How would you improve BART? - <AUTHOR> http://www.futurebart.org/

<comment><USER2> These kind of pseudo-public-feedback surveys where the solutions available are presented as a limited set of options, all funneling towards what the agency wanted to do in the first place, really bug me.

You've got an entrenched bureaucracy that's paralyzed by a dysfunctional relationship with unions and a We've Always Done Things This Way™ mentality presenting what they think are the only options for fixing a system like BART.

Not one word about eliminating waste, improving efficiency, or innovation. Just a thinly-veiled complaint about budget shortfalls and an obvious plea for a sales tax increase to fill their coffers.

It would be wonderful if BART actually solicited public feedback on ways to improve the system. We're right in the middle of the most vibrant tech corridor in the nation, if not the world. You've got innovators and entrepreneurs that ride the system every day, many of whom would leap at the chance to fix an outdated, bureaucratic culture like the Bay Area Rapid Transit.

This is just an advocacy page for a bigger BART budget.

<comment><USER3> Where does all the money _go_? The Bay Area, and NYC even more so, spend far more than anywhere else in the world for an equivalent level of rail service. The "Central Subway" (only 2 km of tunnel!) will cost $1.6 billion; at the end of the day, that money is going into someone's pocket. Whose? As far as I can tell, nobody in local government has the foggiest idea - the contractors all hide what they're doing under a cloak of darkness. Maybe FOIA should be extended to private contractors for contracts over a certain amount.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> First thing I looked for was, "Bart around the Bay" \- nothing there. It's beyond me why nobody has made getting Bart circling the bay a priority, and really is a blight on "Bay Area" transit.

<comment><USER5> San Jose station and 24x7 service. Not having either of these makes BART nearly worthless to me. If they had these things, I would use BART probably a few times a week to go to SF from SJ. Right now, I drive instead (1x on average every other week) to night clubs / bars / dinner in SF / Berkeley. I can park at Millbrae and take BART into the city, but doing so is only useful if I'm going to be back before ~midnight.

Caltrain is not an option because the service isn't 24x7, it's terribly slow, the train doesn't come often enough, and the station isn't close to where I live. The last 2 are just personal annoyances, but I think the first 2 are enough to make it a much-less-desirable option vs driving for people who would otherwise take it. That the cars are ridiculously over-built because they technically share tracks with freight trains (from what I've read, this is also what makes them so horribly loud and inefficient [which also makes the system much more expensive to run]) and do lots of PR damage by having very loud horns (my speculation: is that also related to the shares-tracks-with- freight-trains thing?) are just rotten cherries on top.

Public transit isn't easy, but it's also not impossible. I know that even the Bay Area doesn't have the population density of places with their public transit

<comment><USER6> An express caltrain is faster than driving (unless you encounter no traffic, in which case the drive would be 9 mins faster) and you don't have to worry about parking. It's not quite as bad as you say. No 24/7 service is really annoying though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Cleaning up and modernizing trains would be a big one for me. I rode BART again recently for the first time in 17 years and it looked, felt and smelled exactly the same as back in 1998. It's a disgrace for an Alpha-World City. A homeless person was driving back and forth, sleeping on the front seats. The seats and carpet were decades old. How hard can it be to at least modernize/clean the rolling stock, if you're not willing to invest in new ones?

<comment><USER8> They actually are investing in new ones.

[http://www.bart.gov/about/projects/cars](http://www.bart.gov/about/projects/cars)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Where is the option for "24 hour service on Fridays and Saturdays?"

<comment><USER10> "Second transbay tube" and "increased capacity in core" together allow 24/7 BART service. This is a commonly requested thing, and these are the things needed to make it happen.

<comment><USER6> Can you explain why more track is needed for a service that doesn't run 24/7 to allow it to run 24/7?

<comment><USER11> BART does not currently run 24/7 primarily because they have to perform maintenance on the system, some of which requires that trains are not running. This is especially the case for the Transbay Tube which requires a lot of attention.

If BART had two tubes then they could run 24/7 and still complete the required maintenance with shut down periods staggered at different times for each tube. This would allow the full system to remain running 24/7.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Scrolled down to not find, "Finish Bart to San Jose", or Connect to new 49ers stadium. I don't even live in the South Bay, and that seems like the most important project.

<comment><USER13> I think it is already in the plans to extend to San Jose and then to Santa Clara.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Bart is supposed to be a figure 8 loop in the bay, or at least a full loop through San jose and up the peninsula.

The rich will never let this happen in Palo Alto, atherton, etc.

</comment><comment><USER15> More parking capacity in the Bart station. A lot of people decide to drive to the city because they cannot find a parking space in some stations. It is not practical for them to walk or bike to the stations due to a variety of difficulties.

The extra parking space could be achieved either by converting the basic and space-inefficient one floor parking ramp to two floors, or building a new underground one.

</comment><comment><USER16> BART really should be a circle line around the bay.

<comment><USER17> I read somewhere that getting it to go through the Peninsula (with affluent homeowners fighting such construction) would be a non-starter. I don't recall how Caltrain factored in (it may be a little quieter but it's still certainly pretty loud and runs right through the Peninsula), but I suspect this is why they didn't bother to include that or other options extending service toward the South Bay.

<comment><USER4> Caltrain runs a screeching loud horn and rumbling noise everywhere it runs. I stayed at a hotel recently (Sequoia Inn, 526 El Camino) - and I was forced to use ear plugs to get any sleep while the Caltrain was running. And I'm a heavy sleeper.

<comment><USER18> If I remember correctly, legislation was passed in 2007 requiring trains everywhere in the US to blast their horn four times (length unspecified) before every crossing. The only exceptions are quad-gated crossing (I believe that means a gate covering each lane of traffic on _both_ sides) or in specified "quiet zones".

In my area, the trains only get active at around 11:30pm, an continue their racket through the entire night. I'm regularly awakened by needlessly long honking around 4am. It's awful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Cut the pay to the BART board, do away with life time "free access" passes, and run for longer hours.

<comment><USER20> So assume there are 200 board members (a stupid number) each having their pay cut by $100k (another stupid number), and each of those have 5 passes for their family members who ride BART every day of the year from one end to the other (about a $10 ride) -- thats $20.365m. Where's the rest of the money going to come from?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> FYI, former BART Director Robert S. Allen made Internet comments railing against transit-oriented development. [0] One of the underlying attitudes that drives today's transit situation is this notion of segregation via restricted transit access.

[0] [http://systemicfailure.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/ex-bart- dire...](http://systemicfailure.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/ex-bart-director- says-transit-oriented-development-attracts-thugs/)

</comment><comment><USER22> I would make single car trains that are built by tesla and go exactly where you need. Need to go directly to Fremont? Get on a train that is routed directly to your destination with other patrons from Embarcadero to Fremont. No unnecessary stops. This would require infrastructure for stations to include "offramps", but with a modular bus system (think uber), your ride would be available at the Fremont station waiting to take you the last few miles.

</comment><comment><USER23> This whole site feels like pure PR to me. BART wants the problems facing them to look huge, and their current funding sources to look massively insufficient.

</comment><comment><USER24> BART will go to San Jose in 2018 paid for by Santa Clara County tax payers and federal funding. You would still have to take VTA's LRT to the 49ers stadium from the future Milpitas Station.

</comment><comment><USER25> For reference here's some plans for the next few years of upgrades to the London Underground [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Q0FZUKHkY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Q0FZUKHkY)

</comment><comment><USER26> Bike cars with dedicated bike racks.</comment>


The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the World - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/article/the-most-addictive-sounds-in-the-world-advertising-neuromarketing

<comment><USER2> I'm a bit skeptical of the "science" they used to carry out this test.

For one thing, I can't believe the left off the NBC chime. This seems much more recognizable to the average joe than any other branded sounds they claim are the most addictive.

I am a bit annoyed at how many journalists use such ridiculous hyperbole in naming their articles.

"The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the World"

Most of their top 10 belong to American brands, etc. I doubt this study truly applies to the entire WORLD. And I'd like to think that the company who did the study did not have such ridiculous claims. (though with names like Buyology Inc. and Elias Arts, I am a bit more skeptical about their ability to carry out an unbiased scientific experiment)

The problem is that journalists have no external check on them. They can give such ridiculous inflated claims with no repercussions. Almost every other field has some kind of consequence for making wildly ridiculous claims using absolutes and things that aren't true.

<comment><USER3> I agree that this list is utter nonsense. It's pure linkbait and imho way under HN niveau.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Bah. Addictive should be replaced by well-known or somewhat recognized. And _in the world_ should be replace by _in the narrow strip of culture the author inhabits_ and _first kisses and sweaty palms_ should be replaced by _vague interest in something familiar from long ago_. Then, the whole article should be thrown out as good for nothing.

</comment><comment><USER5>
        10. Late Night with David Letterman Theme

What?! I watch that show somewhat regularly and doubt that I would recognize it unnamed.

</comment><comment><USER6> And in the UK the Nokia Ringtone... although not addictive highly annoying and ubiquitous.</comment>


The struggle to name lab-grown meat - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1767441/cultured-or-cell-based-the-struggle-to-name-lab-grown-meat/ <comment><USER3> There's a parallel issue with traditional meat farmers banding together to prevent labelling this as "meat". I agree with them when it comes to plant based meat imitators but cultured meat is a harder sell for me. This is actual meat tissue.

<comment><USER4> If the French can stop you from calling your chemically identical sparkling white wine "Champagne", I see no reason why meat farmers shouldn't be able to stop you from calling your industrially-grown bovine cell culture "meat".

<comment><USER3> Champagne is the name of a region, and the grapes and finally the wine inherit the name from that region. Because the taste of grapes are affected by weather the actual region of production makes a difference. I don't consider it quite the same thing.

