Coffee delivery drone patented by IBM - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45289281 <comment><USER2> Perhaps I have become jaded or a conspiracy theorist, but I see this as the following:

\- the drone space is increasingly easy to enter into \- IBM sees non-tech companies might get into drones \- they identify potential markets where drones would be useful \- they spend minimal resources developing a "prototype" and file for a patent \- Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts come along with coffee delivery drones ~3 years later \- IBM shakes down Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts for $x.00 per delivery, now has new stream of extortion recurring revenue

<comment><USER3> My evil(?) plan is to create a society of engineers that sits around and dreams up patentable ideas, and patents them, creating a portfolio which we could market to big companies ($$) as a defense against trolls, and to small companies (free) who want to build cool stuff and not worry about trolls.

<comment><USER4> I realize you may be saying this tongue-in-cheek, but that's such a hilariously compelling idea (speaking as an engineer pipe-dreaming about ideal jobs) that I'm making this rather unsubstantive comment to both encourage and say "give me a ping if you do"...

(the mental dissonance for me is that while I'm no fan of software patents, and even broader patents as they stand now, attempting to motivate that change in parallel with capitalizing on the existing state of affairs seems pragmatic, if hypocritical; I've had to bang my head against this due to filings through work already)

<comment><USER3> To be honest, the discussion started out as a hack so that we could use a 'company' to share health care costs rather than the exchanges. As the population in the Bay Area ages there are those who still like to talk about tech, draw on whiteboards, write code, and build stuff. While at the same time having accrued enough wealth such that actually working for someone isn't required. So we asked ourselves, "What are the good things about working at a company?" and the answer was smart people to exchange ideas with, facilities that you could leave "set up" while working on a project, and for some, an absence of interruptions by others. The "bad things" you don't benefit proportionally from your work effort, usually they want to own what you do and not let you share that, and if you take too many days "off" they ask you to leave.

From that the 'League of Extraordinary Engineers' was born :-). Basically membership dues covers the cost of the facility, patent filing, and healthcare, and as the patent portfolio grows (the 'endowment' if you will) those costs go down.

<comment><USER4> This is where I respond "And my axe."

The downsides you list resonate really strongly with me; compounded by the "all or nothing" nature of most employment in that I've noticed even negotiating a sabbatical for most of my line-engineer peers is a non-starter. (Story is different for those in management/very senior) God knows the pittance you get for filing at most bigCos doesn't align incentives/value, as well.

My only concern for feasibility would be as you say, "having accrued enough wealth such that working isn't reqired", seeing as the current healthcare/social safety net situation becomes prohibitive even to those who might be upper-middle, begging the question of potential conflict of interest for those who don't have true "fuck you money," to put it crassly. (Clearly I'm speaking selfishly here)

<comment><USER3> Completely understand. And it is within that discussion which is the 'hard bit'.The spreadsheets get a bit thick too. Understand this has been percolating for over a year at this point.

Feel free to contact me off list if you (or anyone else for that matter) is interested in the thinking that has been done so far on this concept.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Following Dan Shapiro's advice[1] for how to read patents,

"What is claimed is:

A method for delivering a drink to an individual, comprising:

connecting the drink to an unmanned arial vehicle (UAV);

flying the UAV, the one or more sensors connected to the UAV, the one or more sensors connected to an electronic processing circuit which identifies an individual among the people that may have a predetermined sleepy cognitive state including determining a confidence level corresponding to a probable desire of the individual for the drink including a stimulant which reduces a sleepy cognitive state, based on the sensor data and using sleep data pertaining to sleep experienced by the people when selecting the individual that may have the sleepy cognitive state;

accessing sleep data pertaining to the sleep cycle of the individual determined by motion detection of the individual during a sleep period, and adjusting the confidence level in accordance to the sleep data; and

if the confidence level reaches a predetermined level, flying the UAV to the individual that may have the sleepy cognitive state to deliver the drink including the stimulant to the individual."

Headline should read " _Sleep tracking_ coffee delivery drone patented by IBM."

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11586448](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11586448)

<comment><USER6> Sorta wacky they want to deliver mostly hot water by air rather than caffeine.

Far smaller, lighter package would do wonders for flight time and reloading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> IBM pays employees a $500 bonus if their patent proposal gets past an internal review board, and another $500 if the patent office actually awards the patent. The internal review board's only concern is if the patent application is likely to be successful. They don't care if the idea is silly or has no bearing on the company's business.

A small subset of employees file the vast majority of IBM's patents. These are awarded the title "Master Inventor". Many Master Inventors earn more from the patent bonuses than they do in actual salary. In theory the title is an accolade but in practice Master Inventors are sometimes shunned because they spend all their time thinking up silly patent ideas instead of doing "real work".

Source: I used to work for IBM and collected a handful of those bonuses before I realized how silly it was.

<comment><USER8> >They don't care if the idea is silly or has no bearing on the company's business.

That's not entirely true. They do, perhaps approximately, require that the idea be within a market that IBM could consider moving into if they wanted.

<comment><USER7> I recall a coworker patenting something to do with sailboats.

<comment><USER8> Hence the usage of words like "not entirely" and "approximately".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> While the technology is great, I am not sure of its use case. People summoning for coffee is fine. But for people who look tired and distressed, I think coffee is just a 'quick fix' for that. How about drone reporting it back to the person's manager (as a feedback) to indicate if management rework needs to be done (sometimes one person in team ends up doing most of the work). Or drone sending an automated email giving suggestions to the employee to either take a break, go for a walk, drink water, or give recommendations of meeting other people who are in the same state. Maybe the drone can even take into account the project which the employee is working on and help him socialize with others who are working on other projects, which ultimately might give rise to a brand new project idea. Just my two cents!

<comment><USER10> Ok cool, but the patent is for the technology itself? They can use it for whatever they want, coffee is just a filler.

<comment><USER11> Actually it's not. The patent claims really are specifically about delivering coffee (well, about delivering a beverage containing a stimulant). And not just that, it's about delivering it to sleepy people, where sleepiness is determined by an algorithm. It's completely nuts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This shows how idiotic the patent system is: you just generate a random combination of words, select 10 combinations that make remote sense and create some half-baked implementation on paper for it and suddenly you have the right to money from people who happen to actually implement it properly later.

</comment><comment><USER13> If I were the CEO of IBM, I'd wonder what jagoff spent 10 grand (average patent cost, with lawyers and other services) to make a coffee drone joke.

<comment><USER14> This was my exact thought -- I'm stunned by how earnest the comments are here when my troll-dar is going off heavily right now. I guess I should be glad they didn't find some harebrained way to include the blockchain. There's nothing wrong with drone delivery, but the "innovation" of trying to address a people ops problem with coffee is so woefully wrongheaded that it really begs the question of whether it was intended seriously.

<comment><USER15> "System 100 can utilize monetary or digital currency bids, but can also enable the trading of coffee drinks." -pg.13

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Clearly part of IBM's evil plan to take over the world with Watson. After replacing game players, retail associates, financial advisors, scientists, and doctors, the only challenge left is the office intern.

</comment><comment><USER17> > IBM suggests the drone could be equipped with technology to detect blood > pressure, pupil dilation and facial expressions and judge whether people are > drowsy.

Why waste the time on brewing coffee? Just have it fly around and administer routine caffeine injections.

<comment><USER18> injections would require too much articulation, finding veins, etc

loading a tranq dart with caffeine and shooting them at drowsy people would be much more cost effective

<comment><USER19> If the dart is filled with caffeine I don't think it's called a 'tranq dart'.

<comment><USER18> that kind of detail isn't terribly important when you're trying to move fast & break things

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'd like to see the same technology be used to deliver alcohol to the least drunk person at a party.

<comment><USER20> Quick, file a patent!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Nobody else disturbed by the idea of a computer identifying under-performing employees and delivering them a shot of a stimulant? Coffee is rather tame, but this is a step towards many a scifi trope.

