Ask HN: How do you go about meeting cofounders? - <AUTHOR>

Let's say I'm in a situation where I'm looking for a co-founder in the SF area. I'm highly technical myself (MS from top 3 school, years of experience at a software giant, passion for open source and bleeding edge technologies, treat software engineering as a craft), extremely ambitious and want to work on something awesome with other people who have experience and desire to make a great, hopefully innovative, product. I don't care too much about WHAT that specifically is at this point, a great team of people will make anything fun.
I unfortunately don't know many folks who have both the experience and the desire to co-found a successful start-up with me, but would love to find out where I could find them. I've been to a couple of HN meetings, very promising, but no luck so far. What other prospects do people in my situation have? It seems like most success stories are entrepreneurs meeting in college and then already pre-selecting each other, but that's not my case.
Please advise :) <comment><USER2> We are all facing this problem. I agree with Steve that it is like finding a spouse. I saw a list of co-founder sites on Quora and posted to them but I'm not pleased with the responses. I'd love to talk you! I have an MVP, users, integration partners and the beginnings of convos with investors. Totally looking for a co-founder. Let me know if you'd like to chat.

</comment><comment><USER3> Chiming in on the "it's a lot like dating" band wagon. If you put too much pressure on yourself to find the right girl, you'll miss the steps you _really_ need to take to find the right girl - living your life confidently, being social and befriending as many people as you can along the way. Having a large social network is by far the best way to find both a girl and a co- founder. Some of those people will know other people, who may introduce you to the guy who just "clicks" with you.

That said, you sound pretty cool, and you seem pretty cool for writing this. I'm thinking about moving out there myself, ideally to found something. I'll be in town next week for two weeks. Ping me and we'll try to grab coffee. :)

Oh, and where are these "HN Meetings?" Will there any chance be any between Oct 25th and Nov 8th? :P

</comment><comment><USER4> Its definitely tough. Finding a cofounder is like finding a spouse. If you aren't already good friends with someone you'd like to work with that you've known for awhile, it's difficult to find one you while seeking them out to just start jamming together. Those that do and things work out great for them are rare.

I would focus on just hanging out more and more and seeing if there are people you click with. If you're interested, and new to the area, come hang out with my buddies and I. If nothing else, maybe you'll make new friends who can connect you to others.

</comment><comment><USER5> Are you going to <http://startupschool.org> ?

</comment><comment><USER6> Have your tried attending hackathons or startup camps?

<comment><USER7> I second this. Found my cofounder at <http://theleanstartupmachine.com/>, and it's worked out great. Going straight from one of these events to starting a company can be tough, since you don't really go through an extensive 'courting' period to get to know the person, but since you're both there to learn about startups, interests are already aligned.

It's sort of like going to speed-dating events.</comment></comment>


Study proves bad guys really do get the most girls - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19826614.100&print=true

<comment><USER2> The study doesn't really prove anything. It creates a (poor) definition of "bad guys", creates a (very slanted) definition of "get the most girls", and then correlates the two.

Being confident in yourself could easily be confused with slight narcissistic, being impulsive could certainly be a good thing, and not all aspects of Machiavellianism are bad. It's not clear to me that their chosen traits actually define a "bad guy".

In order to determine who got the most girls, all they did was ask the people in the study (all college students) "how many partners they had and whether they were seeking brief affairs."

They point out that the "dark triads" had more partners and more desire for short-term relationships, but they don't even touch on the quality of the partners or the relationships. Their definition of getting a girl apparently includes one-night stands. Contrary to popular belief, there are girls who just want one-night stands as well, so the guys didn't "get" anything special; they engaged in an even trade. Getting a girl, in my opinion, is getting a girl to care about you. The study doesn't even touch on that.

Also, as daniel-cussen said (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=224005>), because the study only focuses on college students, it gives far too much weight to trivial, shallow college relationships while not enough touching on the much-more-important relationships that come later in life.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nothing but a sensationalist article based on bad science. If I may paraphrase the findings in simple terms: out of a narrow sample of 200 college-aged males, some guys were rated as slightly more obnoxious than average... those same guys said that they would like to have more hookups... and finally those same guys said that they do in fact have hookups.

Could it simply be that obnoxious guys like to brag about their supposed sexual conquests?

</comment><comment><USER4> _gasp_ women _like_ alpha males? WTF?!?!?!?! on a less sarcastic note, notice that the traits mentioned are all leadership traits. Leaders generally have to be somewhat narcissistic, otherwise they wouldn't believe they are worthy to be leader. They have to be risk takers to upset the status quo. And they have to be Machiavellian to govern efficiently.

<comment><USER4> OTOH: this is my personal take on it. fuck you evolution and your maximized expected reproductive utility. I'd rather be happy. Happiness is probably selected against since satisfied, content people don't run around trying desperately to mate as much as possible.

<comment><USER5> Happiness is not selected for or against any more than satiety is. You're using first-order reasoning on a second-order trait.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm bad at coding if that helps.

</comment><comment><USER7> If this kind of thing interests you, do some research into the "seduction" community.

I've been very impressed with their psychological "experiments" with women and how they have evolved systems that allow normal guys to get hot girls.

Doubleyourdating.com is a good starting point.

</comment><comment><USER8> If any of you think to start being bad, you should think twice. Its very hard to be just the right amount of bad. I'm talking from experience, i tried to be bad and girls just think im creepy. :)

Anyway check <http://www.highstatusmale.com> and check the book "without embarrassment" its good not only if you want more girls, but if you only want a little more understanding of the way humans communicate, entrepreneurs might find it interesting to find how they can be the wright amount of bad to be able to talk to people and BE THE ALPHA MALE in the conversation. I had bad luck with girls, but didn't have low self-esteem and didn't knew where the problem was. I read the book and i found out that i was doing almost everything right. So i started thinking why? And then i realized i was sabotaging myself. Most girls i knew were boring people, so my subconscious decided to sabotage me so that i wouldn't hang out with boring people and after i realized that i still don't like boring(hot) girls. So some of us have a problem with girls not because of low self-esteem, but because of too high self-esteem(how i wish i wasn't so picky :D).

</comment><comment><USER9> This reminds me of pg's "Why Are Nerds Unpopular?". Obviously these "negative"-- and innate [directly or emerging from other innate behavioral] dispositions, are present and purposefully developed and honed extensively by individuals who prioritize the game of attracting mates, and gaining access to higher quality/quantity of mates. Or maybe these universal traits just emerge from the practical requirements of achieving their goals. In either case, being that type of person requires an enormous time commitment. Social hierarchy climbing is their one ambition in life, and sex is their reward.

It's a lot more compatible with being a politician or power-seeker in business, than it is with being a geek. The geek seeks to create/understand. So their creations and discoveries are their reward. The geek may want what the alpha male has, even want it strongly, but values the primary geek rewards more strongly, and will never prioritize the alpha male reward enough to be that other person. And it's good that many of us are not that person, because I couldn't see much value in a world without ambition to do actually worthwhile things.

</comment><comment><USER10> Bad science... The article seems to suggest that this is 'genetic'. That there must be coded traits that somehow have to be favored or at least persist.

I have been the nice guy and the bad guy many times. A lot of it has to do with ones mood and phase of life. Pretty weak to suggest that this is genetic. I don't buy it.

<comment><USER9> I know what you mean about how genetics is often thrown up as the answer without much discussion on the complexities of human development.

The discussion on intelligence often suffers from this. There's a level where we are talking purely about the myelin sheath and conductance latencies among other speed factors in the brain (for example my brother-in-law is obsessed with learning about history, but he is "slow" despite his knowledge), but intelligence is driven by a desire to work through and explore the kinds of things (reading, writing, problem solving) that as a side effect give individuals the qualities that are judged as intelligent. And the presence of smart adults causing children to see these activities as exciting, and also pulling them up via active feedback and passive schaffolding, makes all the difference. Some people have introduced the notion of "multiple intelligence" to describe the fact that a difference focus of one's attention in developing as a person will lead to difference categories of competency.

And my reason for bringing this up is that some will try to explain intelligence in entirely genetic terms but this doesn't square with what is observed. Evolutionary psychology helps explain a lot of things, but it is all too easy to oversimplify.

If I were give my guess right now about how genetics influences traits, I would say that it obviously determines thousands of reflexive behaviors we perform, and of course it establishes potential competencies, but I think it additionally can set up guideposts that determine personality. It is known (if I remember correctly) that in some primitive organisms a single gene switches on avoidance versus more social behavior. There are plenty of ways in which even the complex behavior of behavior of humans could be guided by genetics into certain personality tendencies or strategies. For example if the cingulate cortex turns out to be a behavior-judging module in the brain among other things, then genetics could program the cingulate to fire a note of concern to the system, or fail to do the same, with regard to whatever complex decision is being made, whenever it involves a choice to be with people or not be with people.

Similarly if there are multiple genetically guided development strategies for handling social information, and some of them just don't scale that well to larger groups of people, then perhaps this would produce anxiety and a sense of not being able to handle the situation, among people who have the more brittle genetic strategy. But the same argument could be made for voluntary control that would influence the underlying cognitive strategy, because not enough is known yet.

<comment><USER10> Yes I think you make some very good points.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is completely relevant to hacker interests.

<comment><USER11> </sarcasm>

I'm gay.

<comment><USER4> would have been funnier without the sarcasm tag.

<comment><USER12> Actually, he posted the closing tag before the statement. So maybe it was meant literally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Quality of girl counts for a lot.