That said, there is little consistency in how things are named and often it comes down to the relative power of one special interest over another. We shall see how this shakes out.

<comment><USER5> FWIW, the grapes aren't called Champagne. Champagne sparkling wine usually uses Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or Chardonnay grapes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Just use what William Gibson does and call it "Vat grown"

 _" Jesus," Molly said, her own plate empty, "gimme that. You know what this costs?" She took his plate. 'They gotta raise a whole animal for years and then they kill it. This isn't vat stuff." She forked a mouthful up and chewed._ \- Neuromancer

</comment><comment><USER7> What about "ethical meat"?

I love meat, but I still think killing an animal for food, when you don't _really_ have to, is an ethical gray area. Lab-grown meat is the first time we don't have to consider the ethics of killing an animal in order to eat meat.

<comment><USER8> Fun fact: all the lab grown meat today requires fetal bovine serum - <USER2> literally kill newborn calves and suck the juices out of their hearts to grow these meats.

[https://slate.com/technology/2017/07/the-gruesome-truth- abou...](https://slate.com/technology/2017/07/the-gruesome-truth-about-lab- grown-meat.html)

<comment><USER9> Why not abort the fetuses?

<comment><USER8> No idea - I assume because it's easier? This isn't my wheelhouse. I just remember when I found out I was surprised it seemed nobody else knew (at least everybody else I told seemed surprised) since it's pushed so heavily as an ethical alternative to meat and they're still killing animals to make it.

<comment><USER10> Once the culture is started you don't have to kill more calves. Of course, accidents when growing cell cultures still happen.

<comment><USER8> But how much meat do you get from each culture?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> seph-reed I've been hearing it called "Shmeat" since almost 2008. Appears that word has been given a new definition since then.

</comment><comment><USER11> Maet. _" have some maet, mate"_

(this is a riff on mylk which is what the nuts are doing over the dairy aisle)

Soy links are universally crap. Nut loaf is better. Not<x> is quite popular, but the meat aisle packers are now fighting back, ring-fencing the vegan fake meat options to a slum stand at the end.

</comment><comment><USER12> Steal from science fiction: ChickieNobs

[http://remotestorage.blogspot.com/2010/07/margaret- atwoods-c...](http://remotestorage.blogspot.com/2010/07/margaret-atwoods- chickienobs.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> factory meat? ivf-meat? meat-that-may-or-may-not-contain-human-genetic- material? meat(lol)? bambi-approved meat?

I'd still eat it if they make it taste like wagyu tbh. Maybe they should popularize it by donating it to food banks and set quotas for it on food stamps.

<comment><USER4> Sure, if there's one thing that will convince the masses that they should be eating weird vat-grown animal tissue, it's telling them "Hey, all the poor people are doing it!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Does it taste like sadness, like in Better Off Ted?

</comment><comment><USER15> 'Clean Meat' is my preferred nomenclature when describing it to people. They seem more open to it than anything else.

</comment><comment><USER16> I guess Soylent Green is taken?

<comment><USER17> "Soylent" is an actual liquid food product. Wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting, name gave me a chuckle.

<comment><USER18> That was the joke.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> 'semen-free meat'

</comment><comment><USER19> Synflesh

</comment><comment><USER20> Feat

</comment><comment><USER21> It's Impossible!

</comment><comment><USER22> DEADBEEF

</comment><comment><USER23> Imeatation

Meatshift (makeshift)

Fabricow

Immicow

Tubesteak <\-- Come on!

</comment><comment><USER24> TVP?

<comment><USER25> That's already taken by "textured vegetable protein".

<comment><USER24> Which is why I mentioned it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> ugh, just take a page from tech marketing. Virtual meat or Smart meat or Cloud meat or Meatless meat . Or just Frankestein Meat

</comment><comment><USER27> The article side-steps the ethical issue lurking behind lab-grown meat. Many animals would never have had a life if they hadn't been raised for food.

<comment><USER28> There are infinitely many possible lives that didn't happen for infinitely many different reasons. I'm not sure it makes sense to value hypothetical lives.</comment></comment>


Impact of Data Science and AI on tech deliveries and how to mitigate complexity - <AUTHOR> https://datalanguage.com/features/current-impacts-of-ai-on-technology-delivery <comment><USER2> Nice mitigation strategies. Domain modelling is essential imho</comment>


Finding a Hacking Date in Switzerland - <AUTHOR> https://hack.digitalglarus.ch/hacking-date-in-digital-glarus.html <comment><USER2> Wow. 590 CHF seems incredibly inexpensive.

I'm a bit confused about the term 'date' in this context, though. What does it mean, here?

<comment><AUTHOR> Date as in: looking forward to meet you. And yes, the main objective is to support hacking and learning together - so the project only has to write black numbers, not make huge profits</comment></comment>


Coursera's free online courses delayed further - <AUTHOR> http://www.aiqus.com/questions/37055/nlp-delayed-again

<comment><AUTHOR> I just received emails about NLP and PGM, and still haven't heard from other classes. Does anyone know any of the details around the issues they're facing?

Good on Scott Page for getting some Model Thinking videos up nonetheless. <https://www.coursera.org/modelthinking/auth/welcome></comment>


Show HN: ENVy, a Development Environment Manager - <AUTHOR> https://envy-project.github.io/ <comment><USER2> What advantage does this offer over just using docker-compose directly?

<comment><AUTHOR> We found that working inside a docker container isn't usually turn-key.

You need to figure out a system to get UID/GIDs in sync between the container and the host (otherwise you mess up permissions of files in your repository. This isn't terribly hard, but is annoying boilerplate to keep writing.

Plus, docker-compose doesn't really offer command discovery. Looking at a docker compose file, I don't know how to run the project's build steps, or run their linter or tests. Having to look that up is, in my opinion, annoying.

In general, we try to provide sane defaults, so that users (and to some extent maintainers) don't need to understand Docker and how it works in order to start using it.

<comment><USER3> > Plus, docker-compose doesn't really offer command discovery. Looking at a > docker compose file, I don't know how to run the project's build steps, or > run their linter or tests. Having to look that up is, in my opinion, > annoying.

Shouldn't this be in the README at / of the project?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi Hacker News!

We have been working on a tool called ENVy:

[http://envy-project.github.io/](http://envy-project.github.io/) [https://github.com/envy-project/envy](https://github.com/envy-project/envy)

ENVy is an environment manager to make working on disparate projects easier. You don't need to worry about what a package is called on your Linux distribution, or figure out how to build for Mac from scratch.

Part of our goal was to make it easier to contribute to open source. We noticed that long contributing guides dissuades casual involvement - if you have to install a bunch of dependencies (that you won't necessarily know how or remember to get rid of), and spend half an hour getting set up, you're not very likely to fix a typo or make a 30 second fix for a personally annoying bug.

There's also some value for business projects - we've found times that you just need to make a "simple" change to another team's codebase, and it turns into a multi-day effort of setting up an environment.

Setup with ENVy is as simple as typing `envy up` for any project you want to work on. Running `envy nuke` removes all traces of that environment. With ENVy, you don't need to hunt down a lint command or how you run the tests. `envy -h` shows you all the commands you can run - or just jump into a shell with `envy shell`.

You can read more about ENVy on our site, but the short version is that we think it'll make it easier for contributors to help out in open-source projects.

If you're interested, you can check out some examples to get up and running:

[https://github.com/envy-project/examples](https://github.com/envy- project/examples)

Under the hood, it handles the intricacies of setting up and working within a Docker container - it sounds simple on the surface, but networking, file permissions, and setup can wind up being kind of complicated.

We definitely realize that a critical mass of users and projects is required to have this be a truly useful project, and we've started to open some pull requests in open-source projects to gauge maintainer interest.

<comment><USER2> Is this at all related to progrium's envy? ([https://github.com/progrium/envy](https://github.com/progrium/envy))

<comment><AUTHOR> We did find that project as well. It's unrelated though - ours is intended to run on your local machine whereas that one seems intended to run on a server somewhere.

Unfortunate naming collision though :(

<comment><USER4> I don't think that's going to prevent confusion. I'd have assumed they were phases of the same project at a casual glance.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Amazon Prime Wardrobe lets you try on and return clothes free - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/20/amazon-prime-wardrobe <comment><USER2> Other than the discount for keeping multiple items, I'm not sure what's so special about this. You can order a box of clothes from most major retailers, with free shipping and free returns, and with usually a 30+ day return policy. Here, you only have 7 days to return.

<comment><USER3> As someone that buys 80% of my clothes online, this has rarely been the case for me. I'm lucky if I can get free shipping to my home and have only experienced free return shipping, uhhhh, well not sure if I ever have.

Where do you buy your clothes? I use Gilt, Mr. Porter, and brand specific pages. My last online purchase was from sevenforallMankind where I bought a pricey pair of jeans and if I needed to return them it would have been $5 for shipping.

<comment><USER4> Gilt is a poor example because it's a nearly out of business discount shop. but Mr porter and most online stores will offer free shipping and returns. The exception are a lot of brand specific pages - 7formankind i always found to be really bad. But try all the hundreds of boutique web stores - i've never seen them charge for return shipping.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think what's a game-changer here is if they only charge your credit card after the 7 days. It's not very clear, but they do say that you only pay for what you keep. And this could be huge.

15 items could easily be $1,000, and asking someone to pay a $1,000 just to try, even if they know they can return and get a refund, is a huge barrier. If Amazon would indeed charge you only after the 7-days, they could convert a lot of store buyers their ways.

<comment><USER6> Indeed this is a very common practice in the high end fashion business where people use personal stylists to help them pick clothes. The stylist grabs a bunch of products for the client, sends them "on memo" or "on consignment" and they pay for only what they don't return. Even when you're dealing with clients for whom floating a few thousand dollars is no big deal, the psychological impact of not actually hitting their card until the return is compelling enough to retailers that they are willing to give up the inventory for that 5 to 10 day period.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> For German customers this is nothing special.

