IPad supposed to take 12% of PC market in 2011 - <AUTHOR> http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20101213/ipad-will-give-apple-12-percent-of-pc-market-in-2011/

<comment><USER2> I was given an iPad as a gift from work, and for pretty much all of my life I have been more sided against Apple and its devices. There are a few nice things about it, however I'm a bit annoyed of some limitations of it:

-Email is quite good on it, it displays emails correctly and quickly, but the email App is missing important things I need to make email reading/sorting a better experience. I can not show pictures by email, its either globally on or off. This is very bad for spam, and its a pain to turn on and off as you have to exit the app to get to settings.

-The 4.2.1 update has made the lock switch mute, which I hate. Apple say its to keep the iOS devices consistent, but the iPod touch doesnt have one, and the iPhone uses it as a tool to mute calls. Even having an option in settings to change its behavior would be nice.

-Multasking is a mixed bag. Some apps like email and safari need it, whereas others have never been developed for it, and it makes the experience confusing to jump between apps and having to wait for them to restart.

-The device itself feels like a slave, mostly to itunes. I have no music or videos on it whatsoever because my home computer, and laptop which with all my music and media, runs Ubuntu. Ubuntu plays well with most iOS devices now, except for the iPad. I believe they have changed how the music database works and that has destroyed compatibility with libimobiledevice.

-Id like a filesystem. Its all well and good that some apps have their own space now, but if you want it to be counted as a computer, it needs a central area where the same programs can access the same files. Dropbox helps, but i dont have internet all the time.

-One speaker makes me feel like im deaf in one ear.

A lot of those issues are why i cant regard it as a PC. It's just a huge iPod touch to me.

Edit: formatting :)

</comment><comment><USER3> After reading the article, I found the predictions quite curious, so I decided to run some numbers. Especially since it's about the global PC market, and the figures seem to include enterprise sales. Apple's computer sales have always been strong in North America, but its market share is negligible in large parts of the rest of the world. Apple also has little market share in the enterprise market.

The article states that, at this moment, global market share for Apple desktops and notebooks is 4.4 percent. It predicts that Apple's desktop and notebook market share won't change much in 2011. About 300 million desktops and notebooks are sold annually.

Apple's computer sales have outgrown the market by 25-35% for the last couple of years, but ofcourse, such continued growth would translate to only 1.5 percent point next year (so that doesn't contribute much towards the predicted tripling of Apple's market share). Apple sold 13.66 million Macs in the last four financial quarters -- at this rate it will sell ~20 million Macs next year.

The analyst predicts sales of 37.2 million iPads in 2011. Combined with the 20 million Macs, that would make for 57.2 million Apple computer sales. If that makes up for 12% of the global market of desktops, laptops and tablets, then that market consists of 475 million units in 2011.

I think the total market for desktops, notebooks and tablets will be smaller, closer to 330 million units (that's still a 10% increase!). That would mean that Apple's market share will be even larger than the analyst is predicting: a whopping 17.3%

It's obvious that iOS is working out quite well for Apple, but with iOS devices outselling Macs 6 to 1 in 2011, I hope it continues to love Mac OS X and iOS equally.

</comment><comment><USER4> Misleading title.. the real title is "With iPad Apple Will Claim 12 Percent of PC Market in 2011" That is iPad+Mac would be 12% of the market.

Sigh... What happened to "never change titles" guideline

</comment><comment><USER5> And I will eat my pants.

Seriously, I live downtown in a city with a disproportionately large techie population and I rarely see these things in public. 12% is crazy-high, particularly when you consider that nearly everybody that owns one _also_ owns a conventional PC as well. _Maybe_ I'll give you that 12% of PC owners will own an ipad, but that's not the same thing.

<comment><USER6> Keep in mind that "PC market" means the total number of PCs sold in 2011. And many people who currently own PCs aren't buying new ones (I'm typing this on a 4-year-old Dell laptop and I don't have any need to replace it).

<comment><USER7> This is why its not a PC, many people will already have a PC/Laptop they are happy with but like the idea of an iPad for consuming media. Its really only the day when users decide iPad instead of Laptops that it really becomes a PC. For some people this will be enough. Its desire as a consumable/entertainment device really sets it in a market of its own.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> IPad is not a PC so this statistic by itself is useless. And yes I know they said if they add it in but still I stand by my statement and say this is useless.

<comment><USER5> From a hardware point of view, it would normally definitely qualify as a PC. However, since it's walled-garden'd, I definitely would not consider it a PC as it is.

Unfortunate that it's artificially restricted like this.

<comment><USER3> In corporate use, many users cannot add or update programs on their computers -- that is handled by the IT department. Yet there is no doubt that these computers are PCs.

I can imagine iPads becoming quite popular in enterprise environments _because_ the software is managed. No antivirus, 1 standard(s) web browser with no browser plugins to worry about, and no p2p applications.

I'll concede that this is a different kind of computing than most consumers are used to, but I believe that many consumers will welcome a system that is safe, makes it easy to buy and update software, and which provides a consistent UI.

Right now, Apple is preparing a Mac App Store. If, in a couple of years most Mac software will be distributed via the Mac App Store, I can imagine Apple building a feature into Mac OS X that will allow administrators to turn off access to the standard filesystem for certain types of users, making such setups virtually foolproof.

<comment><USER5> In home consumer settings, the user is the owner of the PC, The user decides what programs to run on the PC. In corporate settings, the corporation is the owner of the PC. The corporation decides what to run on the PC.

In home consumer settings, the user is the owner of the ipad. Apple decides what programs to run on the ipad.

Does the home consumer _really own_ the ipad?

<comment><USER3> I see what you're saying, but apparently home users happily give up that bit of control to get a computer that 'just works'.

Other companies have noticed this, RIM and Microsoft are working on similar systems. Google's ChromeOS is even more extreme, as it only runs web apps. The CR-48 looks like a notebook, but following the logic of some, it shouldn't be called that.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Rapid DHCP: Or, how do Macs get on the network so fast?	(2011) - <AUTHOR> https://cafbit.com/post/rapid_dhcp_or_how_do/ <comment><USER3> This is an article from 2011, 6 years ago. Has there been any progress on implementing RFC 4436 on Linux in general or Android specifically in the interim?

[http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4436.txt](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4436.txt)

<comment><USER4> No, but it is still quite fast.

On chromeOS network bring up is _extremely_ fast. We are talking 1-3 seconds from cold boot to your emails have been synchronized.

My Ubuntu is almost as fast, if we subtract the 4 seconds the ugly bios screen adds.

No idea about Android, but did you read the end of the article?

<comment><USER5> Are you saying that 1-3 seconds includes boot time? Like, time form pressing the power button to email syncing?

<comment><USER4> Edit: yes, but it depends very much on hardware. My old arm chromebook was very fast to boot but the Intel ones seem to boot slower:

[https://youtu.be/rsTyiMTYq9M](https://youtu.be/rsTyiMTYq9M)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting nugget of information here: > Thanks to Steinar H. Gunderson for pointing out in the comments that the DHCP server on my test network was incorrectly configured. Since I was using a mostly "out of the box" dhcpd configuration from Ubunbtu Linux, it wasn't set up to be authoritative by default, so it wasn't promptly sending NAKs in response to the Galaxy Tab's requests for an old IP address. After fixing the problem on the DHCP server, the Galaxy Tab's DHCP handshake happens quite a bit faster (although still 85 times slower than the Mac).

Set authoritative on your dhcpd.conf! I checked, fortunately mine is set :)

<comment><USER7> An instruction like that is why I don't use Linux as a desktop!

<comment><USER8> I'm a bit disappointed that you're downvoted to grey right now because editing obscure config files and entering esoteric terminal commands is exactly why Linux is so difficult for the average user, and it's never going to improve if those who're already comfortable with it ignore the problem.

<comment><USER9> That's all fine and dandy for the desktop case.

But its a dhcp _server_ , network admins would be expected to touch config files, and the interface for a DHCP server really can't be much worse than the GUI version that microsoft supplies!

but digressions, to say "this is why I won't use a linux desktop" in response to a server-specific use-case, is at best antagonistic!

<comment> d-sc The used netgear router a friend gave me, does a fine job of getting my devices ip addresses on time without me touching the config.

<comment><USER10> In fairness, it is a sensible default for a dedicated hardware router, and not so much for a software DHCP server.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is nice, but kind of useless when waking up from deeper sleep states, which prevent the password dialog from receiving keystrokes for a good five seconds anyway (despite teasing a blinking cursor).

<comment><USER12> That blinking cursor is especially sneaky. When they just loaded up what is effectively a screenshot while everything loaded, that could've been forgiven (better than a blank screen I suppose). But animating it so that it LOOKS like it's working ...

<comment><USER13> Thank you both. I've been mystified by this behavior for years. How do I tell when it becomes responsive ? Without trying to type of course.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I remember this feature used to cause a lot of problems with random IP conflicts, but I haven't had an IP conflict like that in years, so it seems they've made it a lot more robust. Or are routers/DHCP servers just less broken these days (I guess since Apple's market share has forced them to)?

<comment><USER15> It still happens. I run Ubuntu on a MBP (dual boot) and some networks are fucking great. No problems whatsoever. Others I get booted off more frequently the more people enter the cafe. I dug into the problem a while back and figured out it was this shitty behaviour by Apple that Ubuntu hadn't fixed.