</comment><comment><USER14> Any tips on becoming a bad guy? :)

<comment><USER15> You just need to get rejected a bunch of times because you're a nice guy, resulting in plummeting self-esteem, which naturally leads to multiple substance abuse problems and a penchant for bar fights. Then you'll have to resort to petty crime to support your habits, which leads to you getting caught, eventually enough times to go to prison - and, bingo, when you get out you can get the women who rejected you before :-)

<comment> daniel-cussen lol. Taking your joke literally, I think one would simply fuck his life up in the process, without the upside of getting women at the end.

From what I've seen, guys with high time preference (short-term oriented) win out at the beginning, and guys with low time preference (long-term oriented) win out in the end. Pretty tautological stuff. Guys who spend high school working out, worrying about clothes and social standing, and prioritizing their sex lives get sex early on. But then you have Wall Street bankers from elite colleges, and they get a lot of women too. They were often nerds in high school.

Now, you could argue bankers are "bad" in the moral sense, but like the quasi- criminal guys at clubs, they have status and (in many cases) the attending arrogance. I think the "bad" question is more of a question of status than morality, but the two get mixed up because people with status aren't always super nice.

But I'm just basing it on baboon studies like this one: <http://hanson.gmu.edu/showcare.pdf>

<comment><USER16> Reminds me of Benjamin Graham (the "Dean of Wall Street" and Warren Buffett's mentor), who basically ignored girls altogether until he was well into his 20s, and then became one of Wall Street's most notable womanizers in his 50s and 60s. It probably helped that by then he was filthy rich and quite famous in his field.

<comment><USER17> I suppose Scarface popularized this as well.

Tony Montana: In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> How is this "hacker" news?

<comment> daniel-cussen You're right. The only people this kind of article would speak out to are nice, lonely guys who are online on a Saturday night.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> In other news, water is wet.

</comment><comment><USER20> Lucky Stalin!!!!</comment>


GPU-buying gamers are subsidizing the future of analytics - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/video-games-are-paying-for-artificial-intelligence-2016-5 <comment><USER2> Not a whole lot of content in the article... we all know GPUs are good for many data processing or machine learning tasks. Clearly gaming was the impetus to develop high performance GPUs initially, but I wonder if it still holds true that gamers "subsidize" big data significantly. Are most high-performance GPUs sold for gaming or for data processing?

<comment><USER3> I believe HPC still accounts for under 10% of Nvidia's GPU sales, so it is almost certainly true that there's no way it could be a profitable business if the R&D couldn't be shared with the gaming and workstation GPUs. On the other hand, the HPC GPUs are supposed to have by far the best margins of any of their products. So talking about "subsidizing" seems totally misguided.

<comment><USER4> Do you have a source for that 10% figure?

<comment><USER5> [http://www.anandtech.com/show/9500/nvidia- fy-2016-q2-results](http://www.anandtech.com/show/9500/nvidia- fy-2016-q2-results)

The commentators on HN are vastly overestimating the size of the machine learning market compared to the size of the gaming market.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So if you have two market segments, and one is larger and has existed longer than the other, then the large one is subsidising the small one?

That seems like an odd definition of subsidy.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'd argue that it'll soon be the other way around. Many of the improvements in Pascal were driven by scientific computing. It's easy to justify adding new features (like high speed 16 bit FP) when Facebook or Google is willing to buy datacenters full of the things.

<comment><USER5> If you're willing to bet actual money on your argument, I'll take the opposite side easily.</comment></comment>


Imaginary News - <AUTHOR> http://blog.dilbert.com/post/157358914491/imaginary-news <comment><USER2> "Many of us saw Trump talking the way he normally does, and saying the things he normally says. Other people saw a raving lunatic, melting down."

I didn't watch the press conference, but I read a bit of the transcript, and it sure does sound like "Trump talking the way he normally does" \- which is to say that it's such a rambling, incoherent mess it could serve as an amusing example of bad machine-translation output. Nobody is hallucinating here; Trump just comes off like a raving lunatic most of the time, if you're used to hearing people speak in complete sentences which connect one idea to another.</comment>


GrubHub CEO Says People Who Support Trump Have No Place in His Company - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/no-you-cant-fire-people-for-voting-trump.html <comment><USER2> Possibly more than 50% of the country should consider not using Grubhub then. Political statements like this should be held in contempt.</comment>


Advanced Vim macros - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/advanced-vim-macros/ <comment><USER2> The 'trick' to edit the macros in a scratch buffer alone is worth the reading, but there's plenty more here. Very good write up.</comment>


China opening roughly two new movie theaters a day - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-cinema-20110306,0,1892393.story

<comment><USER2> I'm excited to see what happens when the RIAA sends their goons to the front lines in China.

If Walmart and other american retail brands that work hard to mold their business for the sensibilities of other cultures and still manage to have a difficult time, I'm truly excited how the old stubborn american movie industry will fare. The thing some of these people fail to realize, like it or not, piracy is [ironically] a very large and active space for innovation.

</comment><comment><USER3> obvious - like the radios in nazi germany ;)</comment>


PL/0 – Simple Subset of Pascal for Teaching Compiler Writing - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/0 <comment><AUTHOR> >"PL/0 is a programming language, intended as an educational programming language, that is similar to but much simpler than Pascal, a general-purpose programming language. It serves as an example of how to construct a compiler."

One potential source code version of PL/0:

[http://pascal.hansotten.com/niklaus- wirth/pl0/](http://pascal.hansotten.com/niklaus-wirth/pl0/)

Two comments:

1) Look at how small the EBNF is (on the Wikipedia page).

2) Look at how small the actual compiler source is (on the second link, above).</comment>


Linus Torvalds Shows His New Polite Side While Pointing Out Bad Kernel Code - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linus-Torvalds-New-Politeness <comment><USER2> I'd hate to have every email exchange I have with colleagues be picked over like this.</comment>


FriendFeed presentation from MIT/Stanford Venture Lab - <AUTHOR> http://bret.appspot.com/entry/friendfeed-presentation-venture-lab

<comment><USER2> Many thanks again to Brett and company for speaking at the event!

</comment><comment><USER3> friendfeed does so many things right and i'm taking notes... constantly.</comment>


10 reasons entrepreneurs should take more vacations - <AUTHOR> http://www.16thletter.com/2008/04/17/10-reasons-entrepreneurs-should-take-more-vacations/

<comment><USER2> God, I need one now. May 1st, can't wait.

</comment><comment><USER3> Man. Fuck vacation and this work life balance crap. If I am on vacation there's this little voice in my head that says "you're that much closer to dying all so some poor people can serve you some drinks you don't like while pretending they don't think you're evil and resent your economic status, and none of your work has gotten done."

And, when I was a kid, there was nothing worse than family vacations. I wanted my parents to be at work so I could play video games or my commodore 64. Point 11 she makes is good.</comment>


Lisp: Worse is Better, Originally published in 1991 - <AUTHOR> http://naggum.no/worse-is-better.html

<comment><USER2> If you find this interesting, check out the full page by the author as he continues to think about the issues and goes back and forth on them: <http://www.dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html></comment>


GPRS Shield V1.0 - <AUTHOR> http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/GPRS_Shield_V1.0 <comment><USER2> I've used modules like this before (including the SIM908, which is like the SIM900, but with GPS too). The biggest pain is that they only support AT commands as a protocol. It's very difficult to work with reliably, especially in a memory-constrained device. Whenever you issue a command, you need to check the next line to see whether it succeeded or failed, but the next line might be the response, or it might be an entirely unrelated unsolicited response (an asynchronous notification). You end up with either a complicated state machine or having to treat every command specially.

Even synchronizing the commands and responses is tricky, because you have to send an 'AT' and wait for an 'OK', or if you didn't get one, send an 'AT' again. Then when you get an 'OK', is it from the first AT or the second one? So you have to spend a second eating all the data comes in before you can start sending commands for real. It's all so... ugh.

I'd love for someone to implement a well-thought-out binary protocol as an alternative.

I see the example code give here just cheats and waits 100ms for each command to happen, then assumes it was successful and moves on to the next.

<comment><USER3> The problem is that there are very few companies making baseband chips, and to say that they do not care, at all, about hobbyist applications, would be the understatement of the year.

As it turns out, even your smartphone is probably right now talking AT to its baseband processor. If you get one of these mobile surf sticks, it's probably a virtual COM port and the software on your computer is giving AT commands. As horrible as that sounds, it is the standard they use.

<comment><USER2> I always had this secret hope that the AT interface was a translation layer on top of their sensible protocol (kind of like, say, x86 on top of microcode), and that one day someone would have the bright idea to just expose the underlying one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The link to buy it lists it as discontinued. Here is V2.0, which is available!

[http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/gprs- shield-v20-p-1379.html...](http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/gprs- shield-v20-p-1379.html?cPath=132_134)

</comment><comment><USER5> One thing you can do is get a microcontroller that does USB host, get a cheapie android phone online, and wire it up that way using ADB.

I wrote a library to let a Parallax Propeller do this (it will be more power hungry than, say, an IOIO board, but it can give your phone 8 serial ports rather than just one). [http://obex.parallax.com/object/116](http://obex.parallax.com/object/116)

Economies of scale mean that a low end android phone costs about as much as this shield.

<comment><USER6> I suppose you can also use the GPS?

I always forget these kind of solutions made possible by cheap phones. The other day someone suggested that a cheap phone is a great alternative to GPS car tracking systems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> So for those who may have seen the BTTN post (100 dollar cell network enabled button) you now know the dirty secret. You are this shield, and arduino and 60c away from building your own.

<comment><USER8> By the time you purchase the Sim900, Arduino and make a case you would be about $70 - 100.

