Why is Apple acting like an asshole? - <AUTHOR> https://www.jessesquires.com/blog/2020/09/15/why-is-apple-acting-like-an-asshole/ <comment><USER4> This article is missing the best part, that the new Xcode you have to use to build your app was released today at 11 AM, with a build number of '208. It was a really strange build in that it was missing components to build for Apple silicon: for that you need to use the old beta, which Apple has kept up on their website so you can juggle both. But that's not all! Soon afterwards they changed the website saying the new Xcode was actually build _'209_. Around this time people had finished downloading the update, which was slow because everyone was freaking out about getting their app ready in time and grabbing it at the same time, and they realized that Xcode wouldn't let them upload their updates. So everyone thought that of course build '209 was the right thing to get so they hit the website again to download the file…except Apple doesn't do checksums, obviously, they do a really slow verification thing that every iOS developer hates with a passion and gives no useful information. In this case manually running the checksums told everyone that while Apple had updated the version they claimed to be have on their website, everyone was still getting build 208 and this build could not be used to submit updates. Then, later in the afternoon, Apple flipped the switch to allow build '208 to submit updates (which now need to go through review…). But that's not all! In the evening at around 7 people started getting a different Xcode, the actual build '209 they claimed there were distributing all along…and now every developer is stuck with the decision of whether they should pull their old binary they uploaded and recompile with build '209 (as there are many differences between the two, based on a diff -r) or wing it. Totally uncool, totally unnecessary. If anything the blog post is not strongly worded _enough_ about how much of a affront this is to developers.

Edit: and guess what, if Apple didn't have advance notice of this do you think their own build process could have handled it? I'd bet money on "no". XBS takes hours itself to spin up a new build, and with the usual testing a validation you see even the fastest updates taking at least a day. Back in iOS 7 it took them two to get critical fixes out the door, and patching the unc0ver 0-day took like a week for reference.

<comment><USER5> Question - why are apple downloads slow - I don't get it.

I've downloaded lots of stuff from google. Its rarely slow.

I use cloudfront on AWS - also rarely slow.

Apple - often slow. They have billions - is there something wrong with their caching layer at ISPs etc?

<comment><USER6> Mac mini's don't have fast NICs, and they're probably still unable to use the current Mac Pros for production reasons. The old Mac Pros keep rolling off the rack.

<comment><USER7> Apple is likely not using Mac hardware for the majority of their datacenters: [https://www.quora.com/What-OS-used-on-the-servers-in- Apples-...](https://www.quora.com/What-OS-used-on-the-servers-in-Apples-North- Carolina-Data-Center?share=1)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Honestly, this is why we need the Web. But Apple even blocks that since they don't allow any browser engine apart from Safari, meaning that there is no

\- Add to homescreen dialog \- Background sync \- Proper push notifications \- Proper WASM support (a lot of features are missing)

Honestly, at this point, the government should step in, like they did at the end of the last century with Microsoft. Walled gardens hurt innovation a lot, and the App Store in combination with the restricted web on iOS are the ultimate expression of the former.

<comment><USER9> Why wouldn't you use Android then?

I would personally like to continue paying higher prices to protect myself from low-quality background-syncing byte-code-obfuscated web-pages with push notifications, please.

<comment><USER10> > I would personally like to continue paying higher prices to protect myself > from low-quality background-syncing byte-code-obfuscated web-pages with push > notifications

are you really saying you would pay higher prices because you can' t press the "no" button and never visit the same website again?

<comment><USER11> Yes. I don't want to press the "no" button for a 100 times.

<comment><USER12> I can relate.

Every time I pickup an old iOS device the stupid thing is nags me to update it, 100 times. And you can't just click no you have to click multiple things to get it to fuck off.

<comment><USER10> So, in practice, Apple vetting process doesn't even do what they say it does and still grabs 30% from developers?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Maybe I am missing something, but iOS 14 has had beta versions out for developers for months; I had been running iOS14 and Big Sur for testing for weeks. Apple has always had developer previews and at some point, when mostly stable, they often release public previews to get a few interested users involved in testing as well.

They've been working with developers for a long time on the new App Clips functionality and that's been open for developers to start working.

So I am not following what is this article is saying? It seems like they're suggesting that Apple should release iOS a few days after announcing, but, that isn't enough time for most developers to test and release updates for a major iOS update; but Apple never intended those few days to be the only time developers had.

<comment><USER14> Past major iOS releases have usually given about a week between the release of the final build to developers (with app submissions opening at the same time) and the release to the general public. This gives developers time to validate their code against the final build of iOS and submit updates if needed, allowing plenty of time for App Review to do their thing. This is also the first point where Apple will accept app updates which take advantage of new features in the new iOS release, so giving devs some notice to finalize those updates is nice as well.

Yes, developers should have already been working with the iOS betas and already have some confidence that things will work against the final release-- but there is no substitute for actually testing against the final release build. In this case, iOS 14 Beta 8 appears to be mostly identical to the GM Seed build (what released to devs yesterday, and what will release to the public today), but that, historically, has not always been the case-- in some cases, bugs get fixed in between the last beta build and the GM seed; in others, new bugs get introduced.

<comment><USER15> 1 week is completely arbitrary. If they had 1 week notice as usual there would most likely still be complaints because this is an unusual year...

<comment><USER4> Regardless, changing one week to one day is a real slap in the face to developers.

<comment><USER16> I can't see it that way even if I try really hard. If you want to be ios14 ready I personally would be code complete a long time before yesterday.

<comment><USER4> You can't be code complete for something that dropped yesterday. Each beta build changes things.

<comment><USER16> You are saying that Apple introduced breaking changes between release candidates and general availability??? Serious question.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Why is this an issue? Apps built with the old SDK will still work on iOS 14, and you can continue to submit apps built with the old SDK for a while. Nothing says your app _has_ to be built with the new SDK on day 1.

<comment><USER18> Some apps (Pokemon Go) just crash on launch on 14 without updates.

<comment><USER19> Surely the developers had the 3 month beta period to identify these issues, and ship fixes, right? As far as I understand it, it's possible to ship fixes for a new iOS version before that iOS version actually launches, and indeed that's the idea of the beta period.

<comment><USER20> I have applications and games from the 90s that still work in Windows 10. The idea that developers have have to constantly push updates is unproductive in my opinion.

<comment><USER21> A ton of software from that era stopped working when XP was released. For instance storing settings in an application's installation folder was common until Microsoft stopped it. Anything that ran as a service but interacted with the desktop was out of luck. This idea that everything from that period continues to run is a myth.

<comment><USER20> I never said everything. But a lot of the software still works. Some work with minor workarounds. Of course some programs will break with an update. But in my opinion creating a culture where an update is expected for software that is a couple of months old at best is really unhealthy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Don't worry Apple hates users too.

I've once had a Windows update break software, and I was easily able to downgrade the broken update (and it wasn't really MSvs fault entirely, graphics driver issue).

Multiple times I've had ipad updates break apps, and some apps have never worked again because the developers don't bother updating the app, and Apple blocks downgrading because...

<comment><USER23> Windows has broken installations in the past, [https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/02/16/windows-10-kb453269...](https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/02/16/windows-10-kb4532693-update- is-now-causing-boot-failures/)

It's not all roses over there.

<comment><USER24> As a Windows sysadmin I hate the OS with a passion, but at least on it you have one of the best development platforms out there (.net).

<comment><USER25> .Net hasn't been tied to Windows for years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I don't understand. Current apps will run just fine, won't they? Also beta versions of iOS and XCode have been around for months - so it's not like you're starting from scratch today. And it's not like you absolutely must release tomorrow, do you?

<comment><USER27> There's absolutely no guarantee current apps will run fine - Apple regularly adds new restrictions and API changes which break existing apps. They also tend to add a lot of new bugs every release which need to be worked around.

<comment><USER26> Has Apple ever added a major breaking change one day before release of new iOS version?

<comment><USER28> Why does one day matter? Even if it was a month it's unlikely every single app developer could get a fix in time.

<comment><USER26> > Why does one day matter?

That's what the original article is trying to suggest.

> it's unlikely every single app developer could get a fix in time

Are you suggesting to freeze iOS development?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Can someone explain what the actual problem is?

I've been using the betas and all of my existing apps work fine.

I'm developing for ios14, and don't see any particular reason for my app to be out today.

What actual adverse effects are there to this?

Is there a class of app that runs on ios13 but is broken on ios14?

<comment><USER30> I think the rub is that a lot of the apps built at these massive companies use unnecessary third party frameworks and build their apps in janky ways, so while the content of their app doesn't appear to need anything special, it's actually standing on top of a house of cards built out of 3rd party APIs that are doing janky things that break between OS updates. If they just built their apps fully natively, using UIKit exclusively, they likely wouldn't have any problems between releases like you, I, and other devs see.

<comment><USER31> Yes, let's have the company pay for an entire development team to learn Obj-C or have additional hires, just so their apps can do on Apple's platform what it can do everywhere else just fine.

/s

<comment><USER29> Every single person I know who has switched from Android to iOS in the past year or two has said that Apps work better on iOS.

Apps simply don't work 'just fine' everywhere else.

