/tablet-pcs/pp_227132.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> I use Google Keep for short notes and TOTOs. It's handy and you can access on any device.

</comment><comment><USER64> Short lived notes? Anything that can take text input. vim, text edit, stickies (the mac app), pen & paper, whatever is on hand.

Long term notes? Evernote - though I'm not happy with them. Just haven't found a replacement yet.

</comment><comment><USER65> [GoodNotes]([http://www.goodnotesapp.com](http://www.goodnotesapp.com)) on an iPad Pro (12.9 inch) and Apple Pencil. Haven't touched paper since getting it.

</comment><comment><USER66> Dropbox Paper currently: syncs automatically with everyone who I want to share the notes with, saves automatically, has an advanced and simple to use editor, keeps track of changes, has comments and so on.

</comment><comment><USER67> I use pen and paper. Well actually write everything in a sketch book and keep an index of themes on the cover and number all the pages so if I need to refer back I find the theme and page number.

</comment><comment><USER68> Quiver is like Evernote if Evernote didn't suck. All it's missing is encryption. [http://happenapps.com](http://happenapps.com)

<comment><USER69> And a mobile app. And, at least for me personally, ideally, nested folders.

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> One Note : I'm an "avoid mouse" person & one note is the only application that provides all the features. Plus sharing is a breeze - especially in a company.

</comment><comment><USER71> OneNote on a surface. I sprung for the office suite which includes a different version of OneNote with a better UI and more features. It is worth it if you take a lot of notes.

</comment><comment><USER72> I use the note station app by synology. Granted, you need a synology NAS to use it, but it works offline, mobile, and desktop. And all your data lives on your own device.

</comment><comment><USER73> This works for me: [https://github.com/galfarragem/hamster- gtd](https://github.com/galfarragem/hamster-gtd)

</comment><comment><USER74> In the past, I used Evernote but recently switch to Quiver and Unclutter.

I also have a real notebook in my desk to sketch diagram and flow, I find it very effective.

</comment><comment><USER75> Paper. I tried laptops, ultrabooks, iPad, cellphones, for note taking but nothing beats paper so far.

But I ordered Surface Pro 4 this week. So going to try OneNote on SP4 soon.

</comment><comment><USER76> You should check out www.breakdown-notes.com. (disclaimer: my project). Only feature missing is code highlighting.

</comment><comment><USER77> Pen and notepad. Way faster than farting about typing on a tocuh screen or desktop and drawing diagrams is orders of magnitude faster and easier.

</comment><comment><USER78> OneNote on a Surface (for handwritten notes) and Google Keep for quick notes and reminders on phone. OneNote is quite slow to sync on Phones

</comment><comment><USER79> I used to use Apple notes but lost so much data I try not to anymore. Evernote is my main notepad these days but I still use apple notes...

<comment><USER80> How did you lose data with Apple Notes? I've had conflicted copies before, but I don't think I've ever lost data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER81> As a Mac User, I use nvALT for my notes and monosnap for screenshots and image uploads plus sharing. ToDo List I use Any.Do for a while.

</comment><comment><USER82> OneNote. I use it on all my devices, work laptop (ThinkPad), Surface Pro 3, and Galaxy Note 5. I prefer to take notes using a stylus.

</comment><comment><USER83> Atom and Markdown. You can even see real time previews with "Markdown preview plus" plugin, upload it to git if need be.

</comment><comment><USER84> Visual Studio Code and type out notes as Markdown.

This gives me some formatting as I go without being distracting.

Usually though I find a pen and paper works best.

</comment><comment><USER85> I use Jupyter notebooks and write in markdown.

<comment><USER69> It has repeatedly been observed here that Quiver and Jupyter have a lot in common. One thing I'm missing with Jupyter, though, is a convenient infrastructure for dealing with a large number of small notes. Are you using one notebook for each note?

<comment><USER85> Yes, though I break it up into different (labelled) sections, so I don't have a large number of files. It may just work for me since I tend to write longish overviews of things (papers, concepts, experiments, etc.).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER86> I use OneNote and I'm very happy with it.

