Piracy isn't cool: Another "industry" under threat. - <AUTHOR> http://www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk/wordpress/2010/08/03/piracy-isnt-cool/

<comment><USER2> What's so frickin surreal about this, is that this new "industry" (selling digital embroidery designs on the internet) didn't exist until long after people were already freely sharing such things online. How it suddenly be a surprise to those involved? Such a surprise that "designers are retiring and shops are closing". Surely if you've invested in a business for this concept, it must be a requirement to to have some basic understanding of your market? Sounds like stupidity is their problem, not a sudden and surprising lack of co-operation by the entire world.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not to wade in to the entire debate, and recognising that your stance probably has some validity (although I regret your method of expression) some of these designs are copyright and published in magazines. they are now being scanned and distributed without the designer's permission.

That doesn't necessarily invalidate your entire argument, but it does seem to be something you haven't addressed.

<comment><USER2> I think the debate is about the digital representation of the design. Obviously the art form has existed for far longer than copyright, let alone the internet. The design which is discussed in the linked article is called "Summer Blackwork" - Blackwork is a style popular in the 1500s and was described by Chaucer. Ironically, designs from the 1500s have largely not survived, due to the corrosive effect of the iron-based dye, and designs from today will will not survive 500 years either, due to the corrosive effect of modern laws.

These designs are unusually easy to copy. Unlike, say, a watercolour, it is simple to create an exactly identical copy (lossless copying) with Roman-era technology and limited skill. The "intellectual property" can be represented by an 80x80 bitmap (in the case of the design which is discussed in the linked article), with perhaps a few additional bits to provide some hints on different stitches or sequence.

Only in the past few years have people begun selling simple frozen data representations of these designs (without any physical product) long after the internet, mass production, modern copyright law and discussion - in fact largely after people begun freely sharing other commercial digital representations such as music and film. How someone can invest such a business while being totally oblivious to the fundamentals of it is beyond me. It would be like starting a taxi company before discovering there were private cars on the road or something. In fact, the major of these shops were started by hobbyists, who were previously artists who would create, evolve and freely share their designs - and were probably much happier that way. The creation of this artifical industry by modern copyright law simply adds inefficiency to the system - there is demonstrably no shortage prior to the laws, and with modern technology, there is a greater supply of both copyrighted and free design than at any time in history. The argument for copyright at all seems weak and the argument for our current infinite copyright system weaker still. Ditch the lot, have the artists go back to designing and sewing instead of spending their time scouring the web looking for their "intellectual property", and everyone will be happier and more creative.

<comment><AUTHOR> You say:

      > Ditch the lot, have the artists go back to designing ...

But then how do the designers make money? There is a _huge_ gulf between really, really good designs, and the stuff that hacks produce, just as there is a huge gulf between well-designed web sites and the stuff my uncle's friend's son does (say). There is virtually no market for design to commission, so how does an excellent designer make money?

Currently designs are produced, then the work is stitched, photographed, and a kit made up. Sometimes the chart is sold alone (fronted by the photo of the finished work) and sometimes with the material and thread included. There is a market for these designs, thin though the margins be.

But now people buy a design, scan both the design and the photo, and make them freely available. People then download them with no compensation to the original designer.

I know this is how the world currently is. I know this is what happens. I know it's not going to change.

But I lament the loss of the craftsperson who can no longer make a living.

If there were no copying then I could go to a shop and purchase a high-quality design at a reasonable price, with the designer making money on volume. But there is copying, and many of the best designers are now turning to other means of making money, often completely unrelated, and less beloved of themselves and others. I can't afford to commission work, so now I have no high-quality designs at all.

Tell me how this is a good thing. Tell me how gifted and skilled designers can make money in the face of wholesale copying. Tell me how I can benefit at a reasonable cost from the hard-won skills of these talented people.

I don't think I can, and now that's my loss.

(In truth, this isn't my thing, but I know someone who is hurting badly because of the situation, and I speak for them as best I can.)

<comment><USER2> The "intellectual property" of art is a blip. For thousands of years, people have made art. Currently, we are in the odd situation where the is value in the idea alone, and the artists are not selling art, but selling instructions. It seems we're heading back towards the artists selling actual art again.

Frankly, I'm kind of on the fence about this. It seems like a nice idea, that one can build a business on selling ideas on the internet, and kind of callous that people no longer sufficently value it.

But then I suppose no-one worries how a verbal storyteller is to make a living in this age of cheap newspapers, or war painters in the age of digital photography. Sewing instruction salesmen seem destined to go the same way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Checkout Johanna Blakley's talk on how the free copy of design in the fashion industry hasn't in any way hampered the creativity coming out of it -

[http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashio...](http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html)

Apprently copyright law doesn't apply to fashion designs because clothing is considered "utilitarian".

<comment><USER4> You need a number of 'points of difference' which varies between jurisdictions in most parts of the world. People can and have paid out significant amounts of money to companies whose designs they've ripped off and not sufficiently altered. Ask someone who actually works in the industry.

I'm most familiar with Australia, so one case: [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/19/1026898914955.h...](http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/19/1026898914955.html) . I understand there's been a few others with Bettina Liano jeans (which are known for a particular cut that fits wide hipped girls).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Follow the "done some sums" link she talks about, and this is a salient bit:

 _This particular design, Summer Blackwork, retails for $9. Of course I have production costs, wholesale discounts, distributor fees, etc. so I don't actually make $9 when I sell one. (wouldn't that be nice?!)_

That to me suggests the industry is ripe for disruption. For production costs I assume that means software (Photoshop? I actually don't know) which could, potentially, be made cheaper. For distributor fees, well that's something the internet is good at for digital goods like designs. I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown in the other costs she alluded to.

Another thing to look at: Etsy lists some designs: [http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=machine+...](http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=machine+embroidery+designs&filter\[0\]=supplies)

Some of them are download only and it would be good to see how these designers handle sharing.

</comment><comment><USER6> As someone who actually has some experience in this particular industry (my mother ran a cross-stitch group for a number of years) I can tell you that the number one gripe has always been - the price of designs.

It has always been very difficult to make a good living from stitching supplies, including designs, it's one of those weird disconnects where people have always seemed to resent paying for them. Kits always sold better than designs alone and I don't think many people paid out too often if they could help it, and this was 10 years ago.

My mother had design software back then, so I imagine it is still available today, and if people can do it themselves, or get a techy relative (lol) to whip up what they want, why pay for it?

I also doubt that this "piracy" trend is new, the designs back then were just printed in black and white on paper with number references for the thread colour, people could just photocopy them or simply hand them around. I imagine that this kind of behaviour is what is going on now, I mean I think it's similar to the cry of "everyone should buy their own CDs", stitching is one of those things where people share deigns.

I mean you take a look at the Etsy listings someone posted, these are discrete seperate peices, one alphabet letter is $4, all of them are very simple, and unlikely to be used alone, so you get back to designs being stupidly expensive. Want to write a name with your Disney character design? It'll all add up, and then the stitcher needs the threads and equipment on top of the design, so people share designs, I know Wendy has an A, I could get an L and so and so has a I and so on.

10 years ago, the large designs were being sold as high as a few hundred £s each, and people baulked at the price, they baulked at £25, they baulked at £10 or less sometimes, lol, everything was too expensive, and it's hard to justify spending a large amount of money on a hobby with little return apart from as a nice gift.

One interesting thing would be to see who the demographic is these days, because piracy tends to be associated with the young, but stitching tends to be the refrain of middle aged and older women, I'd be interested to know, if it is still the 45+ demographic and if they even realise they ARE "pirating" designs.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> There are counter-arguments, of course:

* Those who download pirated charts would never had paid for them anyway

* Having seen a pirated chart, the downloader has effectively had the designer "advertised" to them, making it more likely they will buy from them in the future

 _etc._

The parallels with software (and music) are clear, but there are differences too. It's not clear to me that anything can be done, and the current trend in the field is that small designers are giving up and not making their work public at all. The entire field is losing variety, and just the mainstream, made for the lowest common factor designs are seeing the light of day.

That can't be good for a creative industry.

<comment><USER4> > * Having seen a pirated chart, the downloader has effectively had the > designer "advertised" to them, making it more likely they will buy from them > in the future

The creator of a work has a right to determine who they distribute it too. Most people on HN wouldn't like it if somebody ripped the source to their web app as a form of 'advertising'. This is no different.

<comment><AUTHOR> You seem to have completely missed the tenor of my point. These are arguments I've already heard, and which I consider hackneyed. They are quite specifically not arguments I agree with.

My apologies for not making that clearer.

ADDED IN EDIT:

Having said that, the general consensus seems to be that the artist _does not in fact have that right._ The "modern" consensus seems to be that those who produce anything easily copied can only expect it to be copied, and it is unreasonable and stupid for them to expect to have any control at all over the distribution.

<comment><USER7> _These are arguments I've already heard, and which I consider hackneyed._

One problem with dismissing the argument that downloaders would not have been purchasers is that a download count doesn't accurately reflect usage of the item. Producers cry in horror that their "content" was downloaded 100,000 times, but each user may have inadvertently been double or triple counted based on multiple computers, failed saves, forgotten file locations, or mistaken download methods (eg, view image versus save to disk).

On top of this, hoarding behavior causes people to collect things for which the perceived value (something) is greater than the cost (free / time to download). Hoarders will likely never use the item, but will show up as a download (or two or three) anyway.