<comment><USER7> You can get a barebones arduino for around 3-5 dollars. Shield (without any price comparison shopping whatsoever) is 49 bucks ([http://tronixlabs.com/arduino/shields/gsm/sim900-gsm- cellula...](http://tronixlabs.com/arduino/shields/gsm/sim900-gsm-cellular- shield-for-arduino/)).

Siemens has an arduino compatible GSM module for 29.99 ([http://www.sainsmart.com/siemens-tc35-sms-gsm-module- voice-a...](http://www.sainsmart.com/siemens-tc35-sms-gsm-module-voice- adapter.html?kpid=13_en)).

So 33 bucks and a free "That was easy" button from staples and there you go... that's at single unit price.

BTW, for vast majority that is likely beyond their capability... so maybe 77 bucks is worth it? I dunno.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> now this looks like it might be just thing for the SMS gateway I was building for nagios

</comment><comment><USER10> They just copy/pasted the wiki engine, it's even showing "Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia". Looks like a really bad job. However, the Shield looks really neat and worth it.

<comment><USER11> Er, what? That page doesn't say "Wikipedia" anywhere on it. It is running Mediawiki, like Wikipedia, but that's free software; it's _supposed_ to be used by other sites!

<comment><USER10> Below the top-left language globe I can read "Wikipedia" clearly. I agree about Mediawiki, just not about keeping the same image (;

<comment><USER12> On my laptop at the top-left corner there is a "seeed wiki" logo and no globe.

<comment><USER13> He's not crazy. On my phone, I see the stock wikipedia template - branding and all (including the globe logo top-left). On desktop, I see the same content but with seeed's theme.

So it looks like a straight rip (on mobile), but more likely someone's just skipped a step or two with the branding.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


I'm a contributor to expressjs and react-native and still in Bootcamp. - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@yosefherskovitz/im-a-contributor-to-expressjs-and-react-native-and-i-m-still-in-bootcamp-here-s-how-b087e04f204e <comment><USER2> What was the contribution process like for the big repos like react-native? Did they make it hard to be accepted?

<comment><AUTHOR> react-native (Facebook) and some of the other big projects (Alibaba, Google, Palantir etc) have Contributor License Agreements (CLIs) that you need to sign in order for them to accept your contribution.

It's a painless process, but you do need to provide them with some info ranging from just your name to your address and phone number.

<comment><USER3> Yikes. Imagine thinking that reading, understanding and signing a binding legal contract is a reasonable prerequisite to submit a patch to a software project. I suppose I might be willing to do that if the maintainer was going to foot the bill for my attorney to review the agreement...</comment></comment></comment>


Asteroid spotted just hours before impact with Earth - <AUTHOR> https://www.skymania.com/wp/asteroid-spotted-just-hours-before-impact-with-earth/ <comment><AUTHOR> A youtube capture: [https://youtu.be/rnBvSNYy-EY](https://youtu.be/rnBvSNYy- EY)</comment>


BoardRounds Helps Hospitals Follow Up With Patients - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/22/boardrounds-dorm-room-fund/

<comment><USER2> "most patients don't call, don't get the follow-up they need, get sicker, and return to the emergency room which strains hospital and health insurer resources"

I suppose this is a USA only problem? In europe pts get an appointment on discharge. Of the people who fail to show (~5-10%) get called which leads to a fail to show of ~1%. Of this group a small percentage has relevant pathology and these pts. are of the doctor avoidant type mostly low social-economic class.

I would like to see some numbers to support their claims. Of course I welcome the idea of improving healthcare information systems. They are notoriously slow, inefficient, insecure and outdated. Only good one I've worked with is EZIS. I don't know why change is so slow but it probably has something o do with money and fear of change and all the problems which come with it.

I've never used an information system which made it easy to look in to stored data and find ways to improve health practice. Analysis software for healthcare is/would/will be a big thing I hope.

Sorry for bad english.

<comment><USER3> Yes it's very much a US problem but not isolated to that. Even in the superior one payer healthcare systems many mistakes are made because people don't follow up & through.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A system that facilitates follow up care for patients is a good idea. It's clearly in the patients best interest. It's in the hospitals best interest as well. A number of hospitals are doing this already though, using their social workers to arrange follow up care and making sure the patients go. There are also "bundlers" who are doing this, but I suppose they could outsource some of their work to a company like boardrounds. Sometimes a more hands on approach is required, especially when dealing with the elderly. It's possible, over time, for a pure tech solution to this problem. Ideally it would be integrated within the hospitals EMR (really tough, given the reluctance of EMR's to work with outside solution providers, but I think that will change over time), set up the appointment, and maybe go as far as setting up transportation as well - like integrating with Stat ([http://signup.stat.com/](http://signup.stat.com/) \- i have no connection with this company, just a thought). Over the next 10-20 years you will also have a relatively more mobile savvy elderly patient population, which will help this, and other solutions, grow.

<comment><USER5> > _Sometimes a more hands on approach is required, especially when dealing > with the elderly._

I'd say that extends to far beyond the elderly. I did the majority of my clinical training in hospitals all throughout Brooklyn, and poor compliance/follow-up was evident across the board for a number of patient populations. Persistent hounding by social workers only proved successful half the time. There are cultural and educational factors at play, in addition to blatant laziness, that I think if addressed would yield improvement.

Like you said, many of the patients just aren't tech savvy, but I'd say more are just not well-informed, educated properly on the importance of continued adherence, and actively engaged in their care. Patients are usually given a card with appointment details scribbled on for when to next see their cardiologist for their CHF, or whatever that is. The period between them walking out of their cardiologist's office to their next appointment is, I guarantee, almost never spent reflecting on their condition or actively taking steps to mitigate the complications, save for taking pills. A patient's conditions are only serious problems to them within the walls of their doctor's office. Once they leave, they're forgotten, understandably, out of fear and comfort and the chaos of life. That's why I think it's critical that a patient receive continuous education and encouragement in the interim between check-ups, to close the gaps and help maintain continuous patient self-conern.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Having gone to a few different doctors over the last year, follow-up care was almost always the most frustrating part of the experience. Either they lost my chart and paperwork, didn't follow up, didn't explain what care I needed or I dropped the ball on it (and never heard back from them). Healthcare as a whole could use some big changes but this seems like an easy place to start.

</comment><comment><USER7> My experience has only been in managing veterinary systems, but from what I've heard and seen, the wider healthcare world _desperately_ needs more technological infusion, especially in interacting with clients.

Glad to see stuff like this and Oscar insurance entering the space! One of these days, I'll throw my hat into the ring and try to get vet clinics some tech attention...

</comment><comment><USER5> Met Benjamin at a health event in New York, and was really impressed by him, the team, and the service. Really smart guys tackling one of the biggest issues in healthcare, patient compliance and follow-up. Congrats on the press and funding!

</comment><comment><USER8> There is another company already doing this: [http://myhealthdirect.com/](http://myhealthdirect.com/). (Disclosure: I did some consulting work for them).

<comment><USER9> (BoardRounds co-founder)

Thanks for pointing these guys out! One point I should clarify: we recommend and fulfill followup interventions. Appointment scheduling is a portion of that, but it only scratches the surface of what our services can do.

Follow-up appointments are the "bread and butter" of follow-up care (most patients who need any sort of follow-up will need a doctor's visit), but the real power comes in being able to identify additional interventions (transportation, medicine reconciliation, home care) and set them all up at the point of discharge. This has to happen on a per-patient level, because while it is incredibly valuable for the patients who require it, it's fairly expensive, and it would be prohibitive to (e.g.) send a nurse to the home of every single person who leaves the ER the next day to check up on them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I often use ZocDoc to find appoints/book them with doctors, but it would be interesting if they integrated something like this. Possible partnership?

<comment><USER9> BoardRounds cofounder here - great idea! We do in fact integrate with various service providers (including appointment scheduling APIs) when arranging followup care.

We definitely want to leverage existing services as much as possible, not reinvent the wheel. Appointment scheduling is the most common follow-up intervention, but there are other services we recommend and can provide, and our goal is to partner with other providers for those where possible.</comment></comment>


Distributing apps outside of iTunes on iOS - <AUTHOR>

I've downloaded apps before that just get popped directly onto my iphone homescreen. How do developers avoid the app store? Thanks! <comment><USER2> They're not apps, they're bookmarks. In safari it's when you select "Add to homescreen." They launch as an isolated Safari in fullscreen mode. A good example is [http://forecast.io](http://forecast.io)

<comment><AUTHOR> What about Uber's Driver App? Is that a safari bookmark? The experience feels pretty native, but I could be wrong.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> By publishing on Cydia (and probably other markets) that require a jailbroken device.</comment>


Windows Phone 7 Part Deux - Microsoft respond to developer - <AUTHOR> http://blog.dantup.com/2011/03/windows-phone-7-part-deux

<comment><USER2> "[…] in reality, bigger companies move slower. I don't really think this is a good excuse - if policies and processes mean it takes 5 months to release an update, then the policies and processes need improving. If a big company can't work as efficiently as a small company, then the big company should act as smaller companies."

This seems really naive to me. If Microsoft could just "act as smaller companies" on directive, they wouldn't be in the mess they're in.

Of course, on the other side, a MS employee simply stating that big companies move slower like it's an unchangeable law of nature gives a little insight into the problem as well.

<comment><USER3> He missed an opportunity to make another point here. Surely it isn't easy for a large company to behave like a small one or that they move slowly. However, being a large, seasoned company with all kinds of bureaucracy should at least buy you the ability to set realistic deadlines and meet them. Announcing a critical update to your platform and then failing to deliver it _four months late_ is a small-company mistake, and mistake is being really generous.