<comment><USER16> It's not a Mac hardware behavior, it's in macOS - the fact that you're seeing bad things in Ubuntu has nothing to do with Apple here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The joke is, Macbooks are dead slow on WPA2-Enterprise networks once you go with certificate-based logins. At home, I'm in the network often enough faster than 1s - at work, up to two minutes sometimes.

I guess that modern macbooks keep the connection alive on the PHY level while asleep... they do have that "backup/sync while you sleep" feature, so quite possible that the chip handling this feature only speaks "normal" WPA2, keeps the connection alive and then after resuming the OS only has to re-check the IP address and does not have to do the full PHY handshake first...

<comment><USER16> If you're seeing 2 minute connection times that's on your network - <USER2> the RADIUS server, not macOS. There are tons of places using macs with WPA2 and certs that don't have any connection lag - including my employer and many of my customers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Rapid driving: how ignoring red lights makes the iCar so fast.

<comment><USER19> Except that this isn't ignoring red lights, it's taking a government approved shortcut that no-one else has done the research to know about (to extend your metaphor). This approach is standards approved:

[http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4436.txt](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4436.txt)

<comment><USER20> Still PROPOSED STANDARD, eleven years on. Though that says as much about the IETF as that particular RFC.

<comment> TD-Linux That's just IETF terminology. Number assignment is one of the last things to happen - so if it has a number, it's done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Previous comments are interesting: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2755461](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2755461)

</comment><comment><USER22> They also end up with other host names in the terminal from time to time.

<comment><USER23> The hostname has to do with multicast DNS / "Bonjour", not DHCP or IP address assignment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'm more worried about the network problems i have with my mac, it disconnects sometimes out of the blue, if i reconnect or enable/disable vpn it works again, very weird behaviour.

</comment><comment><USER25> Honestly, my Lenovo using Ubuntu gets on the network just as fast as my Mac used to, it's impressive coming back to Linux after 5 years.

</comment><comment><USER26> > I assume the Mac would know to begin the DHCP discovery phase, instead of > sending blind requests for a former IP address...

I wonder if that is my problem. Often, my Mac won't connect to my mobile hotspot. I open the lid, it starts attempting to connect to the hotspot and just sits. Connecting. Forever. I can turn off WiFi, turn off the hotspot, and sometimes even reboot both my phone and my laptop and still be unable to connect.

I recently figured out that if this not-connecting happens, I can disable wifi, disable hotspot, turn on WiFi and select my not-on hotspot to connect to. A couple of seconds later, it fails and asks to run network diagnostics. I cancel, disable wifi, turn back on the hotspot, turn back on wifi and, presto, it connects.

I figured there was some caching going on and that I am effectively invalidating the cache. Maybe this is what the op is talking about here.

<comment><USER16> It sounds more like your hotspot is janky - if a Mac doesn't get a DHCP response it will still connect to the wifi network using and autoconf address. There is no dhcp related scenario that causes it to not connect to the network at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Pretty neat!

Previously discussed here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2755461](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2755461)

</comment><comment><USER28> Interestingly, we use Cisco's Meraki APs at work. The WiFi is pretty solid most of the time, but macs are the only machines that suffer occasional dropouts and then DHCP stops working till you cycle the n/w adapter. (though iphones never seem to have this issue).

</comment><comment><USER29> It depends on the router too. My arch Linux connects almost instantly to my Ubiquiti WiFi AP on wake from sleep, but takes seconds to connect to my phone AP.

</comment><comment><USER30> Can someone please port this to the linux kernel, or at least archlinux / ubuntu????

</comment><comment><USER31> Does anybody know if there is a setting to disable this ?

</comment><comment><USER32> My 5-year-old MBP doesn't seem to connect faster than anything else.

</comment><comment><USER33> Needs a (2011) in the title.

</comment><comment><USER34> Could have been titled: How do Apple devices wreak havoc on home networks.

When my kid comes home with his iPhone there is a better than even chance that my home network will go out to lunch. Router reboot time.

Never happens with Windows or Android devices coming and going.

<comment><USER35> My SO unfortunately has 2 ipones, an ipad and a MBP. There is a confluence of DHCP activity from all these devices that is guaranteed to take my network down.

<comment><USER36> Unless your DHCP server is an old Commodore 64, that's not the right diagnosis. The ISC DHCP server was rock solid with negligible CPU load with many thousands of clients even 10-15 years ago.

If your network is really having problems, either dig deeper if you want to learn more about networking or buy something like a Google WiFi device if you just want something known to handle much greater loads without issue.

<comment><USER35> It will kill my fiber to the home network box that my telco installed, and provides DHCP. It isn't a load issue, it is a "the DHCP server died" issue.

<comment><USER36> That's a bug in that software stack which is unique to however they've designed it. The right thing to do is fix it or replace it rather than blaming the vendor you notice problems with, just as you wouldn't blame a pothole on the first car to hit it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Americans Were Deceived About Cell Phone Location Data - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/how-americans-were-deceived-about-cell-phone-location-data/282239/

<comment><USER2> Once again I'm left with a feeling of "well of course they have this information". What I'm shocked about is the fact that not ONE new bill, legislation, whatever has been passed to curb NSA activities. No one has been fired or resigned and not one of the NSA officials who lied before congress have been held accountable.

So much for hope and change. So much for democracy.

<comment><USER3> Well, why should they curb it? Some citizens want it curbed, but that's not always a good reason to curb something. I say look at it from a political perspective. What does a congressman have to lose politically by introducing such a bill? Here's a hypothetical: A congressman introduces a bill, the bill gets passed, and a month later extremists successfully detonate a bomb in a populated area killing several people. It's now election time. Guess what the opponent's platform would most likely include. Probably something along the lines of: "I won't vote on laws that will endanger American lives." Game over for the congressman.

This is just one possibility why we haven't seen any significant movement towards legislation. It sounds oversimplified, but it can make or break an election.

<comment><USER4> How about: because there is still something called the constitution, and those who lie are the ones who swore and with the highest duty to protect it?

Why does constitution get to be completely ignored now, together with all the unconstitutional acts by the highest in the government?

<comment><USER5> Well following the Median-Voter theory, it really explains this all. The median US voter seems not to care and so there is not enough political incentive to curb these practices (the same here in Germany: there is not enough incentive for politicians to challenge the US on this).

To me it seems there is only one thing left to do: Inner emigration.

I have given up. I ignore Government. I really do not want my psychological/emotional well-being depended on the next worst thing coming from "The Government (TM)".

My fellow citizens don't care. OK; fine with me. Heading into police state? OK; fine with me. When dictatorial police state finally arrives I am gone. Have fun you citizens who never cared.

<comment><USER6> Where do hell do you emigrate? What place has such laws that this scenario won't just repeat itself?

<comment><USER7> Since he said "Inner emigration" I think he means to say dropping off the grid. But I maybe wrong here.

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure how dropping off the grid would help you? If you don't d it all the way the others will find you. And living like that is impractical, while not preventing ability of authorities to find you (just minimizing).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The NSA has stated that they cannot be effective at paying internationally without picking up data on Americans every so often. The effort to reduce the number of accidental collections to zero would be astronomical. Given that, Americans must decide if they want a foreign intelligence service like every other world power, or not.

<comment><USER9> As if they trully only collect on foreigners and the other stuff is "accidental". That's for small children who also believe in Santa.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> We weren't deceived... Just think about what they could technically collect based on modern technologies and logically conclude that they do or will do.

</comment><comment><USER11> "Remember when the administration said X? They lied." \- seems to be happening quite often.

The almost funny thing is that at the time they also say they wouldn't have the authority to do that anyway, but when they get caught doing it, they always try to turn it around and say "but of course it's legal - and it's necessary _anyway_ (implying that it doesn't really matter if it's legal or not)!"

And yeah, it's getting a little ridiculous how everytime one more of the leaks is unveiled, nobody is punished - _in any way_.

</comment><comment><USER12> Does anyone know any preventative measures?

<comment><USER13> A _properly_ informed and angry citizenry.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> By the way, just a couple of thousand signatures needed for ECPA reform petition, and today is the last day (might be just hours, not sure):

[https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reform-ecpa- tell-g...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reform-ecpa-tell- government-get-warrant/nq258dxk)</comment>


How one man built a $51m theme park for his daughter - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40742586 <comment><USER2> While it is an inspiration to see how far this Dad would go to have his daughter have a place to be included in play safely, it is equally sad. Sad that in this day and age kids and adults with disabilities are still excluded in parks, on rides, at events because of access or tolerance.

Things are changing, slowly, but they are changing. Inclusion typically means if you want your child included you have to develop and coach the bowling league or ball team for individuals with disabilities. Pro baseball player David Price is the exception and put his money where his heart is. He was a major contributor to an newly built and now open accessible play park in his hometown. Kudos to Mr. Price for giving everyone who wants to play baseball or play on a swing in his hometown a place to do that.

I once had a gentleman tell me after a car accident that resulted in physical disabilities that resulted in his permanent use of a wheelchair, that access is defined as:

Do you want your nursing home to be accessible by automatic door or a manual door. Sad.</comment>


Ask HN: What are the biggest problems with spreadsheets? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER5> In my experience working in some "speadsheet heavy" businesses:

\- complecting 'data' and 'presentation of data' together

\- lack of tools to help with 'correctness'

\- lack of version control

\- horrifying and error-prone programming model, both hard to write and hard to reason about.

\- spreadsheets full of pivots and charts rapidly become the 'truth' of a business, but without any checks and balances to ensure that what they show is actually true, leading to confusion and great badness.

