Knuth and Plass line breaking algorithm in JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://www.bramstein.com/projects/typeset/flatland/ <comment><USER2> The web is now twenty and browsers are still incapable of something as basic and commonplace as hyphenation and justification. It's a real shame that this problem has to be solved with JavaScript in 2010.

How old is TeX again?

<comment><USER3> I've been asking for _years_ why browsers do not have this. The only reply I've gotten is for performance considerations, which is a bad answer for several reasons.

<comment><USER4> Internet Explorer actually has this through the (almost standardized) text- justify CSS property. It still doesn't do hyphenation, but Hyphenator.js (<http://code.google.com/p/hyphenator/>) fills that gap pretty nicely.

Performance isn't a good argument in my opinion. The algorithm isn't that expensive. The most expensive part right now is retrieving all the text metrics, but you would get that a lot cheaper in the browsers rendering engine.

I briefly looked at hacking it into Webkit, but then gave up due to a lack of time.

<comment><USER5> I also looked into it recently, and Damon from the Gnome project attempted it in 2002 or so. Also Adobe+Google are trying to get it into WebKit. The problem (as far as I can tell) is that people have tried to do it all at once, and pushing such a large thunk of code upstream is very hard.

I suspect that if you take it in pieces: first get a decent hyphenation algo into Pango, then get that into FF and WebKit, then work on the line-breaker, and then get a new CSS rule approved by the W3C... well, maybe you could get it done in 3 or 4 years.

<comment><USER6> W3C [...] 3 or 4 years; don't hold your breath.

<comment><USER2> Last I looked the CSS3 working draft included a hyphenate property.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I must say this is a very pretty render for a web-based text. Too bad the justification breaks when zooming in/out.

Also, the computation takes a while. Is this a dynamic programming algorithm? Maybe browsers should support this natively.

<comment><USER4> Zooming is problematic, I haven't quite figured out a reliable way of fixing it yet. The problem is most apparent in Webkit based browsers, Firefox seems to handle it much better (though there are still some small problems--most can be fixed though.)

Yes, this is an application of dynamic programming. The computation is actually quite fast, most of the time is spent in retrieving the text metrics (put each word in a span, retrieve width and move on to the next word.) If that can somehow be alleviated it would become a feasible solution.

I agree with you that browsers should support this natively (Internet Explorer actually does.) If you are interested, I've written a bit on this subject in this Typophile thread: <http://typophile.com/node/71247>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks great, but it would be nice if the hyphens were removed when copying text.

</comment><comment><USER9> I recall the first interesting example usage my professor taught of dynamic programming was this example (well, described, not taught). He basically just said that all you do is take the L^2 or L^3 sum of extra space and minimize it using a DP. The fact that that yields great-looking text I thought was pretty cool.

</comment><comment><USER10> I see no hyphens... breaks (eg: lines 3-4), but no markers for them.

edit: wait, they're there when I zoom out a couple levels. Weird.

<comment><USER4> That's probably a bug, what browser and operating system are you using?

<comment><USER11> Same here, Chrome 8.0.552.215, Mac OS X 10.6.5.

<comment><USER4> I have the same Chrome version, but I'm running Ubuntu. Perhaps it is a font issue. I will check it out later when I have access to a Mac. Thanks for reporting.

<comment><USER11> I set font family to Times, and, indeed, I can see hyphens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is beautiful. Fantastic work. Now, I'd love to see someone work this into WebKit or Gecko's core.

</comment><comment><USER13> Great work! The output is beautiful. Looking forward to this being a standard library in the future. Do you know how well it might handle cases of text that already has some formatting?

Also: It blows up in IE9 for me though, many of the lines go on for quite a ways.

</comment><comment><USER14> For those who don't know the algorithm, here's a bunch of links about it in Wikipedia:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_wrap#Knuth.27s_algorithm>

<comment><USER4> I would also highly recommend "Digital Typography" by Knuth. It contains a more detailed description of the algorithm as well as many interesting historical and technical chapters on TeX, MetaFont and computer typesetting in general.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Looks very nice. The only annoying thing I can see is that copying the text ends up with word-breaks in the hyphenated words.

</comment><comment><USER16> It looks really good in Firefox! However, I just tried printing the page and though it still looks decent, the justification is a lot worse than when rendered on-screen.

<comment><USER4> I honestly hadn't thought about printing it out yet. I had a quick look, and I think the issues you are seeing can probably be fixed. My initial plan was to render PDFs server-side, instead of relying on the browser's print mode.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Does anyone know if there is a good jQuery plugin for this, or do I need to take the code from this demo and make my own plugin?

<comment><USER4> As far as I know, this is the only implementation in JavaScript. It might be possible to turn this into a jQuery plugin at some point, but there are probably quite a couple of bugfixes and changes needed to turn this from a tech demo into a drop-in plugin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> At the default zoom on my G1, the results are poor. Pull back a bit and everything looks swell.</comment>


Only 0.2% of venture capital in US went to black women founders - <AUTHOR> https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/2016/02/11/black-women-founders-undercapitalised-project-diane <comment><USER2> With all of the political correctness in silicon valley it is almost as if there are not many black women who build tech startups.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could be a negative feedback effect: it's hard to get funding, therefore not many black women founders start companies. It's not clear where the cause and the effect is.</comment></comment>


Here's how Google Palestine was hacked; local root server confirms repair - <AUTHOR> http://www.wamda.com/2013/08/how-google-palestine-was-hacked

<comment><USER2> Not quite stock photos, but I just came across [https://www.freevectormaps.com](https://www.freevectormaps.com) for vector based maps, which might be useful to some people.</comment>


NAND flash has at least another decade of life - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/storage/372612/despite-competition-nand-flash-has-least-another-decade-life

<comment><USER2> Predicting the future in tech is a fools errand.

<comment><USER3> Ground and air transportation speeds haven't increased since the 60s.

<comment><USER2> Top ground speed transportation has roughly doubled since the 60's. If Elon Musks hyperloop gets built, then you could see that become 3-4 times faster.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record_for_rail_vehi...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record_for_rail_vehicles)

And there is of course the scramjet [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet) which set records in 2003 which is 10,000kph faster than the record set in 61.

<comment><USER4> Right, so: like he said.

Blue-sky concepts which even the inventor himself doesn't want a piece of aside, I don't think the scramjet qualifies as air transportation, unless transporting an unmanned aircraft counts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> But rotational harddrives probably will: [http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227382/60TB_disk_dri...](http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227382/60TB_disk_drives_could_be_a_reality_in_2016)

Disc (yes, optical) media could also perhaps get in 1-6+TB range.

<comment><USER6> By disc media you mean optical disks? A hard drive is, at least to me, disc media.

<comment><USER7> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_disc](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_disc)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> >Flash memory isn't going to get any cheaper for another decade

That doesn't seem to be what the article is saying.

<comment><USER9> Exactly.

The article says that the cost of flash will stay at approximately 10x the cost of traditional hard disks. Given that traditional hard disks are expected to decrease in price, the title is not just misleading, it's flat out wrong.

This prediction does mean that it will decrease in price slower than it has in the past, but that's all.

<comment><USER10> Handy's prediction that prices will drop in 2015 when supplies increase seems more likely (although I suspect it could happen before then).</comment></comment></comment>


Coding is not 'fun', it's technically and ethically complex - <AUTHOR> https://aeon.co/ideas/coding-is-not-fun-it-s-technically-and-ethically-complex <comment><AUTHOR> The article is a bit short for the subjects that it touches on.

\- Coding as fun

\- Coding as engineering discipline & social responsibility

\- Coding as a mark of citizenship

The article says "coding is not fun" then touches on the other two subjects. But I would say they're all true or worthy of thinking about. Especially the engineering side of things, that's something I occasionally wonder about.

Can anyone recommend some books or articles that go deeper in to these subjects?</comment>


Show HN: Open Source Employee Handbook - <AUTHOR> https://handbook.hackerbay.io <comment><USER2> "If you leave the company before 12 months. We will not provide you with an experience and reliveing letter. Your employment with us will be invalid and you will no longer be able to refer us to your future employers."

That seems to be a particularly bad warning sign.

Sane people might write:

"If you leave the company in your first 12 months, company policy is to confirm your employment (title, dates) but offer no recommendation, positive or negative, to future employers."

<comment><USER2> ooh, and a total fail:

You're paid per hour of work done. We cap it to 40 hrs/week or 8 hrs/day (Monday-Friday) \- If you work more than 45 hours a week (That's our hard cap). You'll NOT be paid for those extra hours. We strongly encourage you to spend time not working and doing something else if this is the case. We want you to have a work-life balance. That's important. If you still want to work - spend it on your personal projects.

... You will not be paid for it + You will also be penalised for the number of hours you have idle time that week. For example : If you have 5 hours of idle time, You will not be paid for those 5 hours + 5 hours of regular work will be discounted from the salary.

\----

That's not legal.

+1 for open sourcing your handbook. -several zillion for not being in compliance with basic employment law.</comment></comment>


HN reader - <AUTHOR> http://hn_reader.joshhuckabee.com/ <comment><USER3> Thanks mrsebastian for posting this and everyone else for the feedback.

I created this project several months ago as way to dive in and learn node.js. I found it useful and enjoyable to use for myself and decided to throw it on the web. For anyone interested, the code is available at <https://github.com/jhuckabee/hn_reader>. Pull requests welcome.

Unfortunately a lot of sites don't like to be framed which makes the interface annoying to use at times. Also, don't try to open it on a mobile device. It flat out doesn't work. I hope to fix that in a future version. Despite these annoyances, I still use it as my primary means of reading HN.

