FAQ Off: An Open Source Project to Defeat Harassment Mobs and Disinformation - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/soatokdhole/faq-off-an-open-source-project-to-defeat-harassment-mobs-and-anti-intellectualism-27jk <comment><USER2> Eww, automated arguments. I toyed with a similar idea, it can be pretty easy to write a chat bot that automatically responds to common arguments. Anyone who's ever debated the religiously-indoctrinated will see a similar thing, a "script" of common talking points that you pretty quickly see or what they are, thought-terminating cliches. At least with real people you can sometimes find a path through those thought-terminating cliches, or they can find a path through yours, and you can actually _think_ about things.

I'm not looking forward to the future where every time I try to discuss something I'm linked to an (out of date and poorly maintained) playbook that has obvious flaws in it's arguments but is considered an irrefutable source of truth by it's proponents. At least when you're dealing with people on an individual level you can point out when there are issues with an argument.

I know it's hard to have productive discussion about a lot of these things but I can't help but think it would be _much_ better to try and teach people basic epistemology, how to assess what you should count as evidence, how much weight you should give different standards of evidence, rules of debating in good faith, etc.

All these tools for "taking control of the narrative" will be used by your enemies. If you're going to make a tool like that realize that _everyone_ can use tools like that, even your ideological opponents. Try to think about the consequences of your actions, what happens if everyone adopts this technology for "controlling the narrative"? What happens if the "alt right" this post mentions starts using it?

I guess it's nice to make the script you're following explicit though.

<comment><AUTHOR> > All these tools for "taking control of the narrative" will be used by your > enemies.

The alt-right already takes control of the narrative.

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

Even if this platform ever "took off" enough to be used by bad people, the only thing that would happen is we'd have a level playing field.

<comment><USER2> They'll use it better than you. That's a very common trend, the far-left develops some new tool to control the narrative or otherwise excerpt social control and they discover that the alt-right is better equipped to use it then they are.

We've seen this time and time again. If you're going to try to use that tactic at least don't be so _obvious_ about it. Do what the geek-feminism-wiki or derailing-for-dummies does and put all your thought-terminating cliche's into a wiki that you can claim is authoritative or otherwise supported be science, and link people to that (for bonus points tie identity politics into it so that the arguments can only be used against people in your outgroup).

You're trying to use technology to make a fully-general-counterargument which is just bad epistemology. What's worse is that if you normalize that style of discourse it will be used against you to much greater effect then you can hope to wield it. The thing about tools like this is that they're _force multipliers_ , if you're not already winning bringing in a force multiplier like this won't help. Force-multipliers inherently favour entrenched power structures unless there's some reason why your group would be better at using them, some asymmetry.

[https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/24/guided-by-the- beauty-o...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/24/guided-by-the-beauty-of- our-weapons/) for more on asymmetric memetic warfare.

Seriously, if you're going to mess around with persuasion technology be very careful.

<comment><AUTHOR> I appreciate the reading material and words of caution. I will take those to heart. <3

<comment><USER2> Awesome, if you want to talk about that kind of thing in more depth, or if you want some more reading material recommendations from that particular community, feel free to shoot me an email. $email@example.com

Also I just realized I linked you to the wrong article: [https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/06/asymmetric-weapons- gon...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/06/asymmetric-weapons-gone-bad/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> > And then, all current and future iterations of the same tired line of > questioning can be answered by a simple hyperlink instead of wasting your > time again.

That will totally work.

</comment><comment><USER4> So I looked at one example (the VPN misconceptions one) and coming at it from the perspective of someone looking for an argument (the "Sea Lions" referred to in the OP) the whole thing really just feels like a giant straw man. Few if any of the "questions" in the FAQ are stances I'd actually take in a debate about VPNs, and the flaws I see in the arguments the FAQ presents aren't addressed at all by the follow-up questions that _are_ present.

<comment><AUTHOR> To address this deficit, the latest release (v0.4.0, released over the weekend) includes a "Question Box" feature that lets people submit follow-up questions, in the same spirit as curiouscat.me.

To prevent spam and abuse, it's limited to authenticated users. I noodled over ways to make it work with anonymous users, but that's ultimately a losing battle. (See also: TrollForge.)

The admins can decide their access policy (invite-only or open registration, Twitter auth or username+password, etc.).

The platform is open source software, and I'm trying to make it as easy and accessible for folks to set it up as I can.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Cool project. Society desperately needs tools to combat disinformation.

But couldn't this tool also be used to spread it? Also, does it prevent circular reasoning?

<comment><AUTHOR> > Cool project. Society desperately needs tools to combat disinformation.

Thanks! I'm a huge fan of Snopes <3

> But couldn't this tool also be used to spread it?

It's a tool; a platform. Anything that can be used for good can be used for bad.

I'm mostly circulating this in queer/pro-science circles, in the hopes that the critical mass of early adopters will dictate the culture surrounding the platform.

> Also, does it prevent circular reasoning?

No. You can create cycles in the Follow-Ups that loop infinitely. It might even be convenient to do so in many cases! But that definitely does not prevent circular reasoning.</comment></comment>


Siraj Raval-Potentially exploiting students, banning students asking for refund - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/d7ad2y/d_siraj_raval_potentially_exploiting_students/ <comment><USER2> It is such a shame to ripoff students. He masterfully gained the attention of top ML researchers like Goodfellow, Jeff Dean, Yann LeCun (and many others who follow him on Twitter) to make it look like he's famous/noteworthy. I wish the news about this scam reaches those researchers and even better would be public condemnation on the scam. PS: (From my interactions with many of the top AI researchers including the ones I mentioned, I know that they care about students and original research so I don't think they would have anticipated such behavior)

</comment><comment><USER3> Siraj is getting bad press from this. It wasn't Siraj banning students, it was a TA who did the banning.

Props to Siraj for not throwing that person under the bus. (Yes, I'm a TA. No, it wasn't me.)</comment>


The world's biggest grave robbery: Asia's disappearing WWII shipwrecks - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2017/nov/03/worlds-biggest-grave-robbery-asias-disappearing-ww2-shipwrecks <comment><USER2> The medical companies etc that use the low background steel should be held to the same level of responsibility as apple or anyone else making tech.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the best program to produce graphs? - <AUTHOR>

Howdy HN!
I'm curious what you as a community use to produce clean vector graphic graphs.
I'm an academic and have used Matlab/GnuPlot/Matplotlib at different times. In addition, I've used LibreOffice Draw. All these have some good strengths but also a lot of drawback.
What have you found is useful for producing high quality graphs that have a lot of flexibility for labeling, highlighting, etc.? <comment><USER2> If by graphs you mean charts, these are the tools I use:

\- d3js + nvd3 [0] - if the charts have to be online for consumption of people outside the company. Not so much a fan of using this because I have to do extra work to convert the data into json, and then write the scripts to generate the chart.

\- ggplot2 [1] - if the charts are static and need to somewhat be shown (internal analysis, internal reports, client-facing presentation, etc). Of late, I've been using ggplot2 for xkcd-style charts and nobody seem to mind :P - so I don't think people are actually looking closely into the charts

\- plot (from R) - if the chart is only for my consumption - I don't need a fancy beautiful chart to read a PCA output for example.

As for high quality, the charts are only as high quality as the way you use them. If you use the wrong charts for the wrong data, it's not going to be high quality.

[0] - [http://nvd3.org/](http://nvd3.org/)

[1] - [http://ggplot2.org](http://ggplot2.org)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm very happy with Rgraph ([http://www.rgraph.net/examples/](http://www.rgraph.net/examples/)).

</comment><comment><USER4> Gnuplot, Matplotlib, Google Graphs, DOT format, RRD frontends, sparklines libraries, Excel, etc.

It depends on what kind of data I'm dealing with.

</comment><comment><USER5> GGplot2 with R

</comment><comment><USER6> Graphs like pie charts of like the data structure?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure. Though I'm usually looking at economic variables instead of data/filesystems</comment></comment>


Show HN: A Skull Made of Fire - <AUTHOR> https://victorribeiro.com/fireEffect/?message=%E2%98%A0 <comment><AUTHOR> I don't think a lot of people have seen this, so I'm posting again.

Source code is here: [https://github.com/victorqribeiro/fireEffect](https://github.com/victorqribeiro/fireEffect)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> it has been brought to my attention that this won't work on iPhone / safari. I'll fix it tomorrow

<comment><AUTHOR> it doesn't work on iphone cause safari won't allow canvas to work properly on it's last update (you need to disable cross site tracking for this to work)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: If you build your $1B company on an HTML template, will you be sued? - <AUTHOR>

Say you start off in your pyjamas in your lounge room eating toast and writing code.
You buy a template from, for arguments sakes, ThemeForest or WrapBootstrap.
You code and code and code until your masterpiece is complete.
People LOVE what you built.  Within a year Bill Zuckerberg-Ellison buys your company for $1B.
Might you get a letter from the template designer saying "hang on that's my IP and you sold it now I want $500M"? <comment><USER2> Themeforest templates have a license that states what you can do with it, so you would be fine if you were within the terms of the license. That said, you could easily change an HTML template to something custom long before any acquisition if you wanted to avoid the issue.