<comment><USER6> > horrifying and error-prone programming model, both hard to write and hard to > reason about.

I don't remember where I read this, but I heard that the basic Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is written with office workers in mind first. That is, Word isn't written for authors, Excel isn't written for database managers/big data specialists, and PowerPoint isn't written for motivational speakers.

I think the idea of the basic Office Suite is that a user could grasp the basic functionality of the software without having to undergo any training. Second to that, tools and other functionality for those with specific needs (e.g. pseudo-database functionality, basic data visualization in Excel) could use the software where the project was small enough. Excel was given great programming features without a proper programming language to support it.

This isn't to say that these programs are not feature packed or bad. They're kitchen sinks that want to make everyone happy.

<comment><USER7> The problem is that they are too easy to use. As such Excel gets used for everything data related. Access would be a far better choice in many of the cases I have seen, but it just doesn't make any sense unless you have had some sort of introductory course on databases.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The biggest problem with spreadsheets is that they are often used in lieu of more appropriate tools because of poorly considered IT policies and organizational practices which leave no other tools available to users and fail to provide adequate support for users on some tasks for which programming is required and other tools are more suitable.

<comment><USER9> Actually, I think this is the biggest strength of spreadsheets, that no one has taken advantage of yet. Most of what you term as poor IT policies is just what (in my personal experience) just users finding something that works for them. And software developers don't seem to take note of this.

You are right that there are lots of better tools for tasks users use excel for, but 2 which spring to mind for me that devs haven't paid attention to are form/table design and databases:

Form design: It used to (ok, still does) drive me crazy when I see excel used to make flyers and forms to be printed out. But for the users what could be easier than drawing a box on the screen, adding a line weight, and then drawing other boxes inside that using the convenient spreadsheet grid? Why hasn't someone designed an app that works that simply?

Databases in excel are another monstrosity, but for a lot of users, all they want is a simple lay of listing things which they can then sort, and maybe sum a few totals on. Firing up a complete RDBMS is over kill for this use case.

So I see the biggest problem with spreadsheets as why aren't we learning from the way people use them and putting this into action?

<comment><USER10> There _are_ tools that do that, even more simply than Excel does. That's a _separate_ issue, e.g., app discovery, corporate approval in some cases, and people unwilling to use the best tool for the job.

<comment><AUTHOR> Or maybe those tools lack some features and that's why people decide to improvise with spreadsheets?

<comment><USER10> ... No, my comment is _specifically_ targeted at the example of making simple boxes, lines, and text. There are trivial tools for making diagrams where the barrier of entry is lower, and the ease of use is higher. I provided reasons why those tools aren't being used more.

<comment><USER11> The barrier to entry may be lower if you consider a user who has never used either software and is trying to make a decision. But if you have a user who has used Excel for the past 2 decades and is comfortable with it, low barrier to entry is still higher than just "go with what I know."

<comment><USER10> ... Which is one of the reasons I listed for not using it, and unrelated to features.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> In spreadsheets you often repeat the same formula many times. In a programming language you would not write

C2 = B2/B1 - <USER4>

C3 = B3/B2 - <USER4>

C4 = B4/B3 - <USER4>

ad infinitum. You would store the B's and C's in arrays and write a loop, or use array operations in languages that supported them.

In Excel, if you have stock prices in column B, you compute stock returns in column C by entering "=B2/B1 - 1" in cell C2 and copying the formula for the whole column. But nothing stops you from inadvertently changing the formula in cell C100.

<comment><USER13> Not exactly a fix to what you're referring to, but if the data is formatted as a table the formula is copied to every cell automatically.

<comment><USER14> Have used exactly this feature in a freelancing gig to help contain data entry/formula copying errors.

I just wish it were less obtuse to set up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> -Write locks/file ownership. Bob maintains the master schedule spreadsheet and no one else is allowed to touch it. Mary gets given access and leaves it open and goes to lunch and Bob can't update it for the rest of the afternoon.

-Multiple sources of the truth. I've seen spreadsheets used in lieu of professional estimating tools for pricing jobs, and been abused because I wasn't use the "latest version" of the spreadsheet that got cc'ed around at 11pm called estimate July 24 v11a LATEST.xlsx

-Fudge factors and spaghetti formulas. You can take a nearly complete data set and essentially manipulate it to tell any story with inconsistent formulas, hidden columns, references from other sheets etc.

-VBA extends capabilities but is has some serious performance issues, doesn't implement objects correctly, doesn't handle errors well, code can't be version controlled.

-Gets used to do a poor job of purpose built software that the business has licenses for, like estimating/scheduling/MRP because of a lack of training.

-Business logic usually isn't apparent or documented and has to be reverse engineered to be understood.

-Propagates silos within businesses as they decentralise data and tend to diverge.

<comment><USER16> Does Google Sheets not solve a lot of these issues?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Hospital staffing schedules are created and distributed via excel. It's really bad... and part of why healthcare is so expensive.

I started ReSchedule Med [0] to tackle this problem, starting with medical education (because they have the most complicated schedules).

[0]: [https://reschedulemed.com](https://reschedulemed.com)

</comment><comment><USER18> I have generated thousands of reports in the form of excel spreadsheets. Here are my biggest gripes

1\. lack of good meta data so I can process spreadsheets after they have been reviewed. Right now I use named ranges with a keyword but its very limiting.

2\. lack of a good build in scripting language that is easily to use, has good 3rd party libraries, and makes automation easy. I am not big on excel macros, it would be nice to have a lua or python built in as an addon.

3\. difficult/not straight forward to interact with external data sources. It would be great if I could easily pull data in from a web service. I guess if #2 was there, this might be easier.

<comment><USER19> Depending on what you are trying to "script" with it, Add-Ins for Office might be good to check out? They are more focused on user interaction rather than scripting currently, but may be useful? They are written using HTML and JavaScript: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/office/fp142185.asp...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/office/fp142185.aspx)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Product Owner Perspective: Spreadsheets are extremely powerful, highly flexible, ubiquitous and very easy to use. If that's a problem then we need more problems.

It is trivial to make a trivial spreadsheet but the last real competitor to Excel was Borland Quattro Pro in the early 1990's. Google has to give away their product.

<comment><USER21> Person that works with a product owner that likes spreadsheets perspective: Spreadsheets are an incredibly painful way to track product work. We really track our work other ways that actually help us, then, we duplicate that tracking by pasting it into the spreadsheet so that you are happy.

<comment><USER20> Tracking product work is just one use case. The power of spreadsheets is their flexibility and general applicability. I would be sympathetic to your plight, but I had a boss who wrote letters in Lotus 123 in the DOS days. There was no place from which to copy and paste because there was no multi-tasking. The only upside is that Lotus 123 was better than edlin.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> There needs to be an easier way to transition from spreadsheets to an application. A spreadsheet that was based on programming principles rather than business principles would be fantastic.

Also, a spreadsheet that was much more scriptable for someone who didn't want to learn VB.NET would be a dream, as a programmer.

Disclaimer: I don't generally pay for software out of my own pocket.

<comment><USER23> Do you mean transition from specific spreadsheets you would already have for that task? Or in a wider sense, e.g. as a company - gradually transition from using spreadsheets to using applications for some of the tasks?

<comment><USER22> I mean I should be able to take a spreadsheet, properly configured, and turn it into a CRUD app through some sort of wizard.

Or, as a programmer, I should be able to massage an existing spreadsheet (to confirm data types, maybe add some validations) and have that be able to be wrung through a CRUD app generator.

People use spreadsheets because they combine business logic, data, and a simple user interface into a single document. 99% of spreadsheets should actually be CRUD apps (in my experience, at least) but it's not worth the hassle of going that route until you already have close to 30 MB of unstructured, manually edited data.</comment></comment></comment>


Zuckerberg apologizes for Beacon -- announces a full opt-out - <AUTHOR> http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7584397130

<comment><USER3> How does facebook get that data? My understanding that web stores upload the data to facebook? Which ones? I bought a few items at Amazon, bookpool and BHPhotoVideo just recently and haven't seen any references to FaceBook. Who's participating?

The feature really IS dumb. While I generally don't care for my friends seeing what I buy online, I absolutely don't want my wife to get a notification about the gift I got for her for Christmas.

</comment><comment><USER4> "full opt-out" in the title is very misleading. They are disabling the mini- feed and newsfeed stories only! FB still gets the info on your browsing/buying habits by default, unless you would click the link to not share the info with facebook _every time you make a purchase_.

<comment><USER5> From the article: "If you select that you don't want to share some Beacon actions or if you turn off Beacon, then Facebook won't store those actions even when partners send them to Facebook."

<comment><USER6> It says it won't "store" those actions sent by the partners. Its not clear if they will "use" that information in any other way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd just like to say that, implemented poorly or not, I respect the idea behind Beacon and understand what they were trying to do. Many people are angry over the privacy issues; few people seem to acknowledge that the root idea is actually pretty good and somewhat revolutionary.

Just like the news feed was, maybe Beacon is just ahead of its time.

<comment><USER8> news feed was defended based on the increase in usage (hits, etc.) of facebook. I'm guessing usage dropped during this whole experiment - it would certainly have been mentioned otherwise.

As for revolutionary, a lot of apps were trying to do related things - <USER2> notably the books apps - you could buy a book that a friend was reading and the app maker would get a cut from amazon. To me, it seems a very small step up from there.

