Writing Idiomatic Python Book - <AUTHOR> http://www.jeffknupp.com/writing-idiomatic-python-ebook/ <comment><USER2> This seems to me a useful concept.

Having been immersed in Smalltalk for a long time, something that I'm very conscious of when approaching other languages* is just how little reading of code tends to be involved, and what we do read often tends to be small fragments in books and articles.

(* Perhaps I should say, "other development systems" \- it's not strictly a language issue - but I'm going to use the word language anyway.)

Smalltalk systems tend to give you a view of your own code as just being a small part of a much larger whole (including standard things like the collection classes, and any other libraries or frameworks you've loaded), and which you are to some extent _expected_ to go explore and read the implementation. Most other languages give you more a clean-slate view, where your own code is the only thing presented to you, at least by default.

I forget who said it, but I've heard a remark along the lines that, "When I write PHP, I've got 3 or 4 web browser tabs open on the documentation. When I write Smalltalk, I've got 3 or 4 class browser windows open [on the implementation]", and this is my experience as well. I gradually learnt to write clear, concise and (hopefully) well organised code through osmosis by these means, and while it was a valuable experience for me, it also took a lot of time.

Having clear examples of small-scale idiomatic code (as in this book) might well be a big help in shortening the learning process.

Which just leaves the other end of the scale:

\- How do we give good examples of code organisation in the large?

\- How best can we integrate them in to some sort of learning path?

\- How do we classify such examples according to the problem space they're well suited for? (Code organisation appropriate for a web framework may not be appropriate for an OS kernel, etc.)</comment>


Robocrow: Machines shooting long-range laser beams to scare birds away - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2865293/Scarecrows-replaced-ROBOTS-Droids-shoot-long-range-laser-beams-scare-birds-away-crops.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder if a UAV or ground robot could manage the same thing?</comment>


Rising TV Fees Mean All Viewers Pay to Keep Sports Fans Happy - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/business/media/all-viewers-pay-to-keep-tv-sports-fans-happy.html

<comment><USER2> > The only short-term fix, he said, was government intervention.

Why do people have a knee-jerk reaction of turning to the government to fix everything that they see as being wrong?

Cable is a purely private enterprise. If it was a monopoly, then government intervention might be warranted. But there are plenty of alternatives to cable TV: Over-the-air broadcasts, satellite, Youtube, Hulu, Netflix...

If customers are unhappy with the situation, they can quit, ask the cable company to change, or start their own cable network with better pricing.</comment>


Why Are So Many Women Searching for Ultra-Violent Porn? - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_nz/article/why-are-so-many-women-searching-for-ultra-violent-porn <comment><USER3> > However, says Dr Dines, one thing's for sure: "If these women [who watch > violent porn] have been abused, [they] are actually digging the trauma > further into the firing and wiring of [their] neurones, driving it further > into their limbic systems, and porn delivers a massive hit to the limbic > system because you're watching someone going through the same trauma you > did."

I'm not a Dr of any kind, but I think this is only true if they are associating the things that are happening in the porn with something negative when watching it. The whole theory behind EMDR [1], as far as I understand it, is that you can re-associate negative memories with more neutral (or positive) feelings. That might in fact be what some of them are doing: re-associating a negative memory with something positive, which might have a therapeutic effect.

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing)

<comment><USER4> > Dr Gail Dines, professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock > College, Boston, and a prominent anti-porn campaigner.

> Until we [...] have actual empirical evidence

So she claims shes a scholar, and shes calling for empirical evidence. This piqued my interest, she's probably worked on some papers in this area - <USER2> doesn't she have empirical evidence? Is there a good reason it is hard to come by?

I looked to her website [1] and then through google scholar, and turned up nothing. She's written a ton of books in which shes expressed her opinions but I can't find her producing any work that isn't reading and spinning others' research - if she has then promoting the fact is far from the top of her agenda.

As it is I'm disappointed. There's an interesting effect at work yet neither of the experts Vice have had comment on the issue have experience with it and have just spouted off their media lines.

[1] [http://gaildines.com/](http://gaildines.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Well, I found this:

[http://www.laurakkerr.com/2015/09/16/sexual-fantasies-of- rap...](http://www.laurakkerr.com/2015/09/16/sexual-fantasies-of-rape/)

 _Professor Chivers theorizes the prevalence of rape plays a role in the divide between subjective and physiologic arousal in women. Women who experience physiologic arousal when sexually threatened, and thus produce genital lubrication, are less likely to be physically injured by aggressive penetration. She theorizes that arousal during sexual violence likely evolved "to reduce discomfort, and the possibility of injury, during vaginal penetration. . . . Ancestral women who did not show an automatic vaginal response to sexual cues may have been more likely to experience injuries during unwanted vaginal penetration that resulted in illness, infertility or even death, and thus would be less likely to have passed on this trait to their offspring."_

</comment><comment><USER5> I personally feel a separation of what someone's fantasies are is completely separate from what they would enjoy in real life. An example might be violent videogames - sometimes going on a murder spree is fun, but that's completely sickening to me in real life. Similar with pornography. I would think the majority of cases here would be a similar situation.

A side note, I first read the title as "Ultraviolet" porn and was incredibly confused.</comment>


Asynchronous, Temporal REST with Vert.x, Keycloak and Kotlin Coroutines - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/how-we-built-an-asynchronous-temporal-restful-api-based-on-vert-x-4570f681a3 <comment><AUTHOR> Hi all,

posted already yesterday, but maybe it's of some value and not so many people have seen it. Disclaimer: I'm the author :)

Kind regards and best weekend Johannes</comment>


Wander will shut down August 15th - <AUTHOR>

Unfortunately, Wander is shutting down. The app has already been removed from the App Store, and the service will be discontinued on August 15th. We sincerely apologize for the disappointing news. The Wander team tried to avoid this for as long as possible, but have been unable to properly support the app financially or technically for well over a year.<p>Full text: http://pastebin.com/q16gniK5 <comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link the complete text of the email: [http://pastebin.com/q16gniK5](http://pastebin.com/q16gniK5)</comment>


Learning Test Driven Development From Feynman - <AUTHOR> https://www.penflip.com/rhgraysonii/feynman-and-tdd-an-inspectoin

<comment><USER2> Writing the test before the logic is definitely the way to go. I can't imagine doing it any other way. It seems like most of the time large blocks of can seem as complicated and unruly as a complex calculus equation. In my experience everything is manageable when you break it down into small pieces, think through the problem, and come up with the simplest possible solution for that one piece of the problem. Then you can go through and write your logic; for that one piece of code. It's the best way to both document your work and write solid code. I'm definitely in agreement with the message here.</comment>


Looking for an HN post on smalltalk generating code from examples - <AUTHOR> I saw a link a while ago on here about generating code via examples (in Lisp/Clojure/Haskell, I forget) and someone said smalltalk already had the feature. Does anyone remember the post? <comment><USER2> I'm guessing you've used the search already?

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=smalltalk%20code%20examples&so...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=smalltalk%20code%20examples&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

<comment><AUTHOR> yes, I tried algolia and google's inurl to look for it

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I found it! It's this link in case anyone is interested: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12193395](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12193395)</comment>


An Algorithm for Compressing Space and Time (2006) - <AUTHOR> http://www.drdobbs.com/jvm/an-algorithm-for-compressing-space-and-t/184406478

<comment><USER2> Such a great article! I always wondered how Hashlife worked but assumed the algorithm was fiendishly complicated - but it isn't.

I am inspired to go write a life simulator now!

<comment><USER3> I love this example, write up and explanation. But someone please help them develop a better website.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It would be nice if clicking a link to one of the figures didn't redirect to the drdobbs.com home page.

<comment><USER5> I'm the editor of Dr. Dobb's. Sorry about the difficulty you've encountered. Are you using the Dr. Dobb's app or straight browser access? If the latter, what browser? We'll try to get this fixed. TIA.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure if the link was changed here on HN, but the first time I visited the article it was a single page, there were no images visible, and references to 'Figure n' were hyperlinks that would end up at drdobbs.com after a redirect. Now, the figures are visible inline as one would expect.</comment></comment></comment>


Marriott says 5.2M guests exposed in new data breach - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-marriott-intnl-data-breach/marriott-says-5-2-million-guests-exposed-in-new-data-breach-idUSKBN21I3DC <comment><USER2> The reason the practice of collecting consumer data is so prevalent is that it is very easy to do and opens potential opportunities for the business in future. Never mind that it exposes consumers to risks.

The practice won't stop until consumer data becomes a liability for any business touching it. At that time, only businesses that are actually able to utilize the data to derive revenue sufficient to compensate the liability will continue to collect it. Hopefully, in many cases the revenue would come about as a result of creation of some value for the consumer.

</comment><comment><USER3> > contact details, loyalty account information and additional personal details > such as gender and birthdays

I'm always wondering why a random service would need a date of birth (apart from validating "the person is an adult"). Some of them give you a special promo for your birthday, but I guess I can live without that.

Except banking & government services, I typically provide a fake one if required, because, WTF?

<comment><USER4> Name + DOB to disambiguate are the lookup keys they pass to data brokers to identify you, given a government ID (required to check in to a hotel). It gives them access to things like address history, email address history (for crosslinking of account records), credit rating, marketing channel tags, et c.

Same goes for the phone number that some website registrations demand. It's not to call you, it's to lookup your name and address and annual income.

<comment><USER5> Huh, I chose a random date from the year before I was born and use it whenever sites ask for my birthday. I've never had one come back and say that isn't really my birthday.

<comment><USER6> And for Dairy Queen, I gave them a date in the summer. Getting coupons in the middle of winter isn't too useful!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Luckily, Mariott doesn't have anything else to worry about right now.