</comment><comment><USER3> This would be a nice problem to worry about.

</comment><comment><USER4> It depends if Hooli designed your template.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is why every developer should not just read but understand the licenses to everything they use.

In my experience very few actually do.</comment>


Job Satisfaction Is the Strongest Indicator of Happiness in Men - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/work/1474562/what-makes-men-happy-a-study-by-harrys-says-job-satisfaction/ <comment><USER2> This makes sense. I'm at work 8+ hours a day, and I live alone with my significant other across the country, so the majority of my interactions take place at work. If I love what I do and who I do it with, why wouldn't I be happy?

</comment><comment><USER3> read the report. the line that says 'a man busy at work is a man at peace' is kinda chilling. the whole thing reads like some dystopian propaganda piece. right down to the glib encouragement of military service.</comment>


'Flame' Virus explained: How it works and who's behind it - <AUTHOR> http://www.rt.com/news/flame-virus-cyber-war-536/

<comment><USER2> Headline: "How it works and who's behind it"

Article: "So it is unclear who is behind that, and we try not to speculate who could be behind such attacks."

<comment><USER3> Yeah - so dissapointing - the article is just a link bait with no new information beside what was already revealed in the original story on HackerNews a few days ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Kaspersky again. I'll refer you to my recent comment <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4033892>

_It can steal information from the input boxes when they are hidden behind asterisks_

OMG!!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing your opinion - I'd give them credit, though. At least they've discovered the virus during their investigative research.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> RT, not the best source for any kind of explanation...

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> " _It was actually after an inquiry from the International Telecommunications Union, which is a part of the United Nations, who actually asked us to start conducting research_ " ...Wow, this sounds serious, indeed.

<comment><USER2> A little more interesting when they say this wasn't even what the ITU called them to investigate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> My guesses are Israel, the US, Russia & China, in descending order.

</comment><comment><USER7> Flame is not remotely in the same category as stuxnet.

The news agencies are confusing capability with complexity. Stuxnet was very targeted with insider information on esoteric industrial systems. It was designed to fly under the radar, cause damage to physical systems in such a way that it would appear to be from "wear and tear."

As I recall, stuxnet used some compiler shenanigans to obfuscate stackframes and make it difficult to decompile (after having first decrypted the executable code).

Flame is written in Lua! A scripting language! So to say that somehow Flame is going to be hard to analyze is absurd.

It's a 20MB package of the Lua VM, the scripts, and modules like sqlite. It's about as vanilla of an application as you can get!

They claim this 20MB package size is going to make it super duper hard to analyze, and yet they have the source code to look at, and while it's a decent size at 3k lines, it's SOURCE CODE. Not obfuscated machine language.

The coverage on this is just stupid.

Some good information on Flame is at [http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208193522/The_Flame_Questi...](http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208193522/The_Flame_Questions_and_Answers) . It still has the absurd commentary, but at least it gives details on what is actually there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the securelist-link. It's indeed a better source for some technical details, also from a Kaspersky expert... But in the RT-interview the Kaspersky's chief malware expert says things that concur with what you share: " _There is no reliable relation between Stuxnet and Flame as we call it…they are completely different. Because Stuxnet was a small application developed for a particular target with the specific objective to interact with industrial control systems and break them down. And Flame is a universal attacking tool kit used mostly for cyber espionage._ "</comment></comment>


New Zealand Politicians Want To Explicitly Outlaw Software Patents - <AUTHOR> http://techdirt.com/articles/20100330/1852558798.shtml <comment><USER2> Smart move, if the government makes startup immigration easy and invests in colleges and network infrastructure. Perhaps New Zealand might become a haven for Open development and innovation?

</comment><comment><USER3> If you're interested in what's happening in New Zealand you might enjoy this presentation given by Don Christie of Catalyst IT about shifting the government desktops to linux and all the related issues around this:

<http://2009.r2.co.nz/20100118/50026.htm>

</comment><comment><USER4> What would this do to existing software patents in NZ?

<comment><USER5> Invalidate them, I assume.

Keep in mind patents _can_ be considered a license granted by the government rather than a form of property. Thus invalidating a patent would not involve a taking of property from a private owner.

Of course, I don't know whether the New Zealand has a constitution or whether that constitution prohibits the taking of property without compensation.

<comment><USER6> NZ are a bit strange with regards to their "constitution". Check out the wiki link for an explanation: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_New_Zealand>

<comment><USER7> USA are a bit strange with regards to their "democracy". Check out the wiki link for an explanation: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_United_States>

<comment><USER6> I didn't write that particularly well. My apologies; I was trying to convey that the concept of constitution was somewhat different there (That the word "constitution" is somewhat of a misnomer).

<comment><USER7> No worries, thanks for the apologies. In hindsight it was snarkier than i intended</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Docopt – The Pythonic option parser that will make you smile - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/halst/docopt

<comment><USER2> I love this, simply the "Requests" of option parsing.. option parsing for humans.</comment>


Ask HN: Why do we now need to inform Google via captcha when logging into HN? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> A moderator told me "A botnet has been working on stealing accounts for the last several days." Likely a quick fix to counter that.

<comment><AUTHOR> "A moderator told [you'"?

Moderators can and should say something directly. We're not commenting on HN from a different website here.

To log in to make this post, I had to anwser 5 different captcha questions. This is not happening by magic.

HN moderators: kindly answer the question.

<comment><USER3> Then maybe you should contact the moderators instead of making a random post and then getting annoyed they didn't see it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Instead of making snarky comments you can helpfully post the 'contact information' for the moderators! "Ask HN" is not a "random post", btw.

<comment><USER4> Did you search? A search returns this link, where your question is directly answered by a mod.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20783482](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20783482)

The guidelines say this: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

> Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Instead, please send it > to email@example.com.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just double checked since I never noticed one, I don't see a captcha, Google or otherwise on the login page (Chrome, both on mobile and desktop).

Is anything weird about your connection / ISP / browser that might trigger this?

</comment><comment><USER6> I just has to solve three "traffic lights" and two "crosswalks" to login into HN. Why should I help Google train their ML algorithms for self-driving cars? Maybe I'll just stop logging in and voting on HN. No, I was not using a VPN.

</comment><comment><USER7> im not saying this is the problem but have a look here and see if it helps:

[https://www.malwareremovalguides.info/google-captcha- removal...](https://www.malwareremovalguides.info/google-captcha-removal- guide/)

And keep in mind, any antimal tool set should work, you dont need to use the ones endorsed on the page.

</comment><comment><USER8> I've never seen a google captcha on HN.

</comment><comment><USER7> have you tried changing your HN password? Its probably good to do just by default every so often.</comment>


How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) - <AUTHOR> https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html <comment><USER2> I've been waiting for a new post from Tim for almost a year now. I'm hoping this is as good of a read as his previous other posts -- which I highly recommend, in case if you're unfamiliar with Wait But Why!

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow - "most of my last year has been spent working on another, way longer post"

Tim's posts are truly book worthy.

<comment><USER4> I have a hunch that's gonna be related with Elon Musk

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Shouldn't it be a quintapus?

</comment><comment><USER6> Awesome -- new post from WBW.</comment>


Offer HN: UI design and front end (HTML/CSS/JS) - <AUTHOR> Hi, I'm building my portfolio and would like to offer free design and frontend services for either open source projects or small startups who don't have a budget to get their website designed professionally.
No strings attached - thought it would be a good opportunity to see what people are building and help out if I can.
Email me at firstname.lastname@example.com with details of how I can help you out. <comment><USER2> It's a generous offer but it's better to give every freelancer the same chance to get projects. Add yourself as freelancer to the monthly [https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring) thread.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think on hiring threads freelancers are looking for paid gigs. I'm just offering a free redesign for projects that cant afford to spend money on that (eg. open source projects with limited budgets)</comment></comment>


Open Cloud Manifesto - <AUTHOR> http://opencloudmanifesto.org/ <comment><USER2> I _adore_ the design of this site. Very clean!

</comment><comment><USER3> Heroku alongside IBM. Kudos.

</comment><comment><USER4> Whoever designed that homepage needs to be taken out back and shoot. Also a Manifesto isn't 6 pages full of corporate bullshit.

<comment><USER5> Don't shoot please; maybe he will learn. I'm no designer, but I actually like the clear forms and lush colors of this design, but immediately after this I reach for brightness control to tone id down (there isn't one; I'm typing this on an old laptop)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Cloud providers should make it easy for cloud users to move their data to other cloud providers.

Cloud providers and users should avoid any type of lock-in whether it is data based, technology based or knowledge based.

<comment><USER7> what do you think of <http://eucalyptus.cs.ucsb.edu/> ?

It's pretty much just a clone of EC2... but it's open, so just about any VPS provider (such as myself) could provide almost ec2 compatible services.

I wonder if something 'thinner' would be better, though? something that required less cooperation from the hosting providers?

<comment><USER8> Eucalyptus is nice if you like EC2's abstractions, but it's not clear that they're the right ones.

