Ask HN: What real-world apps are based on less popular disciplines of CS? - <AUTHOR> It seems like HN can't get enough of AI/Machine Learning (with Robotics sort of lumped into those) and Crypto at the moment, but for those that aren't interested in solely those disciplines, what real-world applications are you seeing that are focused around other central disciplines of computer science? Such as:<p>* Architecture<p>* Performance<p>* Graphics/Computer Vision<p>* Networking<p>* Concurrent/Parallel/Distributed systems<p>* Databases<p>* Human-Computer Interaction/UX<p>* Scientific/computational science <comment><USER2> My office does radios for what amounts to a very specialized mesh network. While we aren't at the bleeding edge of anything, one of the main things that had to be understood by the designers of this was distributed systems. By us, the implementers, performance and concurrency are key to our work. Performance: We have a limited window within each time slot to process a message and respond with a message. Being late means waiting X slots to send the desired data, which may be too late by the time it arrives (as we can only transmit when we're permitted to by the network configuration, which could be every slot or every N slots, in order to avoid collision in broadcast). Concurrency because our particular software component is designed with several concurrent components, but also the whole radio has 5+ (depending on configuration) processors each with 1+ applications executing on them. Designing software that operates correctly in this environment is a challenge.

</comment><comment><USER3> Honestly, there are far to many to even list. I think part of the issue may just be that not every application is an 'app' \- computing is increasingly intertwined with physical applications. Here are a few consumer-focused 'emerging tech' applications off the top of my head:

Graphics / CV: VR Gaming (Oculus, HTC Vive, etc), self-driving vehicles, computational photography (Lytro)

HCI: Leap, Kinect, VR Gaming again

Architecture / performance / networking / databases are tools, not applications in and of themselves - find a problem that demands extremely high performing systems, and there will be work done in those areas. Example: the PX 2 system for self-driving racecars that Nvidia announced a few days ago at GTC hits six of your bullets points by itself (architecture, performance, computer vision, networking, parallel systems, computational science).

<comment><AUTHOR> I should clarify - the title had character limits, so when I wrote "apps" I meant "applications" \- it doesn't necessarily exclude businesses that don't do "apps" per se - for example, Vertica and VoltDB would be innovative companies in databases, but their technology isn't an "app" in that sense.

<comment><USER2> I usually try to tuck this as a note with a regular response to a comment, so apologies for that.

"Per say" should be "per se".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> There was this: [http://summly.com/index.html](http://summly.com/index.html) now part of Yahoo news digest. This would count as "Natural Language Processing".

There's also Diffbot, [https://www.diffbot.com/](https://www.diffbot.com/), you this could count under "computer vision" (as AI/machine learning).

Think this [https://streamium.io/](https://streamium.io/) might tick the "Concurrent/Parallel/Distributed systems" and "Networking" boxes.

</comment><comment><USER5> Follow up question: how does one move his career from general "business logic" programming to state where you _have_ to read latest CS papers for work and write your own (if your company allows you to share the intellectual property)?

<comment><USER6> Join a startup doing their vision of the next big thing that requires actual tech development and not just combining current tech together into a simple product. Think DeepMind, not SnapChat.

<comment><USER7> There are CV scientists building some very fun and interesting things at even Snapchat. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8>
      * Timetabling or scheduling apps like Doodle.com - subjects pertaining to Graph Theory
      * Travel comparison sites that can find you the fastest flight route from A to B (and/or cheapest or some other type of constraints) - Graph Theory
      * LinkedIn network analysis apps such as Socilab.com - Graph Theory

Basically Graph Theory is extremely important, with applications in domains such as: networking, linguistics, (bio)chemistry, pathfinding & GIS, social network analysis, matching (dating apps, organ donation, medical residency matching) etc.

Edit: Another application is PCB design. The circuit to be printed is the graph itself, it should not allow edge crossings that would result in a short circuit.

<comment><USER9> >less popular disciplines of CS

Graph Theory?

<comment><USER8> Considering the post submitter hasn't been more precise, I interpreted 'popular' as meaning less advertised or trendy. You can even use Graph Theory for image processing & analysis, yet another application.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> AI/ML and Crypto are sort of generally applicable to many startups, hence you see them more.

For databases, there are quite a few columnar database startups.

A bunch of these topics are basically only relevant at large scale since they're R&D intensive. I think it's easy to say that Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have big groups of people dedicated to most of these problem domains. Search their engineering blogs or look at white papers and you can find a bunch of examples.

</comment><comment><USER11> One thing about distributed systems is there are many, many organizations with small-to-medium sized infrastructures, so a lot of the solutions for the problems of those organization's infrastuctures are already done and widely available. If you look at the largest distributing systems setups, they are so large they run into their own unique problems. Google has rolled a lot of its own solutions, I'm sure often out of necessity. So they write Dapper to do DS monitoring. Twitter writes Zipkin to do DS monitoring.

For distributed storage, Carnegie-Mellon had solutions like AFS, which large DS organizations used. Google needed a different solution and made Google File System and MapReduce. Inspired by this, a project like Hadoop is started.

Insofar as graphics and computer vision, the first non-dev Oculus Rift just started shipping a few days ago, and Oculus is already working on an improved version of it. HTC and Valve's Vive was just released a few days ago. So a lot of innovation is happening in graphics and computer vision right now.

</comment><comment><USER12> I think an enormous amount of money has been made in virtualization technologies, yet they rarely get the kind of attention that AI / ML gets. Probably because the primary customer of these products are very large enterprises who use them in their private data centers.

</comment><comment><USER13> I think part of the reason you see so much AI/ML and crypto is that those methods are very useful in a wide range of CS disciplines. This is true for many of the things you list:

AI/ML is important to (or visa versa):

\- Performance

\- Graphics/Vision (my research is largely in this field)

\- HCI

\- Scientific/computational science

Crypto is important to:

\- Architecture

\- Networking

\- Distributed Systems

\- Databases

\- HCI/UX

And I'm sure the above lists are not exhaustive. I think learning ML and optimization is important because you can apply it to literally almost any other field. One of my favorite things to see is when people apply ML/optimization in new ways to other disciplines. The field of Computational Fabrication is very interesting, IMO. All these things are not so different as they might seem.

</comment><comment><USER14> A surprising number of companies rely on ideas and tools from PL (programming languages) internally. More extreme examples are things like having their own compilers and internal languages and more common ones are things like domain- specific languages, static analysis tools and advanced type systems.

The thing with PL is that it's something of a meta-field, even within CS: the programs you write help you write other programs. So while user-facing products based on PL ideas are rare (ie just development tools), many companies have surprising numbers of PL people in house who use these tools and techniques internally.

</comment><comment><USER15> Performance/Parallel systems: Some animator friends are excited about GPU rendering, which has a lot of potential to make professional animation rendering more accessible/powerful.

Computer vision: Important for most VR tracking systems, body tracking systems like Leap Motion, as well as augmented reality systems like Project Tango and Vuforia.

</comment><comment><USER16> CV: farming/drone air photography

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm not sure what you consider central areas as all of those listed seem pretty central.

<comment><AUTHOR> They are central disciplines of computer science, but they are not central in mind share; basically I'm seeing all of these articles on AI and ML (DeepMind, Comma.ai, tutorials on Deep Learning and Neural Networks), but not as much on things like networking, databases, and HCI. It would be nice to explore successful companies whose central focus is on one of those other disciplines.</comment></comment>


Facebook Platform Upgrade Guide - <AUTHOR> https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/upgrading/

<comment><AUTHOR> This thing is a beast!</comment>


Spacemacs: The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs and Vim - <AUTHOR> http://spacemacs.org/ <comment><USER2> This comes up fairly frequently on HN (mostly in comments, but also submissions) - most notably perhaps [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9394144](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9394144) and [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10837833](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10837833)

It seems that there's quite some interest in Spacemacs and lots of people hear about it for the first time every time it's being talked about, maybe these old discussions can be interesting as well.</comment>


Update on Security Incident and Additional Security Measures - <AUTHOR> https://sendgrid.com/blog/update-on-security-incident-and-additional-security-measures/

<comment><USER2> Sendgrid recently added MFA to their logins. Also, they recently added 'multiuser' logins (different than subusers) which allow for a separate login/password for api, smtp and web under a single account. This is a nice addition to be able to rotate credentials without downtimes, though as they state in the blog, even better 'api keys' should be coming soon.

That being said, is it odd that the blog says "(salted and iteratively hashed)" passwords? Does that indicate a homegrown scheme that has unknown properties?</comment>


CoVe – a Contour line Vectorization tool for raster templates [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIumQdg7qxY <comment><AUTHOR> _«CoVe»_ [0] is a contour line vectorization tool for raster templates, internally developed especially for open-source GIS and desktop publishing software for orienteering mapping & cartography — _«OpenOrienteering Mapper»_ [1].

Since now _CoVe_ included in latest _OpenOrienteering Mapper_ pre-release builds.[2]

[0] [https://github.com/OpenOrienteering/mapper/issues/833](https://github.com/OpenOrienteering/mapper/issues/833)

[1] [https://www.openorienteering.org/apps/mapper](https://www.openorienteering.org/apps/mapper)

[2] [https://github.com/OpenOrienteering/mapper/releases/tag/mast...](https://github.com/OpenOrienteering/mapper/releases/tag/master-v20191221.17)</comment>


Ask HN: Best resources for running a Linux dedicated server? - <AUTHOR> I never touched Linux but I plan to rent a dedicated server for running a website on it and I fear doing a lot of wrong things. What did you read at first, up to mastering that field, especially on a security point of view?
Keep the list simple, focused on the essentials from noob to wizard, with no overlapping docs. It can be books (books are great), pdf, webpages. French resources would be even better.
Remember, it's for the purpose of managing a server and while I plan to use Linux as my primary OS, I have no idea what's the difference between using Linux on a server and using it for office stuff past the fact I will have to face the CLI.
Thank you in advance to all those who will answer.
Edit: I was supposed to "Ask HN" but it seems I did something wrong? Sorry if that's the case. <comment><USER2> I find the getting started documents/guides over at Digitalocean and Linode very helpful.