<comment><USER31> The quality of iOS apps being higher has absolutely nothing to do with whether the app was programmed in native Obj-C or using a framework. Most iOS apps use a framework.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I thought App developers would be testing against the beta version? I don't really understand the problem. There's public beta's, it's out of beta, and will go to the public tomorrow, apps will continue to work.

<comment><USER4> You cannot submit you application except using the toolchain that was released today, which is occasionally different enough from the beta tools that your app will no longer work. So now you have a broken app and just hours to fix it, and then somehow App Review is going to get through it while a thousand other people are submitting at the same time you are? No way.

<comment><USER33> Well you can always ship updates with the old iOS 13 SDK toolchain (Xcode 11) the entire time. You could have tested on the iOS 14 betas, and if you found a crash, you could try to implement a workaround and resubmit in the weeks and months leading up to today.

Sometimes your crash is because of bad assumptions in your code, or sometimes your crash is due to real Apple bugs creeping into the iOS APIs. Not saying it's always possible to implement a workaround, but it's not as bad as the blog post makes it out to be.

<comment><USER4> That is correct. But I know for many apps building for iOS 14 is a requirement or bad things will happen™.

<comment><USER33> Care to elaborate? Did Apple break backwards compatibility with apps built on the iOS 13 SDK with no way to work around it? Seems hard to believe that everyone upgrading to iOS 14 will end up with no functional third party apps today?

<comment><USER34> Apple does a lot of weird "quirks mode"-like BS by checking for what version of a library or toolchain was linked against at build time (and with multiple kinds of checks, which is annoying). I absolutely have experienced cases numerous times where my app was fine if it just was allowed to run, but Apple insisted "no, this app was compiled against an iOS SDK so it should get a shitty and broken simulation of the older skeuomorphic properties panel, and should do some ridiculous reverse display scaling on this new iPad we just released"... and to be clear that this is merely the quirks mode BS, my solution finally to not have to keep updating my copy of Xcode was to get angry and write a tool to edit my binaries and update their load command version references. I have no clue what Apple thinks they are accomplishing with these checks.

<comment><USER4> > to be clear that this is merely the quirks mode

Most of the problems I hear this year are not the compatibility checks that Apple had out in but UIKit just being broken for certain things. The difference being of course that "compatibility quirks" is Apple knowingly trying to fix something and doing a poor job as opposed to what's happening here where they just changed random stuff and thought it was compatible but it the observed behavior is now different and breaks apps. For example, I have a bog-standard navigation bar that's been broken since iOS 13 (if I build for that SDK) because Apple evidently thinks that they did their implementation correctly but somehow the way I have put my table view in a navigation view in a tab view (real complicated, I know) is something they couldn't keep consistent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Considering all the bad press Apple is having with devs at the moment (from Spotify and EPIC, to this), I wonder how these behaviours haven't back-fired yet.

At the end of the day, a platform without apps or developers dies (Windows Phone users say hi). If devs get so mad at some point and stop pushing new apps or updates, I wonder if Apple would change their position.

Of course, I suppose this is still hard because 1) they are the most profitable mobile platform 2) many companies kinda rely on mobile. But well, no one predicted 2020 who knows what will come

<comment><USER36> many developers have really no choice (at least not individually). They don't really have the means to vote with their wallets, as foregoing the whole iOS market is.. not a choice.

What EPIC is doing is trying to rally people on their side of the fight.

This is the same reason why people (workers) have unions, in the traditional job market. It's not really comparable because developers are not workers, but there are some similarities: Apple benefits from the developers (immensely, with your Windows Phone example) and the developers too.. but Apple has the upper hand, by FAR.

<comment><USER29> Epic doesn't care about anything except for their own profits.

<comment><USER37> Just because it's in their self interests does not mean getting rid of the forced walled garden does not benefit other developers.

At the end of the users own the devices not apple. It should ultimately be up to the user.

<comment><USER38> The walled garden has been hugely beneficial for developers, the relative app sales rates between iOS and Android is proof of that. And iOS customers overwhelmingly prefer the walled garden, it's the main reason they buy iPhones.

If the walled gardens was costing Apple customers instead of attracting them, the iPhone would have failed years ago. Android devices are cheaper, more diverse, and more flexible. There would be scant reasons to buy an iPhone.

That's the very definition of choice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Is Apple moving to a model where all the apps that matter come from Apple?

<comment><USER40> probably. And I like that, it means they will finally become the true vertical company they wanted from beginning. Meaning they'll lose all developers and become a niche company.

Meanwhile what I really want to see in developers world is the same in cellphone area as is in PC area. Freedom of choice of what OS to put on my phone. On PC I can have HDD partitions and install Win/Lin/Mac all in the same hardware. This is my dream.

<comment><USER41> There are x86 tablets that dual-boot Android and Windows. Pretty sure now that Windows runs on ARM there would be similar devices that do the same on ARM.

<comment><USER40> I know they are. But my point is about that currently any PC, be it desktop or laptop has that possibility right from the start. And I do mean any. Actually is even better then any current. It's close to any in past 5 years at least can do this. Can you say the same for smartphones/tablets?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> I fail to see the point, as far as I know Apple has been vocal about iOS since WWDC and typically releases the OS relatively quick after events. The beta's been out and available for every iOS developer for months in order to prepare for this.

There's enough to rib on Apple on, but this really doesn't seem like one?

<comment><USER4> Apple has _always_ given one week to use the golden master tools and build to run final tests on and submit your applications so they can be out before a million people try to install it on iOS 14. If your iOS distribution person is out on a camping trip for a couple days, you're not hitting the deadline anymore. If you live in certain parts of the world where you wake up 7 hours after the event and Xcode takes fifteen hours to download, your don't hitting the deadline anymore. There is absolutely zero reason why Apple had to do this.

<comment><USER43> Unless your app is broken by the iOS update there's no more urgency to release an update than there is for point releases.

<comment><USER44> I am in a slightly uncomfortable position of being _fairly_ sure none of our apps were broken under iOS14beta6 last week, but still assumed I'd get the traditional week between the new xCode GM and users getting iOS14 pushed out to them.

<comment><USER4> Nit: last week's release was beta 8.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I like making my side projects cross-platform when possible. But I'm done trying to get code signing to work, I won't pay Apple $100 to distribute free software, and I have no interest in using XCode, so I feel basically restricted to Linux and Windows only at this point.

</comment><comment><USER46> Wait, what? Did Apple announce that GM is released to public beta, or did they announce that they are actually pushing out iOS 14 to over 1B devices as of tomorrow? Because the two are very different. If it's the former, I agree with the author that it's a complete disaster for a lot of development teams. There is really no sane reason to do something like this, so I just can't imagine it's true — it's not like the OS update has to be pushed out ASAP because some magical new device or service requires it.

<comment><USER4> Latter: iOS 14 is going out to 2 billion devices tomorrow, probably 10 AM.

<comment><USER44> My phone is offering to install it right now (In Australia, 19:35:00+10:00). It's _possible_ I'm getting it early because I've been running the recent betas on this phone.

<comment><USER4> That's probably the GM, which went out today.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> I feel that, as industry, we need to move back to the rich, browser-based applications on the mobile phones. Apple-Google duopoly is just not the way to live. As tech community, we can take our power back. I think the good start is to start using web on mobile phones.

<comment><USER48> It is a matter of time they will make it difficult if not impossible or they will start blocking websites unless authors start paying % per visitor.

<comment><USER47> Both Google and Apple currently subscribe to the "open internet" philosophy on mobile phones. This was their selling point against the old, "walled garden internet", vendors. If they change that and start blocking the sites, I think we will see a serious backlash. We will begin to switch to Linux phones then. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> It's not that hard to figure out what happened...

Apple set a hard deadline for themselves. This would have been some time back, with the purpose of coordinating various development threads, manufacturing, marketing, and the holiday season.

But the OS side slipped.

They must have been dealing with some pretty gnarly issues to give devs only hours with the GM seed and even less time with the version of Xcode you can use to actually release updates.

Makes we wonder what the issues are and whether the OS is the only thing that slipped? ...time will tell if they shouldn't gone ahead pushed everything back. That would have been very costly, but an unstable OS release that, e.g., loses or exposes user data for lots of users would be costly as well. We'll see.

> Who is in charge of iOS releases at Apple that thought this was a good idea? > Who is the head of Developer Relations that thought this was a good idea?

I think, obviously, nobody did. It wasn't planned.

</comment><comment><USER50> I've been using the betas, and haven't had any problems with the apps.

What patches are required for apps to work on iOS 14?

<comment><USER4> If you use some sort of thing that the new privacy things will block you need to update to account for the new behavior. If you have new features you want users to have you need to build with the new SDK. If you have fixes for your app being broken (either because of you or Apple's bugs) you need to fix them.

<comment><USER51> > If you use some sort of thing that the new privacy things will block you > need to update to account for the new behavior.

I am not shedding a tear for the producers of the apps that used privacy invading code all the time, and didn't stop since iOS betas exist, waiting instead for "official iOS 14" to "do something" \-- which is probably forcing the user to agree or not use the app.

I hope I'm wrong, and to accept that I'd need a specific example.