</comment><comment><USER22> I fail to see what is novel about "delivering X via drone". Is delivering a new thing via truck patentable?

What, specifically, did they invent? Its the same patent landgrab as software patents where it is "do X, but on the internet".

I'd call this as IBM trying to lay down a patent minefield against those that would actually engage in commerce. In this sense, the patent does not advance the arts or sciences and should fail the sniff test for granting an absolute monopoly to a corporation on some action.

</comment><comment><USER23> Have the figured out how to stop downdraft from the props to not blow away paper off people's desk?

Does the drone not embark with hot coffee payload if battery is not enough to complete the journey without spinning blades and scalding liquid crashing on people or computers?

Can they make it operate at >60dB so people can work?

If those questions don't have satisfactory answers, how could it possibly be that this invention "expresses a specific, credible, and substantial utility" such that it is deserving of patent protection?

</comment><comment><USER24> what's the point of patenting technology and not really producing it? I think they just want to sue potential innovative companies and not taking any risk.

<comment><USER25> 1) prevent anybody else from patenting it. 2) collect royalties of somebody else decides to build such a thing. 3) bump up their patent count.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is so counter intuitive when patents like this are awarded. So if someone wants to make a drone that delivers tea/coffee they pay royalty to IBM but is it ok if they deliver paper supplies or food?

In future this has total implications for drinks/soda companies and ironically IBM manufactures none. This is a perfect example of how patent system is totally broken and needs some kind of change.

<comment><USER27> _> is it ok if they deliver paper supplies or food_

On the subject of paper, aren't the papers on my desk going to be blown around as a result of drones delivering compulsory coffee?

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> IBM is always chasing the latest hype, but their ability to execute is lacking. Just looking at how they are all over blockchain tech with so many talking heads. The same with drones I imagine. They truly believe with enough screen time people will start taking a notice of this Potyomkin village type company.

</comment><comment><USER29> Ha as the owner of a few drones who has dreamed up a few ideas like this I think the biggest issue is noise. Can't realistically have one of these flying in an office or social setting without irritating a bunch of people. Would be curious to see what can be done to make drones quieter though.

</comment><comment><USER30> Having seen both sides of patents vs non-patents arguments. The only sane conclusion I have come to is, to have a validity for a much shorter duration for tech patents like 10 years or so. If the company cannot extract value from it in the next 10 years or less, then let someone else do it.

</comment><comment><USER31> Flying hot coffee. What could go wrong?

<comment><USER32> It could burn someone _and_ it could get cold.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Link to the patent [https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170174343A1/](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170174343A1/)

</comment><comment><USER34> Limitless human ingenuity being used...to deliver coffee to tired people.

</comment><comment><USER35> SAP must be kicking themselves for not thinking of this one.

</comment><comment><USER36> So, we gonna have a distinct patent for every X-delivery-Y where X is a kind of item to be delivered and Y is a method of delivery?

</comment><comment><USER23> Is IBM just a marketing company now?

<comment><USER37> >marketing

you mean patent troll

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> does IBM even do anything anymore other than these stupid meme-technology ideas to generate headlines?</comment>


Here be dragons: the same 3D scene implemented with 10 different 3D APIs - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/kosua20/herebedragons <comment><USER3> This is a really useful codebase to compare what the code looks like for different APIs and the tooling around each (not so much for directly comparing the graphics, which should go without saying, but a lot of people seem to be missing the point here...)

It would be interesting to add an emscripten version, ie. slight modifications to the original C++/OpenGL code to make it compile with emscripten and run in the browser. After some fooling around I got that to work, however nothing shows up because the shaders need to be rewritten for WebGL. Looks like this was already done for the JS/WebGL version, but the shaders are less fancy and clearly don't map 1-to-1 to those in the C++/OpenGL version, so the code will need to be modified a bit either way.

<comment><USER4> If you target WebGL2 you can likely do it without hand modifying the shaders. In a small test I did I just patched the emscripten library_gl.js to do a very simple search and replace of the version string of shaders and stuff just worked.

code: [https://github.com/greggman/doodles/tree/master/glfw- imgui](https://github.com/greggman/doodles/tree/master/glfw-imgui)

demo: [https://greggman.github.io/doodles/glfw-imgui/out/glfw- imgui...](https://greggman.github.io/doodles/glfw-imgui/out/glfw-imgui.html)

You do have to decide if you want to restructure you code to be event based or if you want it leave it as is and set emscripten to generate really slow code for your main loop

[https://kripken.github.io/emscripten- site/docs/porting/emter...](https://kripken.github.io/emscripten- site/docs/porting/emterpreter.html#emterpreter-async-run-synchronous-code)

<comment><USER5> very cool to see ImGui used in webgl!

<comment><USER4> I think ImGui is amazing but just be aware it's non-English hostile (arabic? thai?).

It can display other languages but uses a static font glpyh texture instead of using a font cache (there are too many characters to use a static texture).

It can't take input from an IME so no CJK input or other IME languages.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Very interesting. What's striking is how much better the OpenGL version looks than everything else. Not sure if it's because that was the reference version or if some of the other APIs require more work or the dev is simply unfamiliar with them. The Cycles renderer creates some really cool looking materials on the dragon, but the terrain doesn't look great.

The Metal version in particular looks terrible, but then again low level APIs like Metal, Vulkan and whatever subset of Direct X are all meant for vendors, not individual developers.

<comment><USER7> > the terrain

The OpenGL version looks really aggressively bump mapped. The Cycle's version doesn't appear to have any bump mapping enabled.

Edit: The depth of field in the Cycle's version also looks a bit weird, and blurs away most of the terrain's detail.

<comment><USER8> The OpenGL version is using parallax mapping, where the pixels of the flat plane are rendered by ray-marching into a depth map:

[https://github.com/kosua20/GL_Template/blob/3de4e116cdd24df3...](https://github.com/kosua20/GL_Template/blob/3de4e116cdd24df300fda42326a7a4e431f7f861/ressources/shaders/plane.frag)

The cycles version, on the other hand, is actually using the depth map to displace a high-res mesh -- a more general technique that should yield results as good or better than parallax mapping. I'd chalk up any perceived differences to lighting and material parameters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I someone has time, could you record each one of these, splice the videos together and upload it, so we can compare them, without actually installing each one?

<comment><USER10> There are screenshots in each of the directories in the project.

<comment><USER11> Laziness squared... got it.

(lazy they didnt have a gallery already ready... lazy that (we) the readers dont ant to click through to each pic..

<comment><USER12> Some people went and created the same in multiple different languages/environments. Not sure you should be throwing around the word lazy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The Vulkan version will really add a lot I think. I would guess most people are most interested in an OpenGL to Vulkan comparison. Similarly (possibly more interesting to people, I don't know?) the DirectX version.

Nice comparison.

<comment><USER6> Will it? Vulkan is meant as a low-level version of OpenGL for vendors who want to optimise their engines and have more control over draw calls and whatnot. Does it actually add any features that will be noticeable in a small, static scene?

<comment><USER14> The difference between a moving and a static scene is surprisingly small: in one case you render a slightly different scene every frame, and in the other you re-render the same scene every frame. But the pipeline is set up the same, with the same shaders, the same rendering passes, etc.

So, in practice, if they are noticeably different in the dynamic case, you'll see those differences in the "as if it were dynamic" case, which is most graphics demos of this sort.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Neat. Always interesting to be reminded how far the capabilities have come in so short a time. The PS2 really wasn't all that long ago in the grand scheme of things.

Would be intriguing to see how far older architectures like ps2dev can be pushed on modern hardware.

<comment> amiga-workbench Or even how far the PS2 could be pushed with modern software. Just look at the C64 demoscene, that machine is doing things it's designers could never have hoped for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I am not an expert in some of these, but I _CAN_ tell you that both GBA and DS can do much better than the author has done here.

<comment><USER17> The GBA could definitely do a real 3D engine but it wouldn't look very good at the low resolution anyway. I remember a demo from back in the day of a Quake- like 3D engine on the GBA but it really didn't look good.

