Julian Assange: Google Working Closely with Hillary Clinton's Campaign - <AUTHOR> http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/google-working-closely-with-hillary-clinton-presidential-campaign-julian-assange-34780998.html <comment><USER2> I would agree. It seems Google Now has been pushing election updates for the last few months... The first few I received would only show Democrat results, though I never chose any party... Just got one today (or so), but it was more "balanced".

Let's not forget "Schmidt was an informal advisor and major donor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, and began campaigning the week of October 19, 2008, on behalf of the candidate." [2]

I'm sure some people internal [to Google] know more about this, but from my understanding there was a push to use internal technologies (ads/etc) as a force for campaigning...

1 [http://www.androidcentral.com/google-search-will-keep-you- da...](http://www.androidcentral.com/google-search-will-keep-you-date-latest- election-results)

2 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt)

</comment><comment><USER3> Could it be rational for for Schmidt as Alphabet's head?

I am for some reason under the impression that Dems are more favorable for the tech sector, since they're relatively more lax on security, and that the American right tends do be somewhat anti-tech to please the older demographic (examplary anecdata is that /r/the_Donald have a serious beef with Google and Facebook)

It's very possible that the causality is reversed and the right is reacting to a tech's Democratic bias.

I wonder if this is somewhat based in reality or just my wrong hunch.</comment>


Slot machine maker IGT buys social game dev for $500M - <AUTHOR> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/39632/Slot_machine_maker_IGT_buys_social_game_dev_for_500M_.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29

<comment><USER2> This isn't anything new and it's disturbing. I wrote an article about Caesars Entertainment (who own Playtika) and how they are coaching children on how to gamble. They own the #1 grossing app on the App Store. Apple is complicit in this because they rate the "simulated gambling" apps as suitable for children aged 12 and up.

[http://www.appcolumn.com/games/slotomania-brings-the- casino-...](http://www.appcolumn.com/games/slotomania-brings-the-casino-into- your-home-and-hands-of-children)

<comment><USER3> "and how they are coaching children on how to gamble"

Gambling is all around us.

When you market your product, you are putting money out there in the hopes that you will make more than you invested. If you are smart about it, it has better odds than Vegas, but it's still a gamble.

When I was a kid, I used to play a game called "Vegas Dream" for the NES. It had blackjack, poker, and slots. If anything, it showed me how easy it was to lose all of my money in a short amount of time (without actually losing any real money). I rarely ever gamble now..except in calculated risks (such as advertising and marketing).

Even if you banned all of these types of apps today, there are 100 more with gambling-like properties.

I would rather have my kid learn about the painful reality of gambling early on.

<comment><USER2> and what happens to the children that don't learn that lesson because they don't understand the implications of gambling addiction?

It's not fair to compare a NES game to one which has been designed with gambling psychology at it's core - one that surpasses even the slot machines available to adults.

I guarantee you didn't need to delay gratification for 4 hours while waiting for additional coins. Nor did you have the option to spend real dollars (with zero chance of winning; now the house has 100% chance to win! you know they're loving that!) to get that gratification in an instant instead.

Would you rather your son or daughter be coked up in order to learn about the perils of drug use or is that different and something that makes sense to teach through observation?

I have no issue with these games being made to available to adults and I'd even support real money wagering but Apple need to reclassify these games as adult only and not as a "card game" which is "suitable for ages 12 and up".

<comment><USER3> "It's not fair to compare a NES game to one which has been designed with gambling psychology at it's core - one that surpasses even the slot machines available to adults."

"Vegas dream" had black jack and poker and all the rest of the games you would find at a casino. How is it any different?

"Nor did you have the option to spend real dollars"

How is a 12 year old going to spend real dollars? Where are the parents?

"Would you rather your son or daughter be coked up in order to learn about the perils of drug use or is that different and something that makes sense to teach through observation?"

It's different. Cocaine is physically addictive and can have real health effects. Something I don't ever want my kids touching.

Gambling is all about being able to manage risk..something you do almost every day. You can't ever be successful without some form of gambling. If you teach kids early, they will be able to recognize it and it will beneficial to their future.

Would you just put your kid in front of an iPhone and not watch them? We don't have enough responsible parents in this world. Too many parents use the iPhone (or computer or gaming system) as a baby sitting device or are too busy to actually parent them.

<comment><USER2> I don't have any data but I think it's safe to assume that people with gambling addiction problems are prone to play slots/pokies instead of black jack & poker (as in traditional poker while ignoring online poker).

We both accept parents have a responsibility to monitor their children's activities online but in reality, it doesn't always happen.

I can't place the blame solely on parents either when Apple guidelines state these games are suitable for ages 12 and up. You could almost forgive parents for taking Apple guidelines at face value.

The cocaine example isn't that different considering compulsive gamblers also have a disease. My point was that children don't need to experience something personally to learn it's a bad thing.

For you, gambling is about managing risk. For me, it's the occasional flutter for a bit of fun. Winning, fun etc has nothing to do with it for a compulsive gambler.

I don't have kids but when my girlfriend and I start a family, I'll do my best to prevent them from playing games such as this nor will I allow them to use these devices until much older when they won't require 24/7 supervision and some trust is established.

You're right that we don't have enough responsible parents in the world and if they want to gamble, it's their right to make such a decision. What I take issue with is companies such as Caesar's Entertainment taking advantage of this lack of parental supervision to line their coffers.

With Apple facilitating and taking a 30% cut of the earnings, they're complicit in such shenanigans.

<comment><USER2> I just wanted to add that there is a common ground solution here that doesn't involve removing such apps from the App Store while at the same time will minimise the harm done to children.

In a real casino, children are not allowed to play slots/pokies nor are they allowed in the vicinity of them. The fact parents are not even allowed to bring along their children while they play is an obvious sign that exposure to these machines do children harm whether they actively play or simply watch.

It seems to me it makes common sense for Apple to create an adult section in the App Store that requires a secondary password to access. That would at least prevent some children (who's parents don't monitor what they do) from accessing this type of material. There is little you can do and there are bigger issues at play for the children of parents who are allowed to access adult content after such features are in place but it would assist in protecting the majority IMO.

Of course, common sense approaches rarely work because people on the fringe of either side will either want gambling apps banned for adults as well or think it's the sole responsibility of the parents and therefore no changes should be made.

I don't know anyone that would classify slots as a "card game" and "suitable for ages 12 and up" so why is it acceptable for Apple to do this? The fact you can't win money doesn't change anything; players rarely have an edge in real casino games anyway. It's fucking worse than children playing slots in a real casino as far as I'm concerned.

Why does it always fall to those who stand to make no financial benefit either way to call for these changes to be made while Apple/Playtika/Caesars can take a fuck it approach until they are forced to change by which time large profits have been made and the damage done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The link is dead.

By the way I've heard other slot techs (I'm a slot tech) say IGT asks new employees if they have any ideas and will buy their idea off them.

IGT created SAS (slot accounting system) protocol which a lot of casinos use.

<comment><USER5> > The link is dead.

Works for me.

<comment><USER4> The requested URL /view/news/39632/Slot_machine_maker_IGT_buys_social_game_dev_for_500M_.php was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

<comment><USER2> Link works fine for me as well.

<comment><USER4> Weird, it never did for me and still doesn't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This purchase says to me that IGT thinks the US will allow domestic online gambling operations in the near future. Why else would they spend so much money on what appears to be quite a diversion from their current business model?</comment>


The English country house: Partying, hunting, shooting - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21698222-partying-hunting-shooting <comment><USER2> If you found this interesting at all, you have to sample the master of country house humor, PG "Plum" Wodehouse.