<comment><USER7> hm. Do you have other suggestions? I do need to implement something, my current situation is clearly untenable (currently, my provisioning system is a guy named Nick.) and yeah, I don't particularly like EC2's abstractions, but they are a standard that many people know. (and I certainly would like a situation where it's easy for EC2 users to switch between EC2 and myself. As I'm much cheaper, I believe that would be a big win for me. I was here before EC2.)

But yeah, I certainly am interested in other ideas.

what I'm not interested in is coming up with and marking my own API/abstraction layer. Even if I released all the docs, it would be de-facto proprietary. I want to use something that other people use. I want something thought out by people smarter than I am. I'd really like something that my customers alrealdy know how to use. (That's what attracts me to Eucalyptus. EC2 has a rather large customer base, some of whom are price sensitive, and thus who may wish to become my customers.)

<comment><USER5> The alternatives to Eucalyptus seem not to be here just yet. I suggest that you get in contact with the Cloudkick guys. If I understand correctly, the purpose of their business is to integrate different cloud providers (Amazon and VPS'es) so that you won't have to (do this on your own).

They have just launched, at the moment only support Amazon and plan to support Slicehost. Talk to them, it might be beneficial for both of you.

<comment><USER7> hm. thanks. that looks pretty darn nice.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


AWS Promotional Credits for Open Source Projects - <AUTHOR> https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/aws-promotional-credits-open-source-projects/ <comment><USER2> This could really turn the tide for some open source projects. You should be able to use the credits for S3 storage, or EC2 usage (testing, etc.), or even using things like CodeBuild to build nightly archives. The only question I have is that since the credits expire after 12 months, can you renew them every year?

Yes, this might "hook" you into use AWS (that's why they are doing it) but it could also give smaller projects a leg up and help them become large projects. Seems like a win-win to me.</comment>


DOJ advises that Net Neutrality could hamper development of the Internet - <AUTHOR> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/ap_on_hi_te/internet_fees_justice_department;_ylt=AlDVAzEP6zj3FCeqjPcXCsWs0NUE Bad news and the flawed analogies still persist.  This time instead of tubes, the internet is likened to the Post Office charging more for express mail. <comment><USER2> Talk about spin.

They use the example of the post office, saying you can pay different amounts for different speeds. That's not what net neutrality prevents. Net neutrality would prevent the situation where you send off two order forms at the same postal rate, but one company gets their order form faster because they're a subsidiary of the post office, or have paid a big fee.</comment>


New vitamin supplement study finds they may do more harm than good - happy-go-lucky https://theconversation.com/new-vitamin-supplement-study-finds-they-may-do-more-harm-than-good-97246 <comment> rolha-capoeira > In studies testing the four common supplements of multivitamins, vitamin D, > calcium and vitamin C, there was no reduction in incidence of heart disease, > stroke or premature death. This means there was no benefit from taking them, > but also no harm.

I don't know if this is just a poorly written statement or if the study's findings are flawed themselves, but saying that there's no benefit at all because it didn't affect three (rather major) phenomena is very misleading.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Very misleading headline.

Vitamins are essential nutrients.

It is well known that not enough of a vitamin or too much of a vitamin creates problems.

Of course vitamins do not prevent or heal diseases that are promoted by aging or an unhealthy diet comprising too much animal products or too much fat or too much protein or too much sugar or too much food in general.

Regarding vitamin D:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541280/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541280/)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17001681](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17001681)

The dubious study about vitamin B6 and B12:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15557733](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15557733)

What expert is right ? What truths and reasons are omitted to promote some personal agenda ?

</comment><comment><USER2> From what I read, most of it is "eh, maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't, but we couldn't prove that it _does_ help." But I thought a valid point was made here:

 _" Most people in Western countries don't have an optimal diet. This review shows taking supplements as an "insurance policy" against poor dietary habits does not work. If it did, there would have been a reduction in early death."_

Eat your broccoli.</comment>


Show HN: Polybit – Build, Deploy, Host Node.js APIs - <AUTHOR> https://polybit.com/ <comment><USER2> Node JS developer here.

The idea of the project is great. It can be difficult to get folks up to speed on various Node JS topics, and one of the big ones (like with any code deployed on a web framework, really) is getting people up to speed on deployment. Anything that is working on making that easier, especially for new/young developers, is great.

That being said, I _really_ do not like the pricing strategy because I think it completely incentivizes bad behavior and optimizing your API/apps for weird things at anything past micro-project scale. Things like when database queries happen are also not entirely opaque to developers, especially new developers, which is going to lead to them not understanding charges (for instance, would a new developer understand that on a fairly basic installation of Passport and Express, _every_ page request, logged in or not, would result in DB activity as Passport tries to figure out if the session is logged in or not? That's likely to far overshadow the single API credit needed for the API hit.) I think that Heroku's free tier would be much more attractive for small projects, and for anyone more advanced than that, a $5 Digital Ocean droplet is simple enough to learn very basic server administration and quickly deploy your application. There are a number of other Node platforms (Modulus) who will give you good service for < $15/month.

I think it would make a lot more sense to structure this more like EC2's burstable instances, which accrue CPU credits for times when they do not run at their allotted CPU, and then can expend those credits to burst above that CPU for smaller amounts of time. That achieves a lot of the good things you're working on, but doesn't push people toward minimizing trips to and from the DB or instance.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the insight. :) I don't disagree. Database queries don't use credits right now. We're going to be playing around with what makes the most sense for our customers. Expect things to change as we grow!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Congrats Keith :D

I've met Keith a few weeks ago at the NodeJS NYC meetup. Great dude, who genuinely wants to make development better. Polybit seems particularly cool for front-end / designers, mobile devs, and anyone else who'd rather build an app than fret over the high availability, scalability, or etc.

What I'm saying is: cool idea + Keith's very approachable if ya wanna pick his brain about the design :)

Hope this goes well for ya dude!

<comment><USER4> I want to second this. There is no doubting Keith's enthusiasm and attitude for both development and helping end users. If you have any questions or issues to raise, I'm pretty sure Keith will do his best :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm flattered! Thank you so much.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks very similar to Zeit:

[https://zeit.co/](https://zeit.co/)

<comment><USER6> Zeit (now) doesn't have database related stuff... then again why have your database mismanaged by a non-DBA PaaS?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The premise of this is a great idea. The sign up is pretty neat - def. suited to expected audience/users. However, no pricing info? I'll come back once pricing is displayed.

<comment><USER8> I didn't found the pricing info either until I played around in the terminal, which gives us this:

$ pricing

Polybit offers pay-as-you-go services.

Action | Cost

\</comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---|</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---

API Request | 1 Credit

Database Query | 1 Credit - FREE in Beta

Project Deployment | 10 Credits - FREE in Beta

Create New Project | 50 Credits

Create New Database | 50 Credits

Package | Credits | Price

\</comment><comment>---|</comment><comment></comment><comment>-----|</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---

             | 1,000 (x2)      | FREE - Received on Registration

     1       | 10,000 (x2)     | $9

     2       | 100,000 (x2)    | $49

     3       | 1,000,000 (x2)  | $249

     4       | 10,000,000 (x2) | $999

Limited time - purchase now with `purchase <package>` while we're in beta, receive 2x the credit

Edit: Well...formatting sucks since I just copy-pasted. But it's somewhat readable I hope

<comment><USER9> I realize this style of pricing is the new hotness and I get why it's appealing for the company providing the service, but as a developer this is really unappealing to me. The last thing I want to do is have to worry about how many API requests my application is making because it costs money.

For example; if I want to render a complicated page out and the API design will be better if that's done with 10 API requests then I want to make it with 10 API requests. I don't want to have to feel like I need to make some kludgy nasty single request in order to reduce my costs by an order of magnitude.

Similar with queries; I'd rather use multiple simple queries than craft some nasty monstrosity query that gets all the data I need at once.

Am I just crazy?

Full disclaimer: I work for a more traditional web host. But these views are totally unrelated to that (I think), it's just based on my personal thoughts/take on this pricing structure.

PS - I really dig the design of the site and think this is really cool and everything. Just the pricing structure seems like a friction point for me personally.

<comment><USER10> No your not crazy at all!

Sometimes it is better to do many smaller requests versus one bigger request, and it would be nice to see a pricing structure based on bandwidth at least.

<comment><AUTHOR> Pricing is going to be something we continue to iterate on. Always appreciate feedback!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Keith is awesome. I've met him a few times to chat about Polybit and he is seriously dedicated to making a great developer product and solving the pain of standing up a backend API.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks :). The truth to anybody reading is that James is the awesome one. Since I first met him early this year to talk about his experience at Parse, he's been one of the most supportive people I've met in Silicon Valley to date.