For the DS, note that he seems to be targeting the original DS (e.g. not DSi OR 3DS). I remember there being some slightly better stuff but not significantly better than what he made.

<comment><USER18> I just ran the DS version on my DS lite, it looks pretty good - <USER2> comparable to games on the system, and the models seems more detailed then most of what you see on the system. The screenshots just make it look horrible because it's a fairly low-res screen, when you blow it up that big it looks a lot worse then you'd expect. The monkey shadow is definitely iffy looking, but I don't think any games ever did 3D shadows that detailed - there's probably a reason for that. It is worth keeping in mind that the original DS is weak (especial 3D wise), but it's not really _that_ bad considering the low resolution it has to render for. That low resolution is the main reason why it looks so bad in the screenshot though.

The GBA version also looks pretty good on my DS lite (compared to games on the system). You can't rotate the camera though, so the dragon doesn't rotate. The monkey-head rotates on it's own though and looks pretty good. You're right that there are a few games that do 3D on the GBA, but I can't imagine it's fun coding wise since it the hardware support is basically zero in that regard. But there are some weird ones out there - Banjo Pilot comes to mind, which is a weird mode-7 3Dish flying game. Not exactly a great game, but pretty cool to see. Even with that game though, they have to sacrifice basically all terrain to be able to render the other characters at a decent speed IIRC, so the entire game is just flat.

And if you want to get really obscure, there is Faceball 2000 on the GB, which is a "FPS" and is 3D (And runs at like 15 FPS IIRC). There's no way you could render this scene on it though besides just pre-rendered sprites like was done with the GBA.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Definitely looks helpful as someone starting to get into Graphics Programming, but I can't wait for the Vulkan version!

</comment><comment><USER20> A nice project, but I didn't find the license for the source code. As without one no-one can really legally use parts of it for anything that can become serious.

Of course it might be that I have missed it or it is hidden somewhere. I hope it really exists somewhere in the repository, but I didn't find it. I might be too tired to find it and someone else has better luck.

<comment><USER21> After a quick search, there is no license file in this project. Whether that was done intentionally or unintentionally has yet to be determined.

<comment><USER22> It's worth noting that the author just added a license (MIT) to the repo.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I would be interested in seeing a version of this, where a pixel-identical scene is created using different toolkits.

</comment><comment><USER24> Why is one of the examples called "Unity"? Doesn't Unity just use the lower level rendering APIs or am I missing something?[1][2][3]

[1] [https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UsingDX11GL3Features.html](https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UsingDX11GL3Features.html)

[2] [https://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/09/29/introducing-the- vulkan-...](https://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/09/29/introducing-the-vulkan- renderer-preview/)

[3] [https://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/02/19/unity-4-6-3-metal- rende...](https://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/02/19/unity-4-6-3-metal-rendering- support-and-update-of-il2cpp-for-ios/)

<comment><USER25> WebGL is ultimately translated into OpenGL calls. OpenGL calls are ultimately translated into bytes sent over the bus to the graphics card. It takes a lot of level descending before you reach the ground floor :-)

Unity is there, I imagine, because it's interesting to see how it translates code that expresses high level concepts like "meshes" and "materials" into code for to the backend, compared to the hand-written OpenGL or DX or Metal or whatever calls.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> How do I view them? Maybe it's because I'm on mobile, but I'm having trouble navigating to the actual images.

Edit: ok if I understand correctly, you need to visit the linked web site, visit each linked repo, and pull each one down? Could you provide a web page with previews, or would the resolution lose all visual differences?

<comment><USER27> I just clicked on each directory, the images are linked to the READMEs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> If you just want to check out a couple static images, check out the author's site [0].

I must be getting into my nostalgic period - I love the GBA version.

[0]: [http://simonrodriguez.fr/dragon/](http://simonrodriguez.fr/dragon/)

</comment><comment><USER29> It would have been cool if there was a single page with a screenshot of each version to compare

</comment><comment><USER30> How about a pico-8 version?

<comment><USER31> It seems it's in the works: [http://simonrodriguez.fr/dragon/](http://simonrodriguez.fr/dragon/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Would love to see how Glide stands up against this.

<comment><USER33> No POVRay?

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> When I was in school, I had an assignment to make the same super simple scene in OpenGL and DirectX.

That was when I learned I didn't want to be in a career field that would have me using DirectX.

<comment><USER23> Would you mind explaining in more detail why you didn't like using DirectX? When I was reading up for some games if they would get an OpenGL version, I was reading more than once that OpenGL were a mess.

<comment><USER34> It was a really simple project, like a couple of colored rotating triangles. I think it was like... maybe 10 short lines of code for OpenGL, and over 50 to do it with DirectX.

Of course, I can't speak for how hairy OpenGL might get at doing more advanced features, and of course, in a lot of cases games are built on established game engines which do most of the DirectX and/or OpenGL coding for them.

<comment><USER35> You've hit the nerve there.

OpenGL has so much implicit state and "defaults" set for you that you can get a "hello world" -style app done really quickly, but then it all falls apart.

And if I'm guessing correctly, you probably used legacy, fixed function OpenGL (ie. no shaders) with immediate mode rendering (glBegin/glEnd). Because you can't do anything in 10 lines with modern OpenGL.

As soon as you start doing something practical, you start fighting OpenGL all the time. It's a badly designed, very error prone API that requires much more developer effort than any of the competing APIs.

If you apply best practices to OpenGL code (don't rely on global, implicit state, use shaders/buffers/etc) , it's about on par with the "lower level" APIs.

My OpenGL boilerplate code and my Vulkan boilerplate code have about the same number of lines of code in them while they do about the same things (create rendertarget, framebuffer, clear the screen, draw some text, draw a triangle, blit to screen, measure performance counters). OpenGL is a bit less by a small margin, but the difference is only in the verbosity of Vulkan code (ie. you have to explicitly type every single pipeline state, even if it doesn't matter, e.g. depth test mode when depth test is disabled).

In my opinion the bottom line is this: Vulkan is verbose but OpenGL is complex. I'll take verbosity over hidden complexity any time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> HTTP ERROR 500

<comment><USER37> You've got something wrong with your server...</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Browser gently warns you b4 reading something you regret spending time - <AUTHOR> http://times.jayliew.com/2010/10/09/half-baked-idea-of-the-day-tldr/

<comment><USER2> This is definitely an interesting idea.

If you can build it (and that's a big if), then it will almost certainly have a market, since it _is_ solving a very specific problem that a _lot_ of people have and want to solve. The biggest question is, can you build something that works well?

I like the idea of relying on HN comments to try and decide whether the article is worth reading, and I can see the potential for adding more and more "opinion" sites later on to cover more articles on the web. I'm not convinced that it will actually help, but it should be possible to build this just for HN and see whether it helps or not.

In any case, great idea. I really hope you make this work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Edan, I'm looking to see how I can implement this just for HN, for the 1st MVP.

To accomplish this, I need a way to test if a URL has already has been posted to HN or not, which is kinda tricky <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1776654>

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Correction: I realized that I might not be conveying it right.

Product is not yet another way to discover interesting things to read.

The moment you visit a URL, just as you are about to read it, the browser tells you that "hey, before you read this, this might actually be a waste of your time."

</comment><comment><USER3> Rather than other peoples' opinions, I'd rather have a summary of the article. Most places I go, there either isn't a summary, or it's really, really bad. (Either incomplete or incorrect.)

But that would require a person, and not just automation.</comment>


A Picture Got My Postgres Database to Start Mining Monero (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://www.imperva.com/blog/deep-dive-database-attacks-scarlett-johanssons-picture-used-for-crypto-mining-on-postgre-database/ <comment><USER2> previous discussion, [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16617750](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16617750)

</comment><comment><USER3> Lmao. Scarlett Johansson is so thicc, you can even farm cryptos with her pictures.</comment>


The VC product is broken for 99% of founders and I want to fix it - <AUTHOR> http://www.sneakerheadvc.com/2011/07/05/vc-product-broken/

<comment><USER2> Though most entrepreneurs would have trouble faulting Phin's (I think that is the authors name) feelings, I think it is up to the presenter to get the listener (investor) interested.