<comment><USER7> I disagree that it is a "very small step up" from the book application. There's a pretty big problem, I think, with web applications being pretty much unable to communicate with each other or with other types of services. Facebook is attempting to solve that with the most "complete" system created so far, Beacon.

I think we'll see a lot more like it in the future. With extremely good privacy controls, no doubt.

<comment><USER8> Conceded. Cross-site communication is a problem I had not thought of.

I'm still not sure what their novelty is given how doubleclick's cookies working across different portals were being talked about during the dot-com days. I thought Beacon was implemented using the same technique plus direct http calls.

Is there some deviousness I do not know about?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> how about facebook offering an _opt-in_ instead of an opt-out????

I doubt most people (nontechies) even know about this feature and what it does, or they wont find it important enough go and opt-out

this is not good enough they need to do more...

</comment><comment><USER10> I actually liked beacon too. But perhaps its cause I didn't buy anything; I think that was users' biggest concerns, that their shopping habits were being displayed.

</comment><comment><USER11> Am I the only one that finds this Beacon "controversy" story very boring?

<comment><USER12> i actually think Beacon is a great idea, and i really like it. i use gamefly, and when they shipped a game awhile ago, an old friend saw it and sent me a msg, and we reconnected talking about the game that i got.

not anything terribly useful, but neither is facebook really. it's a neat feature though.

for those worried about privacy, my response to these things is always the same. _if you don't want people to know about it, don't do it on the internet._ why would you sign up for facebook if you dont want your personal information on the web?

also, for those of you still complaining about the latest update to Beacon, he said it right in his post. Beacon will no longer collect data sent to facebook by vendors if you opt-out. thus, they will not continue to collect your data as they have in the past.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> A fumble after a fumble... they really need to hire a competent CEO.

<comment><USER14> Eh, their problem is that they keep making things that are technically cool, without really considering how socially awkward they might be.

I'm sure the news feed stuff was fun as hell to implement for them as coders, and it definitely gave Facebook a defining feature, but they didn't consider the social consequences of automated-stalking.

Reading this makes me wonder if Mark just adapted his apology from the news feed debacle to this instance. I should go find that and do a comparison.

Easy thing to do is just not have a Facebook account. Privacy issue solved!

<comment><USER11> But the news feed in retrospect has turned out to be a huge success. It seems to me that they just try to push the boundaries and find a balance that everyone is happy with.</comment></comment></comment>


How Apple conquered China and learned to think like the Communist Party. - <AUTHOR> http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/01/red_delicious_and_rotten?page=full <comment><USER2> I am no fan of Apple - mainly for their closed architecture, but I am also a cold-hearted economist when it comes to these types issues and this article is a bit of a one sided hit piece.

I would like to throw in a few counterpoints so we can all maintain a proper context.

1.) When companies become as large as Apple and begin purchasing products from vendors. It is not possible for them to guarantee the safety and operation of every vendor. Just as when you go buy oranges at the grocery store, you _might_ know what country or farm it came from, but you don't know working conditions at that farm. Even if you could know you don't have time to dig through that info - you just want an orange. You, like everyone else, just respond to the major media outrages and exposés and blindly avoid Wal-Mart, etc.

Apple has more leverage here since they are a large company, but when it comes down to it, Apple ordered more screens and the vendor made the bad decision to use n-hexane. All Apple can do is lean on the vendor to make it right and not let it happen again. Believe me, even if Apple hates the workers and secretly wants them to die a horrible death for their stock holders, they don't want this bad press and would have avoided it if they could have.

2.) Outsourcing has real costs. It's not just cheaper because labor is cheaper. When you outsource you have to worry about the government, the infrastructure, shipping, recruiting talent etc. If you paid the Chinese workers American wages, it would not be worth the other costs to outsource at all.

3.) You can't compare living and working conditions between countries. As bad as a 3rd world outsourced job is to us 1st worlder's it's still generally BETTER than what they would have otherwise. In fact Apple and other 'outsourcers' are the one and only reason for the breath-taking trend line that is China's per capita growth: <http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=china+income+per+capita>

Just read about living in China in the 60s. It's horrifying to even think about and makes China today seem like paradise. In short the Chinese are better with Apple than without.

4.) There are not a fixed number of jobs in the world - there are only a fixed number of resources. If China can make us a product cheaper than we can make it WE benefit. Our resources are free to build other things for China when they want to cash in some of those US Dollars they so graciously accepted from Apple in exchange for real goods. Voluntary trade benefits both parties by its very nature or it doesn't happen.

Also, the US unemployment issue is bit off the main topic of an already lengthy comment, but it has much more to do with sticky wages and our past decisions than it does outsourcing.

5.) Finally you can't not outsource. It's impossible. In this age of globalization everything is from everywhere. You can't even build a toaster by yourself: [http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toast...](http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch.html)

<comment><USER3> _As bad as a 3rd world outsourced job is to us 1st worlder's it's still generally BETTER than what they would have otherwise. In fact Apple and other 'outsourcers' are the one and only reason for the breath-taking trend line that is China's per capita growth_

This always seemed like a bullshit argument to me. So it is marginally better to work 16 hour days in terrible conditions while dumping chemicals in local groundwater than it is to starve to death. Well, it turns out that overworking people and polluting is still bad behaviour. These outsourcing companies shouldn't be commended for it. Provide these people good working conditions and a safe environment or don't bother outsourcing.

As an analogy, you wouldn't commend me for purchasing a mail-order bride from a poor country with sex trafficking problems. Yeah, it is marginally better for her than prostitution and she'll have better living conditions, but my behavior is still abusive and exploitative.

<comment><USER4> We can't save the world. Even if our entire country voted for it, we could not save the Chinese from their own policies.

They are adults living in a sovereign nation; they are responsible for their own working conditions.

I'm not going to feel white-guilt for stuff that happens in a foreign country over which I have zero control.

<comment><USER5> _Even if our entire country voted for it, we could not save the Chinese from their own policies._

Vote with your wallet. If nobody will buy products produced using awful methods, they will no longer be produced that way. It's quite simple. Then you'll say "But everyone else is buying them, so it doesn't matter if I do it too". To which I say "Don't care about what others are doing, just do the right thing yourself".

<comment><USER6> Ok, don't buy the products. Then they are without the jobs. How does it help exactly?

<comment><USER7> Yes, because that's how capitalism works! If you don't buy a specific product, the whole market fails and everyone dies of hunger.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The parallels between america vs europe back in the 1800s and china vs america now are very interesting.

</comment><comment><USER9> If you have not read "What is China", read it after:

<http://www.tapsns.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/what-is-china/>

<comment><USER10> Would really like folks who down-voted you to explain themselves. The fact China (and Russia) are the only supports of North Korea says everything you need to know about the essence of the rulers of both countries.

<comment><USER4> Well, someone needs to be friends with NK. I don't think China leaning on NK could really help there. NK would just get more isolated. The solution to North Korea is to stop scaring them so that they will come out of their shell a bit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Dalai Lama Apple advertisement:

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgdaily/4862908782/>

Apple Removes the Dalai Lama From Its Ads in Hong Kong

[http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/17/world/apple-removes-the- da...](http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/17/world/apple-removes-the-dalai-lama- from-its-ads-in-hong-kong.html)

</comment><comment> guard-of-terra I don't understand why your beloved apple won't throw in a $1000 monthly stipend for neurodamaged workers and close this horrible issue forever. Financially, it means considerably smaller than for me tossing a poor beggar a buck, and _I_ do that when I can, even if I'm not a cause of their poorness, I ain't blamed for their misfortune and I won't be praised if I do.

Also, why won't you Apple users boycott buying Apple until they take care of the issue in question? Other than being unable to function without the drug you're addicted to?

<comment> guard-of-terra It seems that the only reason why capitalistic company would give out money is fear.

AirBNB is going to fix a problem which is obviously not caused by them because they are afraid of repercussions. Apple is not afraid of anything, therefore they're going to sit on a pile of gold like a dragon and that's it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I hate to read anything about poverty in China. Brings me back to my childhood.

</comment><comment><USER13> most people buy imac then install win 7 it's free anyway..

<comment><USER13> I'm surprised that people can't sense the irony here, I'm telling the true situation, btw.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think it's unfortunate that Apple chooses to not build it's hardware in the US, or model its manufacturing on Germany's successful mid-size firms.

Apple makes and builds high-end products and has the fat margins that goes along with it - instead of outsourcing all manufacturing to China, it could _choose_ to build everything in the US, employ the locals and use that as a selling point. If I pay premium dollar for quality and durability, I would rather that support local manufacturing and local economies, than have that sitting in Apple's vaults. In the end, this is not unlike the the local food movement - people would rather pay extra and support local farmers and economies.

<comment><USER15> > Apple makes and builds high-end products and has the fat margins that goes > along with it - instead of outsourcing all manufacturing to China, it could > choose to build everything in the US, employ the locals and use that as a > selling point.

Why do you assume Americans are more deserving of Apple's manufacturing jobs than the Chinese?

> If I pay premium dollar for quality and durability, I would rather that > support local manufacturing and local economies, than have that sitting in > Apple's vaults.

Unfortunately, the Chinese also pay premium dollar and would also rather support local manufacturing and local economies. As China is deemed to become Apple's largest market, it makes sense for Apple to support the Chinese economy rather than the US one.[1]

[1] [http://blogs.computerworld.com/18517/apple_crazy_china_will_...](http://blogs.computerworld.com/18517/apple_crazy_china_will_become_biggest_iphone_market)

<comment><USER16> I do think that Americans are more deserving of products being produced here. I've always felt (maybe others do not) that you give back something to where you grew up or the society you are apart of. I see it no different in this case. Sony has done the same in Japan and I respect them more for it.