<comment><USER8> Pandemic aside, they still have a $100M GDPR fine hanging from a previous breach!

[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/13/ico_british_airways...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/13/ico_british_airways_marriott_fines_delayed/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Every time when I asked for my copied ID to be watermark when checking-in at hotels, they always gave me a strange look - as if I do not trust their information security.

<comment><USER10> Would you elaborate how to do this?

<comment><USER11> Yeah, I would like some more details. Not sure I understood what exactly it means to "watermark" the ID. Is the goal to change it subtly to find out if it was leaked? Or is the goal to redact parts of it?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The last breach was November of of 2018 . They have had a year and a half to fix their abysmal security practices. Instead they choose to focus their efforts in that time on a ridiculous branding juggernaut("Bonvoy".) Seriously fuck this company. I hope people vote with their wallet.

<comment><USER13> Every Marriott I have ever been in was chosen for me, because of their business-friendly group booking system. There's an agent-principle problem with hotels that rely on corporate group rate and conference customers.

I went to the fedex store in a Marriott a couple of blocks from here to drop off a pre-paid parcel, and they wanted a $20 "convenience" fee to leave it on the desk. Maybe Marriott doesn't need to care about guest infosec because guests are the product, not the customer.

I mean, no one pays $27 of their _own_ money for a continental breakfast...

<comment><USER14> Wow, never heard of paying to drop off a package. Is that common? I thought the shipping fees or postage if gov post office is what's suppose to pay for that.

<comment><USER13> I think the Fedex Store is operated by a private firm, and can therefore charge whatever it likes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I imagine this will probably be mostly duplicate data from last years data breach. What a continual mess.

<comment><USER16> On the bright side, nobody else is booking hotels anymore so they have time to fix their systems this time around.

<comment><USER17> they've furloughed 2/3 of their corporate HQ staff

[https://wtop.com/business-finance/2020/03/marriott- furloughs...](https://wtop.com/business-finance/2020/03/marriott-furloughs- thousands-at-its-bethesda-headquarters/)

<comment><USER18> Yup and the individual hotels are being cut just as hard if not harder. Bad days to be in the hospitality biz.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Is it safe now to just assume that most everything about me has been exposed to someone? My only hope is that the number of places I've provided bogus information to creates enough noise that the truth is obscured some.

<comment><USER20> Probably (Mastercard provides free monitoring of leaked databases: [https://mastercardus.idprotectiononline.com/enrollment/embed...](https://mastercardus.idprotectiononline.com/enrollment/embedded.html)) however the service is kinda garbage because they censor it so much that I have no idea what of my data is actually leaked), but from a quick Google search it looks like you've voluntarily given out a lot about yourself anyways. I think most people have and are lulled into a sense of false security simply because no one has a need to target them yet. Sort of like the "I've done nothing illegal so I have nothing to fear" mentality but substitute government with criminals.

<comment><USER21> I often wonder how big my data footprint is. I don't have any social media, and I cycle between a few handles on any publicly facing site I keep an account with. I suppose Google must have all of my search history associated with my main email address, but I use several different emails and browsers in my day to day.

I guess I'm wondering how good all of these companies are at sharing data between themselves. What kind of data is exposed when I use my primary email to log into Zoom or Spotify on a work computer, or my phone, or one of my relative's computers? To what extent do these companies coordinate and share this data?

It all just seems like a really big unknown to me, and I'm relatively tech savvy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is the new norm. These hacks are not going to stop until these companies are actually punished for these breaches. One of the many things that are contributing to loss of faith in our system.

</comment><comment><USER23> "Fool me twice, shame on me"

If you live in the EU or California and didn't send Marriott a GDPR/CCPA deletion request after the first breach please do it now: [https://yourdigitalrights.org/?company=marriott.com](https://yourdigitalrights.org/?company=marriott.com)

</comment><comment><USER24> This is in addition to the 500 million customer breach in September, 2018.

[https://sensorstechforum.com/500-million-customers- marriott-...](https://sensorstechforum.com/500-million-customers-marriott- starwood-data-breach/)

</comment><comment><USER25> What protections/power do consumers have when their personal information is exposed like this?

<comment><USER26> Complain about it online. /s

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> How does one verify that the reported details exposed in the breach are the actual details? If that's impossible or really hard to do, wouldn't Marriott deny culpability given the pervasiveness of identity/CC fraud?

</comment><comment><USER28> I wonder how many more instances of "taking out the trash" we are going to see as this pandemic continues. Suddenly it's like everyday is Friday...

</comment><comment><USER29> Marriot is an outsourced shop (TCS, Cognizant et. al). They are an empty shell run by "managers".

<comment><USER30> Shocking that outsourced IT can't secure customer data. In my own experience with outsourced IT (specifically outsourced to India) it was extremely worrying that the people managing an IT infrastructure had no idea about very basic IT and had to ask the same questions over and over.

I do not trust Accenture. Fuck them.

<comment><USER31> The paycheques of staff at these firms come from following process. The big perk they offer competent employees is to get a US or EU work visa and be deputed on-site (that is easily a 10X salary hike for people with less than 10 years of experience), and that perk is how they keep salaries low.

You could get more competent people, but they are less likely to follow process (which violates contract terms), and would cost more.

Edit: Also, if you work in one of the big service firms for a US client, you will have to do your day job, and then return to the office later at night to have meetings on US time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Marriott is not having a great month.

</comment><comment><USER33> That headline, geez... remove the last four words and I guess it could be much, much worse :o

<comment><USER34> Yeah, it is a bit of a garden-path sentence ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden- path_sentence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is a good reason to carry a fake ID and a corporate credit card issued in the same name. (Most banks will allow you to issue subaccount cards on a corporate credit line in any name you type in the box.)

Being able to predict when you might be at a given hotel in the future (which is possible from one's stay history, e.g. a conference you attend every year) is tremendously useful for blackmailers, kidnappers, and the like.

I personally refuse to allow my PII in these databases on these grounds, and these days it's impossible to get a hotel room without an ID, so this is the only option.</comment>


Bridge the Digital Divide: Don't Forget the Other Billion People - <AUTHOR> http://readwrite.com/2015/12/04/digital-divide-project-loon-internet-org <comment><USER2> "Oolu, from Y Combinator's recent class..."</comment>


If there was one thing you could tell your 21 year old self, what would it be? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> 1) Be smarter with your money 2) Corporations are not your friends, don't kill yourself for low pay expecting them to "get you back" 3) You don't really need that 11th beer.

</comment><comment><USER3> Buy stock in Apple instead of that 12" iBook.

</comment><comment><USER4> Don't marry her.

</comment><comment><USER5> Ride your bike every day</comment>


Safe way to upload files to Dropbox from an untrusted computer - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/frontsideair/dropboxwindow

<comment><USER2> AFAIK Dropbox is an untrusted computer.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleeza_Rice#Role_in_author...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleeza_Rice#Role_in_authorizing_use_of_controversial_interrogation_techniques)

<comment><USER3> I agree, but so are most cloud services: [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%29) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XKEYSCORE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XKEYSCORE)

With Dropbox at least I can encrypt my data before uploading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> 'Safe' from the sense that it makes it difficult to compromise the security credentials of your account. However, this will do nothing to stop you from inadvertently uploading ransomware to your account.

<comment><USER5> Well of course it has no anti-malware features, the only protection it has is that no credentials are sent to the client, just an authorization token, which you can disable using your phone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This seems very similar to SQRL.... [https://www.grc.com/sqrl/sqrl.htm](https://www.grc.com/sqrl/sqrl.htm) how much does it differ?

<comment><USER5> Author here. I haven't seen SQRL and I'll check it in detail later. It looks like a more complicated thing than what I did and much more work compared to a simple, hackathon-like project.

My project works only on Dropbox and it doesn't require Dropbox to support any other authentication mechanism. It just uses OAuth2 behind the scenes.

</comment></comment><comment> prakash-news well actually dropbox is highly relevant enough for the technology, i could grab a depth within this concept, just point i was lacking is about SQRL</comment>


Ask HN: Which topics do I have to know just to run a company? - <AUTHOR> Dear Hackernews Community,
I'm a guy from Europe and I've finished recently my computer science degree. I'm very interested in startups and building products and companies. I love to write software, I love technology and my biggest goal is to work for my own startup and to develop a product which is useful for the world. What I dont understand is the business side of things. Its like black box for me. I dont know accounting, i don't know anything about finance, controlling and all this stuff. I can't understand how some computer science graduates mostly from USA can build companies with hundreds and thousands of employees. Getting funded with incredible amounts. Where do they learn the business side of things? Where do they learn how to scale the companies from 10 to 10'000 employees? What is the secret of silicon valley? Are there any books for the most important business fundamentals? Which topics do i have to know just to run a company?
I could attend a second undergraduate degree on one of the top business schools in europe but in the valley it would be a negative sign. So what should i do instead?
Every answer, opinion and recommendation is welcome.
Thanks for your help!
Best Regards <comment><USER2> The business side of things basically boils down to "Get hundreds of thousands of customers who are willing to pay you money, or hundreds of millions of users whose attention you can sell to hundreds of thousands of advertisers who are willing to pay you money."

There's more detail to that, of course, but the not-all-that-dirty secret about Silicon Valley is that the founders don't generally have to worry about that, because there's a liquid market of investors/executives/engineers/accountants/lawyers/marketers who are _all_ searching for the next big thing and happy to hop aboard it. If you can show that you have a lot of people who want what you provide, and have a plausible path to build it, there will be people who are happy to help you, for a cut.