<comment><AUTHOR> There you are! Sorry about possibly jumping the gun :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I found a bug! I can't click on the HN Reader story more than once and go in total recursion! :-D

Here is a screenshot [https://img.skitch.com/20111223-dx69ix74wimn8twwmrqg1urm6j.p...](https://img.skitch.com/20111223-dx69ix74wimn8twwmrqg1urm6j.png)

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure if that's really a bug, but I'm glad I'm not the first person to do that as soon as I saw it!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> BTW, just to clarify -- this isn't my project. I noticed some clickthroughs from this URL on one of my sites, checked it out, then submitted to HN :)

Hopefully the actual developer sees this thread and jumps in...

</comment><comment><USER6> Underscores aren't legal in hostnames.

</comment><comment><USER7> Nice and simple layout. Got a similar site too. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2529573> It's here - <http://ireadhn.g-webtech.com/>

Did you use the same API? I have never had a chance to work on the comments but got inspired to work on it again.

Good work!

</comment><comment><USER8> This totally fails on iOS (iPhone). The screen is not resizeable. The left column is fixed, and the right column is cut off.

</comment><comment><USER9> Looks nice. I'd like to see the vote count for posts if possible (mostly because I like to see how old/popular a post is)

</comment><comment><USER10> This is great. Personally I would love the rendering of the web-page to be in the Readability format.

This is a critical feature!!! ;P

<comment><USER11> I second this! Readability ftw

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Nice. I was working on one for a while too. The iFrame problem is definitely the biggest hinderance. Comments also need styling: <http://hn.thanithani.com/>

</comment><comment><USER13> Wow, it looks like a surprisingly large number of sites refuse to be framed. Shouldn't be too much of a surprise when you consider the threat of click- jacking, but interesting to see none-the-less.

<comment><USER14> Yes, I've written my own HN reader as well as other apps using iframes...and basically the situation sucks.

With a reader like this, you have two real options: * Include regular iframes and risk an increasing number of sites opting out with JavaScript or (more politely) an X-Frame-Options header. * Use <iframe sandbox> to prevent people busting out of it with JavaScript. But that stops all JavaScript, so apps and videos won't show up.

Pity. iFrames have so many great uses like this Reader. Browsers really need to deal with the clickjacking problem instead of forcing everyone to bust out of them and making sites like this unusable.

<comment><USER15> Why not use separate windows?

<comment><USER14> Poor user experience. I like articles sliding in and out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> mike-cardwell It doesn't handle gracefully, sites which prevent themselves from being opened in frames by utilising the "frame-ancestors" option of Content-Security- Policy.

</comment><comment><USER16> I've gone a different Route, converting the story to a readable format first: <http://thequeue.org/hn>

<comment><USER17> Combination of your `queue' and `hn reader' would be the best news site ever.

<comment><USER16> I'm interested in a collaboration

Edit: You could use my API ([http://thequeue.org/r?id=URL&title=Title](http://thequeue.org/r?id=URL&title=Title))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Very cool. Some sites, like the Google 10,000 house article are blocking pages rendered in frames. Perhaps there is a way to do DIVs?

</comment><comment><USER19> Would like to see URL changing as I click through so I can favourite - <USER2> from that, it really works well!

</comment><comment><USER20> Very nice! Would love j and k keyboard movement and loading of more stories when you scroll near the end.

</comment><comment><USER21> would be excellent if you added voting buttons in the title box as well!

</comment><comment><USER22> It should be kind of fun selecting this very link there.

<comment><USER23> I started from the top, clicking every link, and hit this one. It's a frame- friendly site!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Reading HN is so fast with this.

</comment><comment><USER24> nice, very nice!

</comment><comment><USER25> Lovely to access.

Comment icon feels a little minimized, is it better for power users?

 _Importantly_ , unlike official 'comments' links, it is always clickable in same place.</comment>


Path finding animation in 2D maze using 4 common algorithms [OC] - <AUTHOR> https://gfycat.com/KindlyFaroffHoverfly <comment><AUTHOR> [https://github.com/AndyBobBean/PathFinding](https://github.com/AndyBobBean/PathFinding)

C# Windows Forms application demonstrating several common path finding algorithms traversing a 2D maze.</comment>


Evolution of Amazon.com Logo - <AUTHOR> http://www.kokogiak.com/gedankengang/2004/07/amazoncom-logo-timeline.html

<comment><USER2> Looking back, it's funny to see how long it took them to make the whole A-Z connection that finally appeared in the 2000 logo.

<comment><USER3> I always thought it was a smile :-)

When it comes to quick things, like instantly evaluating a logo, the reptilian brain takes over and decides before there's ever time to think about it.

<comment><USER4> It's both! It's recently started to appear on its own, without the text, in some promo material, and in that context it's just referred to as the "Amazon smile."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Wow, even Amazon had a flaming logo in the 90's! I don't feel so bad now!

<comment><USER6> does anyone know if this was a full time logo or a single day promotion type logo? i.e. "Get it while its hot 20% off on all items!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Earth biggest book store" that is typical of startup era: appear bigger than you really are. I'm glad they parted from the logo with the road; was that a road?

<comment><USER8> I would guess the "road" is the Amazon River. Being Earth's biggest river, it makes sense to the slogan too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Recently there was a Amazon comedy logo where the smile went DOWN wards, because it was failing.

</comment><comment><USER9> Huh, and I thought logos were right first time around.

I do believe mine is though :-P</comment>


Today in Apple history: Apple co-founder quits and cashes in his stake for $800 - <AUTHOR> http://www.cultofmac.com/475927/ron-wayne-quits-apple/ <comment><USER2> i would have done exactly the same thing. i mean, we're talking $800 _cash_...</comment>


Data points that Facebook uses to target ads - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/08/19/98-personal-data-points-that-facebook-uses-to-target-ads-to-you <comment><USER2> "perfectly targeted ads"? Never had that experience.

Even if I summarize all the analytics solutions out there, like ads, Facebook stream, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. What they usually do is they figure out what I did in recent history or in general and present me more of that. I don't know about other people, but that's absolutely not what I want. That's boring, or maybe even unnecessary.

Like, if I just bought a book about Linux system administration the only reason I would buy a second one would be because the first one sucked (and Amazon knows the ratings of the books). A reasonable suggestion after that would be something people do with Linux, like hosting a Wordpress blog. Honestly I might not even know what I would do with my newly acquired skill once I succeeded with that topic. Also it's quite tiresome to learn. Maybe after reading 30% of it I would like to insert a simple but interesting novel or comic book. Why not suggest something like that to me?

Or I just watched an action movie on Netflix. Then I don't need other action movie suggestions. After that maybe I want to watch a character focussed tv show.

What we need is not a "I know what you did and here is more of that" suggestion engine. What we need is a "oh that's getting boring, here is other awesome stuff that may surprise you" suggestion engine. Figure out the stuff I don't know I want and then suggest that.

And honestly, not a single of these billion-dollar-engines out there do that for me at the moment.

<comment><USER3> > _What we need is not a "I know what you did and here is more of that" > suggestion engine_

I really agree on this. The Youtube homepage exemplifies it for me. It recommends only content the same as or very similar to what I've watched before, and only the most popular of that. I've watched a ton of conference talks, programming tutorials, etc. yet those never show up. It's mostly junk with clickbait titles from big channels.

I do like Youtube's recommendation algorithm for the side bar suggestions on a video page, though I get more sponsored-looking content now than in the past. It's been useful at least for finding music. And YT does have a page for improving homepage recommendations, which granted I haven't tried yet.

<comment><USER4> "I do like Youtube's recommendation algorithm for the side bar suggestions"

You do? It does ok if I'm watching something technical or some reviews. It's laughably bad at music and wider interest content such as a documentary. If you hit a music track, 50% of the recommendations are the same damn track in degrading levels of quality, 30% the same band. The 10% that's left for other artists are normally a really bad connection to the mood. The last 10% lately is taken by awfully bad match, clearly sponsored, junk though never identified as sponsored.

Most of the time I'd like suggestions in the same genre or mood of music. If I've just watched an upbeat rock track why not suggest other upbeat rock tracks? Last.fm radio was superb at this, for years, until CBS destroyed it. So it can't be that hard.

I think the only times I use the sidebar is if the vid I landed on is terrible quality or a bad hit.

<comment><USER3> I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I only seek out full albums. I've found that YT does pretty well for classic rock, metal, and electronica, and ok for older Jazz and classical music.

I tried it out just now for an album I like. I get about 25% unrelated junk or stuff I've already watched, but the rest are also full albums that seem like fairly solid recommendations based on the album at hand (Jan Jelinek's "Loop Finding Jazz Records").

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hIgBEXuQD8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hIgBEXuQD8)

<comment><USER4> Interesting. I very rarely search whole albums on YT but often rock and metal.

Start with a random metal track in mind an I find I get a band mix suggestion, a nordic folk metal mix, 11 more tracks from the same band, 3 tracks I listened to very recently, 4 connected other artists and "5 CREEPIEST Old Found Footages - Recommended for you" as a perfect example of the crap being injected recently. They must notice I've never once clicked one.

I do clear cookies and history periodically, so perhaps not having a multiple year history counts against.

<comment><USER3> > I do clear cookies and history periodically, so perhaps not having a > multiple year history counts against.