(His most famous series being the Jeeves and Wooster books and stories.)

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't understand why this was submitted.

<comment><USER4> How likely do you think it is that a world war will break out?

What do you think people would have said in 1913? What about 1938? (Lest you think this is some rhetorical dogwhistle shit: don't worry. It isn't. Just an open question.)

<comment><USER5> WW1 was truly unexpected-- all of the mutual alliances and it all being caused by a random assassination.

WW2 was more expected.

And, idk, I don't have the benefit of hindsight, but I really doubt a world war in which the US is involved will break out this decade. Like, with who? Nukes & M.A.D. have still changed the equation and made a conventional-weapons world war unreasonable.

<comment><USER6> WW1 was fully expected, what was unexpected was the size and difficulty of it. All involved countries had long-standing beef, but nobody thought they'd really try to settle it at the same time and so cruelly. Treaties and alliances are just pieces of paper (as Molotov-Ribbentropp demonstrated later), what really triggered conflict was a belief that "the time had come" to finally employ all those wonderful toys built up over 30 years of relative peace and technological advance around Europe (a continent routinely ravaged by frequent skirmishes up until then). They all thought they would have been winners in a few months, ended up stuck in trenches with brutal casualties, and conflict snowballed at the fringes.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How brewing anger over K-Cup change finally forced Keurig to surrender - <AUTHOR> http://www.thestar.com/business/2015/05/08/how-brewing-anger-over-k-cup-change-finally-forced-keurig-to-surrender.html

<comment><USER2> What does "battery-operated" have to do with the razor blade model? Distracting.</comment>


Level up your HTML/CSS skills - <AUTHOR> Hey - Just wanted to share a bit of a passion project in case it's useful for anyone here... For the last 3 years, myself and a small team have been working on LiveCanvas  (https://livecanvas.com/): its a new WordPress plugin and live editing platform to craft high quality HTML web pages. Our tool is perfect for people who know HTML already and want a little more power: it lets you quickly build beautiful, responsive web pages without compromising on the generated HTML code quality and site performance. We believe LiveCanvas is the perfect playground to level up your HTML/CSS skills and build better pages. If you fancy giving it a shot, please give our website a look as we are coming up with new updates all the time Cheers everyone <comment><USER2> I have updated my website ([https://webomizer.com/](https://webomizer.com/)) and liked your plugin. please review my site and share your comments. Thank you building such a wonderful plugin.

Robert!</comment>


Rate my startup (TwitterLift.com) - <AUTHOR>

can you guys rate my startup, and or give me some comments. Thnx http://www.TwitterLift.com <comment><USER2> The site looks shady. I didn't dare put my twitter info in. Hasn't this been done already?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> no, i did research to see what was out there in terms of heavy lifting for twitter and there wasnt a product that had the oomph to do it yet.

Like i stated in the premise the goal is not to spam follow but to follow people who you follow are following. that way you are getting the same info that they are in your stream. thanks

</comment><comment><USER3> mass follow your followers' followers = follow spam?</comment>


Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (BEZOS) Act - <AUTHOR> https://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/the-stop-bezos-act-summary?inline=file <comment><USER3> These aren't employer subsidies, and calling them such is a lie. The money doesn't go to the companies.

We have decided that there should be a minimum standard of living for people that live in the US. Paying for that decision falls on all of us, not just the companies that happen to employ those with lower paying jobs.

This is essentially a special tax on companies that happen to have business models that require low skill labor. Why should companies(1) with business models that only require high skill labor get off the hook when it comes to paying their fare share of the bill for our countries social services?

1\. or more correctly those companies stockholders and employees

<comment><USER4> The problem is that we have not legally mandated that the wage that companies in America pay employees must be enough to obtain that minimum standard of living and so companies don't pay it. It's not a special tax on companies that require low skilled labor, it's a tax on companies that don't pay there low skilled labor enough to live on. I'm on the fence to whether this bill is a good idea or a bad one but to be clear this is more than just let's hit big companies in the pocket. Compare Amazon vs Costco for instance. Both require low skilled workers but Amazon, a company with a trillion dollar market cap, pays it's employees relatively peanuts for how much the company itself makes whereas Costco pays it employees so well, and provides enough perks that it is regularly cited as one of the best places to work. That's the difference here.

<comment><USER5> I'd rather think about this in the context of healthcare. It would be nice if we had healthcare for all, because it would make hiring people easier, and people could have healthcare even if they aren't employed. This Stop BEZOS Act is like mandating that employers provide healthcare. Why not give healthcare to everyone and avoid the implementation cost for every businesses?

<comment><USER6> This is an interesting point - if we passed Medicare for All tomorrow, what would that mean in the context of this act?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> My first thought was that since the welfare benefits to the employee are tax free this becomes a (marginally) more effective way to "pay" your low-wage employees.

But the marginal tax rate at that part of the curve, taking into account the EITC is close enough to zero that it's not an issue.

I like the plan, I think that it needs a slight tweak. The fine should be 200% of the subsidy, and perhaps it should only apply to workers working at least 20 hours a week.

<comment><USER8> Do you mean workers working 20 hours a weeks total or 20 hours a week at a particular employer?

There are plenty of individuals who work multiple jobs, still get only 30-some hours, and still collect public assistance. Seems like a needless clause.

<comment><USER7> Who pays the fine if you work 3 jobs 15 hours a week each? If they are all large employers — all 3 of them?

Remember this doesn't change anything about what the employee is paid, it's a fine for paying an employee too little to be self sufficient. I'm not sure that makes sense if someone is only working for you one day a week, for example.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wages are as low as employers can get away with. The problem would disappear if all workers had 10 employers to choose from. Lack of demand for labour is due to not enough market competition. We need to push corporations into a innovation race toward better products. Elon Musk is disrupting the auto industry, same thing needs to happen for every industry with entrenched rent- seeking players who drag their feet.

<comment><AUTHOR> _> Wages are as low as employers can get away with_

Monopsony: a market structure in which a few buyers substantially control the market as the major purchasers of goods and services offered by many would-be sellers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It seems like it would be far more efficient to just raise the minimum wage. But I guess that doesn't have a clever acronym.

<comment><USER11> It's not efficient at all. In fact it's quite the opposite. Minimum wage will reduce overall employment, because the price of labor increases.

<comment><USER12> Doesn't BEZOS increase the price of labor for Amazon, reducing the number of employees they employ? IMO, this looks similar to a minimum wage law for large companies.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Why has this thread disappeared from the front page? By the way, the link results, for me, in "Sorry, a potential security risk was detected in your submitted request. The Webmaster has been alerted. "

<comment><USER14> It's the old HN shuffle: Flag controversial thread off the front page, mark unflagged as dupe of flagged/aged thread that can no longer surface.

<comment><USER15> In this case it's the "old HN shuffle" of not having off-topic stories, as I explained here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17919681](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17919681)

<comment><USER14> I didn't mean to ascribe intent. I wrote more earlier in a reply attempt, but it was blocked ("you're posting too much" karma penalty message).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > The fact is if employers in this country simply paid workers a living wage, > taxpayers would save about $150 billion a year on federal assistance > programs.

I'm not at all convinced that removing people from federal assistance programs (i.e. necessitating a need for a reduction in those programs' budgets) would in fact directly result in less taxes being paid by me.

> This bill would establish a corporate welfare tax on large employers equal > to the amount of federal benefits received by their low-wage workers.