If I can give a piece of advice to other early founders: it's tough, it never seems to magically get easy, but there are truly awesome people out there willing to help. Still a long road ahead, but I'm very, very grateful to everybody who has helped make Polybit a reality so far (mentors, advisors, and especially the developer community).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Pretty cool stuff. I got stuck a bit in the registration though. I always use a password manager and paste in my passwords. It's telling me it doesn't like my 16 character password because it needs to be 5 or more, and when I paste it, it's in cleartext.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah! Yeah, copy and paste issue. Don't have a handler for that for the console. Will fix it as soon as I can. Thank you for catching that!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This looks really interesting but I personally really dislike the pricing, maybe others will love it but to me it's nearly impossible to guess how much this will cost me. When I start a new project I have no clue how many requests or queries will be made. I get the advantage of not working about infrastructure but I'd rather pay a flat fee and then be able to scale up to handle more requests.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great to have this feedback! Nothing's set in stone yet. This is what we're launching with but I'm sure there's a good chance we'll have something more palatable for you down the line, if you're interested! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Intrigued by the whois information :)

Creation Date: 20-dec-1999

Expiration Date: 20-dec-2025

</comment><comment><USER15> Bug report:

REPL on [https://polybit.com/](https://polybit.com/) fails to display fonts. See [1] for a screenshot.

Firefox 47.0 on OSX.

[1][http://i.imgur.com/ty8PZT9.png](http://i.imgur.com/ty8PZT9.png)

The console logs the keydown events per pconsole.js line number 308. I see the keys I pressed but nothing shows up.

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "h", charCode: 0, keyCode: 72 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "e", charCode: 0, keyCode: 69 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "l", charCode: 0, keyCode: 76 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "l", charCode: 0, keyCode: 76 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "o", charCode: 0, keyCode: 79 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: " ", charCode: 0, keyCode: 32 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "w", charCode: 0, keyCode: 87 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "o", charCode: 0, keyCode: 79 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "r", charCode: 0, keyCode: 82 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "l", charCode: 0, keyCode: 76 } pconsole.js:308:5

keydown { target: <textarea>, key: "d", charCode: 0, keyCode: 68 } pconsole.js:308:5

:)

<comment><AUTHOR> Should work now. Just pushed a hotfix. Thanks for the catch! (You and everybody else.)

<comment><USER15> Happy to help. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm confused on my credit balance after signing up. The pricing printout shows a 1,000(x2) for the registration tier, and below the table seems to indicate that these (x2) markers represent the double credit offer for beta users.

However, the account I just registered shows a balance of only 1,000 credits. Is the credit bonus only applied to credits which were paid for? If so the (x2) in the first row is a bit misleading.

That being said, I'm excited to check out this service and don't mean to complain about getting something for free.

<comment><AUTHOR> My bad. Misprint. Happy to honor it though, and give you an extra 1,000 credits. This goes to anybody on HN - E-mail me (keith at polybit) with the e-mail you used to sign up and I'll add the credits by the end of the day!

<comment><USER16> Oh, no need, I figured it was a misprint and just wanted to make sure you didn't get any unexpected complaints about it. Thank you for being so cool about it though!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Totally broken for me (after writing "Register"): [http://imgur.com/a/cYtZz](http://imgur.com/a/cYtZz)

Browser: Firefox 47 (default browser)

Extensions: AdBlockPlus, LastPass

OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, some other users are reporting issues with Firefox. Putting out some other fires at the moment. Hang tight! Thanks so much for your patience and for trying it out (and reporting the errors)!

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> What would be alternative deployment approach for nodal apps? It is still just node.js app so I should be able to deploy it to phusion passanger or dokku, right?

</comment><comment><USER19> Very COOL! As a DBA, as fare as I'm concerned this is how databases should be used. NO! application should contain SQL. SQL should ONLY be in an API.

<comment><USER6> What does being a DBA, Databases and SQL have to do with this Platform as a Service?

<comment><USER20> I think parent was trying to express approval for Polybit's "API First" philosophy - which would result in a situation where Apps call APIs which call Databases.

Their experience as a DBA being what led them to this conclusion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm reminded in some sense of RoR/CakePHP with scaffolding.

What are some other tools that provide similar functionality ?

</comment><comment><USER22> Love the idea. I think you really need an about page though. People need to know why they can't trust you.

<comment><USER23> >People need to know why they can't trust you.

Why can't people trust him? Seems like a good guy to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Awesome website design, the fact I register using command linea is extremelly cool. Nice touch

</comment><comment><USER25> I am surprised Nodal still uses 90% of Nordic Semiconductor's logo :/

Love the website design!

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm on Windows/Firefox the console only echoes back missing characters.

<comment><AUTHOR> Apologies! I'll look into this ASAP. Don't spend enough time bug testing on Windows these days. :)

<comment><USER27> I'm on OSX/Firefox and I see the same. Maybe Firefox is the missing platform you need to test ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> ... probably that. ;) I was up 'til 5AM preparing for a launch, knew I'd miss something.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> feedback: the console in the home page doesn't seem to do anything. (Chrome Android)

</comment><comment><USER29> Do you have bug bounty? :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Polybit Credits perhaps. Mind emailing me with your find?</comment></comment>


TRIZ: a methodology for generating innovative ideas and solutions - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ

<comment><USER2> What a boring title. Go and read this amazing article, people.

In short - "How to invent things (even when you cannot)".

</comment><comment><USER3> At Molex, we've been pitched recently by Invention Machine to adopt their SAAS service "Goldfire". They claim that Goldfire makes it easier for companies to incorporate TRIZ principles in their new product development processes. So far, most of my colleagues who've heard the pitch are quite skeptical. This article covered most of their objections: it's a gimmick, it hasn't been objectively proven to yield innovative ideas, we don't need expensive software to use these techniques, etc.

</comment><comment><USER4> Alternatively, there are useful books like ThinkerToys:

[http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative- Thinking...](http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking- Techniques/dp/0898154081)

<comment><USER5> I was just coming here to recommend the same book! It's full of awesome creativity techniques. I don't like a lot of the BS you get around "creativity" but the tasks it provides aren't too arm-wavey and they really do get the ideas flowing.</comment></comment>


Website outages and blackouts the right way - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/u/0/115984868678744352358/posts/Gas8vjZ5fmB

<comment><USER2> Another, in my opinion, great example of the need for subdomains on HN submissions. I surely wasn't the only one who thought this title meant Google were endorsing blackouts?

<comment><USER3> Can't you just hover over the link and see the entire url on the bottom of your browser window?

<comment> Tim-Boss Not on my phone!

<comment><USER3> Good point, didn't think of that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hello all

I'm the author of this post. There are some suggestions for Javascript-based alternatives. A well-implemented Javascript overlay for the blackout message is a valid option, but keep in mind the following when thinking about it:

1\. Googlebot does run some types of Javascript. We blogged about this recently: [http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/11/get- post-...](http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/11/get-post-and- safely-surfacing-more-of.html)

This means that the content included via Javascript may be indexed until the next time we crawl and process the page and find it's gone.

2\. Consider how the JS will affect your pages' instant previews. Overlays are likely to show up in the previews, and these will take some time to update as we re-generate the previews.

3\. Consider your users. Some webmasters are suggesting keeping the blackout overlay visible without any means of hiding it. That may not be the best user experience, and may be annoying to your non-US based users.

I'm happy to answer any other questions.

Thanks, Pierre

<comment><USER5> You should be able to help googlebot index the right content by using different HTTP status codes in the response. Also, although googlebot executes JS, in my experience it doesn't use it for indexing content. My guess is that it's primarily used for the instant preview and for verifying that you're not cheating by hiding SEO keywords on load or whatnot. This could change any day, of course.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Who is this guy now? I keep seeing announcement posted on Google Plus by people speaking for Google, but they never bother to mention as much as their function or position within Google.

They ought to start of with "Hi I'm XYZ, lead PQR coordinator of Google ABC." or something.

At least this time it says "google" if you mouseover his photo, the last one didn't even that.

<comment><USER7> You can go to his about page. <https://plus.google.com/u/0/115984868678744352358/about> "I work at Google as a Webmaster Trends Analyst. This is my personal profile.

What do I do at Google? I help webmasters build better websites, so you'll see me talking to webmasters on our and other forums, writing blog posts, saying things like "I'll ask internally" and the like."

<comment><USER8> "I work at Google as a Webmaster Trends Analyst. This is my personal profile."

Security wise a bad idea. For example email of a actual company employee (at a company that offers email) might normally might be firstname.lastname@example.com or email@example.com not firstname.lastname@example.com etc.

By posting in this manner nothing to prevent someone from posting the wrong information.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> If HN has "sticky posts", this thing should be on top at least until 18th of Jan to avoid people from hurting their website's SEO too much for the solidarity action.

<comment><AUTHOR> Until I saw this post, I hadn't even considered the possible SEO implications.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This "technique" is highly recommended for your error pages also (50x). It also helps if you set the "Retry-After" HTTP header (value in seconds), that tells google (and hopefully other crawlers) that they shouldn't bother with crawling for another X seconds. Helps with the load if you are experiencing problems with your server.

Retry-After is also usefull for "down for maintenance" pages since you usually know how long your page will be down.

</comment><comment><USER11> This technique would not be needed if Google joined the blackout and didn't crawl for a day.

<comment><USER12> Even if Google joined the blackout, only the web frontend would be blacked out, not the backend crawling.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Can someone explain how to change a site to return a 503 HTTP header?