In that other link I posted YT suggests pruning your watched history to get better recommendations -- but that's a huge undertaking given the thousands of garbage videos that I've clicked out of in five seconds. Seems like it would be better if the algorithm only operated on data from videos a user manually "likes".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I like when they show me ads for the expensive thing I already bought, as if I'm going to buy it again. Had they predicted I wanted to buy that thing, and shown me ads for things like it first, that might have been useful.

<comment><USER6> That happens all across the 'net though, not just on Facebook. Happens to me with Amazon all the time - they have records of me eyeing something up, I buy it a day later, and 2 days later they're still pestering me around the 'net with ads about that thing.

<comment><USER7> This is intentional. They're shaping your perception of the purchase by mitigating remorse.

<comment><USER8> Are you sure? I often see ads for the same type of thing but from multiple competing brands.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> You wouldn't see such an article on WashingtonPost before 2013. The former owner of the Post Donald Edward Graham was the mentor of Zuckerberg and Mr Graham is the lead independent director of Facebook's board of directors.

</comment><comment><USER10> When people purchase GQ or Vogue, they are buying it as much for advertisements as for editorial content. When someone flips through one of those magazines, it's like they appreciate the designers hiring models, taking pictures, and sharing it in the magazine even though both they and the reader paid. Take the ads out of GQ or Vogue and there is almost nothing there.

If I create an ad on Facebook and people click on it, leave comments, and share it, Facebook will mark it as quality content and discounts the price per impression. It seems that Facebook wants to create the ad experience of GQ or Vogue and gives money incentive for advertisers to do it.

Facebook knows I'm into technology and web development. There are lots of great products for web developers created every month. Facebook is a way for companies to find people who are interested in their products. It helps people learn about new products and it helps companies target people who are interested in their new products.

There was a fundraising concert last year for a local charity. I volunteered $300 and time to do Facebook advertising. It yielded several thousands of dollars in ticket sales. For $300 Facebook let me communicate to people who really cared about either the bands who were playing or to people who really cared about the project what was happening. Facebook let me target people who like Candelbox within 40 miles of the venue.

This is good. I don't understand why people hate on it so much.

<comment><USER11> > This is good. I don't understand why people hate on it so much.

I think following quote by Banksy/Sean Tejaratchi[1] explains why there are so strong feelings about advertizing. Of course, not _all_ advertizing is bad, as your example shows. Only the vast majority...

"People are taking the piss out of you every day. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs."

[1][https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Banksy](https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Banksy)

<comment><USER12> > You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property > rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever > they like with total impunity.

Completely wrong. Advertisers have to follow the law and that includes these laws. For example, if an advertisers uses your photo without your permission, you can sue them for copyright infringement.

<comment><USER11> Of course. Maybe it is good to note that the quote is from a graffiti artist around ten years ago. From his point of view advertisers are allowed almost anything compared to what he is allowed, which is pretty much nothing.

<comment><USER13> That's such a shallow and self-serving view, though.

Advertisers must negotiate and pay a property-owner for the right to display their ad. Graffiti artists are able to enter into similar agreements. When graffiti is authorized and/or invited by property owners, the artwork is welcome. When unauthorized, graffiti is usually no more than vandalism of someone else's property and thus infringement on their personal rights.

<comment><USER11> Yes, but how I read that sentence is that Banksy is talking about the relationship between the advertiser and the one seeing the advert, not the one selling the space to advert. _Even_ _if_ Banksy made all required agreements, he would still be severely limited regarding how he is allowed to use existing ads and e.g. communicate to the people criticism regarding the ads. I do not expect everyone to agree with his views, as this is pretty much the core of the IP discussion that has been going on for quite a long time.

(And just to note, I almost kept only the first paragraph of my original comment for why people have strong feelings against ads, but decided to include also the rest for some context.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Does anyone know of any startups or upcoming projects that are trying to compete with Facebook (i.e building a social network?).

I still haven't managed to wrap my head around how exactly facebook makes money. Do so many people actually click on ads? And this somehow makes billions? I find it very hard to imagine (for myself).

<comment><USER15> Yes people do click on Facebook ads and they convert extremely well when utilizing Facebooks targeting correctly. I have ran very targeted ads on FB that have achieved a 20% CTR and 10x ROI. This was for a product appealing to 8 to 12 year olds. I targeted Moms with kids in this age range in specific locations and who fell within a certain income.

Other small business ads such as local coffee shops, restaurants, etc. that advertise deals/coupons also convert very well and get shared like crazy.

<comment><USER16> Facebook has nearly two billion users. The average user only needs to make FB $20 through a few ad purchases made on a whim and you've already doubled FB's yearly revenue. I've spent more money using restaurant coupons that came through the mail. It wouldn't even be that hard to target the average HN user: "20% off a GTX 1080!" Boom, done.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I definitely notice facebook ads being more and more interesting to me. And even more interesting is that most ads are of the "need creation" type. Things I didn't really google anything about, or I never really thought as a product I would buy that show up and are actually relevant to me.

Last one I can remember is from yesterday a new startup doing good, cheap luggage (both carry on and bigger ones) which had me go to their website, spend some time looking at some of their stuff and made me think that I new a new carry on since then and I'm very close in puttin $250 in a carry on...

I guess I travel pretty frequently I don't know if facebook is able to say that I travel a lot by different locations I check in, or from my use of google flights and booking.com etc. but yeah, I never googled anything about luggage or buying anything else related to travelling (except hotel and plane tickets). So pretty interesting to see

</comment><comment><USER18> Yet another book out recently which explores this topic:

"Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy"

[https://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Math-Destruction-Increases- In...](https://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Math-Destruction-Increases- Inequality/dp/0553418815)

</comment><comment><USER19> Like everyone, we get a quite a bit of junk mail at our house. Some of it comes to "current resident", others target us by name. Broadly speaking it breaks into two groups. Things that are either geotargeted. (In my neighborhood, that would include ads such as "Why don't you lease a car through Uber and pay for it by driving!") and those that are more personally targeted (think credit card offers).

Today we got an interesting one. It was an offer to try Blue Apron. If we lived in Palo Alto, I'd chalk it up to geotargeting rich neighborhoods, but we don't live in one. Also, it came to wife who posts recipes on Facebook. It's enough to make us wonder if Blue Apron is somehow linking Facebook targeting data with real world names and addresses. Now I don't know if it's true, but if it is, that's creepy as fuck. That's autodoxing.

<comment><USER20> Germany has a law which allows you to adblock your mailbox. If you put a sticker on sayin 'no advertisements', you can sue any company that puts material without your name on it in.

<comment><USER21> Curious: How would companies that mail things to you know that there is a sticker on your (physical) mailbox?

Or do you mean that random companies are allowed to put things into your mailbox? In the US, only the US Postal Service is allowed to put things into your mailbox - not even FedEx or UPS are allowed to use it.

<comment><USER20> There are companies using the postal service to send advertisements such as catalogs to all households in an area. If the mail does not have your name on it (no name, or something like 'to the residents of your address') they can't put it in.

That holds for other random companies too. It's allowed in general to put paper in mailboxes I think, especially local businesses such as take-out food places do it occasionally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Any ideas how Facebook acquires information about things like home ownership? I don't recall filling that out as part of my profile.

Do they perhaps match users' identities to public records? Is it possible to look up home ownership given just a name, demographic information, and contact information?

<comment><USER23> "Facebook offers marketers the option to target ads according to data compiled by firms like Experian, Acxiom and Epsilon, which have historically fueled mailing lists and other sorts of offline efforts. These firms build their profiles over a period of years, gathering data from government and public records, consumer contests, warranties and surveys, and private commercial sources — like loyalty card purchase histories or magazine subscription lists."

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Contrary to popular opinion, people want to see ads.

A good ad is very much appreciated. This is why magazines still make money. This is why the SuperBowl is popular amongst non-football fans. Unfortunately, most ads are spammy which is why internet ads have earned this terrible reputation.

<comment><USER25> Super Bowl is sort of a good point, but what do you mean by magazines? Given a choice between a magazine with and without ads, are you saying some people would choose the one with ads? I don't think anybody seeks out ads, especially when they're paying for something. Super Bowl ads are only popular because they're essentially comedy skits and short films, they're basically free, and they're part of a cultural event that everyone you know watches. Almost nobody likes them because they appreciate quality marketing content or something.

<comment><USER26> > Almost nobody likes them because they appreciate quality marketing content > or something.

Quality marketing _is_ fun to watch.

Hence the people (including myself) who only watch the ads. It's hardly isolated to the Superbowl—look at the millions of views which some better ads get on YouTube.

Likewise, I definitely think for many people advertising is part of the magazine experience. I certainly don't mind some of the nicer ads in The New Yorker.

<comment><USER27> Yeah, but quality marketing is almost _always_ an isolated story/plot that has nothing to do with any products sold and they throw a logo and name on at the end.

Most of these "quality" commercials could swap out products and the exposure would be the same. People don't want to be sold something, they just want to absorb interesting content. That's what modern advertisement gets wrong.

<comment><USER26> > Yeah, but quality marketing is almost always an isolated story/plot that has > nothing to do with any products sold and they throw a logo and name on at > the end.

I think the Get a Mac campaign, for example, is both lots of fun and directly connected to the product being sold.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> "While you're logged onto Facebook, for instance, the network can see virtually every other website you visit. Even when you're logged off, Facebook knows much of your browsing: It's alerted every time you load a page with a "Like" or "share" button, or an advertisement sourced from its Atlas network."

If you want to enable sharing of your content on FB and other platforms easily but you do not want to support the tracking madness, you might want to use Shariff. It's setup to not send any tracking information to FB etc unless the user wants to share something.