But it does not establish a means to reduce my tax burden whatsoever. I feel this is a valid criticism as the basis of the argument is that it's costing "the taxpayers." Well, I'm a taxpayer. I'm a shareholder in this organization, what's my get? I'm seeing large corps raising prices to offset the new tax, no new benefits for the underprivileged it's supposed to be helping, and no reduction in my personal costs. The net to me of that arrangement is less money in my pocket due to increased prices at the big companies.

> Large companies, not taxpayers, should be required to pay for federal public > assistance programs that their employees are eligible to receive.

No, the system should be setup such that taxes are fair and equitable enough to cover the operating costs of the government. I'm seeing way too much of an "us" vs "them" in this arrangement, which I'm not surprised by given who is proposing it.

> The Stop Bezos Act gives large employers a choice: pay workers a living wage > or pay for the public assistance programs low-wage workers are forced to > rely upon.

We have no constitutional right to "living wage" and for the government to attempt to enforce a right that does not exist is a problem. I'll leave that argument at that.

</comment><comment><USER17> As political grandstanding to rally the base around an issue and highlight a contrast between the sympathies of your faction and an opposing one to mobilize voters, it's not too bad.

As substantive policy its a nightmare than would crush the people it purports to be aimed at helping, though, and the danger of grandstanding like this is it can get out of control and build the kind of support for the policy that makes it politically irresistible so that it gets adopted, at least in outline.

I wonder how much of this is the Sanders camp being concerned that Warren had gotten way ahead of them with her recent moves (which are nearly as good as grandstanding and much better as substantive policy.) There's clearly a (mostly friendly, perhaps, but still intense) competition to be the standard bearer of the economic progressive faction of the Democratic Party going into the 2020 cycle.

Electoral maneuvering aside, the simple solution to the policy problem this is aimed at is reducing the preference for capital income over labor income in the tax system, which makes hiring labor at any given wage level less expensive, and thereby more competitive with capital-intensive automation.

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm not exactly sure how this could even be implemented.

Take the sharing economy into account:

Lyft/Uber InstaCart/Pizza Delivery Seasonal Workers such as Amazon Warehouse associates McDonalds/Walmart flex scheduling shifts "involuntary part time"

Say an average person for this particular sharing economy example include two or three part-time jobs throughout the year.

The person starts the year as a seasonal worker for amazon (christmas rush into new years) 160hours total, they then receive unemployment payments for a period of time. Later they become a part time employee of Walmart stocking late at night (400 hours). Finally they drive for both Uber and Lyft depending on customer volume to fill in the time they are not receiving shifts from Walmart (250hours).

According to this bill, there is no logical way to split the federal benefits as defines (school lunch, housing subsidies, SNAP and medicaid. The unemployment is paid from employer's insurance. Is the total amount of tax for each employer simply divided by the number of hours employed? Seems like its being left up to the IRS in order to figure out the implementation.

</comment><comment><USER19> The big problem that immediately pops up to me is: a good chunk of the examples of low wage workers are in fast-food (i.e. the McDonald's example). Just about every fast food company out there is a franchise, and I'd be very surprised if there are more than a couple of franchisees which have over 500 employees.

<comment><USER20> From the link:

> Under this legislation, large employers are defined as employers who have > more than 500 employees, including part -time workers, independent > contractors and _franchise workers_.

I'm not an expert in legalese (and this isn't the legislation itself), but the last two words imply that McDonald Corporate would be on the hook for franchisee's employee's food stamps.

<comment><USER19> Thanks for pointing that out, that seems to patch up that rather large hole in the proposed legislation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Clever title, but "politician introduces a bill" is a leading class of non- story (because most bills go nowhere). This is even more dilute that: it's an announcement that a politician will introduce a bill.

In other words, it's an announcement of an announcement, the most off-topic of offtopicness.

<comment><USER17> > and this is a politician announcing that he will introduce a bill.

While technically true at the time the linked summary was written, the bill has in fact been introduced and this is a summary of it as well a statement that it will be introduced.

Whether or not it is "evidence of some interesting new phenomenon" is, I would agree, debatable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> (besides the obvious political grandstanding timing of it)

Simply put, no. It is not the responsibility of employers to ensure that any job they offer provides sufficient compensation to an employee to live where they want.

Government actions have done far more damage and kept more people in poor financial straights than lack of pay. From the over zealous war on drugs to fund the politically powerful police and sheriff unions to the expense of the public employee pension systems which have driven up the cost of local government services, fees, and licensing, all at the cost of helping those in need.

<comment><USER22> >Government actions have done far more damage and kept more people in poor financial straights than lack of pay. From the over zealous war on drugs to fund the politically powerful police and sheriff unions

I'm not disagreeing with your premise completely, but conflating policies that are genuinely meant to help the working poor and policies that are specifically meant to harm people (the war on drugs being an excellent example) is dishonest and unhelpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> while we're at it why stop at employee subsidies. Why do giant corps get any tax breaks or subsidies?

<comment><USER24> Separating "why" and "why should," multinationals get subsidies and tax breaks because they negotiate with governments, have leverage, and can "walk away." (to another country)

<comment><USER23> Maybe we should adopt something like this.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I have no idea how accurate this analysis is, but it was interesting (found in discussion of this on /r/technology):

[https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/9a3sjh/old_ma...](https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/9a3sjh/old_man_yells_at_amazon_cloud/)

Anyone who knows economics here who can comment on whether that is a good argument or not?

</comment><comment><USER4> Very interesting idea on the service, that will never pass. Anyone with a vested interest in a large company, (e.g. almost everyone in congress) will have every incentive to see this thing die as quickly as possible. Also I'm not even sure it's a good idea to begin with. Color me intrigued though

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm curious what the macroeconomic effect would be. Is this just shifting public costs to private companies? Workers actual compensation wouldn't change since they would lose government benefits as their wages increase.

<comment><USER27> For all those that assert gov't is inefficient, and that businesses are better at optimization, then shifting equivalent public costs to private company scope should be an economic win.

</comment></comment><comment> oh-moses > Additionally, the bill makes it unlawful for a large employer to ask > employees whether or not they qualify for federal benefits.

…But then how would the employer's tax department know how much to pay in the proposed tax?

</comment><comment><USER28> I can see the point, but the cheaper option for the corporation is still to pay the tax vs paying a living wage because not all employees will be using the federal support.

</comment><comment><USER29> Unintended consequence - workers who are sick or have large families and need government aid get fired. The goal is good. But this exact method is flawed.

</comment><comment><USER30> For as much as the Democrats have been screaming about a need to return to civility naming the act after a private citizen, richest man or not, is too funny.

Compared to - say - the legislation resulting from the sub-prime crisis - <USER2> which powerful individuals at the head of national and global banking systems (and governments) almost ended the world as we know it.

Anyways, of course the actual brief doesn't actually reference how much Amazon employees are currently being subsidized (vs referenceing Walmart's $6.2b), because this isn't about the dollars and cents, it's about rushing something through on the back of bad press and Trump's tweetstorms.

The government grows unto itself, shoot first, aim later.

<comment><USER17> > For as much as the Democrats have been screaming about a need to return to > civility

Democrats have not generally been screaming about a need to return to civility, they've been screaming about a need to return to estsblished substantive and procedural norms.

 _Republicans_ have been demanding civility as a means of deflecting the increasingly strenuous objections on those issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Bezos, just to make a point, should stop doing business in and with entities from Vermont.

</comment><comment><USER32> Clever alternative to raising the minimum wage by a large amount. The Libertarian in me sees a possibility that this will reduce the government's burden and (potentially) reduce social services by a teensy amount.

Surely there are detriments I haven't considered, and please do share them if any come to mind.