<comment><USER14> Put _Redirect 503_ in your Apache configuration file.

<comment><USER15> I wrote this up awhile ago for how to do this in pure httpd configuration:

[http://journal.paul.querna.org/articles/2009/08/24/downtime-...](http://journal.paul.querna.org/articles/2009/08/24/downtime- page-in-apache/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Am I alone in thinking that if Google won't join the blackout than the next best thing would be a Google search full of anti SOPA messages?

Will a 503 make it into the listing? If so be sure to put your message in the title.

<comment><USER16> Except that doesn't work. You lose your rank for your existing keywords if you replace your site with an anti-SOPA message, which is what this is about.

If you just add a banner or message to your site and keep the rest of your content intact then sure, it may show up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Wouldn't it be possible to detect if it's a web crawler visiting your site (e.g. user agent) and then let them crawl the site as normal? If it's not a web crawler, then display the "blackout" version of the site?

<comment><USER18> That's cloaking and can cause you to be de-indexed.

<comment><USER17> Interesting. This site claims that the intent behind the cloaking is taken into account: [http://www.smart-it- consulting.com/article.htm?node=148&...](http://www.smart-it- consulting.com/article.htm?node=148&page=103) ... Do you agree? Or have you had a different experience?

<comment><USER19> Yes, at least in the past, Google has taken into account intent when it comes to cloaking, letting some big sites get away with it and still rank well in serps.

However, I can see how your initial suggestion of showing full content to Google, could be viewed as solely for preserving rankings in an artificial manner.

As an example of cloaking, some News Sites let Google index all their pages, while requiring actual users to login/register to view it.

Typically, if the user has a Google Referrer, they can view the page one time for free and then need to login/register to view anything else.

Visiting the page directly or with a non-google referrer shows a register/login page.

New York Times was one that does(did?) this. I stopped visiting them when they started. I think Washing Post, or one of the posts, was doing it too, as well as a number of other sites.

Experts Exchange used to basically be the same way, although I think they are doing it differently now, and they were slapped by Google a long time ago for cloaking, so changed to a different method of cloaking...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Any day we're set on, Black Friday? Weekly, bi-weekly, first of every month?

<comment> Tim-Boss Afaik this is all for the 18th January 2012.....or Wednesday as we mortals call it

<comment><USER20> Not enough. I think there needs to be something preventative in place so this sort of thing can't raise its ugly head again.

If they want censorship, let's give them censorship.

<comment><USER16> You're free to blackout your own website for as long as you want. No one is going to stop you. Good luck with your regular traffic/visitors disappearing though.

<comment><USER20> A little bit of medicine can cure you, a lot can poison you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> While I'm no fan of SOPA I think people that are outraged enough to blackout their site but and at the same time are concerned with SEO implications remind me of protesters that don't want their pictures taken. You want to show up and feel good but don't want anyone to know about it later.

Why not set the page titles and meta descriptions for all your pages so that "This site was blacked out in protest to SOPA" shows up in your search results for a while? That would honestly probably have more impact and Google will get around to indexing you again.

<comment><USER2> It's not the same as not wanting your picture taken on a demonstration, it's the same as not wearing a tshirt for the next year that says "I was on this demonstration".

Doing a blackout for twelve hours harms your business, fucking up your SEO harms it again. Obviously in this, as in any protest, there is a decision to be made on what to do. Why not only blackout for one hour? Why not blackout for an entire month?

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Since GoogleBot doesn't run javascript, does that mean that an all Javascript solution would work without disrupting indexing?

<comment><USER23> It does run javascript: <http://www.jefftk.com/news/2012-01-11.html>

<comment><USER22> That is good to know. I guess this helps catch SEO cheats with javascript

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Another alternative is to simply use jquery like framework to create a modal dialog window and display the message. Hide all the close buttons. You can put this script in the wordpress header and then all pages will show the dialog when the document is done loading. This has the least impact on your domain and content wise.

<comment><USER20> I wonder if a JS redirect would work too to some central page that any number of people can use (maybe a 302 redirect would be better.) It can display the desired page in an iFrame. I don't know what could be on that central page, but it could get a ton of traffic if done right. Donations, petitions, forum, guest book, chat, politicians contact details.. etc. Perhaps it can be displayed as the requested url somehow.. is that possible?

The other thing it could do is redirect back to the source site every x visitors, so one could set the ratio: 1/3 visitors gets the redirect. Search bots don't get the redirect.

It'd also make a good point for media coverage, providing some metrics on the effect of the blackout.. so long as people use it.

"xx,xxx internets were censored in the last yy seconds/minutes/hours from zz domains"</comment></comment>


Show HN: Clickpath query language - <AUTHOR> http://infunl.com/ql

<comment><USER2> This is an interesting idea, but this query implementation seems awfully complex. What are the chances you are developing a sandbox where a user can construct queries through a GUI against real-time data they've collected?

I think this will help people learn the query language more quickly; and as a bonus, they'll ramp-up faster with your product by using simple queries they've constructed from the sandbox which completely avoids that nasty initial knowledge hurdle.

Signed up. :)

<comment><USER3> Yes, visual query editor is a good idea, we will try to add it.

We hoped that people will try out examples from the front page to get used to the language. Also writing small tutorial is in plans.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Who is your target user? It seems like your copy on your site (for the home page & query language) is geared towards developers but analytics are typically used by the business/marketing guys.

<comment><USER3> Target user is professional analyst. Someone who is hired or is consulting the organization to provide "data science" services. We believe that this user becomes increasingly technical with abilities to create workflows with multiple tools and data sources to get insights. We hope that our service will become indispensable tool for such user.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> isnt is somewhat like event tracking and funnel analysis that mixpanel provides.

They do provide a fair bit of flexibility of slicing and dicing of data as well in their UI

<comment><USER3> Yes, they indeed provide comprehensive UI to slice and dice the clickpaths. Our goal is to build flexible and fast API to enable creating custom reports and dashboards.

We also envision extensibility with custom functions and datasets so people can do just about anything with their clickpath stream, including mashing it up with their data.

<comment><USER5> I feel the data analysis in the most efficient way and to learn from the data is the most important aspect to grow.

You have mentioned in the point 2 that "We do heavy-lifting of event collection and pre-processing to enable fast and flexible queries powered by map-reduce." I guess the event collection will be based on some Javascript call. If that is so, do include the flexibility to attach some properties with the event.

<comment><USER3> Certainly. We have the ability to attach custom attributes to events and then segment by them [1]. We envision both backend and frontend ways to attach attributes. With frontend they could be set by JavaScript in the page. In backend we have plugins for popular platforms in works.

[1] <http://infunl.com/#split></comment></comment></comment></comment>


FCC Filings Overwhelmingly Support Net Neutrality Once Spam Is Removed - <AUTHOR> http://jeffreyfossett.com/2017/05/13/fcc-filings.html <comment><USER2> Anyone who thinks the FCC is going to change course under this administration based on public comments can buy the bridge I am selling in NYC.

<comment><USER3> Anyone who thinks that these bodies _ever_ change their mind due to the public comment periods is gullible. The public comment period is mandatory, and it's not like the FCC commissioners are dying to know the public's thought process and need their input. They have already made up their minds.

The value provided by the public comment process is a) an opportunity for the public to get their comments on the record, not because it will change the outcome, but just for the historical value of having their viewpoint officially represented somewhere and b) the opportunity for FCC commissioners to be surprised by a higher-than-normal flood of replies and realize they may need to back something out for political expediency.

This is the same way it works when you call your Congresspeople or do almost any other citizen interaction with the government. It's not like your Senator actually cares about _your specific_ opinion and may find it convincing. The proposals supported or opposed by politicians are much larger than any single person's opinion or ideology (including the representative's own).

Since Oliver did a segment on net neutrality under the Obama administration (in which he analogized cable lobbyist and then-FCC chair Tom Wheeler to a dingo hired to babysit a child), it really probably doesn't surprise them that a large volume of comments would be directed from that type of source again. It's also probably not surprising that people more likely to fill out an FCC comment form are generally pro-net neutrality.

<comment><USER4> > Anyone who thinks that these bodies ever change their mind due to the public > comment periods is gullible.

It happened less than 2 years ago, on the topic of Net Neutrality. Remember? Tom Wheeler who was a known opponent of Net Neutrality? And the amazing flood of comments CHANGED HIS MIND?

Quit spouting off about how it's hopeless to change anything, and instead GO START REACHING OUT TO YOUR GOVERNMENT. (Your suggestion of calling congresspeople is a good one.)

<comment><USER5> > Tom Wheeler who was a known opponent of Net Neutrality?

Tom Wheeler was a supporter of net neutrality from his first day on the commission. The FCC majority he led didn't initially see common carrier classification as the best route to enforce neutrality after the 2010 Open Internet Order was struck down, and proposed a revised Order which sought to do that without reclassification, and on that point the comments changed his mind. But that's different than being opponent to neutrality regulations like Pai has been (and Pai was on the committee, and opposed to both the non- reclassifying and reclassifying version of the Open Internet Order, at the time of the last go around; if comments were going to change his mind, they already would have.)