Lastly, I doubt this to be the case in this situation, but artificially increasing a download count for the purpose of inflating possible damages is blindingly simple.

In short, I agree with your addendum, that anything which can be copied will be copied, and copies have nothing to do with sales unless you collect money at the point of copy. The more time spent complaining about loss, the less of a business and more of a funded hobby you are (and wouldn't we all like to have funded hobbies).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> All I could think of was Linus: [http://torvalds- family.blogspot.com/2010/01/embroidery-gaah....](http://torvalds- family.blogspot.com/2010/01/embroidery-gaah.html)

</comment><comment><USER9> While this doesn't add much in the way of new approaches to old pro-piracy arguments, this point did make me think: _"people consider that pop stars make so much money they won't miss the few pounds from file-sharers"_

From a macro economic perspective, can the economy of a society be improved once everything that can be shared for free (or negligible cost) is done so? Could, would or should open-source gamers create Starcraft 2?

<comment><USER10> There are some fine open source games already out there.

A viable strategy seems to be to open the program, but keep the assets (like graphics and music and so on) proprietary.

<comment><USER5> One strategy I hope to see tried (and succeed!) is an open source game with a central for-pay server that sets up world-wide games. You can choose to use it or not (but no doubt it will be the largest community for the game).

<comment><USER2> The cost model to this is proven - there are MMOs that operate this way already, with monthly subscriptions but no upfront cost. EVE Online works like this - you start with a free trial for 21 days, then pay for each 30 days of access to the server. There are optional boxsets, but with those you are essentially paying for the included 60 days of access and some physical items, rather than the game.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Does it matter? There are so many designs out there, who cares if there isn't going to be any new ones?

<comment><AUTHOR> Who cares if there's no new music, or new paintings, or new sculptures. There are plenty out there already.

Who cares if there are no live musicians, we have plenty of recordings. Who cares if there are no sculptors, we have 3D printing machines that can scan existing objects and reproduce them perfectly.

<comment><USER2> The argument that art will disappear without copyright has been comprehensively disproven. People have been infringing copyright on musical recordings with increasing efficiency for decades. If this argument were correct, the Top 40 would be the Top 5 by now, but it turns out there are currently more people creating more music than any time in history. Equally, by that argument, music would have been a rare oddity prior to copyright (it wasn't). Copyright, it seems, is useful to encourage the development of publishing businesses, but has a negative impact on the creation of art, primarly by muting the influnce of previous artists. The lower cost of distribution, brought on by technological change, is clearly a benefit to both artists and art lovers, but copyright in its current form is a net negative for society.

On the other hand, who cares if the middlemen get paid to distribute frozen copies of art, even if such distribution is to cheap to measure?

<comment><AUTHOR> Consider the possibility that while there is more music now, it is less good. Consider that there are brilliant musicians who no longer make music because they cannot afford to do so. We lose out, we get the crap, because the best musicians no longer produce in a form we have access to.

Yes there was a lot of music before copyright, but copying was less efficient back then, so your arguments don't really make the watertight case you seem to think they do.

I know some brilliant musicians who have turned to other means to live, and who no longer use their gifts, talents and skills in music. Instead there's vast amounts of crap floating around, with the occasional gem that's hard to find.

I'm not saying copyright made it better, because there were the toads and slimey bastards in the middle, taking their excessive cut and squeezing the artists. What I'd really like to see is the best artists (not just musicians) being fairly compensated, just as I'd like to see the best programmers getting the recognition they deserve.

It doesn't happen, it probably won't happen. Certainly it never has happened.

But instead of technology just making the copying easier, wouldn't it be nice if it also made the proper compensation of artists possible.

Won't happen. The very people who could make it happen are the ones who claim it doesn't matter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why does everyone forget that copyrighted content can be shared if the license allows it? Copyright does not automatically prohibit sharing.

       http://creativecommons.org/about/
       http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical

The real problem is that content creators frequently don't make finding the license easy - if they even use one.

<comment><USER13> How is that the real problem?

Who said anyone forgot? The article doesn't. It clearly says the author of the content found their work being shared without consent.

The real problem is someone is ripping off someone else's work.

Leaving aside the never ending discussion on piracy, I don't get what your point is.

<comment><USER12> My comment was in reply to the author's statement that "sharing a copyrighted design is theft". This is clearly false.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> ...and there you were thinking piracy was just punk kids.

<comment><USER15> Well, it's not really clear who's doing the pirating, but I can say as a matter my ownn observed opinion that crocheting, knitting, and embroidery are still popular hobbies for young women. I think this because I know of several different 20something girls who like these crafts, and whom walk in different social circles. I also know the local roller derby team has a weekly knitting/embroidery meeting (like a knitting circle for 20something alternative girls).</comment></comment>


Online UI builder – interactive platform for UI components - <AUTHOR> Hey, I want to introduce a UI builder for different React UI libraries. If you have a cool React component library in mind, please add them to the builder platform.
Watch the intro video: https://youtu.be/jeZyOjZKxYc
Main page: https://reactuibuilder.com
The tool is fairly simple, just open the editor in the browser and design your component. Then generate the code and save it into your project.
Here is the editor for the Material UI library components: https://editor.reactuibuilder.com/?appDemo=https%3A%2F%2Fwcd-material-ui.web.app
1. Go to online editor
2. Create a page (left side menu)
3. Compose your component (use simple materialUI components)
4. "Save"
5. Click "Generate Code" That's it! <comment><USER2> Cool! Thanks for sharing here. What's the license?</comment>


Digg is dead: Twitter killed it and Google helped bury the corpse - <AUTHOR> http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49303826,00.htm?s_cid=96 <comment><USER2> _It's a closed shop. SEOmoz estimates that the top 100 Digg users are responsible for more than half of the content that reaches the Digg front page. Furthermore, there could be as few as 20 'superusers' who are responsible for submitting 25 per cent of Digg's front-page stories. If you do the maths, you'll realise that anyone could set up a company with that many employees and have a far more interesting and diverse front page._

The title of the article is in definite candidacy for troll-bait, but the above quote is quite interesting. I think the next successful social news dispersion site will be one that figures out how to eliminate that "cliquish" nature of such sites as digg, reddit, et. al. in order to really clear away the fluff.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I disagree. Digg committed seppuku.</comment>


Ask HN: Any hackers over 60? 70? - <AUTHOR> Are you still employed or retired? How does one's passion and aptitude for hacking evolve towards this part of one's life? <comment><USER7> > Ask HN: any hackers over 60? 70?

I'm 68, and I should add that "hacker" meant something different when I first heard it used. :)

> Are you still employed or retired?

I'm retired, but I still program for enjoyment. I have a line of free Android apps published:

[https://play.google.com/store/search?q=lutus&c=apps](https://play.google.com/store/search?q=lutus&c=apps)

> How does one's passion and aptitude for hacking evolve towards this part of > one's life?

If anything, programming has become more important to me as I have gotten older, for the same reason that mathematics has greater appeal to a maturing mind -- it represents a rational counterpoint to a world that, over time, seems to make less sense.

<comment><USER8> The answer to the last question depends on the geolocation. In developing countries, people won't enjoy programming when they get old, there are too many problems to solve in real-life that don't allow them to do what they like:/

<comment><USER7> Very true. It's a shame because IMHO programming can be a mixture of recreation and productive work. After retirement, the recreational aspect may come to the fore.

Also, I've met many programmers who were obliged to program with such persistence and effort that over time they learned to hate it. This is a risk with anything one chooses to do for a living, which is why it's prudent to avoid doing things for a living that you love.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> My father isn't a HN regular, but he's 70 and is very much a hacker. He founded a software startup (www.imatest.com) when he was 63, and now has a dozen employees and is working harder than ever as its CTO. His passion for hacking hasn't waned in the slightest -- if anything, it's increased by orders of magnitude since he retired from his day job. His hacking aptitude within his own narrow speciality (imaging science) also seems to be undiminished.

I do sometimes notice that the _breadth_ of his hacking aptitude might be less than in a younger person; he doesn't always grok new concepts as quickly when they are outside his immediate area of interest. Eg., it took me a long while to convince him that automated testing was a really important part of modern software development. But I can understand how this would seem quite alien to somebody who first learned to program on punch-cards -- and since he's happy to delegate things beyond his immediate area of focus, it hasn't been a problem.

So, anecdotally: medical issues permitting, there's absolutely no reason you need to scale back on your _passion_ for hacking passion as you age, although the _breadth_ of your hacking might need to narrow somewhat.

<comment><USER10> That's very inspiring. Mad props to your father!

<comment><USER9> Yeah, honestly he's kind of my hero. Seriously proud of what he's done in his second career.

<comment><USER11> That really inspiring. I have been wondering about the same. Now that I am in my mid thirty, and I never waned back on my passion on new things (new programming languages!), I am sure that in my late years, I will still develop the same passion as I am today.

Say my regards to your father

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> 58, been very active on HN since the beginning, 7 years ago.

My passion and aptitude for hacking are higher than ever!

I struggled all day yesterday, trying to organize parameters to feed an engine to propagate data that would generate code for a new project. Woke up at 4 a.m. with a hypothesis, and built a working prototype before breakfast. What a great day already.

I have written over a million lines of commercial code since 1979, still work serving customers pretty much full time and have enough time left for another 20 to 30 hours per week on personal projects. I have at least one or two more start ups in me, for sure.