[https://www.digitalocean.com/help/getting-started/setting- up...](https://www.digitalocean.com/help/getting-started/setting-up-your- server/) [https://www.linode.com/docs/platform/linode-beginners- guide](https://www.linode.com/docs/platform/linode-beginners-guide)

From there, there's a whole lot of other topics too, web servers, the usual LEMP/LAMP stack.

[http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux- security.html](http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-security.html) on the basics of security too.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER3> Amazon AWS is not a terrible way to get started. It has a firewall that is on by default, you will have to deliberately add rules for your services ( for example to allow port 80 in to httpd )</comment>


Infographic of US Gun Crime - <AUTHOR> http://trynudge.com/index.html?view=Editor&play=4DW32cz3EWr Data from FBI.gov <comment><USER2> Clearly not made by an American. No one uses state flags for identification. <comicbookguy> Worst info graphic ever </comicbookguy></comment>


Marvel executive says emphasis on diversity may have alienated readers - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/03/marvel-executive-says-emphasis-on-diversity-may-have-alienated-readers <comment><USER2> Makes sense.

It's also become a problem going the other way. Iron Fist got loads of lousy reviews and a decent number start with complaining about how they should have made the main character an Asian man. I get that comics have some aspects that are less PC in a modern context, but that's what happens when you have decades of history.

> Miles Morales, a biracial Spider-Man

I don't know the sales numbers or anything, but the general perception I've gotten from comic book fans is that Miles Morales is very well liked. I really liked that run of Ultimate Spider-Man. Thinking about it, he must have been doing well enough sales wise because they actually brought him over from the ultimate universe.

Are people tired of diversity or do they just not like the moves Marvel is making? If I'm a long-time fan of Thor, and then they say "oh he's got no powers and now a woman is Thor" why wouldn't I say "that's dumb. no thank you"?

I also agree strongly with the point about Marvel being too event heavy.</comment>


Ask HN:Have you founded a startup where in you outsourced the whole tech work? - <AUTHOR>

If yes, I wanted to know what were your learning's regarding 1. Who to select to give work to? Factors which were kept in mind besides money which is required to be paid to the team developing.
2. How to select a team which can support the system in house once its created? & what phase in the process did you start to build this team?
3. Did you prefer to have the team creating the initial product placed locally where you were or were they located somewhere else in the world?
4. How did you prevent the business idea from getting leaked? NDA etc?
5. What aspects of the business model did you choose to not outsource? Design etc
6. Did you outsource the work to a company or independent contractors?
7. How did you ensure that the technical solution being set up was scalable?
8. Till what point in the cycle did you outsource Vs hiring a team to do in house development? What were the factors which drove your decisions - e.g. validation of business model or minimum customer base or revenue etc?
Thanks <comment><USER2> A friend of mine an, MBA guy, founded a startup with almost all the coding outsourcing (the most important part of the code). His startup became well funded and he paid a heavy price for the outsourced decision.

He did not have the sourced code apparently did not bother to care about it when signing the contract because he taught once he have the money the whole thing could be rewritten easy. One thing he did not take in consideration was the downtime it will take to transition from old code to new code. The old code had serious issues and generated terrible scalability mishaps and great mistrust from customers.

By the time the code rewrite was complete the company had overspent money and had lost a truck load of customers.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Did he identify what he could have done differently so as to mitigate the risk?

<comment><USER2> In my opinion, getting a technical cofounder would have been a great asset in helping him make the right decision in the first place. Unfortunately I don't think he have learned that because the last time I check he was still doing something similar. It has to de with the thinking and respect he has for developers in general. I think his frame of mind is still in the era in which it was widely believed outsourcing could solve all problems. My take is if you want to build a tech company, you MUST have a tech cofounder to avoid dangerous pitfalls.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: PG: What is happening with the Washington Post story about Ferguson? - <AUTHOR>

The story, as I'm submitting this, is number 19. It has 172 points (67 comments) and was submitted 2h ago.
Number 18 has (Startup School 2014 applications are open) has 86 points (29 comments) and was submitted 13 hours ago. <comment><USER2> Simple question, simple answer: It's been flagged because it doesn't belong here.

Simple followup question, simple answer: Why, you ask? Just pull up the comments and read a few of them. Ouch.

We tend not to encourage topics that attract crazy angry people who like to fight with one another on the internet. There are plenty of places for those people to fight about whatever they like, but the front page of our little community is not an appropriate place.

If they must fight here, they can do so on page 29. And looking at that article, it appears they're still doing just that. Good luck to them.

</comment><comment><USER3> Things will be lowered if there are a lot of users flagging the post, however its unclear why they would be. There's a lot of good discussion in the comments.

</comment><comment><USER4> Very curious about this too. 198 points when I returned to the discussion and it's not displayed anywhere in the first 5 pages.

</comment><comment><USER5> Can you link to it?

<comment><USER6> [https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ferguson#!/story/forever/0/ferguso...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ferguson#!/story/forever/0/ferguson)</comment></comment>


The Phrase That's Screwing Up the Afghan Air War - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/the-phrase-thats-screwing-up-the-afghan-air-war/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

<comment><USER2> The Afghan war seems so remote to us and it has been dragging too long, what screwing it up so long is actually finding a political solution that could let the troops go home and the Afghans live in peace!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> seems like something scheduling software could solve pretty easily</comment>


Meet Prism's little brother: Socmint - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/26/socmint <comment><USER2> I don't see anything wrong with this - they are scanning public activity - that's fair game as far as I am concerned, it's fishing through and storing the private stuff that bothers me.

Infact, the more I think about this topic the more I realise it's not the monitoring that bothers me - it's the storage element and the fact they could go back through in years to come and paint whatever picture they can about a person.

Disclosure: I'm British

<comment><USER3> You don't see anything wrong with

""" "Sentiment analysis" that can determine your mood; "horizon scanning" that tries to pre-empt disorder and crime; facial recognition software that can track down individuals; geo-location that is able to pinpoint your whereabouts, and profiling that can map who you are and what circles you move in. """

<comment><USER4> All of that information is provided by the social media user, voluntarily to the public internet. If you don't want your mood analyzed then it is best not to post "I'm grumpy this morning" on Twitter. Companies do the same thing for marketing campaigns - I'm not seeing a problem here or how this relates as a "little brother" to other programs.

<comment><USER5> Not quite. I did some UI work for a phone-company and their in-store camera's were able to detect clients mood within a second. They even demo'd it and showed the mood of people walking in. Right now it's only capable of 'happy, neutral and not-happy' as well as suggest man/woman. I'm pretty sure the software driving those camera's will only get better. Combine that with facial recognition and it get's creepy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a staff of 17 officers in the National Domestic Extremism Unit (NDEU) has been scanning the public's tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook profiles, and anything else UK citizens post in the public online sphere.

The HUGE difference here is the last three words of that paragraph, "public online sphere." They are doing no more then analyzing publicly accessible data just like any other company, specifically advertising and marketing companies, do on a daily basis.

<comment><USER7> TLDR: This is nothing like Prism. Prism (illegally) accesses private data, NDEU legally accesses data made public.

<comment><USER8> Not quite, PRISM provides access to data legally acquired through mechanisms (like FISA requests) that should ideally not be legal.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A number of initial responses to this article seem to acquiesce to the program because it scans technically "public" information. Speaking from the context of the United States, the 4th Amendment to the Constitution is what may be violated by PRISM, which protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure. It has been interpreted by the courts that this protects citizens when they have a "reasonable expectation of privacy."

At what point with the powerful sensor technologies and analytics techniques that government agencies can employ and are mentioned in the article (semantic analysis, horizon scanning, predictive analytics, facial recognition, geolocation) do we draw a line that a reasonable expectation of privacy has been violated? I am not sure that the users of social networks who are not tech industry workers necessarily expect the extent to which extrapolations can be made and conclusions can be drawn about behavior that is technically "public" and mundane at face value.

Another separate question to consider is whether agencies will distinguish between content that is "public" or "private" in the cloud. It may be reasonable that content put in the cloud publicly is searchable, but will agencies respect cloud providers/users administrative privacy options? If I put physical property in storage I expect a warrant will be required to search it, but if I put intellectual property in the cloud, will the government respect that as protected by the 4th amendment when it is much easier to obtain, especially with the cooperation of tech companies?

</comment><comment><USER10> I believe underpinning this is a need for new tools to give citizens the ability to ensure good governance. We can watch the watchmen, and we should.

<comment><USER11> Correct. But you can start with the low-hanging fruit, i.e. use [http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/](http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/) as your new social network & secure communication.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I would have been more surprised if they WEREN'T doing this.

</comment><comment><USER13> Related talk at the last HOPE conference:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az7txN0599M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az7txN0599M)

</comment><comment><USER14> So it's just _scanning_ public info, right? What about the creation of fake personas [1]? What if these fake personas posted, commented and attempted to gain more information, or attempted to sway/entrap people?

It seems the line to be crossed from (a bit more than public) surveillance to manipulation is a very very thin line.