[https://github.com/heiseonline/shariff](https://github.com/heiseonline/shariff)

</comment><comment><USER29> Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this article is how much data from _other sources_ Facebook apparently has access to now. How do these "data brokers" have such detailed information about things like purchasing power and spending habits to share with Facebook in the first place?

It seems to me that a lot of that must come from either retailers or financial services, and in either case questions should be asked about how much people understand about what data is being collected for purposes other than simply making the intended purchase and what is done with that data.

</comment><comment> et-al Well now they can definitely compete with eHarmony's 29 points of compatibility.

</comment><comment><USER30> I guess there must be a fine line between data with personal character like social security number for instance and private information as your current location.

Every coin had two faces, wonder how many faces bitcoin will have in the future

</comment><comment><USER31> Why did the submission title change? It was the article title before and I didn't find that remotely controversial. Did FB PR get in touch or something?

</comment><comment><USER32> I don't understand how people can build such a system. Yes, you. I don't understand how people in the thread are debating the merits of advertisement, as if that is what matters here. 1984 is here, and we all love Big Brother.

I mean this 100%: if you are participating in ad tech, collecting data on grandmothers in large databases, quit your job now. You are doing harm.

<comment><USER33> You just repeated your conclusion over and over without giving any non- emotional evidence that it's actually harmful.

I work for a company that makes a lot of money selling targeted ads. If I thought it was harming people, I wouldn't work there. But you haven't convinced me of that.

<comment><USER32> I'm not sure I intended to convince you, as opposed to merely expressing my emotional response, via this short Internet comment, and I'm not sure I can. I'm merely vocalizing my antipathy to a phenomenon I see around me every day, and that I feel is causing active harm, but that frequently passes without examination or moral outrage. I want you to know that I exist, that my position exists, first, since you should at least acknowledge that I am here in your own mind before you will consider my argument.

But in brief: while you are making a lot of money selling targeted ads by enabling an apparatus that collates detailed information about the lives of everyone on the planet, where they live, how they live, who they speak to, other people are creating machines and systems of murder that increase the power to kill and persecute based on this kind of surveillance.

The 20th century was replete with histories of people who used systems of surveillance to terrorize, persecute and kill hundreds of millions of people. The technology you are building is not only likely to be, but IS being used to this purpose today.

I implore you to stop. What you're building is a system of power and control. It is immensely dangerous. I don't imagine I will convince you through this, or any comment I can make here, but maybe I can provoke a kernel of doubt.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> So I guess we've moved past the part of the conversatio where we ask if this tracking is ok?</comment>


I just now tried ctrl+v on imgur homepage - <AUTHOR>

It works. Allows uploading of image from the clipboard. This changes everything. How did I not know about this? (I now see that this option is clearly stated on the upload screen). <comment><USER2> Even GitHub allows this while commenting on issues etc. You can either drag & drop, choose an image, or paste from clipboard.</comment>


Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary - <AUTHOR> Hi there. Is there an app that let you keep a work diary? All good diary apps seems to be limited to either mobile, or desktop. Best calendar web app seems to be all about organizing rather than keeping notes. Some ideas?<p>I am looking for app possibly with build in calendar that will let me to make quick notes for each day on what I did and how was my day work-wise. <comment><USER3> After many years of trying everything, a few conclusions have greatly helped: only PLAIN TEXT, cross platform and date stamp every line item (add to your dotvimrc or dotemacs or js bookmarklet)

mindmappers? - bought and tried them all cloud subscription notetakers - <USER2> pretty much all

Best to have data close at hand - Oh nooos, everything is locked in that proprietary app I bought in the 90's or cloud service I threw 3 yrs in.

After years with orgmode and vimwiki, I went back to Firefox [http://tiddlywiki.com/](http://tiddlywiki.com/) \+ vim as editor with [https://github.com/docwhat/itsalltext/](https://github.com/docwhat/itsalltext/)

if you live in emacs then stay in orgmode or deft.el for speed if vim, vimwiki

rsync is my friend

<comment><USER4> I agree. I've been keeping work/life journals using various systems and inevitably either the tool would become unsupported, my data would get corrupted, or the 'friction' of opening the application would eventually make me stop keeping track of things.

What really worked well for me instead has been to us Notational Velocity (nvALT to be specific). I create a new note for every day (titled YYYY-MM-DD), and especially for work notes I add a timestamp for every new entry for that day (ISO 8601).

The result is one folder full of text files that I can quickly update and search through using nvALT. I can use the same app for storing all kinds of other things, but I can also use any other text editing tool for my notes as well (grep, WriteRoom, Sublime Text with markdown plugins, etc.).

Currently I moved my 'journalling' into a locally running web tool, but because the source data is just text, 'migration' has been trivial. It's quite possible I'll move back to the plain text + nvALT solution though. I usually do. I just can't help tinkering.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use plain old Notepad on Windows. "F5" inserts the date and time which I then edit a bit. I wrote a program to total the hours and such.

I started keeping a log years ago because sometimes it seems like I can't remember what I had for lunch. :-) It a lifesaver when your boss wants to know what you did last week.

Keeping a daily log comes in handy. A former colleague needed to know the details of a project I worked on a few years ago. I had him search my old logs and the answer was there (weird complier switch for using QT).

<comment><USER6> I've been using Notepad for quite a while and had no idea you could use F5 to insert a timestamp. Thank you for this.

<comment><USER5> Don't feel bad, I discovered it by accident. I think a cat walked on the keyboard one day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I recommend DayOne, both available for Mac and iOS. Recently I've begun recording done MITs in Rescuetime, because I don't want to make time for writing a log but do need to jot down 1-2 lines on accomplishments. You could also just use a text file, or Trello. Oh and DayOne has calendar and sync features.

<comment><USER8> DayOne integrates with the excellent jrnl project.

[https://maebert.github.io/jrnl/](https://maebert.github.io/jrnl/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I use plain text file.

I use the following format:

      ----

      2015 September
      Weekends/Holidays - 13,15,20,23
      Wasted days - 26,27
      Project{Name}/Component{Name}
      01 - what I did
      02 - what I did
      ...
      Project{Name}/Component{Name}
      14 - what I did
      16 - what I did

      2015 October
      ....

      ----

So, I have a breakdown of my worklog by days and grouped by months. Multi- month components/projects have an entry in each month. Holidays and weekends are noted down for me to quickly know why there's a gap in the middle of working on a component. Whole days wasted due to meetings are also noted down.

</comment><comment><USER10> [http://orgmode.org/](http://orgmode.org/)

<comment><USER11> +1 orgmode is the way to go. Everything is kept in a text file and you can have multiple text files. It's a bit of a learning curve but a quick tutorial and some practice can get you going.

[http://orgmode.org/worg/org- tutorials/orgtutorial_dto.html](http://orgmode.org/worg/org- tutorials/orgtutorial_dto.html)

The tab effects are pretty cool. It's the best way to track your ideas, tasks, notes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I know you're asking for an app, but I just would like to suggest a good ol fashioned diary. I use this method and really like it, you can sketch up abstract models of your ideas and implementations, not to mention jott down thoughts and algorithms easily enough. I really like the feel of a pen on real paper, I feel I even remember better (I know on what part of the page I wrote something, and can remember the dates, for some reason I dont have this kind of recall when typing - probably due to all the noise and multitasking) when I write things down by hand. I use this method and like it so much Id never consider going digital.

</comment><comment><USER13> I think Evernote might be able to do the trick.

You can put the notes under a notebook, and then there's an "Expanded cards view" which comes sort of close to a real calendar.

Example: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2skt4exf5eg66e/Screenshot%202015-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2skt4exf5eg66e/Screenshot%202015-10-20%2012.59.43.png?dl=0)

</comment><comment><USER14> I prefer a combination of two methods:

Can't beat a regular pen and paper for quick recording of the micro-tasks you do to answer the question of "what did I do today, what advanced, what didn't and why?"

For things that need to be referenced or searchable, a timestamped flat-file that you synchronize is the way to go, especially useful inside of your git repo

</comment><comment><USER15> I really like using a calendar for this. I use Google Calendar and iCloud in Sunrise, on my MacBook, iPhone, and iPad.

Events get a title that provide the project. They then get more detailed in the description. I also have a Google Apps Script that pulls this information into a spreadsheet so it's easy for me to report on my time.

What I like about this system is that it's pretty universal, fits into my current workflow, and it's flexible. Every platform has a calendar app, I don't have to do anything fancy to get my time tracker up and running on a new device. I'm already using my calendar to tell me what things I'm doing today, now I'm also using it to tell me what I did yesterday. Changing dates, times, and descriptions is easy, you just edit a calendar event, you can even do it on the train home when you realise that you've forgotten to update.

</comment><comment><USER16> I just found out about orgmode and use that on a text file in sublime using this plugin [https://github.com/danielmagnussons/orgmode](https://github.com/danielmagnussons/orgmode)

</comment><comment><USER17> I recommend [http://itemzapp.com](http://itemzapp.com) \- it can be used like a notebook, and it has not only calendar but also "someday" and "overdue" column. The cutomized view might be also handy. It's more productivity app, but it's web and it's easier than most of the organizing apps like wrike or asana. I'd suggest you try it and I hope it helps :)

Good luck finding the right app!

</comment><comment><USER18> I use a combination of Outlook and Onenote. I'd really suggest trying outlook tasks. I was hesitant to start having build my dream spreadsheet over the years. But its great for scheduling tasks + blocking out time in the calendar if that's useful.