Though we are looking for partners, we are selling our product. We are selling ourselves. They are paying for a slice of the returns of what we are creating and to be involved in an amazing business.

Should a VC be on time? Of course, everybody should, but that isn't reality. Should they give you 100% of their attention, sure, but the onus is on us to give them a show and sell the idea.

I've had 3 investor meetings regarding two different businesses, and have never had the issue of the (2 VCs one angel) being distracted or feigning interest. I didn't raise funds either, so it wasn't that the businesses were completely infallible, but I suspect it was presented in a way that I suspect was intriguing enough that I had their full attention.

</comment><comment><USER3> Every bad VC behavior I've seen to date has been from third or lower tier VCs (either horrible zombie funds, or funds which are only coinvestors on deals). (Luckily, I only took those meetings out of social obligation, not because I was raising money at the time)

Top tier VCs and angels, at least from my experience so far, have been incredibly professional and valuable.

If you don't have access to inside information on the VCs, I'd suggest trying thefunded.com. One of the advantages of bringing in a top-tier angel (SV Angel, a domain expert in your field, YC, etc.) is that they will help you identify good investors for later rounds.</comment>


A Lean, (Ever)Green Machine: Website Tips for Small Shops - <AUTHOR> https://doreenmichele.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-lean-evergreen-machine-website-tips.html? <comment><AUTHOR> I screwed up and accidentally set this site to "private" before posting this link. Someone kindly messaged me about it. I'm going to try to repost it now that I've fixed the technical issue on my end.</comment>


Yes, Brotli can compress faster than gzip - <AUTHOR> https://certsimple.com/blog/nginx-brotli?u <comment><AUTHOR> Author here. This is an updated version of our Brotli guide based on some feedback from Reddit:

\- Added specific Brotli compression settings for dynamic vs static content

\- Added RHEL/CentOS packages alongside the existing Ubuntu ones

\- Clarified that results shown are for minified JS, yaay.

\- Added caniuse link now Edge Brotli support is final

Plus a tighter focus on the things that people commonly get wrong about Brotli.</comment>


Let's Build a Simple Interpreter. Part 14: Nested Scopes (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://ruslanspivak.com/lsbasi-part14/ <comment><USER2> This is a very well-written series of articles. I found it a few months ago while researching source-to-source compilation and went thru the entire series. Really easy to understand and follow along.

Well done, Ruslan! The internet needs more content like this. Are you planning to publish this series in book form?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the kind words! Re the book form: it is a possibility once I'm done writing the series. And thanks for taking the time to read the articles.

<comment><USER3> Hey Ruslan, since you're posting here just wanted to say I love your articles, so much that I make all new hires on my team work through "Let's Build a Webserver" as part of their onboarding :)

Thanks for your writing, and please post if you ever do turn this material into a book!

<comment><AUTHOR> That's great! :) Thank you for sharing this. I plan to update that series soon, so stay tuned :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is great. For anyone interested in additional material, the following link has also been shared on HN a few times: [https://craftinginterpreters.com/](https://craftinginterpreters.com/)</comment>


Knowmail – AI for email - <AUTHOR> https://www.knowmail.me/ <comment><USER2> I wish someone would clone a service like this and make if self hosted. I am completely uncomfortable with sharing my email data with a third party company.

<comment><AUTHOR> Email data is not shared, as it remains client side, where recommendations are given per user.

No identifiable data leaves your device, and only anonymized info is utilized to build a "personal model" for a user.

<comment><USER3> No way to know, since it isn't free software.

<comment><USER2> It's good to see that someone remembers why libre software IS important. Because you know what you are running on your machine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This has nothing to do with AI... Not long ago everything needed to have "built with JavaScript" stamp, now it must have AI to sell, but ...does it have electrolytes?

<comment><USER5> There's tons of areas where AIs, or rather, basic ML, could be used but for some reason isn't. I'm thinking about e.g. adaptive interfaces, the kind that can really be learning your habits on the fly. Think e.g. public transit app / widget that takes into account your precise location, as well as day of the week, time of the day, etc. to learn your habits and prioritize which timetables to suggest you by default (e.g. it's Wednesday evening, so you're probably coming back from work, so the default timetable will be the bus home at the stop next to work).

I tried to do exactly that for an university project, it's not very hard. Even simple methods can give pretty good results.

Google Now is about the first case I ever saw someone finally working on it, but it doesn't seem like it's a priority for them. My charitable guess is that they're afraid of confusing non-tech people.

Hell, maybe I'll write myself a watchapp.

(I started thinking a lot about this after reading a great essay by Bret Victor - [http://worrydream.com/#!/MagicInk](http://worrydream.com/#!/MagicInk))

<comment><USER6> I disagree with your assertion "There's tons of areas where that AIs, or rather, basic ML, could be used". The issue with AIs or ML or any probabilistic prediction of what user wants is that it takes away control. E.g. sorting your apps by usage. It's a solution in search of a problem. If you rearrange my apps by usage, you are asking me to search my apps everytime. It breaks my patterns and habits. And we are animals for patterns.

There are some definite places where AI/ML/Adaptive algos help. Examples would be Facebook search, Apps recommendation, music recommendation, smart playlists, autocomplete and search etc. where any good tech team worth its salt is already using these techniques.

It's also the reason why Knowmail or Inbox by google are not great. I go through my mail in a set pattern. I code those patterns by labels or folders and clean folder by folder. I don't need to context switch between each mail of similar definitive categories. In these mail solutions, I make decision of the context on each mail. Is it a support email or a collegue email or a mail from my priority mailing list or from a developer for tech problem?

And that's why I'm thankful that AI is not being used in the tons of places that you refer. You will put me in a world where I'm living by someone else's patterns that mine own.

At the risk of generalizing (but reinforcing the patterns thinking), it's a common pattern with Engineers to apply a solution on all kinds of problems without challenging the efficacy of said solutions for those problems.

<comment><USER5> I guess some people think about it differently than others. I don't see a properly applied ML as taking away control - I see it as _reinforcing_ your control. ML as applied to UIs should be about your conversation with the app (and nothing else, no cloud bullshit please).

I haven't seen _any_ actual adaptivity in Inbox by Google. The interface is static, it's just different than ordinary GMail. Is there something I've missed?

To address your example of sorting apps. This is a dumb idea mostly because - as you said - it interferes with habit-forming. Not that anyone cares these days, I can't find many examples where people would remember to _not_ rearrange stuff like context menus pointlessly. But I think it could work as an _addition_. Instead of resorting your icons, just have a (small) area with, say, 5 apps most relevant contextually. This is something I'd actually pay to use. Hell, long long time ago I backed a project for an Android tablet homescreen that was supposed to rearrange visible widgets depending on your location and time of day. Great idea, but they fucked up execution (honestly, for such a project MVP is _not_ enough, it gains utility per feature added in a superlinear fashion). I'd pay for something like this _again_.

> _At the risk of generalizing (but reinforcing the patterns thinking), it 's > a common pattern with Engineers to apply a solution on all kinds of problems > without challenging the efficacy of said solutions for those problems._

Hey, I'm not asking for a product like this to be built for general population. GenPop has plenty of flashy shiny apps already. I wish that someone would build a tool for a subset of engineers who think the way I do. The market is big enough to facilitate that. And apparently unwilling to cater for niches.

<comment><USER6> > I haven't seen any actual adaptivity in Inbox by Google. The interface is > static, it's just different than ordinary GMail. Is there something I've > missed?

If you turn on smart filters, it'll try to club promotions / payments / forums etc. smartly. It'd be right 90% time. But my threshold would be less than 1% failure.

If you open an email in Inbox, it'd recommend quick action replies like "Thanks, got it." or "Lets meet" etc.. It was on spot a lot of times, but I always wanted to add something more to the message and that's why I didn't use them.