If this industry was like it was when I started, before PCs and the internet, and I had to sling COBOL for enterprises, I'd probably be a greeter at Walmart now, planning for social security. But fortunately our world has changed and it's so much more interesting and fun. If I ever do retire, I'll probably still keep building stuff forever.

The 2 best things: software is _everywhere_ and involved in _everything_ now. I can't imagine not finding an interesting application. And perhaps more importantly, things change so fast, there's always something newer and possibly more interesting right around the corner. (I wish I had more time to explore node, go, and some more frameworks, but I'm so busy...)

Between building software, riding my bike, drinking great beer, and getting laid every once in a while, I still feel like 25. I don't want it to ever end.

I think anyone who builds software should feel like I do. I hope most of you do. Prepare for a nice long ride!

<comment><USER13> "Between building software, riding my bike, drinking great beer, and getting laid every once in a while, I still feel like 25. I don't want it to ever end."

I love that line. That is so incredibly inspiring. You really are living the dream.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Ken Thompson [1] is about as old as modern computing, and can in fact claim to have partially invented it. He is over 70 and last time I checked he was still working for Google. His most recent project well-known to the public is the Go programming language. So it is certainly possible.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson)

<comment><USER15> _about as old as modern computing_

Because Knuth is five years his senior?

<comment><USER16> Key word is "about."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I started age 19 in 1967. Maybe even earlier. Dropped untrained into the deep end commissioning 4100 computers at Elliott Bros near London, and turned out I could swim. Passion - always had the feeling of "You actually want to _pay_ me to do this?"

Now I am 66, still fully employed, latest thing you might have heard (of) is the WiiU Audio engine. For unrelated reasons I went through a battery of cognitive function tests a couple of years ago and came out sharper than I was at 19 by at least a full sigma. I have no plans to retire.

I would add Don Knuth to the the honors list. And Minsky. Tony Hoare. Ted Nelson. Alan Kay. The original Homebrew Club members are getting up there. And about 100 others I know but you probably won't recognize. A peer group in which I am merely average.

As to selectivity and numbers. Yes, there have been programmers since WWII. But mot that many. So my age group has far fewer members than the upcoming geriatric programmer generation. But I have noticed one very encouraging feature we share: barring serious health issues (and even in spite of in some cases), a high percentage are still very active and passionate. No comment on causality, could easily be that it takes a active mind of a peculiar bent to get into the field in the first place and these just last, or it could be that the mental excersize it takes to keep relevant keeps the mind young, or both. But I'm pretty sure I won't last long if I have to stop doing it.

</comment><comment><USER18> Peter Murray Rust [0] is in his 70s and still writes code most days [1], and is a hacker in the original sense. He's retired from his professorship but still runs an active research group making awesome software to liberate knowledge from scientific publications, and he runs the Open Knowledge Foundation and various other groups. I'll ask him to respond himself.

[0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Murray- Rust](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Murray-Rust)

[1] [https://bitbucket.org/petermr](https://bitbucket.org/petermr)

<comment><USER19> Greetings to HN! I am very proud to have been featured in HN at least twice.

I take inspiration from a quote last year from Nellie Kroes - <USER2> Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. She's an iconic fighter for Openness - goes on Spanish hack camps with 14-year olds. Hopefully accurate:

"I'm 71. I don't do this because I have to but because I want to". [PMR was also 71 at that stage].

I take "hack" as a very positive concept - from its roots in MIT and the Hacker Manifesto up to HN and "hackdays" and "hackathons".

I started my communal chemistry code ca 30 years ago - in FORTRAN - and it's gone through C++ (including f2c), and now Java. There have been six major revisions of JUMBO.

I had the major epiphany about 15 years ago when I was writing molecular display in Java3D (argh!). I realised I didn't have to do this all myself - and so integrated the magnificent Jmol into the system. That led to the culture or sharing the load and fighting the battles communally (standard chemistry software is awful, highly prices and restrictive - one company will sue you if the publish the output FORTRAN log file).

I shan't give my life history , but I have been incredibly fortunately to find like-minded collaborators both locally and globally. Locally it came from Jim Downing who just us about 9 years ago and showed us how to use all the right ideas and tools (JUnit, maven, Jenkins (CI), Bitbucket, Stackoverflow, agile (stand ups, dojos, etc.).

The great thing was that we shared the load. We met at the Panton Arms every Friday lunch and would often work there in the afternoon. Yes, work - <USER3> ideas would flow freely. The core of hacking is not writing the code but working out what needs to be written.

We are committed to excellent software, not competitive academic impact-factor points. That meant we could do things properly. FWIW our work has gone into Cambridge Chemistry's submission for the evaluation process.

We're proud that many of our tools (OSCAR, OPSIN, ChemicalTagger, JUMBO) are robust and distributed without major maintenance need. This is unique in chemistry. As a result I catalysed a unique - zero-cash community - the Blue Obelisk ([http://blueoblisk.org](http://blueoblisk.org) and Wikipedia). 20+ F/LOSS groups work in unplanned parallel ways and have created some of the best chemical software.

We are now moving into a major effort to extract all scientific facts from the current literature (contentmine.org just released). The major challenge will be lawyers. If any Hackers want to take part in knowledge liberation we'd love to hear from you.

<comment><USER20> > The core of hacking is not writing the code but working out what needs to be > written.

It's really difficult for me to get certain of my co-workers to work out what needs to be written. Mostly it seems we discuss minutia and get off on tangents rather than work out the whole thing; it's difficult to get them to look at it from anything but a low level (arguments about how an API should work takes an hour). Do you have any advice on how to get people to discuss the work in a realistic, high level way?

<comment><USER19> Culture is difficult to build - either from scratch or from an established base. I have practised mutual respect - a meritocracy. Although formally I was a "group leader" or "supervisor" I regarded my colleagues - whether students of research assistants as my peers.

I was prepared to be told when I was "wrong" and think about it. Gradually we built a culture where the culture - as well as the people - determined what we did and how we worked. My group reorganised how we ran weekly meetings and I followed their practice. (Of course things like lab safety and secure practice have to be taken ultra-seriously as do basic human relations - gender, race, etc.).

I am very proud of the people who went through "my" / our group. They all went into hi-tech IT - companies, scientific organisations and none into formal academia. Most are in the UK and therefore directly contributing to our wealth and my pension.

The Friday pub sessions are really valuable. Nothing as formal as an "away day". It helped that many of us played cricket (I gave up two years ago - <USER4> it to 70), and I introduced them to the Guardian crossword.

It depends very much on the goal of your group. If you have a chance to develop new ways of doing things, do so. If there is no slack in the system then the daily work is likely to turn out competent but no inspiring code.

If you can do one thing go on a Software Carpentry course (you might be able to count it as training). If not, can you run a dojo? If your organisation provides training you may be able to bring in someone (or travel) to provide the experience. fresh views help.

Ultimately you have to aim for respect, and flexibility. I don't make major mistakes or have failures - I have experiments which don't work out at the time. JUMBO has been through 6 revisions over 20 years. I'm very lucky - <USER5> have that luxury to keep going at something which isn't critical for my income. When I was earning an income through consultancy/training I had to make sure that I had some slack in which to learn.

Avoid individualism but try to give everyone space in which to make their own identifiable contribution. I would normally start projects, then suggest that group members worked =on them, and when the left, they retained the "guru- ship" of the project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm happy for anyone who is productive past normal retirement age, but it's important to be aware of what happens to our minds as we get older. I think the examples in the comments are exceptions that prove the rule. The reason for the dearth of older hackers is the same reason there are few people running marathons at age 60 or 70: As we age, our bodies and minds degrade. Exercise, nutrition, and (probably) drugs can slow the decline, but we don't yet have the technology to turn back the clock.

The most depressing graph I've seen is figure 1[1] in _Images of the Cognitive Brain Across Age and Culture_ [2]. It shows how our cognitive abilities decline soon after we reach maturity. Starting in our 20s, we lose about 6 IQ points per decade; more in our 70s and 80s. That means someone in the top 1% in high school (IQ 135) would be down to average intelligence by the time they were in their 80s.

On the bright side, the decline in raw cognitive horsepower is offset by gains in knowledge. In fact, knowledge more than offsets it in most disciplines. Our peak productivity is usually in our 40's and declines much more slowly than one would expect[3].

Still, if you want to keep building cool stuff when you're older, it's important to prepare _now_. The best thing you can do is stay healthy and active. To return to the marathon analogy: A 55 year-old might not set a world record, but with the right training, nutrition, and possibly performance- enhancing drugs, they can beat >95% of people half their age.

Finally, to everyone mentioned in this thread: Well done! I hope to follow your example.

1\. [https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_gxYAfFM1cj0/S6hXmZ4qtjI/A...](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_gxYAfFM1cj0/S6hXmZ4qtjI/AAAAAAAAAUc/mBtqICfKs2w/brainage.jpg)

2\. [http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs- wm/36842.pdf](http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/36842.pdf)

3\. [http://resources.emartin.net/blog/docs/AgeAchievement.pdf](http://resources.emartin.net/blog/docs/AgeAchievement.pdf)

<comment><USER22> I've noticed two things as I've grown older.