Onenote I use for all note keeping. The structure is different so you need to think how best to layout the note keeping first and then its a good platform.

</comment><comment><USER19> I use TimeTrap ([https://github.com/samg/timetrap](https://github.com/samg/timetrap)) for keeping track of my time and pen/paper (Bullet Journal) for my work journal. In TimeTrap, I give the name of my current task in the notes and that will point me towards specific notes in my notebook.

</comment><comment><USER20> Google Keep : [http://keep.google.com/](http://keep.google.com/)

</comment><comment><USER21> My first suggestion would have been DayOne but since your on windows that's ruled that out! (or moo.do) I think evernote is your best bet - maybe using a digital bullet journal style?

Or just keep a bullet journal open on your desk and photograph the pages into evernote at the end of each day. (That's what I do)

</comment><comment><USER22> if you type .LOG on the first line of Notepad, it will also put a timestamp (just like if you had pressed "F5") [https://support.microsoft.com/en- us/kb/260563](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/260563)

</comment><comment><USER23> Surprised no one mentioned iDoneThis.com I use it to keep a log of accomplishments of the day. You get an email at a set time (4:30pm) is what I set mine to. For journaling I use a emacs journal mode. It lets you create a text file with the date stamp.

To organise notes it's org mode all the way.

</comment><comment><USER24> Please feel free to checkout Devarist, it's an app we built for exactly this purpose.

[https://devarist.com](https://devarist.com)

It's for capturing quick daily notes, supports Markdown, Screenshots, export, daily standup view...

</comment><comment><USER25> Workflowy :) [https://workflowy.com/](https://workflowy.com/)

You can use either the app or the web version. Best TODO list I've seen so far (simplicity, ux, etc)

</comment><comment><USER26> I've been using Yast [https://www.yast.com/](https://www.yast.com/) for about 5 years now and I still love the simplicity.

</comment><comment><USER27> A good text editor! Make macro to open a text file named with the date of the current week. Make another macro to insert the current day and time and a new line.

</comment><comment><USER28> Try [https://github.com/rodrigoreyes79/ttlogger](https://github.com/rodrigoreyes79/ttlogger)

</comment><comment><USER29> Moo.do - Organize everything in a tree:) [https://www.moo.do/](https://www.moo.do/)

<comment><USER30> Thanks for that, it looks great.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Timely is alright, though free tier only supports a low number of 'projects'. Depends how you want to use it I guess.

</comment><comment><USER32> Any.do helps you and reminds you your daily and future task. Also "Discipline" should always be imposed.

</comment><comment><USER33> I use markdown text files and display them as a wiki with yellow cms on my desktop.

not too calendary though

</comment><comment><USER34> for plain time tracking im rather happy with [https://toggl.com/](https://toggl.com/)

</comment><comment><USER35> OneNote</comment>


George Hotz: Fully Self-Driving Cars Are a Scam and Silicon Valley Needs to Die - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnh5TQ60hek <comment><USER2> As much as I'd like self-driving tech, the price seems too high. High resolution urban area maps of that need constant updating? Built by and controlled by multi-national IT corporations known for no regard for privacy? How about we pour that research and investments into bettering the public transportation? Would be good enough for most people.

<comment><USER3> A massive barrier to this is that people generally seem unhappy with the fact that public transit means they need to sit next to other members of the public. Rightly so, to a degree - our fellow humans can be quite rude or unsightly or dangerous at times, and most of us have probably done some shitty things in public by accident a few times. So if you offer them a pipe-dream of private automated transit instead, that's a lot more appealing than dropping 8 figures on slight improvements to BART or their local buses.

The area I grew up in had a light rail network that was supposed to expand to my community college within 3 years, and in practice it took over 10. One source of delay was that communities rejected the expansion, and one reason among others was a claim that Local Crime would 'ride the rails' to their previously quiet neighborhoods. Sometimes people don't want to share space with their neighbors.

<comment><USER4> the failure of public transport in the US is not a good argument against public transport in general due to its large success elsewhere in the world.

<comment><USER5> We have excellent public transportation where I live (Norway), but after I got kids I needed a car. It's not just about public transportation being a success.

We try to use public transportation as much as possible but sometimes it just isn't possible. I can't carry 4 bags of groceries on a public bus while having two kids in tow after an 8 hour work day.

The focus should be making the cars pollute less not remove them (except in city centres where they do not belong).

<comment><USER6> Having a bunch of people and things to move around is a good reason for a vehicle, because you're using it. Being a single occupant in a midsized something filling up roads is what folks are generally concerned with first.

Congestion is a big issue and until cars are 0 emissions, putting more on the road will bring more pollution. It will also mean building more roads, which further increases our environmental impact.

Best to both improve that through regulation and industry response, and actively work on expanding multi-modal mass transit options. The goal should still be fewer cars overall along with fantastically desirable other transport options -- we should (in a good way) want you to be disappointed when you _have_ to get in your car instead of taking the mass transit options.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice to see Hotz own up to his own hubris here and share what seems like a pretty level-headed opinion on the space after trying to put his money where his mouth was.

EDIT: Having watched further in the video I think the best point he makes here is that the cost part of it simply doesn't make sense - the cars are still super expensive and good level 4 autonomy relies on things like carefully generated, high-precision map data that can easily become inaccurate and also are very expensive to produce.

<comment><USER7> Can you imagine the guy that invented the locomotive that told investors that it is the future you only need to build specific rails for them to work and you have to build miles and miles of them and no one can use those rails as they are meant only for trains and you also need to maintain them.

<comment><USER8> Rails and train cars were relatively old technology. By the time the steam locomotive was invented, there were already horse drawn trains [1]. So your example is not quite backed by history.

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_horse- drawn_railways](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_horse-drawn_railways)

<comment><USER7> Even now we have a lot of maps, roads, electronics and much more already made.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> That was quite an entertaining video. He mostly argues the level 4/5 driver free taxi type stuff is a scam because it won't work in the near term. He's a launching an open source android phone based driver assist system that tracks the drivers eyes to check they are paying attention to the road also.

</comment><comment><USER10> First statement is not a secret to many people who remotely works in the so called AI industry.

Second one is an opinion.

Overall, Hotz is a celebrity, he says stuff, some of them are right some of them doesn't matter. As regards to this interview, not a lot information out there really.

</comment><comment><USER11> He's not wrong. Self driving cars will (at least for the foreseeable next 20 years) be stuck to operating in simple non-changing environments like the arid southwest. They simply cannot work anywhere there is snow.

</comment><comment><USER12> I always thought hotz was cooler as an actual hacker in the old sense. He's got that rogue spirit

<comment><USER13> That's the big age old irony of this orange site. Some say Musk is cool and others say 'Hotz was cooler' but both say outlandish claims and yet still create something real which is better than vapourware. However, for drive assistance software today? Tesla and Commai are both still considered as unsafe.

Realistically, the industry is still immature and now at the assisted-driving level and unfortunately some users still conflate that with 'self-driving' due to the industry's own hype of achieving level 4 self-driving capabilities. Tesla and Comma.ai directly tell the user to keep their eyes on the road, whereas the others do not, yet Tesla drivers keep getting killed. The same is possible for Comma.ai and I would consider both software as unsafe for now, but those who don't instruct the user to keep their eyes on the wheel as very unsafe.

But they are at least aware of this. Some users however...

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I like that he makes an "i use arch btw" joke during the interview.

</comment><comment><USER15> Just because you failed completing a project doesn't mean everyone else's doing it wrong. I know sometimes it's really frustrating but that's life.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm old enough to remember when geohot was loudly claiming that he'd cracked full self driving but was shutting it down without selling the assets because the government is mean.

It was hilarious to see most of HN treating that obvious nonsense as credible. This is hilarious too, because of the context around his previous claims.

<comment><USER17> > It was hilarious to see most of HN treating that obvious nonsense as > credible.

I remember it very differently. Maybe there was more than one post on HN, but it seemed like everybody was eviscerating him and basically calling him a fraud.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12840368](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12840368)

In fact, going through those comments now (I've only skimmed) I can't find anyone actually defending the guy.

<comment><USER18> Yeah but check when he first started: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12492566](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12492566)

> Surprised with all the skepticism here. It's not perfect but this guy is a > hardware, software, and AI genius and this could very well speed up the self > driving race by several years or even more

> Jailbreaking cars now? Good for him! Can't wait to see this in action.

> Go Go GeoHotz!

> Pretty exciting for sure.

> If it really works like they say and can be added to any car, that's pretty > huge. I'd definitely buy one. I wonder what it takes to install it ...

There are lots of skeptical comments too - maybe 50-50. I think it was more positive on Reddit though.

<comment><USER17> There's a difference between when geohot made an announcement that he's working on a hard problem like you referenced, and when he said he'd solved the problem (which would _trivially_ make him a billionaire) but just couldn't be bothered to deal with regulation like OP mentioned.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> George makes the economic points but like most hackers/devs fails to see the humanist point (something I am learning to appreciate).

Forget about the big money, Elon Musks and the "world-changing" tech. Behind it all is a dangerous precedent to automate away our daily lifes, byte by byte.

10 years ago I had instant messenger, basic satnav, email, holiday bookings, price comparisons and online shopping.

Nowadays I have dating algorithms, live satnav, home automation, voice assistants, smart motorways, groceries and weekly sundries handled by amazon prime, cars collecting telemetry on my driving habits.

These things are influencing or completely removing our brains need to make decisions.

Through this, comes an easier, safer or happier life, however you have to think, at what cost?