> This is something I'd actually pay to use. Hell, long long time ago I backed > a project for an Android tablet homescreen that was supposed to rearrange > visible widgets depending on your location and time of day

I used One Plus2 briefly which had an area for smart apps. Since I could never predict what would be there, I never used it. I went there a few times to see if it would shorten time to action.

iOS has a recommended app at bottom left of lock screen. I use it purely as discovery. I've never found acceptable hit ratio of recommended app in my situational context and now I've blindness to that particular place.

If Knowmail guys are reading this, I'm not trying to discourage the product. I think Smartness should be in "Search mode" and not "Action mode". Action mode is when I want quick decision making and less evaluation. Search mode is when I'm open for back to back snap evaluations and unsure of next steps. i.e. don't interrupt my natural patterns. Ofcourse, I'm just one data point.

<comment><USER7> > iOS has a recommended app at bottom left of lock screen. I use it purely as > discovery. I've never found acceptable hit ratio of recommended app in my > situational context and now I've blindness to that particular place.

Are you sure this is what you think it is? For me that app is always just an iCloud continuity app from my Macbook - like Safari or something.

I do have Siri app suggestions on the spotlight screen, those are typically useless.

<comment><USER6> [http://blog.estimote.com/post/97824495825/ios-8-pushes- locat...](http://blog.estimote.com/post/97824495825/ios-8-pushes-location- context-to-a-new-level-lock)

It's context cum geofencing. I might be mistaken though.

<comment><USER7> You're right - looks like the same space is used for continuity/handoff and for the suggested apps - I've never actually noticed a suggested app like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is a much needed and welcome addition to enterprise / corporate users who must use Outlook (I assume this is an outlook extension, right?)

Seeing so many Microsoft people on the board is encouraging as well.

I wish there were more startups focusing on enterprise users.

How are you planning to survive the long and costly sale cycles to enterprises?

Are you planning also to have a gmail / other clients included?

</comment><comment><USER9> Wow does that UI ever look cluttered and claustrophobic. Doesn't seem like they want anyone to actually read their email.

<comment><USER10> Looks like outlook (which it is) with a small window size.

[http://i.nextmedia.com.au/Features/Outlook-2013-Mail-.jpg](http://i.nextmedia.com.au/Features/Outlook-2013-Mail-.jpg)

<comment><AUTHOR> Its UI is like Outlook as it works on top of Outlook, keeping employees communicating by email same as they regularly are.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Why post this when you can't even try it. What is the point?

</comment><comment><USER12> Been seeing a growing number of AI/Machine Learning for email entrants. The outlook plugin looks like a feature that I've not seen with similar apps.

Another app that I've played around with recently is BrainBlox[0].

[0] [http://www.brainbloxapp.com/](http://www.brainbloxapp.com/)

</comment><comment><USER13> the site provides so little details on the implementation, is it cloud hosted, exchange plugin, ?

<comment><USER14> it's cloud based as they note SaaS: Conducts the "heavy lifting" algorithmic analysis of the anonymized information and generates an updated mathematical model for the client.

<comment><USER15> ...and there goes the whole German market out of the window.

<comment><AUTHOR> Knowmail supports localization per demand

<comment><USER3> They mean that Germans are privacy-sensitive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> How is this different from SaneBox.com ?

<comment><USER10> Different branding, different algorithm, has an outlook plugin, has a summary function and different filters.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is also automated filtering and prioritization, as well as its aimed for corporate with individuals receiving hundreds of daily emails, thus cannot filter them semi-manually.

Furthermore, there are next-best-action features, as to save time, keep organized and reduce noise...to move to appropriate folder automatically, clean an email until a later (more appropriate time), mute yourself from a conversation until named, etc.</comment></comment></comment>


How Would You Do This In Your Programming Language? - <AUTHOR> http://statspotting.com/2013/01/not-using-r-here-is-a-simple-challenge-for-you/

<comment><USER2> Unless I am missing the point JavaScript array.map(function) would cover it... Close equivalent available for any enumerable vector in C# - even VB can manage it with a slightly more verbose syntax...

</comment><comment><USER3> In python:

        from numpy import *
        z = array([5,2,-3,8])
        where(z*z > 8)</comment>


Twitter's Turbulence Explained - <AUTHOR> http://blog.twitter.com/2012/06/todays-turbulence-explained.html?m=1

<comment><USER2> That explained nothing.

<comment><USER3> I voted this up before reading it assuming the title was correct. How stupid of me.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How did Netflix beat Hulu? - <AUTHOR> Is anyone familiar with how Netflix achieved such dominance in the streaming space? Not long ago, the  field seemed wide open, but nowadays it appears everyone is trying desperately to catch them. What specific moves did Netflix make to achieve the position they are now in? <comment><USER2> I don't necessarily think Netflix beat Hulu. I for one have a subscription to both services, and both fill different wants. I look to Netflix more for custom content and movies. I look to Hulu for access to shows. To me they are two completely different services offering different solutions, while having some overlap. Hulu, IMO, does a better job of delivering a "cable replacement" for shows, while Netflix is able to replace the on-demand and premium movie channels. As for quality of service, I can't notice a difference in terms of streaming.

Netflix is innovative and were able to do it while simultaneously shifting business models. They are open about their technology platform and how they build their infrastructure, and the tools they use. I think this alone attracts good talent. They appear to have a "if you can build it better" approach and give engineers some freedom when it comes to developing new features and tools, whether they are internal or external. They also involve the community in contests to improve their algorithm. To me they appear to always be innovating, not willing to accept what currently exists and striving for better.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think they look carefully at what customers want and then do whatever it takes to give it to them.

When Hulu came out, they were a serious threat because all the quality content was on Hulu. As a joint venture between the major studios, they had all the TV shows that people actually enjoyed watching, while Netflix had only the dregs they were willing to license to them.

So Netflix figured "Well, if the most important thing customers value is access to quality content, what can we do to become their primary point of access to quality content?" And so they went out and sponsored a bunch of Netflix Original Series, shows that actually get people talking about stuff that's only available on Netflix. They had a couple big early hits with House of Cards and OitNB, both of which (in retrospect) look like they were tailor made to get high word-of-mouth promotion.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think that Netflix is rocking it with their original ad-free content more than anything. The movie catalog? It's awful most of the time. I don't care for most of the documentaries, C-rated "mock busters," and direct to video flicks. But the original shows? Awesome.

We use Hulu for more current stuff and more recently, their movie offerings. I have a weird job schedule and being able to binge watch on my iPad during downtime is fantastic. The price is decent too. I also have an HBO Now subscription and I like some their original shows besides Game of Thrones. It's a little more pricy, so just out of principle I find myself checking there first when I want to see a movie.

</comment><comment><USER5> No commercials. Commercials have roughly the same appeal as diarrhoea.</comment>


A NewYork minute wouldn't have sufficed to get you a WWDC MMXIII ticket - <AUTHOR>

WWDC MMXIII sold out in under 2 minutes. Are conferences reserved for dexterous humans only? <comment><USER2> It was more like server error roulette. If you happen to not get a server error in the first two minutes you probably got a ticket.</comment>


How to reduce your phone's addiction potential in 5 minutes - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@ngoeke/how-to-escape-your-phones-toxic-grasp-in-the-next-5-minutes-507bf908c122 <comment><USER2> 15 second summary of 5 minute article:

\- Keep your phone on silent at all times

\- Disable vibrations when on silent

\- Remove notifications from your home screen</comment>


Ask HN: First time working remote, what do I need to know? - <AUTHOR> I'll be the second remote worker I think. I've worked there before in person a bit, so I know everyone and I'm excited to go back! I'm curious to see if I'll face any new challenges while remote.<p>Do you guys have any tips for how to manage myself well? Are there any good tools you've found success with? Anything you wish someone would have told you earlier? Thanks! <comment><USER2> I worked remotely for 20 years, as developer, team lead and manager.