<comment><USER3> It's a large intervention into the free market and a significant tax distortion.

Why should companies that employ lower skill workers pay higher taxes than those that employ higher skilled workers?

<comment><USER32> Excellent question. Slight tangent, but in many states (Michigan is one) there are already disproportionate worker's compensation taxes based upon the risk factors of the occupation and environment - so there is precedent for that sort of thing.

<comment><USER3> Worker's comp payments aren't really tax payments. They're insurance premium payments to cover the costs of on the job injuries.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I am little disappointed with Sanders that he has failed to build a real movement. I like a lot of the things he does but he is pretty much alone. Compared to the way Trump has bent the Republicans to his will it's disappointing.

This is a nice stunt but nobody in Congress will have the balls to vote for it.

<comment><USER8> Why is your disappointment in Sanders? Do you not remember the momentum he generated in 2016? Shouldn't your disappointment be directed at his peers?

<comment><USER33> He didn't use that momentum to make a real impact. Now the democrats look as clueless as they looked in 2016. They still don't have a real value proposition other than not being Trump. They can't just stay being the party for the upper middle class without appealing to blue collar workers. Say what you want about Obama but at least he had a message.

Maybe Sanders never aspired to be a national leader and that should be respected but it's still disappointing.

<comment><USER34> > He didn't use that momentum to make a real impact.

Sanders has used his platform to continue to advocate for Medicare For All, for a $15/hr minimum wage (a concession he was able to get for Disneyland employees), for renewable energy, for justice reform, for immigration reform. What else would you suggest he do? He has been more positively impactful than any politician currently in office except perhaps Senator Warren.

> Now the democrats look as clueless as they looked in 2016. They still don't > have a real value proposition other than not being Trump.

Medicare For All, a $15 hour minimum wage, fully funded public schools and universities, justice reform, immigration reform, paid family and sick leave (not an exhaustive list) is not a value proposition?

Democrats clueless? Progressive candidates continue to win in elections at every level. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is _crushing it_. As long as the Clintons, Biden, and other moderates keep to themselves, we'll be fine.

<comment><USER33> "Progressive candidates continue to win in elections at every level."

They are winning primaries so far. That's different from being elected.

<comment><USER34> Sure, but the signs are positive [1] [2] [3]. A government shutdown [4], more Trump tweets [5], a Kavanaugh confirmation [6], still lots of foot guns for Republicans between now and November.

[1] [https://www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17818204/midterm-2018-polls- gen...](https://www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17818204/midterm-2018-polls-generic- ballot-democrats) (New 2018 midterm poll has Democrats up 14 points on Republicans)

[2] [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/democrats- surgi...](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/democrats-surging- in-2018-national-polls-for-house.html) (With the Midterms Two Months Away, Democrats Are Surging in the Polls)

[3] [https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/04/politics/midterm-polls- democr...](https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/04/politics/midterm-polls-democratic- advantage/index.html) (Democrats have double-digit advantage in midterm elections, polls show)

[4] [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/05/trump-does-not-want- governme...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/05/trump-does-not-want-government- shutdown-over-immigration-before-midterms.html)

[5] [https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval- ratings/](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/)

[6] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/04/s...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/04/support- for-republicans-and-for-kavanaugh-crumbles/)

<comment><USER33> Be ready for another bad surprise like 2016. Leading in polls doesn't mean winning an election. Democrats should have learned that by now.

<comment><USER34> Always ready for less than ideal outcomes. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Ha, I like it.

</comment><comment><USER36> So what exactly stops a "bad employer" from just putting more money into automation?

<comment><USER37> If Amazon and Walmart could automate all these jobs, do you think they wouldn't have already?

<comment><USER38> My understanding is that they are moving towards it, but raising the price of human labor shift the frontier where changing to automation makes sense.

In practice, it's a little more complicated than that because automation requires investments that are long to set-up, risky, etc. but there are reasons to believe that this suggestion, if it passes would have two effect:

\- accelerate automation overall;

\- convince Amazon to employ directly more of its workers (they are typically going through employment agencies at the moment) and re-think its schedules. The dirty secret of that industry is that Amazon would like people to come at certain hours but doesn't really think beyond its operations, partially because they have an arms-length relationship with temporary workers. Agencies are all too willing to comply, and force powerless temp workers into the grinder, arguing that they are just bowing to "the market". The layers of bureaucracy prevents Amazon from raising internally the point that shifts at reasonable hours, with breaks. This means employees can think more critically of their job, and contribute greatly to innovation.

<comment><USER37> > My understanding is that they are moving towards it, but raising the price > of human labor shift the frontier where changing to automation makes sense.

Human labor is so far behind machine labor, that raising its cost by a little bit won't make much of a difference.

When it comes to manual labor, machines are so much cheaper, more efficient, cheaper, less risky (medically, legally, criminally), stable, and reliable, that there's no comparison really.

Big companies like Amazon therefore automate wherever they can already.

Based on articles about their fulfillment centers, the only jobs remaining there are those robots don't do very well right now. These will eventually disappear regardless of the passage of provocatively-titled PR-focused laws (which probably won't pass anyway in current congress).

I'm not sure I understand your second point, especially how relevant it is to the current discussion. This is about Amazon compensating employees with such minimal and pay and benefits that they must seek welfare assistance and thus effectively are paid by the taxpayer. Working conditions have nothing to do with that, although (obviously) the same weak employees (or "contractors") who receive so little pay will receive little consideration in these and other regards as well.

<comment><USER38> Working conditions are directly related to pay: they are paid less not because Amazon is going against the letter of the law on minimum wage but because the agencies providing the workforce use extortionate techniques.

They make sure not to hit work-hour thresholds to owe employees full benefits. In some areas, they demand that employees use a work-van to get there, and they have to pay the driver absurd amounts to use that "service".

Working conditions are so dire that the temp workers can't offer suggestion on working conditions, conditions that would help Amazon integrate better automation in their current system, and make paying workers more comfortably more sensical.

You can't extract work problems from their context.

<comment><USER37> > Working conditions are so dire that the temp workers can't offer suggestion > on working conditions, conditions that would help Amazon integrate better > automation in their current system, and make paying workers more comfortably > more sensical.

Not sure I follow.

From reading articles about it, the "working conditions" are "dire" because Amazon can press workers to work very hard (fill quotas) in large warehouses that are barely suitable for human habitation.

Both of these are related to Amazon squeezing pennies out of employees/contractors who have zero leverage.

The problem isn't that these employees can't offer "suggestions". Amazon knows very well that if it lowered quotas, allowed more breaks, and added air- conditioning to warehouses, working conditions will improve.

It doesn't do these things because these employees have zero leverage so Amazon makes more money by not offering these improvements.

<comment><USER38> I don't think we disagree, but I'm not sure I get where you want to take this discussion.

<comment><USER37> My point is that it's not some trivial issue of Amazon "not listening", or anything else that is easy to fix.

The fundamental problem is that unskilled labor is very low value, and as automation increases, will get even lower.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I don't understand this legislation or this perspective. If it is the job of the government to provide a strong safetey net, then it shouldn't be incumbent on private employers to do so. Why should Walmart be tasked with providing a complete livelihood for its employees?

If a job is beneficially for the economy, and individual, and an employer, though not enough to keep someone out of poverty - this is _precisely_ when government programs should fill in the gap. And I would think should be the perspective of someone who calls themselves a "Democratic Socialist."

A huge part of the problem with how healthcare and labor benefits are handled in the United States is exactly this - that they are far to tied to an individual's job. Divorcing them actually helps all parties. Most developed nations operate this way.