<comment><USER52> One of my apps, Black Highlighter [0], uses the photo library permissions to display your library to actually pick a image to edit in the app, and also to write your edited images back to the library. This is the _main functionality of the app_ , and it's what people want to be able to do. I'm not doing anything nefarious with people's images, I'm just… building an image editor. Can I use other methods to let people pick an image? Sure. But until iOS 14, they were a _demonstrably worse experience_. Even still, it's a bit odd, because the initial screen of the app becomes a big blank view with a button to display the system photo picker.

I did my due diligence and I added a new button to use the new iOS 14 system photo picker months ago, when Apple first announced these changes. But until today at 11am, I _could not ship those changes_. Period. Nothing I could do to have a version available for users any time before today. In under 24 hours, I have to update my CI system, generate a build, check to make sure nothing broke, submit for App Review, and hope I get approved.

But wait! I also have two other apps that have iOS 14 functionality. So I've got to do those as well. And these are just my side projects. I have a day job, doing the same kind of work. And I'm the iOS CI "guru" there, so I've got to do the exact same thing… make sure Xcode 12 is updated on all our build agents, get actual builds out of them, submit to the store, etc.

All of the privacy work is done. It's _been_ done. But the difference between ≈24 hours to get final builds out the door and a week to get final builds out the door is _huge_ when you've got multiple different projects to handle. Especially when App Review is eating several of those hours all on its own.

So guess what? My projects are going to fall by the wayside, in favor of my day job. Is it a big deal? Who knows. Maybe I'll get some bad reviews. That'll suck a lot. Did it need to be this way? Absolutely not. Apple could have given us the week that they normally do, and everything would have been fine. Instead, they gave us a day, and that's just not enough time. So apps people use and like are just going to be broken for a few days, and there's not a thing developers can do about it.

###

[0]: [https://blackhighlighter.app](https://blackhighlighter.app)

<comment><USER51> Sorry, I still don't understand why you believe that you has to ship an app using new features in 24 hours if your app worked even without using them all this time? Did I understand that the existing picker worked and will work in your case? So where that 24 hour pressure comes from in your case? I didn't understand that your app built with the tools for 13 would be broken on 14? And if it would be, why?

<comment><USER53> That's thing it wouldn't work. It would have broken permissions and would never be able to properly function. Just like the location api changes etc. If try to launch an ios11 app like Instagram in ios14 it would be completely useless and nonfunctional because of just permission api changes. Not to mention any of the million other things Apple changes. So ya that's this 24 hours is a crunch because even if 15% update the first day that's 150+ Million Devices.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> When I read this, all I'm really reading is, Apple's biggest cultural position on secrecy is also its biggest pain-point for external developers.

Secrecy is so ingrained in that company, at all levels, that it will never/ever change without fundamentally changing what/who Apple is as a company.

External developers, since the launch of the App Store, have been expected to be thankful that Apple even lets them on to their precious marketplace. There's also no special treatment when at bigger companies either. The only thing I've experienced is that we were invited to port our product to iOS 7's new flat UI just to be featured 6 weeks ahead of their rumored keynote date. They didn't even give us an actual time to submit.

Bigger products I've worked on do get a developer relations support person who makes sure we're able to meet Apple's latest demands, but they are not connected to the engineering (R&D) teams, so feedback is mostly downward. For example, they would ask why haven't we ported things to Metal yet? If we inform them there is a bug or missing documentation, they will make sure they get engineering involved to fix the bug so we can continue porting to Metal.

Bugs are another huge pain point that developers complain about. Whenever there's an issue, we're told, file the bug and it magically goes off into a black void with no feedback until some point in the future when the OS release has shipped and then we get to find out whether they decided to fix the issue or to mark it "Works as expected."

It really sucks that the company that builds the best tech is also the most toxic to partner with. They add undue stress and expect too much from their developer community. Partnerships should work both ways! Developers bring new experiences that light up the hardware, and make the platform better as a whole. However, Apple has somehow found a way to make the partnerships mostly one-sided and that will never change.

The only way out is really for all the coolest new features to land on Android and to put software in maintenance mode on iOS. Yet, I cannot fathom how that would ever happen either as that's 50% of the population in the US you would make suffer for the cause.

</comment><comment><USER55> A testament to the low software grade I've come to expect from Apple. I wonder if anyone inside Apple reads HN abiding NDAs or they simply have no clue.

<comment><USER56> Of course they do, HN is huge. But don't think that the software engineers there have much more ability to make decisions than you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> The solution would be simple: Stop supporting Apple. Don't release apps on their platform. As long as everyone is just blindly following their orders, nothing will change.

And change is possible: Microsoft didn't care much about developers and users when IE was browser market leader and look what happened.

</comment><comment><USER58> Apple isn't one person any longer, just Steve. There are thousands of Apple employees following guidelines set by other hundreds of other managers and executives who don't know what they are doing.

</comment><comment><USER59> My take. Developers will be positively surprised today to find out how fast their app updates will hit the store if their app is already in the App Store. Apple could have released everything next Friday, including products that need the new iOS, but decided to pull the trigger right away. They MUST have a plan on why acting like this make sense. Still, it's 2020, so maybe I'm wrong and it's just another sign of the weird times we're living.

<comment><USER59> Just replying to my own comment to point out that iOS 14 is out since 12 hrs, more or less, and the world hasn't ended, nor the users have taken to the streets pitchforks in hand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> What's the supposed downside to running an app designed for iOS 13 on an iOS 14 iPhone?

File this one under "things that won't matter and will be entirely forgotten in two weeks."

</comment><comment><USER61> There should be almost no effect on a developer because if you weren't ready after 8 betas + GM seed, an extra week isn't gonna help most.

</comment><comment><USER62> Pretty simple answer. in August 2020 they became the first $2 trillion U.S. company. There is no repercussion for them at this point to treat everyone from Epic Games, to your run-of-the-mill Xcode devs, like trash.

In the case of the former, you can outlast these comparatively small players for _decades_ with flush cash reserves and an army of bored attorneys with nothing better to do than watch your pittance of a legal team fight it endlessly until the last star falls from the heavens. Epic may want a fight, but its investors would capitulate sooner than people like Tim Sweeney think.

as for the latter, Apple has a fun track record of running small developers into the dirt. Either you sell your company to them, or they just build the same app in-house and blacklist you from the market.

Id also argue that the average apple afficionado outside of HN just doesnt care what apple does. Apple makes affluent status symbols and markets a premium brand identity, so developers like facebook and epic are hungry to tap into a market thats not only willing to drop more than a grand on a cellphone and accessories, but doesnt question often times predatory microtransactions. They want cash cows, apple runs the farm.

full confession though, i dont know how small devs fight this, and id be eager to know if anyone on HN has a cogent strategy? a boycott seems most effective.

</comment><comment><USER63> Looking at the author's github profile gives a pretty clear answer. You are dependent on Apple, they are not dependent on you.

</comment><comment><USER64> Do developers get a pre-release of iOS to test on or how can you release a new version of your app before the targeted OS is released? Also, why do you need to release a new version at all? I'd expect the platform to stay largely compatible.

(Obviously, I haven't developed anything for the Apple ecosystem, so these are genuine questions.)

<comment><USER65> > Do developers get a pre-release of iOS to test on?

Yes, but those pre-release OS versions are changed and updated by Apple as the process goes along. So once Apple declares the final version (AKA Gold Master), then everyone needs to regression test their apps against this final version that will be installed on user devices. The process of submitting the app update to the store must be done with a new toolchain as well. Usually the GM version and new toolchain are available 1 week before release. This time they were only available 1 day before. Even if all the development is done and the testing against the GM version goes smoothly, 1 day is a very short turn- around for getting your app update approved by Apple, especially on a day where lots of other developers will be submitting updates too.

> Also, why do you need to release a new version at all?

Sometimes the new version introduces unintentional bugs that break existing functionality and developers have to figure out how to work around it. Sometimes Apple intentionally deprecates existing functionality. These are things that developers can address with the pre-release versions, but again, those are moving targets and until the GM version is released, you don't know for sure.

<comment><USER64> Thank you for the patient explanation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> I'm sure some people at Apple do care about developers, but these are not the people making the important decisions.

Apple knows they are in control of +60% of the app mobile revenue worldwide. It wouldn't surprise me if management believed third party developers should consider themselves privileged to be on their platform.

</comment><comment><USER67> My response to the Apple Developer Feedback Request

HOW CAN APPLE MAKE APP REVIEW BETTER?

App Review has become faster but still feels very unsafe and unreliable. It feels like being delivered to the whims of the gods. They may strike you down, kill your business and refuse to negotiate about it. Speaking about which, speaking with app review is infuriating! They will mindlessly reiterate the same quasi-legal lingo about how your app should confirm to this or that guideline completely ignoring whatever actual logical or societally relevant or otherwise actually meaningful argument is made on the other side. I understand it is not these people themselves - they must hate their jobs - <USER2> the rules they themselves are bound to - but the resulting experience is god awful.

HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU WITH THE FOLLOWING APPLE DEVELOPER RESOURCES?

I used to like Apple - look up to your company. I was elated to be able to visit the WWDC. Even spoke with Tim Cook - however briefly. Watching the 15 Sept Apple Event I noticed I was getting more and more annoyed. I really resent the dishonesty. I feel that I am starting to actually hate what Apple has become to stand for.