That's the big advantage that Silicon Valley has over the rest of the world, and something that was completely lost on me when I moved here. "Founder" is a job description here, and your job is to _find a reason for the company to exist and communicate it to other stakeholders_. If you're digging into the details of engineering (I have a bad habit of doing this, myself), legal, accounting, management, etc, beyond what's necessary to prove the viability of the company, you are probably not doing your job right. Your one job as a founder is innovation, which is a hard job, but it's much easier than trying to run a whole business as a one-man show.

</comment><comment><USER3> My background is also CS and I'd recommend wholeheartedly "The personal MBA"[0]. It organizes the fundamentals of business in a clear and concise fashion that will be easy to understand and hard to forget. The book is not in depth of course but rather a comprehensive overview.

protip: skip the first self-promotional chapter, I was so put off by its poor taste that it made me delay reading the book by a few months. The rest is great though!

As others have mentioned, startup school[1] is also a goldmine. In my opinion it's less thorough on fundamentals and more focused on key lessons and understandings that only come with handling a successful startup. Many authors cover the same topics but the startup school presenters are actually authoritative on them, kudos!

The lean startup[2] is also a must, offering solid advice on how not to waste time, which equals runway, as a founder.

Another good one is Never Split the Difference[3], which teaches you a few tricks to fend for yourself while raising money in the world of VCs which, may I remind you, negotiate for a living.

0: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9512985-the-personal- mba](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9512985-the-personal-mba) 1: [https://www.startupschool.org/](https://www.startupschool.org/) 2: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10127019-the-lean- startu...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10127019-the-lean-startup) 3: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156469-never-split- the...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156469-never-split-the- difference)

</comment><comment><USER4> I can't talk about all of Europe, but in Austria we have the Wirtschaftskammer ("chamber of commerce"), and they offer free consultation and workshops for people who want to start a business.

Many universities/schools also have their own incubators. They can help you get started with everything you need to know. If you want to get in contact with investors, that's the way to do it here. And you'll meet a lot of like minded people.

As for accounting etc, you usually don't do accounting yourself, you'll just pay an accountant to do it and they'll tell you everything you need to know.

If you want to consider another degree, make sure to look at the community around the program. It's not a coincidence that a lot of startups are founded by the alumni of a few schools. If you don't know any startups founded by alumni of your university, maybe look for something else.

In my mind, the biggest advantage of doing another degree is meeting potential cofounders.

</comment><comment><USER5> > So what should i do instead?

Learn to sell anything, anywhere, for a profit.

</comment><comment><USER6> MBA curriculum is geared for people who will be managing medium to large established companies, not so much about the stuff you need to know when founding a company. Founding teams of 2 or 3 should possess foresight that led to a visceral understanding of the problem, the insight that led to the discovery of the secret to solving it -- that rare and valuable perspective that lights the path that no one else sees -- the verbal fluency to communicate what they see, and the technical expertise to implement it. Rarely is this skillset possessed all by one person, and the workload will be great, so that's why teams of 2 or 3 are recommended.

Founder skill sets should complement each other, but that doesn't mean one needs to be an MBA. Unless it's a case where it's founder who has pondering the problem for years, is the source of the insight ,and they just happen to have an MBA too, investors tend to view MBA founders as a net negative [0] vs strong technical team.

Ideally you want a brilliant generalist who sees the big picture to communicate and lead, someone who can speak both languages (tech and business),Often it's someone with a strong tech background who has grown up in an entrepreneurial family or lived in an entrepreneurial environment long enough to absorb the language and a tacit understanding. Paired with a co- founder who has deep, specialized, world-class expertise and a world-class engineer who loves to code, that's a strong team.

Don't worry about scaling to 10,000 employees before you've even begun. That will be a great problem to have when the time comes, and by then you'll the funds to hire a team of MBAs. You outsource your legal and accounting to specialized firms. When you're ready to raise funds, find a good startup attorney to set up the corp, and they'll who the good accountants are -- ask them to recommend. Until then, focus on your team and the core problem you're trying to solve, understand it from every angle -- from the perspective of multiple domains -- until you see the way it all aligns.

Beyond that, read Paul Graham's essays, absorb the Startup School lectures, and read _Zero to One_ :

* [http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html)

* [https://www.startupschool.org/](https://www.startupschool.org/)

* [http://zerotoonebook.com](http://zerotoonebook.com)

[0] [http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec03/](http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec03/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> thanks very much for your answers. I appreciate it very much!

</comment><comment><USER7> Please don't post baity titles to HN. This is in the site guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

(Submitted title was "F __* MBA, Get a Computer Science Degree Instead ". We changed it to a representative sentence from the text.)</comment>


One Humble Idea to Get our Economy Moving Again - <AUTHOR> http://brandonbechtel.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/how-we-might-avoid-jumping-off-the-coming-fiscal-cliff/

<comment><USER2> I'm fairly socially liberal, and I would be in favor of a serious effort like this, except that it has nearly zero chance of working.

The largest corporate tax contributors make an art out of avoiding paying any Federal taxes at all, let alone 35% [1]. Building a tax code that would close all of those loopholes without meeting tremendous political resistance is probably impossible -- especially since those loopholes are used by individuals with political influence.

And how would you decide who is and isn't eligible for social assistance under such a program? Let's say that your program somehow moved the nearly $1.5 _trillion_ dollars currently used for some form or another of social welfare directly into the pockets of a burgeoning middle class. Everybody's spending again, people are saving for retirement and college, angels bugle from the skies. However, the proposal only _incentivizes_ wage increases [2]; what do you do for the poor shmucks that work for businesses that choose to not participate?

To your credit, your idea is different from the usual fix-our-economy fare. Unfortunately it's just about as likely to work as a nationwide flat tax or simply taxing the rich more.

[1]: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/microsoft-taxes- pro...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/microsoft-taxes-profits- offshore_n_1901398.html), [http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/03/ten_giant_us_compani...](http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/03/ten_giant_us_companies_avoidin.html)

[2]: Actually, it doesn't even do that. It just incentivizes making wages more balanced, which leaves corporations at least two other major loopholes: simply pay their top-level people less, or reward them in ways which would exempt them from the program's calculations.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is amusingly simple minded. Does the author not realize that it will just cause big pay cuts for the most highly compensated employees (not necessarily a bad thing). Corporations will cut CEO pay in order to pay lower corporate taxes. Why on earth would they increase pay across the board in order to decrease the highest paid:lowest paid ratio?

This is basically an argument for cutting corporate taxes, which I don't entirely disagree with, but if that's what he wants to do he should just argue that on its own merits rather than coming up with a scheme that even brain dead tax accountant could get around.

</comment><comment><USER4> Good thought & intentions however any rules put in place that can lower a firm's tax will be abused. If I'm the CEO under a regime where ratio of top to bottom earners determines tax for my firm, I take a $1 salary, and then get paid massively in options or some other income-but-not-really-income method. That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are other ways to skirt these sorts of rules.

</comment><comment><USER5> How will you define pay? Are we talking 300:1 W-2 wages? Should we(how will we) account for benefits, stock options, deferred compensation agreements, payments to corporations owned by employees, phantom stock agreements? All of these would need to be accounted for otherwise there are going to be loopholes left and right and they will be abused.

</comment><comment><USER6> The plan only needs one addition: everyone gets a pony.</comment>


Trying the Stand-Up Desk - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/ITProfessionals/ITProcesses/trying-the-stand-up-desk

<comment><USER2> Slightly off-topic, but also very relevant. 36 years old, been coding at desk jobs since college.

My sitting-at-a-desk-all-day-related pain has been really eliminated by a very simple stretching technique. It's known as "upward dog pose" in yoga, but you _don't_ need to do it as part of a yoga routine or anything like that. I've had friends have it recommended to them by doctors.

It's a simple, simple pose; Google "upward dog" for plenty of pictorial examples.

Just about anybody can benefit from doing this and other stretches several times a day, so it's fairly independent of whether you use a sitting desk, standing desk, or split your time between the two. Good luck!

<comment><USER3> Do you need to do it lying down?

<comment><USER4> Yes - the starting position is to lie face down. See here: [http://www.tinajuanfitness.info/exercises/mod%20upward%20dog...](http://www.tinajuanfitness.info/exercises/mod%20upward%20dog.htm)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As I sit here with a mid-back pain I've been fighting for over a week now, I've been thinking a lot about getting a sit-to-stand setup. My back-pain probably wasn't caused by sitting though (I am actually quite capable of sitting, typing, etc in front of a computer for hours, even WoW didn't cause me any symptoms) but more probably because of a small 20lb monster I have to carry around frequently.

That said, the sitting for long hours aggravates the sore back resulting in much, much longer healing times. So I'm looking for some way to have a bit more movement and better posture while I work. I'm curious if most people have found this works well for them. Sore feet seem to be the commonly quoted issue, which is where the sit-to-stand design comes in to play for me.

It's about a $750 purchase for a geek desk. Is it worth it?

<comment><USER6> Before dumping the money on a geek desk, you really ought to try a hacked- together solution for a week or so. There's the $20 IKEA hack option or you can just stick a chair or a box on your desk.

You may end up finding your prefer a specific configuration and look at other standing desk options.

Also, in terms of sittings vs. standing and sore feet. I've been OK with comfortable shoes, but I'm close to getting a standing mat. There are some pretty pricey ones on Amazon, but Uline sells standing mats for $30 that are probably comparable to the expensive ones.

<comment><USER7> A hacked-together solution can be a good idea for trying it out without incurring the expense, but it's important to take note of what's being sacrificed or neglected in a hacked build. (If you can get that down to "none", so much the better!)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Personally, I can say using a stand-up desk has been a game changer for me. No longer do I suffer with neck and back pain.