Naming this legislation after Bezos is petty and vindictive. It's below the office of a Senator, and a bad precedent to set to using the power of lawmaking to single out individuals.

<comment><USER40> > Why should Walmart be tasked with providing a complete livelihood for its > employees?

I don't think it should; but on the other end, why would people work for Walmart if the salary it offers is not enough to survive? And why should Walmart rely on the subsidies offered by the state to integrate the shitty wages it's paying?

In other words, the employees work for you, you are the one who should pay them- subsidies are altering this balance. (Ah, and tips too, my other little obsession. Otherwise I'll bring my own waiter, thank you).

Of course the state should provide a "safety net"\- which for me includes full, free, high quality medical assistance, education, and maybe some for of low rent housing. But that's about it.

<comment><USER41> Education is a tricky one. In general I tend to agree, but distributing the cost of a person's decision to get a 4 year degree in Photography, and then get a job at Starbucks they could've gotten without that degree, seems unjust and unwise. And who decides which schools lead to good outcomes? A lot of the "for profit" schools are only a little better than diploma mills.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Hmm... This actually makes sense. And seems like it would make sense from any party's perspective... Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green... If anyone opposes this I'd love to know why.

But I don't see why Bezos in particular is singled out.</comment>


Implementation of MITM Attack on HDCP-Secured Links - <AUTHOR> http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=2117

<comment><AUTHOR> There was a related link on HN to an rdist blog post discussing Bunnie's work (before he wrote his own post), which sadly didn't get any attention: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2995641></comment>


Apple will give users the option to control their own battery's destiny - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/apple-will-give-users-the-option-to-control-their-own-batterys-destiny/ <comment><USER2> Hopefully now that users will also be able to see how fast their iPhone battery is dying, Apple will be incentivized to build longer-lasting and/or higher-capacity batteries in their devices.</comment>


Still think that a social network for dogs is a dumb idea? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/world/asia/18delhi.html <comment><USER2> Yes.

</comment><comment><USER3> This sounds more like match.com for dogs..</comment>


Show HN: PixelStew - pain-free collaboration and revision control for designers - <AUTHOR>

We've got a "launch" planned via a few partners here in town, from which we expect a significant amount of domain-specific traffic (i.e. a buncha designers). We'd love to get HNs take on our landing page from a marketing perspective and, if you feel so inclined, the functionality we have in place within the app. I've disabled the private beta lock such that if you register an account you will have immediate access to the app.
You can find the landing page at http://www.pixelstew.com
If you have any questions about anything at all please don't hesitate to ask! <comment><USER2> I really like the idea and I have plenty of designers I could show this to, however, just one thing irks me:

It asks for me to give it access to my DropBox. The issue with that is I had no idea how to do it until I went searching. Perhaps there's a way to link to the part of DropBox to make it easier for dum-dums like me?

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for giving it a spin! Step 1 is actually a link, but it's not obvious -- I'll make it more obvious :) Sorry 'bout that!

<comment><USER2> It is? OH.

Don't I feel stupid. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very promising idea!

One thing I noticed that wasn't quite clear:

When I tried to create a new project in the second step, I typed in a name for the project and hit 'Create Project'. The page reloaded telling me, "There were some problems with the project you tried to make". I eventually realized it was because I hadn't selected the folder my project was in. Expect your users to be as absent-minded as me =)

Also, I added .ai and .png files to my project folder but it was not able to find them when I updated the dropbox files through the pixelstew UI. I can see them on my local dropbox folder and on my online account.

Good luck with the launch!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for takin' a look. Weird about the PNG files -- I think there is some lag between when things are uploaded in Dropbox and when they're available via the API...I'll have to look in to it further. We don't support AIs yet, but we _definately_ should.

Thanks for finding that validation bug, there _should_ be a message that says "select a project folder"...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'd just boil it down.

1) What is the problem?

2) How do you solve it with pixelstew

I guess there are too many graphics for my take when trying to introduce a new paradigm like this.

</comment><comment><USER5> Why did you decide to use Dropbox as your image store? I tried checking things out but I don't have a Dropbox account. :(

<comment><AUTHOR> We chose Dropbox because the majority of the designers that we talked to and work with use Dropbox! Luckily, it's pretty easy to get Dropbox account if you don't have one (not to mention free).

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> clicky: <http://www.pixelstew.com></comment>


My Setup: Passwords, 2FA, and Yubikeys - <AUTHOR> https://captnemo.in/blog/2020/01/04/security-setup/?2 <comment><AUTHOR> I recently moved to running my `pass` setup against my Yubikey and wrote about everything surrounding it, including the various failure modes I could think of.

Running GPG/SSH alongside `pass` on the Yubikey was a gradual process, but I'm so glad I managed to get it working correctly. Open to suggestions if there's anything HN thinks can be improved :)</comment>


Ask HN: Kim Dotcom's Mega Is Down? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is the link to the site <https://mega.co.nz/>

</comment><comment><USER2> ping mega.co.nz

4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 29.165/32.276/35.656/2.367 ms

So, no, doesn't look like it

<comment><AUTHOR> So weird. I can't access the site. Thanks for the info.</comment></comment>


J4K Retrospective - <AUTHOR> https://meatfighter.com/java4k/ <comment><USER2> If you stumble upon www.java4k.com it's apparently a fake phishing copy after the original domain expired according to [http://www.java- gaming.org/topics/urgent-announcement-about-...](http://www.java- gaming.org/topics/urgent-announcement-about-java4k-com/38021/view.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is amazing. Very creative. I like the minimal square and dot game. Simple graphic pure game play.

</comment><comment> le-mark Great! Is this on github or some other? I had a couple of applet entries it'd be nice to package up.</comment>


Ars Technica Investigates the State of Malware on the Mac - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/20/cheng-malware <comment><USER2> Actually I wouldn't be surprised to find Norton on a Genius Bar Mac, mostly because an anti-virus is required for PCI compliance to handle credit cards.

<comment><USER3> Last time I bought something at an Apple Store, my credit card was swiped through an iPod Touch, not a Mac. Do you think that the iPod was running a virus scanner?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> To me this seems like Gruber doing damage control for Apple again.

There's no doubt that simple scams like this will increase as marketshare does, and pretending like it's not already happening is fooling nobody.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, I really don't understand Gruber's position on this. It seems fairly obvious and inarguable that as Macs become a bigger target, there will be more and worse malware on them. Is he saying that there's something inherent to Mac OS that makes malware harder? If so, what?

<comment><USER6> Gruber wrote more then once in the past about market share argument. It's been going on for years. And there were more viruses for Mac OS versions prior to OS X with even smaller market share. I think one advantage OS X always had compared to Win < 7 that users never had a habit to run with administrator rights all the time.

<comment><USER5> Sure, that's one advantage, but it doesn't seem like a decisive one, really.

I must have missed his arguments re market share. I've only ever seen him post the historically periodic articles about how people have always been saying it's about to happen. What are his actual arguments?

If anything, I feel like Mac OS X will potentially be more vulnerable. To make the anatomical analogy, Windows has always had a lot of exposure to malware, and as a result there's a fairly robust anti-malware ecosystem, like anti- bodies in an immune system. OS X, on the other hand, hasn't. It's evolved in the absence of many attacks, and has a proportionally weaker immune system.

Ok, I'm not sure I buy that completely, but the market share argument seems like a straightforward one.

<comment><USER3> Most iterations of the "market share argument" I've seen imply that at some time in the future, Mac market share will reach a tipping point and writing viruses for OS X will be lucrative enough that there will be a dramatic increase in the amount of malware being flung at Macs.