As a customer, you can order from any Retailer and return within 14 days without giving any reason, as we have a special "Fernabsatzgesetz" (Distance Selling Act).

Nearly every Retailer offers free returns and above 40 Euro purchase value, returns even have to be free of charge.

Many Retailers offer more than 14 days, 30 days is nothing special and some like Zalando (a Zappos clone) even offer 100 days of free returns.

<comment><USER8> > above 40 Euro purchase value, returns even have to be free of charge

This was removed from the law in June 2014. Retailers can now say that customers need to pay a carrier for the shipment back regardless of value. Some do, most don't. They can however never charge "restocking fees" or whatnot. The same day the EU Consumer Rights Directive was put in force so all EU customers now have this protection.

(The Fernabsatzgesetz was removed in 2002 by the way. This topic is now regulated in the usual BGB.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Not a good day to be Stitch Fix...

Classic Amazon/Google move, take away the easy appeal and marginalize the growing competitor, forcing them to innovate if they're going to find a role.

<comment><USER10> I don't think this will have much of an impact on Stitch Fix.

Stitch Fix's proposition isn't free returns - plenty of places sell clothes online with free returns - Stitch Fix's appeal is that they will do the work of picking out potential items for you so that you don't have to comb through hundreds of items to find what you want.

It mostly just seems like Amazon is bringing free returns to the low end of the market.

<comment><USER11> Bear in mind that Amazon already has all the pieces in place to offer ML- driven recommendations, and I would be surprised if it didn't offer that option once this gets out of beta.

It's possible ML-driven recommendations may surpass the recommendations of StitchFix's "personal stylists" in terms of accuracy. And unless "personal stylists" is just a market-facing name for "algorithms," ML-driven recommendations by Amazon would certainly surpass StitchFix in terms of efficiency and operating costs.

<comment><USER12> You might be surprised how much data science drives StitchFix; I sure was when this came out recently: [http://algorithms- tour.stitchfix.com/](http://algorithms-tour.stitchfix.com/)

<comment><USER9> Wow. It doesn't tell you fully how they actually do it, but I'm still a little surprised they put that out there

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> So now knock off clothing will be the new electronics on Amazon. Fake clothing, fake brands.. who really knows.

In our town there is a boutique in a strip mall. They cut off the tags from other store's products and put their on their merchandise. A high schooler kid was heard telling her friends her job is to do this.. Some were clearance from Walmart; others Kohls.

Amazon should really figure out how to not allow knock offs.

<comment><USER14> > So now knock off clothing will be the new electronics on Amazon. Fake > clothing, fake brands.. who really knows.

It already is, unfortunately, at least that's been my personal experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is one of the things I miss most of the USA, ability to return anything, especially clothes.

In most of Asia, and maybe around the world. There's no return policy. It sucks.

<comment><USER16> In EU you have 14 days to return anything bought online without giving any reason, and seller must refund you as soon as it gets the items back. Some give more weeks, but 14 days is the legal minimum.

<comment><USER17> The EU 14-day online returns is an extension of the older regulation against high-pressure sales tactics, like telephone sales, door-to-door sales, and booths on the street.

It allows you to change your mind if you made an impulse purchase, but not really to "test" a product. The returned item must be unused and in new condition, with any seals unbroken - generally if you open the box or rip any plastic bags the online retailer doesn't _have_ to accept a return any more.

<comment><USER16> The seals unbroken is valid only for a very restricted type of items (sealed audio, video or computer software, such as DVDs, which you have unsealed upon receipt [1]).

Also, in general, there is no "unused" or "box sealed" condition. Just you have to return the item undamaged and "as it was".

You are required to take good care of the goods and you may be liable for the reduced value of goods caused by handling them beyond what's necessary to be sure they work and are what you ordered. [2]

[1] [http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guar...](http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees- returns/index_en.htm) [2] [https://www.ccpc.ie/consumers/shopping/buying- online/your-ri...](https://www.ccpc.ie/consumers/shopping/buying-online/your- rights-online/#Changeofmind)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> So, like every online clothing and shoe retailer has for years,since not long after it was Zappos initial distinguishing feature which everyone copied since it was so obviously highly preferred by consumers.

By now, that's about as notable as delivering goods to your door in cardboard boxes.

<comment><USER19> But the game changer is the 10-20% off your purchase. That's a pretty big deal. Not only that, but no upfront costs.

Amazon already had free shipping and returns before for Prime users. This however is a completely different psychology to online shopping.

<comment><USER18> > But the game changer is the 10-20% off your purchase.

[...]

> This however is a completely different psychology to online shopping.

"Buy more and get a discount which increases, within some range, based on quantiry" is not new in any area of retail, including online shopping.

<comment><USER19> > "Buy more and get a discount which increases, within some range, based on > quantiry"

What amazon is doing is not the same as this quote. This isn't buying in bulk. This is more kin to B&M retail shopping where you don't have to pay any upfront costs to try on an article of clothing and assess fit. Only now, it's in the comfort of your own home.

The discount would be icing on the cake, but in the realm of fashion, 10-20% off is game changer.

<comment><USER18> > The discount would be icing on the cake, but in the realm of fashion, 10-20% > off is game changer.

Quantity-based discounts of 10-20% at volumes of 3-5 items are _low_ in clothing retail; 25% at a quantity of two isn't uncommon (consistency and simplicity across the board of the Amazon discount structure might be somewhat novel, but the _level_ of discount is not.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> > _Pick well and you get a bonus discount. But pick poorly and the most it > costs you is a trip to UPS_

In the video, they say/show that it includes a printed prepaid label and home- pickup. So you don't even have to go to UPS.

<comment><USER20> The article has been updated in light of this comment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Why doesn't Amazon leverage Zappos (an Amazon subsidary)? Their service and return policy (1 year) are amazing.

It seems odd to compete with Zappos when it already has a loyal user base.

<comment><USER22> I think it's safe to assume that Amazon has a reason to not "leverage" Zappos, e.g. maybe Zappos margins are much lower or there's substantial upside to having people shop on the main Amazon site and throw some electronics in their cart while they're at it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I think they have to do this, in the UK, under UK trading laws.

It's a bit of a problem because, "this is why we can't have nice things", some people are arseholes.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37711091](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37711091)

> "I return half of what I buy," says 30-year-old Alex Demetri, who spends > £500 to £700 on clothes each month.

> She also admits to wearing some of her clothes first before returning them.

> It is customers like Ms Demetri who are causing problems for shops, which > are "struggling to cope" with the number of items returned, new research > suggests.

</comment><comment><USER24> I don't understand why this is a differentiator in clothes shopping online. The thing is you can return stuff without going to the store. But the most time is spent in browsing through items and trying them out. Returning items at a store does not take time at all. He cannot imagine that alone being a selling point for either Amazon prime or for trunkclub.

</comment><comment><USER25> Psychologically it strikes me as quite a similar approach to micro-transaction mobile gaming. I mean, the incentive to "save" by purchasing more really bothers me on a fundamental level. As in, my imagination is running wild with what percentage of the eventual Customer Base are, for lack of a better term, suffering from a Compulsion or Addiction to Buying Things? I'm sure an algorithm could spot it, but why bother? They're good for business, right?

Between housewares, groceries, and now clothes, is there any more clear philosophy that Amazon wants us to never leave the house and socialize with one another? I mean, it's not that far from potential reality. Between mobile phone self-isolation and never having to actually go to stores where people work to make a living, this is kind of an unnerving future. Well, for those of us who want to preserve some shreds of humanity under the shadow of the Amazonmandyias Bezos is building.

<comment><USER26> > Between housewares, groceries, and now clothes, is there any more clear > philosophy that Amazon wants us to never leave the house and socialize with > one another?

Well, I suppose you might have a point if your only source of interaction with other people is at a mall. However, the less time I spend in a shopping mall or grocery store, the more time I have to get outside, take a bike ride, hike with the family, sit outside at a cafe, garden, etc. If anything, the less time I need to waste at a physical store, the more free time I have to leave the house and socialize with others in a much more authentic setting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I remember reading about a large company in Russia doing something at least 4 or 5 years ago (I think it was Lamoda?) where they sent along a "fashion assistant" with your selection of clothes.

The fashion assistant drives to your place with all the clothes you want to try, waits for you to try them on, perhaps offers some suggestions, and then leaves with whatever you don't want.

Has this type of idea ever been explored in the US?

</comment><comment><USER28> As a large guy, this could be potentially a big deal (no pun intended). I hate clothes shopping, and usually wind up having to try on 2 sizes of everything, sometimes the larger size fits, sometimes the smaller... often I need to have a collar lifted regardless.

Frankly, if custom ordering shirts/pants weren't hard to do right and as costly, I'd just do that.

</comment><comment><USER29> Noticed there's a flag on certain items for Prime Wardrobe. Since there's a 3 item minimum I wonder if this is really just a way to force people to buy more than they normally would.

They do the same thing (kinda) with Prime Exclusives, which are laughably almost always available at Walmart and Target for the same price or cheaper...

<comment><USER22> The most annoying thing (to me) on Amazon is the fact that some items can _only_ be bought as PrimePantry shipments.

I understand PrimePantry for heavy/bulky items like laundry detergent. I don't get it for lightweight stuff like razor blades. I can't figure out why those items can't be bought as Add-On items to regular shipments.

<comment><USER29> Even addon-items. I'd gladly pay extra to ship them. But no, gotta force me to buy 30 dollars of junk I don't need all for a little box of paperclips.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> My girlfriend does this already, but uses the return system from various stores. Buys identical things in different sizes to see what fits best, returns the ones that does not fit.