The number one advice - communicate. It's better to overcommunicate than undercommunicate. A mediocre developer beats a genius if the mediocre one communicates and genius gets his task and goes under water for weeks and then suddenly delivers the masterpiece. I've seen so many such masterpieces not needed anymore after weeks of silence. If you ever question yourself: "should I comment on this JIRA ticket before I complete it, or not?", don't hesitate, comment. Don't even think about it. If miracle will happen and you'll actually overcommunicate - they will tell you.

Number two: if you have a family, establish a comfortable working environment, define comfortable working hours and "go to the office". You're away, you can't "hey, could you please pick up some groceries, if you're at home anyway?". You're not at home, you're at work. It's hard for family, could be hard for you too. Especially if you have small children, your wife is very tired dealing with them, it would be very tempting for her to go out with girls while you babysit. The next thing which will happen is your production goes down, you're called to the meeting with all the brass, your ass is on fire, because it seems your commit caused the outage, you spend 3 hours on webex and phone and computer, your baby shits her pants couple of times, paints the whole room with shit, and then sits in the middle of this horrible mess crying because you forgot to feed her on schedule. And you do not hear her, because you're in the headphones where 20 people talk at once. (true story, btw).

<comment><USER3> I get your point on number two - but you know, people who work in offices sometimes have to run errands and help with child care.

<comment><USER4> And clean up other people's shit

(figuratively, usually)

<comment><USER2> adult shit. weapon grade, so to say.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I know some folks have worked well with different opinions but this is what works for me:

1) you need a designated distraction-free room 2) always dress as if you were heading into the office 3) respect the time you are working for your employer, 9AM I have coffee and I'm logging in, 5PM and I'm walking away from the desk 4) sometimes you have to over-communicate to get through the technology barriers 5) pull in as much technology as you need, Google Docs, join.me, Google Hangouts, Skype, Slack, whatever 6) for video-conference, position the window of the people your talking to right next to your camera for that sense you are looking them in the eye 7) as engineers you want to get off voice or video as soon as possible, get over that, embrace it 8) be honest with your team and boss when you need to be away from your desk, hard to gain trust, easy to lose trust 9) try to get on-site regularly, make the most of these trips to re-connect 10) take advantage of the time you get back by working out, spending time with family, preparing good meals

</comment><comment><USER6> I worked remotely for 3 years, and found it way more productive and efficient for my overall work and family life than being onsite. A few thoughts:

\- setup a productive working space and use it most of the time. This means a quiet, distraction free zone, with a very good chair/desk. If you're going to spend long hours at the keyboard don't let it take a toll on your body. If your company won't pay for an ergonomic setup (can cost a couple grand), consider making the investment for yourself. Consider a desk that can be easily raised to a standing desk. Long hours sitting in the same position can be killer.

\- find out what the typical working hours are for the colleagues you'll be collaborating with the most and try to maximize your overlap with them. If you're in very different time zones, consider working some odd hours to get more overlap.

\- be wary of being "out of sight, out of mind". There may be a danger that others in your organization don't fully appreciate your contributions, simply because they don't see you around everyday. Those you work with directly should have a good appreciation of your value, but consider taking some additional steps to raise your profile: a) volunteer for or request higher- profile tasks that get more visibility outside your immediate group. b) if possible make trips to be onsite, even if there isn't too much of a need for face-to-face collaboration.

Hopefully since you're not the only remote person that means there will be more of an acceptance and culture that is supportive of remote colleagues.

</comment><comment><USER7> I worked from home off and on for around 7 years (with sporadic office visits).

The hardest part is making sure you keep focused on work during work hours. I found myself often going stir crazy and ended up spending lots of time in coffee shops/mcdonald's/panera/library/whatever in order to just have human contact.

I remember after a 3 month stint working virtually alone I found myself going to the grocery store to buy something I didn't need just so I could interact with the cashiers.

What I found helps is to schedule a place you'll be (like a coffee shop) and what you'll be doing there and for how long (usually a couple of hours) and stick to that schedule. Go there, work and leave on schedule. And when you're there interact with every human you can -- don't take the automated checkout kiosk route.

Also, it's easy to end up working outside of normal office hours simply because there's no "break" from work to home. Don't give in to this temptation.

Also, communicate your pants off. Spend more time than is necessary communicating in triplicate on everything, using every means at your disposal. It's very easy for people to dismiss you because you aren't there. By being a constant squeaky wheel in their inboxes/vm-box/etc. you make yourself known and it means that they have to consider you when making decisions. This also means it might be necessary to drop by every so often for surprise and impromptu office visits just so people know you are alive.

</comment><comment><USER8> I wonder if you'll have this experience: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk)

(It's a sketch from a comedy show called That Mitchell and Webb Look.)

I may or may not have...

</comment><comment><USER9> Lots of good advice here about establishing a healthy routine and communicating. I've only been working remotely for a few months, but here are some things I've learned so far:

1\. Assuming you'll be calling in to a lot of meetings, a good pair of headphones with a microphone is invaluable. I have and am very happy with the AKG 551, but there are lots of good options out there.

2\. For calling in to those meetings, I love using Google Voice from the Hangouts app. Using wifi instead of cellular service is the difference between a land-line quality connection and a noisy one that drops out far too frequently. This gives you the added bonus of being able to call in to a US number for free while travelling abroad if that is something you wish to do.

3\. For a while I felt like my employer was doing me such a favor by letting me be remote, that I owed it to them to be glued to the computer in case a chat or email message came in. Taking breaks is important. Personally, I like cooking real meals for breakfast and lunch. I find the 30-40ish minutes it takes to make something tasty are the perfect amount of time to be away from the computer and on my feet.

3a. Being remote isn't a favor and it isn't special treatment. It is simply a different negotiated work arrangment. It has the potential for enormous productivity gains but it also has the potential for less team cohesion. Personally, I think the pros outweigh the cons, but it depends on the team.

4\. Not being in an office environment means you can pace and think aloud without annoying anyone. When I'm not actively reading or typing something, I try to walk around as much as possible.

Good luck!

<comment><USER10> Hah, I can't use VoIP when working remotely due to echo and latency. I really recommend upgrading your home internet connection to some kind of business plan - at least for the SLA and tech support advantages.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Know when to stop. When I started remote I worked the whole day without realizing it. Started to hate it.

It is easy to fall into this trap. In the office when it is time to go, the place will be empty. At home, you don't know when is time to go home :-(.

</comment><comment><USER12> 1) Ensure the company is ready for remote workers

\- Do they have clear processes, decision paths, goals and minimize communications.

Communication is expensive in distributed teams - you want as little of it - clear processes help here. When communication is needed async is your friend

2) Make sure the company respects your time(-difference).

If the time difference is several hours you might need to keep several evenings blocked for meetings. Make sure that those are arranged in planned manner and not on the spot and heretic.

3) Work from an office / coworking space

Personally i prefer offices because there are less distractions. I would not recommend working from home

4) Communicate very clear and very explicit

See title.

Hope that helps

Working remote - if the company is right - is awesome. Have fun!

</comment><comment><USER13> Two major things that help:

1\. Keep a routine (wake up on time, shower, eat breakfast, dress in work clothes, start on time, eat lunch, finish on time)

2\. Communicate well with your manager and peers

<comment><USER14> I agree with everything on your list except "dress in work clothes". I actually did that for the first few weeks, but eventually it became lounge pants, and in the summer it became boxer shorts (t-shirt optional). It was nice at the beginning to remind me I was still expected to get work done, but honestly one of the biggest perks of working from home for me was not having to dress up. My office had been five minutes from home, my boss didn't check in on me ever, I was home for lunch every day and home on time every night. The big perk was working in my underwear.

Although the big downside to that is, it takes a lot of willpower to leave the house during the day because I have to get dressed to go out and get the mail.