It has the same problem that plagues every other apocalyptic argument: the world keeps not ending.

Nobody ever says how _much_ market share OS X needs to reach this tipping point, which makes it pretty hard to falsify. Meanwhile, the Mac market share keeps growing, year after year, with only minor increases in the prevalence of malware, and no major botnets or worms of the sort that were rampant on Win9x and early XP.

Claiming that OS X is (or will be) a soft target also serves to further undermine the market share argument: Windows has been getting more secure over time, which should help make OS X a more attractive target if it really is a softer target than Windows.

<comment><USER7> >Mac market share will reach a tipping point and writing viruses for OS X will be lucrative

Playing with the $59.99 "price" of Mac Defender it's probably only taken a dozen or so purchases to get a return on the design/HTML/CSS, the Cocoa, and hosting, etc. general development time required to put this together.

Depending on the numbers (un)reported - it's not hard to imagine:

       a) Mac Defender is already profitable
       b) it could become very profitable
       c) other malcontents will likely recognize this...

So I think it reasonable to speculate the OS X malware inflection point is now.

<comment><USER3> One successful product does not necessarily lead to a thriving market. The authors of Mac Defender have probably made a good return on their investment, but what counts in the long term is whether their customers have, in the form of stolen credit card numbers or botnet membership or whatever.

If Mac Defender and it's forthcoming copycats aren't very effective tools, then we probably won't see an explosion. There will be some short-term growth, but Mac malware would quickly become a low-level endemic problem, instead of the multi-year epidemic that would be necessary for OS X to get to the state Windows is in.

Mac Defender may mark the start of the arms race between malware authors and Apple, but I don't think there's any evidence yet to suggest that the arms race would proceed as quickly or as embarrassingly as it did for Windows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Original source: [http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/05/malware-on-the- mac...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/05/malware-on-the-mac.ars/)

From the Hacker News Guidelines[1]: "Please submit the original source. If a blog post reports on something they found on another site, submit the latter."

The fact Mac OS X is a security pushover is pretty well known[2]. I wouldn't be surprised if more macs weren't rooted with something much stealthier than Mac Defender. Disclaimer: I use a mac.

[1] <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

[2] [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster- forward/post/ie-s...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster- forward/post/ie-safari-iphone-blackberry-fall-at-pwn2own-chrome-firefox- android-windows-phone-7-escape/2011/03/14/ABjqQGV_blog.html)

<comment><USER9> _The fact Mac OS X is a security pushover is pretty well known[2]._

That raises the question then, why aren't we seeing more Mac viruses and malware? Is it purely a question of economics that market share answers? Is it because there's more technical "know-how" and experience floating around about Windows vulnerabilities? Is it because it is easier to profit off of Windows vulns? These are genuine questions to which I'd love to hear some answers.

Edit: The fact that OS X Lion was shared with security researchers in advance[1] is a good move on Apple's part. Does Microsoft do similar things?

[1]<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20036218-83.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I assume Gruber is talking about engineers in Cupertino never using Norton, while Ars is talking to Genius Bar employees. It is that far fetched to assume Apple trusts the former more than the latter?

</comment><comment><USER11> Perhaps "Slipping a Norton" will become the new mickey.</comment>


Show HN: Mash Controller, Video Game News - <AUTHOR> http://mashcontroller.net/

<comment><USER2> Thanks for this. I appreciate how lean and no frills the list is and the RSS support.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're welcome! The goal is to keep it minimal and easy to scan quickly.

<comment><USER2> Mobile friendly design as well!</comment></comment></comment>


Git-achievements: Earn geeky merit badges while learning Git - <AUTHOR> http://thechangelog.com/post/1200486354/git-achievements-aquire-achievements-while-using-git <comment><USER2> Git-achievements was a lot of fun to make. Lots of laughs coming up with the various "achievements" you get to unlock with various people on #startups. For the curious I wrote up a blog post on it when I first put it up: [http://benjamin-meyer.blogspot.com/2010/03/git- achievements....](http://benjamin-meyer.blogspot.com/2010/03/git- achievements.html)

The unexpected has to be how useful it has been in showing off how easy it is to add commands to git, getting a laugh when giving presentations on learning Git and how every few weeks someone tells me about it.

Big thanks to the github guys for gh-pages. It is really a hidden killer feature of github. Rather than a master branch there is only a gh-pages branch which is what makes publishing achievements to easy for anyone to do. It makes dumping up little js apps/tests/examples in a git repo online really easy such as these other two repos: <http://github.com/icefox/js_email_link_hack> <http://github.com/icefox/javascript_genetic_algorithm>

</comment><comment><USER3> _shameless plug_ I have been working on a similar thing in the last few days: <http://github.com/lehmannro/commithero>

It's based on the commit history rather than local actions and should work on Git, Subversion, Mercurial, and Bazaar. I am still low on achievements (about half a dozen implemented) but tried to make the API for third-party achievements _as easy as possible_ ; patches welcome!

</comment><comment><USER4> I'll admit it, I love cheevos. And I feel an odd compulsion to install this. But something makes me not want to add in a game into my work, even if it's work I do at home, for myself.

<comment><USER5> "long time" git-achievements user (half a year I guess?) here.

You should not be worried, while in the first couple of days you may get a boatload of achievements that kind of make you interrupt your stream of codingness (but it's ok since they are a new toy), g-a fades out pretty fast in the background.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I had a similar idea a while ago. But I was thinking on a global scale, you would earn points/badges for actions you take in git. And then there would be a website where you could see how productive you are compared to other developers around the world.

What do you think?

</comment><comment><USER7> Am I the only one who whould be actively turned against learning Git because of these "merit badges"? It just seems like another of those gold stars they gave you in grade school...

<comment><AUTHOR> You don't have to use it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This makes me want to add achievements to Ruby Koans: <http://rubykoans.com/>

Although the Zen masters would probably frown on that.

<comment><USER9> Sounds like an alright idea. One thing, is there any chance of fixing the font? It looks all rough for me on Win7 x64, using Chrome 6 (same issue in Safari).

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I love it when the Ruby community discovers a tool that a few kernel hackers wrote over a long weekend.</comment>


Show HN: A content recommender with NLP algorithms in just three lines of code - <AUTHOR> https://algorithmia.com/recommends <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, We build this content recommender based on our web scraping and natural language processing algorithms for anyone to use by including it in your markup or with our WordPress & Drupal plugins. The goal is to surface your own content and provide actually relevant recommendations without cross-domain tracking, ads, or third-party content. Check out the demo and sample generated HTML--we'll be around to answer any questions!</comment>


Chrome guidelines for displaying URLs - <AUTHOR> https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/security/url_display_guidelines/url_display_guidelines.md <comment><USER2> A lot of this makes sense but I have a bit of a fear that google is trying to kill the URL to make people more dependent on google search.</comment>


Monty Python's Cheese shop sketch transcript - <AUTHOR> http://www.mit.edu/afs.new/sipb/user/ayshames/Python/CHEESHOP.PYTHON <comment><USER2> Video of the original TV performance: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPqGt0ZI_1k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPqGt0ZI_1k)

</comment><comment><USER3> Turns out you can follow most of the troupe on Twitter:

@NotMichaelPalin

@PythonJones

@TerryGilliam

@EricIdle

@JohnCleese

Official:

@montypython

</comment><comment><USER4> besides the obvious pypi joke, i'm not sure why this is here.

<comment><USER5> Back in the mist and depths of time, Monty Python was not at all mainstream. Those who knew of the sketch were most likely to self-identity as a nerd or geek.