Makes sense to have the discount if you keep items, savings from processing returns.

<comment><USER31> As a retailer I hate this style and we make sure we add a hefty restocking fee if an outfit is no longer in a pristine condition. We compete on price, strive to bring best deal US-wide to our customers, but can't really sustain/accept model allowing this. It's also unbelievably damaging to environment and customers like this aren't worth anything to us.

<comment><USER32> I work at a company doing retail return analytics (pretty niche) and we've found that looking at returning customer segments gives a wider picture. In many cases, high returning customers can be your most profitable in the long term even after considering cost of returns. Particular segments keep more than any other (from a financial perspective) despite being returning a disporportionate amount of the things they buy. They're the most loyal, most tolerant and often the highest value customers.

<comment><USER31> Clothing retail is super low margin unless you sell high-end luxury goods. This approach eats basically all the profit and it's not worth for us to have an average gain of $0.01 on such a customer; we go gladly without them. It's also like some photographers buy an outfit for a photoshoot and return it back right after they are done. We can then only sell it off for scraps on eBay etc. giving us both headache and unnecessary work. If Amazon wants those customers and burn money on them, let them.

<comment><USER32> We work primarily with fashion retailers. Our customers have fairly high margins even though their clothes range from low end to high end.

Wear and return is certainly prevalent though our customers see it more often in occasion-wear (for example bridesmaid dresses). Their average customer values (even their highest returning customers) far exceed $0.01. I'd be really interested in learning why things are so different at your organisation (not that I doubt you but it would make for a really interesting dataset!)

We generally try to help clients integrate returns prediction into their business rules. For example if you've got scarcity of stock, perhaps prioritise customers who are most likely to keep items. Or if you're handling customer calls at the contact centre, prioritise customers who are returns sensitive (those who probably won't shop with you ever again if they have a poor returns experience).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> How does this differentiate from the offerings of other clothiers like TrunkClub (which is a Nordstrom's acquisition)?

Perhaps because it's not a subscription model in the way TC works, people feel less pressure to keep something?

<comment><USER34> > How does this differentiate from the offerings of other clothiers like > TrunkClub (which is a Nordstrom's acquisition)?

...because it's Amazon.

No, seriously. Having a feature working somewhere on the internet, is totally different from having it working on Facebook, Google, or Amazon. Usage goes through the roof, because people already know and trust those behemoths.

<comment><USER9> ^Also true

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> So does this mean I'm going to start getting other people's bedbugs if I buy clothes on amazon?

</comment><comment><USER36> Just wait till so many of these boxes will start to get stolen if you just leave them outside the house.

<comment><USER37> Retail sales has "shrinkage" too; I wonder if the rate is higher or lower than package theft.

</comment></comment><comment> tuna-piano First they came for the booksellers, and I did not speak out - for I was not Barnes and Noble.

Then they came for retailers, and I did not speak out - for I was not Macy's.

Then they came for the cloud, and I did not speak out - for I was not IBM.

Then they came for grocery delivery, and I did not speak out - for I was not PeaPod.

Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.

RIP TrunkClub and Stitch Fix?

<comment><USER38> Wow, borrowing a Holocaust quote.

You just compared good customer service to the largest genocide in human history.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> The question unanswered is: What are the limits?

\- Can I have a box each week?

\- How many items can I put in the box?

\- Do they need to be washed until return?

Why buy, when I can get free ones every week for a fee I already potentionally pay?

</comment><comment><USER40> The best way to get clothes for photo sessions :)</comment>


Ask HN: Are there any YC founders married w/kids? - <AUTHOR> Background: we are three founders who are applying for w2009.  All three of us are married and both of the other founders have a kid.<p>From what I've seen, it seems like a lot of the YC teams are young guys just out of college.  We're young (mid-20s), but we have a bit more responsibility than we did a few years ago. Just wondering how much of an outlier we are, and if any of the funded YC teams had founders who were married and/or had children. <comment><USER2> Wayne Crosby of Zenter

 _"JR: What was the downside of your experience YC?

Y Combinator requires you to move to either Cambridge, MA (Summer session) or Mountain View, CA (Winter session). The night we submitted our application to Y Combinator, we found out my wife was pregnant with our first child. The hardest decision my wife and I made was me going off to do a startup while she remained in AZ. We bought video phones and used Skype video conferencing every night to stay in touch. The video phones helped a ton, especially since I only made 1 trip back home in the 3 months. Looking back it was absolutely the right decision for me, the family, and our future - but it sucked not being around her for 3 months."_

[http://pioneerit.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-innoview-with- wayne...](http://pioneerit.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-innoview-with-wayne- crosby.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome...exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm not a YC applicant. Part of this was because Paul Graham made it pretty clear that he believes that having a family is at odds with a startup: <http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html>

The charitable part of me wants to believe the "I'm not willing to take responsibility..." angle, but it treads awfully close to discrimination.

I assumed that this would work against us to the point where it wasn't worth applying. The same way that single founder teams are canned almost before they are read.

 _Note that it doesn't actually matter if this is the case. My impression based on public information led me to this conclusion and YC lost out on a great team and idea. I'm sure I'm not alone._

I'm putting my money where my mouth is: the rest of my cofounders are also all married. Most of us have kids.

We're doing just fine, thanks:

<http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/07/prweb1139914.htm>

<http://blog.luckycal.com/?p=15>

[http://gigaom.com/2008/08/25/mobilize-launchpad- contestants-...](http://gigaom.com/2008/08/25/mobilize-launchpad-contestants- announced)

<comment><AUTHOR> A little defiant, eh? I like it.

When is it ever worth not applying? I'm sure that certain things hurt your chances in YC's eyes, but hopefully they don't have such blinders on that all of those things are immediate deal-killers. I feel that the exercise of filling out the application is useful in itself, and if they pass, no loss.

<comment><USER3> When leaving your family for 3 months isn't worth it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, that's a personal decision, obviously, but your post didn't say anything about you not applying because you didn't want to be away from your family, just that you didn't think YC would accept you because you have a family.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> My co-founder is married with two kids. We were in winter 2007. Neither of us is young and fresh out of college (I was 32, he was 33, at the time). When we were accepted, I had a house in Austin, a 350Z, a long-time girlfriend, and a dog. The house was sold in record time (to the first person who looked at it, the day _before_ the open house), the Z was sold, the girlfriend got a job at Google, and the dog rode right beside me in the moving truck. My co-founder already lived in Santa Clara, so it wasn't quite as much of an upheaval for him.

<comment><USER5> tons of respect and congratulations for that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Being married and having a child is not a liability. The liability comes if the partner requires a lot of attention, and does not allow you to pursue your dreams. I.e, if you're married to a needy person, then you'll not have the flexibility to push limits.

I actually think being married is a good thing, because you are more likely to do things that are safe and that will lead to steady upwards growth, instead of trying to play the lotto and hoping for a blowout.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmmm...not sure that anyone would characterize founding a web startup as "safe" ;-)

<comment><USER6> It's VERY safe. Try starting a restaurant. You have to borrow money, you need to handle staffing, fire problems, etc. That's a risky business. A web business, if it fails, you lose nothing.

We businesses are really very low risk business. Mostly, in case of failure, you just lose some time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmmm...I understand what you're saying, but you seem to be presenting a false dichotomy where the only two options are starting a web company or a restaurant. For the vast majority of people with kids, the "safe" option is getting a good job that pays well and offers good benefits.

It's also a bit disingenuous to say that if your web business fails, you lose nothing. Perhaps that's true for a single guy who is starting a company with some friends, but for the average married founder w/kids, there is a significant investment that will need to made in the form of time spent on their startup, as well as mental and psychological energy. Not to mention any cash investment, and the lost income that could have been earned with the time spent on the startup. If you fail, there is a cost.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I just completed a YC session and my co-founder was married, but no children. I must say, an entire summer seems like it might put a bit of stress on your relationship.

Let me be very clear! You can definitely do a startup if you have a family. YCombinator and startups are a great opportunity for anyone, regardless of age or family situation.

With that being said, a YC summer can be very intensive. Three full months apart and under stress might be more than you were bargaining for in terms of your relationship with your spouses and family. It seems like if all three of you are in this situation the odds are good that at least one of you will run into a problem.

There were a lot of guys in our class who had serious girlfriends and they all seemed to come out fine. My co-founder is married and our startup is doing just fine. Just think about what could happen, I would hate for that to be a big distraction for you guys.

</comment><comment><USER8> TipJoy's founders are married and working together.

My wife and I are bootstrapping right now.

<comment><USER9> Do you have any general comments on starting a business with your wife. It can be such a stressful environment at times - wondering how you guys have dealt with the downs.

<comment><USER8> I talked with the father of a VC a few months ago. He said that his son's divorce had just cost him $10 million in a divorce settlement. I'm thinking: Jesus! $10 million pays for a lot of roses and marriage counseling.

Regarding handling the downs: That's tough. We usually take a break from the action, spend time with each other and regroup. Generally, we work a lot more on prevention of marriage problems instead of trying to put out fires, though. If we're starting to squabble with each other, it's probably because there's an issue that needs to be addressed, and we need to take the time to work it out.

Our marriage comes first. Having a multi-million dollar exit would be really nice, but it's not going to keep us warm at night.

We have a weekly meeting in which we talk about about relationship stuff, and make sure things are okay on that front. We're a lot more productive when our relationship is working well. It's a good business decision and it makes for a much funner journey.

We've also made a point of taking breaks from the action. Every 3 months or so, we take a road trip for a couple of nights. We both work really hard, so it's helpful to unplug and focus on the relationship every couple of months.