<comment><USER6> Ehh, he supported internet fast lanes. Not so different in my opinion.

Anyway the GP's point is that comments changed his mind, not that Wheeler and Pai thought exactly alike.

<comment><USER5> > Ehh, he supported internet fast lanes.

No, he didn't.

<comment><USER6> Yes, he did

> "F.C.C., in a Shift, Backs Fast Lanes for Web Traffic " ... The proposed > rules, drafted by Mr. Wheeler and his staff ... [1]

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/technology/fcc-new-net- ne...](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/technology/fcc-new-net-neutrality- rules.html)

<comment><USER7> Yeah the support for gutting net neutrality has been bipartisan by politicians, and the opposition has been bipartisan by the people. Anyone who supports gutting net neutrality is either a sucker or bought.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It would be naively optimistic to think the FCC is going to just remove the spam from their counts willingly. At best they may remove from their counts any cases where someone's name was confirmed to have been used fraudulently. But how many of those 440,000 comments would that end up happening for?

Unless the FCC fears public backlash, I think they're going to aggressively exercise plausible deniability on the spam counts, and push through their agenda using those counts as justification.

<comment><USER9> They'll probably say _none_ of the comments can be reliable and throw them all out and push through their agenda.

<comment><USER10> Yeah if they wanted the comments to be reliable they would have spent 5 minutes to add a CAPTCHA. This way they get to easily ignore the public comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That caveat, yikes!

>there is some evidence of botting/spamming on the pro-NN side as well (though likely not to the same degree), which is not investigated in this post, and could shift conclusions.

<comment><USER12> Yeah, he took a lot of liberties to support the title statement. The fact that many thousands of pro-NN are variations on the same sentences, because the template was provided by J. Oliver, also means implies that part of the anti- NN bulk could have been registered by humans working off a template as well.

I would like to know the number of unique sentences and the stats on these.

The only sane conclusion from this debacle is that these things are highly unreliable and better ways to get the population opinion are desirable.

<comment><USER13> > Yeah, he took a lot of liberties to support the title statement. The fact > that many thousands of pro-NN are variations on the same sentences, because > the template was provided by J. Oliver, also means implies that part of the > anti-NN bulk could have been registered by humans working off a template as > well.

I agree that it's possible, but seeing as the anti-NN template was used 440k times, and the top pro-NN template was used 26k times, I think it's fair to say that it's highly unlikely.

Think about how viral that John Oliver clip/story got, and it doesn't even contain a template (IIRC), and then try to think of an anti-NN template that somehow got 17 times more viral/engagement.

It's also relevant to consider who benefits from what side.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I was pretty prepared for this when I noticed this is one of places I wouldn't have minded a captcha for once.

<comment><USER15> I'm pretty sure they knew there would be a flood of opposition, and they left it insecure intentionally, in order to delegitimize the overwhelming consensus by lumping genuine filings in with spam filings and declaring the entire process tainted.

<comment><USER16> It's a non binding public comment period. I think you overestimate how much they care.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I saw similar. Data for those that want to do their own analysis here: [https://github.com/lutostag/gofccyourself- data/releases](https://github.com/lutostag/gofccyourself-data/releases)

</comment><comment><USER18> It's obvious to the tech community that net neutrality is a good thing. Let me pose a counter view in any case: what if verizon/comcast said they will give consumers a 75% discount should they be implement the anti-net neutrality way? After all, this is what Google/Facebook does. Give things away for free and their version of net-neutrality is they get to decide who pops up in the first page results above all (ads).

<comment><USER19> Google and Facebook are not monopolies, as ISPs are in many cases. You have options.

Internet service is also far more vital than Facebook.

<comment><USER18> > Internet service is also far more vital than Facebook.

Yes. So by lowering prices, more people will get access. I feel like you are adding a +1 here to the anti-net neutrality view (cue the internet.org initiative by facebook).

<comment><USER20> When Google Fiber rolls into a town, prices from entrenched ISPs drop drastically. There's nothing stopping ISPs from providing cheaper and better service - except for the moral hazard of monopolistic control, free from the normal pressures of supply and demand.

<comment><USER7> When Google Fiber came into my area, the speed went up by 6 fold, I'm still switching the moment I'm physically able even if it were slower and more expensive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Strange to see the net becoming a weapon against public interest.

More so to see it be used to push politics.

<comment><USER22> The exact opposite of what it should be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I am hoping (perhaps wishfully) that 5G wireless technology will make much of this conversation moot. The reason why broadband companies are even theoretically able to get away with throttling certain sites is because there is so little consumer choice in broadband; few in this country have a choice at all.

Assuming 5G delivers on its promise of broadband quality internet (far from assured), most US consumers will immediately have far more options. Competition between service providers will be a much better check than regulation.

<comment><USER24> Why would you ever think that 5g would come without criminally low data caps?

<comment><USER23> Because if there are multiple companies offering 5G (and they are not colluding), they will compete for customers. Verizon will offer a higher data cap than T-Mobile. T-Mobile will then respond with a higher data cap than Verizon, and so on.

<comment><USER25> It isn't a competition problem, it's a laws of physics problem. If you want to carry more traffic you either need more wireless spectrum or more towers. But "more towers" quickly devolves to the point that you would need a "tower" on every block, at which point you have nearly all the expense of a wired network and might as well run the cable inside the buildings.

<comment><USER26> We are talking about 35.46 gigabits per second. With 20x over subscription that works out to 20MBPS for 35,000 homes per tower. Or roughly a 200 x 200 home 'block' if everyone was your customer.

Alternatively, is your suburb is 0.5 homes per acre and 20% of people are your customers that's one tower per ~136 square miles.

Note: These numbers are not accurate for several reasons including directional antenna on towers etc but they give a ballpark.

<comment><USER25> DOCSIS 3.1 supports multi-gigabit speeds on coax. With actual fiber 100Gbps links are commercially available. For equivalent performance you aren't serving 35,000 homes per tower, it's more like 35. And a provider having a lower penetration rate doesn't save you any towers, they still have to exist and be operated by someone else in order for those people to have service. Splitting the market between more providers each with lower customer density would only make each provider's costs higher -- same total number of towers but now you each need your own spectrum.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Can't see why anyone wouldn't support net neutrality, especially consumers. If only the administration would listen, our opinion doesn't mean much.

<comment><USER9> Depends on the consumer. The ones getting zero-rated video from AT&T would _hate_ to see net neutrality rules. To them, it's bad.

<comment><USER27> Then they are short sighted (or it is a tragedy of the commons). Zero rating is being done at the expense of allowing a free competitive market, and they will have no one to blame by themselves when service get crappier and there are fewer options in the future.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> 1: No informed citizen in their right mind wants this to pass

2: Big telecoms are making a lot of spam to force democracy to their whim

3: People become aware of this and its talked about in news, "Well I heard the count was neck in neck, 'Oh well I heard that Comcast paid spammers'", deepening public hate of Comcast-esque companies

4: Comcast et al will get their way as usual and next week no one will care

<comment><USER29> aren't there big players on the other side.

Why aren't the big VC houses fighting this? This seriously hampers their ability to have their startups have equal access to the open internet.

<comment><USER28> VCs are way more interested in investing in 10 companies that might give them a 100x return than meddling in politics.

Historically, regressive ideologies have funded think tanks at an order of magnitude higher than progressives. Good luck fighting old money dollar for dollar.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> > in this post I use the term "spam" to connote an identical bit of text that > was repeatedly filed many times

Wow! Nice definition of spam. Remove the most popular opinion, and hey look! everybody supports NN.

> there is some evidence of botting/spamming on the pro-NN side as well > (though likely not to the same degree), which is not addressed in this post, > and could shift conclusions.

IMO, this is just a blatantly biased attempt to delegitimatize any anti-NN feedback. Many people send their comments thru websites with boilerplate text, but they do it in support of what they believe. The author has presented no evidence that the comments he removed from consideration are actually spam and no evidence that the second most popular phrase (in favor of NN) is not spam.

<comment><USER31> I mean the below section of the post is fairly contradictory to your claim.

> To further investigate this hypothesis, I randomly sampled 1000 filings that > used the repeated text and queried the HaveIBeenPwned API to retrieve a list > of known data breaches that the associated emails were involved in. I found > that ~76% of emails associated with the repeated comment had been involved > in at least one data breach, and ~66% were part of the RCM breach > specifically:

<comment><USER30> My email address has also been part of multiple breaches. But I have changed my passwords quick enough that I am sure my email was not used to spam in this instance. The author's hypothesis would be stronger only if the breaches are fairly recent. Anything > a few months ago is likely not compromised anymore. Also, we need to know the same number for the most popular repeated pro-NN comment.

Edit: apparently the RCM breach occurred quite recently. So I guess there is some legitimacy to the hypothesis. I would still like to see the same number for the pro-NN repeated comments too.

<comment><USER32> > But I have changed my passwords quick enough that I am sure my email was not > used to spam in this instance

Why do you think that would matter? You don't need to give the FCC your email password to post a comment to these proceedings.