Let us olds enjoy a bit of nostalgia.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Has HN lost its tech startup community vibe? - <AUTHOR> Sure there's plenty of traffic and discussion but it occurred to me that a long time ago it felt like a place where the tech startup community gather and chat and share. Now I wonder if maybe it just feels like another Reddit forum / tech news channel with comments.<p>Do you think the early magic is lost?  If yes, then what do you think has changed? <comment><USER2> Is this related to your "Show HN" submission an hour ago where you asked startups to upload a video presenting themselves? (no upvotes, submitter didn't create a video him/herself, submitter deleted submission)

Your account is two years old, but the question is (and gets) so old it's even in the guidelines

"If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a common semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills. "

<comment> angry-hacker Does it matter how old the account is? I have no idea about mine, and I'm not bothered to even look. What I do know I've been on HN for a lot longer than I have the account.

About topic: there is a lot more politics, a lot less about hacking and tinkering. I dont if HN has changed. It is much more popular now.

Or maybe the world has changed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Yes. Thank god.

We've got prominent people like John Nagle or Alan Kay talking about stuff.

We've got people who were involved in Maxis early games (SimFarm etc.) commenting little nuggets about the games and how the name "The Sims" was chosen.

We've got people I have never heard of who talk about interprocess communication on QNX. Or about barrel machines and Intel Xeon programming. Or about lots of other interesting stuff.

None of which fits into "let's talk how awesome my startup is".

</comment><comment><USER4> Its certainly diluted, but to be honest unless I am applying to the latest YC batch or starting my own company I don't care as much, most of that talk is fairly standard after you have heard it a few years running. While most of it is genuine, it can get a overhyped/inauthentic at times.

I like the more relaxed atmosphere, but would like to see more interesting technical articles getting to the front page, and less repeated news things being cross posted around the internet.

Spending a bit more time on /newest is probably a good idea.

</comment><comment><USER5> Honestly, no - I don't think so. The site has ebbs and flows based on whats happening in the world just like anywhere else. HackerNews constantly seems to have a higher level of discussion than reddit, or any other place for internet comments, and I don't mind that it changes (just like everything else does) with time.

</comment><comment><USER6> It's called 'hacker news' and no longer 'startup news' for a reason.

</comment><comment><USER7> I've been reading HN for a decade. For that time it's been a fascinating technology and cultural discussion aggregator. There is lots of quality sharing and discussion of deep issues. Thank god only very few "me too! look at my trivial cool stuff!" vanity posts reach the headlines. I think it's been that way for the span I'm aware of (otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have moved along).

</comment><comment><USER8> I've found Uber, AirBnb, Grooveshark, spotify, and many other startups through here. The frontpage has a list of 30 links that cycle, basically, 24 hours.

HN is my homepage now. If it was just news on startups that would be interesting but not something I would visit daily. Just like I don't visit Apple or Android news sites daily. It's a good mix (I would even say firehose) of topics and I like it that way.

</comment><comment><USER9> The world has lost its tech startup community vibe, thankfully.

</comment><comment><USER10> Yes !</comment>


On Generative Algorithms - <AUTHOR> http://inconvergent.net/generative/ <comment><USER2> Great resource.

If you're into it, make sure to check out the _" The Algorithmic Beauty of..."_ series of books. There are three:

\- _The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants_ \- this is the original one. Fascinating read - one of the authors creates a rule system (L-system, now fairly well known in the procedural generation world) that allows for the generation of plant like organisms. Other approaches are presented, the prose and illustrations are wonderful. This one is a must have - a beautiful example of what can be accomplished when mixing math, natural sciences, computation, art, and design.

\- _The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells_ \- this one is very good too. If you've wondered how sea shells can have almost perfect checkerboard patterns and so on, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.

\- _The Algorithmic Beauty of Seaweeds, Sponges, and Corals_. My least favorite of the three - some of the content overlaps from _TABO Plants_ \- but that's only because the other 2 are so good. If you have interest in the matter, you probably want to read it as well.

<comment><USER3> The author has made the first book available online here: [http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop](http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop)

(and tons of related papers)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Beautiful output and great, light summary of each process! I've been watching the pieces Anders has been posting over the past few months and freaking love his aesthetic.

There's been HN threads on it before, but just in case anyone hasn't seen it and wants to dive down the rabbit hole that is biomimetic / natural systems influenced generative work, check out Dan Shiffman's awesome [http://natureofcode.com/](http://natureofcode.com/).

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome thanks. Looking for more references if anyone has them. Also if there's any work combining things like this with genetic algorithms?

<comment><USER5> Today, I like to use Extempore [1], a self-contained, physical computing environment with a Scheme-like language and another that compiles to be as fast as C based upon an LLVM backend. You can code audio and visuals all in Lispy goodness within Emacs.

Processing is still cool, and there is a JavaScript version available and lots of books and online examples. It really kicked it off for me [2].

The term 'Creative Coding' seems to be the one that is sticking and encompassing the widely different approaches to creating art with code and computers and other electronic interfaces and devices. Very exciting time for this field right now. Livecoding is another term you'll hear for creating mostly music live in code, with some still doing visuals [3]. Fluxus was a favorite of mine [4].

openFrameworks, a C++ toolkit has a lot of libraries, including ML and AI stuff, to try out a bunch of different things [5].

There are examples of people using GA (Genetic Algorithms), ANNs (Artificial Neural Networks), GP (Genetic Programming), MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) methods and more to create artworks, visual, audio or mixed.

The Nature of Code and some YouTube Videos for SuperCollider and other creative coding software touch upon some of this, but you need to Google for specific examples, since people are using them all over the place. My first exposure was a Java Applet where people would look at a generated artwork and hit +1, 0, -1, for like, neutral, dislike, and the applet purportedly used a genetic algorithm to make a new piece. The piece would evolve with the user being the fitness function by participating in judging the pieces.

I am playing with Darknet, a C-based CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) that can utilize the GPU, and also work with OpenCV [6]. You can use it to generate text based upon famous writer samples, or recognize objects in an image or video.

[1] extempore.moso.com.au

[2] [https://processing.org/](https://processing.org/)

[3] toplap.org

[4] [http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/](http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/)

[5] [http://openframeworks.cc/](http://openframeworks.cc/)

[6] [http://pjreddie.com/darknet/](http://pjreddie.com/darknet/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Glad to hear that you seem to enjoy the site!

Happy to try to answer questions if you have any.

<comment><USER7> Love this! Some of these algorithms are inherently recursive, have you used/looked into a functional language to create them at all?

<comment><USER6> Thanks. No, I've been using python/cython because I know it well already. I've considered learning a functional language though. So I'd be happy to get suggestions. Eg. I would choose a language that has a decent community as well as some good tools for drawing/pixel manipulation/3d modelling, depending on what's available (honestly I haven't researched it at all yet).