-"We treat all developers equally". \- The tax evasions via Ireland. \- Bullying a tiny company about a pear-shaped logo \- Pretending to care about freedom of speech while supporting censorship and banning of apps in china. \- the list goes on

Apple tries to present itself as a force of good - but has become a despicable company. It makes me sad. You are the one company that could _actually_ be a force of good. Untouchable. You could really make a difference.

Yet you don't.

Well not in a good way at least.

HOW CAN APPLE IMPROVE THE TOOLS AND SERVICES IT PROVIDES AS A DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM? Be as specific and descriptive as possible

Focus on quality more than on constantly churning out new features - it's not necessary. You are Apple - you determine what happens. You used to stand for the best. It used to feel remarkable to use and work with Apple products. It's now just above par. Why? You're worth 2 trillion dollars already. Is 2.2 trillion more important than going back to actually making the best again.

HOW CAN APPLE MAKE THE APP STORE A BETTER PLATFORM FOR DISTRIBUTING YOUR APPS? Be as specific and descriptive as possible

"This app is damaged and may harm your computer" \- stop that! At least _try_ to be reasonable. Please!

</comment><comment><USER68> Microsoft's native development environments are a pain in the butt too, and they're constantly introducing and then deprecating stuff.

If you hate Electron don't blame Electron. Blame Apple and Microsoft.

</comment><comment><USER69> Doesn't the watch come out on Friday? With watchOS 7? Which requires iOS 14?

It sounds like due to hardware they were going to have to release iOS 14 in a day or two.

</comment><comment><USER70> Because it's Texas Hold 'Em. Once you have the biggest pot, you can bully everyone else into giving you the rest of there's.

</comment><comment><USER71> I feel like I should spend that time testing and making my app ready for release rather than ranting and typing the article.

</comment><comment><USER72> What's the saying, hey, don't like it just start your own Apple :-)

</comment><comment><USER73> Apple has always been an asshole. I was an original Macintosh beta tester - <USER3> had a Mac summer of'83, 6 months before their release. Yet, I have never shipped commercial Apple software. Their developer treatment has never been ethical, and I simply never put up with it.

<comment><USER74> What were you working on?

</comment></comment><comment><USER75> Read any Hacker News thread about the awful crap Apple is constantly pulling to see why they are acting like assholes- because their core fanbase (which is VERY big) will defend their actions regardless.

</comment><comment><USER76> It's only a fuck up if there are adverse consequences.

</comment><comment><USER77> Because they can

</comment><comment><USER78> I guess I have a minority view, but when were they not?

Steve Jobs was famously toxic (which is just popular term to describe someone with a cluster B personality disorder, aka "psychopath"). But he dresses like a rock star and creates beautiful things and so everybody is willing to forgive him.

This is kind of like the abused spouse who, after decades of abuse, finally realizes he or she was making excuses for a psychopath all along. Just file for divorce and get it over with. The abuser will make sure it's a horrible experience for you, but you'll be happier in the end.

<comment><USER24> Jobs' whole career has been: rejecting other people's work until his engineers (not him) spat out something he thought worthy.

And usually he's revered more by non techs.

<comment><USER79> [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/bill-gates-i-was-so- jealous-...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/bill-gates-i-was-so-jealous-of- genius-steve-jobs.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER80> Acting?

</comment><comment><USER81> You don't become a $2 Trillion company being friendly.

</comment><comment><USER82> Why are people constantly personifying corporations? All you're going to end up with is a sociopath as that's what large companies are when you try to do that.

Apple isn't a single person with evil intentions that thought: "let's make it very hard to work with this stuff", even if it might seem that way. It's far more likely that:

\- The alternative was worse

\- An internal policy or rule had unforeseen side-effects in planning or releasing

\- The team doing the work on the release and the team doing relations aren't the same team and didn't communicate properly

\- A deadline was set and because it was only met just barely you get an odd release schedule

Does that mean that this release is a fun planned schedule? No. But it doesn't mean the thousands of people working there are combined into one big person that wants to do bad things to you.

<comment><USER83> > Why are people constantly personifying corporations?

Because corporations aren't democratic, so their policies are not the sum of all employees working there's opinions. Most of it is the result of top-down decisions, which in practice are made by fewer than 20 people: the board and the CEO. Technically, we could add shareholders to that list, but IIRC they barely exercise their right to vote. What's more: corporations as legal entities specifically exist to limit liability for the aforementioned people.

So when "Facebook" doesn't care about your privacy, it's Zuck and the board that don't, not individual developers. When "Shell" sponsors climate change denial, it's the board, not someone pumping your gas deciding. The personification is valid up to a point because the corporation as such is only a (useful) fictional construct.

> It's far more likely that [...]

I don't know the broader history of Apple's behaviour towards developers since I'm not an iOS developer, so I can't say whether this is a matter of policy or a snafu. Based on what I know, I'd also lean towards incompetence and not malice in this particular case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER84> No one said you HAVE to update your app to iOS14 on day 1. Also, the beta versions have been out for months. If you're not ready, it's your fault.

<comment><USER4> If you're not out on day 1 and your app has more than a few users, expect bad reviews and bug reports. The beta being out for months doesn't change the fact that you have something like 15 hours to build and submit your app and hope it gets through review.

</comment></comment><comment><USER85> At the risk of sounding frivolous: because it is an asshole. There's a lesson in that, I think.

</comment><comment><USER86> > the final public release of iOS 14 ships tomorrow, which came as quite a > shock to all third-party developers.

Really? This is the way they have done the releases for about 10 years now.

<comment><USER4> Nope, they ship a GM a week in advance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Apple has become an ecosystem to avoid at all cost. From denying the right to repair, design of devices to make it prone to catastrophic failures, making it difficult to recover own data (to force people to use cloud backup so they can look at all your data) and many more (like trying to make employees go through security checks without being paid for it)... Greed has blinded them.

</comment><comment><USER87> > The next major release of iOS is announced to be shipping on Friday (in a > few days) or sometime the following week, like the next Tuesday.

> But today, Apple announced that iOS 14 is shipping tomorrow.

So... the only difference is it's not "few days" but "one day"? For an OS update everyone knew was coming because "for as long as I can remember it goes something like this"?

What's the assholery?

<comment><USER88> I think they mean that the developers usually get development version of the OS to install into their build system and test if anything is broken or add new features for that OS which gives them an advantage over competition and reduces random uninstalls.

<comment><USER87> Now I'm reading top comment, and this makes much more sense [1] Yeah it is an asshole move on Apple's part

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24490605](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24490605)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER89> First of all, the complainers do not speak for me, yet they seem to be speaking for everyone, that everyone has this problem because of 24-hour notice of the release of iOS14.

Anyone that has a work flow, even a personal workflow having nothing to do with actual earning of income, that updates as soon as an update is available, is an asshole to themselves, and a compulsive one at that. If there are no security patches, bug fixes or features that I desperately need, I don't update. I'm still running iPadOS13.4 and _I may never update._

The problem here is not Apple's. Apple can do as it wants, and is under no obligation to make things convenient for the egotistical developers. From my perspective, (and fallacy argument from authority here, but fwiw, I studied computer science, flunky career in systems administration, and I am perfectly aware I rarely did any computer science, but am also aware programming is not computer science, either... CS is just math, and that is all... I personally just liked the problem solving necessities that sysadmining provided me, along with a decent living... I enjoyed solving those puzzles), developing for iOS sounds easy as snot. Developing a killer app is more difficult in that it must be innovative, clever, beautiful, and useful. But 99% of the apps on AppStore, and including 90% of the games, are duplicates of stuff that has been around forever. Where is the innovation?

And I have very little sympathy for developers because most of them made my life a living hell for 20 years. It is that precious few that did the opposite that I love, nay, that I worship. What are the chances anyone in this group of developer blamers and complainers, borderline narcissist egoists, are among them? Slim to none.

Apple gave you excellent tools. You have your own source code. Get something done! It doesn't matter how long it takes. But with the tools Apple provides, seems to me it is loading the tools, loading the source, grooming the source for the update, clicking a few radio buttons, compiling, and publishing. Shut up and get _something_ done, or bail and go develop for another platform. Jeesh. Make install not war.

</comment><comment><USER90> The profane language really isn't necessary. It would be helpful to understand what portion of apps are negatively impacted by the new iOS version. If it's insignificant, there's really no strong incentive for Apple to specifically set a launch date with developers.

It's besides the point by the profanity just weakens the argument. Presumably the iOS beta has been out long enough that developers could have pushed out an update if their app seriously breaks with the update.

<comment><USER91> People have different opinions on the use of profanity. It's a language tool, like any other, and I find in my use of it, it expresses sentiment quite clearly, whether that be humour or frustration.

The article is the author's speech, it is their choice to use or not use language tools as they desire, but I ask you this. How would you title the article while maintaining the clear and concise form?

I don't believe profanity does weaken the argument, it shows that people (developers) are getting beyond the point of being able to maintain their decorum because of the sheer frustration at the arbitrary rules and actions from a company who's trillions are made, in a no insignificant part on the backs of others' work.

<comment><USER90> I'll counter your question with a question of my own. How would you title a document at your work that's trying to convey that some process or practice doesn't help customers and burns trust?