1\. Time just seems to move _sooo_ fast. When I was 6, 30 minutes seemed like _forever_. Now as I close in on 40, 30 minutes feels like a handful of breaths. I can easily spend 2 hours on something, feel like I made no progress because the time is short. Even into my 20s, I felt like I could crank out tons of things hour after hour. Now the work of a week feels like the work of a day.

2\. I think why this happens is that I've noticed I feel like I take in more space-time at once than I used to. Hypersmall details I used to obsess over seem to blend into an entire scene. I'm gulping space-time rather than sipping it. I think it's because I have much more experience and knowledge than I used to that I just automatically filter out most things. "Bigger picture" isn't just a word to me anymore. I've largely stopped thinking in hyper-local ways and started thinking more strategically, in terms of systems rather than components and in terms of aggregate behaviors rather than individual behaviors, etc.

I have to consciously focus down my attention onto small, local concerns when it used to just happen. When thinking about business ideas, I don't think as much about smaller concerns like the technology stack or whatever, but where I can take the entire idea over the next 5-10 years. Ideas grow like trees in my mind stretching out for a decade without mush effort, but looking at an individual leaf (which used to be easy), is exhausting.

It's given me a lot more understanding of what my parents are going through as they age, things I never really understood when I was a precocious child, but now make perfect sense. I don't know what they're going through now, but now that I understand roughly the trajectory of my own mind and thinking, I can kind of see how they're arriving at where they are.

<comment><USER23> Just to add to your second point, one of the reason that time moves faster is that, in a sense, it is moving faster. When you're 10, a whole year is increasing your life by 10%. That's a huge percentage of your life. By the time your 60, that year is a much much smaller percentage. Thinking of it like that, it's not surprising that 10% of your life seems longer than ~1%.

<comment><USER24> I can't relate to this. The fact that you have lived for 23 rather than 10 years might make a single year feel less significant _in retrospect_ , but there is no obvious connection to how you feel about that year when it is actually happening.

<comment><USER25> What if you walk up a ladder? 1 meter isn't that far, but 2 meter is a lot farther up. Difference between 10 and 11 meters -- can you even tell?

<comment><USER24> I've tried (and failed) to run a marathon. It certainly didn't feel any shorter as I progressed.

<comment><USER25> When it comes to measuring progress through life, I think walking is a better image than running. Also, it's not really a dash towards the end, is it?

<comment><USER25> Thinking more about this, if you're running at a marathon, your concerned not with how far you've come, but how far is left. Such a view of life isn't likely to be very productive. I still think my point holds for your marathon effort -- 1 meter after start is very different from 2 meters after start (or say 50 and 100) -- however the difference between 1000m and 1001 (1050) -- not really easily perceptible without some kind of aid?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> He's not 60 yet, but Peter Norvig is 57 and shows no signs of slowing down. If anything he's getting more prolific with age. It seems like every time he gets on a plane he's hacking on something interesting: [http://norvig.com/sudoku.html](http://norvig.com/sudoku.html)

</comment><comment><USER27> I'll be 70 in November and am putting the finishing touches on a VST plugin that can make any 'phone (head, ear, canal, etc.) I can measure sound like any other 'phone I can measure with remarkable verisimilitude. The trick was not the DSP (standard stuff, that, and part of what I once got paid to do) but in devising a measurement system that worked across types. That part was empirical and took more years and iterations than I'll admit to but without retirement I wouldn't have had the time for all the experimentation that finally nailed it.

I've got to say that my coding bug rate seems worse and debug time seems substantially longer and more tedious than I remember. My first coding was assembler for an IBM 7094 as a student at the University of Illinois some 50+ years ago. Been doing it ever since.

BTW, I'm looking for someone that can transfer the tech to a paid Android app. Somebody 70ish would be way cool. Kernel level audio skills a must for global filter insertion.

<comment><USER28> That sounds like a great project! Kind of like colorspace calibration for monitors applied to sound.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> 57, employed. Latest hack: [https://github.com/tatumizer/circuit- dart](https://github.com/tatumizer/circuit-dart)

Listening to good jazz helps to stay in shape(there's some scientific data that proves music activates something in the brain, not sure what exactly, but it seems to work :-).

As someone noted earlier in this thread, there's nothing new in programming for the last 30-40 years. You just need to learn 100 tricks, you learn them early, and then the age makes no difference. What changes is that you don't think of career any more, and think about money much less, which makes you a very bad candidate for bullshit work. You can imagine the consequences.

<comment><USER30> I really like this circuit concept for async programming. Did you come up with the model yourself is or is it an implementation of a wider pattern?

<comment><USER29> This is kind of homegrown concept, but unlikely to be entirely new. It has connections to other concepts, but the devil is in details, and it was really difficult to find good syntactic expression. I couldn't do it in any language except dart (at least without ugly workarounds). In any case, it's doesn't seem to be appreciated, I'm glad you like it, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> While surely there are few hackers older than 60 or 70, the history of the personal computer is still too young for the question to be a meaningful indicator of how long people keep hacking. The Altair came out in 1975 meaning that someone that was 20 at the time and started hacking on it right away is only reaching 60 next year. The first mass-market personal computer (the Macintosh) came out in 1984 and working with computers was still a niche at that time. Those hackers that are over 60 now are either super early adopters or those that started hacking late in life, so in any case a very small group. I'm sure there will be plenty of hackers over 60 in a few decades :) - Also, looking forward to fragging and playing Starcraft in the nursing home! :)

<comment><USER25> Then again, my dad, which was a sociology major, bought a vic 20 when it came out, and proceeded to implement a system for bidding on construction contacts in Quick Basic for first the Apricot and later the PC (Because at the time there were no decent software for the task). I believe he took a part-time computer science class at the local college in the 80s prior to writing that piece of software.

He doesn't program any more, but the idea that you'd have to be 20 when you started is just plain wrong. You could've been 40.

He also used to play with meccano and legos, and I remember we built a traversing crane during a Christmas in the mid 80s (on ropes from the living room to the kitchen, a spam of some 7 meters). If you were a hacker soul before personal computing, it'd be quite easy to get into computers (and realize that it would be important).

<comment><USER31> Of course, I agree with you. It's just by referencing the 20 year old age, I was thinking about the circa age when the wide majority of people start their careers (20-25). But like I said in my original comment, there are those exceptions of cool people that started hacking late in life and your dad is certainly one!

<comment><USER25> I still think the assumption that hacking started with programming is wrong, there've been countless hackers, they were just generally confined to physical media (eg: engineers). And I don't think making the transition towards software wasn't all that radical for most.

[edit: typos]

<comment><USER31> Yes of course. I was referring to software hacking like the original post.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> > _From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I > became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some > reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of > attention. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and > beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I > will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so > that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At one > hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at > one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where > every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive. May Heaven, that grants > long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie._

\--Hokusai

<comment><USER32> ... his take on Impostor syndrome is a bit backwards, too (:

> Constantly seeking to produce better work, he apparently exclaimed on his > deathbed, _" If only Heaven will give me just another ten years... Just > another five more years, then I could become a real painter."_

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> My father probably qualifies too. In the early 80's we had a Bell Labs/Western Electric Energy management system with home sensors and links to the electric and gas companies. They used a Z80 microprocessor in a STD bus card rack. And at no point in the last 30+ years has he ever been without projects or machines to work on.

His skillset goes from the EPROM and PLC level, through C/C++, and on to actual 20 ton open die forging. I've seen him take a break from debugging a C++ driver for a hydraulic beam loader to replace live high voltage fuses with a hot stick rather than wait for the power company. It really puts what we refer to as 'full-stack' into perspective.

</comment><comment><USER34> I'm 57 but didn't start programming until I was 27 years old. My first summer quarter at Purdue they still had punch card readers and I remember sitting in the hall in the basement of the Math building waiting to have my deck read and then pick up the green striped output paper in the adjoining room. The following fall we had our first DEC VT 100 terminals.

I guess I would consider myself a hacker of sorts as I now work for myself doing mobile web development with Python, JavaScript, and Django. I have to work for myself because no one will hire someone my age.

</comment><comment><USER35> I am 63. I code sites. I build boxes. I touched my first computer terminal at the NY World's Fair in '64\. Fortran on an IBM senior year in high school 67/68\. That was my first and last computer class.

I was on the Internet before the WWW.

I am 63, but immature for my age.

</comment><comment><USER36> I haven't spoken with him recently, but I believe that Dave's still the first one in the office every morning, writing stunningly tight code and driving innovation most recently in the Xbone hypervisor. The engineer's engineer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Cutler](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Cutler)

</comment><comment><USER37> My father-in-law retired at 75. He was writing firmware for Perkin Elmer chip steppers. I've seen his code, it was pretty nice stuff.

One guy I met was 65 and about to start up another company. He was sharp and definitely knew what he was doing.

The group I was in at Microsoft (Xbox) had David Cutler in it; I think he had just turned 70. I didn't work with him closely, but he was definitely prolific (also more than a bit controversial, politically, at MS, but he had mellowed out quite a bit when I met him).

I'm 53 and have high hopes. :-)

<comment><USER38> I don't know how much of it is true, but if even half of the anecdotes in Showstoppers are true then Dave Cutler is indeed a force of nature to be reckoned with. [http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0759285780?pc_redir=1396671731...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0759285780?pc_redir=1396671731&robot_redir=1)

<comment><USER39> Few of us have written one os, but he has written or been the main force behind THREE.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I started as a software developer just around the time Intel released the 8080. I was in Bell Labs when Unix Version 7 was introduced. I was at IBM when they released AIX. I now working in scala and clojure and am active in a startup in the financial services and crypto-currency fields.