[1] [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/23/1218189/-HBGary- Pal...](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/23/1218189/-HBGary-Palantir- Prism-Facebook-The-Industrial-Surveillance-Complex)

<comment><USER15> Topic is connected to PRISM sooo much. I don't understand how so many people here can't see that technology and it's implementation bypassed the legislation and conversations for a majority of population except for cypherpunks and a few others?</comment></comment>


Twitter Usernames VS Email Addresses  - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/2009/06/15/twitter-usernames-email-addresses/# <comment><USER2> Two comments about this:

1) I have one of these "minimalist" business cards on my desk. From a recent tradeshow. It has a name and and email address (maybe a phone number, it's on my desk at work). I have no clue why I have it or what the relevance is. I looked up the domain name, it's a personal site I think (I was doing this last week). No idea if this guy wanted a job, was a consultant, had $1M of business waiting for me. I'm also not going to take the time to call or email and ask "who are you and why do I have your card again?"... IMO, unless you're a fucking spectacular dude, put some info on your damn card.

2) The difference between domain names (and thereby email and websites) is that you can own and control them. I'm not putting my Twitter ID on my personal card because I still have no guarantee that Twitter will still exist (or that I will still care about it, the novelty of Twitter is fading for me) in another year. I certainly don't see the value in directing someone to a 3rd party site out my control for them to contact me. And the process of someone finding me on Twitter, following me and/or "@"ing me, me seeing the message, having a meaningful conversation in 140 car burst, etc, just seems like a clusterfuck to me.

<comment><USER3> Agree to 2) - also see our recent blog article:

[http://iwantmyname.com/blog/2009/06/i-want-my-name-or-how- yo...](http://iwantmyname.com/blog/2009/06/i-want-my-name-or-how-you-can-own- your-online-identity-with-domains.htm)</comment></comment>


Beginning in 2007, a new study finds, the rate of suicides among adolescent gir - <AUTHOR> https://www.inverse.com/article/55928-teen-suicide-rates-are-rising-in-girls <comment><USER2> The headline is truncated in a context-reducing way.</comment>


Purism Librem Mini - <AUTHOR> https://puri.sm/products/librem-mini <comment><USER2> avoid purism like the plague.

my experience with their overpriced laptops is a nightmare.

two keyboard keys do not work unless pressed exactly rigth. coreboot built with hacks that will fail randomly if you change the hdd. customer support leaves you hanging forever. wifi issues everyother update of their pureOS (broken and fixed with no notice or changelog mention). etc.

they are too ambitious to their capabilities. and pivoting all over the place to mobile etc just makes it even worse.</comment>


Ask HN: What are good resources to learn about distributed systems? - <AUTHOR> I am trying to understand systems like Flink and Spark from the ground-up. I know two years of CS material from University. Any suggested courses or readings? <comment><USER2> _Distributed Systems for Fun and Profit_ is a free ebook available in various formats:

[http://book.mixu.net/distsys/](http://book.mixu.net/distsys/)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is probably the most authoritative list I've seen:

[https://www.the-paper- trail.org/post/2014-08-09-distributed-...](https://www.the-paper- trail.org/post/2014-08-09-distributed-systems-theory-for-the-distributed- systems-engineer/)

</comment><comment><USER4> While not directly about distributed systems, Designing Data-Intensive Applications explains much of the context for why we'd want them, and some examples of them: [https://dataintensive.net/](https://dataintensive.net/)</comment>


INFOGRAPHIC: College Students and Startups Love Ramen (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-college-students-and-startups-love-ramen-2012-2 <comment><AUTHOR> Has anyone seen any interesting or notable Ramen startups?</comment>


Can This Man Save Pinball? - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/business/doers/2013/01/jersey_jack_pinball_wizard_of_oz_pinball_is_dying_can_arcade_entrepreneur.html <comment><USER2> > _Even so, he intends to keep pressuring his rival: Jersey Jack's next > licensed game, The Hobbit, is scheduled for 2014, to coincide with the final > movie in Peter Jackson's trilogy._

This is quite interesting because Stern's Lord of the Rings is one of their best (and most complex) games and would create a natural comparison, but it will be quite hard to outdo compared to taking on more recent (read: cheaper) Sterns.

On that topic I wish I could find a fully functional LoTR as I came late to it and now everyone I find has critical flaws. There's one in the Minneapolis airport that is broken, and I've played one in London that mostly works except the ring sensor is broken so _you can't destroy the ring_ , which you only discover after an epic game. Apparently there is a setting compensate for this, but the operator won't turn it on. Incidentally, I almost beat Martin Ayub's (he's mentioned in the article) high score of 350M on this machine, and were it not for this fault I certainly would have. And of course without that it is also impossible to reach what is reputed to be the most difficult-to- reach wizard mode in the history of pinball: Valinor.

<comment><USER3> Where in London? I'd love to give it a go.

<comment><USER2> This one: [http://www.pinformer.co.uk/details.pl?action=display&id=...](http://www.pinformer.co.uk/details.pl?action=display&id=808)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you like pinball and live in the Bay Area, I highly recommend visiting Lucky Juju (aka the Pacific Pinball Museum) on Alameda. $15 admission for unlimited free play on dozens of pinball machines, including many vintage machines.

<http://www.pacificpinball.org/>

<comment><USER5> If you live in, or are passing through Austin, take a look at Pinballz Arcade. They have over 100 machines.

<http://www.pinballzarcade.com/games-to-play/pinball-games>

<comment><USER6> Does anyone know of anything like this around Tokyo? I'm visiting in a few weeks and would definitely like to see something like this, aside from regular arcades.

I saw One More Time [1] but that's about 4.5 hours out from Tokyo if my directions are correct.

[1] <http://www.one-more-time.jp/pinball/>

<comment><USER7> Searching as we speak!

Not pinball but there is this <http://dgm.hmc6.net/>

Dagashiya (local sweet shop) game museum

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I remember playing pinball when the state-of-the-art video games were such Atari 2600 titles as Adventure and Yars' Revenge. Pinball, even then, could not compete. They are as obsolete as 78 RPM gramophones.

<comment><USER2> Incorrect. The high water mark of pinball was 1993's Twilight Zone. Aside from the physicality of it which still hasn't been equaled by digital games, the ruleset complexity of late 80s and early 90s pins started to explode. An order of magnitude more complexity than any Atari 2600 game; several orders more than Yars' Revenge (ugh that game was boring).

<comment><USER9> Pinball may have been more popular pre- (and during) the transition to arcade games, but arguably the /best/ pinball came in the early 90s with the advent of better processing power and more complicated electronics allowing more complex gameplay. Twilight Zone is one of the most complex pinball rulesets I've ever seen, and The Addams Family (from 1993 also I think) was and still is the best-selling machine of all time.

I collect pinball machines; I have 11 of them crammed into a house not designed to hold that many large machines. It's an interesting amalgamation of physical and electronic skills to repair and restore them, it's possibly more fun to restore them than it is to actually play them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If you were a geek hanging out in arcades in the 1980's, you will probably enjoy this. High Speed, Pinbot...

Python Anghelo <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up03zouCIvI>

</comment><comment><USER11> Pinball rocks. I was an addict from an early age, around 7.

I always play a machine if I see one and have time on my hands. Although it is a little frustrating to find most machines I come across have some problems, or have been tampered with to make them more difficult.

I also love the Zen studios pinball game on xbox / windows 8. Ironically, I think it is one of the best real world activity sims I have encountered.

<comment><USER12> If you haven't tried it, I'd also checkout the rather creatively titled "Pinball Arcade" - ios, android, xbox, PS3, etc. They got the licenses for a bunch of old tables, and are adding one or two a month. Very good physics engine, and they're emulating the hardware so the gameplay is very accurate.

It's been a fun way to waste time.

<comment><USER13> They were having problems with their publisher so the tables stopped coming.

<comment><USER12> I think that was only Xbox?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> No. Pinball machines are phenomenally expensive to maintain, and don't yield good revenues for operators. Most arcade operators have little interest in buying new video game cabinets, because the new generation of Amusement With Prizes/Skill With Prizes machines (Flamin' Finger, Barber Cut, Stacker etc) are an order of magnitude more profitable.

</comment><comment><USER15> I don't care for the theme, but then I learn he's targeting women on location - I figured this was a home use only machine.

The big issue with pins on location is the maintenance - the number of people left who can genuinely maintain pinball machines is pretty tiny. I wonder if they've done anything to improve the maintainability, like reducing the amount of dirt buildup. The LED lighting will certainly help!

<comment><USER9> There's a lot to be done - granted the majority of pinball failures are mechanical, and they're hard to reduce simply by the fact that you're flinging a heavy metal ball at a decent momentum against mechanical components.

Some of the actual mechanical designs haven't changed in decades (the flipper mechanics are pretty simple and cheap and well-understood; the payoff in "redesigning" the mechanism has almost no chance to pay off in the long run) but there are improvements that can (and have) been made in overall servicability. Modern machines are easier to access (in general), components are easier to remove (in general) and the diagnostics built into the software are light-years ahead of what used to be typical. While there's still a fair amount of skill in being /good/ at repairing pins, modern pins seem to me to be much easier to maintain by an owner-operator than they've ever been.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's always a pleasure to see a hard thing being done well by someone who really cares about the craft.

But at the same time pinball is... not very fun. And expensive. I fully expect it to go the way of the music hall, and on a larger scale I'm happy about that.

But I'm also sad to see a craft disappear. Not sure what to think.