Extended sitting has become a serious issue in today's workforce and there are plenty of options out there to get the job done.

My stand-up desk (UpDesk)is height-adjustable, which allows for better movement and customization. Finding the perfect mixture of standing AND sitting is key. Remember, anything in excess can be harmful.

Overall, standing up while working is extremely beneficial. I've noticed it has helped my focus, productivity, and energy level. Not to mention it has the ability to add years to my life.

</comment><comment><USER9> 31 years old. I've been using stand up desk for more than a year and half now after succumbing to a lower back pain and having to sleep on the floor for more than a month to get at least some sleep during the night. It worked for me. For the past 3 years I continued working a lot of hours at a computer (my side project, my main work, and sometimes some consulting work for clients).

I don't stand 100% all the time though. It is more like, somedays I sit more, somedays I stand more. I believe the key here is listening to your body and ability to easily change the position accordingly (sometimes I feel like standing, other times like sitting).

</comment><comment><USER10> I actually woke up this morning and randomly decided to try a standup desk, so I put a chair on my table for my laptop screen and a box underneath for my keyboard[1]. It took absolutely no initial investment to try a stand-up desk. I'm going to try it whenever I'm at home before deciding to invest in a proper setup.

1: [https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/255039626849443840/phot...](https://twitter.com/neilgupta/status/255039626849443840/photo/1)

</comment><comment><USER11> If you want to try it just buy some cinder blocks from lowes / home depot. They're about $2 each and 4 of them will get your desk up pretty high. I'm 6'2" with a regular height adjustable work desk (many office ones are). For $16 I tried it out for a month. Have a Geek Desk on order. Still need a floor / mat solution for my office.

</comment><comment><USER12> I've been meaning to try setting up a standing desk, but there was a major earthquake where I live 2 years ago and 6 or so major aftershocks since. There is still a high change of another major aftershock so I can't really stack my monitor on random things.

<comment><USER13> You could use the security kensington lock feature available on many monitors to act as a "catch" so it won't fall over.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I tried a standing desk for a while, but didn't have a way to adjust the keyboard height, so it ended up causing strain for my neck and shoulders. I'd give it another shot with a more legitimate piece of furniture -- mine was makeshift.

</comment><comment><USER15> Perhapse you should talk to nurses who stand all day or doctors take care of them? See venous insufficiency and lower extremity edema. I recommend Ted hose...good luck .

</comment><comment><USER16> The best desk is neither stand up nor sit down, but fully adjustable between the two. Staying in any one position for lengthy periods of time can be harmful.</comment>


A Blow for Copyright Trolls - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/press/releases/crushing-blow-copyright-trolls-appeals-court-halts-af-holdings-extortion-scheme

<comment><USER2> If this is the same AF Holdings/Prenda Law that we've been reading about on Popehat for a year, it might be tough to extrapolate this ruling into any kind of "crushing blow" against the concept of trolling; it would be understating it significantly to say that Prenda was already "on the ropes".

[http://www.popehat.com/tag/prenda-law/](http://www.popehat.com/tag/prenda- law/)

(Popehat's coverage of Prenda is _golden_ ; a highly recommended and amusing read.)

 _Later_

Having read the opinion, it's a little of both. (I'm not a lawyer and expect to be corrected here).

First, the Appeals court ruled that Prenda/AF's attempt to compel service providers to cough up records created an undue burden on the providers. That burden was undue because in attempting to do that, Prenda/AF needed to demonstrate a good-faith belief that the records they were speaking were discoverable.

The DC circuit points out that it would have been possible to file such a suit and make such a demonstration, but, of course, Prenda/AF did not do that.

Second, the court ruled that Prenda/AF's attempt at joining all their 1000+ suits into a single case was invalid, because Prenda/AF didn't demonstrate in a meaningful way that the cases were related. Again, the court explained that there was a reasonable way Prenda/AF could have legitimately filed such a case (albeit with fewer defendants), but the slapdash way they actually filed the case made it easy to reject their joinder request.

To the extent that the details of this ruling pertain to the specifics of the Prenda/AF case, they are less useful, because you'd have to imagine after reading more about Prenda/AF that any copyright troll in the world would have to be smarter than them.

<comment><USER3> I agree with you on the popehat coverage. It was simultaneously horrifying, entertaining and thrilling. I don't regret for a moment the hours I spent reading the reports.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> People probably don't want to hear this, but I think the anti-trolls are winning on technicalities. In many cases a reverse DNS lookup can determine the proper jurisdiction. Improper joinder can be solved by just not joining defendants. Prenda may be making simple mistakes but Malibu appears to be learning from them.

<comment><USER5> Isn't a use of the word "technicality" in a legal context an indicator of bias? Are you saying that the precedent set is weak?

<comment><USER6> That's exactly what it means. Most courts tend to make the narrowest possible ruling rather than setting broad precedent: if they can throw out a case on a technicality, they'll do that rather than rule on the merits of the case itself. When that _doesn 't_ happen, people start throwing around phrases like "activist judges".

So, in the areas of copyright and patent trolls, it's nice to see victories, but it's nicer to see victories on the merits of the case rather than on the details a particular troll got wrong.

<comment><USER7> But in this case, the procedural stuff is what makes AF is a troll, isn't it? What useful precedent would come out of getting to the merits?

<comment><USER6> > But in this case, the procedural stuff is what makes AF is a troll, isn't > it?

Only in part. Sure, procedural stuff like hostile choices of venue and settlement-seeking behavior seems common to trolls, but there's also the more general environment that makes trolling possible: the general expectation that going to court is an expensive gamble and you might not even get your costs back.

That's leaving aside the fundamental IP issues supporting patent trolling to begin with, but I don't expect to see a precedent on _those_ anytime soon.

> What useful precedent would come out of getting to the merits?

Precdents that would completely change the expected outcome of taking a troll to court: universal expectation of covering attorney fees, criminal penalties for broad-scale carpet-bombing with just-less-than-court-cost settlements ( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barratry_%28common_law%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barratry_%28common_law%29) ), and piercing the corporate veil on troll shell companies to stop them at the source.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Shouldn't they take them to court first? At what point does "give me money or else..." become extortion? Does it matter if they phrase it "I'm going to... but you can prevent that by paying me now."</comment>


Nobody Reads Privacy Policies - <AUTHOR> https://www.iafrikan.com/2019/09/30/nobody-reads-privacy-policies-heres-how-to-fix-that/ <comment><USER2> For the web developers out there. Have you read your own site's privacy policy? Does your company actually follow their own policy as written? Does the code you write comply with that policy?

A year back I found that my company wasn't abiding by our own privacy policy in a very obvious way, and when I raised the issue we were able to fix it. Thankfully we didn't just update the policy.

If you're unsure, do your users a service and check.</comment>


Code Reuse has Finally Arrived...Obviously - <AUTHOR> http://jjinux.blogspot.com/2012/05/code-reuse-has-finally-arrivedobviously.html

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure we ever reached the reuse in the OOP sense. That idea it's usually presented on a very small scale (you're going to grab some classes from another project as needed) - at least in theory. The actual reuse in real world happens on a package scale and has nothing to do with the OOP idea. Package/library reuse started the moment we got dynamic linking (or even before if you wanted to buy a good math library for example).

Maybe this can't be proven, but I think that the internet and publicly available projects (not even open, just available) have more to do with reuse than any OOP idea..

</comment><comment><USER3> And yet the example give with Qt, stays with Qt only. I can't reuse any code written with Qt classes, unless I want to use Qt.

But I can reuse small libraries almost anywhere - zlib, libtommath, tomcrypt, lzo1x, etc. The smaller they are, often it's easier, and the less platform specific they use, or alternatively the less platform-specific primitives they use the more reuse.

Reuse in binary sense, or blackbox-ish sense. Not really extending them, just putting them to use as they are.

</comment><comment><USER4> Code reuse finally arrived with the combination of javascript, html and 'right click, view source'.</comment>


From BigCo Software Engineer to Entrepreneur - 1 year in. - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwritehack.com/my-most-productive-year

<comment><AUTHOR> Love this blog post by Evan Jacobs reflecting on his first year as a entrepreneur and what he's learned.

</comment><comment><USER2> It's always cool to see folks transition from BigCo to the startup world.</comment>


Is It Legal to Mine Asteroids? - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/space_20/2014/10/asteroid_mining_and_space_law_who_gets_to_profit_from_outer_space_platinum.single.html

<comment><USER2> Better question - 'If someone starts, who's gonna stop 'em?'

Seriously... From their perspective we're all sitting at the bottom of a really long ski ball ramp where the balls explode if you're greater than 50% accurate and anything above 85% probably gets the job done.

Just saiyan...</comment>


Climate change: Warm winter ruins German ice wine harvest - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51695464 <comment><USER2> Something similar is happening in multiple European countries e.g. Helsinki has not had over-night snow (snow that stays for two consecutive days) this winter and it's likely it won't happen.

We are not sure what kind of butterfly effects this or other stuff (e.g. big lakes not freezing for the first time in recorded history) will have, but it's quite scary.

[https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finland_experiencing_mild...](https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finland_experiencing_mildest_winter_in_100_years/11160303)

<comment><USER3> The skiing industry is going to take quite a pounding. I imagine many resorts that did not have to rely on artificial snow are going to go bankrupt or outright close within the next decade.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine#Germany](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine#Germany) "Germany Throughout the 19th century and until 1960, Eiswein harvests were a rare occurrence in Germany. Only six 19th century vintages with Eiswein harvests have been documented, including 1858, the first Eiswein at Schloss Johannisberg.[2] There seems to have been little effort to systematically produce these wines during this period, and their production was probably the rare result of freak weather conditions."