<comment><USER4> They tried to set a realistic deadline - they internally estimated they'd have it out in January, but were _usually_ careful to pad that out to "early 2011" or "in the coming months" in public. Unfortunately they slipped a couple times.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Great quote: "Brandon pointed out that the real issue here was that the parts of the software that allow sending of logs to Microsoft are removed from retail builds of the OS - only developer builds are able to do this."

Everything else (Android, Windows 7, Firefox, iOS, etc) ships with this functionality, so I was trying to figure out what would cause Microsoft to strip it out. Seems like an interesting Rorschach-esque blot of their culture/thinking. Under-confidence because of all of the lawsuits from the past? Hubris because Windows will dominate? Poor product management? Fear of the reactions from the corporations they'd try to sell this phone into?

<comment><USER6> My best guess is that they simply didn't have enough time(after all it's almost all pretty new code and building OSes is very hard) to strip out the user info.

They didn't want to end up potentially violating privacy. Hell, even their sending logs feature on Windows results in accusations. For example of a brouhaha, see this [http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the- WGA-20-Windo...](http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the- WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for- Microsoft-58752.shtml)

Read some of the comments on here:

[http://yro.slashdot.org/story/07/07/02/139251/Vista-is- Watch...](http://yro.slashdot.org/story/07/07/02/139251/Vista-is-Watching-You)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I actually think MS has this totally backwards.

They need to get updates out more quickly... quarterly. This "No Donuts" mentality is wrong. Google got it right.

And they need to talk less about the updates. A nine month heads up on a smartphone update is counterproductive. They really need to just spend less time talking about stuff that isn't ready to go.

The need to turn the crank quickly and announce w/ two week windows.

With that said, I think they may have backed themselves into a corner with their OS distribution model. I don't think they can support this number of phones (and this is just the first wave of them). At least it appears that they can't. If they can't figure out how to make this work, they may need to drop to one, maybe two, phones (different configurations of the same phone is fine though). Otherwise this platform is dead.

<comment><USER8> > This "No Donuts" mentality is wrong. Google got it right.

The name "No Donuts" has nothing to do with Google, but with someone who didn't bring donuts to a meeting. (One source: [http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/09/windows- phone-7...](http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/09/windows-phone-7-nodo- update-for-htc-hd7-makes-unofficial-debut/) )

<comment><USER7> Thanks, good to know. That gives me a little hope that at least they don't have a philosophically backwards position with respect to update frequrency.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Nice to see Microsoft responding so fast.

I guess this shows how HN and other sites can create enough publicity to make issues heard.

<comment><USER10> If you were in bizspark (free) I am pretty sure you could get just as fast a response -- email Joel Franusic (@jf).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> After the initial positive reactions that WP7 got, everyone expected Microsoft to really push the envelope and arrive in the smart phone market. I think the Nokia deal has got a lot to do with the unexpected loss of momentum. I still feel that Microsoft is going to emerge as a strong competitor in the smart phone arena. They are going to take some time, but they will get there. The Nokia deal is going to be a big win for them.

<comment><USER4> I doubt that had anything to do with it - so far their schedule for rolling out the major update this year seems to be a repeat of their schedule for rolling out the initial release last year (initial demo at MWC, developer info + initial CTP at Mix in April, eventual release in October, November) which to me strongly suggest they've always intended to be on an annual refresh schedule, with only minor out-of-band updates.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I suspect that WP7 continues to have update issues because it is built on top of the Windows CE kernel. the MS-skeptic in me thinks that it probably a bad foundation for a high-performing device, but this view is not based on any actual knowledge of Windows CE. Would love to hear from someone who actually knows about Windows CE.

<comment><USER8> Windows CE -- from a kernel and userland foundations perspective -- is quite solid. It's a hard-RTOS, it supports pervasive SMP as of 7, the kernel is modular as hell and well designed, and it's _very_ performant. There's nothing in the CE design that would make updating difficult in the least.

<comment><USER12> very interesting. Then they have fewer excuses for not getting their updates out</comment></comment></comment>


Yahoo To Acquire Geocities (1999) - <AUTHOR> http://pressroom.yahoo.net/pr/ycorp/173652.aspx

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here. For the record, I don't believe the Tumblr and Geocities acquisitions are strategically equivalent for Yahoo, I just think this press release offers some interesting historical context.

</comment><comment><USER2> most recent discussion thread on the geocities acquisition, 2 days ago.

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5722778></comment>


Revisiting the Norm of Normality of Individual Performance (2011) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.hrma.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/rb-the-best-and-the-rest.pdf

<comment><USER2> This concept is interesting, but the relative lack of mathematical argument or detail made the paper unconvincing.

There was also at least one obvious, major typo ("Gausian"), which is the sort of thing that increases my skepticism - whether rightly so or not.</comment>


Ask HN: Asking Advisor for more help-Sugarcoat or let know things went badly? - <AUTHOR> In January 2018, I reconnected with an industry leader that I'd briefly met at a summer internship who was extremely supportive of my startup and made two intros (one at his new company and one to a nonprofit that talks about our problem space). This person is incredibly dynamic and assumed his deputies would launch our product and the nonprofit would back us since we are social entrepreneurs.
Fast-forward and we've just been crushed. His deputy blew us off for 9 months at a time and now has left the company. The co-head of the nonprofit was offended at the idea of helping a for-profit entity but his partner loved our thing and wanted to help. Then the partner left a month later.  This same pattern has played out over and over as we can't get through bureaucracy.
I'm thinking of reaching out to the leader and asking for another contact at his company since the deputy left and for other intros.  I'm wondering whether I should be honest about how badly things have gone or whether successful people like this only want to back winners.  Thanks for any suggestions. <comment><USER2> Don't ask for resources - ask for advice.

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting, I'd love to hear more in-depth how to approach this since I'm new to this. Thanks!</comment></comment>


Show HN: Chat SDK for your mobile app - <AUTHOR> http://www.chatterkit.com

<comment><USER2> Looks pretty sweet. What are you using for the message transport? Any persistance of messages? What's the typical end-to-end message delivery time? Is there a presence indicator?

<comment><AUTHOR> XMPP. Yes to persistence, but not in v1. Yes to presence indicator.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This looks like a great library!

Just signed up for the beta. I'm assuming it will be sold for a fixed price once it's out of beta? Any plans for other platforms later on?

<comment><AUTHOR> It will be iOS and Android for now, but we are adding Windows Phone/8 support if there is enough demand.</comment></comment>


We Don't Do Legacy (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/just-to-be-clear-we-dont-do-legacy <comment><USER2> Compare that to most of the Ivy League: " In 2009, Princeton admitted 41.7% of legacy applicants—more than 4.5 times the 9.2% rate of non-legacies. Similarly, in 2006, Brown University admitted 33.5% of alumni children, significantly higher than the 13.8% overall admissions rate. In 2003, Harvard admitted 40% of legacy applicants, compared to the overall 11% acceptance rate. In short, Ivy League and other top schools typically admit legacies at two to five times their overall admission rates." [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences)

<comment><USER3> To be fair, it's probably true that the admit rate for MIT legacy applicants is also higher than the overall admit rate. It's just that the MIT admissions committee doesn't consider legacy status in admissions. It's hard to separate correlation from causation in the admit rates.

<comment><USER4> Really? Seems pretty easy to analyze. Just take legacy applicants and their non-legacy equivalents and see the admittance rates.

<comment><USER5> Difficult to do if you aren't even tracking what applications are legacy in the first place, they'd at least have to ask a sample of admitted and rejected students post facto.

<comment><USER4> Ah. I assumed in this scenario we had some mechanism to determine who is a legacy applicant (or not). You make a good point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Schools were racially segregated just a couple generations ago. Think about what that means for schools that do legacy preference. They really shouldn't get access to any forms of federal funding.

<comment><USER7> That strikes me as being remarkably heavy handed given that these same schools seem to give even more advantage to non-Asian minorities ([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences)).

Many folks, especially HNers, seem to think that entrance to elite schools should be purely (or mostly) based on academic merit. Any school that would choose to do that would be shooting themselves in the foot in a number of ways. For example:

1\. Athletics would suffer. Even in the athletically weak Ivy League, winning sports teams increase donations directly and indirectly as well as alumni involvement.

2\. Pure merit admissions would negatively discriminate against many minority applicants for various reasons that are fairly well documented in research.

3\. The social capital of the institution's graduates would suffer greatly. Elite schools tend to have a healthy mix of people who are great producers and people who are great facilitators based on their personal networks (e.g., rain making, getting funding, doing sales, etc.). These two groups do a good job of scratching each others' backs. If the ratio skews too far in one direction, the balance will be broken and both groups will be less effective.

For the most part, legacies either would get in anyway (i.e., without legacy preference), or they are filling in the mediocre parts of the each class while providing some sort of benefit to the school (e.g., strengthening alumni network, strengthening school community, school donations, propensity to encourage their potentially talented progeny to apply to the school, etc.).

I assure you that no highly talented applicant with an application that accurately represents them is losing a slot to an elite school based on a legacy (or an athlete, or a z-lister, or whatever) -- either they probably just aren't as talented or interesting as they (or their parents) think they are, or something went sideways with their application (e.g., recommendation writers not being skilled at writing high quality recommendations).