Probably the best marriage advice I could give anyone is to do some preventative marriage counseling. My wife and I made a point of going to marriage counseling the first year after we got married. It's not that our relationship was on the rocks, we just wanted to get it right. So, we spent a year going to a marriage counselor and got a whole bag full of tools to work on our marriage. It's helped us for years, and I'd recommend it to anyone in a serious relationship.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm not a YC founder, but I do have a wife and children.

As to your original question: don't worry about it. Just focus on your application, and try to get some sort of basic demo of your idea together.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, it's not going to stop us, or even slow us down. If anything, having responsibilities like a wife and kids has focused our energies on what's really important to us.

I was just curious as to how YC might view things like this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm a founder who's married with two kids (27 years old). One of the reasons I'm not able to join YC on even the east coast (I live a couple hours from Boston) is my family. I can't move them or myself away from them for a 'boot camp', just not feasible.

I think YC is missing out on some great opportunities but that's just my viewpoint.

<comment><USER10> Perhaps your desire for success doesn't compel you as strongly as your desire for a stable family life.

That's absolutely fine, but my instincts (and some very successful people I know personally) tell me that successful entrepreneurs who start a business with families have to ask their families to make some sort of sacrifice to support their endeavor.

My wife and I have had this very conversation - we live in the Bay Area, but my Dear Wife is very level headed when it comes to prioritizing decisions like this. Life experience counts for more than immediate comfort for her. She comes from an entrepreneurial family, so that probably helps.

<comment><USER12> Perhaps his definition of "success" doesn't involve him feeling embarassed about what he did to his family for a long shot, even if he made it. Note also that regardless of how you and your wife appear to feel about it now, your perspective may change 10 years from now. Mine has. I'm embarassed. Not a good feeling.

<comment><USER10> Fair enough, and I agree - nothing's for free. For me, the fear that 10 years from now I would regret not taking a chance is greater than the worry that I will feel as you do. It's a personal choice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It could be an advantage. It's nice to have one person in the family with a stable income you can fall back on, while trying to get things off the ground.

</comment><comment><USER14> Tipjoy. The founders are married (to each other) and they have a (really cute) kid.

</comment><comment><USER15> I get the feeling that YC is based on a different set of values and insights than your typical VC firm is. Just my impression, of course, but I get the feeling that PG is trying out a social "hack".

There's a magical section of life that a lot of people don't take advantage of - the first few years out of college, when your responsibilities and personal needs are very, very low. A lot of people in their early twenties who don't go directly to grad school spend this time as paralegals, programmers for bigCorps, and so forth.

In a way, YC is testing out a perfect hack - showing how a remarkably small amount of money, along with just a bit of encouragement, can completely alter the course of a lifetime - and, if it is successful and spreads as a model, ultimately change the nature of careers and work.

It's not that married founders with kids and a mortgage _can't_ participate, but if "married with kids" describes you (and it certainly describes _me_ ), you probably aren't in that state anymore. But it's up to you to decide - I do know a startup founder who is 40 with a wife and little one (his wife works, though, which helps a lot - though in this case, the few grand YC offers would be irrelevant, and he's funded through a more traditional investment approach). I know lots and lots of married programmers with kids who work as early employees of startups. I could recommend this, because if you're very skilled in Silicon Valley, you can probably get a new job quickly - but it's probably nothing like being in YC.

I remember my first few years after college - I lived near the beach in San Diego, my rent was about $325 a month, and I surfed _constantly_. Then I went to grad school. Wouldn't have been a bad time to try a startup, I suppose.

</comment><comment><USER16> Time for a New Venture Animal: Ymwkcombinator

<comment><USER17> Good line! Count me in!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Thanks for posing the question. I'd been wondering the same, Have there been any YC startup people with teenagers??!!!

I suppose having teenagers would be a great way to recruit your first coding employees! Except mine aren't techies at all. Yet.

<comment><USER4> If they aren't techies by their teens, and they've had access to technology at all, they never will be. And that's OK. Let'em be what they're gonna be.

<comment><USER18> This is not true. I had access to all sorts of technology growing up. It wasn't until I got to college that I realized how important it is in being able to make a computer do almost anything you wanted it to given enough time and insight into the problem you want to solve.

<comment><USER4> Perhaps I've made it sound more dramatic than it should be. It is, as in all things, a spectrum of possibilities, not a black and white thing. That said, there's a type of person that becomes a hacker. While it is a choice, just like being an athlete or a musician, it's also a temperament that not all people possess. So, one might enjoy technology and find it useful to understand it, or one might find it to be the most satisfying and interesting thing to spend time on--and this, I believe, is a trait exhibited very early.

I don't, of course, think only the latter should be "allowed" to write code or make a living with technology (nearly everyone will be a knowledge worker in the coming years, so no one can avoid it). I just think they tend to be the ones producing the code that runs the Internet and everything else of real interest in the technology world. It's just such a deep subject that one really has to love it to have any chance of being seriously productive in the field. So, while I believe one can learn to play a musical instrument as an adult, if you aren't passionate enough about it to spend many hours each day on it (and not in a hardcore slamming your fingers down on the keyboard one more time...just in the sense of always learning about the subject and always expanding your horizons), you probably won't be a great musician. It doesn't make it any less valid a pursuit--as long as you derive pleasure from the time you spend with it, it's a productive use of time. Likewise hacking...but you probably won't produce work of significant note without a pretty strong drive to do so.

So, I guess I should make clear that I don't believe any talent is natural (excepting a few prodigies, perhaps) or inborn, certain traits are. And there are traits that are deeply ingrained that just make a big difference in whether one will enjoy the hacking process. Also note that I'm not claiming to be particularly far down that spectrum, or to have produced any significant work in the field. I was both a computer nerd and a music nerd very early in life, and I didn't choose to focus almost completely on technology until my mid-twenties.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> pg is married! No kids yet, though, afaik.

<comment><USER20> Sure, but pg is also an old bull now. He wasn't married when he started Viaweb.</comment></comment>


Read The Ultralight Startup by Jason Baptiste free for 24 hours - <AUTHOR> http://theultralightstartup.com/ <comment><USER2> Congratulations on the book, Jason!

I don't have any freaking clue how you did this AND OnSwipe, but somehow you managed to pull it off. Thanks for giving back to the community.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks a lot Jason! This will definitely be a huge help to entrepreneurs and the startup community!

</comment><comment><USER4> maybe I'm just totally blind, but I don't see a link on where I can actually read it at. I see the chapters links, but they only have a paragraph of text then an ellipses.

<comment><USER5> On that page then click the chapter title again and you will see the full chapter. It's set up like a blog where you first see a preview and then need to click on the title to see the full blog post.

<comment><USER4> Ah. Perfect. Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I literally can't stop reading! Thanks a lot!

</comment><comment><USER7> Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER8> Fantastic

</comment><comment><USER9> wow cant wait to read!

</comment><comment><USER10> well done Jason!</comment>


Ask HN: Finding work as an iOS developer - <AUTHOR>

I've been getting more & more into iOS development and constantly reading here about how much demand there is for this. Problem is I have no idea how to connect with these people! I have a web dev background and when work dries up I have maybe 5 or 6 reliable places I can hit to find new work but with iOS stuff there's elance/vworker or seemingly nothing & I'd rather not compete for a £500 app contract. Similarly, my network is primarily folks who want web apps or for whom iPhone apps aren't a good fit.
I won't claim I'm the most experienced at this but I do have an app in the store and 3 more almost ready to go live. I also have a proven history of delivering on web apps for what that's worth. I do develop using Titanium rather than Obj-C as I'm way more productive that way. If that means I'm not a proper iOS developer then so be it :)
In short, does anyone know of a site that connects iWants with iHaves or of another way to get my foot in somewhere? A thousand thanks to anyone who can point me the right way! <comment><USER2> "If that means I'm not a proper iOS developer then so be it"

You will find it much more difficult to get iOS jobs if you don't use Objective-C/Cocoa. Almost every iOS job listing I've seen requires it. That's almost like trying to get a job as a web developer without knowing HTML/JS/CSS.

</comment><comment><USER3> Use one of these sites to prove you know what you're doing and get hired at the same time. Good luck.

<http://www.interviewstreet.com/recruit/challenges>

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

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

</comment><comment><USER4> Check out: <http://theymakeapps.com/>

</comment><comment><USER5> <http://GetAppsDone.com></comment>


Overlapping app windows on Android - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/07/windriver-brings-overlapping-app-windows-to-android/

<comment><USER2> It really is ~1990 all over again.</comment>


Hacker seeking designer; work for equity - <AUTHOR>

We are a startup in search technology, located in Laurel, Maryland. We are looking for a talented web designer and content writer. Must be familiar with .net technologies, knowledge of C#, C++ is a plus as we are not necessary looking for a programmer.
We are self funded with small budget, the candidate will be working for equity (keep your day job), basically joining the founding team.
 The ideal candidate must be living in the Washington DC, MD VA area and willing to work from own PC, at odd hours and on weekends.
We are mostly looking for someone passionate about his work and search technology, experience is not necessary.
If interested please send me an email:       okeumeni (at) hotmail (dot) com <comment><USER2> Pure equity IS a founder position. Does "basically joining the founding team" mean less equity than other founders? Also, sell the company! If I am a designer (and I'm not), why would I want to contact you?

<comment><AUTHOR> The candidate will become a founder off course, we want someone passionate about the prospect of becoming part of our team. Self motivation is a must, we can't sell it, we only guarantee the project is really cool.

<comment><USER3> > we can't sell it, we only guarantee the project is really cool

It's great that you think it's cool, but if someone doesn't already know you, they have no reason to trust you on this point -- you're obviously biased on the subject. I mean this as constructive criticism, so I hope you won't take this the wrong way.