Do we become dependant on machines and evolve towards this "singularity" that we hear mentioned around here often. Or do we become willing hostages to our technology?

<comment><USER20> I agree with Hotz, but self-driving cars are an unambiguous win. Way more people die from car crashes than most ways to die; there's a moral imperative to take away control from humans in that regard.

Dating apps are easy: don't use them. Bars still exist. Voice assistants are pretty easy to not use.

Cars are not, because cars aren't consensual. Kids don't get a choice as to whether or not they get to ride in cars. You take a bike, regulators have made it intentionally dangerous for people on bicycles so cars could continue to rule the world. Go for a walk and most sidewalks are in terrible condition outside of a few areas in the United States. Public transit has been systematically defunded, partially because of cars. In America, most people have no choice.

Automate away, there's plenty to think about.

<comment><USER19> >Way more people die from car crashes than most ways to die; there's a moral imperative to take away control from humans in that regard.

How many self driving cars are on the road vs. non autonomous cars on the road?

As a software developer, we are taught to look at the root cause. In your case you are saying the human is the root cause but that is too shallow.

The root cause, is why a human was in that situation in the first place - stress, crazy work hours, car maintenance etc.

<comment><USER20> _The root cause, is why a human was in that situation in the first place - stress, crazy work hours, car maintenance etc._

All three of these are solved with self-driving cars. The human is the least- manageable part of the equation. Take out the human, stress doesn't matter. Them drinking doesn't matter. Them having crazy work hours or whatever excuse they'll use doesn't matter. With proper self-driving cars, them being conscious eventually doesn't matter.

This is one of the few problems that can actually be solved with a mostly- technical (including law as tech, because law is programming) solution: take away control of vehicles from humans.

The root cause is that humans are not good at handling motor vehicles going at high speeds repetitively on average. There are too many factors to cover. It's 40,000 people dead and millions injured in the United States every year over something that can be mitigated.

<comment><USER19> Ok my guy, lets see how this rolls (excuse the pun) in 20 years from now when my Bezos Mk2 hydrocell vehicle running Microsoft Car SP3 has a glitch in its LIDAR driver...

<comment><USER20> Congratulations, you picked proprietary software and bet on LIDAR, then died because of those choices. The death count is still significantly lower than it was in 2020, and life is considered better for most.

For a serious answer: even if the life-threatening crash-caused-by-glitch rate is 1/10,000, which is unlikely on its own, that's still giving you better results than human drivers, where the rate of death (keep in mind, deaths, not injuries) is around 12/100,000 drivers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I can't watch the video atm but I'm incredibly perplexed as to why the hype around self driving cars began in the first place. To me, even if it does become a common technology at some point, it's nothing more than a "hey-check- this-cool-thing" gimmick. For end consumers anyway. If my car has full self driving capabilities, I can't see myself using it more than once every 3 years.

<comment><USER3> The idea of not having to drive to get somewhere is really appealing if it doesn't involve having to wait at a bus stop and sit next to a stranger on the bus. People in many environments - especially silicon valley - spend a ton of time commuting every day, either in their own car, on a corporate shuttle or on public transit. So if you tell them they can sit in the privacy of their own car while it takes them to/from work and relax, you have their attention.

Of course, that doesn't mean it's actually a good idea and it doesn't mean it's possible - but it's a seductive idea if you're someone who hates commuting, and many people really hate it because it eats up a chunk of their life.

<comment><USER4> I'm one of the people commuting 3 hours per day in the bay.

I don't know what's the solution but right now the problem with commuting with a shuttle is not solved by replacing it with a car, the roads are super bumpy and the traffic is bad.

What I wish was for a subway to take me from SF to south bay. No traffic, stable, fast.

<comment><USER22> No snark intended, but 3 hours per day is a tremendous expenditure of your time... is that really preferable to working close to where you live or living close to where you work?

Other than a brief period where I was commuting between Florida and DC I've never lived more than a 15 minute drive from my office (or worked from home)... I can't imagine sinking 3 hours a day into a commute. There are plenty of decisions in my life that I'd make differently in a redo, but the commute distance decisions are not among them.

<comment><USER3> It's prohibitively expensive - if possible at all - to live close to the main campus of a company like Google or Facebook. If you're lucky your commute is maybe 30 minutes, if you're unlucky it's much longer. Self-inflicted harm, perhaps, but if you're already working there cutting down your commute basically means you need to quit your job because most teams won't let you go full/heavy WFH.

<comment><USER22> Up until a couple years ago I used to live within a very short commute from the google campus. My rent was ~$2000/month for a two bedroom apartment in Mountain View. I can't imagine that SF is much cheaper.

<comment><USER4> Can you really get this in MV now? There's no way you would even get a one bed room with this money in SF.

<comment><USER22> Yes. Older buildings, nothing fancy. Availability of 2br seems kinda tight so you won't get a great price if you're in a hurry.

Sunnyvale is even less expensive.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How "Open" Is Google Really?  [video] - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2010/05/23/google-openness-video/

<comment><USER2> Openness is good. Radicalization of the ideology is not. If you are not willing to compromise you are no different than people who support the other extreme of the ideology. We need to meet in the middle, where it helps everyone. IMO YMMV

Google is in a no-win situation.

If they had all software closed, we would have treated them the same way we think of MSFT. In their hybrid form, where some of their services/software is open-source, some of us accuse them of playing the field because at the end of the day it helps their business, which it does, both in terms of goodwill and adoption.

They will never make everyone happy, but I think they can do certain things to be more open. For instance, they can open-source their search engine, gmail, blogger, docs (and other closed) platforms which are a "lite" version of the current form. IE, they can release a google search version that is one year older than the current version google is using, than they can release a new version every-year which will be one year older than the current version.

They could also not release some critical aspect of the software, like pagerank algo, spam detection. Something like what reddit does now.

Obviously it will not make everyone (or even Stallman) happy, but it will be better than what it is now and if anyone can pull this off, Google can.

<comment><USER3> I don't think there's anything wrong with strict personal adherence to an ideology. I greatly admire Stallman for the sarcrifices he's made in this regard (for instance using a terrible laptop only because it's got open firmware, see: <http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/>)

Where it all comes unstuck is when someone tries to force their strict ideology on others. Stallman calling me immoral for not open sourcing my code gets roughly the same reaction from me as some guy on the street would if he screamed at me that I'm selfish for not donating all my stuff to charity.

Or when Christians tell me to repent or I'm going to burn in hell.

<comment> loup-vaillant You shouldn't get offended when someone calls you immoral when you don't think you are. It just means your moral systems don't match.

Also, calling "strict ideology" the moral system Stallman is trying to spread is a stretch. His moral system really is quite reasonable. You probably know the propaganda by heart, but anyway…

Unlike your stuff, software is abundant. Give it to charity, and you still have it. Such a fundamental difference calls for a fundamentally different moral system. Stallman found a suitable one: it is applied to scientific research: results should be public knowledge, so everyone can benefit from them. Under such moral system, it is indeed immoral to make proprietary software.

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure I agree that I shouldn't be offended. If someone tells me that I'm being immoral _by their moral code_ , I don't have a problem with that. But to simply say that I'm acting immorally is to assert that their moral code is the standard by which everyone should be judged, which in my opinion is offensive.

<comment> loup-vaillant The problem is, if I think that doing something is evil, I probably don't want _anyone_ to do that: that would be evil to me. I see few ways around that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wouldn't be too hard on Google, because they're probably one of the less evil of the well known software companies and have done a lot to support free software. Relative to Microsoft or Apple they look positively saintly.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't get the point. Openness really doesn't mean you keep your bank locker open in a street and ask people to pick any amount of money they want. Openness should be viewed in the right perspective & context.

</comment><comment><USER6> This extends far beyond Google. There's this bizarre duality at play where f/oss is positioned as the future but websites/web applications are mysteriously exempt. Even leading sites that tout they're built on f/oss stacks are inherently or most often absolutely closed.

</comment><comment><USER7> Video proving Google openness <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt2NJRybcxE>

</comment><comment><USER8> So this program, he talks about that will block non-free non-trivial javascript; thereby stopping Google docs from working...

Isn't the easier way just not to use services like Google docs? :) (i.e. with non-free non-trivial javascript)

</comment><comment><USER9> Can people start posting a warning when there isn't a transcript, like [no transcript] or something?

<comment><USER10> [Interviewer]: So, Google claims to offer more freedom than apple

[Stallman]: It's hard not to respect freedom a little more than Apple does, since Apple is about as nasty as exists in world today. Google does some things that are good and some things that are bad. I think it's usually best to look at the various things a company does and judge each of them separately. That way we put more pressure on a copmany to change the things that are bad. Now Google develops a lot of free software and funds substantial amount of free software developers, that's good. Then, look at the Google services. Some of them work okay with free software, and there's nothing particularly bad about them. Nearly all of them, maybe all of them, try to install a piece of non-free javascript program to the user's browser. But many of the services will work okay even if you block the JavaScript. Some javascript code does things that are so simple that we can think of it just slightly extended markup for the HTML, but that's not always true -- some JavaScript is quite complicated, and it's not acceptable for that to be non- free. So, somebody's working on a program, which I think will probably be an added feature on NoScript that will make it possible to block all non-free non-trivial JavaScript. I think for instance that Google Docs won't work if you don't allow a half a meg of a JavaScript program to be installed.