As I have said before in other replies on this topic, only 10-30% of an elite school's entering class is "interesting" based on my own personal definition of interesting (having one or more of: creativity, high capacity to learn and synthesize new ideas quickly, true leadership/charisma, etc.). These are all easy admits to any school they apply to -- no perceived strike like non-legacy will hold them back. The rest of each entering class looks remarkably similar and mediocre in comparison, and the admission committee has several vectors they need to consider when filling those slots. Legacy admissions is just one of those vectors, and I think it's a totally reasonable one given the other vectors that are also considered (e.g., affirmative action).

Some people seem to think that admissions to an elite school is a golden ticket, and that's a half truth. Elite schools definitely open doors that non- elite schools don't, but the benefit often ends there. The skilled/interesting folks take the opportunity and run with it, and the vast majority of others just fade into mediocrity.

This is a favorite topic of mine that I think is often misunderstood. I am happy to share what I know to folks who are interested, so please feel free to ask questions -- I will answer to the best of my ability.

Apologies for a reply that is a bit beyond the scope of your comment, but this is as good a spot as any in this thread to make this comment.

Source: Me. Attended and worked on admissions committees at two elite schools.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Viewing this from the other side of the pond. Legacy admissions sounds like a strange idea and one that would surely raise eyebrows if it could be shown that a child of an alumnus (or alumna of course) was favoured over another applicant who was obviously better qualified.

</comment><comment><USER9> I was randomly checking out MIT's admission page a few days ago and drooling about what it means to go to a school like that. I saw the no legacy preference and merit based admissions and was pretty impressed. What I didn't know was this was a non-common thing. Now I am curious about what all colleges does it legacy based.

Edit: No luck finding just a list of colleges that does legacy admissions but found a list for scholarships.[0]

[https://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/college- scholarsh...](https://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/college- scholarships/scholarships-by-type/legacy-scholarships/)

<comment><USER10> > and drooling about what it means to go to a school like that.

As someone who bummed around the high levels of the academy for years as research staff, let me tell you what it means. It means lots of stress (and has been described as drinking from a firehose), and lots of ego, and a more prestigious brand associated with your diploma, exactly comparable to having a Gucci purse instead of one from Banana Republic. It does _not_ mean more capable students, more capable faculty, or better resources for an individual undergraduate.

Studentry plateaus in intelligence and ability at the level of a decent state university. Faculty plateaus at a lower level of prestige than that. The prestige is useful for only two things: marrying into privilege and getting jobs with certain prestigious firms in management consulting and finance. If neither is important to you, then there is no reason to spend $180k on MIT instead of $60k to $80k on your state school. Or $5k on four years of tuition at the EPFL in Switzerland, which is as prestigious as MIT or Caltech. (Numbers are tuition and fees, but not cost of living, for four years. State universities are in-state tuition. EPFL is international student tuition.)

And if you're interested in engineering and lucky enough to live in California, Georgia, Colorado, or Alabama, you have a state university that, in engineering, is more prestigious than MIT.

<comment><USER9> I am trying to get into math. For now, I am considering my cheapest options. (In a community college with Pell Grant keeping me afloat for now). But you are right, my brief exposure to a good university was full of ego and lot of extra stress. Neither of which I preferred.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Legacy admissions have become a problem for the Ivies lately because they undermine their brand.

Back in the 1980s you could count on a graduate of Harvard, Cornell, or some other Ivy to be pretty bright, but as legacy admissions accelerated in the 1990s, you started seeing graduates who were average at best. By the 2000s it was clear to the schools themselves that this was a problem because as much as the schools want the money, their brand is their most valuable asset.

<comment><USER7> I have been at Ivies in some capacity in each of those decades. There have been "average at best" folks in each of those decades.

While the "average at best" folks may have increased in proportion to above average folks (something I am not sure I agree with), I think it may have more to do with the admissions process being more transparent with the rise in popularity of the Internet than it was pre-internet.

My personal and anecdotal take is that I have seen an increase in the proportion of tryhard bookworms who lack creativity, leadership skills, and/or raw intellectual power. I am not sure that this is necessarily a bad thing (these folks make great worker bees), but their proportion in the student body needs to be balanced with folks with other strengths like those mentioned above.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I am so used to "legacy" being a disparaging term that I forgot that there were contexts in which it was something someone could find desirable.

<comment><USER13> I think that's only in the tech world, because I once came upon a "legacy senior home" and none of my (non-tech) friends found it as amusing. Apparently there are plenty of senior homes with legacy in their names.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is the reality:

1\. High schools that tend to send high numbers of people to schools with acceptance rates less than 20% tend to be dis-proportionally represented. [1]

2\. High schools that send kids to good college are more expensive (either inherently, or because they're in an expensive area).

Combine these two and you see the perpetual unfairness of education. Not to mention that MIT and other 'elite schools' barely teach well anyways. Picking kids who were already predisposed for success is not education. Unfortunately, many disagree.

A real school would have 100% of their kids admitted at random and then, through some criteria, show how _they_ created an environment that allowed those kids to succeed. This contrasts with the current system, which is basically survivorship bias anyway.

EDIT: I just want to add any many of these elite schools (high school and college) only _recently_ began to admit women and minorities in particular.

[1] Some schools with high amounts of kids going to "elite schools"

\- Stuyvesant

\- Boston Latin

\- Brooklyn Science

\- Brearly School

\- Spence School

\- Harvard-Westlake

\- Lowell High School

\- Saint Ann's

\- Andover

<comment><USER14> > Not to mention that MIT and other 'elite schools' barely teach well anyways.

Ignore this person, they don't know what they are talking about.

For better or worse, the 'elite' schools have money. That means they can hire teaching-track professors. These are professors whose sole job is to teach and advise (i.e., they don't spend all their time doing research). And they do a _really_ good job at it. Much better than overworked professor that is more focused about research and grants.

Edit: People are conflating "teaching" versus "research" professors, so I want to provide an example:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS50](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS50)

This course is taught by David Malan. He has dedicated a lot of his life to this course to make it be awesome. The reason why he can do this is because he is a teaching professor. If you look at his CV, you will see that he does not have any PhD students. His main job is to teach undergrads at Harvard and he can put more of his time to it than a professor that has to also worry about research. He doesn't bring the university as much money because he's not writing research grants, but they can still afford to keep him around. This is the point that I was trying to make.

<comment><USER15> >> Not to mention that MIT and other 'elite schools' barely teach well anyways.

> Ignore this person, they don't know what they are talking about.

I'm not sure that that's fair. Granted I didn't go to a great school; I went to community college because it was what I could afford. But I know many who have attended other, "elite" schools and most of them, barring a few exceptions, told me they basically learned out of the book and the only "hard part" about the school was a high frequency of difficult testing.

A few have told me about great professors but even they said most of their other classes was almost just reading out of a text box and doing typical work around it.

So, no first person information here but what I've been told by several friends and former colleagues is they're like most schools they just push students a little harder with more testing. Hell one of my friends dropped out of Stanford and went right into quite an important job at Microsoft stating he wasn't learning anything by just reading books.

<comment><USER16> That's a lot of conclusion from one data point. I went to Stanford, the teaching was top-notch and the students motivated and upbeat. Had guest lectures from Silicon Valley stars, had Stanford facilities to visit (they have their own particle accelerator!) and clubs everywhere.

However my youngest tried to attend Cleveland Institute of Music (a well- respected conservatory). Depressed and burnt out in 1 year. They forgot somewhere that young people are _actually living there_. The only thing on the online student calendar was Weight Watcher's meetings. No karaoke nights, no community visits (students were instructed to never leave campus), dark dormitory like a submarine. He lost weight and ultimately gave up on the career that led him there.

So I guess that's just 2 data points. Anybody else got a story?

<comment><USER17> That's Cleveland. I went to Case/CWRU once. Freshman orientation started by covering where the high crime areas were.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I had never thought about it, but "legacy" seems like a very defensible strategy. If students know their children will probably be studying in the same college they have an incentive do things to make that college better in all respects.

<comment><USER19> > If students know their children will probably be studying in the same > college they have an incentive do things to make that college better in all > respects.

The downside to this is that legacy students have less incentive to work hard in high school if they know they are guaranteed admission into an elite school.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there a stigma associated with being legacy? As in, do people tend to assume you would not make it in otherwise? Or is it unknown who is legacy to teachers and other students?

<comment><USER21> Speaking based on my experience at Columbia, it's not broadcasted and I don't think the instructors tend to know, but snarky comments will definitely be made if you're doing badly and a legacy

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> School admissions should be reviewed like (some) conference papers, i.e. single-blind review. The name of the student is never known when considering him/her.

<comment><USER23> It's a weird system, in Australia we all get a standard score on leaving high school and if your score is higher than the next person choosing your degree preference you win the spot. Different for medicine only AFAIK.

<comment><USER24> I'm fond of the system in Texas. If you graduate in the top 10% of your class, you get automatically accepted to any public university in the state (well, any one you apply to).

I had zero interest in extracurriculars or anything of the like, so I was never going to get into a competitive university. But I'm smart, and I have a near-photographic memory, so I aced most of my classes without having to study too much, so I was able to graduate in the top 10% and then went to UT Dallas, which is possibly the best tech school in the southwest. I'm really, really glad I went to UTD; I made lifelong friends there, the people I hung out with really helped shape my interests, I'm still running into UTD alumni everywhere I go, etc.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: TagTag – Build your personal page and link all your profiles and links - <AUTHOR> https://tagtag.xyz/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, hope everyone is doing great. I built this as a side project within couple of days.

With TagTag you can create a profile and link all your social media accounts, blogs, and profiles to create a beautiful homepage that you can then promote them on your social media pages.