There are all kinds of startups out there that would love to have people work for them for free -- if you advertise for someone, you should have something about why they would care about yours as opposed to all the others. It's just like trying to attract an investor.

What's special about this startup? Is it the concept? The other founders' previous experience? The codebase you've built so far? Your connections that will help your site get noticed? What?

<comment><AUTHOR> Criticism accepted. We are a team of highly passionate hackers, we are working to implement cutting edge search technology to make on demand search engines for social, business and mostly ecommerce.

The candidate will have the opportunity to drive all web design and content own the project as much as we do and be part of a great venture.

<comment><USER4> Great response. Can you add this info to the original post? (I don't recall if it times out or not.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have a question: does anyone ever _do_ this? Work for "equity"? The math problem on this is pretty straightforward: N hours of design time (especially when the deliverable is HTML/CSS comps) is easy to price, and there's a _huge_ chance your startup equity is going to be worth zero.

Also, just a tip: knowledge of C# and C++ is probably _not_ a plus in a designer. =)

<comment><AUTHOR> Well for this project, equity will not be worth zero, let's be positive for a minute.

Thanks for the tip, but a designer may have to deal with HTML embedded in C# or C++ code there's nothing surprising about that.

<comment><USER5> Two ways to address that problem in the real world:

(1) Use a templating system that uses "designer-friendly" markup. There are lots of them.

(2) Allocate cycles to take static HTML and integrate them into your code. That's what most of my products have done; I want designers designing, not integrating.

<comment><AUTHOR> Completely agree, we do use template in most cases, but as startup we still have embedded client code laying around that we must deal with. It will be nice to have a designer capable of at least help in clean up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> <http://authenticjobs.com/> is a good place to put out a listing as well. A lot of designers, freelance or otherwise, watch that board.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Does this designer/writer position require any knowledge of SQL?

<comment><AUTHOR> No SQL necessary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Hotmail email address. C#/C++ suggest Microsoft platform. Even mentioning C++ in a designer (!) lookup post. Hm... One red flag after another.

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess Gmail is better - what is wrong with Microsoft platform the platform don't make product developers do - I have known designers with great C++ skills, why so much negative? We're just seeking help what is so wrong with that?

<comment><USER4> Nothing's wrong with that. I think he's just commenting that it's uncommon (or slightly unfair) to think of designers in terms of what languages they might know.

That being said, if you find someone with the technology background, more power to you. It's probably a better idea to focus on a designer who isn't afraid to work with any technology. Talent and willingness to dive in strike me as much more useful "cofounding" qualities than experience with specific technologies.

Best of luck on your search!</comment></comment></comment>


Multitasking Muddles Brains, Even When the Computer Is Off - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/multitasking/ <comment><USER2> As usual, the only relevant information is totally glossed over. What is this alleged evidence that such a seemingly insane test actually has meaning?

</comment><comment><USER3> See also <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=784465>

</comment><comment><USER4> well if the world is ever threatened by randomly hued geometric shapes that demand organisation and ordering in accordance with arbitrary rules, we'll know who to call.</comment>


Why high schools don't teach CS: It's the lack of teachers, but it's way more - <AUTHOR> https://computinged.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/why-dont-high-schools-teach-cs-its-the-lack-of-teachers-but-its-way-more-than-that/ <comment><AUTHOR> I think a lot of it is the money: [https://jakeseliger.com/2019/10/15/teachers-and-the- income-c...](https://jakeseliger.com/2019/10/15/teachers-and-the-income- ceiling), which is another way of saying "lack of teachers."</comment>


Losing Conner's Mind - <AUTHOR> https://magazine.atavist.com/losing-conners-mind-batten-disease-brineura <comment><USER2> I am blinded by tears. Words are inadequate to express this tragedy. May God help this family.

</comment><comment><USER3> Those monsters in Congress endanger kids like this in the name of some blind devotion to billionaires. I hope there is a God to judge them mightily for it.

<comment><USER4> No god. Only us.</comment></comment>


US Electricity Markets Aren't Designed to Handle 100% Clean Energy - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2019/07/01/u-s-electricity-markets-arent-designed-to-handle-100-clean-energy-heres-two-ways-to-fix-that/#355c855a6e4b <comment><USER2> 100% clean energy is decades away, I'm not such a pessimist to presume we will have no grid improvements by then. Marketplaces themselves are already straining due to the cheapness of renewables at certain times. Batteries plus renewables will avoid some of this, but overbuilding capacity and demand response with EVs and industry should be another component. I also expect utilities to buy access to appliances and heating and cooling and dynamically control their customers' use.

<comment><USER3> I really, really don't want the power company to control my thermostat. Big companies are invading my home and violating my agency enough as it is. If past behavior is any indication of future behavior, smart appliances are more likely to be snuck in like the phone-home misfeatures on smart TVs than they are to be a willing contract between the home owner and the power company.

<comment><USER4> There is another approach that could also alleviate some of the pressure. Instead of keeping the consumer price fixed and allowing the utility to control your load, you can allow the consumer price to float.

Most of these markets have a 24hr-ahead clearing price for energy. I think you aught to be able to expose retail consumers to fluctuations based on the day- ahead market to let people make their own choices for energy usage. Given that exposure, enough consumers will change their behavior to soften the variability in price. It might also make distributed energy storage Just Work (TM) if individual battery owners have a vector to profit from supporting the grid.

<comment><USER5> >I think you aught to be able to expose retail consumers to fluctuations based on the day-ahead market to let people make their own choices for energy usage.

What prevents an electric company from significantly raising prices for a day to catch people off guard? I can't exactly switch electric companies to punish them.

<comment><USER6> what prevents them from significantly raising rates permanently?

<comment><USER4> There are other futures markets that are bootstrapped off of the day-ahead market. Weeks/months out are used to schedule maintenance operations. Years out are used to schedule construction/decommissioning.

So if the extended market prices are high enough, then this acts as a signal to add generation and/or distribution capacity. Likewise, if the extended market prices are low enough, this acts as a signal to retire capacity that has a higher operating cost/lower profit margins.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I watched an interesting "Interesting Engineering" video on why utility scale batteries are a game changer.

Right now, in my area, we have a Nuclear plant that handles the base load, but we tend to keep it at "not full capacity" most of the time, because nuclear is harder to ramp up/down in response to load.

In the video, he shows how renewables can pick up the slack in many ways... but I was thinking, why not run our nuclear plants at something like 90% capacity _all the time_ and store the excess energy in utility scale batteries?

It seems like these devices could have a far greater impact than renewables could, and they can harness existing investments in nuclear. It's too bad we can't just pump water uphill into reservoirs from nuclear plants and dump that through turbines when needed. Such a setup is obviously a huge investment and you can't really build a reservoir next to every nuclear facility.

<comment><USER8> We have one in Western Massachusetts (Northfield Mountain) built nearly 50 years ago to pair with the Yankee nuclear power plant in Vermont. Peak run- rate is 1140 megawatts and the hilltop reservoir is ~12k acre feet. Peak spin up takes ~10mins and can run for ~8hrs if the upper lake is full. So capacity is just short of 10 gigawatt hours.

My high school electronics class took a field trip there and I found the scale and design simplicity truly awe inspiring.

[https://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2016/12/02/northfield- mounta...](https://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2016/12/02/northfield-mountain- hydroelectric-station)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Can someone much smarter than me opine on why nuclear is not lumped into the 100% clean energy category?

<comment><USER3> Nuclear waste and parts from decommissioned reactors are not that big of a deal, but they are also not 100% clean.

<comment><USER10> >not that big of a deal

also known as 'who cares, we won't be here'

<comment><USER11> Maybe more the opposite: in the long enough term radioactive materials are just ugly rocks. It's more the short term storage in the here and now that is the concern for most people, because they are understandably afraid of DNA damage and cancer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The mention of demand side IoT power load as a service has me wondering about the theoretical abuse potential for insider trading or Enron style shenanigans. Ideally such attempts would result in losing money.

It does bring to mind an oddly positive twist on the "you don't own it" of IoT. By signing up as part of a service cooperative of some sort getting a share of the generated income as compensation.

Probably not a winning move and if done by could rightfully get FTC involved by mixing in investing - especially if it id being run by the manufacturer who has potentially clashing incentives.

</comment><comment><USER13> Wait, the _markets_? Don't you mean the _infrastructure_? The financialized language in the article is very jarring. It's like their readers can't relate to base reality anymore and the only way to connect with them is these financial terms, the "demand side and supply side", "smart energy resources", "multi period optimization", and so on. Almost like you're trying to describe a Ford Focus to them and you have to describe it as a "on demand relocation capital unit as a service" or something.

</comment><comment><USER14> People say that nuclear is superior to wind and solar, and the main reason it isn't booming in the US is governmental regulations. But since 2016 we have had a federal government that is anti-renewable and pro-nuclear, and still nuclear plants are being closed, not built.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm not sure why we pay for electricity in the first place. Reliable electricity, clean water. These things are fundamental to modern human existence. Why do we have to pay for them at all other than greed?

<comment><USER16> Things that have no price cannot be fairly allocated by a market system, and production cannot be reliably planned.

Also, paying $0.10 per kWh makes us choose between using an air conditioner to cool the interior of an occupied building to 20 degC, or wasting power on mining proof-of-work cryptocoins.

There may be a case for having the first N kWh of residential household use in a month be free, and metering the excess at a higher rate. If I got unlimited electricity at no cost, I, for one, would have an aluminum smelter in my back yard--right next to the Moon-etching laser, programmed to write "CHAIRFACE".

<comment><USER17> The market system does not even try to fairly allocate anything. It allocates to those who can pay.

<comment><USER16> Let's forget about "fair" then, and focus on the allocation. Whether fair or not by someone's definition of "fair", the market system can allocate resources among uncountable federated actors, without spending a significant fraction of those resources on centralized calculations. A zero-price system cannot do that.