I'm not saying we need the same decorum in personal writing. But I am stating there's another way to make the argument.

<comment><USER91> Of course we write professionally at work. But that's work, and there is a level of bullshit required in all professional writing, because that is what is required.

This isn't work, this is a personal blog, where someone is clearly and concisely expressing how many people feel using language that many people can relate to.

I'm sure many have made the same argument before, and many feel the same way about Apple and its tactics, however, this one is ranking high on HN right now because it has a title which clicks with people's frustration. Apple's being an "asshole", there's no need to mince words.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER92> Apple greatest asset is the accessibility to a large market. In return to the loyalty of the clients they do an excellent work in validating apps for isolation, privacy and vetting. Technology is not magic and bugs exist, so Apple chose this methodology for their store.

If companies are able to hijack this process by uploading assets it could be easy to exploit.

We are talking about a personal phone not a remote computer. Imagine if hackers got free reign in the private information of key political figures ?

I choose privacy thank you very much.

<comment><USER93> This comment doesn't seem to have anything to do with the article, which is about the short launch window for iOS 14 and issues surrounding that. Are you simply reacting to the title?

<comment><USER92> Just trying to give the context of why Apple is so protective to the App Store and why these lead them to do some unreasonable decisions.

I wanted to break the preconception that software is just inherently secure. If anything it's super brittle and the continuous delivery cycle has its downsides.

<comment><USER94> That has absolutely nothing to do with why they would depart from their usual reliable release cycle and force developers to scramble to update their apps for iOS 14.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Naked mole rats never get cancer - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327267.300-naked-mole-rats-may-help-cure-cancer.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

<comment><USER2> Unfortunately, this is just a special case of a much more troublesome problem: Although plain old laboratory mice _do_ get cancer, they may well do so via very different mechanisms from humans.

A mouse weighs 20 grams. I weigh somewhere around 100kg. So I consist of approximately 5000 times more cells than a mouse does.

The longest-lived mouse in recorded history [1] lived just over 5 years. Most mice die of old age in a couple of years. The oldest humans live to be over 100. Thus, my cell lines will undergo somewhere between 20 and 50 more cell divisions than a cell in a living mouse. [2]

What this means is that human cells have to be much better designed to resist cancer than mouse cells. If humans were no more cancer-resistant than mice we'd all be getting cancer as infants. And evolution hasn't bothered to design mice that will resist cancer for fifty years, because no mouse has ever had a chance to live to be fifty.

So while many of the basic facts of cancer are similar in mice and in humans, eventually the details are bound to diverge. This is an uncomfortable fact for researchers.

This also means that, while it's great for the mole rats that they don't get cancer, that doesn't mean they're somehow more immune to cancer than the average human. Even though mole rats are legendary for their longevity -- they can live into their twenties [3] -- the average human has to be less cancer- prone than a mole rat just to get through puberty without needing chemotherapy.

\--

[1] Google: "Methuselah Mouse Prize"

[2] This is a really simplistic calculation: Among other things, we're neglecting the fact that mice have a rather different metabolic rate from humans, and that different kinds of cells divide at different rates.

[3] Metabolism again: One reason that mole rats are thought to live so long is that they have very _slow_ metabolic rates. Which probably also affects their susceptibility to cancer.

<comment><USER3> _A mouse weighs 20 grams. I weigh somewhere around 100kg. So I consist of approximately 5000 times more cells than a mouse does._

Another fun fact, whalers find tumor scars in whale bodies all the time, but the whales never seem to die of cancer. The probable answer: whales are just too big to care. If I get a tumor the size of a walnut, I might be able to live with it. For a mouse, that would be a disaster. If I get a tumor the size of my head, that's probably game over. But for a whale, it's no big deal. But a mouse, a whale, and a human all have about the same sized cells. So to be fatal, a whale's cancer cells would have to divide a lot more times. Unfortunately, cancer cells experience a lot more mutations than normal ones. Whales are big enough to be able to afford to let the tumors mutate themselves to death.

<comment><USER2> I like this example.

But it's not just that the whales are too big to care. In fact, according to published results from folks like the late Judah Folkman, human bodies are _also_ full of little microtumors. The older you get, the more of them there are.

Current theory is that microtumors are forming all the time, but most will remain dormant forever. Only if one of them manages to "flip the angiogenic switch" -- undergo a mutation which makes it able to summon new blood vessels to itself -- will that tumor manage to grow to a size larger than a few hundred microns in diameter. And even then it might not be that big a deal. I guess whales can shrug them off at even bigger sizes than we can.

The problem is when the cancer learns to metastasize. In the immortal (paraphrased) words of cancer researcher Josh Fidler, "if you have a big primary tumor we know what to do: The surgeon cuts it out and off you go." It's not the primary tumor that kills you. It's the metastases that kill you. I bet whalers don't find whales full of metastatic tumors. Unless they're already washed up on a beach.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It also appears that people with down syndrome have lower rates of cancer:

[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/chb- wdp051809...](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/chb- wdp051809.php)

</comment><comment><USER5> Where's the full article? All I see is an introduction.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am not sure of the source of this post (newscientist - they haven't mentioned any references) but I found a paper describing the new animal model using naked mole rat in the area of aging. The paper also talks about highly reduced incidence/severity of cancer.

"The Naked Mole-Rat: A New Long-Living Model for Human Aging Research" [http://biomed.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/full/60/11...](http://biomed.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/full/60/11/1369)</comment></comment>


Finally, a nice looking OSX IRC GUI - <AUTHOR> http://conceitedsoftware.com/products/linkinus

<comment><USER2> It's funny to see the first 3 comments are essentially "looks good, but I'll keep using X" where X is different each time. I was just thinking that it looks good, but I'll probably keep using XChat.

IRC Clients: They may not look pretty, but there are tons of 'em.

</comment><comment><USER3> Looks nice, real similar to mIRC but for some reason I feel I will find myself still preferring irssi. A new shiny look on an old dusty protocol doesn't give me any nostalgia.

</comment><comment><USER4> I prefer Textual. Open source if you want to build it yourself or throw the dev's 5 bucks and get it from the mac app store.</comment>


Ask HN: Company restructuring – what to do? - <AUTHOR>

I am part of senior management at a tech company in California, which will soon have some restructuring; as a consequence, my role will be diminished and I feel that my career will be damaged.
I am not familiar with labor laws, litigations, etc, and I would like to know what's the best way to protect me or, in case, the best way to obtain a fair "farewell" package in case I want to make the case to let me go.
The company has laid off a couple of people of similar seniority in the past, and gave them substantial amounts of money. I feel I deserve at least that much.
What do you think? Suggestions? Other experiences you'd like to share? <comment><USER2> Are they diminishing your role and pay, eliminating your job or ?? It is always an ego hit to take a lessor role, but it doesn't damage your career necessarily. What makes you think it will damage you?

IMO, the advice and issues change depending on if your role will be eliminated and they are offering you a "new" lesser role or if they are letting you keep your role but lowering your pay and responsibilities. The way in which it is transacting really matters, if you have doubts find an attorney to talk over the details, it won't cost more than a few hundred bucks generally. And just because you are asking an attorney doesn't mean it needs to start an adversarial relationship with your employer. The two parties likely will have no reason to ever meet, unless your employer violates labor laws, which from the sounds of what you are saying isn't super likely; given they have done this before and provided what sounds like reasonable severance.

I would really sit back and think about if what they are doing actually will hurt your career or not, a lot of people (myself included) have taken lessor roles at a company after being in a more senior role. Of course if you initiate the change it feels different then when the employer does, but either way our egos still take a hit.

If you just want out period, you only get one opportunity to get a severance for your senior role, so you have to make it happen before your role is changed generally. But do not let them know you want out as then they have all the leverage and can just reduce your position and let you quit in which case you likely won't get any severance.

</comment><comment><USER3> > would like to know what's the best way to protect me or, in case, the best > way to obtain a fair "farewell" package...

As a useful benchmark-- reach out to your former Senior colleagues who received the package during the last round (best done face-to-face over lunch or drinks). Tell them your situation, ask for any advice based on their recent experience. They may also volunteer details of their severance agreement.

> my role will be diminished and I feel that my career will be damaged.

This can be tricky. Sometimes it's a vote of confidence, we truly value your contributions and are trying to figure out a new role. Other times it's a signal, we wish you'd resign own your own volition. Assuming you have a cordial relationship with your superiors, ask them to tell you as neat & clean as they can-- how things stand between you. You likely already have a clue.

Incidentally, restructures are often messy & arbitrary things. In 18-24 months, they may realize it was poorly executed. If you survive, you could easily be back on-top. Happens more often than you think.</comment>


Patriot Act and privacy laws take a bite out of US cloud business - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/patriot-act-and-privacy-laws-take-a-bite-out-of-us-cloud-business.ars

<comment><USER2> I'm in Canada, and I'll tell you for certain that whenever the cloud is mentioned in business it is often followed by the assumption that "all your personal data - or worse, your client's data - will be subject to the PATRIOT act". It's a huge killer to accessing many of the cloud services that are available for US companies for anything requiring some sort of security.