Do what you love, love what you do, throw in a generous helping of luck and you can have a stimulating, productive and enjoyable professional life well into your 70s if not later.

How does one's passion and aptitude for hacking evolve towards this part of one's life ?

Experience rulez.

</comment><comment><USER15> Ward Cunningham and Charles [Chuck] Moore come immediately to mind as hackers in their 60's and 70's respectively.

<comment><USER25> Came here to mention Moore, and especially color forth (a forth system that uses colors to distinguish semantic meaning between variables and verbs/command words etc). His eval blog of the new greenarray boards is full of magnificent hackery, eg:

[http://www.colorforth.com/video.htm](http://www.colorforth.com/video.htm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Not mentioned elsewhere: Richard Stallman is 61. I don't know how much actual hacking he does these days vs advocacy, but whether you agree with his politics or not, the dude is definitely a hacker.

</comment><comment><USER42> Great question. I'm in my 30's and I've wondered on more than one occasion what we'll all be programming in 30 years. DNA? Nanobots? What will the web look like? Will we be still hacking away in virtual reality when we're in elderly homes, drifting away with the occulus rift 8.0 lenses in?

If anything, I'm excited at getting older and being able to see where all this rapid evolution is taking us.

@People over 60 here: What is it like learning and keeping up with the flurry of new technologies at your age? Do you find it more difficult to grasp with age or does it get easier?

<comment><USER43> I'm "only" 39, but it's been 30 years since I've written my first line of code. And I have to say that while things have changed a lot, the basics of how it is to program and how you write code, are still the same. I find myself applying techniques I've learned back then, and even though I haven't written assembly since the 80s, the basic low-level understanding of how it all works still serves me to this day. The main difference is maybe how accessible good info is now. Back then each programming book was a treasure that was passed around.

I often wonder how much of that will stay the same 30 years from now, and I hope I'll still be hacking then. My bet is that we'll still have some versions of programming languages we know today, maybe even Linux running it. But it will be much more exciting if that won't be true :)

<comment><USER19> I've been through 50 years of "programming" with a major change each decade. The key thing is to be in the company of young people.

It's harder to learn new things because you have to unlearn earlier ones. My Java started by looking like FORTRAN, my Python now looks like Java.

It's critically important to use good Open tools. Eclipse is wonderful. I could not work without JUnit and whenever I run into problems I use the discipline of using tests to define the problem. I have learnt to "love" Maven as I can't do without it. I could not live without Jenkins/Continuous Integration.

The main problem is that all these add up, both in learning, installation and support. When I "retired" my website in cambridge gradually decayed and an upgrade to the OS meant Jenkins no longer worked. It's now back (thanks, Mark Williamson) and has restored impetus in the chemistry coding.

You have to include time for exploration ("dead ends"). I jumped into javascript when it first appeared - it wasted huge amounts of time as every browsers "upgrade" was a disaster. I started Python and that was nearly as bad. Now , 10+ years on, they're robust and I shall relearn them. Probably be working alongside experts in a hackathon.

I believe in code review and am happy for others to review mine!

<comment><USER43> I find it that HackerNews itself, while it does waste a lot of my time reading and toying with such "dead ends", keeps me on the edge of things. I've started using Go because of posts and discussions here, and it's changed the way I do my work in the past year.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> I can't speak for myself I believe I have worked with some contributors to LedgerSMB who are retired.

In general, I think one has to be careful about making generalizations here regarding aptitude. LedgerSMB is hard to get into because with ERP/Accounting software the domain knowledge requirements are significantly higher than the fluid intelligence requirements and domain knowledge increases as we get older. In LedgerSMB I have generally found that older programmers contribute better code than younger programmers precisely for this reason. Some of the biggest bugs we have ever had (the ones that caused us to pull 1.2.0 and 1.2.1) were caused by overlooking a critical part of domain knowledge.

So I dont think things get particularly worse. The fields of excellence may change however.

</comment><comment><USER45> I am not yet at this age, but the older I get the more I appreciate hacking. It really keeps me from falling into the 'things were better when I was young' hole that older people are prone to falling into. It is also really fun learning new things all the time.

</comment><comment><USER46> 65, last year I learned DirectX and wrote a 3D app in C++.

This year I'm learning Python for fun.

Never gets old :o)

</comment><comment><USER47> Not me, but I hope to still be hacking away when I am 60 or older. Maybe it is actually good for the brain to keep at it, I don't know.

<comment><USER19> If you get a chance go on a Software Carpentry [1] course. I went on one 4 months ago and it changed my whole outlook. Greg Wilson take you through the psychological aspects of programming - why you should break every hour - <USER6> difference between "sip of tea" and "make a cup of tea". How your code relates to short-term memory and much more.

Don't think "I know how to program". Even if you know the syntax and the idioms you don't know everything. Simply going through a workshop will change the way you think.

[1][http://software-carpentry.org](http://software-carpentry.org)

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> John ffitch.

I was lucky enough to be taught by John. He believes he may have been one of the first people to make computer music - spending precious compute cycles at Cambridge with a speaker hooked up instead of an oscilloscope.

He's ~69, and last time we spoke a few years ago, he and some peers were still writing and selling their compiler product ([http://www.codemist.co.uk/index.html](http://www.codemist.co.uk/index.html)), John was still active in the Csound community (C dialect for computer music), and dabbling with computer algebra.

Having known John outside of lectures (and meeting him at the age of ~58), I'd say he has a childlike fascination with the world - constant curiosity and a lot of enthusiasm. And also understanding that computer science is cyclical, that rediscovery is part of life, and he could add deep experience each time around.

</comment><comment><USER49> Upvoted this. Here is one of my personal heros: [http://techland.time.com/2013/03/04/how-an-83-year-old- inven...](http://techland.time.com/2013/03/04/how-an-83-year-old-inventor- beat-the-high-cost-of-3d-printing/)

</comment><comment><USER50> Bob Martin (Uncle Bob) turned 60 a few years ago. He still programs and laments that programmers move into management as they age.

</comment><comment><USER51> It's much better to work with a motivated senior hacker than an entitled brat spewing delusions of their own grandeur.

</comment><comment><USER52> I am bookmarking this thread for times when I am down/ worried about my future. So inspiring to hear from people who have been hacking for this long.

I don't think that ed wiessman(edw519) is 60 yet but his advice seems like coming from someone who has been in the business of programming for centuries.

</comment><comment><USER53> Hacking is easy and doesn't take a very sharp mind.

Computer science research is harder.

Math research is harder, still.

There are plenty of people well past 50 and, from their research publications, still quite productive. For them, hacking is baby talk.

Richard Wagner? Late in his life he finished his four opera 'The Ring' and wrote 'Parsifal'. All that work remains crown jewels of all of music and art.

People late in life are less likely to do hacking for a variety of reasons, but that their mental capacity is not up to the challenge is not among the reasons. What's so difficult about allocate-free, if-then-else, do-while, call-return, try-catch, etc.? Trivial.

</comment><comment><USER54> I really wish I can still code at 70!

<comment><USER55> Why wouldn't you be able to? Unless you age really badly you should still be just fine. Maybe at 90 you will just be too tired, but unless you get a brain disease or some other kind of dementia you will still be the same as you are now. Al lot of people work at 70 or older, it's recommended that you work until 70 before you collect social security if your retirement funds are lacking. You young kids think anything over 45 is ancient, well it's not, and 70 is "young" old age, and people are still perfectly capable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> What kind of hacking are we talking about? Black/white hat? (Is there another kind?)

<comment><USER57> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_%28programmer_subculture...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_%28programmer_subculture%29)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic)</comment></comment>


The Internet Alphabet - <AUTHOR> http://blog.audobox.com/your-internet-alphabet/

<comment><USER4> This turned out to be an interesting little game. I bet you can always tell a developer. Here's mine:

a: audobox.com

b: buzzfeed.com/emofly/eggs-in-exciting-holes (bookmarked for ideas)

c: calendar.google.com

d: dashboard.heroku.com

e: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Breaking_Bad_episodes (i _really_ can't ever remember where i am)

f: facebook.com

g: github.com/gtank

h: heroku.com

i: imgur.com

j: javagenesiscoffeeroasting.com/shop/ (delicious coffee near atlanta)

k: keithv.com (language models i used frequently)

l: localhost:9292 (yep, developer)

m: mail.google.com

n: news.ycombinator.com

o: ossl-test.herokuapp.com (buildpack test for ruby + new openssl)

p: plus.google.com

q: questionablecontent.net

r: reddit.com

s: smittenkitchen.com (i was really expecting stackoverflow here)

t: twitter.com

u: unsplash.com

v: vervecoffeeroasters.com

w: wikipedia.org

x: xda-developers.com

y: yelpingwithcormac.tumblr.com

z: zenpayroll.com

<comment><USER5> What's magic about port 9292? (Clearly I'm not a developer.)

<comment><USER4> It's the default port for running a local rack app (sort of a ruby-web-stuff middleware). For specific values of "developer" :)

<comment><USER5> Ahh makes sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> In Chrome, "chrome://predictors/" gives you some interesting related information.