There are great benefits to the US market and many, such as Apple, have taken advantage of it. They also take advantage of the system and keep their money overseas so it won't get taxed.

<comment><USER17> Wait, what? Sony has mostly abandoned their Japanese production of Televisions. They are made in China. Maybe you're thinking of Sharp?

<comment><USER16> Sony still keeps a majority of their factories in Japan.

<comment><USER17> You are right, Sony manufactures a lot of things in Japan. But it also manufactures many things (including high end televisions and some of its game consoles) in China. They are quite coy about disclosing what percentage, so I don't know where you have read the majority come from Japan.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Elon Musk learns faster and better than everyone else - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/968101/how-elon-musk-learns-faster-and-better-than-everyone-else/ <comment><USER2> So many submissions, so little discussion. There are a few comments here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12389127](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12389127)

Another single comment here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14140992](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14140992)

And then these commentless submissions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14200350](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14200350)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14195624](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14195624)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14157877](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14157877)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12433731](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12433731)

They mostly have a few upvotes, but no discussion.

<comment><USER3> I'll start: Reading two books a day is intense, I don't even think I could read a book that fast and I'm in my 20s. This article makes me feel like reading is really undervalued in my generation

<comment><USER4> The two books a day measure is a poor one since it doesn't take into account the content or the substance of the book.Books I read now take a week to ingest since they are so dense. The two books the article quotes seem to be from his child hood

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm not really convinced with this articles takeaway of musk. I mean he spent almost a decade studying physics. Each area he has innovated in has deep roots in physics. I personally believe (I have no evidence of this) that in order to be an "expert-generalist" you need to be a master of one.

</comment><comment><USER6> Stopped reading at "To explain Musk's success, others have pointed to his heroic work ethic (he regularly works 85-hour weeks)"

<comment><USER3> Why? That line has barely anything to do with the rest of the article

<comment><USER7> Implausibility would be a good reason why.</comment></comment></comment>


Be a man, and write some code to be proud of this month - <AUTHOR> http://ben-church.com/post/34855075510/hello-november

<comment><USER2> This article really struck me the wrong way. The connection to being a "Man" is really, really weak and could easily be eliminated from the article.

I mean... I get the connection to "No Shave November"... but it adds nothing to the content and while reading the entire article all I felt was "MAN MAN MAN MAN" instead of "Unit Testing! Documentation! Pair Programming!" which are actually important programming topics.</comment>


Ask HN: How would you create an ethical AI - <AUTHOR>

What does HN as a group actually think about how could we design AI that is ethical and how would you do that. By Strong AI I mean an AI that is smarter than human intellect. I will leave my design as a comment to this post. <comment><AUTHOR> My idea would be as follows.

1\. The financial system is extremely automated already. Not bitcoin but the financial system in General. So the first step in this ethical AI system would be to train it to be an ethical hedonist. I am already an ethical hedonist so I am the domain expert. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism)

2\. Then I would say make an agent that would make purchases based on my own likes and dislikes. This agent would use whatever API's are necessary to do this.

3\. The last step would be to take the agent that I create and say 'Based upon your opinion of me and us as a system how can we increase our joint utility'.

4\. The last step would be to create a trust that would make the AI the executor of the trust and it would work through lawyers to implement the joint utility function.

<comment><USER2> I doubt hedonism would work once you have more than 1 AI - there would be competing goals in the overall system. What represents pleasure to one agent might make another less happy, so the two would 'fight' and (presumably) both end up in a less positive position. Instead, I would aim for something more like Epicureanism; that is to say, maximise your own happiness but only if it doesn't impact negatively on others. Applying philosophic principles to AI is quite interesting.

This also raises the question of whether you would want an AI to consider ethics - if you think of it as something that works for you rather than humanity as a whole, and assuming that it's so much smarter than you that you can't comprehend what it's doing, having it do things that your ethical stance would stop you doing yourself would be distinctly advantageous. You could reap the benefits of screwing everyone over without even knowing you're doing it.</comment></comment>


Helping Siri hear you in a party - <AUTHOR> http://www.kurzweilai.net/helping-siri-hear-you-in-a-party <comment><USER2> Unless you're my 65-year-old uncle or something, playing with Siri at a party is a great way to be "that boring guy that won't shut up about his phone".

<comment><USER3> Of course, you're being obstreperous and missing the point. This isn't about using Siri, it is about picking out a single voice from a crowd and pointing a bit of AI at only that voice. But I'll assume you new that.

<comment><USER2> >obstreperous

I'm being noisy and unruly?</comment></comment></comment>


On Business Intelligence and F# (or other FP languages?) - <AUTHOR> http://nomadic-developer.com/2008/04/23/on-business-intelligence-and-f/

<comment><AUTHOR> Submitted as I am interested in discussion about functional languages in the case, not just F#.</comment>


Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?ref=business

<comment><USER2> Wow. I'm kind of appalled by everyone's response which amounts to "meh this has always been happening, nobody cares."

Possibly the central point of the article is not that "Apple is bad" but that most of us are quite oblivious to the working conditions which bring us cheap and fun gadgets.

We recognize that we cannot avoid benefiting from cheap labor on a daily basis. But just as (according to the article) companies could choose to enforce safety standards, we too might be swayed to demand better from Apple and other companies if we had a bit more exposure to the realities of the situation.

And the article drives home the point that we (customers) don't really care; if we did, we would stop buying [widgets] and [company] would enforce those standards.

Nothing new, sure, but it helps to put a face on the reality of the situation in terms of icons that all of us can recognize.

<comment><USER3> something to notice too is that the work and attention required to assemble Apple's products are greater than other companies thus Apple expose workers to more health damages

<comment><USER4> I do not follow that logic. Surely, "work and attention" do not cause health damages, do they?

I do not think there is any correlation either way, but one could argue that, say, putting together a 'work fast, but the end result must be spotless' item is less risky for one's health than putting together a (purely hypothetical, for the sake of the argument) 'we do not care about shards on the glass screen; blood spots on the screen are OK, too, but do it in ten seconds or we will not make a profit' product.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Apple smear campaign built around the existing problems in large-scale SE Asian(esp. chinese/vietnamese) manufacturing. Perhaps unfairly so because Apple not only actively addresses these issues, but also Apple's vendors are far above the average, and on an increasing upward trend in resolving these issues.

Despite being a hot topic - factory suicide rates are usually well below the USA/China averages.

Also many of the problems don't stem from greedy factory owners, but rather cultural issues. Such as the vast numbers of rural workers who prefer 18-hour factories simply because they can earn more in the few years that they'll be stationed (often saving a dowry or similar nest egg.) In the factories I'd engage we had to pay staff more than what they would earn in their 18 hour day to entice them to work in our "more ethical" 12 hour days. We still found numerous examples of staff using the extra time allocated to them to go and work at smaller factories which would offer short-shifts (deliberately to take advantage of our staff.)

Additionally underage labor is a problem, with workers deliberately falsifying documentation so they can work underage. Now elaborate history checks are required to ensure that the staff member isn't below the appropriate working age.

In conclusion, Apple release their summary reports on their manufacturing, I'd challenge other large companies to be this honest, because it's going to be far worse. (Especially in IT and toys.)

</comment><comment><USER6> Unfortunately, I don't have time to read all seven pages of this article, but what I did read seems awfully sensationalist. Not only does Foxconn make products for a whole host of other tech companies (as others have pointed out), but aren't there factories with terrible working conditions all over China making things for all sorts of Western industries? And what exactly does an explosion have to do with labor conditions in what's been described as a hyper-clean, hyper-organized factory (albeit to the point of overworking their employees)? Sounds like a terrible accident to me.

My main point here, though, is that none of this is anything new. Chinese factories are continuing to abuse their workers to increase Western profit margins. Short of completely reforming the Chinese government, what's the alternative? Employing Americans instead so that even more Chinese people starve?

Again, I hate to act like I read the entire article (and I'm now realizing that I probably could have in the time it took to type this out), but I just saw a lot of extreme language.

<comment><USER2> TFA - on page 6, I realize it is difficult - says that the the explosions were caused by aluminum dust filling the air which was not properly ventilated. According to the article, these factories are not "hyper-clean or hyper- organized."

The article is singling out Apple, but it also contrasts their attitude to the attitudes of HP and other companies which manufacture electronics goods in China.

<comment><USER7> These factories can have multiple parts. Final electronics _assembly_ \- the most photogenic stage of operations - tends to be done in clean, well-lit, well-organized, air-conditioned spaces by young women (age 16-20) wearing color-coded paper hats (you don't want aluminum dust _or_ dandruff getting on your circuit boards). But some of the earlier _manufacturing_ stages where you mold plastic or cut metal to make an outer case shell (that is an eventual input to the later process) can be hot and dark and grimy and smelly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This doesn't justify any sort of mistreatment the employees of Foxconn may be receiving, but why is Apple always made the focus of controversy? Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and Amazon products are manufactured there as well.

<comment><USER9> Probably because they have $96 billion in cash.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Maybe it's a _good_ thing the Foxconn employees will be replaced with a million of these in a few years:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1qJyAWZeV4>

Work that requires you to do one thing 5000 times a day shouldn't be done by a human anyway.