</comment><comment><USER5> I can count at least 3 years in past 10 years without required temperatures for ice wine production. Even in years with harvest we see it later and later in winter, which leads to loss of grapes due to the rot making it not economically viable anymore. 20 years ago you did ice wine harvest in late November/early December. Now you are lucky harvesting in mid January.

</comment><comment><USER6> Ice wine is the only wine I like (sweet).

<comment><USER7> I recommend investigating the world of sweet and foxy wines: Concord, Catawba, and Muscat wines.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Another single year observation attributed to climate.

<comment><USER9> Meanwhile, in Wyoming: "This Winter Has Been One Of The Snowiest On Record For Wyoming, And It's Not Over Yet"

[https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/wyoming/snow-storms-in- wyomi...](https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/wyoming/snow-storms-in- wyoming-2020-wy/)

<comment><USER10> more snow doesn't mean it is colder

<comment><USER11> But more cold does frequently mean less snow.

After a certain point the air is just to cold to hold any humidity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is a stereotypical first world problem. I think calling attention to it risks trivializing the serious effects of climate change.

<comment><USER13> Because people loosing their livelihood is a 'first world problem' and not one of a series of important problems? Or because it's in Germany and not somewhere more 'relevant'?

I try to find a charitable reading of your post, but so far I've failed.

<comment><USER14> Well, loosing your job, or preferred wine, is a different kind of problem, than loosing your island. Thats what he or she meant.</comment></comment></comment>


Over 9000 vulnerability POCs, hand delivered on camera - <AUTHOR> http://iops.io/blog/impero-software-over-9000/

<comment><USER2> Title is click bait. 9000 paper copies of 1 POC. Not 9000 different POCs.</comment>


Ask HN: Self-study of basic accounting principles? - <AUTHOR>

I did the expected HN search before asking. I'm wondering what recommendations you business owners have for learning enough about accounting principles for a business to maintain the business accounts during the initial growth phase and to understand what the professionals (accountants, lawyers, bankers) advise about business financial decisions. I'm very willing to do hard work in materials that have lots of exercises and problems, but we (co-founders and I) have very little accounting or even bookkeeping background. Are there online courses in accounting? What books are good about small business accounting? What other resources do you recommend? What software tools for actually keeping the books work well? <comment><USER2> Must read for finance: [http://www.amazon.com/Finance-Managers-Harvard- Business-Esse...](http://www.amazon.com/Finance-Managers-Harvard-Business- Essentials/dp/1578518768/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1318341646&sr=8-3)

Business accounting: [http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Woods-Business- Accounting-v/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Woods-Business- Accounting-v/dp/0273712128/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318341690&sr=8-2)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> There does seem to be an online course in principles of accounting

[http://www.aleks.com/about_aleks/course_products?cmscache=de...](http://www.aleks.com/about_aleks/course_products?cmscache=detailed&detailed=gbusiness11_poacs#gbusiness11_poacs)

that looks reasonably inexpensive and thorough, but I don't know how well the online exercises will translate to planning a new accounting system for our business(es).

</comment><comment><USER3> A service like QuickBooks Online (<http://quickbooksonline.intuit.com/>) combined with a part-time/hourly bookkeeper (a few hours a month) who has experience in technology startups might be your best bet, then you can focus on products and customers.</comment>


The Cap Trap - <AUTHOR> http://www.aaronkharris.com/the-cap-trap

<comment><USER2> The other major issue with convertible notes are that entrepreneurs can end up giving away a lot more of the company than they realize. For example, if the company does a priced round with a pre-money valuation less than the cap (or with uncapped notes, less than expected.)

The median pre-money Series A valuation for all WSGR startups is ~$8.0m [1], which is likely on the higher end.

Also, uncapped notes do not get diluted when raising your Series A, which is additional dilution for the entrepreneur.

For example, let's say you raise $5m uncapped notes with no discount. If you then raise a $3m Series A at a $8m pre-money valuation, you'll end up giving away more than 50% of your company, not counting interest or option pool. At a $15m pre-money valuation, you'll be giving away over 40% of your company.

Entrepreneurs should be equally careful with SAFEs.

[1] [http://www.wsgr.com/publications/PDFSearch/EntrepreneursRepo...](http://www.wsgr.com/publications/PDFSearch/EntrepreneursReport-Q3-2013.pdf)

<comment><USER3> If you raise $8M in funding and your company is only valued at $11M, then you deserve to own less than 50% of your company since investors could have done almost as well sticking their money into a bank account.

I don't think the numbers given in your example are particularly realistic. Series A rounds are almost never smaller than seed rounds and are usually at least 3x - 10x.

<comment><USER2> My point is that entrepreneurs can get into jams inadvertently.

If you raise $2m or $3m on uncapped, no-discount notes, you basically need to turn that into a $10m+ pre-money company upon raising your Series A. If you raise $4m or 5m+ seed, it gets even harder. And this is assuming no cap or discount, which is unlikely.

You are correct that Series A rounds are usually not smaller, in which case if you raise several million seed on uncapped notes and cannot leverage that into a much more valuable company, you'll be unable to raise a Series A.

This is all manageable by the entrepreneur, but it's important to make sure you understand what's happening and where the risks are. It seems a lot of entrepreneurs don't.

<comment><USER3> If you raise $3M on a note, you're already implicitly valuing your company at $10M - $15M since since each round is meant to take roughly 20% of your company. Investors wouldn't give you $3M unless they thought your company was worth $10M already and you wouldn't take it unless you thought there was a decent chance of bring your company to a 30M valuation by the time the money ran out.

<comment><USER2> There is no written rule that says "each round is meant to take roughly 20% of your company", and a company is never guaranteed another round. I know several entrepreneurs who have been given term sheets for over 50% of their company. Or no term sheets at all.

There is no "rule" about implied valuation either. Entrepreneurs can raise $3m in notes $100k at a time, usually from investors that are much less price- sensitive than VCs leading a priced round. It's a lot harder to raise a priced Series A at a $10m+ valuation than raising piecemeal notes at the same valuation cap (or uncapped notes, even).

Again, this is all manageable by the entrepreneur, but there are no "rules" like it often appears from the outside.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Just wanted to comment on this tidbit: "However, if by some miracle they raised above the cap, the investors would get the same % they initially agreed to, but would also get higher liquidation preference."

This isn't necessarily true. If I recall correctly, the default language in Clerky's notes or the YC Safe provides mechanisms for getting around this, either by (a) issuing a different class of stock to noteholders with a different liquidation preference (e.g. Series A vs. A-1 shares) or (b) issuing the extra shares resulting from a discount or cap in common rather than preferred.

<comment><USER5> You can definitely write in provisions that would prevent the increased preference, but I don't believe those terms are standard (and I can imagine an investor fighting them quite a bit).

As for the SAFE, you're right that it has protections on the liquidation preference - one more reason that it's superior to a convertible note.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Originally posted and more useful title: "How ego and misunderstanding sabotage convertible notes"

<comment><USER7> I'd suggest the title: Cap Trap drives to the root problem. The fact that the convertible note cap has become the pseudo-pricing of the round, creates considerable contention between angel investors and founder, which compromises the major benefit of convertible notes to raise money quickly. Obviously ego and/or misunderstanding can acerbate this issue, but ultimately, it's the focus on the cap number that introduces many of the complications of a priced round.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Would You Pay for This? - <AUTHOR> Heya folks
I need your help! I am working on a series of posts to help the community spread the word about the projects you are working on. Wanna help?
Please write a comment with:
* project name
* project website
* your twitter handle/project page handle
* a tweet's length description for your product
* how much do you plan to charge
I am extremely hyped to start doing this. My long-term vision is to gather user feedback for your pricing plan and help you make the best decisions.
As a bit of background, when I started working on my side-project, I had no idea how to price it. Then I read a great e-book (Don't just roll the dice by Neil Davidson) and followed the guidance there. I believe there's a lot of potentials to get user feedback before you make one of your greatest choices as an entrepreneur. <comment><USER2> Hi cionescu!

Here is my baby side-project, recently turned full-time:

\- Name: userTrack

\- Link: [https://www.usertrack.net/](https://www.usertrack.net/)

\- Self-hosted analytics platform with heatmaps, session recordings and powerful user segmentation. A/B testing feature also coming soon!

\- Price: $99/life for normal users, an upcoming $299/life developer version and custom pricing (license/year) for agencies.

\- Twitter (me): [https://twitter.com/XCSme](https://twitter.com/XCSme)

\- Twitter: [https://twitter.com/userTrack_app](https://twitter.com/userTrack_app)

I tested various pricing options, I even have a monthly pricing ($7.99/m) available, I am still not sure what's the best way to monetize it.

</comment><comment><USER3> \- Name: Datawaves

\- Link: [https://datawaves.io](https://datawaves.io)

\- Desc: Easy way to add customer-facing analytics to anything, sort of keen.io alternative

\- Price: $0.000015 per write - which is $15 per 1M writes, pay as you go.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks mrwnmonm. What's your twitter handle (i.e. how can I get in touch with you?)</comment></comment>


VC model is broken - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/05/07/kauffman-foundation-the-venture-capital-model-is-broken/

<comment><USER2> "Broken" here is from the perspective of the investors in VC funds, it refers to a report available here:

[http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/vc-enemy-is-us- report....](http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/vc-enemy-is-us-report.pdf)

tldr; only 20% of the VC funds used by this one investor (the Kauffman foundation) returned more than average market returns over the last 20 years.</comment>


Building a Serverless Chatbot with AWS, Zappa, Telegram, and Api.ai - <AUTHOR> http://www.developintelligence.com/blog/2017/08/building-serverless-chatbot-aws-zappa-telegram-api-ai/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hey everyone, author here. I put together this tutorial on building an AI powered serverless chatbot by plugging various existing services together. I've been playing around with Zappa/Lambda/Serverless a bit recently and have thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity so far after years of setting up Apache servers and renewing certificates and running up against various OS-level issues.