To be clear I don't hang at the local campus - this is suit and tie businessmen and women that I'm talking about here, not the tinfoil hat crowd.

There's huge opportunity for setting up cloud services for countries outside of the US right now, simply because of this little issue.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is sad and this is why we had to build our own PaaS to run our scientific calculations. Basically, if you want to serve sensitive businesses in Europe, the door is closed for AWS or RackSpace usage. For scientific payload, AWS is great because you can batch work at low cost, so not being able to use it is frustrating.

<comment><USER4> I would have thought you'd be fine with Rackspace- I know they are Safe Harbor certified. Could you explain why not?

<comment><USER3> Under US law at the moment, everything point into the direction that the authorities can access the data hosted in the US while preventing the hosting company (Rackspace) to inform the client (us). The problem is also that the authorities do not even respect the law and you read nearly every month how they allowed themselves to kind of "wiretap" without the correct rights. So basically hosting in the US with the track record of the US authorities is not acceptable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In the USA PATRIOT Act, "PATRIOT" is an initialism, not a word, and should be capitalized. "Patriot" is not involved.

<comment><USER6> So is the USA part, and it doesn't stand for United States of America.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> You know, my first gut reaction is to say that these people are overreacting, but then I start remembering how the current and last administration are behaving.

</comment><comment><USER8> We're planning to use hosting in Europe for part of this reason. I simply do not trust the US government not to come fishing after my customers data, and I don't want to be in a position of getting "National Security" Letter. The company itself is located outside the USA for this reason as well. What footprints we do have in the USA (namely, gmail, and a tiny bit of AWS) are being offshored as we prepare for going live with our MVP.

Further, the tendency in the last year for the US legislative branch to pass really quite unconstitutional legislation does not give much hope that matters will improve. I'm talking not just about SOPA, but NDAA, and even the so called "Stimulus" act which contained provisions giving the federal government the power to centralize all hospital records under federal control. (at least in the revision I read.)

I have some concerns about eruope. I would not host any data in Britian for similar reasons, as the USA. It seems continental europe has reacted negatively to the results of the PATRIOT act, and one would hope, are not going to impose similar measures as a result. If necessary, we may move our services to the middle east or to asia, but that would be unfortunate.

It is a real shame to have to consider all these factors that have absolutely nothing to do with providing a quality product. I'd rather have servers in the USA to provide better service to customers in the USA.

But I consider my customers data a sacred trust, even if its almost all pretty trivial data. Thus I anonymize what I collect and I don't collect more than is necessary, but these measures can be reversed for surveillance purposes, and thus honor requires me to protect it.

I hope I never get into a situation where my business faces being forcibly shut down if I refuse to betray the trust of my customers.

I find it very sad that so many american companies are not even putting up a fight.</comment>


Silicon Valley is falling short on climate change - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/16d3a9c4-aebd-11e9-8030-530adfa879c2 <comment><USER2> Theres no money in climate change thats the government job.

<comment><USER3> There is most definitely 'money in climate change', or more specifically in dealing with the fallout. Hiring private commercial firefighters is now a thing (just to name one example), and many people will likely need to relocate and/or shore up defences to deal with the environmental changes that are coming.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Behind a paywall. Does anyone have a workaround?

<comment><USER5> [http://archive.is/S5jkQ](http://archive.is/S5jkQ)</comment></comment>


Arizona Four women convicted after leaving food and water in desert for migrants - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> The correct link is: [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/19/arizona- four...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/19/arizona-four-women- convicted-after-leaving-food-and-water-in-desert-for-migrants)</comment>


How I Think Windows Phone Will Win The Mobile OS Wars - <AUTHOR> http://rajeemcariazo.com/blog/20131202.html

<comment><USER2> > Windows Phone OS isn't really a profitable business for Microsoft

Microsoft has always had decade long plans for certain products. For an example just look at XBox.

I would say Windows Phone is just such another long term project and it is just starting it's next stage with their purchase of Nokia's phone division.

> but they can make users stick with Microsoft products.

The mobile space is one of the most fluid of any business.

For that space I don't think any company has much control over their user base.

Samsung has shown this only to well with their ability to woo iPhone users away from Apple. Who would have thought a company like Apple, with some of the most loyal users, would find themselves loosing out so badly to the upstart Samsung.

> Look how Google has been getting advantage from Android users who are using > default Google applications installed on Android devices.

Google gets most of it's income from advertising, Microsoft from selling software. Unlike Microsoft, Google can give away free software and it does not effect it's bottom line.</comment>


Ask HN: What API design principles do you adhere to? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I don't have much experience, but A Philosophy of Software Design has a lot of sound principles.</comment>


If Facebook and Orkut were to merge the value would be... - <AUTHOR> http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/metcalfe.pdf e value of a network grows with n*log(n) instead of n^2 or 2^n <comment><USER2> An instance of additive identity.</comment>


Four Minute Non-Fiction Book Summaries to help you decide what to read next - <AUTHOR> http://fourminutebooks.com/ <comment><USER2> This would make a good "Show HN"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, thanks brudgers, I didn't know about that, will submit it this way :)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is my passion project to make sure I read and write every single day in 2016. I wake up at 5 am, read a book summary on Blinkist, and share 3 learnings in a neat format with a 1-sentence summary and my favorite quote of the author.

Readers can learn 3 things from a book in 4 minutes or less and this way also pre-select which book to read next.

Posting everything publicly makes sure I'm holding myself accountable and don't fall off the wagon with this habit again.

Hope this helps you!

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks for doing this, Nick!

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm glad you think it's helpful, please share with your friends so we can help more people learn faster :)</comment></comment>


Cooperative art game using Canvas - <AUTHOR> http://graphitimaze.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> The author here. The whole thing is written in Rails and hosted on Heroku which has been great. Canvas was surprisingly easy to work with coming from almost no javascript experience. Anyways let me know what you think. Thanks

<comment><USER2> I could see two issues:

\- The first square you end up in might be closed. So it's hard to know what's going on since the keys don't seem to respond (it took me some time to realize that)

\- The walls should be shared between adjacent squares. Right now, one wall can be made of the right border from one square and the left border of the square on the left. Which means you can lock "people".

Kind of fun though :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, Yeah I should have guessed that people would try and trap people. That seems to have worked out on its own as every wall near the start has been vaporized now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is really amazing. How long did it take to code?

I've been kind thinking of making something with Canvas. I didn't know it had this potential. Thanks for sharing!

</comment><comment><USER4> I have no idea what's going on.</comment>


Hi I'm a dev and I've my MVP, which steps would I follow next? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a full-stack developer, I don't have particular needs about the realization of the MVP,  I'm indipendent, I'd like just to not lose much money if the things goes wrong.. I mean how to have an income before the "success"? Which condition/warranties should I ask to the investors ? I'm a complete newbie here, so any useful link is welcome. I looked at some accelerators, but I don't trust them much.. It seems they just rent me a desk monthly and organize some fluffy events.. PS: I'm Europe-based <comment><USER2> Launch. Get users. Get _feedback_. And listen to it.

Tell all your friends, family, neighbours, co-workers, etc. Use services like Betali.st, AngelList, Startupli.st, forums, Show HN, Reddit, StumbleUpon, pay for adverts if you have a budget for it, just get the word out there and try to get users coming to you and looking at the app.

The fact is you've done the easy bit. Building a product is _easy_. Marketing it is the hard part. Persuading people that it's worth using is difficult. The reason that you're considering investment or accelerators is because you're trying to delay having to do any selling. Investment capital is a shield against the reality of actually putting your work in front of people and having them say it's brilliant/meh/awful. If you have $thousands in the bank you don't have to suffer the pain of talking to people. The fact is though, you will have to do that at some point, so you might as well use all the free marketing channels you have access to right now.

As it is, it's unlikely any investor will put money in now. You clearly don't need money to build the app because you've done that. You don't need money to test the market because there are ways to do that for free. Any investor will talk to you, but they'll be looking for proof points along the lines of traction - conversion ratios, beta sign-ups, active users, and so on. They won't necessarily be looking for revenue (pre-revenue is better to invest in because the company has less value). If you can get to revenue before needing investment money you'll be in a _much_ better position should you decide to go down that road.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for the path you suggested

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> How many customers do you have? I would work on that.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a minimal prototype, I didn't launched it yet

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> get between 2 and 10 customers. it is definitely the best way to work out what to do next.</comment>


What is 4K resolution? Does any Android device support that? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Read the Wikipedia article on 4k - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution)

LG G Pro 2, Note 3 and Acer S2 supports 4K

Source: [http://www.technostall.com/android- devices-4k-video/](http://www.technostall.com/android-devices-4k-video/)</comment>


Tumblr: 'It Was the Biggest Game of Chicken I've Ever Seen.' - <AUTHOR> http://nymag.com/news/business/boom-brands/tumblr-2013-10/index1.html#print

<comment><USER2> Did anyone else feel like the description of people's appearance was judgmental? Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Edit: After a second reading, I think I've cracked it. The author is describing Karp as currently immature, but gradually developing into CEO material. So the descriptions separate each aspect of his appearance and personality into "immature", "developing", or "CEO-like".

<comment><USER3> Yes, absolutely. I am getting really tired of this hoodie-bashing thing, after Zuckerberg and now Karp. People would rightly find it outrageous if a woman sold her company and all the media could comment on was her clothes.