</comment><comment><USER87> Came to know about Remarkable (getremarkable.com) which ships next Aug. Sounds interesting for paper lovers.

</comment><comment><USER88> Simplenote. Use it everyday.

</comment><comment><USER89> flat txt file + Gedit for view and edition + Cloudstation for sync with NAS and other computers or mobiles.

</comment><comment><USER90> Honestly, I keep a spiral notebook.

</comment><comment><USER91> infinity book it's available on Amazon. Imagine whiteboard + notebook.

</comment><comment><USER92> plain text file + dropbox for accessing on multiple devices

</comment><comment><USER93> ZimWiki

</comment><comment><USER94> Zim wiki

</comment><comment><USER95> Alternote</comment>


Google Says a Shift to Cloud Computing Is Accelerating - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-09/google-says-banks-to-manufacturers-are-speeding-shift-to-cloud.html <comment><USER2> This is a very bad thing.

One of my consulting clients outsourced their revision control to a cloud Git service. Quite likely that meant that anyone who worked for that service could steal their source.

I use Gmail, but only because I had a hard time figuring out how to install my own SMTP server. I'll be doing that soon, and moving away from Gmail.

It's not like that will prevent my mail from being read in transit, but at least it would make it somewhat harder to snoop on my mail. I will also get less in the way of advertising.</comment>


OpenBSD: Not Free Not Fuctional and Definetly Not Secure - <AUTHOR> https://aboutthebsds.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/20/ <comment><USER2> To me it seems a 3-post blog of a mentally tired person. Hope he recovered and started enjoying life

</comment><comment><USER3> Sounds like someone is very pissed because his commit was declined or something.

</comment><comment><USER4> This needs a (2013) in the title.</comment>


UN resolution rejects Trump's declaration - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42446027 <comment><USER2> Normally I'd consider politics submissions to be outside the bounds of HN but in the case of Mr. Trump...

I've had tech co-workers in multiple companies that are from Iran and other countries that this man is unconditionally biased against. I've interacted with people — yes, they _are_ people, deserving complete respect (as humans, much less experts in a field) — that this man dismisses without knowing anything about them.</comment>


Ask HN: How to handle recruiter who insist on knowing the current salary - <AUTHOR>

I had a phone interview with a recruiter for a well funded startup in Singapore. The recruiter scheduled it after I solved a programming puzzle.<p>After initial introduction and some details about the company, I said that I am looking for at least x salary (say 100k).
The recruiter asks my current salary which I declined to say. Recruiter asks again and tells that I have to reveal the salary now or later before the offer is made. I declined, told him that it is my policy to not discuss existing salary. We ended the call quickly with the recruiter telling me to email if he ever reconsiders my position.<p>- How to handle these recruiters who always insist on current salary? It always happens here in Singapore.<p>- Did I handle it correctly considering that I didn't need the job badly? <comment><USER2> I don't know Singapore, but I'm US-based and do some contingency recruiting. It sounds like you were talking to someone at the company, and they can be more hard nosed about that.

My goal is to see if your salary target fit's in the company's range. If not, I don't want to waste your time, although in some cases you may be interested in getting less money for stock options and, well, all sorts of good reasons.

Most people volunteer their salary because A) I'll keep it confidential if they ask, and will share market salary info with them, and possibly B) they are confident they are well paid and want to use it as an anchor. If they give me their current salary and their target, I only pass on the target since it's the operative number. I have good clients who have no problem with that.

In your case, truthfully, I would have shared just to hear what their offer was. They don't know your salary now, but you don't know if they would have given you what you wanted because you halted negotiation. If you were looking for a fair market rate and they advertise compensation as "competitive," that shouldn't be a problem.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Note to self: If talking to external recruiter, 1) check if they are willing to keep my salary confidential and 2) get market salary info.