<comment><USER17> We're very different people. I _love_ Pinball. That said there are some really great pinball machines and some that are just super-boring. Maybe it's a function of my age as I still played pinball in arcades and whatnot (I'm in my early 30s). I'd really like to get a shot at this Wizard of Oz machine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> HyperPin, from the guys who make HyperSpin (MAME frontend)

<http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/>

example: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCKLGL-HLUs>

</comment><comment><USER19> I want to play this like I want to continue breathing. Gimme!

<comment><USER20> I also found the description oddly compelling. There was a Terminator pinball game in the break room at Sun that we used to play, I felt it provided a good social nexus. There were also machines at Google but strangely if you played them you could feel like you were touching the exhibits at a museum which I found disconcerting. Mostly this came from the looks people would give you as they walked by. Sad really.

<comment><USER19> Should you ever find yourself in Portland Oregon, please visit 'Ground Kontrol'. An entire floor of nothing but pinball games, quite frequently at capacity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Making the technical bits and machinery have never been easier or cheaper. I hope he can find people to buy them and play them.

</comment><comment><USER22> When we were young kids, my brother and I would play pinball. He'd play one flipper (button) and I'd play the other.</comment>


Coding on Your Smartphone with Vim [video] - <AUTHOR> https://vimeo.com/339574087 <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, I've spent some time working on this PoC that allows one to (kind of) code on smartphone using Vim. I am sharing a video demo here to see what others think of it.

It is based on my other similar project swell.sh [0], that you run a HTTP server process (written in Python) on a server and connect to it from your smartphone's browser (Chrome/Safari). Then you will see Vim in the Web-based terminal (using xterm.js) in the above and can interact with Vim using the virtual keyboard specifically built for the App below (it is part of the page's UI, not your OS's keyboard app). The python process in the backend is able to provide the completion information gathered from Vim (I used the TabNine completion engine [1] in the video but I believe any Vim plugin that provides completion would work) to the front-end, where you could choose from the keyboard's autocomplete suggestion row, thus greatly reduce the required number of 'taps' on the keyboard for inputting code.

Obviously it's not going to replace your desktop/laptop for serious programming work, but what do you think about the idea? Any feedback/thought is welcome.

[0] [https://github.com/wcchoi/swell.sh](https://github.com/wcchoi/swell.sh) [1] [https://tabnine.com](https://tabnine.com)</comment>


Practical Techniques to Achieve Quality in Large Software Projects - <AUTHOR> http://developers.memsql.com/blog/practical-techniques-to-achieve-quality-in-large-software-projects/

<comment><USER4> Testing is all well and good, but I worry that software is getting into the trap that Manufacturing learned to avoid decades ago: you can't test quality into the product.

Most blog posts about software quality seem to focus on testing. While testing is certainly a _component_ of a good development process, it's really better to avoid injecting a defect than trying to be sure you execute tests to find it later.

<comment><USER5> Can't agree more with this sentiment. Current software engineering practice has moved from focusing on the software itself to testing the software. Even peer reviews seem to be taking a back seat these days to 'make it pass the tests' engineering.

1) Your tests are just as likely to have bugs anyway.

2) The 'bad' bugs are logic bugs - if your logic is wrong, your tests are wrong, so you are testing the wrong thing.

3) Users often do things you didn't plan for. If you didn't plan for it, you didn't create a test for it. 100% code coverage does not mean you have tested every possible input, only that you've tested every possible branch. You can still go down the wrong branch/get the wrong result.

4) If you design first and test later, you're more likely to have designed real logic into your system. TDD will let you re-factor more easily - <USER3> (design driven development) will make it so you don't need to spend months re- factoring in the first place.

Basically: software engineering in general needs more architecture and less ticking checkmarks - we are building space escalators here, we are not building chair legs. There is no need to re-invent the chair leg, "but this time with more tests".

<comment><USER6> I totally agree that tests aren't a replacement for thoughtful design, but neither is thoughtful design a replacement for tests. I think they complement each other. Thoughtful design allows you to model how you expect the software to work and your tests help you validate that model.

 _1) Your tests are just as likely to have bugs anyway._

This is partially addressed by the "red-green" part of TDD's process. I catch many bugs in my unit tests by ensuring that the tests start out red and become green only after writing the code that's supposed to implement what's being tested. Yes, it's possible that some bugs will still exist in your test code, but I think it significantly reduces the probability that a bug exists in your application code.

 _4) If you design first and test later, you're more likely to have designed real logic into your system. TDD will let you re-factor more easily - <USER3> (design driven development) will make it so you don't need to spend months re- factoring in the first place._

I agree with the first part, that putting some thought into design upfront is likely to improve the overall quality of your software, but I don't see how that necessarily implies "test last." I like Domain Driven Design [1] (another DDD) for upfront design, but I still use TDD when implementing the design. I've not heard of Design Driven Development before. Is that another name for Domain Driven Design? Its Wikipedia page [2] is lacking substance.

A word about refactoring: I too find that putting thought into design before implementation reduces the need for large refactorings later. I agree with you there. However, I've never found that TDD helps me refactor "later." With TDD, I employ many micro-refactors _during_ implementation. In other words, DDD provides the outline, TDD fills in the details. Alternatively: DDD is designing in-the-large, while TDD is designing in-the-small.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-driven_design>

[2] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design-driven_development>

<comment><USER5> You and nikita below are both right that having tests is much better than not having tests, and the argument isn't really about choosing design or tests - you definitely want both.

I was just trying to address the same point that HeyLaughingBoy above was addressing - tests are not a replacement for design; quality is not about tests. Tests are a tool to improve productivity in a large code base across many developers, and they're also a useful tool for a single programmer to use to focus their development. However, tests themselves are not a mark of quality, and any actual bugs that tests catch are just nice extras - and if you follow TDD, they will never catch bugs, since you will code until the test passes, bugs and all.

So my point is very simple: quality is in design and implementation. Tests are just for increasing engineering efficiency - you can have the same quality without tests as long as you have enough time (manual QA). You can't have the same quality without design, even with all the tests in the world.

<comment><USER6> _> Quality is in design and implementation. Tests are just for increasing engineering efficiency._

Yes, precisely. I couldn't have said it better myself. Your original comment came across as discounting the importance of tests a lot more than I think you meant it to.

But I was also trying to make a couple points about TDD.

The first is that watching the tests fail before writing the implementation increases your confidence that there isn't a bug in your test code. This was just to address your #2 bullet point. But this only treats tests as a verification tool, which is orthogonal to good design. Since we agree that tests are for efficiency and we're discussing design, it's not worth dwelling on this point.

The second point is that TDD is a useful _design_ tool that can be used in conjunction with upfront design. Upfront design is great for having an overall coherent design, but there are many finer details that are inevitably discovered at implementation time. That's where I think TDD really shines.

If you think of building software as sculpting, upfront design is like chiseling out the shape of your statue and TDD is like switching to a more precise tool to etch in small details like hair texture or wrinkles. It's not a perfect metaphor. For example, if you start with a smaller chisel (TDD), you'll end up with the same statue just taking you longer to build. But if you do the same with software development, you'll end up with an arm coming out of the statue's thigh.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I absolutely hate it when I'm reading an interesting article on a startup/company blog and I go to click on their logo/name in the top left corner and it...takes me back to their blog instead of their homepage!

</comment><comment><USER8> Test (and Design) are part of the development strategy. Depending on what your business goals are, you should optimize Design\Development\Test for it. Sometimes these goals are principals that you want to brand around (e.g. robustness for a DB server product) or tactical decision that adapt to a stage (catching up, learning, leapfrogging, supportability, locking a market). These are scenarios that I've seen (and some of them worked on) over the last years:

* Deliver a strong v1 too late * Deliver a small v1 that outs a new market and allows competirors to catch up * Develop a vnext backcompat-focused product and be surpassed by a new\exisiting competitor * Develop a heavily customer focus product and get trapped in impossible\contradicting requirements * Deliver a weak v1 and lose market credibility * Deliver a secret v1 and have no real market for it

If you have a clear view of the business goals, Test becomes less an opinion and more of a resourcing puzzle (still hard though). It's a great world of tradeoffs between layering tests, testability features, customer research\partnership\simulation, fast development, legacy ownership, responsibility distribution, exhaustiveness, documentation, community\customer engagement, reusability of tests, reusability of product code.

</comment><comment><USER9> Interesting, thanks for sharing!

Can you share more about psyduck? How much time was invested in building out your testing systems?

<comment><AUTHOR> I would say it was an initial push on 1.5 months of one engineer with 10% of time of one engineer for maintenance. As the load increases we have to invest a few days here and there to scale the system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I am curious how many unittests they have - hundreds or thousands...

<comment><AUTHOR> We have thousands of C++ unit tests and hundreds of thousands of functional SQL tests

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Agile?

<comment><AUTHOR> We are not following any specific methodology such as agile. But we definitely pay a lot of attention to the varios engineering ideas and practices.</comment></comment>


The Mystery of Lincoln's First Inauguration Photograph - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2019/11/the-mystery-of-lincolns-first-inauguration-photograph/ <comment><USER2> She doesn't say what happened to the glass negative. surprised it wasn't preserved

<comment><USER3> They are heavy and fragile, while the prints can be kept in books which prevent folding and are loosely "airtight"</comment></comment>


Surface-conduction electron-emitter display - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-conduction_electron-emitter_display <comment><USER2> SED would have been fucking awesome.

Yet again, a broken patent system fucks things up for America (and also one of my favorite examples of it that I've been using for years).

<comment><USER3> ... except that the patentee lost.