There may exist theoretical alternate systems that can allocate more fairly than a market system. If one can do that with unmetered, no-additional-cost- to-the-consumer electricity, I'd be happy to hear about it, as I am not currently aware of any.

<comment><USER17> Sure, right now unmetered electricity would be a bad idea.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Is Microsoft Afraid to Say the L-word? - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=2845 <comment><USER2> Read the Port25 article. I especially like the fact that only Microsoft Windows runs the top 10 downloads on Sourceforge: Well, GNU+Linux obviously sucks because it doesn't run popular applications such as "7-Zip" and "Gimp Installer for Windows". And that open source applications such as Firefox run under Windows as well clearly reflects Microsoft's increased engagement with Open Source Software.

<comment><USER3> Yep, I'm very broken up about my inability to install Gimp on Linux using the Gimp Installer for Windows.

It strikes me as pretty disingenuous to say that only Windows can run the "top 10" downloads when your top 10 list includes vectors for installation of a target application that does run on other platforms, albeit with a different installation routine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looked at differently: Windows runs on >85% of PCs and Linux (sorry, POSIX- Compatible systems) runs on <5% of PCs; yet over 90% of open source applications run on Linux but only 82% run on Windows.

<comment><USER5> That's because most developers accustomed to giving away code under open- source are using Linux/FreeBSD or something similar ... as you're more likely to participate in a gift economy when other people / companies are generous to you.

So when Windows is not your primary target, for an open-source project is just a nice-to-have (that's why many projects look/behave like ass on Windows, and this isn't mentioned in the report).

Personally I wouldn't mind for those developers on Microsoft-platforms to contribute more. It would mean more open-source for everybody. But culture matters a lot and I don't see this happening too soon.

<comment><USER6> I run Windows and I contribute!

But there's a basic cultural difference - there are a boatload of cheap closed applications on Windows and people just kind of expect them to cost around $30. I spend the extra little time to find the open ones, but it's difficult sometimes. You really have to know what OSS is to start with, then really care about finding it. Most people just run their Outlook email and IE browser because it's what came installed. They don't even _know_ you have the option of running Thunderbird and Chrome.

<comment><USER5> And unfortunately that culture is directly damaging the open-source ecosystem on Windows.

For instance the author of Paint.NET (a former open-source project) started releasing only binaries because some individual ripped off his work, taking all the credits (in breach of its license), and probably bundling it with spyware / charging money for it ...

[http://blog.getpaint.net/2007/12/04/freeware-authors- beware-...](http://blog.getpaint.net/2007/12/04/freeware-authors-beware- of-%E2%80%9Cbackspaceware%E2%80%9D/) [http://blog.getpaint.net/2009/11/06/a-new-license-for- paintn...](http://blog.getpaint.net/2009/11/06/a-new-license-for- paintnet-v35/)

To see your work used like that, most likely without a Thank You, probably hurts a lot.

<comment><USER4> If it violated the licence, the author has legal recourse. If not: <http://diveintomark.org/archives/2009/10/19/the-point>

<comment><USER5> It violated the license ... if you read the first link, the author claims that the individual deleted copyright references of him and of plugin contributors, taking credit for the work.

The author also said he doesn't have the money or the time for legal recourse.

I also don't fully agree with Mark ... there is an unwritten rule in any society ... when people are being nice giving you stuff for free / helping you out, don't piss on their lawn ;)

In real-life when this happens, you just slam the door on his face next time. This also happened here, but unfortunately because of the easy means of redistribution, the author just slammed the door on everybody.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I saw the same thing when reading one of the first book about C# that Microsoft published; it its introduction it spent all the time talking about C# and C and it managed to avoid ever mentioning Java when it's evident than C# is much closer to Java than to C.

</comment><comment><USER8> In other news: Coke runs advertising without mentioning Pepsi. Sports coming up next.

Honestly, is this really news? Company X writes an article and fails to mention a competitor? Where's the conspiracy?

<comment><USER9> I don't think anyone was accusing Microsoft of "conspiring". I think it's more about the amusement factor of the whole thing. It's more like Coke running an advertisement talking about Pepsi as "a major competing brand whose name rhymes with mepsi".

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I expect "POSIX-compatible" is just a way to avoid saying "GNU/Linux- and FreeBSD-compatible" everywhere.

<comment><USER9> Don't forget "OS X-compatible" and "Solaris compatible".

<comment><USER11> Which then effectively means "Non-Windows compatible".

<comment><USER5> "Unix and C are the ultimate computer viruses."

<http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Isn't Mac POSIX-compatible too? Mac and Linux adoption combined are growing at 20+% per year.(today: 11.7%, last year: 9.7%, The year before that: 8%). Those are not new customers being acquired by the OS market, NO, that's customers being taken from Microsoft in an already saturated OS market. They are losing customers to Linux and Mac, and this is how they put a good face on a bad situation.

This is according to <http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp> of course

</comment><comment><USER13> "82% of open source software runs on Windows" I suspect this should worry them more than Linux.

Without the Office monopoly and the Server+SQLServer+IIS or exchange licence fees MS doesn't look so good.

It doesn't really matter about linux's 10% of the desktop market if the EOM copy of windows that came with your machine is the last bit of MS software you (or your company) ever buys.

</comment><comment><USER14> This is really a non-news and the reason is simple, from a marketing standpoint you never want to mention the competitor's brand because it promotes that brand also, especially if that brand belongs to a newcomer/non- market-leader and you're the market leader.

For example, if Coke ad (as someone else also reported) mentioned Pepsi, then not only is a consumer seeing "Coke" but is also seeing "Pepsi".

The only time you see the competitor brand mentioned is when the ads are very specifically negative or when they come from an underdog against a market leader. The usual examples are Verizon-AT&T, Apple-MS, etc. Here the underdog or newcomer has nothing to lose so they will mention the market leader's brand.

So, here MS is not afraid, rather it doesn't make sense for them to mention Linux or rather any *nix by name. But, if it was reverse, it totally makes sense for Red Hat to mention MS Windows by name.

</comment><comment><USER15> Windows is Posix compliant.

<comment><USER16> For an extremely weak version of "compliant," and definitely not out of the box. You'd have to grab Services for Unix, Cygwin, etc. to even get close.

<comment><USER17> Windows was build with a full POSIX.1 subsystem. It was part of the design specifications.

What you are referring to is running some sort of Posix system on top of Win32 (Cygwin), but NT is capable of running Posix natively.

Services for Unix doesn't install a Posix subsystem, it replaces it with another called Interix.

The POSIX subsystem has been removed from the installation since Windows XP.

n.b. : Subsystems are how programs interface with the "real" NT API. Win32 is a subsystem as well.

<comment><USER18> Returning "not implemented" is compliant with POSIX specification, but does not make the implementation useful. Which is exactly the case of NT POSIX subsystem.

<comment><USER17> Could you provide me with an example? NT subsystem fully implements POSIX.1

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Is it me or does the graph on Port25 not stack up?

I _assume_ platform agnostic means "both windows and linux [and everything else]"? so therefore how does Windows having 82% and Linux 94(ish)% coverage add up?

Or have I read it wrong?

<comment><USER20> Platform agnostic on sourceforge (where the data come from) means written in an interpreted language or compiled for a virtual machine like the JVM that runs on multiple platforms.

<comment><USER19> Yeh that is what I thought. From which I interpreted that the platform Agnostic group is the intersection of the Windows & Linux groups.

Which means the numbers dont add up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Well, contrary to my own popular belief, the word in question was not "lesbian".

<comment><USER22> That was my inclination too, after the whole thing about Xbox Live gamertags.

[http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1605966/20090226/story.jhtm...](http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1605966/20090226/story.jhtml) [http://www.lazygamer.co.za/xbox-360/its-ok-to-be-gay- microso...](http://www.lazygamer.co.za/xbox-360/its-ok-to-be-gay-microsoft- change-xbl-code-of-conduct/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Heroku runs a _Posix Environment_. See here,

<http://heroku.com/how/dynos>

<comment><USER24> Microsoft does the same with Google!!

Steve Balmer when talking about search never mentions Google. He says the market leader. An advertising man must have told them that its bad to indirectly promote other products.</comment></comment>


Microsoft Connect has been retired - <AUTHOR> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/collaborate/connect-redirect <comment><AUTHOR> Old links to connect issues stopped working. After signing in to Microsoft Collaborate, the successor it seems, I need to add my personal details, including phone number and company. After that, I'm greeted with an even more confusing dashboard where recommended sites, like "Windows" are paywalled.

What happened? I just wanted to look at an old connect issue which came up at stackoverflow. Searches within Microsoft Collaborate lead to nothing. I fear, that this will hit many windows developers. Why can't Microsoft leave old services running or why can't they properly link old content to new locations?

Example: [https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/...](https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/809484/bug- when-adding-references-to-projects-with-same-project-names)</comment>


Aussie restaurateur Paul Mathis invents new letter of the Alphabet - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/technology/news/aussie-restaurateur-paul-mathis-invents-new-letter-of-the-alphabet/story-fni0bzoc-1226675974506

<comment><USER2> There are already two letters which serve this purpose. Eð /ɛð/ (capital Ð, small ð;) and Þorn (capital Þ, small þ;) What's the point of yet another letter?