<comment><USER10> I can attest to the "dress in work clothes" part helping with the routine. You don't have to be in a suit and tie, but putting on a polo shirt does help with deliniating work time and personal time

Also, going for a walk during breaks is great, because you're probably going to be getting less exercise otherwise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Let's not forget that your _team_ needs to manage itself differently for the remote worker to be a success. Here's stuff that we (Sauce Labs Mobile Team) have found to work:

\- Slack everything all the time _even if you are in the same room_. If you're not using Slack get on it; it's by far the best tool for remotes. If you have a discussion in person, copy the conclusions to the channel.

\- Use video hangouts for meetings whenever possible.

\- During such meetings, everyone must be "equal" in how they are present. Our solution is to have everyone log into the meeting _at their own desk_. (Audio and video will be delayed by a second, so you all need headphones for this to work.) So everyone appears as a talking head, equally taking turns. Another solution might be to do videoconferencing in a meeting room with a very large screen, so all the remote workers appear to be as present as people in the room.

\- Make sure that team members socialize with the remote worker. We have semi- randomly-assigned sessions we call "coffee" where you both get a beverage and just hang out for an hour on a video chat. I know it sounds silly but it has a HUGE benefit.

<comment><USER16> A coffee session is a great idea. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> i've been working mostly remotely for about 10 years... interning, managing remote teams, freelance, full time etc. i'm not sure i'll ever have it figured out, i'll be looking for advice here too...

working remotely, the biggest risk is loss of information.

1\. communication is key

2\. consistency using project management and communication systems is also key (basecamp, email, meetings, whatever your team chooses). i'm talking about advanced consistency. fix these systems if they're not working.

these may sound cliche, but they have been the most defining factors for failure/success in my experience.

<comment><USER18> Point number 2 applies equally-well to a non-remote position. Incorrect (or lack of) use of management/communication tools can be a very big productivity loss for an entire team.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I am manager to a coworker who is remote. It's been said in this thread a few times but I would re-iterate:

\- Have a routine, this way your manager doesn't have to guess when you're around. I know not to ping him before 9am, unless it's an emergency.

\- If something comes up or your day is going to be different, it's fine -- just communicate it.

\- Over-communicate. Share ideas, questions, comment on things, participate in the teams chat channel.

\- Feel free to suggest voice chat for tough problems. Usually find quickly chatting about it that way leads to a more refined solution in due time.

<comment><USER20> If you wind up voice chatting about it, stick it in your text chat with a full summary. You can't CTRL-F a conversation. One of the keys to success as a remote worker is being able to figure out as much as possible w/out requiring other people to respond, because undoubtedly they will not when you really need them. The best way to do that is knowing where to search for the information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Cowork! I'd go nuts if I were just sitting alone in my apartment all day, and bouncing around coffee shops isn't really my thing.

I'm in Denver and happy to make specific recommendations (I'm not officially affiliated anywhere but am a happy renter of a reserved desk); otherwise, check out [http://www.deskmag.com/](http://www.deskmag.com/), Impact Hub, or if you're in SF, NYC, or Boston, throw a rock and check out whatever place you hit first (there's TONS of options).

<comment><USER22> Agreed, 100%. Any shared space takes care of so many challenges that come with remote work: socializing, a unique non-relaxation oriented place to "be on", as well as the expectation to be seen. Depending on your personality, it can be super easy to disappear and fall into work avoidance rather than proactiveness when there's no face time/expectation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> If you start getting concerns about or a vibe about "are they working"?, and you have an internal IM system or other designated IM system, try staying signed in and visible. (Although... this can impact productivity depending upon your culture and how much people feel free to ping you for every detail.)

Seeing you "green" or whatever can cut off or ameliorate nascent resentment. Particularly when people occasionally see you green in the evening or off- hours.

Hopefully, that's not a component in your particular culture, though.

I wasn't remote, but half my team was. I didn't care about such things as who's doing what when and how much and "putting in the (excessive) hours". Nonetheless, IM was a nice avenue for feeling a bit of social contact without serious distraction or interruption. Some of us with similar or at least compatible personalities would even share offhand quips occasionally throughout the day. We were busy, so this wasn't a major distraction, but it left the feeling of a bit of "presence" and ongoing, daily community. (I.e. like having someone "over the wall" to make a comment to, but without having to tune out all their other noise that didn't involve you (cube meetings -- shudder!))

</comment><comment><USER24> (worked remotely in the past and now manage a few remote workers at my startup) To add to the other great suggestions, keep in mind that the company might have more to learn than you do. Be sure to communicate...but also expect that the rest of the team will communicate as well, and speak up when this isn't the case (i.e. it's not just _your_ responsibility to communicate).

</comment><comment><USER25> Make sure you learn to organize your time well. Do not get distracted. Make your environment as close to an office environment as possible. Take any breaks that you would normally take in an office environment. Also, keep great communication between you and your team. You can use slack/hipchat for communication.

</comment><comment><USER26> I wrote some thoughts about it, after doing it for a two year stint: [http://jeremyraines.com/2014/01/18/remote- retrospective.html](http://jeremyraines.com/2014/01/18/remote- retrospective.html)

</comment><comment><USER27> The most important thing is to be self-aware and vigilant. Every person will find their own tricks and techniques to making it work, and you certainly have a large collection of comments here to get you going.

But ultimately, you are your own person, in your own role, in your own organization, with your own culture. Try things, have honest evaluations of what works and what does not, and figure out your own best practices.

My company has no office - we all work remotely, no matter what our role is. We have a few tools we use for communication, but everybody does it differently, and every new hire takes a while to find their own rhythm. Give yourself that time, and treat the process of finding what works for you as an important part of your job.

</comment><comment><USER28> Don't be afraid to change up the environment every now and then. Routines are great, but sometimes they get quite monotonous. I sometimes found it nice to go work out of a coffeeshop for a few hours of the day to get a change of environment.

</comment><comment><USER29> The hard part is communication. I feel I am very good at online communication. Most people are not.

Make sure you have a remote-oriented process using Slack or a chat-room with history, and people pay attention to and actually read/respond github issues etc.

Phone/Skype call often (daily) is much higher bandwidth and unless they are very pro at text chatting may be 100% necessary to do on a daily basis. And in those cases make sure everyone necessary is in the call.

Another thing you could try is a virtual reality workplace built on Second Life or something similar. Or a Teamspeak/Mumble type thing at least for a portion of the day that everyone gets on at that time.

</comment><comment><USER30> I ended up hating it. I would quit a job before doing it again. Some hints, most of which I arrived at the hard way.

1\. Set some limits - have work hours, and if you can "go to work" even if that's just going into the office or other room.

Outside those hours _don 't_ be tempted to just go fix that thing when you have a flash of inspiration. Make a note, forget it until tomorrow.

2\. If possible meet regularly with people in the business / team. It's very easy to end up feeling isolated and out of the loop. skype or hangouts don't cut it.

3\. Make more time in your life for people and actual IRL time with them.

</comment><comment><USER31> I've spent the last two years working remotely. Everything that's been said here is great. I'd especially +1 the comments advising to keep up a daily routine (shower, get dressed, etc); there were days I forgot to brush my teeth because it was so easy to sit down, start coding...8 hours later and you get it.

Also, make sure you deduct the working space. Whether its in your own residence or pay for something like a co-working space, it's tax-deductible.

</comment><comment><USER32> I wrote about this a couple of years ago on my blog and it's still relevant. Rather than re-post it here, have a look if you don't mind. You won't even need an ad blocker, and this is not blog spam. [http://www.tidbitsfortechs.com/2013/08/experiences-and- reali...](http://www.tidbitsfortechs.com/2013/08/experiences-and-realities-of- a-work-from-home-it-worker/)

</comment><comment><USER33> 1) Say no to multitasking 2) Morning ritual 3) Don't work all the time 4) Eliminate distractions

Key points taken from [https://techblog.livingsocial.com/blog/2014/04/02/working- fr...](https://techblog.livingsocial.com/blog/2014/04/02/working-from-home- heres-an-extra-shot-of-focus/)

</comment><comment><USER34> I just wrote an article about my first year of working remotely, you can read it here: [http://danmunro.com/blog/2015/09/17/working- remotely/](http://danmunro.com/blog/2015/09/17/working-remotely/). There's a lot of good advice in the comments here too.