<comment><USER2> Is that sarcastic? I feel like that scenario is very plausible.

<comment><USER4> Plausible, perhaps. Still outrageous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's interesting that the author noted that moot is not CEO material when he has 4chan. In ten years, moot will still have 4chan and tumblr will be a memory.

<comment><USER6> Yes. 4chan is ten years old, and does not have to raise money or please their executive board to survive.

Grassroots communities are by nature more durable than ones artificially built by millions in venture money. One potential exception to that rule is Reddit; it'll be interesting to see what becomes of it.

<comment><USER7> Did they ever take money beyond the YC seed check before they sold to Conde Nast?

Reddit was a massive community before the acquisition and 100k is hardly oodles of venture money, right?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8>
      When asked a question that bores him, his eyes go
      unreactive, and there's a nearly audible shutdown noise as
      he disengages. Among the topics that bore him are cars ("I
      don't like cars anymore"); Internet comments ("Gross"); his
      company's colossally expensive infrastructure ("I have a
      very rudimentary understanding of how Tumblr actually works
      these days"); and management ("I'm not super-passionate
      about how we run the company").

So what does he... do? Count his money all day?

<comment><USER9> He flies drones in the office.

<comment><USER10> Primarily to annoy people, it seems. Sounds like a fucking horrible place to work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I find it interesting that moot was there talking about Canvas, they really snuck that in in the last paragraph.

<comment><USER5> Maybe Yahoo is going to buy 4chan.

:)

<comment><USER12> 4chan recently created self-serve ads to help boost revenues, perhaps the same model would work for Tumblr users.

Then again what would a bunch of 15 year olds be advertising to each-other?

<comment><USER5> I'm not really sure if you're referring to 4chan or tumblr with your 15 year old comment - 4chan is a diverse place, and means a lot of things to different people. I could see self-serve ads working better for them than for reddit.

<comment><USER7> Example: DuckDuckGo has placed some excellent ads on 4chan over the years and eat24 did a great blog post on advertising on porn sites.

Alternative channels have crazy low CPM and CPC.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Hilarious quote of Marco Arment from 4 years ago:

 _When a similar idea circulated back in 2009, Tumblr's then–lead developer, Marco Arment, summed up the party line in a scornful blog post: "I hope they let me work on some of the many exciting projects at Yahoo … I want to move to California and get stuck in traffic every day on the way to my midlevel engineering job where I sit in a cubicle all day and can't make any product decisions while working on something nobody will ever see to manage regional ad clickthrough stats tracking." Thanks, but no thanks._

<comment><USER14> Most arrogant quote I've ever heard coming from a developer. I hope this sounded different in context because that is one of the most horrible and elitist things I've ever heard pertaining to our industry.

</comment></comment><comment> brown9-2 Is tumblr really "the most successful start-up in New York"?

What about Doubleclick?

<comment><USER15> Founded in 1995, bought by Google in early 2008 for $3b. Not a startup any more.

<comment> brown9-2 So what is the definition of "most successful startup" being used here? Is it historical? Is it just number of users, or acquisition price? It certainly can't be revenue if Tumblr is the king.

I know it's a small aside in the article but it always irks me how these type of labels get tossed around without any actual consideration by the tosser as to what it means.

<comment><USER16> "So what is the definition of "most successful startup" being used here" \--I guess not making money?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What's wrong with the mobile scrolling on that site. The article is unreadable.

<comment><USER18> It's the same on desktop, and I think it's because it links to the print copy, which has completely broke scrolling/keys functionality. The paged copy is fine however, and I'd like to think this is not deliberate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> It was/is a bubble and your timing was right on.

</comment><comment><USER20> Why does this link to the second page...?

<comment><USER21> Looks like it links to the second page, but pops up the printable copy that has the entire article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I can't read another piece on Karp. The guy is addicted to magazine/newspaper profiles of himself. Nary have I read an article on Tumblr that didn't focus mainly on Karp. I'm pretty sure if Ali G were still doing his thing, he could easily dupe Karp into taking an interview--he's just that desperate to be on camera.</comment>


A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan - <AUTHOR> http://www.rocket-shoes.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-modern-san-franciscan/

<comment><USER2> Funny that I should read about this on Facebook, then try to post it on HN. Way too close to home.

</comment><comment><USER3> too close to home, man. (but I'm not like that - I don't have a Kindle yet)

</comment><comment><USER4> He forgot to mention checking HN!</comment>


Notepad++ 6.0 Released - <AUTHOR> http://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/notepad-6.0-release.html

<comment><USER2> This personal favorite from their About page lives on:

"By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment."

Gotta love such bold goals from a text editor :)

<comment><USER3> I'd like to use this joke as an opportunity for a more serious point. It's a thing that I actually always wondered. Why is the industry spending so much time advocating that we can write however unoptimal code we like, because it's always cheaper to throw in another server? Wouldn't spending time to optimize software be able to create serious savings in worldwide emissions, given that any given piece of software is likely to be used by 10k - 10M people?

I know that optimizing software for carbon footprint is probably going against The Economy itself, but isn't it the point where our current economy of consumption and growth is leading us to destruction? Maybe there is way to incentivize savings more?

<comment><USER4> Pick a random article about a data centre, and see what it is about. Presuming nothing awful has happened at that data centre, it's almost certainly about some way the company has found to save money, and that usually means doing something innovative with cooling. And that is saving a hell of a lot of money. I'd be interested to see a break down of the energy consumption of a data centre; I imagine cooling is the biggest output (though I'm happy to be proved wrong). And it's probably easier to halve cooling output than it is to halve the number of servers running, as improving the efficiency of a data centre seems like a much more isolated task compared to improving the efficiency of potentially thousands of programs written by several hundred teams.

<comment><USER5> I Agree, I understand that in some data centers power is the main bottleneck on sales, not heat, emissions or hardware cost, there is plenty of interesting stuff going on here which is sympathetic to environmental considerations. [http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/google-opening- seawater-c...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/google-opening-seawater- cooled-data-center-finally-glad-it-appl/) [http://www.comms- express.com/news/server-racks/servers-don-t...](http://www.comms- express.com/news/server-racks/servers-don-t-mind-the-outdoor-life-experiment- claims-18800045/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Notepad++ is one of the fastest and the best editors out there.

Products like these show that over a given period of time, people being to notice the subtle differences between the speed of simple things, like the time taken for the context menu to appear, or the drop-down for word completion to appear. This is primarily why my use of IDEs has decreased over time. It just takes a little too long for doing stuff in them, and hinders your natural flow.

By the way, their word completion (Settings -> Preferences -> Backup/Auto- completion -> Word Completion) is simply their killer feature and has spoiled me for any other editors.

<comment><USER7> +1 for the speed. Not many IDEs seem to care for that any more. Especially most java based IDEs. They feel so sluggish even for the most rudimentary of tasks (opening menus, launching, closing, autocomplete etc)

<comment><USER8> I switched from zend studio to phpstorm almost entirely due to speed, with product quality being the other part of what drove me. Fundamentally, an ide is still a code editor, and it has to do that at least as well as notepad++ or i will not use it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What a great product, free or otherwise. It's always one of the first applications I download and install when I log into a Windows machine.

</comment><comment><USER10> Notepad++ was my first text editor of choice when I decided I wanted to do web development. I've since moved on to VIM, but I'm very glad to hear Notepad++ is still going strong.

<comment><USER11> Same story here! But I still use Notepad++ for quick tasks that I might otherwise have to spend a few thought cycles on in VIM. Also, I really like Notepad++'s Python Script plugin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> everyone seems to be talking about how great notepad++ is. don't get me wrong, i love it too, in fact it is my primary editor. But why isn't anyone talking about the changes that came with the update? There seems to be no changes from UI perspective. They could have just released another small update. One expects major changes with a left-most version number change. Or am i missing something?

plus if my view counts, i would like a UI overhaul. Its still very XP-eyee.

<comment><USER13> Perl style regular expression support is a big thing! I use notepad++ a lot, but the search has always reminded me of vim.

<comment><USER14> It is not only that it is Perl-style; this version also supports multiline regular expressions.

I do not like that it requires you to know a file's line endings to use them, though:

        Mac.   : a\rb
        Windows: a\r\nb
        Unix.  : a\nb

<comment><USER15> I was able to do this in the previous version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I come from a Windows background and recently switched to Mac at work. I'm a pretty heavy user of Notepad++ but so far all the good text editors I've found for Mac are shareware.

What good free text editors do you recommend on Mac that have similar features, like syntax highlighting, auto-indent, and regular expression support?

<comment><USER17> Just a note to let mark_up and chevas know that they've been hellbanned. I don't think you're trolls, so I thought I'd let you know (I can't respond to your posts directly).

<comment><USER18> mark_up and chevas: Looking at your comments history, it doesn't look like you post inappropriate comments, and have most likely been banned by mistake.

You can make new accounts, but I would suggest getting your current accounts unbanned. A short mail to pg(you can guess the email address) on the lines of "I believe my hn handle <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mark_up> is wrongfully banned" does the trick.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Ahh Notepad++. My editor of choice when I first got into programming. After switching to Mac years ago, I have been using TextMate/Xcode/Emacs.