<comment><USER9> Thank you!</comment></comment></comment>


About Racism, Discrimination And Louis Vuitton - <AUTHOR> http://www.bebelissimo.com/about-racism-discrimination-and-louis-vuitton/ <comment> onreact-com While this is a good article I don't really get the connection between the "gypsie" part of it and the Louis Vuitton brand.</comment>


With Google's My Location, Who Needs a GPS? - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2007/11/28/google-my-location/

<comment><USER2> When the iPhone came out I had a great idea to actually implement this... unfortunately there were too many road blocks, the main one being that the carriers don't tell you where the cell towers are. <http://tlrobinson.net/blog/?p=24>

A company called Navizon ( <http://www.navizon.com/> ) has such a product, and they rely on users to wardrive for WiFi and cell towers.

<comment><USER3> So it is a database lookup system based on some kind of tower id?

I was just wondering about that. It would really make sense if the GSM/CDMA standards had the tower pass their position to the cellphones, but I guess that was not something the people designing the systems had in mind back in the days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Really nice! Seems that they have also made a Symbian S60 version of the app, used to be Java only (J2ME).

Finds my position in Finland with ~1 km accuracy, and it is actually quite fun to see where the tower you are connected to is. For me that changes when I change my position in my kitchen...

</comment><comment><USER4> Anyone know how to try this on an iphone?

</comment><comment><USER5> What phone and plan do I buy to get this? I'm confused.

<comment><USER3> Just google for it? I think this answers your question:

[http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=39...](http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=39891&topic=9120)

\--

Which phones does Google Maps support?

Google Maps works with the following devices:

        * Most Java-enabled (J2ME) mobile phones.
        * Palm devices with Palm OS 5 and above.
        * All color BlackBerry devices.
        * Windows Mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0 and above.
        * Symbian Series 60 3rd edition devices.

If your device is supported and you have a data plan, visit www.google.com/gmm from a mobile web browser to download Google Maps. If you're not sure if Google Maps will work on your device, visit www.google.com/gmm and we'll perform a quick check to see if your phone is supported.

Note: Google Maps doesn't work with BREW-enabled devices. Some mobile services providers may restrict data usage by applications. We recommend contacting your mobile provider to confirm the details of your data plan.

\--

<comment><USER5> Right, I saw that but what exactly is a data plan, and what phone plans have it? I didn't see it on Verizon, Tmobile or ATT's sites. Maybe I'm just confused.</comment></comment></comment>


We're Bad at Interviewing Developers – Interview with Kerri Miller - <AUTHOR> http://blog.fogcreek.com/were-bad-at-interviewing-developers-and-how-to-fix-it-interview-with-kerri-miller/ <comment><USER3> As a non-CS graduate looking for my first full-time job as a Junior Developer I can only ask one thing of prospective employers. Please give clear feedback that will help give direction to the candidate if you reject them.

I have done a number of code challenges and while I don't mind doing the challenges (I look at them as training) and I can always create a working solution there is nothing worse than receiving a simple 'we won't be continuing with your application' email with no other feedback. If you are going to take up a candidates time with a code challenge the least you can do is help the candidate become a better developer by providing constructive feedback. You owe it to the applicant and also to the community at large.

I have had about a 50/50 experience in this regard. Of all the companies that reject me with good feedback I am left feeling content that I have improved as a candidate throughout the process. The others who don't provide feedback leave me feeling like I've wasted some time that would be better spent reading about best practices and techniques or developing my own software.

<comment><USER4> Your mistake was doing them in the first place. Code challenges and whiteboards are for cattle and cubicle cannon fodder at big companies.

Show them your github, credits in some os software, side projects, dont be another no name code monkey.

<comment><USER3> I'm thinking of taking this approach in future. I might not be the perfect dev yet but I have taught myself to build reasonably complex apps in 18 months and already have a track record of developing tech solutions to business problems. As a Junior dev I expect to be taught best practices and to be continually learning on a very steep curve for the foreseeable future. The fact that I have gotten this far on my own steam should say enough about who I am. The interview is useful purely from a cultural fit perspective.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The golden nugget for me was the suggestion to ask the candidate to teach you something.

I'm terrible at operating under pressure and generally need to take my time with any problem I'm given. Unless you actually work in an environment where it's critical find the optimal solution to a large constraint search problem in 30 minutes or the tower blows up I don't see what the difference is to taking a couple of hours to find the solution. The only way I'd be able to do that is if I'd seen the exact problem before a couple of days ago and can recall the solution from memory. For problems I haven't encountered before I need a pad of paper and make a lot of mistakes before getting to the right answer.

I'm just slow, deliberate and not well equipped to win at Jeopardy. It's not my bag.

But if you asked me to teach you something I could go on for hours on procedural generation algorithms, pseudo-random number algorithms, neat tricks from old languages, compilers, macros... yadda yadda.

<comment><USER6> > Unless you actually work in an environment where it's critical find the > optimal solution to a large constraint search problem in 30 minutes or the > tower blows up I don't see what the difference is to taking a couple of > hours to find the solution.

Not to mention, if this scenario is frequent enough that you really need to screen for it in interviews there is probably something fundamentally wrong with the way you are running your business.

<comment><USER5> And yet it's bewilderingly common to use it as a low-pass filter.

The reason I like the suggestion is that it asks the candidate to show you how something works which seems like it would demonstrate their ability to understand a topic, how they approach it, and importantly whether they can communicate what they know in a way that other people can understand.

I'm more interested in whether a candidate can write a decent bug report and form a coherent patch than how many puzzle solutions they've memorized to slip through my filters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It tires me that there is so much talk about the problem of hiring developers and very little about the problem of "what do you do once you hire them?"

That is, they may treat you like a rockstar when they sign you, but then if you complain because you got a crappy Dell laptop that was a hand-me-down from a salesman who couldn't sell, that your build process takes 40 minutes and that this could cut that to 20 minutes. Of course they have the "sick system" excuse that there is no money, but you get blamed for complaining about the 40 minute build, and then you get blamed that it takes forever to do anything because you are always waiting for that 40 minute build to finish and the system is such a house of cards that if you work on anything else in parallel whatever you would have learned from that 40 minute build is invalidated.

<comment><USER8> It sounds like your perspective is colored by one particularly bad experience.

Every company I've interviewed at definitely seemed to make developer happiness a priority (especially the smallest ones). Even the smallest of startups (ie. one guy with a tiny seed round) understand that buying your developers great gear is an essential investment.

<comment><USER6> Try working for the defense industry. They tend to treat engineers like they should be lucky to have a job.

<comment><USER9> Depends on the contract =)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Contract to perm is the best way by far.

In the UK the contract rates are typically significantly higher, so even if the person isn't offered a job at the end they aren't bothered. Everyone wins

<comment><USER11> Isn't it probably also due to the fact that the UK offers unemployment and healthcare benefits that far surpass what is offered here in the States? So that there is a safety if at the end of the contract you are left with no offer.

<comment><USER10> I expect so, but you can also get double your salary with tax breaks when contracting. So it would be easy to cover private health care etc with the additional money.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I had written a large chunk but removed it after reading most of the article. I will go out on a limb and simply comment that I felt the interview where I'm currently at was done correctly, and addressed most of the issues that this article raises. As a note, I was hired as a sysadmin/dba/devops for a smallish startup.

They brought me in for a total of ~20 hours of interview, and in that time I discussed work-related topics with every single C-level. I went through a standard interview with questions, and then a longer skill test that included every current engineer at the company.

For the last few hours they paired me up with a current engineer to work on some database issues they'd been having.

I've been very happily employed here now for around 7 months, and after adding this company to my resume I've had quite a lot of offers on LinkedIn. I feel nothing other than "Oh, this company has offered me an interview, that's really cool!" towards these offers.

I think it's one of the best things in the world to have that feeling, and I wish everyone who was hired in an engineer position felt the same way.

</comment><comment><USER13> _> We don't do a really good job of hiring with intent. We decide that we need more people, but we don't do a really good job of figuring out what we need those people to actually do, and who we actually need to hire._

I don't understand what she's talking about here. Every time I see a job opening, the software hiring manager and the team peers know there's a pain point that needs to be solved. E.g. "We need to an embedded C programmer to make this firmware talk to our USB protocol". "We need a developer to port the Java code to Go." "We need to expose our mainframe transactions as a REST API", etc.

Look at the previous "Who's Hiring" thread. Do those posters look like they post the job slots without a clear intent?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10152809](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10152809)

 _> just automatically do, and we don't think about, "Well, what questions are we trying to answer by asking a candidate to solve a problem?" Are we dinging people for trivia questions, for not remembering, "Oh, I need this third option flag, or an obscure method from a core library."_

I'm not sure where her experience with whiteboarding comes from. In my experience, companies use whiteboarding to sketch out algorithmic thinking. Whiteboarding is the opposite of reciting trivia such as the " _3rd parameter to an obscure library function_ " Interviewers don't care about perfect syntax or missing semicolons.

 _> Instead, I really want to focus on questions that are asking about decisions that they've made, what choices have they made, and what choices would they make again in the future? Are they reflective about mistakes that they've made? Are candidates looking for opportunities to improve, and how do they actually go about it? Do they make plans for themselves, like how they would improve a certain skill set, whether that be a technical skill set or a more soft skill set, for example, management, or project shepherding for example. Those are the kinds of questions that I think really get you at the heart of not necessarily what somebody knows, but what they're capable of._

Those questions are fine but it's wrong to prioritize them over concrete programming questions. Companies are trying to evaluate if the candidate _can actually program_ and those "Emotional Quotient" questions she favors are easy to bs about. Instead, companies need to assess real programming skills and they can start with FizzBuzz and then move on to more comprehensive evaluations -- whether it's the take home programming problem or the onsite whiteboard algorithms discussion.