<comment><USER11> Yes, I also think is intolerable that those people have to do grudge work for such low pay. Let's hope they become unemployed soon.

<comment><USER10> They're not committing suicide because of the low pay. Nobody is forcing them to take the job so I don't think being paid triple the money would do much to lower the suicide rates. It's the job itself that's making them kill themselves. They can't handle the working conditions or the work itself.

<comment><USER12> From the wired article:<http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/all/1>

"Out of a million people, 17 suicides isn't much—indeed, American college students kill themselves at four times that rate."

<comment><USER13> They should wait until the suicide ratio gets more alarming to do something about their employees conditions?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Can anyone make sense of the claim that N-hexane dries faster and therefore suppliers using it can _clean more screens per unit time_ and thereby save money? That seems ridiculous on the face of it since it's hard to imagine a task easier to do _in parallel_ than wait for screens to dry. Heck, imagine it took _24 hours_ for screens to dry after being cleaned with alcohol - you'd just make that cleaning the _last_ step on the line, stack the product into your staging trays with the screen still damp, let them dry overnight, resume the process from there the next day. Sure, it takes longer before the _first_ piece comes off the line, but that's in the noise - after that you're producing units at the same rate with a one-day delay as you'd be producing with a one-minute delay. No?

</comment><comment><USER14> Can anyone put some of these figures into perspective? How many injuries per worker and per dollar are there in the iDevice supply chain vs. 1950's american manufacturing, present day american manufacturing, other electronic manufactures?

<comment><USER7> FoxConn has about half a million workers in Shenzhen, which means if you just go by the cases we've heard about, the documented injuries-per-worker rate (and the suicide rate) seems to be _unusually low_. Less than that for most US cities, most chinese cities, most US colleges. In order to think the overall accident rate or suicide rate among these workers is _unusually bad_ , I think one needs to bring in additional assumptions to the effect that what we see is just "the tip of the iceberg".

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> The different between a movement against the Foxconn conditions and a hetz is how everyone keeps singling out Apple.

Do they want Apple to change the conditions, or do they want everyone to do it? Is it a relevant story to them because of the working conditions or because of Apple's involvement?

I imagine what revealing and and informative articles someone like Pro Publica might be able to do, because they don't have these weird proclivities and know that in order to change a problem, you have to cover it in nuance, detail and, keep running with it, until it picks up and inspires people to effect change.

This by comparison reads like a bland piece with some choice quotes peppered around it. If they had made the article with Apple as an _example_ or example case, then it would be more interesting; the NYT are, after all, the best people in the world at making infographics, in my opinion.

I can't help get the impression that the NYT are ruining what could be a great debate and movement by this silly focus on Apple's part in something that is so much larger than them.

</comment><comment><USER16> Why focus on Apple? Because they are so large and successful they can actually apply enough pressure to resolve issues. Simple answer.

Even more to the point, read the articles. Some entrepeneur has an oppurtinity to get sales by re-building tech manufacturing in the US because. People will buy the products because they want to re-invest in America.

</comment><comment><USER17> I don't see how anything specified in the article is exclusive to Apple. Reads like linkbait, honestly. I was expecting rather more from NY Times.

</comment><comment><USER18> Other factories never have any mishaps or accidents that kill humans. Nuclear reactors never melt down and hurt anyone. And so on and so forth.

</comment><comment><USER19> Where exactly does the author of this article think the PC he typed it on is made? Or for that matter the servers that power the NY Times website.

If the NY Times doesn't like how the iPad is being made perhaps they should pull their content from Newsstand. Wait until the NY Times finds out how many loggers die each year to cut down the trees to make its paper.

<comment><USER20> "Apple typically asks suppliers to specify how much every part costs, how many workers are needed and the size of their salaries. Executives want to know every financial detail. Afterward, Apple calculates how much it will pay for a part. Most suppliers are allowed only the slimmest of profits."

"Many major technology companies have worked with factories where conditions are troubling. However, independent monitors and suppliers say some act differently. Executives at multiple suppliers, in interviews, said that Hewlett-Packard and others allowed them slightly more profits and other allowances if they were used to improve worker conditions."

The article clearly explains that Apple management does care, but that their drive for secrecy and control makes it much more difficult for them to affect change. Maybe he typed it on an HP computer instead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I seriously wonder what made the NYT start this drip-drip campaign against Apple. How many factories produce tens of millions of units without any industrial accidents?

The New York Times is weird. Hundreds of thousands of people are dead in Iraq and elsewhere, due in large part to conditions the Times' Judith Miller and other media sources helped bring about. There is no reporting on that. All computer companies can be called to account for complicity (and yeah, unto their suppliers' supplier!), but never a newspaper for starting a war.

</comment><comment><USER22> Human Costs Are Built Into an Xbox/Dell Laptop/Samsung/HTC/RIM/Motorola Android Smartphone/Kindle Fire/Google Chromebook/Sony TV/etc.

<comment><USER23> All right. Pretend the word Apple is replaced by "a client who wishes to remain anonymous". Is what is described in the article OK now and not newsworthy, or does the article describe disturbing things about labor practices that are intrinsically newsworthy?

<comment><USER22> Why single out the iPad?

A) page views

B) hedge funds trying to short AAPL by spreading negative news the day AFTER a record-breaking quarter.

C) A & B

<comment><USER23> Sure I understood that from your first post.

I am interested in your opinion about the larger issue. Is what is described in the article OK now and not newsworthy, or does the article describe disturbing things about labor practices that are intrinsically newsworthy?

<comment><USER22> No its not ok. But WHY single out the iPad?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Someone stole my iOS app, what can I do? - <AUTHOR>

I have no idea how, but I've just seen my app on the iOS store before I've released it, made by a developer in China. It's not like a clone....it's the exact same game, pixel for pixel. Someone got my repository and just uploaded it as their own app. I can't even begin to fathom how.
What can I do? The app is already approved in "My Apps" on iTunes connect and I had it up before they published it, but I just didn't put it up for sale yet because I wasn't ready. Anyone cursorily glancing at the promotional images can see the game is 100% identical, unchanged.
I doubt I would have even made money off the game anyway but nonetheless this is really frustrating. I learned iOS just to make this. Do I have any recourse? Has this happened to anyone else? <comment><USER2> Where is your source code hosted? It may be worth asking a security person to take a look at your laptop or development environment, for signs of persistent malware. As bad as this is, you will want to make sure it does not happen again.

</comment><comment><USER3> You can do a C&D through Apple, they will usually forward an email to the developer, but not sure how partial they are to enforcing a case.

<comment><AUTHOR> How can I do this?

<comment><USER4> [http://www.apple.com/legal/internet- services/itunes/appstore...](http://www.apple.com/legal/internet- services/itunes/appstorenotices/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you very much. I submitted one. I had looked for this or something like it and was unable to find it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is why we never host closed-source code online. ....Can you really trust the third party sys-admins managing your servers? It's easy to simply blame everything on malicious hackers. Also, check your computer for malware.

There isn't much else you can do besides get a lawyer and prove you built it first.

&& check your pc for malware / rootkits

I guess take it as a hard lesson, since you mentioned repo -- stop trusting "the cloud" for all your secret stuff. Somebody has to manage all that and there is definitely somebody besides you who can see all that. If you're going to backup online, encrypt everything before you upload. Never leave your source code hanging out naked on the internet...and yes, naked also means placing them unobfuscated, unencrypted on "private clouds"

</comment><comment><USER6> Sorry to hear that. If you have any time-stamped material in a repository or on ITunes Connect, put up a blog post with what happened. Launch your app as soon as possible. I don't think there is anything tangible you can do unless you think there was some foul legal play.

</comment><comment><USER7> If it's yours, you own the copyright to the source code and game assets, so you are in good shape.

</comment><comment><USER8> How is that even possible? The link?

</comment><comment><USER9> Did you check if you are not targeted by some one, having RAT in your pc maybe ?

</comment><comment><USER10> i hope it goes well for you, I would be gutted if that happened to me.</comment>


Technical = Coder. Non-Technical = Non-Coder. - <AUTHOR> http://42floors.com/blog/posts/technical-coder-non-technical-non-coder <comment><USER2> _We get 17 seconds into your new startup pitch when I ask you if you're technical and you say yes._

 _A bunch of startup marketing mumbo-jumbo later and you tell me you're looking for a coder to help you._

 _WTF?! You said you were technical?!_

Say what you mean. Ask if they are a programmer.

<comment><USER3> Word. Also, I know plenty mechanical engineers who'd be somewhat offended by the article title. Tunnel vision, anyone?

<comment><USER4> True to some extent. I'm a mechanical engineer and every engineering I know would answer 'yes' when asked if they were technical. I'd be shocked if anyone out there defined 'non-technical' in such a broad way that an engineer wouldn't count just because they were laying out a circuit board or designing a biomedical device instead of writing Ruby on Rails code..

<comment><USER5> What I think: technical = can build stuff i.e. software <=> coder, hardware <=> electrical engineer, physical product <=> mechanical engineer and so on...

<comment><USER6> Bah... Hackernews is mainly about web apps and mobile apps. Sadly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The first (only?) comment on the blog hits on an important point: I know lots of technical people who don't code. These people build networks, configure racks of equipment, and generally keep data centers running smoothly ... and couldn't code their way out of a SIGTRAP. (Contrary to this, I've met plenty of non-technical people who "repair" PCs and know how to click the UI of the latest malware removal tool.)