Feedback appreciated!</comment>


Death in Space - <AUTHOR> http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/02/death-in-space.html <comment><USER3> I find quite absurd the concept of bringing back home the explorer's dead body. Seamen traditionally are buried at sea, it seems quite obvious that the right thing to do for a space explorer is to be made a permanent asteroid.

<comment><USER4> The problem then is that, while a dead seamen doesn't pose a threat to the ship, in the case of a dead astronaut, you must be sure the body's trajectory won't intersect your own at any significant speed.

<comment><USER5> It cannot intersect your own at significant speed, unless you expend significant energy to diverge your trajectory. Otherwise it simply continues to accompany you at some slightly varying distance.

<comment><USER6> Makes looking out the window slightly disturbing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think the author is underestimating the psychology of astronauts. We often think of them as some kind of scientist or explorer but in fact they are an elite military force, made up of the sort of men that we would expect to fly dangerously unpredictable test aircraft.

Anyone being sent into space is well aware that they have about a one-in- twenty chance of not coming back. They are selected and trained on the understanding that if they become unwell in space, they could jeopardise the lives of their fellow crewmen.

Repatriation of remains is an unaffordable luxury in space and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. No-one with the constitution to be an astronaut would allow their own death to hamper a mission.

As to whether Mars is worth dying for - <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/390933.stm>

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm always amazed at the amount of thought that people seem to put into the handling of their bodies after they're dead. Elaborate rituals and strange requests that provide no benefit to them and only seem to inconvenience the people who are in fact still alive.

<comment><USER9> This makes sense in many religious contexts. For instance, traditional Christianity asserts belief in the "resurrection of the body." This implies that the body isn't a mere shell to be cast off, but is actually part of what made the person who they are, and is worthy of respect. Thus you have saints relics in Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

I assume that other religions offer explanatory contexts for their rituals as well. These may or not make sense when transferred to a modern secular society.

<comment><USER10> I think it is important to note that ceremonial burial was practiced by archaic secular societies as well - including Neanderthals. I think that we need some sort of group activity to help us transition to new situations - <USER2> graduations, weddings, funerals, in Japan there are now wedding-like ceremonies for divorce with both families attending.

I think at its basic level there is something along these lines: change is uncertain, the group is here to witness the change and the group is not startled, I'm ok because the group is ok.

<comment><USER11> How do we know Neanderthal society was "secular"?

<comment><USER10> You got me - we don't really know either way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Reminds me of this proposal: <http://www.thespacereview.com/article/669/1>

One man, one way to Mars. There's no need to carry a body then.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm surprised that anyone willing to risk a mission to mars wouldn't be satisfied with the glory alone of attempting such a mission. I suppose the religious reasons are what would motivate people to want this.

</comment><comment><USER14> Seems a shame to deliberately destroy the frozen body, when there are people back on earth paying to be vitrified and kept artificially frozen for a chance (however small) of resurrection. And I would think an explorer would prefer a tombstone as a last mark on the new world.

</comment><comment><USER15> There is nothing on Mars worth dying for. Build the lander if you must, let the defense contractors collect their contracts, then blow it up on the launchpad. All objectives accomplished, everyone goes home to their families.

<comment><USER8> We're on borrowed time on this particular rock. I think the continued existence of the human race is a pursuit worth dying for.

<comment><USER16> I agree, though I see no harm in waiting a bit. Going to Mars soon feels like an attempt to build a billion dollar supercomputer in 1979. Technology useful for space missions moves slower than computers alone, but I can't help but think that in just 50 years we'd be far more prepared if we diverted today's Mars cash into robotic space exploration and, particularly, space mining research.

<comment><USER17> It isn't minerals we're running out of. If we, as a species, expect to survive, we're going to have to stay at a population below the carrying capacity of this planet. Failing that (and we are failing badly, a fact barely disguised by petrochemical fertilizers) we need to spread. There's good reason to believe that Mars can be terraformed (imperfectly, since there won't be adequate natural magnetic shielding against radiation). Colonization technologies are what we desperately need to work on. Mining's the easy part once we're there; food and water are a little more difficult to dig for.

<comment><USER18> Fertilizers can last forever. Matter is not actually used up.

As long as we have enough energy, we can make fertilizers. Of course, petrochemicals are a nice raw material, but not necessary.

And we are not running out of energy, anytime soon. (Though we may run out of oil.)

<comment><USER19> The conservation of matter is an amazing thing.

 _If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe_ \- Carl Sagan

<comment><USER18> Yes. Though to be more precise, in the process of using fertilizers, even the atoms are conserved. Though you will have to re-build the molecules.

On the practical side: Using coal as a raw material, you should be able to make fertilizers with only somewhat more energy than from oil.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I certainly hope we're not spending a lot of money on death-in-space scenarios.

Wrap the body up, strap a 4-kilo rocket on it, say some nice words, and off she goes. No new technology or engineering required.

Unfair question, but it's how I feel: Does NASA always have to have some great new over-engineered plan for every little new thing they come across?

<comment><USER21> You might want to reclaim the bodies water first, ala Dune.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> It seems wrong to return the body - wouldn't it be better to bury it where it died (if on Mars) or send it into space ala Star Trek (complete with bagpipes).

That would have been my choice anyway.

</comment><comment><USER23> where is that background image from?</comment>


What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/30/world/asia/what-china-has-been-building-in-the-south-china-sea.html?_r=4 <comment><USER2> From last time around:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9981493](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9981493)

</comment><comment><USER3> I am astonished how geo-political squabbles over resources such as oil and fishing may destroy the great reef ecosystems of this region. Ecosystems, that are far more valuable than the things these nations squabble about.

The cold war was messed up in so many ways. It reminds me these developments.

The type of people that advocate such nationalistic projects in favour of international, peaceful and reasonable exploitation should be removed from power.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is not the end game of China's ambition, its just the start.

<comment><USER5> Do you mean that China has no right to "ambitions"? If you check your history books you'll see that China has lost an enormous chunk to USSR and to other countries when she was weak. Now she is stronger and will not let anyone take any more of what she's got hold of, not even a cm2. I think it is understandable.

<comment><USER6> Try defending this as "moral and just" with a straight face:

[http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/67616000/gif...](http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/67616000/gif/_67616829_south_china- sea_1_464.gif)

<comment><USER7> What about this?

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_x7xNgfhbbWo/TLxegWcfLTI/AAAAAAAAAx...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_x7xNgfhbbWo/TLxegWcfLTI/AAAAAAAAAxA/OT60sHnDmGY/s1600/bases444.jpg)

<comment><USER8> What's the purpose of that?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's a dangerous game when china builds islands to support It's military. Looking towards the future, could ever mean world war 3. I read an article just recently that the world is the closest It's ever been to world war 3.

</comment><comment><USER10> China has every right to protect their potential $5 trillion in trade. International law does not matter. No one else will fight them for it. To do this, requires lots of sand, casinos and go go dancers. Capital flight from corrupt officials' relatives will feed lobby machines and eventually quell these Western Dalai Lammy cliques worldwide

<comment><USER11> Protect their trade, from what threats?

Maybe US and Phil can build some islands and locate nuclear warheads and missile defence systems there. After all USA have to protect their global trade.

<comment><USER7> Well firstly, China is not locating nuclear warheads on those islands - that's an exaggerated and irrelevant point.

Also, using US as an example is incredibly hypocritical since they have a large military presence all over the world - in way more regions than China.

Why is the US doing this? Could it be to 'protect trade'?

<comment><USER11> Just their presence is threatening to Philippine and Vietnamese fishing boats and other vehicles. They patrolling around the area opens up for harassments against civil boats from these nearby countries.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Letter to a friend who is leaving her job to do do something on her own - <AUTHOR> https://sariazout.substack.com/p/check-your-pulse-49 <comment><AUTHOR> In the passion economy, the real risk is that your job has to earn a living and meet the needs of your soul.

Six questions to consider.</comment>


Twittermoms Shows Why Twitter Needs Groups  - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/19/twittermoms-shows-moms-care-too/

<comment><USER2> Milf Hunting just got a whole lot easier.</comment>


Global warming-induced migratory bird body size reduction and shape change - <AUTHOR> https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ele.13434 <comment><USER3> Given that HN has had articles on the decline of the insect population ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations)) and the decline in bird populations ([https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/science/bird- populations-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/science/bird-populations- america-canada.html)), I am surprised that food supply is not listed as one of the causes of body changed.

<comment><USER4> here you go [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-global- warmi...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-global-warming-make- food-less-nutritious/)

<comment><USER5> Macronutrients shift by minor amounts (single digit percentages), but there is more overall food. CO2 causes a more efficient use of water in photosynthesis and improves overall crop yields. The last time CO2 was in the thousands of PPM, the ancestors of birds...AKA dinosaurs...thrived and grew to enormous sizes.

<comment><USER6> But I don't think dinosaurs were plagued by microplastics and poisons industrially designed to kill them instead of their food supply.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There are few details in the abstract but wing length is notoriously difficult to compare across measurers - the standard method of measuring the leading edge of the wing by gently straightening the primaries along a stopped ruler can easily generate differences of 2-3mm for different people measuring the same bird. It can be done for small groups of people who work together - <USER2> ringers (shorebird banders if you are in the Americas) where they deliberately practise to standardise their technique. If the sample sizes are good then the error should be consistent across time so the conclusion might still be sound.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_measurement#Wing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_measurement#Wing)

The good news from this is that nature is splendidly adaptable and able to compensate for changes that occur within a few decades. That says that plants and animals are a lot more robust than we think they are.