Feel free to ask any questions and and suggestions.</comment>


A standards-based PDF viewer created using Electron and Pdf.js - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/praharshjain/Electron-PDF-Viewer/ <comment><USER2> On Windows I like Sumatra ([https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf- reader.html](https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html)), it's only a few MBs and opens blazing fast and I have never had a problem reading any PDFs with it. There's also some nifty things you can do with its CLI.

<comment><USER3> SumatraPDF and muPDF for really big pdfs. When on the mood, I use my trusty GSView.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I really dont understand why I should open a new browser instance (Electron) to view one pdf when I could just open it in my browser..

<comment><USER5> This particular solution may not be solving the problem I need, but I'd love to see a really good version of PDF.js running in electron for existing electron apps.

Use case: You're building an electron app. It needs to view pdfs. Right now, you need to implement pdf.js yourself. It's non trivial. And the more full- featured you want it, the harder it is.

And that's only half the issue. What if you want a cross-platform way to create a thumbnail of a pdf? Ugg, don't let me get started on ghostscript...

<comment><USER6> > What if you want a cross-platform way to create a thumbnail of a pdf? Ugg, > don't let me get started on ghostscript...

Embed statically linked versions of imagick in your program or download them upon first load/setup.

<comment><USER7> Someone who knows how to do that probably isn't programming in electron.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What do you mean by "standards-based"?

<comment><USER9> I'm not sure what the authors mean, but although PDF was created by Adobe there is an ISO standardized version of it now.

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

<comment><USER8> PDF proper is an ISO standard, too:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Portable_Docume...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Portable_Document_Format_\(PDF\)#ISO_Standardization)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> People seem skeptical of this because of Electron fatigue, but keep in mind that if your browser's built-in PDF rendering is native code, there's potentially a security win to replacing that attack surface with Pdf.js. Already, we go to some trouble to train people to open attachments on Google Drive's web viewers rather than by double-clicking on them.

<comment><USER11> Doesn't Firefox itself use pdf.js for PDF rendering?

The FAQ says it's been baked into Firefox since v19: [https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/wiki/Frequently-Asked- Ques...](https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions)

<comment><USER10> Yes, Pdf.js is a Mozilla project, right?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> We have truly come full circle

<comment><USER13> It's too bad electron won't run in display postscript environments.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> And this does display PDFs with embedded HTML pages? Could these embedded web pages contain pdf.js again to show an embedded PDF?

<comment><USER15> You've just inceptioned yourself to OUT OF MEMORY crash!

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Or you could just open PDF with your browser.

</comment><comment><USER9> Every one of the browser and/or Javascript based PDF viewers I've used has been a terrible experience, and this one doesn't seem to be any different.

If I download a PDF it's because I want to open it in my regular PDF viewer (mupdf) and not in a crappy browser based one.

</comment><comment><USER17> What I want from a PDF viewer is dark mode (white on black). I know on MacOS you can do invert colours, but that inverts the images too. Also I want to be able to view portrait PDFs in landscape mode with the text in 2 columns.

<comment><USER18> Zathura supports this (and is otherwise awesome, too)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Did Pdf.js ever get their SVG backend working? Without that printing was basically broken since it just printed out each page as a bitmap from canvas at like 96 dpi which ended up being low res / fuzzy on paper.

</comment><comment><USER20> A PDF viewer that eats up half my RAM. Just what I needed.

</comment><comment><USER21> zathura is nice on *nix, has support for multiple pdf rendering engines (muPDF and poppler).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I think this project deserves a lot more attention.

There aren't decent PDF tools for Linux and this is also based on web standards which is awesome.

The combination of older/robust technology like PDF but with modern web standards is really compelling.

<comment><USER22> In my experience Evince (the PDF reader in Gnome) works much better than PDF.js (and is faster, has smaller footprint, supports more advanced PDF feature, etc).

<comment><USER3> I totally agree.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Meet the Experts - <AUTHOR> http://1001mentors.com/

<comment><USER2> I desperately need some help for some projects of my startup. It would be awesome if I could get some help from these guys. Thanks.</comment>


French railway operator orders hundreds of new trains that are too big - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/french-railway-operator-sncf-orders-trains-too-big <comment><USER2> Probably a better source is this:

[http://www.france24.com/en/20140521-french-trains-wide- old-s...](http://www.france24.com/en/20140521-french-trains-wide-old-stations- sncf-order/)

a) This only applies to very old platforms, build by standards over 50 years ago. b) If the trains were ordered by the older standards, i can imagine an issue that newer platforms would need to be widened (modern trains try to provide gapless entry).

So, all in all, the problem was found late (unfortunate), but the real problem is: platforms following different standards which should probably be unified anyways.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like a long term win anyway, now all future trains can be wider.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The article makes it sound horrible, but I wonder how bad it really is.

For instance, they've "only" spent $50m so far compensating. That's only 0.33% of the total $15bn budget for the trains.

Even if they end up spending a whole $1bn widening platforms - that's "only" a 6.66% cost blowout.

In the context of infrastructure projects, a <10% budget blowout doesn't sound so bad :P

<comment><USER5> Compared to the clusterfuck of extending the San Francisco subway system, it sounds like a bargain. By contrast, I've grown to _love_ the subway system in LA to the point that I look forward to visiting so I can ride it.

<comment><USER6> Holy crap, someone who loves LA public transport? Admittedly SF's is...odd, but I'd say it's much better than LA's.

They're both got nothing on NY or Chicago though, obviously.

Edit: This is from a tourist perspective to all four cities, so I only have a little experience with each of them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I read some speculation on a reddit thread that this was no accident but a backhanded way of forcing modernization: Enough money and effort goes into supporting old trains and train stations in terms of switching trains, personnel, repairs, little bridges to fit smaller trains into wide stations etc that the difference between that and going ahead with the modernization wouldn't be that big.

But if there were political objections to such a renovation project from some unknown group, this would be a good way to force their hand.

</comment><comment><USER5> _Construction work has begun on widening hundreds of platforms._

I hope he means narrowing them, otherwise the problem is just going to get worse :)

<comment><USER8> The trains are too wide or the platforms are too narrow. One of those problems needs to be addressed.

<comment><USER5> I guess in rail terminology the platform includes the track section, but I always think of it as the part you stand on while you're waiting for the train since that is the part that is raised above track level - so wider track areas would necessitate narrower platforms. The definition of platform is a raised surface, after all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Url changed from [http://www.bbc.com/news/world- europe-27502184](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27502184).

</comment><comment><USER10> Poor journalism across the board! None of the articles mentions any specifics. How much _wider_?!

<comment><USER11> In any case it is rather insignificant, on the order of the decimeter!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> So I wonder if they will re-do the stations or re-do the trains. It seems the older stations which are too narrow would probably benefit from an upgrade, but I could imagine they might not have the space to make them any wider than they are now.

<comment><USER13> They're going to first spend €400m upgrading their train station platforms by widening the space for train tracks, and then later we'll find out on Hacker News: "200 Upgraded French Train Platforms 'too thin for pedestrian traffic'".

<comment><USER14> Right, the french pedestrian network will have failed to communicate the correct specifications to the platform operators.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Well fuck me runnin

</comment><comment><USER16> Ah, the SNCF... they are professionals in wasting public money and slackers in everything. I can't remember the number of times my train was delayed, cancelled, or stopped in the middle of the countryside for no reason. And when shit happens, there's one thing you can expect from them: zero communication and zero responsibilities.

<comment><USER17> I was staying in Paris, France for a few months with a local friend a while back... she worked for SNCF.

Apparently suicide is a huge problem in France, and most of the time when a train is delayed or you are stopped in the middle of the tracks it's because they're quickly picking up body parts.

That's also the reason for the lack of communication on behalf of the train operators.

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

<comment><USER16> Let me call BS on that. Japan has way more suicides on its railways (because it has both more trains and more suicides in the first place than France) and the Japan Rail company always communicate on the reasons of their delays, EVEN when it's about a suicide. And delays are never in number of hours for these kind of cases, but rather about 20 to 40 mins max.

Another example from the SCNF, from my own experience. One the TGV (bullet train) stopped nowhere and we waited more than 2 hours wondering what was happening. There was no communication. Only when we arrived at the destination we were told the train hit a wild boar or something like that and that was the reason for us stopping. Seriously, why keeping everyone in the dark ? Complete lack of process and customer service. That's what the SNCF is.

It's very telling how they refer to their clients as being "usagers" (users, but in the worst possible choice of word in French) instead of referring to them as customers.

<comment><USER11> Fact is that usagers are not customers: SNCF travels are paid by the taxpayer!

<comment><USER16> And that's precisely why it does not work well.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Driverless transport arrives in the Netherlands - <AUTHOR> http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/lifestyle/news/driverless-transport-arrives-netherlands <comment><USER2> Cool fact.

Driverless transport existed in Netherlands 16 years ago! I used to take this driverless bus on the last leg of my travel to work.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmmLr8Fp0M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmmLr8Fp0M)

The difference this time is that it's on public roads.

edit: googling, I read many references to malfunctions. But it never failed for me.

</comment><comment><USER3> SO the first tentative steps are being taken towards this massive change. How long before we see the first automated cars in the US? 5 years? 10?

</comment><comment><USER4> The timescale is July 16, meaning (I think) that trials like Bristol in UK will be driving on public roads first?

Is there a comprehensive overview?</comment>


Emojicode: an open-source, full-blown programming language consisting of emojis - <AUTHOR> https://www.emojicode.org/ <comment><USER2> Is it a novel language, or simply an existing language with its functions etc changed to emojis?

When I view it on different machines, it looks so different from each other, maybe they consider _those_ to be language variants. On one of my systems, I get a lot of hollow blocks. Is that considered encrypted, or obfuscated?