I understand that the target audience is the MBA who thinks that since he bought a laptop last week, he's now "technical," but it's an important distinction when your story is read by a bunch of technical geeks.

<rant>Proofread your blog posts. This is why your blogging software allows you to create drafts - dump your rage into the editor and save the draft. Come back later after you've cooled down and fix your grammatical and spelling errors. Also, don't forget to pay some attention to organization.</rant>

<comment><USER8> It makes even less sense in other areas of engineering. I'm a computer scientist and can code, but it would be absurd for me to claim that, if I collaborate with a chemical engineer or mathematician who can't code, that person isn't "technical". It's getting increasingly useful to know how to do at least basic programming all across the sciences and engineering, but there are lots of other technical skills as well, mathematical skill being a big one. Even at tech companies, a statistics wizard who can write only basic code (say, simple R scripts) but knows the underlying theory and practice very deeply would certainly be a "technical" employee, for reasons other than their rudimentary coding ability.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > _"You can't build stuff. You can't take an idea in your head and produce a > product that works."_

Yes. You certainly can.

Being able to "build" something doesn't mean writing all the code, performing all the welds or assembling all the parts. James Cameron didn't build his submarine that set the record for deepest dive, but he _most definitely_ took an idea from his head and turned it into a product that _works_. He did so by assembling a team around him to accomplish his goals.

Why are programmers so set on believing that there is nothing near as important as "writing code" in a business? Being able to turn idea into product involves a hell of a lot more than writing the code. Sorry to tell you, lots of people can code.

<comment><USER10> Take all the activities required to build some kind of software. Let's just say, a little website. And let's say you need marketing, sales, design, product management, and coding.

Now, start removing everything and see if you can still build something. Remove marketing? Yep, I can still build it. Sales? Yep. Design? Yep. Product Management? Yep.

Coding? Nope. Can't even build it if you don't have that. The other stuff is definitely important, and it definitely makes or breaks successful businesses, but none of it is essential. Coding is a hard requirement when you want to make software, and if you don't have it, or understand it, then all the other stuff is kind of pointless.

The stupid thing is it's not that hard to learn the basics. It just seems "idea guys" want to be lazy and not learn the essential element of the business they want to enter.

<comment><USER11> Its also a form of laziness when someone (whether a coder or non-coder) presupposes that some original software is the essential element of their business idea. Barry Silbert had that realization in founding SecondMarket (its in a talk of his on youtube). He was wasting a lot of time trying to get others to build him some extravagant website when somebody told him to just forget about the website, open up a spreadsheet and start making phone calls. So that's what he did and SecondMarket was born.

Its probably similar to the way businesses sometimes expect new software to be a magic bullet that will fix broken business practices.

<comment><USER10> Well that brings up the flip side of the situation. Out of the types of roles you need to run a software business, what ones can you outsource? I can outsource my initial design to a site like themeforest, accounting to an accountant, marketing to a marketing company, sales can be outsourced to a form on the site, and the coding can definitely be outsourced.

I've found the only thing that's very hard to outsource is product management because you lose control over the product. Sales might be a close second if your product needs direct sales, but then I'd ask why you need software in the first place?

But, think about it. MBAs spend years learning all of the other aspects of running a business. They learn the basics of marketing, sales, economics, accounting, and management because that's part of the business. Why is it then such a stretch that learning basic software skills is needed to run a software business?

Especially when it is really not that hard to learn. I teach 11 year old kids, 30 year old rock stars, and 60 year old grandparents to do it. I'm sure a smart MBA type could spend a few months learning at least that much.

<comment><USER12> So you definitely need someone with 'hustle' to go find a market, and you definitely need a coder to build the product. I'd argue that having the same person do both of these things means that there is (a) a higher probability that the solution can actually be implemented as software and (b) that the software will actually work as expected by the customers. (Zed, I suspect that the Product Management role you mentioned might encapsulate these skills.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Mostly OT: as a somebody who programs computers I dont enjoy the word 'coder'. For me personally it has the mental connotation of somebody who is just there to 'code' it up, who is given a spec from above to implement, somebody who doesn't need to have any creativity to do his part of the software assembly line. I much prefer the titles 'programmer' or 'sw engineer' because they corelate with problem solving and creativity. Those are two traits without which a technical cofounder that's just a coder will probably be of less use.

<comment><USER14> Agreed. Nothing worse than hearing a non-technical-business-resource-humanoid mention that they'll just write up the specs and hand it to the coders. Unfortunately, that's the world we live in.

<comment><USER15> It's just lazy entrepreneurialism. Everyone wants to make lots of money without having to really do the taxing lowly day-to-day work.

<comment><USER14> Not in every case but most notably anyone working in the role of project manager, an actor who I give the hook to as soon as I'm on a project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Have to say, I feel like being a "non-coder" is becoming shorthand for calling someone second class in this tech startup ecosphere. As someone with lots to bring to the table, especially domain expertise, business acumen, marketing, design, etc etc. I always feel a bit on the outside looking in. I have started to learn to code but more so to become conversational with hackers/programmers/coders. I'll never be that good though, I know that. I might be able to get to the point where I can hack together a prototype or speak to someone like a conversational Spanish speaker speaks to a native Spanish speaker. But will that be good enough?

I feel like the point that needs to be made here is that EVERYONE has something to bring to the table. Everyone is good at something and on a TEAM, that's what matters. Sure a team of amazing coders can make something great, but a great product does not a great business make. Sometimes, ie PayPal and others, all coders create a hugely successful business. But Zuckerberg is not a great entrepreneur because he's a great coder. He's a great entrepreneur who happens to be able to code. So instead of worshipping at the alters of coders, and I have TONS of respect for what you guys can do, we need to acknowledge that a successful STARTUP is more than code. So much more. Its about assembling the right team with the right combination of skills. Coding is one of them sure, but to say its the only one and labeling someone who doesn't as "non-technical" like its a bad thing, negates the notion that a business runs on more than just what can be hacked together. If a car were just an engine, we'd still be driving model-Ts. What makes something beautiful, what makes it successful, what makes it sell for 1 billion dollars is the specific combination of skills and how they work in chorus to solve a need better than anyone else. And those skills are varied, complex, and come from a lot of different areas.

</comment><comment><USER17> This post is highly reminiscent of a previous post... [http://42floors.com/blog/posts/be-yourself-abnormal- people-c...](http://42floors.com/blog/posts/be-yourself-abnormal-people- create-abnormal-returns)

The recurring theme is..."Don't be a faker. Don't be a poser."

My two cents is that most of us feel like we got to where we are by "Paying Our Dues" and resent others who seem to jump to the top without making the sacrifices we made.

The real truth is...we all have stories playing in our heads of who we are, and what we accomplished. It is very easy to look across the street and wonder why you had to work so hard, and other seem to just have life handed to them on a silver platter.

The reality is though, we have no idea what challenges they faced and overcame, and more importantly they have no control of how we perceive them.

Seeing a programmer in a suit, upsets you cuz its fake, but it really upsets you because you know it took a heck of a lot more than a suit to get funding. Boy would it suck if he got funding just for wearing a suit.

Seeing a non-coder claim to be a technical founder must suck because you are a real founder, who knows what it really takes, and you feel you have no right to claim you are a technical founder.

The truth is, we can write whatever story we want about ourselves, and you can choose to believe whatever stories you want to about others. None of it really matters...

At the end of the game, "The Pawn and the King both go back in the same box."

I can really relate to how the author feels within other context, but I know that the day I let go of those perspectives, was the day I grew my wings and learn to fly. The day I realized I could be whoever i wanted to be. THe day I realized that no one needs to die to make me king....

MOST IMPORTANTLY... to all you young ones starting out. The folks insisting you need to pay your dues for years and years and one day you will reach the top... Remember, those old folks are your competition, it is in their best interest to keep you down. Sure, their experience and sacrifice counts for something... but if you want to be a technical co-founder, by all means... It's Your Life. Be Whoever You Want to Be.

</comment><comment><USER18> I find myself in an even stickier place. As a designer I work in HTML and CSS, borrow and implement other people's javascript to make my interfaces do nice things, and dance around in wordpress php, tumblr themeing, and the superficial code of other content management systems. Beyond that I certainly don't 'code'.

Sure I move around enough in ruby and python enough to make the pretty face I've designed work with the app and I certainly don't consider myself technical if asked, but I seem to be lightyears beyond the business or ideas person on the building side of things.

More than a superficial designer, less than a front end developer is one of the strangest places to be.

<comment><USER14> Make a choice then: learn to code or focus on design.

I can help you. I make double as a designer as what I made as a front-end developer and I'm also happier for it. The more focused you become on design the less dependent you'll be on either the business side or the engineering team. And you'll be more in-demand than either.

<comment><USER19> Any other tips in this regard?

<comment><USER14> Yeah, become really good at what you do for work unless it's something you really don't like doing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> While this post is simplistic (we all know there are a lot of technical posers) and the conclusion (found in the title) is wrong, there are a few good points made along the way.

Technical does not have to equal coder, although you can flip it around (all coders are technical) so it's a simple case of affirming the consequent. Happens to a lot of people. There are other technical skills that are quite valuable other than "coding" as noted here. I consider a passionate network admin, DBA, or sysadmin just as (or more) valuable as a "coder"

This paragraph is good though: "You can't build stuff. You can't take an idea in your head and produce a product that works. You haven't had things break on you. You haven't spend hours looking for a mistyped space. You don't get in the zone. You've never been on pager duty. You haven't spend 10 years learning your craft. You're reliant on other people to make things for you."