</comment><comment><USER7> [http://aljazeera.com/](http://aljazeera.com/)

[http://bb.com.br/](http://bb.com.br/)

[http://cbsoft2013.cic.unb.br/](http://cbsoft2013.cic.unb.br/)

[http://dx.com](http://dx.com)

[http://english.aljazeera.net/](http://english.aljazeera.net/)

[http://facebook.com/](http://facebook.com/)

[http://globoesporte.globo.com/](http://globoesporte.globo.com/)

[http://hisham.hm/](http://hisham.hm/)

[http://inf.puc-rio.br/](http://inf.puc-rio.br/)

[http://jaor.net/](http://jaor.net/)

[http://keplerproject.org/](http://keplerproject.org/)

[http://luarocks.org/](http://luarocks.org/)

[http://mail.google.com/](http://mail.google.com/)

[http://n01/](http://n01/)

[http://ohloh.net/](http://ohloh.net/)

[http://puc-rio.br/](http://puc-rio.br/)

[http://queremos.com.br/](http://queremos.com.br/)

[http://reddit.com/](http://reddit.com/)

[http://submarinoviagens.com.br/](http://submarinoviagens.com.br/)

[http://twitter.com/](http://twitter.com/)

[http://u.hisham.hm/](http://u.hisham.hm/)

[http://voegol.com.br/](http://voegol.com.br/)

[http://www37.bb.com.br/](http://www37.bb.com.br/)

[http://xisdobah.com.br/](http://xisdobah.com.br/)

[http://youtube.com/](http://youtube.com/)

[http://zap.com.br/](http://zap.com.br/)

</comment><comment><USER8> [http://anchorage.craigslist.org](http://anchorage.craigslist.org)

[http://bootstrap.com](http://bootstrap.com) (need to fix this one, it's because of frequent mistypings of getbootstrap.com)

[http://cracked.com](http://cracked.com)

[http://docs.meteor.com](http://docs.meteor.com)

[http://evangelos.in](http://evangelos.in) (e is apparently not used much)

[http://facebook.com](http://facebook.com)

[http://gmail.com](http://gmail.com)

[http://hackpad.com](http://hackpad.com)

[http://icloud.com](http://icloud.com) (had my phone stolen recently, been checking Find My iPhone a lot)

[http://julialang.org](http://julialang.org)

[http://kongregate.com](http://kongregate.com)

[http://localhost:8000](http://localhost:8000) (developer here)

[http://movies.netflix.com](http://movies.netflix.com)

[http://news.ycombinator.com](http://news.ycombinator.com)

[http://outlook.com](http://outlook.com)

[http://pinterest.com](http://pinterest.com) (not used much)

no q

[http://read.amazon.com](http://read.amazon.com)

[http://salesforce.com](http://salesforce.com) (bad memories...)

[http://toggl.com/track](http://toggl.com/track)

[http://uaonline.alaska.edu](http://uaonline.alaska.edu)

[http://vinescope.com](http://vinescope.com) (not used much)

[http://wellsfargo.com](http://wellsfargo.com)

[http://xkcd.com](http://xkcd.com)

[http://youtube.com](http://youtube.com)

no z

</comment><comment><USER9> I don't have to go very far to see a pattern... (skipped internal and NSFW urls)

[http://amazon.co.jp](http://amazon.co.jp)

[https://<private>.beanstalkapp.com](https://<private>.beanstalkapp.com)

[http://campl.us](http://campl.us)

[http://daringfireball.net](http://daringfireball.net)

[http://engadget.com](http://engadget.com)

[http://facebook.com](http://facebook.com)

[http://google.se](http://google.se)

[http://hockeyapp.net](http://hockeyapp.net)

[http://itunesconnect.apple.com](http://itunesconnect.apple.com)

[http://japantoday.com](http://japantoday.com)

[http://kjell.com](http://kjell.com)

[http://news.ycombinator.com](http://news.ycombinator.com)

[http://onion.com](http://onion.com)

[http://prisjakt.nu](http://prisjakt.nu)

[http://quora.com](http://quora.com)

[http://reddit.com](http://reddit.com)

[http://translate.google.com](http://translate.google.com)

[http://xkcd.com](http://xkcd.com)

[http://youtube.com](http://youtube.com)

</comment><comment><USER10> Fun idea!

A: altdevblogaday.com

B: bbs.archlinux.org

C: clarin.com // Argentinian news

D: distrowatch.com

E: edx.org

F: forums.gentoo.org

G: github.com // was expecting grooveshark

H: humblebundle.com // This is weird, I don't go there much

I: imgur.com

J: jblive.tv // Great shows, LAS, TechSNAP, etc.

K: khanacademy.org

L: lkml.org

M: mercadolibre.com.ar // Argentinian eBay

N: news.ycombinator.com

O: opengl-tutorial.org // Weird too

P: pcgamingwiki.com

Q: nothing

R: reddit.com // Totally unexpected!

S: store.steampowered.com

T: translate.google.com // My English is a bit rusty

U: usesthis.com // Also weird, not visited much.

V: vimeo.com // Really? I don't recall going here too much.

W: wolframalpha.com // Life saver

X: xkcd.com

Y: youtube.com

Z: zonaforo.meristation.com // Forum I used/use to visit

</comment><comment><USER11> nice little game!

[http://arstechnica.com](http://arstechnica.com)

[http://battlelog.battlefield.com](http://battlelog.battlefield.com)

[http://crmoto.lt](http://crmoto.lt)

[http://dirbkit.lt](http://dirbkit.lt)

[http://elektromarkt.lt](http://elektromarkt.lt)

[http://facebook.com](http://facebook.com)

[http://google.com/adsense](http://google.com/adsense)

[http://h.lr.lt/tv.vlc](http://h.lr.lt/tv.vlc)

[http://imgur.com](http://imgur.com)

[http://jsfiddle.net](http://jsfiddle.net)

[http://kt.tele2.lt](http://kt.tele2.lt)

[http://lrytas.lt/tvdabar.asp](http://lrytas.lt/tvdabar.asp)

[http://mail.saulis.com](http://mail.saulis.com)

[http://ng/](http://ng/) (local dev domain)

o - <USER3>

[http://pixelmator.com](http://pixelmator.com)

q - <USER3>

[http://reddit.com](http://reddit.com)

s - censored for security purposes

[http://translate.google.com](http://translate.google.com)

[http://uoga:9091](http://uoga:9091) \- raspberry torrent interface

[http://vilnius.lt](http://vilnius.lt)

[http://wolframalpha.com](http://wolframalpha.com)

[http://xakep.ru](http://xakep.ru)

[http://youtube.com](http://youtube.com)

[http://zingzing.co.uk](http://zingzing.co.uk)

<comment><USER11> although, to access AdSense, for example -- I type in 'ads'. for Analytics - 'anal'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Well... not only was this entertaining for a bit, but it also reminded me of the existence of overapi.com, which is a good thing.

It's interesting how some of the (uncommon) letters bring up suggestions of sites I even don't remember ever visiting. In some cases it's even dead links.

</comment><comment><USER13> amazon.de (Yep, i'm from Germany)

bxxxx.xx (Censored, self-incriminating)

cplusplus.com

dominos.de (Now i'm hungry)

en.wikipedia.org

file:///E:/movdb/editor/editor.html (Private HTML/JS-Project i'm working on)

google.de

humblebundle.com (I like indie games)

images.google.com

jolicloud.com (Tested a couple of days ago, never used again)

kde.org

lavabit.com (Gone :( )

msdn.microsoft.com

news.ycombinator.com

omdbapi.com

portknox.net

qt-project.org

reddit.com

steampowered.com

traveltainment-group.com (this is where i work)

unlocker.emptyloop.com

vole.cc (should keep an eye on that)

www.webtravel.de (What the heck?... I have to talk to our WebDevs)

zattoo.com

</comment><comment><USER14> Here's mine, from six years ago:

[http://www.chrisfinke.com/2007/01/20/the-a-to-z-of- me/](http://www.chrisfinke.com/2007/01/20/the-a-to-z-of-me/)

</comment><comment><USER15> nobody got aws.amazon.com for A?

almost my entire alphabet is taken over by internal tools with Web UIs.</comment>


A better alternative to QR codes - <AUTHOR> http://www.spyderlynk.com/snaptag/what-is-a-snaptag/

<comment><USER2> I do not believe that this is a viable alternative to QR codes because it most likely needs a database to store each snap tag. A QR code encodes the data into a 2D image. This means that I can scan a QR code without internet access, and without any downloads other than the scanning app. Snap tags most likely need to call home to get the relevant data.</comment>


Show HN: My side project, PDF Everything – convert files to PDF - <AUTHOR> http://pdfeverything.com/

<comment><USER2> I'm obviously not the target audience, so I can't understand the use case, PDF seems to be such a useless format for anything other than viewing and perhaps annotating (which it does great at).

Can you explain why anyone would use this assuming I already have a way to export to PDF? zip to PDF sounds strange.

<comment><AUTHOR> PDF is just a common format used when sharing documents for viewing, like you said. No deeper meaning to it than that.