All you need to post a comment on the FCC is: name, address, and email. They do not validate that the comment-poster actually controls the email address they used. You can request a filing conformation, but that's _optional_ and only says they received your comment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Did anyone else catch Ajit Pai's first public comment since we flooded the FCC with pro-net neutrality comments? [1]

If he thinks that is hip or cool, he's completely out of touch.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBt84HNAGwU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBt84HNAGwU)

</comment><comment><USER33> I like the part where he "supported" his thesis that a certain class of comments is "spam" by checking a random sample of the associated email addresses against HaveIBeenPwned and finding that 75% of them showed up in there, but did not bother to make sure this is actually a real signal by checking a random sample of "real" comments as well.

</comment><comment><USER34> Corporate interests currently support net neutrality regulations for whatever reason. So you get entertainers like John Oliver pushing young folks who don't know any better to submit comments. Free market solutions are rarely in vogue. Thus the discrepency.

</comment><comment><USER35> Shame it won't make any difference.

</comment><comment><USER36> I, for one, am shocked to hear this. Shocked I say

</comment><comment><USER37> Thats how democracy dies. It doesn't have to change it explicitly, it has to incite tact, and leave a trail. Every day, we are making history. If we do not speak, then the future will think we weren't talking.

<comment><USER38> Sorry. I do not think people commenting on some document has anything to do with democracy that might be mob or troll rule but it isn't democracy (not that I am a fan of democracy either).

Personally I agree with FCC's stand and keeping governments and elites who want everyone else to pay more for their "fair use" out of the equation looks like a good thing for me. I don't have time to comment on that document because I agree with administration.

<comment><USER39> It's a shame you're being downvoted for sharing your opinion. Personally I think you're delusional, but it's not like downvotes are going to change your mind.

<comment><USER40> Thanks for being a voice of reason and free speech. I also do not agree in the slightest with the OP, but non the less being down-voted to hell is a bit harsh imho.

That is not how democracy should work. We should counter his (missing) arguments. Sadly he/she/it did not provide anything substantial on that one could base a valid argument.

<comment><USER41> Sorry for the harsh language, but that's _fucking ridiculous_ in this context.

Free speech? Free speech doesn't exist so that people can make ridiculous comments like 'taking comments from the public into account when making policy is mob rule'. Free speech exists _so that people can make those comments on policy and have them heard_.

<comment><USER39> You're wrong too --- but only in my opinion. What free speech really "exists for" is hard to pin down[1].

It's actually an interesting legal perspective. These are unelected officials, appointed by an indirectly elected official (albeit confirmed by directly elected ones) interacting directly with the public. It's a bizarre reversal of the Jeffersonian republic, like a direct democracy nested deep inside a republic. The fact that the poster is totally wrong does not alone make the idea worth censoring.

If you don't listen to people who disagree with you, how can you hope to engage them in debate? Case in point: you got downvoted so many times you were [flagged] and [dead], and I vouched for you. 1) You didn't deserve it. 2) I wanted to bring you back so I could make the point that, under your idea of free speech, you'd still be [dead].

[1]: [https://www.thefire.org/a-reminder-about-shouting-fire- in-a-...](https://www.thefire.org/a-reminder-about-shouting-fire-in-a-crowded- theater/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Making the most out of a bad job (help a programmer out) - <AUTHOR> I'm searching for an extra revenue source since my 'working situation' is quite particular.. to say the least.
I'm stuck in a well paid job in a country where switching job (programming/computer science related) is not an option unless you relocate elsewhere. My wife doesn't want to move and I do not intend to leave her. This job pays well but as I said it's kind of 'particular': bosses are totally uncapable and fragile persons. We're a small company funded by rich guys who really can't run anything: they keep us 8 hours a day in front of a monitor in a nice office doing absolutely nothing. As long as we're there to fix some easy computer problems that show up once in three months, they're content with us doing nothing. They're rich (I'll never understand why they founded this company in the first place, possibly out of boredom) and they don't want to hire a contractor for the few hours of actual work they require: they prefer someone on-site all the time to be 'ready anytime' (economic-wise this is a catastrophe).
Since I'm in this bad situation I'm trying to make the best out of it: how can I use my programming and computer science skills to have an extra profit during those 8 hours? I constantly try to study new things / prepare for the interview that may never come (since I can't relocate right now), but that's not enough.
My bosses clearly stated I can train, do programming work or anything I want during those hours. As far as I know there isn't a market for creating and selling e.g. Java libraries, those things are either developed by companies or made available opensource.
Any idea on how could I make the best of those hours revenue-wise? I feel that being kept doing nothing for that much time is affecting my self esteem and possibly my mental health in the long run. <comment><USER2> The first thing you must realize is that it won't be too far till owners realize what you already said and shutdown the business or give it to contractors. From what you wrote I can only see a big opportunity. sometimes it is hard to see opportunities at hand. You should consider yourself lucky because you already have the tools, the time and potential investors, first start with automating your job (create an automated pipeline that does what you are supposed to do, this will help you learn a lot and help you to think of new projects for the company ) but you must create another position or a project proposal for yourself first haha . I had a similar situation years ago, and I decided to take trainings (and earned certificates) if i were in same situation now I would take a proactive role and create tools and systems that add values to my team/company, and show it to the bosses and advance myself and the company, and loop.

</comment><comment><USER3> Well paid to do little, and the owners are happy. First world problems are so hard.

<comment><USER4> Especially since the OP is free to learn and train on their time. What a perfect situation...

<comment><AUTHOR> I understand this might seem like a stupid complaint.. but one can't train forever. He needs a goal. I want to do something useful for the society or at least make some extra money for my family. I'm not a dog who can be left hours and hours doing nothing and staring at a white wall: I experience and suffer from boredom as you all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I can certainly understand your frustration from the under-utilization of your skills, but wow, what a great opportunity to start a project or learn something new while getting paid. Look around for someone who has an interesting problem that needs solving. You might start looking here: [http://www.oppsdaily.com/](http://www.oppsdaily.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey SQL thanks for that link, I'll take a good look at it and perhaps be in contact if I think I could do a good job at it.

You're right that it's a great opportunity but people need goals in their life.. this job feels like constant training for no purpose at all. I can research or study something, but I'll never build anything with it and that saddens me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Be careful if you decide to make software to sell, if you do it at work and use your work machines then they may own it - depends on your jurisdiction / work contract. Even if you do work for others while at work then you could be in a difficult situation contractually.

Of course if you're bosses are happy for you to do other stuff just get it in writing.

obligatory not a lawyer etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> That is correct, I don't feel like violating any law although making software for other people (since I just have to be 'ready for those small problems') might involve legal issues that I'll research more in depth.

By the way making software is what I should be doing as a job, I might be interested in other ways of getting a revenue that might just need a working brain and a lot of spare time.

<comment><USER6> I have known a few people over the years in a similar situation - the most notable was one guy who ran a cleaning business, he slept most of the day at work, and worked cleaning at night. If anything came up he was woken :-)</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: IPalyzer – Analyze any IP for location, RDNS, blacklisting - <AUTHOR> http://www.ipalyzer.com

<comment><USER2> "Error!Your quota (50 queries/12 hours) has been exceeded"

I only checked 2 ip addresses.... seems like a bug ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> "Error!No IPv6 possible yet"

Call me back when I can test the IP address that actually originates my traffic.</comment>


Dwolla launches referral program - <AUTHOR> http://blog.dwolla.com/refer/

<comment><USER2> I really love Dwolla a lot and think it's a great service. I do wish they would tone down all the social junk in the app, though. I don't want to share my purchases, I don't want to "check in" or track my location when I buy something, I just want to spend money on stuff. I feel like everywhere I go on their site is a clusterfuck of CONNECT YOUR ____ NETWORK!! Send money over twitter!! No, thanks.

While I hope that all this social spamming works out for them (the more people who use Dwolla, the more useful it becomes for _everybody_ ), I still find it somewhat obnoxious, and it decreases my level of trust in them. I just hope they tone it down once they reach a critical mass.

Either way, I'm rooting for them.

<comment><USER3> Hey dude. I work at Dwolla. Thanks for rooting for us.

I get what you're saying. I'd like to better understand what you meant by decreasing trust. I think social commerce is where things are headed and it's important that Dwolla is a part of it, but we need to find the best way to do/balance it. Can you email me at firstname.lastname@example.com and share your thoughts about things we've done that impacted trust? I'd be grateful. Trust is more important to us than...really anything.

Perhaps there's a way we can enable the social stuff that many Dwolla users ask us for in a way that doesn't bother the folks that don't want it. I thought we were doing a decent job of that now since everything is opt-in, but you might have ideas on how we can do it better. I'd love to hear them. Here's a crazy idea: literally one link in your settings that says "Turn on social junk" - if not toggled on, you don't see any of it.

I'd love to brainstorm stuff like that with folks that care enough to post comments like yours. Hope you email me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Meh. PayPal gave you $10 in its early days; they should be doing the same, given the complexities and delays in setting up an account.