>On 25 July 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reversed the lower court's decision and provided that Canon's "irrevocable and perpetual" non-exclusive licence was still enforceable and covers Canon's restructured subsidiary SED.[23] On 2 December 2008, Applied Nanotech dropped the lawsuit, stating that continuing the lawsuit "would probably be a futile effort".[17]

>In spite of their legal success, Canon announced at the same time that the financial crisis of 2008 was making introduction of the sets far from certain, going so far as to say they would not be launching the product at that time "because people would laugh at them".[

<comment><USER4> It's arguable that the litigation delayed SEDs to the point where they were no longer mass marketable, but I could go either way on it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Kinda of VFD technology, but nanoscale?

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

</comment><comment><USER6> Interesting. The purported specs of the technology are competitive with OLED contrast ratios (deep blacks) and response times. Would this tech have been less prone to burn-in than OLED's are?

<comment><USER7> I expect it would be on par with CRT tech in both respects, just for also having electron-excited phosphors. It seems OLED + everything ultimately competes with CRT for contrast/color/speed-- rather like programming languages' best-case compute performance usually being "nn% as fast as C." The least optimal thing about the image (for me) was it not being perfectly rectangular and stable, while everything else nails that right down, including this.

It _is_ pretty neat... the market turning away is roughly as disappointing as a phosphor-based flat display is appealing. I feel like its reduced complexity and power usage could make it ideal for HMDs-- if/f it shrinks well. And probably nobody cares. :shrug:

<comment><USER8> Presumably microLED will be the holy grail. When I first heard of OLED it was another 20 years or so before it started to really show up. So, I'd expect microLED to be making waves in 2030-2040 lol

<comment><USER7> I hadn't heard of that, but having daydreamed about "just a huge array of LEDs on a single die", I hope it turns out.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Freakonomics: A Myth of Grass-Fed Beef - <AUTHOR> http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/a-myth-of-grass-fed-beef/

<comment><USER2> Whether it's sawdust, walnut husks, corn, grains, lard, or even other cows, someone in the past 100 years has probably advocated feeding it to cows. That's at least what I remember as one of the takeaway messages when I took ruminant nutrition and digestion.

So, I'm not at all surprised that he can comb through the literature and find people suggesting that cows be fed corn a very long time ago. But it seems like a bit of a logical leap to use a few examples in the literature to refute claims like this:

"Before WW II, most Americans had never eaten corn-fed beef."

</comment><comment><USER3> "Once again, I'm not arguing that the grass-fed alternative isn't a viable response to the problems of factory farming grain-fed cows. I'm only suggesting to advocates of the grass-fed option that, if they feel so compelled to draw on the past to support the present, they should start by providing some footnotes."

McWilliams would be advised to do the same. All he listed were people _advocating_ the use of corn to feed cows. He gave no evidence that cows actually _were_ being fed grain at those time. In fact he's doing exactly what he accuses grass advocates of doing, just the opposite argument.

<comment><USER4> Actually, you're incorrect. He did not just list people only _advocating_ the use of corn. The titles were advocating the use of corn, but if you actually look at some the references you can see that cows were not being grass fed.

Quote from the 1911 book that he cites: "Corn Grain This grain is used very extensively in American dairy rations because it may be successfully grown in sections of the United States. It is relished by cattle. It high in carbohydrates and when supplemented feed to complete the ration the latter must roughage and be nitrogenous in character. When grain is fed some of it passes through the animal for this reason it is well to grind it and feed it as corn meal.

For the cattle that are eaten (non-dairy), Snapped Corn is the "most popular feed in the west" and "Corn meal seems to be favored by Eastern feeders"

<comment><USER3> You're correct, I read the reference excerpts and took their literal implications.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Also pointed out in the comments is the fact that "fodder corn" or "stalks of Indian corn" (from two of the cited quoted) actually refer to the entire corn plant, i.e. a grass.

<comment><USER4> The 1911 book quotes "corn (grain)" as being "used very extensively" for dairy cows, and lists it separately from "corn and cob meal" and "ground corn, cob, and shuck meal"? This does not sound like the grass.

However, it does say that the "unhusked ear" broken from the stalk is the most popular feed in the West for fattening cattle (those that are eaten) and "Corn Meal" is favored in the East.

<comment><USER2> The 1886 and 1822 quotes look like they are talking about using the whole plant, not just feeding animals the ears or grain.

Not really related to your comment, but corn is actually a grass (grasses are a taxonomic group within the plants), so it would be technically accurate (albeit misleading) to say that a cow fed nothing but corn is also "grass fed."

<comment><USER4> You make some good points, and it's probably around the late 1800s that the move to corn grain became more common. I should note also that studies clearly show health benefits of "grass"-fed corn (higher Omega 3s for example).

It's true corn is a grass. Actually, all true grains are grasses, I believe, and farmers are allowed to feed a percentage of grain crops and still call their animals "grass fed" _if_ they feed the young sprouts (pre-seed), but the FDA (or USDA?) doesn't allow them to call it grass-fed otherwise.

I wonder what term could be used to replace "grass-fed" that would more specifically define what is meant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The author misses the point. The problem isn't the corn but rather the quantity of corn that's fed to cows. There weren't antibiotics to give cows to deal with the side effects of too much corn so they didn't give it to them in the quantities they do today.

I'm fine with giving cows some corn because well it does taste better but their feed really shouldn't contain so much corn. Most of the small ranchers I know give their cows some corn but not a huge amount or anything.

<comment><USER7> Perhaps you miss the author's point: he doesn't say corn fed beef is better, only that the claim that no cows were fed corn until 60 years ago is a lie.

Pointing out a hole in X's argument _doesn't mean you disagree with X_. You could well agree with X, but prefer that it be supported by non-fallacious arguments.

<comment><USER6> Or maybe everyone is just using imprecise language here. When I think of corn fed beef I think of cows being fed feed that's 60-80% corn. When I think of grass fed beef I think of cows that eat enough grass that they at least don't need antibiotics to live longer to go to slaughter.</comment></comment></comment>


1 Malaysia email will cost 0.50 cent an email - <AUTHOR> http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/1-malaysia-email-users-must-sign-up-with-usb-device-nrd-offices/

<comment><USER2> More like 17 cents; according to Wikipedia one sen is 1/100 of a ringgit, which is about 1/3rd of a US dollar.</comment>


Google Hangouts connected with Slack etc - <AUTHOR> https://sameroom.io/blog/announcing-support-for-google-hangouts/

<comment><USER2> > This may sound surprising, but Google has a long history of being a staunch > supporter of IM interoperability.

First paragraph is so so far from the truth. Google _was_ a supporter of IM interoperability. Then they closed XMPP interop, and replaced it with their own proprietary protocol. At the same time that they did the same with several other open protocols.

<comment><USER3> Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's exactly what the rest of the post is about.</comment></comment>


WT1190F FAQs - <AUTHOR> http://projectpluto.com/temp/wt1190f.htm <comment><USER2> It just reëntered and here are some photos & video:

[http://gizmodo.com/that-mysterious-object-on-a-collision- cou...](http://gizmodo.com/that-mysterious-object-on-a-collision-course-with- ear-1742343574)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJT-q8_dl88](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJT-q8_dl88)

<comment><USER3> ë

<comment><USER4> [http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse- of-t...](http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the- diaeresis)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I had to google[1] to find this information: it burned up in the atmosphere today above Sri Lanka, as predicted.

1\. [https://duckduckgo.com/?q=WT1190F&ia=news](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=WT1190F&ia=news)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thats real the "verb" use of "Google" :)</comment></comment>


Shepherd-js manage Javascript modules, your files are your modules. - <AUTHOR> http://xcambar.github.com/shepherd-js/

<comment><USER2> I had a negative reaction when I first saw the string literal syntax, but after reading through your docs I can see the appeal. Using the Harmony syntax seems like it could be a big win. RequireJS is the module loader I currently use, but I'll give the source of Shepherd-js a once-over and if it looks promising I'll give it a go.</comment>


Ask HN: Rate my startup mashape.com - <AUTHOR>

http://www.mashape.com
Mashape is an API marketplace for developers that want to distribute or consume any kind of service that runs somewhere on a server.
It's in private alpha now, but I'll give you an account almost immediately if you use the invite code "HACKERNEWS".
I'd like to have some feedback on:
1) Do you find it interesting?
2) In the first 30 seconds on the site, did you have any good or bad thoughts about Mashape?
3) Did you find the Guide section, and the sample code, easy to understand?
Thank you. <comment><USER2> 1\. Yes

2\. I got that the site was about making creating APIs easier for developers, like me, but I wasn't sure how it would make it easier.

3\. Since I wasn't sure how exactly this would help me I had to dig through the guide to find out. Since you're audience are server-side developers, having flow charts or some charts object model showing the relationship of the mashape.com service, my code and my data.

I think I got it, but correct me if I'm wrong.

1\. I download your SDK. 2\. I generate my endpoints on my server to get/set data 3\. I generate an xml definition so I can upload to your server. 4\. You start providing the REST endpoints to my data

How about reporting?

How about SSL support?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi wrath, thanks for your feedback.

I'll update the Guide to make it more clear, the flow is:

1) You download the Library.

2) Write your implementation, in a PHP file that includes the Library, without caring about handling HTTP requests, verbs, errors, serializing responses, etc.

3) At this point you have declared some methods, as usual, and in an XML file you specify the name of those you want to distribute and automatically the Library creates a REST API for your methods that handles all the API stuff for you.

4) Just tell us the URL where the Library is located, and that's it. Without uploading anything.

SSL Support: Just put the library under SSL on your server.

Reporting: We'll extend our platform with API analytics.