</comment><comment><USER35> A general point for someone physically in a different location to their boss: Make sure to give a weekly status update not just on 'work' but on all of the other things, small side projects, etc.

It's so easy to assume someone knows what you're doing, then to get hit by finding out they don't. Give yourself exposure in HQ if you're not in HQ.

</comment><comment><USER36> get some standing lunch "dates" with friends. Helps to get you out of the house and keep up relationships. If you're single and not that social by nature its easy to get into hermit mode.

If you are social, prepare for dining out budget to increase. I found when I did it by the time I was closing down the laptop more often than not I was ready to get out of the house and have dinner out with wife. It added up doing that 3-4 weeknights.

Core hours are everyones friends. Have at least a handful of hours that overlap with everyone on your team.

Some people like the set boundaries, I actually found I liked the opposite. Granted I didn't have a kid yet, but I like always working and always not working. Long lunch or afternoon movie was fine, I'd be working late that night. Visit family/friends for a few days no problem I have internet. I enjoyed the flow and flux of it, and I did good work and great life during it. But know yourself.

</comment><comment><USER37> My teammates wrote a guide to remote work that might be useful, lots of gems: [https://zapier.com/learn/the-ultimate-guide-to-remote- workin...](https://zapier.com/learn/the-ultimate-guide-to-remote-working/)

</comment><comment><USER38> Some really good thoughts on this, here they are: [http://staxmanade.com/2014/12/thoughts-on-working- remotely-f...](http://staxmanade.com/2014/12/thoughts-on-working-remotely- from-home/)

</comment><comment><USER39> Communication is key. Follow up every real-time conversation in email. Log everything in an issue tracker, link it with version control, comments, comments, comments.

Keep a well-organized note-taking and to-do list system.

Take a well-deserved break somewhere quiet. Take a walk.

</comment><comment><USER40> I've worked from home since I was 16 years old.. find your most productive hours during the day and join a co-working shared space in your City.

</comment><comment><USER41> I've been working remotely for The last 10 years. Today, pain is everywhere. My tip is: exercise regularly, many times during the day.

</comment><comment><USER42> It's really easy to get into a habit of working all the time. Set yourself boundaries and stick to them.

</comment><comment><USER43> Routine and self-control and the biggest things.

Set aside certain hours that are going to be working hours. Wake up at the same time, start at the same time, eat at the same time, finish at the same time, etc. If you have the space, I've found it helpful to set aside a space, however small, specifically for working. I never work on the couch, for instance; I always sit at my desk. Try to find a routine that works for you and stick to it as best as possible each day. It's very easy to slip because no one is there to tell you not to except yourself.

Sometimes a change of scenery is nice, so you can go someplace else. Many people like coffee shops, though I'd rather go to the park and sit at a picnic table. Coffee shops are too noisy and the wifi is usually nearly useless. Better to just go sit in a park, tether up, and enjoy the sunshine and peace.

Equally as important as routine is self control. It's very easy to say "I'll just fix one more bug," and suddenly it's 9pm and you've been working for 13 hours. Sometimes things happen, stuff breaks and you need to roll with that, but on normal days learn to prioritize what needs to be fixed now vs. what can wait until tomorrow. And when you log out, be done for the day. Go and enjoy life and resist that temptation to log in later that night and fix "one more thing." :)

Take breaks. Take a walk around the block. Go out to grab a sandwich. Again, it's easy to get sucked in when you don't have normal workplace distractions. But sometimes those distractions are useful. Yeah, it sucks when someone interrupts you at your desk, but how often do you then decide it's a good time for a bathroom break, or to grab a soda or snack or something? Make those things happen at home. I find a variation on pomodoro[0] to be a benefit here.

After work, go do something else. If possible, go out, even if it's just to the store. Get outside and get some fresh air.

Do you have family? If you do here are a couple of additional points:

Be sure you don't neglect your family duties. This seems counter-intuitive (because you're at home, right!) but I've seen several friends relationships suffer after they started working from home (and it's usually related to the self-control issues above - they can't stop when it's time to switch into family mode). Be sure your family is on board with you working from home and know what to expect.

But on the other hand, if your family is at home while you are home, be sure they realize that you are working and that they should _try_ not to disturb you and give you space to work. I work with a wife and 3 year old in the house and, while distractions do happen, they're both pretty good about allowing me space and quiet to get things done. I have the fortune of having a separate space to work and, while my door is usually open for them to come and go, they know that if I've closed the door that means I'm trying to focus on something and to try not to disturb me.

Oh yeah. And keep up with your personal hygiene. There is a level of truth to this Oatmeal comic [1]. :)

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

[1] [http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home)</comment>


Show HN:Best Thank You ECard for iPhone – Say Thank You with a Picture - <AUTHOR> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/thank-you-cards-maker-photo/id921205186?ls=1&mt=8

<comment><USER2> Missing [Show HN:] prefix.</comment>


The Theresa Duncan CD-ROMs (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://archive.rhizome.org/theresa-duncan-cdroms/#section-1 <comment><USER2> Deep background on double love suicide of artist couple Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake that rocked the nyc art world in mid-noughties:

The Golden Suicides by Nancy Jo Sales

[https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/01/suicides200801](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/01/suicides200801)

Thanks for posting. Rhizome is doing a great job of archive early net art ;)</comment>


Sugar doesn't cause hyperactivity in children - <AUTHOR> http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/11/sugar-doesnt-cause-hyperactivity.html

<comment><USER2> One way to check if there is in fact some truth to a bit of folk wisdom / superstition is to see how universal it is.

I was born in Russia, and have never heard about the sugar+hyperactivity thing before moving to Canada. At the same time, nearly everyone back in Russia is _sure_ that going out lightly dressed in cold weather will make one sick, and this seems to be news to Canadians.

<comment><USER3> Living in Germany I have the same impression. This myth seems to be restricted to North America or English speaking countries.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Classic case of correlation not causing causation. I don't think anyone's particularly surprised when they see large gaggles of children being given a large quantity of sugary foodstuff and behaving in a very animated manner.

But what's the context where that happens? Parties, mostly.

</comment><comment><USER5> It is a copy of the (linked) article at [http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/sugar-and- candy-...](http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/sugar-and-candy-do-not- make-kids-hyper/)</comment>


Tabs vs. Spaces, the Pointless War. And My Solution - <AUTHOR> http://joshondesign.com/2014/09/02/bar

<comment><USER2> Author somehow manages to introduce a third, _worse_ , option in the tabs vs. spaces debate. I'm too impressed and bewildered to even be angry.</comment>


NASA Insight is on Mars - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/NASAInSight/status/1067144560139063296 <comment><USER2> First image: [https://hs.mediadelivery.fi/img/1920/a1e5c757a5b742e0be57a59...](https://hs.mediadelivery.fi/img/1920/a1e5c757a5b742e0be57a59f4450f3b8.jpg.webp)

<comment><USER3> Is that TCL/Tk pretending to be Motif?

<comment><USER4> Actually, it is an X/Motif program, by Bob Deen in 1994 (according to [https://www-mipl.jpl.nasa.gov/vicar_os/v1.0/vicar-docs/VICAR...](https://www- mipl.jpl.nasa.gov/vicar_os/v1.0/vicar-docs/VICAR_guide_1.0.pdf)), and remains in use.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Here is the first image from the lander. [https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/22159/insights-first- image-f...](https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/22159/insights-first-image-from- mars/?site=insight)</comment>


HELIX-RC: Automatically parallelizing complex code with a hand from hardware - <AUTHOR> http://blog.skanev.org/2014/06/helix-rc-automatically-parallelizing.html

<comment><USER2> wow, so when can I buy a mobile phone with this optimisation in hardware and software? This means that more slower low energy cores can start to compete with the current phones.</comment>