<comment><USER14> I'm hiring right now, and I read a lot of job descriptions before I wrote ours. [1] I've definitely seen what she's talking about: generic go-hire- engineers job descriptions. I also think the kind of thing you describe, hiring for a very specific technology, is a similar failure mode. The technological pain point of the moment rarely lasts; the more stable needs are actually organizational. For example, over the next couple of years I want to be able to hire junior engineers, so right now I'm much less concerned with a particular technology stack than with someone who really likes mentoring and working in closely collaborative environments. That way I can bring the junior people rapidly up to speed.

I also have seen whiteboard coding interviews where interviewers are inclined to ding people for not remembering small details, so it's a legitimate concern.

[1] [http://www.codeforamerica.org/jobs/chime/](http://www.codeforamerica.org/jobs/chime/)

<comment><USER15> I've been explicitly told that the code should compile, as I write it (Hi Microsoft!). That's daft, and I told the interviewer that that is not how I think and did it my way.

<comment><USER16> I would ask for a white-board compiler, then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I know this is OT but on the off chance someone from FC sees this- these videos are painful to watch with the low frame rate.

I'm glad this one has the soundcloud link. Some of the others I've enjoyed don't and it's much easier to just listen.

</comment><comment><USER18> Testing for communication skills is awesome advice and probably rarely ever consciously focused on.

<comment><USER19> As a related note, the best predictor of university physics scores is high school English scores.

Why? Because physics is about making a conceptual model. i.e. telling a _story_ about a problem. And then solving it.

For interviewing, communications skills are a must. People will be working in a team, and must be able to explain themselves. And get along with others.

Another thing rarely checked for is the flip side... understanding explanations. If you have to explain something four times to a candidate, you'll probably have to explain things 1000 times on the job.

<comment><USER15> I don't think so. The best predictor of university physics scores is...wait for it.... university physics scores.

Likewise, the best predictor of on job performance is on job performance.

If this isn't a recent grad, interviewing on the resume will tell you more any proxy for on job performance. Sure, people may be seeking to step up from a drudgery type job, but I think that usually comes out (citation needed, I admit). "I wanted to replace the terrible X with the wonderful Y, but I was over ruled".

"question about why this was rational".

"rational explanation ensues"

"want a job here?"

I admit it ain't perfect, people lie on resumes and take credit for other people's work, but we all know the whiteboard tests and other things are just voodoo. Google's hiring data proves it out - only one person in their company was able to give better than chance ratings based on interviews.

And, who really cares about resume inflation? I'm scrupulously honest in my resume, but if someone can describe all the trade offs, costs, and benefits of an architecture from a previous job, and answer speculative questions about it ("what would you change if you needed to scale X"), then heck, they can probably do the job. If I understand engineering and am an active contributor, what more do you want? No, "doesn't get nervous during a highly artificial situation of whiteboarding" is not a rational want, since it will not add 1 dollar to your bottom line.

<comment><USER6> > I admit it ain't perfect, people lie on resumes and take credit for other > people's work

What frustrates me is that, as an interviewer, you can catch out all but the pathological liars if you know what you are doing. The problem is, very few interviewers in this industry know what they are doing. From the transcript intro: "We typically don't get trained on interviewing". _That_ is a glaring, fundamental problem.

Worse are those who treat interviewing like a distraction from their "real" job. Those people do not belong anywhere near an interview table.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I love the idea of asking the candidate to "teach me something, preferably something nontechnical."

It sounds like a great way to test for communication skills while also learning something about the person's interests. Plus it could make the process a lot more fun for the interviewer.

However I expect it would depend as much on the personality of the interviewer as on the interviewee. And at least in the US, it could have legal implications if you decide not to hire someone because they didn't have anything "interesting" to teach you.

<comment><USER21> I'm one of those people who take a long time to warm up to others. I'm not someone's buddy just because we happen to be in the same situation, place or because we agree on something.

So this exercise would be artificial and forced. And, yes, for sure, I can put on a show, but it's not me and I'd be doing it because that the game or expectation and further, I think it's rather beside the point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> perhaps you should not hire developers but people who will own a whole "vertical slice" i.e. do what typically is sliced horizontally between business - product owner - analyst - architect - developer - <USER2>

<comment><USER14> I like the spirit of this, in that I personally enjoy working some in other areas. Plus, I think dividing out work like "analyst" and "architect" can be super dangerous: it shifts individual focus from project success to looking like an awesome producer of architecture documents or analysis documents.

On the other hand, I think the model you suggest would also be problematic because on a project of any size you need to glue back together a lot of very thin slices. It adds the problem that no one person is going to be amazing at all those things, so a fair bit of important work will get done poorly.

I think the best model is instead cross-functional, closely collaborating teams where the decision about who does what is extremely fluid. That gets the benefit of lots of people doing (and understanding) different sorts of work. But it lets key work be done by people with strong expertise.

Real-world examples of this include IDEO's pursuit of "T-shaped" people:

[http://chiefexecutive.net/ideo-ceo-tim-brown-t-shaped- stars-...](http://chiefexecutive.net/ideo-ceo-tim-brown-t-shaped-stars-the- backbone-of-ideoae%E2%84%A2s-collaborative-culture/)

And Atomic Object's use of "poly-skilled, co-located teams of generalists":

[http://spin.atomicobject.com/2011/09/16/poly-skilled- teams-d...](http://spin.atomicobject.com/2011/09/16/poly-skilled-teams- deliver-products/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> @patio11's starfighter project could help this...

<comment><USER24> When it's available. Can't wait for it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> These fogcreek interviews are pretty good. It is too bad the video quality is so poor.

</comment><comment><USER26> Wonderful article! Expected an interview with NPR' Kerri Miller

</comment><comment><USER27> meh this tripe again.</comment>


Destroy All Software is free this week and annual subscriptions are discounted - <AUTHOR> https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/sale <comment><USER2> Any users of Destroy All Software care to share their experience? Is it worth it?

</comment><comment><USER3> What what did I miss?</comment>


Spore Sculptor - Have Your Game Character Printed In 3d For $50 - <AUTHOR> http://replicatorinc.com/blog/2008/12/spore-sculptor-game-avatars-3d-printers/

<comment><USER2> I hear if you attempt to display it in more than four different locations it crumbles into dust.

<comment><USER3> That is hilarious. If you call and ask for permission they may send you some glue to put it back together.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Python 3 home automation with Polymer/Material design front end - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/balloob/home-assistant

<comment><USER2> The feature set is impressive and I'd certainly look into this if I had the kind of home that could benefit from this much automation.

I do think it highlights a problem with using Polymer out of the box though. Like Bootstrap in its early days, Polymer makes it _very_ easy to quickly throw together a fairly polished and professional looking interface. But as more of these come online this style is going to become increasingly stale and generic. And since the design language of Material is so pervasive and rich I think it's going to take a fair amount of work to customize it enough to differentiate an implementation without destroying the integrity of the design. Just tweaking the theme and accent color isn't going to be enough to cure you of looking like a rebranded Google app.

<comment><USER3> Why is that a bad thing?

For me at least, the goal is to have a free, usable, recognizable UX. Not to have a "brand". It's open source, it's not supposed to be invested in zero- value branding.

In the past 10-15 years open source software had to catch up with Windows applications, and when they did people would think the problem was in UX. Now that good UX is coming to OSS and we can finally catch up with Apple, you want to reject it?

<comment><USER4> There's no such thing as zero value branding, unless you messed up royally somehow.

I agree that in this project it's not important, but marketing (i.e. docs, logo, community, etc) is an integral part of every major open source project out there.

<comment><USER3> Excuse me while I put my marketer conspiracy hat and reply with "That's what _they_ want you to think..."

Of course software creators want to have some sort of differentiation between their products and the competitors, but - as a consumer - branding has zero value if the products are interchangeable.

Just looking at Open Source web browsers: look at Chrome/Firefox. If the organizations (Google/Mozilla) behind the development were to start charging in exchange of the use of the brand, wouldn't people drop the branded product and switch to the brandless versions (Chromium/Icefox)?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What do you think of Ninjasphere/Ninjablocks, since you are pretty much scratching the same itch.

</comment><comment><USER6> No X10 integration?

<comment><USER7> It's open source and modular, add it yourself?

<comment><USER6> Yeah, if I use it I may just do that.</comment></comment></comment>


5 Legal Tips To Save Startups Money & Headaches - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2008/10/05/5-legal-tips-to-save-startups-money-headache/ <comment><USER2> This really reads more like 5 legal tips to get you into a lawyer's office before there's any real need.

(1) The open source business models in this article weren't locked down until years after the products were successful. SourceFire and Tenable, in my industry, are both examples of extremely successful companies that simply shipped straight GPL until they were ready to start making money (on Snort and Nessus, respectively).

(2) There's little you can reasonably do in a 3-month old company to bulletproof yourself from a bad-faith partner who is going to make claims on your IP; also, you have bigger problems; also, if it looks like you're going to make money, VC probably doesn't care. I've been through VC due diligence a bunch of times, and I never saw them take out the fine-toothed comb.

(3) It seems equally likely to me that by posting a FAQ and "policing" your content, you set up the expectation with content providers and with the courts that you're _obligated_ to do that.

(4) Ok. Don't sign ROFR's. Gotcha. Why didn't he just offer the real advice, which is, "don't sign any contract complicated enough to have a ROFR clause, or anything else you could call a 'clause', without a lawyer"?

(5) Have any of you bothered to register trademarks?</comment>