UPDATE: One confounding factor is that standards in handling birds are always improving so there's no way of telling whether measurements are comparable across time.

UPDATE: Thanks to throwaway5752 for finding the full text. The birds were measured by a single observer so you can ignore everything I said. Interesting result.

</comment><comment><USER8> There have been huge changes in habitat during the same period, driven largely by urbanization and changes in agricultural patterns, that dwarf any changes driven by climate. We actually had Ectopistes migratorius go completely extinct by 1901, due to habitat destruction, not climate change.

<comment><USER9> Climate change at the human accelerated rate IS habitat destruction.

<comment><USER8> But the important thing is the rate. How would you measure the habitat destruction? Distinct species per unit area? Biomass per unit area? Climate change affects no possible proxy that you could select as fast as a bulldozer and a housing development. (And in recent years, climate change has been positive for global biomass.)

<comment><USER10> Yes, but you are conflating local effects with broader trends. A housing development may result in the partial or total habitat destruction of a couple of species, climate change is causing the destruction of a double digit percentage of all species across the board.

<comment><USER8> As of yet, actual habitat destruction by humans has wiped out far more species across the board than climate change has. Perhaps that will change some time in the future.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Birds eat insects, yes? If there's been a reduction in insects then wouldn't that impact birds' development?

</comment><comment><USER12> I don't have access to the article, and there really isn't anything given in the abstract to actually link the change in body size to global warming. I hope the article does a better job than "warmer temperatures are expected to reduce bird size and here are a bunch of bird species which have gotten smaller over the last 4 decades, therefore climate change."

<comment><USER13> It is a scientific paper, not an "article". The abstract is pretty clear summarizing the findings and I'm not sure what you would otherwise expect from the abstract of a paper.

When I search for the paper's title, I found the full text on the third result [https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/610329v1.full](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/610329v1.full)

edit: leaving as is but, "research article" or "paper", i was replying to the common usage meaning of "article". Anyway, my point about the abstract stands and the rest of the paper supports it well.

<comment><USER14> A scientific paper is a type of article.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to find a great mentor for my startup? - <AUTHOR>

I wonder how to find a great mentor. Where to start? How to connect with people who are visionaries and respected in our area? Which meetup to attend? How to establish relationship? <comment><USER2> [http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-get- that-...](http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-get-that-guy-as- your-mentor.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Boom!

[http://gigaom.com/2010/12/28/how-to-charm-a-vc-into- mentorin...](http://gigaom.com/2010/12/28/how-to-charm-a-vc-into-mentoring- you/)</comment>


A Breakdown of the SpaceX BFR Video - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@StonlyBaptiste/a-breakdown-of-the-spacex-bfr-video-7d1f1cf67e0b <comment><AUTHOR> I had this prepared so that I could further analyze the components that went into creating Elon Musk's presentation. I'm using that insight to create this guide to help founders [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Vd-55jhiICSSlZCePRjGOs7...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Vd-55jhiICSSlZCePRjGOs7qbrQayNwu5Z_oA3x03g/edit)</comment>


A music programming language for musicians - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/alda-lang/alda <comment><USER4> Alda has been discussed previously on HN, including comparisons to other musical languages and some of the advantages / disadvantages of each:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10177716](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10177716)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10662598](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10662598)

</comment><comment><USER5> If this interests you, definitely checkout Sonic Pi. It's a Ruby DSL for music programming.

[http://sonic-pi.net/](http://sonic-pi.net/)

<comment><USER6> Sonic pi is amazing

Sébastien Rannou has published a tutorial on how he live coded his fabulous cover of Aerodynaic by Daft Punk. [https://aimxhaisse.com/aerodynamic- en.html](https://aimxhaisse.com/aerodynamic-en.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd much rather see a music notation where harmony is first-class, rather than an emergent phenomenon.

More lead sheet, less orchestral score.

</comment><comment><USER8> Sadly I don't see MIDI exporting support. I looked at making one of these music generation programming languages before, but just ran out of time for it. My goal was quite ambitious though:

1\. Support MIDI exporting (so you could get it into a DAW)

2\. Support timing nudges and randomization (ie, with drums it's common to play slightly ahead or behind the beat, and somewhat random timing for humanness factor)

3\. Be easier to write than it is to manually do on a piano roll

So far though, this is a pretty hard set of things to do all at once. I have a design while using Ruby as a DSL, but it's just difficult to make it all come together

edit:

To elaborate a bit more on timing nudges, I mean play on beat for measures 1-4, then on measures 5 and 6 play slightly ahead of beat (but using the same actual playing pattern etc).. Most of my ideas were focused on drums rather than general instruments because drums are the only thing I've had to use MIDI for so far

<comment><USER9> You need an accurate timing resolution of less than 1ms for useful groove nudging, and it's really tough to get PCs or Macs to be that precise on any OS.

If you use a high level language like Ruby, js, or Python the actual timing will be randomised anyway.

For maximum accuracy you need a low level scheduler written in C++ with a few special tricks. Of you can farm out the timing to something like JUCE - <USER2> isn't quite perfect, but is good enough for most applications.

<comment><USER10> It seems you're forgetting that everything is buffered and all events are timecoded. This is how pretty much all music software works, and it means the final audio is synchronized down to sample precision, regardless of any hardware latency. If the hardware is too slow and you're doing realtime, the audio will stutter, but this doesn't affect timing precision within the audio stream.

For example, when a VST plugin is asked to process a block of audio, it receives a buffer and an array of events with their exact positions in the buffer. All components are connected to each other in this manner. So even if you're using a slow language, timing will definitely not be randomized, though perhaps, as you add more code, you will reach the point where it's too slow for realtime slightly earlier than if you were using a highly efficient compiled language.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It would be useful if it had a tool to convert MIDI files to source code (ideally with some sane automatic structuring). I've sequenced some 15 megabytes of MIDI files, and would love to have them in a form suited for version control.

<comment><USER12> MidiXML?

[http://www.music-notation.info/en/formats/MidiXML.html](http://www.music- notation.info/en/formats/MidiXML.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm _really_ surprised at how many programming languages for music there are.

What I think is interesting is how few of them seem to be aware of tracking style interfaces and how those might be better extended to do many of the kinds of things these languages offer.

I remember showing some programming friends some examples of what trackers look like and the response is usually something like "you have to _program_ the music?" or "oh! it's like asm for music!"[1]

It's a much nicer way of laying down notes quickly and has some pretty mature ideas behind it as a music composition paradigm and offer a huge variety of possibilities for music composition.[2][3]

Writing with trackers is also fast. When you get really good with these tools it's possible to sketch out a 2-3 minute song in 30-60 minutes - <USER3> and all.

1 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3xHPIuX3s4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3xHPIuX3s4) 2 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45BH12-O_94](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45BH12-O_94) 3 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUx8PrDqUiY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUx8PrDqUiY)

</comment><comment><USER14> Nice to see something like this - reminds me of my initial love of programming in QBasic. My oh my the noise that was going on in the classroom that day. Quite an impressive looking way to simplify and open up two worlds. Hope to give it a try eventually.

<comment><USER15> Freebsd adopted the same API [https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=speaker&sektion=4](https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=speaker&sektion=4)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Looks like a dumbed down version of lilypond syntax?

<comment><USER17> Yeah with lilypond you have support for world music notation most of these music frameworks assume you're only working with standard western music styles, lilypond is really powerful.

<comment><USER18> I've found Frescobaldi to be a terrific interface for Lilypond with some useful shortcuts if you're not an experienced user. Lilypond is indeed a marvellous piece of software.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is really neat. Has anyone tried using machine learning to compose music with this?

<comment><USER20> That was my first thought when I saw this too! Definitely another addition to my side project idea backlog.

Related: have you seen this? [https://maraoz.com/2016/02/02/abc- rnn/](https://maraoz.com/2016/02/02/abc-rnn/)

</comment></comment><comment> iris-digital Interesting, what is it implemented in? Seems to be Java related somehow. And there's a client and server?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you click on the red bar under the repository description you can see what is the main programming language for the repository which is clojure.</comment></comment>


Space X Live : Dragon V2 Unveil - <AUTHOR> http://spacex.com/webcast/

<comment><USER2> A dupe of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7817583](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7817583).

Moreover, it's fluff. There is nothing substantive about an announcement of an announcement.

<comment><USER3> Normally I would agree (and I hate these announce-that-they-will-announce things in general) but in this case, there's a stream that a lot of people here would probably enjoy watching live, so it's nice to tell them ahead of time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It still has almost six hours to go, why post this now? There's a good chance this will be gone from the front page by the time the event happens.

</comment><comment><USER5> 'Live' meaning 6 hours later than the time this was submitted ....</comment>


Show HN: AppsTxt.com, Everyday a Free App by Text - <AUTHOR> http://appstxt.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi fellow HNers,

AppsTxt is our last project. As iPhone users we wanted a new way to discover apps on the store and benefit from discounts on great apps. We used Free Apps a Day but we are not fan of the idea of installing a new app to get new apps. Also we forgot most of the time to open it and judge that it doesn't deserve to have notifications ON.

We thought about text message. How we can open them easily and switch to something else fast. So we put together AppsTxt.com .

Starting Monday, you will receive a direct link to download free apps, on which we've negotiated cool deals we have with friend-apps! Until then we would love to gather your feedback on the idea and your suggestions. Of course feel free to register, I guarentee you that we will NEVER spam you.