Here are some samples: <http://www.mashape.com/guide/publish/php#samples>

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Hey guys, I've heard about Mashape before (tagliaerbe etc.) but never really had a chance to get a closer look at it.

As a developer myself, I can see what the whole thing is about, but it's not super clear what are the advantages of using that, from the API owner/developer standpoint. How can you help me increase visibility/traction? Should I fear getting exceedingly tied to your architecture? This should be clarified imho.

I also wish the API library were public and searchable without having to register, but maybe this is just an alpha version restriction.

The guide is clear and well redacted, but before getting started with the documentation, I'd rather see more real use examples, show me how to use the library or create the api.php/xml file.

All in all, very good execution. Keep up the good work!

</comment><comment><USER4> Clickable: <http://www.mashape.com>

</comment><comment><USER5> I keep getting internal server errors (500).

<comment><USER6> Sorry, try now.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What payment company do you use that automatically apply EU VAT rates? - <AUTHOR> In 2015, EU rules mean VAT rates for sales to EU customers (for automatic online payments) have to be based on where the customer is.
If I use stripe (which I do love, their API, their support etc), I'd have to manually set up VAT stuff.
Some companies automate this (which makes it so much easier), such as http://www.fastspring.com/vat Fast Spring.
What other companies do this? What company would you recommend?
(I am building a subscription based website, and I need support for affiliates (hopefully fully managed by the payment provider))
The main things I am looking for:
1) The EU VAT stuff is handled
2) They support subscriptions/rebilling.
3) They support affiliates (hopefully through their site, so I don't have to code much to work with it)
4) They have nice APIs. I'm coding this in PHP (with Laravel), so extra bonus if they have a php library. <comment><USER2> At [https://chargebee.com](https://chargebee.com) we support EU VAT along with Invoicing & all the comprehensive credits related use cases that consumes time for finance folks.

We do have a neat API [https://apidocs.chargebee.com/](https://apidocs.chargebee.com/). And there is Laravel bundle being updated by one of our customer in Netherlands.

[https://packagist.org/packages/tijmen-wierenga/laravel- charg...](https://packagist.org/packages/tijmen-wierenga/laravel-chargebee)

We support affiliates tracking with refersion.com - supported via Chargebee hosted payment pages & API.

We also support several gateways including Stripe, Braintree etc., along with Invoice based payments that can be reconciled for bank transfers (ACH equivalent in Europe is expected to release in early Q3).

Do give the free trial a spin. And the product is free to get started upto first $50k usd invoicing (just like Braintree's Ignite program). I would love to hear your feedback. (krish at chargebee).

Disclosure: I am one of the cofounders.

<comment><USER3> I was wondering why nobody had mentioned Chargebee here yet. If you're building a subscription business, I'd say this is the way to go. Unless you want to worry about managing recurring billings, maintaining legacy pricing tiers everytime you change your plans, one-off discounts, etc.

Just make sure you have a recurring billing system in place right from the start instead of hacking it on top of your gateway yourself. You should be able to focus on your product right now - not the billing, and the tech debt if you choose to move when the wheels are spinning is just not worth it.

[Source: Hacked a system in my last org and burnt fingers, before happily moving to Chargebee]

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not sure what do you mean by "automatically". Of course different EU countries have different rates, but some countries also have internally many different rates, and that depends on what is your product or who is your client (e.g. business vs governmental organisation vs private school vs institute for blind people could all have different rates for the same product). There is also a difference between 0 rate and exempt.

VAT is generally a huge pain in the ass if you don't have flat rates. This leads to absurds like coffee with milk has a different rate than milk with coffee. There are court cases in which they rule what kind of construction of a book shelf gets which VAT rate.

And it gives multiple opportunities for all sorts of abuses, including my favourite one: you open two companies, you sell same products internally with different VAT rates (like coffee+milk example), and the difference becomes your un-taxed profit. Perfectly legal.

This is why you have the Big Four consulting companies (I worked for one).

Tl:dr When you grow bigger employ a couple of good accountants.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I did find this, which might be useful for anyone who ends up Googling and finding this thread:

[https://rachelandrew.github.io/eu-vat/third- parties.html](https://rachelandrew.github.io/eu-vat/third-parties.html)

(although I don't know why the knitting links are listed)

<comment><USER5> Knitting and crocheting is a big thing, actually. Huge community, people selling done products as well as patterns for you to use. Both are calming hobbies and a nice break from programming, even for just 10 minutes at a workplace power-break or home.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Have a look at Quaderno.io (disclaimer - I work here). We integrate with Stripe and take care of 1, 2 and 4 [https://quaderno.io/docs/api/](https://quaderno.io/docs/api/)

<comment><USER7> Your product really looks great but the fixed-rate subscription plan is an issue for me. Is there any chance you'll offer also a transaction-based price plan (like FastSpring)?

That would very much help to use your service from day 0 of the business, without paying three times as much as it costs to run it on a VPS :)

edit: typo

<comment><USER6> Thanks!

We don´t offer a transaction-based price plan, or expect to offer this in the future.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I use FastSpring for managing BugMuncher's subscription payments. It works really well, and it's great not having to worry about VAT.

Having said that, as revenue grows I'll be looking into just doing it manually with Stripe. Partly because FastSpring takes a much bigger cut than most other payment providers, but also because their payment pages are a bit shit.

</comment><comment><USER9> This is how Gumroad handles it :)

[http://blog.gumroad.com/post/110080508463/vat](http://blog.gumroad.com/post/110080508463/vat)</comment>


Can you charge double and still keep your customers coming back? - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34290597 <comment><USER2> Wow, I wish more companies had this mindset.

When I'm shopping for anything, particularly a big-ticket item, I'll gladly trade a few 'cutting-edge' features for solid build & longevity...and pay a lot more for it.

Although to be fair, I'm not sure "arguments are a very rare occurrence indeed at Miele" is a sign of a healthy company.

<comment><USER3> _When I 'm shopping for anything, particularly a big-ticket item, I'll gladly trade a few 'cutting-edge' features for solid build & longevity...and pay a lot more for it._

I strongly agree. The trend for ever-cheaper, ever-nastier goods is understandable given the recent economic conditions, but very disappointing all the same.

Personally, I will gladly pay a premium for things like good build quality and longevity. Sometimes that means I have to save up for something I want and can't just make an impulse purchase, but that's life.

I suspect buying cheap and nasty is often a false economy in the long term anyway. If you pay twice as much for your washing machine but it lasts 20 years where the cheaper one would have made it to 5...

<comment><USER4> The problem is that 'buying quality' is very hard to prove.

For important purchases, like a car, there may exist guides that give you good record of past performances, but for most thing, its mostly hearsay. "Oh, I've been buying from X for years and they never break."

The race to the bottom has the property that paying less is an easily provable fact. You can measure it. Quality is too hard to measure.

There is also the possibility, for some classes of goods, to purchase the cheap ones and fix the bad bits. Like purchasing a cheap laptop and replacing the HD with a SSD.

<comment><USER3> All true, but I'm still going to buy my expensive kitchen equipment or my new computer or my new car from a brand with a track record of consistently good reviews and reliable customer service. In the age of the Internet and modern consumer advocacy groups, it's not hard to know who those are.

Of course, any business can have an anomalous bad product from time to time. But even if you're the unlucky one, I reckon you're probably still better off with a business that values its customers and its brand anyway. At least you're likely to get some genuine efforts made to put things right, maybe even a free upgrade to a better product from the range if there really was a design flaw in a new model or some similar hard-to-fix issue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> See also? [http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

<comment><USER6> This one doesn't seem very submarine...

Unless the ones behind all this are not Mieli.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There's plenty of companies selling on build quality (I just bought a secondhand Jura Coffee Machine and love it, same for the Peugeot pepper grinder).

Interestingly more of these companies seem to come from Europe than the U.S. (very few from Asia, but that's not surprising since the manufacturing base traditional used to compete on price)

</comment><comment><USER8> Now, if only my Miele dishwasher didn't break every two years like clockwork...

<comment><USER9> Exactly! They are expensive and they work well, are quiet, and all that but they aren't reliable and Miele doesn't stand behind them with a warranty that's any longer than anyone else offers. They offer a 1-year warranty just like any third-rate brand. I finally replaced mine with a Bosch that offers a limited 5-year warranty and a lifetime warranty on the tub, and it was cheaper to buy the whole Bosch than to get the Miele fixed once.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Germany manufactures a lot of things. I read an article once that said 30% of the BOM cost of iPhone went to Germany. It bothers me that we cannot replicate their success here in the US. Surely we are just as capable.

<comment><USER11> Technically just as capable. Culturally? Not really. It's management that keeps the US from competing with Germany in that way, not engineering. How do you change the culture? I don't know.

<comment><USER12> The US has almost no precision machinists. Those guys are in Germany, Swizterland and Japan.

There are all sorts of things you can't build over here or in China because we don't have the people who can do it precisely enough.

<comment><USER10> I agree here. I recently worked on a project that required very tiny and optically precise injection molding and coating. Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers couldn't get close to making what we needed. There was a US manufacturer that could make the part but was very difficult to work with and they could not do all the process steps we needed. In the end, we went with a German company because they could do the precision machining required to meet our tolerances as well as the other process steps.

Additionally, I often need to find precision materials or really high performance components and many times these are from German companies.

Take the humble LED as an example, perhaps the most industry leading company in GaN LEDs is in Germany.

Japanese can often offer the precision needed too but their companies are a lot less accessible and it takes a lot of time to build a relationship with them if you don't have one already. What they are really great at is that once you've built that relationship, they are usually very aggressive at supporting your needs.