This tool can convert many file types to PDF without the need for acrobat, office, etc. Basically, this just costs $20 and those cost $200. It's just a small, one trick pony piece of software.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> How is this different than say... [http://www.dopdf.com/](http://www.dopdf.com/)? This is really a crowded space with plenty of free alternatives that are quite easy to use and work flawlessly

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, DoPDF does look nice. Honestly, it has more features than PDF Everything. I'm not sure how to distinguish mine from theirs yet, or how to make mine worth $20 when theirs is free. Most of those features of DoPDF can be added to PDF Everything quite easily. I just have not added them, yet. Getting those in should help me make a case for PDF Everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would like this as a SaaS - I upload a file, and your service returns a PDF.</comment>


Why `;` Is Important in JavaScript and How to Encourage First Time Contributors - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/amark/gun/pull/377 <comment><USER2> Regardless of wether or not what amark claims is true, this is such a great example of how to approach new contributors. Well done!

</comment><comment><USER3> Great response from the dev, I wonder if this scales for popular projects though.

I've started to use Prettier on all projects. I don't even bother with things like these anymore. If the code is valid, it'll format my JS code uniformly, and if it's not I get a big red error telling me something up, precisely at line:x. I'm not sure if it would catch the edge-case this `;` at the beginning of the file is trying to solve though.

>In technical terms: Prettier parses your JavaScript into an AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) and pretty-prints the AST, completely ignoring any of the original formatting*. Say hello to completely consistent syntax!

It's like go fmt for Javascript.

[https://github.com/prettier/prettier](https://github.com/prettier/prettier)

If you're aren't using this you probably should to avoid bikeshedding in your team.

</comment><comment><USER4> no no and no. The first time contributor had it right.

That is the wrong way to go about it. Please do not encourage this as a best practice.

Please use eslint, proper modules and a tried and tested bundler.

<comment><USER5> I think their point was that it is outside of their control. Protect themselves from someone downloading this and installing it into their dumb pipeline.

</comment></comment><comment> apk-d Wouldn't this be better handled by the bundler instead of imposing another esoteric "magic statement" for all developers to keep in mind?

<comment><USER6> The common case of "bundling" is just concatenating files, which works fine if people add their damned semicolons.

To quote the author: "not using any semicolons at all is a very popular trend in JS these days, so it is very possible this problem might happen in the real world"

This is the crux of the problem. Javascript programmers often follow trends, not sane practice. Looking at the code, for some reason there's a semi-colon before "require" invocations as well.

I don't even know what to say, at this point. Everyone is fired.

<comment><USER4> > The common case of "bundling" is just concatenating files, which works fine > if people add their damned semicolons.

bundling is not just concatenation, and certainly not in the "common" case.

> "not using any semicolons at all is a very popular trend in JS these days

> Javascript programmers often follow trends, not sane practice

Please have a look all the popular libraries and frameworks and their codebases[1], then tell me you still think your assessment of the Javascript community is at all fair.

[1][https://www.javascripting.com/](https://www.javascripting.com/)

<comment><USER6> > bundling is not just concatenation, and certainly not in the "common" case.

Fair enough, the common case is minification and concatenation. Or what else is it? The problem with the semicolon remains.

> Please have a look all the popular libraries and frameworks and their > codebases[1], then tell me you still think your assessment of the Javascript > community is at all fair.

Yes, it is.

[https://hackernoon.com/how-it-feels-to-learn-javascript- in-2...](https://hackernoon.com/how-it-feels-to-learn-javascript- in-2016-d3a717dd577f)

<comment><USER7> > Fair enough, the common case is minification and concatenation. Or what else > is it? The problem with the semicolon remains.

If it is _minification_ , then you already have a tool that process the code. The tool can easily just add the missing colon before concatenation.

<comment><USER6> The tool that does the minification isn't necessarily the same tool that does the concatenation.

Here's a very lengthy discussion on how the very popular minifier UglifyJS (version 1) originally removed trailing semicolons, causing this exact problem: [https://web.archive.org/web/20130319222210/https://github.co...](https://web.archive.org/web/20130319222210/https://github.com/mishoo/UglifyJS/issues/126)

In the real world, it's irrelevant what tools could be reasonably _expected_ to do. What matters is what they _actually do_. Expecting your tools to insert semicolons for you is the path that leads to peril.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> i dont think this is the right way to do. they should use linter instead.</comment>


China Has Released True Color HD Photos of the Moon - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/30/china-just-released-true-color-hd-photos-of-the-moon/ <comment><USER2> It's kind of weird seeing crystal clear HD pictures of space objects. I think we just associate blurry black & white images with space, since most of the probes that we have currently exploring other planets and moons were launched before it was practical to include full-color HD cameras (and/or the requisite data transmission capacity) on space probes. (Similar to how people subjectively prefer 24 FPS for feature films.)

<comment> semi-extrinsic I'm not sure I agree... This [1] is from Apollo 17, and I don't think the quality is any worse than these new ones.

[1] [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a17/AS17-134-...](http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a17/AS17-134-20378HR.jpg)

<comment><USER3> Hasselblads cameras was used in the Apollo missions. [1]

Twelve hasselblad cameras were left behind on the moons surface.

It was not that many years ago, around y2k or shortly thereafter if I remember correctly, that hasselblad finally decided that digital photography could match the picture quality their cameras achieved using traditional/analog film and started to manufacture digital options for their cameras.

When I look at the pictures from the moon I start to understand why they held a stiff upper lip for so many years.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasselblad#Hasselblad_cameras_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasselblad#Hasselblad_cameras_in_space)

<comment><USER4> As a photographer, I sometimes think my complete switch to digital might have been a mistake. I can't call myself a professional photohrapher because I make very little money off my pictures.

That said, I wish I didn't get rid of my old cameras, and 2.8 lenses. I wish I still had my BW darkroom still set up in my closet.

My pictures are all color now. They are technically fine, but my older pictures just look more interesting.

<comment><USER5> I'm a complete amateur at photography, but can you give me some details in the difference in outcomes between your BW setup and just passing your color pictures through a BW filter?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> China releases "true colour HD images of the moon"

 _Clicks link_

Sees animated gif of said images

 _facepalm_

<comment><USER7> Here's one of the pics in high resolution: [https://i.imgur.com/9dfK0pK.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/9dfK0pK.jpg)

<comment><USER8> What kind of rock is that?

<comment><USER9> Moon rock[0].

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rock)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Those are interesting, but the quality doesn't really seems to improve much, if at all, from the 70mm analog pictures taken with Hasselblads during the manned missions.

<comment><USER11> I believe that was 120 film. And yes - those looked incredible.

<comment><USER6> 120mm is about 6000 x 6000 pixels. (depending on film stock.)

36 megapixels. which is >> than the 2megapixels of HD

<comment><USER12> You can go much higher than that. Medium format for example is considered to be between 60 to 80 megapixels.

<comment><USER10> Not really; I actually own a film Hasselblad, I'm somewhat familiar with the issues. You can get really impressive figures by using film meant for document reproduction to shoot high contrast test targets, but this doesn't really translate to high resolution for real subjects. There are also significant problems with alignment, film planarity, grain (detail can still be gleaned even after grain starts being visible, but the signal to noise ratio gets progressively worse) etc. that further reduce theoretical resolution. For that kind of detail you need at least 4x5 inch large format.

<comment><USER12> I think it's a debated point. I have seen multiple folks comparing, with proper scanners, the resolution of medium formats vs digital pictures and found that the resolution of medium format was higher with quality films. If you use a bad scanner, if your film is of a poor grade, your experience will vary.

<comment><USER10> (sorry for the late reply) What you're saying is not strictly false, but it's also not very useful for practical photography. High grade "practical" color film (ektar 100, provia 100f, velvia 50), shot extremely carefully with a vacuum back and drum scanned wet will out-resolve high end 35mm digital but lose against modern medium format digital backs; 6x7 or 6x9 with extremely good lenses (mamiya 7 system, alpas) might beat last-gen digital backs in some scenarios. Impractical 3 iso bw microfilm copy film stock (techpan, chs 20) used to shot something standing extremely still with an adapted photolithography lens might win against medium format backs, except if you need color, but at that point you're actually competing against scanning backs for reproduction work and the scanning back is going to prevail.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Goes to show how absolutely fearless, or better yet brave, the men and women who fly into space are. Look at that pitch black sky, it gave me the willies. It must do something to the psyche of the average person for sure.

<comment><USER14> Another possible reaction to the infinite void:

"They saw the staggering jewels of the night in their infinite dust and their minds sang with fear. For a while they flew on, motionless against the starry sweep of the Galaxy, itself motionless against the infinite sweep of the Universe. And then they turned round. "It'll have to go," the men of Krikkit said as they headed back for home. On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms."

        Life, the Universe and Everything

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Quoting a fragment of the last paragraph:

 _" With [...] private companies planning to profit off of lunar resources, the moon is about to become a much busier destination."_

Are there really such plans? Can anybody explain what the article refers to here specifically?

<comment><USER16> Sure, for instance ULA has plans to mine the moon for propellant. Here's the short version but you can google "Cislunar 1000" for more.

[https://imgur.com/a/473uB](https://imgur.com/a/473uB)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Here is the story of Chang'e and Houyi, for the curious.

[https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/Houyi_and_Chan...](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/Houyi_and_Chang%27e)

</comment><comment><USER18> I made a quick VR version of the panorama* (using aframe.io) if anyone's interested.

[http://tobyvervaart.com.au/moon/](http://tobyvervaart.com.au/moon/)

* caveats: probably not to the correct scale

<comment><USER19> Beat me to it! :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> -1 for techcrunch.com website

I'd love to pinchzoom on the photos, but techcrunch has disabled it

</comment><comment> matt-attack Looks remarkably similar to the old black & white photos.