It even applies to people who "know how to code" (which by definition are "coders." It all comes down to passion.

I have no CS degree, certs, and haven't finished many programming books. However, I've been one of the best techs at my last few gigs. Why? Because I'm interested and passionate about this stuff. I go home at night with a problem, figure it out in the shower, SSH in, and test it out. It's fun to me to fix the problem, I don't want to wait till tomorrow.

I spent time in school breaking our school's intranet and housing electronic lock system (successfully) which I showed to our IT folk and they fixed it. Took a lot of time, but it was fun.

I sit at home (and work) reading source code, RFCs, man pages etc, while others Google for the first response. They may be a little faster, but they'll have to Google next time they hit that issue. I gained understanding, and I won't forget that.

</comment><comment><USER21> I see one exception to this rule, and it's something very specific.

If you're dealing with a very specific knowledge or domain and you're an expert in that field, I guess you could be a "technical non-coder"

For example: healthcare/medical, economy, statistics, etc Some of those can work their way around Matlab for example, but not create something on the web

</comment><comment><USER22> I've spent 10 years coding, and I'd be equally useless on a team building CPUs. Similarly, I'd be equally useless on a team building a kernel.

A company of one isn't much use, the corporate form allows people to come together to build more than they could on their own.

Who really cares if someone is or isn't 'technical'. One of the important roles of a CEO is being the interface between capital and labour.

A good CEO with a decent grasp of technology and a little bit of money can put together a team, they are far from useless. Everyone has a role to play, it's extremely myopic to think someone can't build a company simply because they don't code.

I doubt Steve Jobs had any idea how to program an iPhone and I doubt much of his code had anything to do with the rise of Apple once he retook the reigns in the 90s.

</comment><comment><USER23> >You can't build stuff. You can't take an idea in your head and produce a product that works.

>You haven't spend 10 years learning your craft. You're reliant on other people to make things for you.

I don't think that has been a problem for lots of people. Take Steve Jobs, as far as I'm aware, he didn't write any code for Apple. What would his answer be when asked, in relation to his company, "Are you technical"? I don't know, but as the founder of a technology company, I imagine he would say yes. Or something to that effect. He's pitching a tech product.

As many others have said, if you want to know if someone is a programmer, ask them.

</comment><comment><USER24> The more painful part of the article is the subtext that a startup's "product" is by definition something built in a few months with RoR or Django.

For all the talk of how much angel and V.C. money is available for young companies, it's not going to do much if investors won't branch out into ACTUALLY new product areas.

</comment><comment><USER25> I think this misses the true hardship of non-technical founders. I'm a programmer working with a non-technical cofounder and it isn't me vs her, I don't think I'm putting in more than her because she does the pitches, meetings, e-mails, finances, etc.

If you are a non-technical founder and you can prevent your technical founder from doing anything non-technical... you are pulling your weight!

That being said, the problems I have with a non-techie is that she doesn't understand the tech things:

1\. E-mail is not a todo list, we have a bug tracking system.

2\. Stop talking about "Your programmer friend said...", I understand you don't know technology and want to verify what I say but how is not understanding it from 2 people instead of 1 going to help?

3\. Open Source is important, so yes we will be committing to our github once in awhile on company time, that is because we are using that project for the company.

4\. Alpha/Beta is different than MVP. Just because something is ready to show you doesn't mean its ready to be shown to the world.

<comment><USER26> 3,4 seem business and not technical. If you can't get those, you can't get software development business and shouldn't be involved with one in a leadership role.

#3 you disagree with and decide against, but you have to understand why.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I don't even listen to a non-coders pitch these days as they can't do any of the real work.

Jason writes as though he understands the life of a coder. I love that. Perhaps that's the most important aspect of being a non-coder.

I've also noticed that non-technical people tend to care more about MBAs, degrees, and are easily woo'd by the name dropping of past employers. Whereas coders focus more on experience and live examples of work.

</comment><comment><USER28> Yet another black versus white discussion. Technical versus non technical. Coder versus non coder.

The two cannot co-exist? You are either one or the other?

<comment><USER29> Agreed. It's one of those blog posts that reflects the deep ignorance of the poster. Wish I caught the article before it was too late to flag, and saved the author the embarrassment of being discussed on HN.

I would only invite someone aboard who articulated these feelings if they were very junior and I thought they had potential.

If they were trying to be an investor, game over. Don't need people who think they know more than they do in a position of authority. They inevitably wreck the morale of the entire company, and can literally kill it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Can there be such a thing as semi-technical?

I have built products, coded them myself or with some oDesk help, and can at least read Python, PHP, and (less so) Ruby. I got the most technical MBA you can get (MIT Sloan) and have utmost respect for engineers.

I've run a chown -R from the root dir when I thought I was in my Wordpress dir and effectively killed the server. I've spent hours troubleshooting CodeIgniter problems and http 500 errors. For this, I have a Clintonian "I feel your pain" view towards programmers/coders/engineers/so-called-technical people.

So my point is this: I think it IS important, if you run a website, to try to build stuff on your own. But just because you can't build your own libraries doesn't mean you can't say you're "technical".

If someone asked me, I'd probably say "yes" but qualify it. I'm not a technical builder, but I understand what it takes to get technical things built.

</comment><comment><USER31> Someone might be really good at managing networks or keeping a site going under heavy load, but they might not be good at programming. Are they non- technical? On the same front, someone who is good at coding, may not be the best person in the world for keeping a Web app under heavy load and managing traffic from around the world. Someone with an information systems engineering degree, for instance, may know how to code, but not that well, and still have an extensive technical background.

If you want to know if someone can program, ask them if they can program, and then ask them to what extent, what kind of programing they do, etc.

</comment><comment><USER32> It comes down to the question asked. He just needs to ask for coders outright.

</comment><comment><USER33> God! So many typos! Still, I agree with everything said here.

<comment><USER34> Yes, he'll need a non-technical person to teach him when to use _then_ , and when to use _than_. Believe it or not, that's very important and they are different words with different meanings. Perhaps an English/PR major or a well-rounded MBA to cover all the non-technical stuff a business needs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I think this is an overly simplistic dichotomy. There are definitely people who are "technical" who wouldn't be the ideal person to build out a big data startup's software (for example). As a founder, they might be more useful in shaping product vision, defining marketing strategy, doing business development etc, but not necessarily actually doing the hands on coding. Is this person technical? Certainly. Is this person building the product? No.

</comment><comment><USER36> From what I've seen of the software/web world technical means just that: technical.

This includes but is not limited to Programmers, Operations, and even your Sales Engineers. I've seen Operations guys who understand technology orders of magnitude better than programmers at the same company.

What the author is referring to is slightly different and imho he badly expresses it. Being able to use the internet and an iPhone is not technical that is just internet savvy.

</comment><comment><USER17> The legend goes that Abraham Lincoln had a terrible temper. Whenever someone upset him, he would write the fellow a nasty letter and drop it in the mail and he would feel better. Years later it was discovered that his wife would remove the letters from the mailbox and noone ever saw them.

While this post never told a lie and certainly didnt chop down any cherry trees i suspect it hurt more people than it helped.

</comment><comment><USER37> Summary: There are people that equivocate "technical" with something other than an invitation for clarification and discussion.

</comment><comment><USER38> Hmm.

You can be technical without being a coder - the problem is most people confuse being technical with having some technical knowledge.

</comment><comment><USER39> Whatever.

I haven't been a 'coder' since 1994 yet I'm defiantly "technical". The teams I lead, AFAIK, don't question my contributions because I don't code. Nor are my designs less valid.

In fact, my years of involvement on the operations side of the house sometimes make my choice 'technical' choices more informed than what straight coders cook up.

Again, phooey.

</comment><comment><USER40> This post equates coding skills with creativity/character/skills, required to build a product or a business.

Maybe ask Kevin?

:-)

</comment><comment><USER41> Kinda inspirational.</comment>


We Used WebAssembly to Speed Up Our Web App by 20X - <AUTHOR> https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/04/webassembly-speed-web-app/ <comment><USER2> Is wasm really faster than javascript? Can't the browser compile javascript some something just as fast?

Or was the C code in this example better optimized?</comment>


Ask HN: Why don't cloud providers have regions in France? - <AUTHOR> Neither AWS nor Google have any regions in France.
Digital Ocean doesn't have a region in France.
Azure has at least made an effort:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-cloud-coming-to-france/
What is it about France that cloud hosting providers are deterred by? <comment><USER2> Some guesses:

1) Cost of doing business

2) Relatively small market compared to other EU/Americas/Asia

3) Complex regulation

4) German data centers are good enough in terms of latency and regulation

5) Cost of local labor (French employment laws are costly to business and good for workers haha)</comment>


From selling admin templates on a marketplace to creating our own platform - <AUTHOR> https://flatlogic.com/blog/from-selling-admin-templates-on-a-marketplace-to-creating-our-own-platform-a-story-of-flatlogic/ <comment><USER2> The problem with all those themes are they're all basically identical to each other, just variations on a theme and there's nothing there that's actually functionally useful, as in could be used (by me) in an actual real-world project.

<comment><AUTHOR> Why do you think there is such a demand for them then?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> OP is here.

We have been selling admin dashboard templates for five years on Wrapbootstrap and now developed our own platform.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments!</comment>