Also, looks like it is good to have a big salary to anchor the target salary higher. You are out of luck if you were working on your own startup for past 5 years with a low salary

In your experience, how common is that candidates lie about/inflate their salary to keep the anchor higher? Was any one caught doing this?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Think someone posted this some time ago: [http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/noel.html](http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/noel.html)

A recruiter does not have any right to your salary information. Their contract is with the client and they will do what is in the client's best interest. Salary is like any form of negotiation, decide how you can negotiate most effectively.

</comment><comment><USER4> The information is useful to a non-retained recruiter because it allows them to estimate their cut and to predict the likelihood that the candidate will receive an attractive offer and therefore be worth the effort of getting them hired. Any recruiter who can't give a salary range when asked probably lacks a robust relationship with the hiring decision maker.

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> The recruiter I talked to is a technical recruiter under the company payroll. Not an external recruiter.

<comment><USER4> It's a bit simpler then. Do you want to work for a company where a willingness to put one's self at a negotiating disadvantage is a first order evaluation criterion when hiring technical talent?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> just ask him, how your currently salary is influencing the decision making process, if your are the candidate or not.

it´s generally your choice who you share this information with. in Europe, people mostly don´t talk about salaries. in the US it´s common to talk about it... don´t know how the "rules" are in Singapore.

<comment><AUTHOR> > just ask him, how your currently salary is influencing the decision making > process, if your are the candidate or not.

I didn't ask him this. But, another recruiter did tell me that it is HR policy that company need to know this before coming up with offer.

> in Europe, people mostly don´t talk about salaries.

Good to know that.</comment></comment>


What will change everything? - <AUTHOR> http://www.edge.org/q2009/q09_1.html#kauffman <comment><USER2> "Consider a sufficiently diverse collection of molecular species, such as peptides, RNA ... are autocatalytic. It reproduces itself. ...autocatalytic set theory is a mathematical theory, not reducible to the laws of physics,

Well, obviously it the natural phenomenon can be, because it physically exists. That different models don't agree isn't a problem with physics, it's a problem with the models. But just because models don't exactly agree doesn't make them not useful e.g. Newtonian models of gravity are still useful.

Also, I'm leery about fluffy paradigms unless they are self-evident from an extensive and successful description of reality (e.g. physics or chemistry => "reductionism"). Give me the science, and I can tell you if I independently conclude that "the evolution of the biosphere, the economy, our human culture and perhaps aspects of the abiotic world, stand partially free of physical law and are not entailed by fundamental physics." But somehow, I doubt it. I don't know what "stand partially free of physical law" is supposed to mean, but if something physically exists, then how can it be "partially" free from "physical law?"</comment>


Banned from FB Messenger for sending a meme (Trump holding a gun) to a friend? - <AUTHOR> So, this happened. I was chatting with a friend on the latest USA election news in NYC and sent this picture in the chat: https://i.sli.mg/I5OrY3.jpg
Two minutes later, I was logged out of all devices, a "community standards" violation modal displayed on next login, and 30 minutes later I received a notification that I was banned for 24 hours.
Messenger, status updates and friend requests are now blocked.
To recap: FB does automated content analysis in private chats, only not sure if the gun, or the caption was problematic.
It seems like no contextual information is used during analysis (the messages before and after the picture we're clearly jokes on Bernie sadness and Trump train).... <comment><USER2> This illustrates why end to end encryption is a must have. The "community standards" between two individuals is different than a public conversation.

</comment><comment><USER3> Think of all the things you can get done in the next 24 hours!</comment>


The builders of this Spanish skyscraper forgot the elevator - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/the-builders-of-this-spanish-skyscraper-forgot-the-elev-1065152844

<comment><USER2> That's a feature, not a bug! The upper floors are part of your fitness routine. It minimizes clutter, cause you'd have to drag something up all those stairs. I'm sure there is no end to how they can spin this.</comment>


How a Million Dollar Acquisition Offer Killed My Startup - <AUTHOR> http://bluestout.com/blog/million-dollar-acquisition-offer-killed-e-commerce-startup/

<comment><USER2> The most difficult thing for me, in trying to keep progressing with an original idea, is to know where to draw the line between listening to the outside or "big guys" and staying true to your original idea.</comment>