Pretty severely impractical. I can't see how it is even worth the novelty since it is so hard to get a stable view of the code.</comment>


Sony introduces the DPT-CP1 digital paper tablet with a $600 price tag - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1283932/sony-introduces-the-dpt-cp1-digital-paper-tablet-does-it-do-enough-to-justify-the-600-price-tag/ <comment><USER2> What a strangely negative review of something the reviewer hasn't actually set eyes on. It doesn't make sense to compare the price of this to 5000 sheets of paper or a luxury pen.

The techcrunch blurb is less focused on the price and has slightly more technical info: [https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/21/sony-shrinks-its- digital-p...](https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/21/sony-shrinks-its-digital- paper-tablet-down-to-a-more-manageable-10-inches/)

<comment><USER3> It's also not counting printer ink, which for 5000 sheets, will cost a lot.

<comment><USER4> For a laser, $80?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have a Remarkable tablet which I think is the only direct competitor to Sony's writable e-paper tablets. It's really jank! That's to be expected of early adoption. But also, it's nice to use. I love taking math notes in it.

The main stat for these products is the pen latency. Sony's previous product, the DPT-RP1, according to reviews, had worse latency than the Remarkable, which to me is only noticeable if I make a fast stroke and look for it. I don't have any official numbers from Sony though.

I'm watching this space as it develops. I preordered the Remarkable which took a lot off its price tag-- I wouldn't buy any of these devices at their current price points. They would need to be much more polished. A lot of that is on the software side, so such a device with an open, supported platform would be quite exciting.

<comment><USER6> There isn't only one.

Onyx boox max 2 is better in everything than remarkable or sony.

<comment><USER7> Why? I'm interested in picking something like this up.

<comment><USER6> It's an android device with access to the play store, that mans kindle, epub, pdf, cbr, browsing, reading pocket articles, etc etc. It also have an HDMI and can be used as monitor.

check it out the youtube videos, the device is expensive but amazing, nothing comes close.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> _Sony has built a new app (for iOS and Android) that lets users port over documents to read, notate, or sign on the CP1._

IMHO this is the worst part: this "appification"(?) of devices, essentially using proprietary interfaces, is a hideous affront to interoperability and easy data exchange. Why does every device manufacturer feel like it has to put in effort to develop a bespoke application just to interface with its own devices, when there are plenty of standard interfaces they could use? USB mass storage, or if you want to be fancy, MTP, is an ideal way of transferring files between devices --- and it's a shame that it hasn't become more popular. Instead we see more of this proprietary shit, and even "cloud based" devices that somehow need to reach out into the Internet in order to communicate and exchange files with your PC sitting less than a metre away... if I buy something like this I don't want to install an app, register an account for a service (no doubt accompanied by some long and not-very-privacy-reassuring ToS), or even need an Internet connection --- I want to take it out of the box, turn it on, draw on it, then plug it into my PC and start copying files to/from it.

On the other hand, once the Chinese start making clones of these, I wouldn't be surprised if they did use standard UMS or MTP, like all their existing eBook readers and media players/recorders.

<comment><USER9> > Why does every device manufacturer feel like it has to put in effort to > develop a bespoke application just to interface with its own devices,

Can you name successful tablet manufacturers? There's only one. And they lock down their tablet like a vice. The fact is people don't give a shit about all this. They want a good device. If Sony is to succeed, they'd rather succeed like this than succeed with a very open device that can be used to subvert their tool chain.

<comment><USER10> > There's only one.

In 2017 Apple only had 27% of the tablet market, and that's a slight increase. Samsung and Amazon are strong competitors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I got the DPT-RP1 2 months ago for my graduate studies. Despite all the known problems, one of the best gadgets I ever got.

It replaced my notebook completely and lots of papers as well. The lack of apps (compared to Ipad Pro/Surface etc.) is a feature for me as the device focuses on its strengths and limits distractions for me. It is way more convenient to take to meetings than any other electronic device. Reading is perfect (and no comparison to any non-e-paper device) and note taking works well too. Had no problem with the app so far (on windows). My only cons are the high price and build quality (does not really feel like a "premium" device, don't know if it holds for many years).

Would highly recommend the device (RP1/CP1 - whatever size desired) for anyone who needs to read a lot of papers / take a lot of notes and doesn't mind the high price.

<comment><USER12> I have the DPT-S1 and it's was a great device to use as a student when I had to read tons and tons of papers. I could mark up the papers all I want and not lose my papers (which I used to do all the time). Though the pen is pretty frustrating to use (because of the lag) and the device is super slow at loading, it was bearable enough that I would use it all the time. Now that I don't have to read pdfs all that much, I don't use it much. But I really want a device like that except it's fast, has a nice pen, has high dpi, and you can browse the web with it. Well..I guess basically I'm thinking of a tablet except eink.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The quality of (any) mutable e-paper tablet will boil down to:

1\. writing movement-to-pixel latency (should be around 5ms)

2\. writing experience (tilting support, pressure levels, anti-aliasing, ...)

3\. speed of apps on the device

4\. shareability of annotations

5\. "stroke-recognition" of diagrams, text, math formula's, etc

6\. mashing of touch & pencil gestures

7\. apps on the platform

I'd argue that only the Surface 4 solves (1) & (2) completely, with the competition between 75% and 90%. Speed (3) is a solved problem for mobile CPU/GPU/LED/OLED hardware, but e-paper is not close to 50%. (4) is also still quite young, since the "write on digital paper" thing is not even being used by enthusiasts (only some rarae niches show consistent use). (5) is mostly solved for handwriting recognition, and good progress is made on diagrams and math formula's. But it's young, and certainly not yet a commodity. (6) seems quite solved, as most algorithms to distinct between pencils and hand/finger touches work quite well. (7) is not yet solved, there are no good apps. Some exist, but they have "handwriting" as a feature, but not as a core feature.

Color may come in as 8th, but is for most digital authoring not that important. It would certainly increase the potential market for a good e-paper device, but would come last on above list.

In the past 15 years, progress on e-paper display technology has been slow but steady. Is the latency problem solved yet? Or are we still around 100ms?

<comment><USER14> Latency on the DPT-RP1 is exactly the same as those third party pens with an old iPad. Very noticeable.

Apple's iPad Pro has excellent latency IMHO.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'll be curious to read reviews of this from people who have laid hands on it. I bought a ReMarkable and absolutely love it. I am in graduate school, so I take a lot of notes and read a lot of papers, and the ReMarkable fits this need very well (though it could use a bit more flexibility in file organization). In have used an iPad for papers, but I prefer the B&W, matte, slightly textured screen for extended reading sessions. More options on the market is good IMO.

</comment><comment><USER16> Unfortunately many of these devices from Sony have a few major downsides.

        1. Extremely expensive
        2. No way to export my work to my system (Linux desktop)
        3. No "endless" scratch pad with single-click next-page

These devices would be a godsend for long meetings, technical doodles, and ereading. It could become an integral part of my day to day workflow. I just can't afford this heafty price tag for this restricted feature set and I think many other people have this mindset.

<comment><USER3> > No way to export my work to my system (Linux desktop)

It sounds like you can export to a PDF, no?

<comment><USER14> You need Sony's software to transfer files back/forth. And it's only available on Mac/PC.

But looks like there is maybe a workaround: [https://github.com/janten/dpt- rp1-py](https://github.com/janten/dpt-rp1-py)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The device is A5 not A4! [https://www.sony.jp/digital-paper/products/DPT- CP1/](https://www.sony.jp/digital-paper/products/DPT-CP1/) Doesn't seem to be available anywhere or have reviews as not being released till June and then only into the Japanese market. [http://kakaku.com/kaden/digital- memo/ranking_6576/](http://kakaku.com/kaden/digital-memo/ranking_6576/) shows other (weird and wonderful) devices in the Japanese market that might be of interest, like Boogieboard and [http://www.kingjim.co.jp/pomera/dm200/](http://www.kingjim.co.jp/pomera/dm200/) Pomera DM200.

<comment><USER18> > Pomera DM200.

What am I missing here? What can it do vs an old Vaio P or even the GDP Pocket?

<comment><USER17> Distraction free writing seems to be its attraction - e.g. [http://journeyto1000.com/distraction-free-writing-pomera- dm1...](http://journeyto1000.com/distraction-free-writing-pomera-dm100/) Sit down and write your 10,000 words towards your novel, blog post etc.

<comment><USER18> Write! on Linux will do that too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I really hope this is really going to be released. And I _really_ hope this technology can be integrated with standard Linux desktops.

The ability to read PDF's on paper-white would be really nice.

The ability to read/write code on the paper-white would probably improve the lives of many developers, myself included.

<comment><USER16> You can get that now with the Onyx Boox Max 2 [1] which as a built in HDMI display input.

[1] - [https://onyxboox.com/boox_max2](https://onyxboox.com/boox_max2)

<comment><USER19> To save people time: [http://www.ectaco.com/onyx-boox- max/](http://www.ectaco.com/onyx-boox-max/)

And not to be _too_ cynical. But has anybody ever tried them an found them to work well? $800 is an expensive experiment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> As with the ReMarkable: call me when you got handwriting recognition on the device. I had a CrossPad, the progress in twenty years is very seriously underwhelming. The CrossPad allowed you to write on a notepad with a special pen and it stored your strokes in a vector format. The ReMarkable and these Sony devices allow you to write on a screen with a special pen and they record your strokes in a vector format. The ability to click an icon to get a new page vs actually flipping to a new page is all what happened in _twenty years_! The price is about the same, it was 400 in 1997, these things are 600 now, which is about inflation.