There are only 3 things I look back on fondly from Windows: MSPaint, Winamp, and Notepad++.

<comment><USER20> Same here, though I also miss WinSCP.

<comment><USER21> I switched to Filezilla instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I love Notepad++, but when I started using Sublime Text 2, I purchased it, and never looked back.

<comment><USER23> I'm little curious on their no time limit evaluation and a license to buy for continuous use model. Is it just a good faith agreement to buy it if you intend to use continuously or it can be enforced later if it's detected it's used regularly?

<comment><USER24> It is a good faith agreement, plus a nag dialog that pops up once in a while if you're running unlicensed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I love N++ for some of its XML handling features (being able to hit a menu item to get an xpath readout is handy), but I still find myself using GVim more often than not.

</comment><comment><USER26> No love for Textpad on HN? Its been running strong for ages and has the "just works" feel about it - always. Install it, switch to windows keybindings and you're good to go. And, it has editable macros.

I live in the knowledge that I'm going to hell for not paying for that awesome piece of software!

<comment><USER27> Textpad's "Constrain the cursor to the text" feature is what I miss the most. I have never seen it present elsewhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Hands down my favorite editor for Windows, but when I'm using it, I still wish I was using gedit or TextMate.

<comment><USER29> Try Sublime Text 2. It's fantastic (just like TextMate):

<http://www.sublimetext.com/2>

It's free for now.

Be sure to check Sublime package Manager. There are hundreds of Sublime extensions, many of which were ported directly from TextMate (and have .tmbundle suffix!):

<http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control>

List of packages: <http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community#sort-installs>

<comment><USER30> I just tried out Sublime Text 2. I can see the reason why its users like it.

As for me, it seems to take somewhat easy tasks and makes them more difficult. Installing packages was a head-scratcher at first, even with your guidance.

I'm just going to stick with Notepad++. It may not be pretty, but its straightforward and gets the job done.

<comment><USER31> Yeah, packages by default are hard on sublime. I recommend installing package control: <http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> The only two things I miss from Windows are Notepad++ and Total Commander (Ultima Prime). Killer combo.

<comment><USER33> I also miss Winamp (although not that much) and Miranda (IM client). When I'm on Linux I rather don't use any dedicated IM client at all. Just IRC + something web based.

As with text editor, I never used Notepad++ too much but at the moment I use Komodo Edit. It seems fine to me and it is cross platform.

<comment><USER34> Winamp? Bah, Foobar2000 is where it was at. Tiny resource usage, infinitely customizable, and an arcane UI. Switching to anything else feels like that cold, uneasy feeling you get when you run your favorite editor on a machine without your personal config file and try to use one of your custom keybindings.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I like notepad++, but have switched to geany because its cross platform :P

</comment><comment><USER36> Does "Enhance the loading performance for the large file." mean it can edit files larger than your RAM now?

UltraEdit could do this. I always find it unfortunate Notepad++ can't.

<comment><USER37> I use EditPad Pro instead of Notepad++ because of this. I'll try this new NotePad++ version today!

<comment><USER37> Sadly I just tested it and it's still not that good with large files.

I created a 185MB text file. It opens well, but:

1) Scrolling to the end is very slow

2) Finding a keyword which is near the end is very slow too

I'll stick to EditPad Pro for now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Does it have "smart" word wrapping like Sublime Text 2? I think it is one of the killer features for me. I sometimes need to work with a small screen and need word-wrapping on.

<comment><USER39> If by smart wrapping you mean indented wrapping, yes, it does. Set you preferred wrap mode to Indent in Settins, Preferences, Editing, and then toggle Word Wrap from the View menu.

SciTE, with which Notepad++ shares the scintilla editing component, has quite a few settings for wrapping:

<http://www.scintilla.org/SciTEDoc.html>

(Search for "wrap" in the page.)

I haven't looked into how many of those are supported in Notepad++, as I don't use word wrap myself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I'm personally a PSPad user, performs fine, does what I need to do in windows

<http://www.pspad.com/>

</comment><comment><USER41> Always preferred jEdit, vim, and Notetab over Notepad++.

</comment><comment><USER42> my favoritest editor 1\. Love the way Notepad++ handles drag and drop with hundreds of files.

2\. Also love the way it opens large files.

</comment><comment><USER43> This is my editor of choice too. I love it and miss it everytime I have to switch editors when not working on windows.

</comment><comment><USER44> Even though I don't use it, because it's not cross-platform, it looks like a great text editor for all Windows users.

</comment><comment><USER45> I don't know if I will get flak for this but I really wish they made a Mac version.. :'(

</comment><comment><USER46> Why updating existing version shows "no update available" message?

</comment><comment><USER47> Nothing like a text editor post to get the emotions going..:-)

</comment><comment><USER48> Can notepadd++ be directly connected to your server so you can code, save and upload all from within the program?

</comment><comment><USER49> This makes the top of HN? What a sad day.

</comment><comment><USER50> But Notepad++ requires a binary blob called "Windows".

<comment><USER51> Hi, sorry, I downvoted you. The Guidelines say:

      Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics
      unless you have something genuinely new to say about them.

Also.

      Please don't submit comments complaining that a
      submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think
      something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its
      page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will
      see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag
      something, please don't also comment that you did.

<comment><USER50> Sure, I understand. :-)</comment></comment></comment>


I've lost enthusiasm for my startup - <AUTHOR> I find myself doing things for the startup out of obligation to the investors, who have been awesome. When people ask me if I'm excited, I can't honestly say yes. I still love the product and love the process of creating a company, we are not doing badly (but not exploding either), but I don't really like the people I'm working with anymore. I also just broke up with a long term girlfriend, which was devastating, so maybe that is influencing things.<p>What should I do? I'm not sure if my reason for a lack of enthusiasm is because of the people I have to work with, it is just one of the first things that come to mind. I still need these people and their skills for the startup, though. <comment><USER2> It sounds like you are in a "funk" from your personal life and it's spilling over into your professional life. I hate to say it and I might get downvoted for saying this, but you need to take your mind off your ex gf by going out on some "dates"... then reevaluate things at work. What I am trying to say is...let's add a little excitement back into your personal life and see what happens.

</comment><comment><USER3> This for me is one of the hardest parts. The stereotypical obsession with "The Idea" is usually devoted to finding one which will make it magically rain money. Finding something that will keep me interested and motivated for more than a year - that's HARD.

<comment><AUTHOR> actually, I still love the idea, the product, the vision, etc. So it's not that, it's something else.

<comment><USER4> Probably your breakup affecting things. I know how it is, but hang in there. Find a good friend to lean on--I don't know what your support network looks like. When I went through divorce, I had good friends that helped me through, and after a few months, I was back to myself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Napoleon Hill once said that man just does ambitions to impress women! Now that you lose your girlfriend, perhaps this is the case for you? You lost the bulk of your motivation?

</comment><comment><USER6> I think your title isn't correct. You said as much yourself - you don't hate the startup, you hate the people, and your analysis is correct, it's the break-up that's tainting things.

Are you the boss? Can the thing run without you for a while? Take a break. Make a decision: stay or go. Come back and implement it.

</comment><comment><USER7> Take a break and go to Hawaii or some place exotic ALONE. Meet some exotic women there. You'll be fine. Dont think too much. I have noticed that the best way of dealing with a bad mood is to ignore it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Have you talked to your cofounders about it? If not, maybe you should. If you can't, then quit.

</comment><comment><USER9> Don't make a move until the dust from your girlfriend settles.

You have to get the passion back...or quit!

</comment><comment><USER10> personal crisis is a huge factor here, and don't assume you can or that you should separate personal life from business. it doesn't work.

what don't you like with the people you're working with?

</comment><comment><USER11> Some advice: When I'm sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead.

The fact that you are making money is already great, a lot of people are struggling to get by in their companies.

Don't make a decision that you will later regret.</comment>


Three things every entrepreneur must know... - <AUTHOR>

1) Lists like these are just link bait.
2) Working won't get you girls.
3) It's hard. <comment><USER2> I'd like to highlight number 3, it's harder than you initially thought. But you'll go with it anyway cuz you don't know any better :-)

</comment><comment><USER3> 1) This is the truth, but whatever.

2) If you are worried about "getting girls"...maybe you should get a job at the mall, because your not going to make it as an entrepreneur.

3) It's hard...but that is what makes it so great. If becoming a successful entrepreneur was easy, then everyone would do be starting companies, but it would be pointless. The great things in life take lots of hard work (blood, sweet, tears, etc) - but when you get them you know that you earned them and that is why they are great!

Entrepreneurs have to be a step above the rest (in terms of work ethics and dedication)...meaning that we have to live by our compan(y)ies and die by our compan(y)ies - not worry about stupid stuff like getting girls...

</comment><comment><USER4> But the results of that hard work can get you girls!

</comment><comment><USER5> But if you know how to get girls then you probably have what it takes to get VC

</comment><comment><USER6> What? No girls? I quit. :)

<comment><USER7> Obviously, blored just wants all the girls for himself.

<comment><AUTHOR> I wish, if anyone has a girl to spare, I'd be highly interested.</comment></comment></comment>