Thank you by advance for your feedback!

<comment><USER2> I was wondering why you would chose SMS over a notification system. So many advertising companies have tried using SMS, that ads asking for my phone number have gained a bad stigma (for me, at least!). But, in reality, I have unlimited messaging, and the ability to block messages from specific users. I really have no reason to feel this way anymore. I'm going to try it out. Thanks for commenting here!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I am mostly worried about being deluged in low-quality apps. Sure, they may be paid in the store, but there might be a reason why they need the promotional help, you know?

However, I look forward to getting some free apps, hopefully get some real good ones!

</comment><comment><USER4> Looks like <http://giveawayoftheday.com/> for apps. The apps will probably be useless and non-upgradeable.

<comment><AUTHOR> no you download them directly from the store and you can upgrade later like the apps with FreeAppADay

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Are these normal text messages or premium texts? I don't want to be charged extra for something that's free.

<comment><AUTHOR> No worry it's normal text messages :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Are these normal text messages or premium texts. I don't want to be charged extra for something that's free.

</comment><comment><USER6> Are they just random apps? or targeted to the person's taste/interests. That will make more sense to me.

<comment><AUTHOR> At the begining it's would be apps that we love or for which we obtained a special deals (free for 24hours for example). But yes we hope to personnalize our recommandations quickly !</comment></comment>


PhoneLabs – Your Phone as a Lab - <AUTHOR> http://www.phonelabs.net/ <comment><USER2> I was trying to use it and now is a wordpress page... What happened?</comment>


REBIN: Use any CLI app/script as a web service - <AUTHOR> http://www.intridea.com/blog/2013/2/27/rebin

<comment><USER2> This could be useful. (Though, to be honest, it faintly reminds me of a suped- up version of cgi-bin circa 1996 with a lot more dependencies.)

Anyone know if it can asynchronously handle long-running processes?

<comment><USER3> The thing is, you can still do all this in Apache now. CGI still exists (in fact, it's the default way Perl's ran). So I'm really struggling to work out why I'd install their tool over Apache.

And I don't mean this negatively, I really do want to know what separates this product from existing webservers runing CGI, but there's no useful information on their website what-so-ever.

If any of the Rebin devs are reading this, are you able to elaborate on this tool a little more?

<comment><USER4> Hi, one of the developers here. Not all servers run CGI. Sure, while there are wrappers that can do it, for example for nginx, it isn't pretty. The purpose for REBIN is a clear and concise serving of executables without the overhead of say Apache. I think the readme is rather verbose... Call me surprised :)

<comment><USER3> To be brutally honest, the readme didn't really sell the product. But then I guess that's not the point of the readme. However none of your other documentation (blog posts, Rebin product page, etc) explained what sets this product apart either.

I think I get it's point now - though I can't pretend to be sure of that. I can see that you're trying to do something a little different from CGI (which, incidentally is available for node.js as well), I'm just not entirely sure _how_ different you two are. I guess the proof of that may just be in using it :)

Either way, it's good to see it up on github and I'm sure plenty people will be grateful for your work.

<comment><USER4> Thanks for this! We have some plans that may indeed differentiate further from CGI.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yep, instances are asynchronous and can handle long running processes. As for cg-bin circa 1996, I appreciate your long memory! But nothing was RESTful back then. ;-)

<comment><USER6> Technically, everything was RESTful, we just didn't have a hipster name for it.

<comment><USER4> :) ...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This looks very useful. However, looking at it on github, I see there is no Windows version (yet). I am interested in this so I can access and run Windows-only processes from a sane Linux environment within my server cluster. Is there any interest or on going effort to extend Rebin to Windows?

<comment><USER5> It's open source, so have your way with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is awesome. I'm going to start writing a scanner to find silly things exposed on the internet using this.

<comment><USER4> Clearly you are being sarcastic... lol

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Cool!</comment>


A video of SpaceVim's mapping guide feature - <AUTHOR> https://asciinema.org/a/257zdihkhjrpz2sqc0vxcgwov <comment><AUTHOR> I have implement this feature in [https://github.com/SpaceVim/SpaceVim/pull/458](https://github.com/SpaceVim/SpaceVim/pull/458)

</comment><comment><USER2> de fsck? I see what looks like a scree full of random garbage with something very slowly happening on the status line, but I have no idea what to look for.

<comment><AUTHOR> what do you see? you can not open the video?</comment></comment>


Study: Speaking Multiple Languages Staves Off Dementia - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/blog/speaking-multiple-languages-staves-off-dementia <comment><USER2> Remembering previous articles staves off dementia ( Or so I hope) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8472556](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8472556)

<comment><USER3> HN Hall of Fame comment awards center stage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Parlez-vous francais? If you answered yes, then you're well on your way to enjoying the many benefits of bilingualism."

Umm... wouldn't answering "oui" be a better indication of bilingualism than answering "yes"?

<comment><USER5> No. As is, it demonstrates that you can understand the question in one language, and respond in another. Bilingual! :)

<comment><USER6> What if you answered "Si!" but you couldn't read the article?

<comment><USER7> Not sure about the article, but you wouldn't have demonstrated a good mastery of French (the question wasn't in the negative).

<comment><USER8> No, you would have demonstrated that you understand French and speak Italian. Or nothing of the sort, as this subthread indicates.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Study authors: "We found an association"

Typical bad reporting: "Study finds causation"

It should be obvious on the face of it that in aggregate, multi-lingual people live lives that are significantly different than mono-lingual people.

I'd bet a _lot_ of money that breast cancer rates, for example, are much higher in multi-lingual people. If I'm right, it's not because multi- lingualism causes breast cancer. It's because both breast cancer and multi- lingualism are associated with higher-wealth individuals.

<comment><USER10> FWIW multilingualism isn't just for the privileged, by a long shot (though I don't know what the sample for the study was). Lots of people in third world countries are bi- or multilingual.

<comment><USER11> In the US, at least, bilingualism is likely more prevalent amongst the less well off (ie immigrants).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I would like to believe this opinion, because I am able to speak both English and Chinese. 因為我會說英語和中國話,我願意相信這意見。But the best considered opinion, according to a well reported article in _The Atlantic_ earlier this year,[1] is that there is no strong evidence that bilingualism is especially helpful for cognitive function in old age. No problem. 沒問題。

[1] [http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/the- battl...](http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/the-battle-over- bilingualism/462114/)

</comment><comment><USER13> So basically, you could compare dementia statistics in Belgium or Switzerland (where most people speak more than 2 languages) and the UK or France (where that percentage is significantly lower). Are there any such studies?

<comment><USER14> Any such studies would be swimming in other correlating factors like genetics, quality of life, education, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is there something special about language, or does it generalize? Does this boil down to: "do stuff with your brain"? (independent of IQ) I think you need to exercise your brain as well as your body.

I bet playing multiple instruments helps too. That exercises the same parts of your brain as language (nested grammatical structure, timing, pitch, reading).

I would think computer programming (in multiple languages) does too, for that matter.

<comment><USER16> >I would think computer programming (in multiple languages) does too, for that matter.

CF grammars being much easier require, and thus exercise, much less circuitry :)

<comment><USER17> The language grammar itself is simple, but I would assume the problems you attempt to solve can require a lot of circuitry?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> some of the studies linked are have such low n ( ~25) done over short periods of time ( ~ 6 months) . There are so many other factors that might affect the results. I am having hard time trusting these articles.

How do these researchers come up with the hypothesis in the first place; would be interesting to see what other hypothesis they tested and failed.

</comment><comment><USER19> Probably any sort of mental challenge would stave off dementia, whether the challenge is linguistic, mathematical, verbal, or some other category.

<comment><USER20> True, but multiple languages don't add "much", more massage, decorate, reinforce the previous knowledge graph I guess. Kinda like learning two paradigms, they reinforce each others.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> or maybe if you are "smart" enough to speak several languages you are already ahead of the game.. thus you have more to loose before dementia becomes apparent.

<comment><USER22> I doubt you need to be that smart to learn a second language. Growing up in Belgium we all started learning our second language at age 10 (some earlier), and a third at age 13. Most people (in Flanders) end up leaving high school speaking Dutch, French and English. Some get German too. It's not always very fluent, but everyone should have basic conversation skills in three languages.

It's a cultural thing more than anything else. Besides children's movies we don't dub anything, we just subtitle. That gives you a lot of exposure to other languages. In theatres movies are even simultaneously subtitled in Dutch and French all over the country, by default.

So considering the amount of people that learn a second language with relative ease, I don't think it has anything to do with being smart or not. You just have to be willing and start young enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Wha about multiple computer languages?

<comment><USER24> Nothing more than a misappropriation of the world "language". Natural and programming languages share little more than the word language between them. Programming interface is probably a better description than programming language given the constant conflation of the two.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I certainly know of several firsthand counterexamples.

</comment><comment><USER26> 浣腸!!!

I think that double-staves-off dementia.</comment>


Jim Collins: How great companies turn crisis into opportunity - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/15/news/companies/Jim_Collins_Crisis.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009012213 <comment><USER2> Something about "management guru Jim Collins" makes me dubious, although I can't quite put my finger on it.</comment>


Why so few women at the top, still? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/jobs/09work.html

<comment><AUTHOR> "Overmentored and undersponsored" really resonated with me for two reasons - first, there aren't that many women in a position to act as sponsors (either as CEOs or angels), and second, because it's hard to ask someone to go all-in on you.

Women tend to showboat less than men, and want to let their work speak for itself. Unfortunately, it's never going to speak as loudly as an ace self- promoter.</comment>