</comment><comment><USER3> Wouldn't it be easier to get rid of "the" completely, instead of adding another symbol? ;)</comment>


Ask HN: Big ambitions, poor execution.  What do I do about this? - <AUTHOR>

I have very big ambitions, but poor execution.  I am focussed in one sense - I am able to keep coming back to wanting to execute on the same ambitions and the things I want to execute on have obessed me over the last few years.  But, this obessession to execute on the fixed set of ambitions have not translated into the intenisity of effort and the requisite amount of effort needed to accomplish something meaningul.
The pomodoro technique has been very helpful to reach an improved level of execition.  Are there other techniques out there?
Have other HNers faced this themselves and overcome it?
I have the feeling that I have great potential and yet I am throwing my life away due to a lack of focus.
Your help and advice is much appreciated. <comment><USER2> If you didn't already - I highly encourage you to check [1] The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It will shift your perspective by showing you how and why most of the people self sabotage themselves and what it takes to do the work.

[1] - [http://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative- Battles/dp/19...](http://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative- Battles/dp/1936891026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427054928&sr=8-1&keywords=The+War+of+Art)

<comment><USER3> This was a transformational book for me. Although there are parts to it that are somewhat metaphysical/spiritual. If you are willing to look past those and read the rest for what it's worth it has the potential to impact you very positively.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Check out this video from Ira Glass, hopefully it helps: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ResTHKVxf4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ResTHKVxf4)

</comment><comment><USER5> When an idea is just a project that you're working on by yourself, it's easy to get distracted, let timelines slip, etc.. since no one cares, no one will hold you accountable, and you'll never need to tell someone why X wasn't finished on time.

Get as quickly to an MVP as you can and get a few customers. Or find a partner who believes in this idea as much as you do.

<comment><AUTHOR> On the same note, I have heard of declaring publicly that I plan on achieving a certain goal/end result with the idea that not achieving it will make me look bad. I have not tried this though. Thanks for your suggestion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hah, found it myself - pomodoro was working for me years ago (That's why I implemented [http://pomodorro.net](http://pomodorro.net)). However, pomodoro was somehow not fully natural for me, probably because of being not really task oriented, but somehow artificially time oriented...

At some point I realised, the great idea is what I call "do-dids". It's nothing really new, it's just all focus-management ideas in one bucket.

So, Do-Did is something simple. Just plan a task, and do it, and then be happy you did it:

1/ Plan a TODO task(s) during some less-focused time: during a shower, a drive, while making a coffee, during boring meeting, your office-kitchen time. Just plan a task in all the possible ways: what to do in optimistic path (when stuff goes as expected), but also in pessimistic way (when you get stuck in a task).

1.2/ A task should be something achievable, actually a micro-task. Don't plan "building a website". Plan "a hello-world server started", then "added .css/.js file handling", then "first content server to browser"...

2/ Prepare environment: that's tricky... Read all the e-mails (and respond), read the news, prepare the hot coffee, go to toilet. Nothing like that is allowed after you start the do-did (of course in common-sense...). Now, important for me was to have a "focus maintainer" and "world-insulator". Before I used pomodoro, but now I went back to old-school: I play one CD of well-known music. Not really a CD of course (I actually use mp3+winamp == really old-school).

3/ Do: put on your headphones, play the CD and don't stop until the task or CD is finished. It's up to you what to do if you finish the task (you can start next one or take a break) or the CD before the task (you may need a break, but maybe you can just start next CD). What matters here for me, is that CD time - 60-80 minutes works really good for me.

3.1/ No distractions. No news, no email, no co-workers... Definitely no facebook !

4/ Did: you did it ! Now do something nice for you (coffee, browse the net, take a walk around, ...) Tell yourself you did it, think about it for a while (something like scrum's retrospective or sprint's review). The task is done, you can now plan the next stuff - phase #1 again.

Do-Dids work great for me. There is plenty of time for everything. I realised that "planning phase" is very good thing, as then the "Do" phase usually goes quite good.

Do-dids are actually compact/personal version of scrum sprints for me, just happening in parts-of-day basis, instead of weeks.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very interesting. In step 4, after you have accomplished your goal what can I do that completely resets/reboots my brain? If I have been coding for 60 minutes, and I choose to spend the next 20 minutes as my break is there a recommended activity that completely rejuvenates? I am open to listening to music, exercise, watching videos, a snack etc. However, I rarely feel refreshed at the end of this break and dread going back to work again. Appreciate your thoughts on this.

<comment><USER6> Actually, it doesn't really matter that much for me. I mean each time I do something else. Maybe something around the house or the office, talk to someone, do some physical job (like scan/print documents) or pay the bills, do your ebay/amazon shopping... It doesn't even have to be a typical "rest" each time. Anything that is just not The Big Thing - not writing code in my case.</comment></comment></comment>


Production Grade Restaurant Billing App Built with Latest Technologies - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/nabendu82/BillingRestro <comment><USER2> This reminds me of CorePOS's touchscreen interface. What do you use for Credit/Debit acceptance?

If that has yet to be fully integrated, take a peek at Pax & Dejavoo, I would avoid DataCap like the plauge tho.

Some Pax bindings that might be helpful: [https://github.com/AccelerateNetworks/PHPax](https://github.com/AccelerateNetworks/PHPax)

<comment><AUTHOR> I have not created Credit card acceptance. Was thinking more of a Billing app with Print to POS thermal printers but that needs to be implemented. It only saves orders to database, which can be seen by user. You can check it out at [https://restropos-nextjs-prod.herokuapp.com/signin](https://restropos-nextjs- prod.herokuapp.com/signin) Login credentials for Normal User: email@example.com/Normal123</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What annoys web developers? - <AUTHOR> I'm making a list of things that annoy web developers:
https://github.com/omidfi/how-to-annoy-a-web-developer<p>Please help! <comment><USER2> This happened just yesterday.

Had to write a custom blog system for my day job (they don't like wordpress or etc...) Blog has been in production for months now.

Yesterday, I get an email from the blog author:

"I'd like to let you know that I'm noticing some issues with how the new Blog Comment System is working. I have been noticing these things the past couple months, and despite trying to work around them, I feel they are making it hard to get done what I need to do."

15 minutes after she sent the email, she called me (I was in a meeting), she then called another programmer who has nothing to do with the blog, who was in the same meeting, then sent a followup email to my boss making sure I got the email.

Hold on - you found a bug, you've known this was a bug for "months" now and your reporting it now? Further, months have passed until your now reporting the bug, but because I didn't acknowledge the email because I was in a meeting, your now going down the phone list, panicked, apparently, looking for help?

The devil in me says don't fix the bug for months also but I know that won't fly.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice, I'll add it there :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> When somebody who has nothing to do with programming tells you "it seems like a small bug and can be fixed pretty quickly"

<comment><USER4> "It's just a button, how hard can it be?"

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Few things:

1\. Can you just add another box to the right ?

2\. Can you give me xyz similar to website A but mix it with ABC from website B ? sorry, I want a bit of both.

3\. Can you change this text on the button ? (Hint: No I don't want to. It requires a code change in my SAAS and could impact other clients)

4\. My page loads too slow according to Google Page Speed.

5\. Can I not require users to activate their email during initial sign up ? This scares potential sign-ups and we lose conversions. (Hint: No, otherwise you will get fake emails and cannot contact them anyway to up-sell)

6\. My site is down. (Hint: You need to clear DNS cache as after moving your site to a new host, your computer is still trying to hit the old DNS settings).

<comment><USER6> Regarding 5, it actually does make sense for some products to defer email confirmation to post-signup (possibly gating features, etc). It's more work but depending on the situation it could have a very positive impact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> When users don't focus on describing a problem but instead are trying to offer a solution or even prescribe an implementation.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice one!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> You should ask what annoys users.

Pop-ups/lightboxes.

Changing the default scrolling behavior.

Sites crippled with ads.

Slow sites.

Google analytics everywhere.

Unreadable text (light gray on white, what could go wrong?)

Unzoomable sites. You know not all people can see perfectly well. I need to zoom to be able to read.

Sites working only on $X browser.

Headers sticking to the top, consuming screen space.

Lots, of other stuff...

<comment><USER9> Most of the time these things annoy web developers as well since it was not something they want to do and add. The reality is that designers, management and clients just come up with something in their heads and you have to do it. Another thing that annoys me personally is that they worked on it for a week or a month and then they expect developers to magically put it online in a day. They took their time finishing their jobs and then they apply pressure for stuff to be up as soon as possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Weird APIs. I have had to work with APIs that:

\- Require all requests to be of the multipart variety.

\- Only accept post requests.

\- Only return 200 or 404 http codes.

\- The request must be in urlencoded formatting but the response is in (invalid) json.

\- Function names are mapped to URLs. Example:

        do_some_stuff() becomes /do/some/stuff/

<comment><AUTHOR> All valid points thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> A list of things that DONT annoy developers will probably be shorter.

</comment><comment><USER12> Standards, modules and legacy technologies and frameworks (older than 6 months).

</comment><comment><USER13> When recruiters blatantly miscapitalize technology names: Jquery or JQuery for instance.

</comment><comment><USER14> The latest javascript framework your boss wants you to learn?..

</comment><comment><USER15> Lack of a decent type system in JS.

</comment><comment><USER16> This post annoys me. It's not very productive.</comment>


Kim Dotcom raid illegal, New Zealand court rules  - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9361759/Kim-Dotcom-raid-illegal-New-Zealand-court-rules.html <comment><USER2> This is old news, and shouldn't be here. The current status is that the Crown (NZ govt) is appealing the ruling mentioned in the article. The most interesting new information is that the search was conducted in a very heavy handed SWAT-style manner, by the Special Tactics Group, without justification. The STG uses "a check-box threat assessment which led to the assault team being used in the raid.

The "yes" box was ticked next to questions about whether Dotcom was armed, had a history of violence, was showing current signs of violence and had issued threats to kill.

Mr Davison said the police documents also claimed officers faced the threat of injury or death if the specialist squad was not used.

But under questioning, the sergeant was unable to point to any information supporting the claim police officers were in danger during the raid."

Source: [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&obj...](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10825372)</comment>