In Germany, I think some of it has to do with the fact that they have these government supported institutes for industrial research like HHI (Heinrich Hertz Institute). This allows them to find markets for new and risky technology and then transfer those innovations to industry.

<comment><USER12> Yeah, the electronics slipped my mind. I was chatting with a sensor guy the other day, and he said by far and away the best stuff for a particular application he had was Bosch. Nothing from out east or the US could touch it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Interesting that they once made bicycles. Does anyone know who would be the Miele of bicycles?

<comment><USER14> If there's one thing a search of the internet does offer, its the entire set of known opinions on bicycles.

To answer directly, probably Miele [http://www.mielebicycles.com](http://www.mielebicycles.com)

<comment><USER15> I used to own a few Miele mountain bikes, made sometime in the late 80's early 90's. They were hand me downs from my Brother and Brother in Law. Canadian bikes. The company folded a while ago.

Like many such companies, the name was bought from a Taiwan/Chinese company, to slap on whatever bikes that come out of the bike factory - the same factory other more known name brands come out. Frames from these companies are the same/very similar to those same brands; the components can be a bit dodgey. For more,

[http://www.bikesdirect.com/](http://www.bikesdirect.com/)

(not that I recommend anything on there)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> >> Can you charge double and still keep your customers coming back?

I can charge 4000% and still keep my customers coming back.

Sincerely yours, Martin Shkreli.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you keep your development skills sharp as an architect? - <AUTHOR> Hi HN!
I am moving to a Solutions Architect role after having been a software engineer for the past decade. I am really excited because it is going to be my first customer facing role; something that I did not have before.
The fear that I have is that my software development skills will atrophy. So, since I am sure that I am not the only one who has made this shift in careers, I wanted to ask what steps you have taken to make sure that your software engineering skills don't get rusty. <comment><USER2> So I have fought this for a long time (atrophy of some skills). I have held a number of Chief Software Architect, CTO and other similar roles over the years, of course I started as a jr developer way back (over 20 years ago). The skillset for these style of roles is not the same thing as being a good developer as you already know, yet without being a good developer it is hard to do those roles IMO.

My 2 cents. You will never keep your skills as sharp as they were when you were coding daily. But you must make every effort to stay current, experiment and still touch code. Personally, I like to do this in prototyping and proving architecture points with the team/client etc. This way you stay current, you are relevant and the team/client has confidence in your recommendation/guidance. You also will develop new skills which will be more important than just being a developer.

As a solutions architect you will spend most of your time helping other teams architect their solution integrating solutions your employer has developed into their systems. So it is not uncommon you will do POC work and produce some code, but it won't be production level final code generally. But in that role you'll also likely get the opportunities to write documents, white papers etc on how to architect solutions given the product(s) your employer has made. As well as integrations etc. This is how you can really stay sharp, and you will need to because you will have technical people from your clients challenging you, some of them will be extremely sharp, others not so much.

IMO the 2 most important skills as an architect (especially as a Solutions Architect), 1. Communication, 2. Delegation (e.g. don't micromanage things or set them up that way). Communication is not just in getting back to people, although that is huge, it is also communicating very technical details to people across the spectrum of competency. This can be the most challenging thing IMO.

Congrats on the new role, I am sure you will enjoy it.

</comment><comment><USER3> I just read Mythical Man Month, it talks about this in various parts. The idea being that the architect generally shouldn't worry as much about "How" now that you have to worry a lot more about "What" gets produced. And that determining "What" is generally harder. If you try to meddle too much in "How", your people will lose confidence. Likewise, if you let anything slip through "What" wise, you'll lose control. So it advocates being a (wise, considered) dictator when it comes to "What", and trusting the people around you to determine the most effective "How". Because you come from a coding background, your suggestions are believable and maybe even helpful, but they are nothing more than suggestions in the new role.</comment>


Ask HN: who launched something in July? - <AUTHOR> We've done this a few times before, and I've always found it interesting to learn what new projects have been launched by the HN crowd. So, if you've launched a new project, website, or business in the last month, let us know! <comment><USER3> I launched a fake call API (<http://www.fakecall.net/>) to help polite introverts exit unwanted conversations or meetings. I need someone to make a nice app for it ;-)

<comment><USER4> can you leverage google voice instead of twilio, using asterisk or some other pbx if necessary?

<comment><USER3> Probably, but the Twilio call is only two lines of code :)

I may look into other backends, but Twilio was by far the easiest to get going. Currently checking out Tropo and Teleku.

<comment><USER4> I ask because it looks like Twilio is a pay service (and i though GV was free)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> <http://tastytum.com> \- One week event in Berlin to match hosts and locals over food.

Assumption is that an event like this might be less scary compared to AirBnB style of renting your flat away.

If someone is in Berlin and interested to host, would love to hear from you!

Others that are also trying in that field: \- Housefed \- GrubWithUs: <http://www.grubwithus.com>

Housefed tries to build up a community first before getting into hosting meals (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2379797>). We go the opposite road and try to validate our assumptions as fast as possible. I believe we can (in)validate many assumptions while extracting lots of information by running a one week experiment, which also doesn't cost us much either.

Feedbacks so far mostly through friends, but also reaching out to people on twitter (e.g: <https://twitter.com/#!/lorenbaxter/status/96319791110946816>)

</comment><comment><USER6> I launched <http://domainpolish.com> \- to get user feedback from on-demand focus groups powered by MTurk, and <http://tiggerlovesdevs.com> \- an open- source command-line based task management utility for programmers

</comment><comment><USER7> I launched Had That Beer (<http://www.hadthatbeer.com>) into private beta. Going great so far! Use code "showhn" if you want to signup (<http://www.hadthatbeer.com/signup?c=showhn>)

<comment><USER8> Looks great. I'm not a beer drinker myself, but my co-worker is a beer lover. I've passed the link on to him, you probably have a user for life ha.

One suggestion, I would have liked to have seen some auto-complete/suggestions when typing in a beer/brewer/place at the top.

Great job!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> <http://github.com/causes/suggestomatic>

Open source item based collaborative filter used for 'Causes you might like' feature on Causes.com. This project was built specifically with large scale data sets (approaching 1 bn input records) in mind.

</comment><comment><USER10> We launched an Android version of our iPhone app (~8M downloads on iPhone). Currently holding steady at #11 in the Health and Fitness category of the marketplace.

<http://blog.loseit.com/2011/07/25/lose-it-for-android/>

<comment><USER11> Just signed up for the site (have a palm pre for at least another month ;-) ).. looks good..

The one thing I would ask is that you have/force https when actually in the app.. Even though it isn't PII -- weight can be a very touchy subject.

another thing: in the "Status".. Adding the total protein, carb, fat count for the day would also be great!

<comment><USER10> It would be nice to have everything in SSL at some point, we just aren't there yet. We only auth across SSL right now.

You can use the site in always HTTPS mode with this url for the time being:

<https://secure.loseit.com>

To turn on nutrients go to Settings > Nutrient Preferences

Feel free to send any other feedback or bugs my way. firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I launched BugMuncher (<http://bugmuncher.com>) on the 15th July, so far its been well received, and is already profitable!

Couldn't be happier with the way its gone so far, and a lot of that is down to the HN community.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great idea. I haven't seen a similar service. Also, good execution. I'm impressed by how well it seems to work and that's a pretty good site you have there.

I'm curious how paypal is working out for you. I always feel it's a bit hokey or something. Do you have plans to use a "real" credit card processor?

<comment><USER12> Thanks, PayPal has been fine so far, most people have a PayPal account these days.

I would like to move to an on-site, or at least branded, solution at some point though.

I've been talking to a start-up for payment processing without a merchant account, which looks promising, but testing/implementing it isn't very high on the to do list as I'm already processing payments ok...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I partially launched Syncomatic <http://www.SyncomaticApp.com> its only partially launched as wanted a small number of users to make sure it was all OK before making a big deal of it and marketing it everywhere. (And I always find things i wish I had done after launch :-) )

Its a iPhone app that syncs/transfers your camera rolls Photo's and Movie's to you mac over WiFi whilst in the background so you don't have to remember to sync etc. I have an update waiting for approval that fixes a small bug and changes some small UI elements then I'm going to start submitting it to review sites / blogs etc.

<comment><USER14> >I partially launched

I think it's called a soft launch, FYI :)

And about all the things you want to do before launch: don't worry about them, that's what subsequent revisions are for. You can add value at any time, not only at launch!

<comment><USER13> :-) Thanks

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I created a website that allows people to create their own trail mix, visually (so you can see what it looks like before you order) and then buy it.... <http://www.trailmyx.com>

</comment><comment><USER16> I launched <http://www.placeguitar.com> \- a placeholder image service in the style of placekitten, but with guitars!

I also launched a grammar application of iPhone that's in review.

Don't know if it counts as a launch but I rededicated an old domain to be my blog and put a fresh coat of paint on the stylesheet. <http://twentyeighttwelve.com>

</comment><comment><USER17> I launched <http://practicalinterviews.com>, where I'm posting my interviews with entrepreneurs, business owners and creative folks of all sorts. I'm still working on my recording setup, to say nothing of my interviewing techniques, but at least it's out there. :)

P.S. I'm looking for interviewees, so if any of you would like to discuss your newly launched apps, let me know.

<comment><USER18> Give me a shout if my stuff is interesting to your audience

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Great question amoore. I'd like to know what technology stacks you guys are using to launch with. Being a developer, now learning 'dev-ops' that's always something that's interested me. Do you guys launch with a server that's good enough to get by until your user base increases or do you launch with a beefy server from the start.