</comment><comment><USER5> I just love dwolla

<comment><USER6> Me too.</comment></comment>


US and UK 'lead push against global patent pool for Covid-19 drugs' - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/17/us-and-uk-lead-push-against-global-patent-pool-for-covid-19-drugs <comment><USER2> Pharmaceutical companies have a big say in policy in many countries that develop drugs. This will be a tough battle to overcome.</comment>


Another NSA Leaker Identified and Charged - <AUTHOR> https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/05/another_nsa_lea.html <comment><USER2> > _According to the indictment, in August 2014, Mr. Hale's cellphone contact > list included information for the reporter..._

That sounds like they used his Google Account/iCloud account to find back-ups and that was how they found that information. Otherwise, that's oddly specific for having been almost five years ago, now.

</comment><comment><USER3> Jeez. Get a phone or other comms that can't be traced directly back to you. Destroy hard disks and thumb drives completely--invest in a blowtorch. Stay off the Internet and especially no cloud services--they are hoovering up everything. You want to play in that world and stay alive you have to be 10 steps ahead of them.</comment>


We Monetize Our Documentation - <AUTHOR> http://blog.servant.co/we-monetize-our-documentation/

<comment><USER2> I really like this idea. I think you may have something here...</comment>


Zynga Buys German Game Engine Developer Dextrose AG - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/24/zynga-continues-international-expansion-buys-german-game-engine-developer-dextrose-ag/

<comment><AUTHOR> I have to admit, I was actually a bit upset to hear this.

I remember finding these guys some time ago and loved what they were building. Now it seems like it will never be available to anyone.</comment>


Understanding Trump – George Lakoff - <AUTHOR> https://georgelakoff.com/2016/07/23/understanding-trump-2/ <comment><USER2> Does nobody read Scott Adams' Blog[0]? He has had the best analysis of Trump so far. He seems a little out there so you have to go back all the way to the start of his analysis, but it is some pretty good stuff, and has been extremely accurate, pronouncing the Jeb! campaign dead the day Trump called him low energy, etc.

It is a very interesting way of interpreting the world, and the comment sections on the articles were usually pretty good, but in recent times has swiftly devolved from a discussion of the technique, so they are disabled.

Also, Hillary has someone who is actually understands persuasion now, which is resulting in some actual back and forth. Its a great read to test your understanding and acceptance of what the human unconscious is both capable and in control of. Here's a good article that has some links to his initial descriptions he used to describe Trump[1].

[0]: [http://blog.dilbert.com/](http://blog.dilbert.com/)

[1]: [http://reason.com/reasontv/2015/10/06/donald-trump-is-a- mast...](http://reason.com/reasontv/2015/10/06/donald-trump-is-a-master- wizard)</comment>


Ask HN: How the Hell Do I Market to Developers? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a digital marketer / growth hacker by day, and I'm used to getting great results for ecommerce and industrial b2b companies.
I usually kill it on SEM, SEO, CRO and Social advertising.
But recently I've started marketing a startup tool for developers and devops folks. I'm struggling to get traction.
I'm also a mediocre developer by night, but I find out about all of my tools from friends.
How does everyone else find new tools?  How the hell do I market to you? <comment><USER2> 1\. Sell to our laziness - does this product save me X hrs of writing the same boring code for each project (e.g. creditcard.js)

2\. Can I try it right now? A dev might need authorization from a manager to buy something, so a free trial will go a long way in getting the dev to try out your product.

3\. How good is the quality? Detailed documentation goes a long way. Devs care a lot more than any other target market about what is under the hood.

Spend your marketing dollars creating a very high quality, targeted blog with the sole goal to capture my email. Send me regular emails (once/twice a month) about very specific things that I am interested in. Gain the trust of a dev before you start selling to him.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Great advice. What are some of your favorite blogs now?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Developers have highly sensitive and well-tuned B$ detectors. The marketing "techniques", e.g. SEM, SEO, CRO, Social - which you mention - are seen for what they are - manipulations of perceptions for unproven value propositions.

Developers are more interested in how your product solves their real problems.

For example, instead of your question, you could have posted a link to a blog entry where you state a problem and show how your product addresses it.

Anyway, as a gross generalisation, it is hard to generate much revenue quickly by selling tools to developers. They are more inclined to try before they buy. The value proposition needs to convince us that the return on investment is significant and worthwhile. If there is a comparable open-source solution then that is likely to be adopted.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks CyberFonic. I like the idea of solving problems and demonstrating the value. That seems to be a common theme.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Write blog posts about how you (or others) used the tool to solve some problem you were having.

Maybe present it at developer conferences? Just make it about solving the problem, less about the product.

<comment><USER5> You sir, just solved a problem for people. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha. Nice. Thanks guys

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> You should launch your product on Product Hunt. It has become the place to go to for early adopters to find new and interesting products and also to get loads and loads of users if you have something cool to share. To get listed on Product Hunt you need to find someone that is unlocked for adding new products and ideally has lots of creds on the site. There is a site called hunterlist.co - if you know anyone on page 1 of that list, get that person to submit you to PH.

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately someone submitted it very early on and we didn't get much of a lift. Maybe we can submit again when we launch the app

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Having marketed to developers in the past I found that:

1) Producing quality content and examples showcasing the product's use/solving a problem are helpful. In writing that content you'll learn more about your market and what matters to them. Blogging was invaluable in helping me understand what developers needed, what they didnt, and what they responded to.

2) Clear documentation explaining how the product works. It shows that you care about your development and helps devs understand exactly how it works (which they will care about).

3) Communicate how you are either removing a pain point or removing work from their day. Most new tools are all about conveniently do X task.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I think we can do a better job of communicating the value prop. Here's what we have so far [http://www.happyapps.io/](http://www.happyapps.io/)

Maybe not very clear. Working on it...

<comment><USER7> Seems pretty straightforward to me actually

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What's the track record for the "startup tool?" And if it's not funding, where does the value proposition lie? By which I mean that good resources for startups are things like YC, not growth hacking and digital marketing consultants. Those may be niche, but generally don't create products and services.

That said, I wondered what you were trying to pitch so I looked at your profile. There was something about politics. And something that roughly devalued expertise. What you're selling, your SO profile, your FOSS contributions, or even that you know what problems devoperators and founders face were not to be found.

Not exactly demonstrating mastery of social media, either.

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha. Great point. Don't think I have updated by HN profile since day 1. Just updated.

The app is [http://www.happyapps.io/](http://www.happyapps.io/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Offering a trial period or free tier of your product may be something worth considering. This allows a developer to test the tool within their workflow and if they find enough value from it, pay for the product in full.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. We currently offer 5 free checks

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> As other people in this thread mentioned, I would recommend testing different messaging to see what resonates with your target group (devs and devops at startups). I would also recommend testing different online and offline channels to find this specific group.

Here's a post I wrote that lists the developer marketing channels to try: [http://murtza.org/driving-the-api-adoption- funnel/](http://murtza.org/driving-the-api-adoption-funnel/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Great post

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> As a developer I didn't spend a dime on dev tools in my 20 year career. The companies I worked for spent 10s of millions if not hundreds.

The general pattern is almost always a variant of a fremium model. Devs start using the free tier, someone in the hierarchy notices this and to cover companies legal risks, they buy a license. The more expensive the license, the more longer the buying process.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. That makes sense

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Question: Beyond your circle of friends-- How many live conversations have you had with actual buyers/users?

That's where you'll find the insights and Big Ideas.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great. Thanks. I'm trying to get out of the building more this week to talk to folks at meetups and coworking spaces

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Have you tried BuySellAds? There are a ton of web developer websites / Twitters on there that you can target and people read.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nope. Looks interesting. Thanks

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Can you make a free version to convince the world?

As others have said, key is to empower us todo more in less time. Case studies, references, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great. Thank you

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> i have the same question. i wish i knew.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Justin. I'll let you know if I find the silver bullet ;)</comment></comment>


TensorFlow Distributions - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.10604 <comment><USER2>
      "TensorFlow Distributions is widely used in diverse
      applications. It is used by production systems within
      Google and by Google Brain and DeepMind for research
      prototypes. It is the backend for Edward"

      Some docs:
      https://www.tensorflow.org/api_docs/python/tf/distributions
      https://www.tensorflow.org/api_docs/python/tf/distributions/bijectors

Thanks Dustin and the Google team!</comment>


Show HN: Colony Content – Premium articles to grow your business on autopilot - <AUTHOR> https://www.colonycontent.com <comment><AUTHOR> My cofounder and I wanted to use a monthly service to write articles for our existing online business with the ultimate goal of growing it over time but couldn't find one that felt like the right fit. Either they were too expensive, didn't have high quality sample articles, or they didn't create a content strategy and relied on you to come up with keywords and topics (ain't nobody got time for that!).

So we decided to launch our own and create the service we envisioned. At Colony we take control of the entire process for business owners. We do long term content strategy, keyword research, and deliver content entirely on autopilot so busy entrepreneurs can stop worrying about their blog and focus on more important business tasks. Meanwhile we are hard at work helping them drive traffic, boost SEO, and increase sales.

What do you think?</comment>