<comment><USER20> I use an ipad pro for note taking in OneNote with the Pencil. While handwriting recognition would be nice (make the notes searchable), it's still extremely useful without it. I just review my notes every evening and take action on the important bits right then.

<comment><USER9> I thought one note automatically makes all the handwriting searchable. Is that not true?

<comment><USER4> I haven't tried it on the iPad, but it definitely does on the Surface 3.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I have had the original DPT-S1 since 2015. I got it before starting school and have used it for textbooks throughout. Weighs a few pounds less than any textbook, let alone all my textbooks. For this it is amazing.

For handwriting... Not so much. Can only write with one hand in one orientation.

New split screen mode is pretty tantalizing. I could be persuaded to upgrade if this model has a better stylus situation--I could stop carrying a notebook altogether most days.

P.S. To the sony employees out thre: A graphing app would be amazing

</comment><comment><USER22> I really would love a device like this for sketching in design meetings. But I really can't see myself paying more than $250 for something like this.

The desirable feature for me is the display, primarily. I find e-ink displays easier to read with variable overhead lighting situations. If this is flat on a table in a conference room while I sketch I don't want too much reflectivity.

</comment><comment><USER23> What about being able to get or create an eInk display? (That you plug in / connect to a computer.) Yeah, it's not going to deal with heavily moving content well, but for reading and text editing, it could be great.

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't have to be touch-enabled, either. Just a non-fatiguing eInk display for viewing and working with mostly static / slowly changing content.

</comment><comment><USER14> Stay as far away from these as you can. I have owned the DPT-RP1 for 9 months now and Sony being true to their form provides zero support. Zero. No updates to the firmware, terrible customer support and no blogs or content about any future for the product.

Buy an iPad Pro. Far better value for money.

<comment><USER24> That's my biggest reservation about Sony products. They treat software and computers like consumer electronics that are expected to function with a fixed feature set from the day they're born to the day they die.

I can see the merits in this for the less tech savy and that might have made sense in the 90s but not today.

<comment><USER25> That's ironic to me. I swore off Sony products in the early 2000s after being burned on their early digital cameras and voice recorders, which were decent hardware but ran only on proprietary software and storage formats (e.g. the inferior and overpriced Memory Stick [0]). But the great quality of their mirrorless cameras converted me into a fan. The PS4 is also pretty solid. That said, I don't think I trust Sony enough yet to buy anything of theirs that isn't a camera or game system.

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

<comment><USER26> Sony's Xperia line of phones are _great_. They feel amazing (though a little worse than they used to; the Z3/Z3 Compact are, to me, peak phones) and I've never had a problem with updates.

I prefer Panasonic cameras to Sony, but I do live and the consumer/prosumer Sony cameras are too expensive for the feature set compared to Panasonic. If I shot photos primarily I would probably own a Sony.

<comment><USER27> The main problem I had with the Z3C was that it had an ideal frictionless plane of a back and kept sliding off of everything.

<comment><USER26> A lot of people had that problem, but it never really bothered me. My _other_ favorite phone was the iPhone 4, though, so at least I'm consistent. ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Honestly, I kinda like the look of it. Not enough to drop $600 on it just yet, but maybe a third or half.

</comment><comment><USER29> Has anyone used both or either the previous model, the DPT-RP1, and the reMarkable? If you have, what's your opinion on using them? I'm considering getting one of them for note-taking in classes

<comment><USER14> I own the DPT-RP1 and regret purchasing it. If you compare it to the latest iPad Pro the battery life is worse (no joke), the handwriting is very laggy, the end of the pen wears down like a pencil, the software is a joke, the lack of blacklight disappointing and the lack of updates or third party apps unacceptable.

Remarkable looks genuinely interesting.

<comment><USER29> Wow that's insane. That defeats one of the primary purposes of having an eInk screen.

Thanks for the response :)

My current solution is using Xournal on my Lenovo Yoga. (Xournal is amazing)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I like the concept. I have a cheap lcd blackboard from eBay that I use to doodle concepts on and it's amazing so I think to the right person this would be really valuable as well.

</comment><comment><USER9> The design is awesome. I like the sleek no nonsense aesthetic. Reminds me of thinkpads of yore. We need phones and laptops that look like this.

</comment><comment><USER31> I put a textured matte screen protector on my ipad pro. It feels very much like pen on paper when writing with the Apple stylus.

</comment><comment><USER32> I really just want a simple laptop with one of these displays so that I can code in the sun. Need me some sun.

</comment><comment><USER33> That was really shitty journalism. A complete waste of my time.</comment>


Ask HN: Programming on the side for money - <AUTHOR>

I am interested in doing a few programming assignments a month and collect some folding money in the process.  Not for a living, but just to keep myself motivated.<p>I understand there are dozens of sites which offer odd jobs like this - are there sites that you would recommend? For people who do this, can you talk about your experiences please? What to watch out for, how do you get paid, how much can you make realistically (while doing it on the side). Thanks! <comment><USER2> I've had some good results with [http://peopleperhour.com/](http://peopleperhour.com/) It's a bit smaller than a Elance, Freelancer, etc. Really though, all these 'standard' freelancing sites are the same.

Some tips I'd probably give: focus on listings in your own country/area, you will have better results. Don't be too formal, try to build a good rapport while staying professional (especially in proposals). Focus on things that you find exciting, or you'll get bogged down.

No idea what your background is, but web dev is the best area to be looking in. PHP et. al. have thousands of available at any time, at a variety of difficulty. Finding clients that will let you work in more 'trendy' (i.e. fun and productive) languages is a little harder, but if you're really pedantic you can find them.

Pay rate is very variable. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of clients just don't know what they should be paying. Most sites require an 'expected budget' on listings, but you can usually budge this up quite a bit if it's too low. Keep in mind if you're in the UK, EU, etc. that you're competing against developers in other countries with lower living costs, and that a lot of clients (especially on simpler projects) don't always have the budget you might be looking for.

The most important part of freelancing isn't your tools or your programming skills or how much time you have available - it's how you communicate with clients, especially non-technical ones (i.e. most of them). Email regularly. If you're in the same city and the project will take more than a couple of weeks, meet up for an hour to introduce yourself and discuss requirements. Always explain what you're going to do, and if you have any doubts at all, ask about it. A misunderstanding is easily made when working remotely.

I'd recommend you go into it (for the first few jobs) without worrying too much about money. Take projects that look interesting and at least cover your costs, and get a feel for how the process works and how you can attract better clients.

</comment><comment><USER3> If you're doing it for fun, why not do a personal side project rather than being paid to work on someone else's idea?

I didn't like any of the other RSS readers out there, so I wrote my own, and now I'm using it and liking it. (I was pretty annoyed when Google Reader shut down.) Now I'm working on my delicious clone. (I really liked that site and was sad when Yahoo and AVOS ruined it.)

<comment><USER4> +1 we need a better cross platform bookmark manager

<comment><USER3> I'm writing it as a single-user (for myself only) project. Is there enough interest out there for me to put it up as a project? (That's only a little extra work; I'd just need to add logins and user accounts.)

I really miss delicious, and none of the others that I've tried are any good.

Also, my RSS reader has one neat feature. On WordPress and Blogger, there's an undocumented feature that lets you grab older items (?paged= on WP, ?start- index= on Blogger). That's really useful when you find a new site and want to look at the history.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've had the best luck with [http://www.codementor.io/](http://www.codementor.io/) I don't really write software there, rather I give advice to others as to how to write theirs.

I tried odesk and guru, their pay rates were too low.

</comment><comment><USER6> What do you think about Toptal? [http://www.toptal.com/](http://www.toptal.com/)

I have a few startup acquaintances that are bootstrapping their startup mostly by churning out decent quality PHP for $30/hr .

They could aim for higher paying tasks, but then the level of challenge would probably interfere with working on their startup.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm interested in something like this. I'd be looking for someone to build out quite a few projects I have. Probably 10 to 20 hours a month, maybe more.

They're all things I could build myself over time but it would be 10x faster with someone experienced on it. I can wireframe, provide decent requirements and fast feedback.

I'm really looking for someone to help me simplify my projects (not turn them into long development cycles) I want to iterate quickly and see what gets users, try some things for fun and learn from there.

</comment><comment><USER8> It really depends how many hours a week that you can commit and what your expectations are.

<comment><AUTHOR> Okay, let's say I can put in 10-15 hours a week. As I said earlier, I don't want to make a living out of this. I want to make useful things, useful enough for a person to pay me to do it.

I don't have a revenue target in mind. If I get at least $25 per hour I spend, I'm more than happy. I have no idea what the market rates are though. I am handy with most technology, and have enough equipment at my disposal.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, that's do able. You need to find basically 1 client and hope they're pretty decent. Try services like toptal.com, grouptalent.com etc. The high end type ones are best: search HN for more of them. Tell them your time commitment.

Alternatively look on craigslist.

Make sure you have a good portfolio before you start looking: build some stuff to show off.</comment></comment></comment>


Why There's No Sketch for the iPad - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/09/14/sketch-ipad <comment><USER2> This is a great point. I love iOS, and would buy real tools for it, but I'm reluctant to shell out $50+ for a tool that I know will get six months to a year of updates before the dev makes a new version, cripples the old one with popups and OS update breakage, and I pay full price for it again. Not to mention that I'm buying on faith, as there's no way to test before the cash changes hands.

If Apple ever wants iOS to have anything Pro about it, it's going to need to offer optional paid upgrades and timed demo periods.</comment>