</comment><comment><USER19> I launched Coffee & Domains (<https://www.coffeeanddomains.com>) for domain name registration and management.

It has some decent traction so far and the current users seem to really like it. I'm currently working on an API and iPhone app to try to make it even more appealing.

</comment><comment><USER20> I soft-launched Flixxed (<http://www.flixxed.com>) which I like to call the "illegitimate love-child of Groupon and Netflix".

I've been meaning to post it as a Show HN, but I guess I've hesitated because it's pretty basic. Please let me know what you think and sign up if you like movies.

</comment><comment><USER21> We launched an online service for people investing in stocks called Portfolio Numbers <http://www.portfolionumbers.com/> It's an risk analysis tool that helps you calculate your stock portfolio risk based on historical data and statistical methods.

</comment><comment><USER22> We just launched the public Alpha for <http://DealTracker.co> in Chicago - <USER2> new and simple way to view all daily deals in your area. We are currently working on additional features and adding in a wider range of deal providers.

Any feedback is always greatly appreciated!

</comment><comment><USER23> I launched TV Show Tracker (<http://www.tvshowtracker.co.uk>) at the start of July, it began as a personal app just for me but expanded it for multiple users as an experiment.

Built using CakePHP & the Skeleton CSS boilerplate. Any feedback would be great.

</comment><comment><USER24> A friend and I launched a chrome plugin/bookmarklet for recommending songs for turntable.fm at <http://www.turntaste.com>. It also gives you a list of rooms that are similar to your current room, and shows the top songs played in those rooms.

</comment><comment><USER25> I launched <http://www.vidergy.com> \- a "Pandora for video" site. It was mentioned on GigaOM, but sadly it was a subscription only piece.

I just launched it about 2 weeks ago, and I am trying to figure out the best things to do now to market/develop the product.

</comment><comment><USER18> I soft launched <http://www.reviewport.net> \- a service to enable Photographers and Designers to get free and private feedback on their portfolio. I am working on the expert reviewer section now before a full launch in about 2 months.

</comment><comment><USER26> I launched KEYBOX and KEYBOX lite (<http://www.jayfuerstenberg.com/keybox/>) to protect people's privacy and security.

It's only been one week since launch but so far the reception is pretty good and I'm getting a bit of a fan base!

</comment><comment><USER27> Launched FriendFury (<http://friendfury.com>), a side-project to help similar Twitter users discover each other. We built in a Tweet Roulette feature to @message a random person who shares your interest and break the ice.

</comment><comment><USER28> I launched <http://tubufy.com>, which is a web app that lets you create music video channels from spotify, mog and last.fm playlists. Working on reaching out to potential users right now. Building is easy, marketing is hard!

</comment><comment><USER29> <http://mmjrevu.com> We launched for the medical marijuana community, and specifically giving patients a way to access their medical information and purchase history from the dispensaries and collectives they visit.

<comment><USER30> Nice. Planning on monetizing it with the DEA?

<comment><USER29> See: WeedMaps.com, mmjmenu.com, StickyGuide.com, Leafly.com. Monetization != Ads. If you have clients in states that MMJ is legal, then I guess you have a business.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I would be curious to find out (on average) how long it took everyone to launch their projects.

<comment><USER12> BugMuncher was 2 weeks of evenings and weekends, around 80 hours in total from idea to lanch. Since then there's been at at least another 100 hours in tweaks and updates.

<comment><USER31> That's awesome. Thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> The team here at <http://www.lifeensured.com> launched (<http://www.netclosehq.com>) which helps families recover online accounts of the deceased.

</comment><comment><USER33> I soft launched <http://seoagencies.com> \- essentially connects people to quality SEO companies.

I figure since there are so many crappy SEO companies, there might be some demand for getting proposals from good ones.

</comment><comment><USER34> I launched a new version of my Mac app, which brings basic CloudApp/Droplr functionality to a Dropbox or Imgur account:

<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slingshot/id436819784?mt=12>

</comment><comment><USER35> Launched <http://instalookApp.com>, iPhone App to find Instagramers and Instagram photos around you are anywhere in realtime. Email email@example.com for promor code to download app for free

</comment><comment><USER36> I released Drop and Give Me, an android app that does fitness challenges and bodyweight strength training measured with your phone. <http://bostwick.github.com/DropAndGiveMe/>

</comment><comment><USER37> It's not a big project , nor something successful. It's a tool that was (and still is) supposed to help people find the Google+ profile of people they follow on Twitter (<http://migrat.us>).

</comment><comment><USER38> I opened up <http://affililink.com> for user feedback. Have had it in private beta for a while but now accepting sign ups. Currently working on my marketing to gain new users.

<comment><USER20> Not sure you're going for type-in traffic, but that is a lot of i's and l's.

<comment><USER38> It's the words 'affiliate' and 'link' combined - 'affililink'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I launched <http://automatoon.com>

<comment><USER6> What kind of traction have you seen? I think it's a great product.

<comment><USER39> Thanks- I think so too. The underlying technology is unique and lets you do things that would be very difficult in any other way. I am getting pretty good foot traffic, but the tool needs more TLC to attract a larger audience.

Unfortunately my day job has ramped up and I haven't been able to spend the time on it I need- I may look around for a partner at some point to make sure automatoon can develop into a profitable product like I think it can.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I launched Radioline, a Mac app to listen to FM stations and Internet radios.

It's on the Mac App Store:

<http://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/radioline/id448958286?mt=12>

</comment><comment><USER41> I launched a small side project Follow Trial (<http://www.followtrial.com>) as a way to manage my following list on Twitter.

Closing in on 150 users (free) in just over a week.

</comment><comment><USER42> I launched a web service that sends out weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service via email, text message, or phone.

<http://www.WeatherWatcherAlerts.com>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> We launched <http://ElectronicMedicalRecords.com> in an effort to store and manage medical records for small medical practices.

</comment><comment><USER43> <http://suplify.me> Helps your company organize communication with your customers over email, Facebook and Twitter. Launched to public beta :)

</comment><comment><USER44> Just a side project...

TextbookCentral (<http://textbook.asia>)

Used textbook website with every course from each of many universities, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong only.

</comment><comment><USER45> I launched <http://justthetops.com>. It's a very simple site that remembers the top 10 posts for various subreddits on reddit.com.

</comment><comment><USER46> We (BakedCode - YCS11) launched Interstate which is a project management tool that provides a way for businesses and developers alike to plan and share their development progress.

</comment><comment><USER47> I launched this little project: <http://notationtraining.com>

It is very simple and fast way how learn to read sheet music notation.

</comment><comment><USER48> MVP at <http://www.exercisesatwork.com/> Get an exercise that you can do at work mailed to you Mon-Fri.

</comment><comment><USER49> I launched Twudge Report (<http://twudgereport.com/>). It's a novelty site, but it was a lot of fun to build.

</comment><comment><USER50> We launched <http://www.omniqrcode.com> \- QR code redirects for all mobile devices, with analytics!

<comment><USER51>
      Hey! Get outta here you damn kids!

      Get the hell of my lawn! No, you can't have your football back!

You probably have something not going on.

<comment><USER50> Ahhhhh! Thank you! (minus the www it works - and we're fixing the WWW right now..)

Well, besides that, we are able to get a whopping TWO paying customers in the week since we launched. Which is better than a poke in the eye!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> I launched <http://www.annotat.in>, a site for annotating and sharing links in early July.

</comment><comment><USER53> Launch is too strong a word, as is MVP, but I threw this up on a server last week:

<http://tabengine.com>

</comment><comment><USER54> We launched Novelo's site and spanish version of the app (getnovelo.com)!</comment>


Vue overtook React - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/vuejs/vue/stargazers <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17316267](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17316267)

Gist of it was, github stars is a poor usage metric as React is way ahead in NPM downloads, etc.</comment>


Mackenzie "Mac" Book - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSS5SKs4UA0 <comment><USER2> This is an advertisement video for the MS Surface. Don't loose your time on this.</comment>


Git is a blockchain - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/Swizec/status/951158831760908288 <comment><USER2> Bitcoin is very much inspired by git; though in terms of immutability it's more similar to mercurial and subversion (git push -f)

Git accepts whatever timestamp a node chooses to add to a commit. This can cause interesting sorts in terms of chronological and topological sort orders.

Without an agreed-upon central git server there _is not_ a canonical graph.

You can use GPG signatures with Git, but you need to provide your own keyserver and then there's still no way to enforce permissions (e.g. who can ALTER, UPDATE, or DELETE which files).

Git is a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Not a chain. Blockchains are chains to prevent double-spending (e.g. on a different fork).

Bitcoin was accepted by The Linux Foundation (Linus Torvalds wrote Git): [https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin- dev/](https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/)

<comment><USER3> It's always been a mix of inspiration in my mind:

\- Torrent P2P file sharing.

\- Git like data structure and protocol

\- Immutability from functional programming

\- Public key cryptography

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's not. This in particular is completely lacking:

> decentralized consensus?

<comment><USER5> What do you mean? Almost all git projects have a general consensus on what the code looks like. This concencensus is not immediate (eg. at any given point in time, different nodes may have a different view of the repository), but over time nodes tend to converge on a single "true" history. When this does not happen, we have what is called a "fork", which also occurs in blockchain based cryptocurrencies.

Put another way, every clone of the Linux repository agrees on what the kernel looked like at some point in the past (and all prior points which are recorded by git); however there is no central authority asserting this history.

<comment><USER4> But the consensus is determined by people, not git. Or, to put it another way, the lack of consensus algorithm in git is a feature, as it allows people to come to an agreement (or not) independent of the VCS.</comment></comment></comment>