<comment><USER21> Actually a lot of the old photos were color. Thats the problem with the moon: grey on grey landscape.

<comment><USER22> > Actually a lot of the old photos were color.

Couldn't help thinking of this:

[http://calvin-and-hobbes-comic- strips.blogspot.com/2011/11/c...](http://calvin-and-hobbes-comic- strips.blogspot.com/2011/11/calvin-asks-dad-about-old-black-and.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Title suggestion: not _of_ the moon, but _from_ the moon.

Credit where due. This isn't footage from afar, but from something standing on the moon.

</comment><comment><USER24> Three cheers for Emily Lakdawalla and the Planetary Society. They do amazing work making this kind of astronomy accessible and understandable to the general public.

</comment><comment><USER25> Even in something like a moon landing with space and power limitations, it's 2016. We have the technology to take video and at least store it and upload it later.

There is no real reason these couldn't be an HD video instead (or in addition to).

<comment><USER26> Except the limited scientific value.

Japanese did flyby around the moon in 2007 and recorded a video.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> The impact ejecta rock (pyramid rock) looks like there are lines. Are those lines from erosion or sedimentation layers? I thought neither of these would happen without an atmosphere or water.

<comment><USER28> Erosion does happen on the moon but from solar radiation instead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> It's amazing that there is just so much of junk rock flying all over the place and landing there.

</comment><comment><USER30> Am I the only one who,can never read tech crunch on mobile because it looks like this:

[http://i.imgur.com/OCQbcnL.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/OCQbcnL.jpg)

<comment><USER31> Is that on Andorid? It was working fine for me on Windows 10 Phone/Microsoft Edge, but I've seen other sites mess up in similar ways on Edge.

<comment><USER32> Works for for me on Android (chrome)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Those look cool!

Also I wonder, if someone ever release HD pictures of the stuff the manned landings left behind, will people stop believing that moon landing was a Hoax?

<comment><USER34> There are already laser retroreflectors on the moon that a sufficiently powerful laser and sensor can detect. This is still not enough for people to stop believing it's a hoax.

<comment><USER35> I realize we're all trying to make fun of a strawman who doesn't believe in the purity of science, but that's an unfair characterization of the arguments made against the _manned_ lunar landing.

Just taking a look at the Wikipedia page for the arguments gives you a good idea for the arguments made:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theori...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories)

If you read through a bit, you'll see a few arguments that people propose, that don't refute laser reflectors being on the surface.

Again, I realize we're supposed to be piling on a strawman here, but I hope we can all maintain open minds.

<comment><USER34> I would like more clarifications on the sort of arguments that allow for retroreflectors to legitimately be on the moon without the moon landing. I was not making fun of anyone; at most, I have frustration and confusion about how the belief of a hoax can exist in the face of repeatable verifiable proof that we put something on the moon.

The section on that wikipedia page on retroreflectors does not mention any theories that allows for it to be there, and glossing over the page a bit, it states that "the foremost idea is that the whole manned landing program was a hoax from start to end."

I would appreciate a discussion of any argument you have found that allows for retroreflectors.

<comment><USER35> The argument about retroreflectors is right there on the page, although it's buried if you don't have the arguments raised previously in the Wikipedia article.

The main argument is that the lunar landings weren't _manned_ for _one or more_ of the landings. And indeed, right there on the page, it says:

> Smaller retroreflectors were also put on the Moon by the Russians; they were > attached to the _unmanned lunar rovers_ Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.

The existence of the Russian retroreflectors shows reflectors could be deployed without _human_ intervention.

And further:

> Lick Observatory attempted to detect from Apollo 11's retroreflector while > Armstrong and Aldrin were still on the Moon but did not succeed until August > 1, 1969.[197] The Apollo 14 astronauts deployed a retroreflector on February > 5, 1971, and McDonald Observatory detected it the same day.

The argument here is that if the retroreflectors were deployed by Apollo 11, they should have been detectable within the day, not 10 days after their supposed _human caused_ deployment.

Again, this is just the argument presented, not an endorsement.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Isn't moon black and white. What's the point of color pictures?

<comment><USER37> If the pictures aren't in colors how do you know the moon is black and white?</comment></comment>


How I Switched Working from Office Full Time to Remote 3 Days a Week - <AUTHOR> https://carlchenet.com/how-i-switched-working-from-office-full-time-to-remote-3-days-a-week/ <comment><USER2> Saved you a click:

TL;DR: After working from home for a few months, I was convinced remote work was my thing. I had to look for a new freelance contract including remote work and I had to refuse a lot of good offers banning remote work. At least in my country (France), finding remote work, even part time, is still difficult. It greatly depends on the company culture. I'm lucky enough, my current client promotes remote work.</comment>


Lossless and Transparency Modes in WebP - <AUTHOR> http://googledevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/08/lossless-and-transparency-modes-in-webp.html <comment><USER2> A format with lossy alpha transparency! This is good news!

Being able to have graphics with transparent portions, without having to use bandwidth-hogging PNG will be quite useful.</comment>


Git commits as code review? - <AUTHOR> http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2009/10/15/git-commits-as-code-review.aspx <comment><USER2> The idea here is that when reviewing someone's code, instead of writing up the problems that you found and handing the write-up to the author (which they may or may not understand, and may or may not act on), you actually just fix the code as you go, committing each little change you make with an explanatory comment as the commit message. The author can then look over the history to see not only what the comments were, but exactly what each one means in the code. You're guaranteed that the problems are fixed, and (assuming the original programmer actually does look over the history) the learning value is much higher.

I've done exactly this on a couple of occasions and it worked very well. Among other things, it's easier on the reviewer. (Who likes writing up a big document or email? Much better to actually fix code.) Personally, though, I find it more productive to work more collaboratively to begin with.

<comment><USER3> I do this for Arora when I get a commit that just needs a minor tweak. It is easier to just merge in their patch and then make a new commit fixing it up then to tell them to fix one thing, wait for them to actually do it, fetch, and then merge. But for the patches where there are more fundamental design changes it comes down to time. I could email them back with a list of things to fix or spend the next few hours fixing it myself. If I am interested in getting the patch in then I might.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> We are going to be using a code coverage tool in conjunction with our source code management tool to do code reviews. Every branch of every method changed for a particular Change Request will be instrumented with something subclassed from a breakpoint, and the developers will get a randomly assigned "review partner" and they will ensure all of the checked in code is covered by unit tests.

The "coverage map" of affected methods is generated automatically, and the insertion of the code probes is also done automatically.

</comment><comment><USER5> We use git commit reviews as our primary review method, it's much lower overhead than sit down code review meetings. On the other hand, it's not quite as thorough, which works fine with a small team that's already high bandwidth.

<comment><USER6> Try <http://www.reviewboard.org/> or something like it</comment></comment>


Landmark study: DRM truly does make pirates out of us all - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/05/landmark-study-drm-truly-does-make-pirates-out-of-us-all.ars <comment><USER2> Now this is a good reason to support the Pirate Party if you have one in your country.

<comment><USER3> In my country, DRM is unlawful de-jure (but is in use, de-facto), because it violates bunch of laws.

<comment><USER2> Congratulations; where do you live?

<comment><USER3> Congratulations for what? Law is not working due to weak government. I am afraid that if somebody will try to enforce DRM software to comply with law, law will be changed quickly.

I live in Ukraine (Eastern Europe).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> They mention that these cases are just a few "edge groups". That may be the case, but while these "edge groups" are being punished so much, the remaining 99% of the world either doesn't notice the difference between DRM'd content and free content, or they bypass it in two seconds. Heck, they could avoid it all together by illegally downloading an 'unlocked' version of the software.

So where's the gain that justifies the infringement on the rights of 'edge groups'?

</comment><comment><USER5> I bought a dell at work. Came with windows. Installed linux ans want to set up a windows vm to use necessary win software for work.

So naturally I can't register my oem xp pro because its bound to my hardware which differs from vm. Basically I must pirate windows even though I own a copy which I should be able to legally install on a vm. Not to mention that I can't install os x just because its not apple hardware on a vm.

So yea this sort of bs is what makes us all have to resort to piracy because the alternative is too expensive.</comment>


Ask HN: Looking for some feedback for my tracking startup - <AUTHOR>

I recently launched a site I'd been building for a few years in my spare time called Tracktacular, which is a collection of web apps to help organize your life (tasks, goals, dreams, recipes, etc). I'm looking for some general feedback about the site and the idea as a whole.
I should mention that I originally started working on this as a site entirely for me, but over time wondered if others might find it useful. As such I don't have any income strategies yet, this is more of trying to find out whether the idea has merit.
Thanks for your advice. www.tracktacular.com <comment><USER2> It's a good idea, and it looks pretty good. My two cents in terms of organization would be to allow users to choose which apps they want. In other words, a user should be able to select "Budgets", "Calendar", and "Goals", and hide the rest of those options if they don't want to use them.

All in all though, I like it!

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, I had been thinking about this... especially since I'll be adding more trackers and its likely that they'll start to look cluttered. Maybe a simple option on the account page to hide some of the trackers would do it.

Appreciate the feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Haven't tried fully but looks good!

</comment><comment><USER4> Pretty sweet Ill be signing up</comment>