<comment><USER7> There's the diagrams package in Haskell for vector drawing:

[http://projects.haskell.org/diagrams/gallery.html](http://projects.haskell.org/diagrams/gallery.html)

Juicy pixels for raster manipulation:

[https://github.com/Twinside/Juicy.Pixels](https://github.com/Twinside/Juicy.Pixels)

And gloss or haskell for mac as a processing kind of environment:

[http://gloss.ouroborus.net/](http://gloss.ouroborus.net/)

[http://haskellformac.com/](http://haskellformac.com/) ([http://learn.hfm.io/fractals.html](http://learn.hfm.io/fractals.html))

There's an old comment thread from a year ago here:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/2naug0/haskell_as_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/2naug0/haskell_as_a_hobby/)

I'd be interested to know what you think about the feasibility of using these tools to produce the kind of things you make :-)

<comment><USER6> Thanks a lot. This looks interesting. I'll definitely look into it. I don't think I'm qualified to say whether it is possible at this point, but my guess is that it is very possible!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Very nice descriptions, i really like the visual algorithmic "explanations". If you are interested in algorithmic descriptions that express other domain specific knowledge (e.g. architecture) check out [http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/12763](http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/12763)

</comment><comment><USER9> Reminds me of Turing's morphogenesis. [https://www.wired.com/2011/02/turing- patterns/](https://www.wired.com/2011/02/turing-patterns/)

</comment><comment><USER10> This is beautiful :)</comment>


Paid for Stripe - <AUTHOR> http://paidhq.com/

<comment><USER2> I bought a copy. It looks nice, but I had to add it to the pile of Stripe "add-ons", app or otherwise, that don't do the ONE thing that I'm constantly trying to figure out manually (and I imagine other SaaS owners would, too):

Based on CURRENT subscriptions, how much money can I expect to collect over the next X days? Stripe tells me about transfers that are scheduled, but I can't look past money that's already been collected without manually pulling down a bunch of subscription data and trying to figure out how much we're going to be paid on each day in the future.

I'd be happy for this to be a command line script - I just haven't managed to figure out the best way to do it!

<comment><USER3> This is actually an awesome idea -- almost like a forecast of the money you'll earn? Should be simple to do it programmatically. I'm going to add something to our feature list to explore this.

<comment><USER4> There's a service called Dig my Data that will do some cool predictions and analytics from your Stripe data. Things like churn rate and revenue over time.

<http://digmydata.com/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Congrats! Downloading.

This is indeed beautiful. But the positioning is wrong. Nobody who uses Stripe is like: "I wish this was more beautiful". The correct position is something like: "Manage your Stripe account on the go".

<comment><USER3> Well, it says both. You can manage your Stripe account, and btw, it's beautiful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> You're underpricing this app. I'd drop $20 or $50 on this as easily as $6.

<comment><USER3> Well I really appreciate you saying that. Lucky for you, you're getting a good deal! Who knows, maybe they'll be more features or something you can buy in- app in the future. Like the Forecasting stuff talked about below.

I mean, you are welcome to send me more money if you'd like. :)

Good feedback though, thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Just wanted to let everyone know that we submitted a 1.1 today, which includes better crash reporting and some adjustments to the way we aggregate your daily/monthly volumes.

</comment><comment><USER7> IOS Only :( We're building a really big project using Stripe right now, it's too bad I can't give stripe an extra $6 (which I would do in a heartbeat).

<comment><USER3> iOS as a first step, once it's solid, Wess and I may tackle an Android app as well. Who knows.

</comment></comment><comment> j-m-o Great work, just bought a copy as well. I was looking for something like this recently, saw it wasn't there, and was considering going ahead and building it.

I'm only a little disappointed you beat me to the punch, the level of polish here is outstanding. Just a quick note that I tried to rush the login while 'authorizing' spinner was going, and got an app crash. I had no problem after that.

<comment> j-m-o Also, I'm getting a consistent crash when I go to my customers list and click directly on the 'Last' payment. 'Next' payment works fine.

iOS 6.1.4, iPhone 5.

<comment><USER3> We'll take a look at this. We're about to push out a 1.1 with better crash reporting so we can look at this stuff.

As for the OAuth with Stripe -- it's a little slow and hokey, so our arms are tied there. Glad to hear you got in though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> FYI, there is also Pay Pad which works really well IMO.

<https://www.pay-pad.com/>

</comment><comment><USER9> Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Apache/2.2.22 Server at paidhq.com Port 80

<comment><USER3> Yeah, MediaTemple died at the most inappropriate time (again).

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Looks good! A few numbers are off for me, though.

Paid says I have a transfer today, but it's actually coming tomorrow according to the Stripe site (and my bank account :)

The monthly volume on the dashboard is also 6x my current volume. Is it estimating what my volume would be for the month based on the amount so far?

<comment><USER3> The monthly volume issue is a known bug -- something we missed while developing. We've submitted a 1.1 fix to the AppStore today that should resolve that.

As for the transfer, we gather that right from Stripe's API. Could just be some mislabeling on our side? Could you email me at: scherfryan(at) gmail?

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Why does Stripe only allow U.S. businesses?

Even if one is actually in the U.S., one might want to not base the company there for obvious tax reasons, so this makes their service (and by extension, this app) of very little use.

<comment><USER3> I think they're working on rolling out the platform to many more countries -- just haven't gotten there yet.

<comment><USER12> Fair enough. Looking forward to it.

<comment><USER3> If I manipulated HN, I wouldn't know how I did it. Just luck of the draw I suppose, although there was much more traffic related to Paid today than there was last night.

I don't know who the person is that submitted this.

Why?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Please send an alert when a new customer is added - even if they didn't make a payment. For ex, if someone subscribes to a plan that has a free trial. Stripe doesn't do this yet - so this would solve a big pain point for me.

</comment><comment><USER14> Ironically there's no way to pay for Paid for Stripe with Stripe.

</comment><comment><USER15> A graph I would love to see on manage.stripe.com -

Cancellations, Past (Subscription) revenue, New revenue (ie, a new signup), Failures

</comment><comment><USER16> Just got it. For some reason it says "Today's Volume" and "This Month's Volume" is much, much higher than reality.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, a bug was exposed. We fixed it and submitted the fix to the AppStore today. The Stripe API is tricky, so we have to do some looping to get the data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Bought a copy. It looks great but keeps crashing for me =(.

<comment><USER3> Really sorry about that! Can you email wcope(at)me(dot)com with any crash reports/comments that you have? We'll take a look.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is beautiful work guys!</comment>


Coding: Generalists vs. specialists - <AUTHOR> http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/04/09/generalists-not-wanted-here

<comment><USER2> This is a discussion that always happens, in just about every context. It also depends massively on perspective. Take somebody who codes java and haskell, does database admin and web design, and hacks the linux Kernel: I'd call her a generalist. But from a wider perspective she might be a specialist: concentrating on hacking rather than literature, or business, or physics. It's all relative.

[Incidentally, I'll mention that Isaiah Berlin's essay 'the hedgehog and the fox' is a classic of the 'generalists vs. specialists' genre, applying the division to writers and philosophers. I'm not a massive fan of it (dividing people up like that gets a bit superficial), but looking up papers citing it will get you into the recent literature on the subject]

</comment><comment><USER3> "I have been coding for 30 years using a variety of languages and platforms, including C++, Java, and PHP."

He says he's a generalist, but that sounds like specialising in a few popular languages...

<comment><USER4> a lot of people I know tend to stick to one language... from the quote it sounds like he hints at more languages, he just didn't want to list them all

<comment><USER3> I can't picture someone who knows lots of "esoteric" languages name only 3 popular ones as examples.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> the key advantage that a generalist has over a specialist is being able to adapt to constantly changing conditions quickly and more easily... from the view of self-interest, given parallels in the animal kingdom (racoons have survived even with their natural habitats destroyed, ...) - it's the way to go

</comment><comment><USER5> This article brings up the quote: "Jack of all trades, master of none", which seems ok to me.

<comment><USER6> That being said, it's important to have a broader knowledge so you can actually communicate with other team members intelligently and effectively. Simply specializing in a field, and mastering it, can sometimes lead to weird and uncomfortable "siloing" of tasks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> You left out Awesomenist</comment>


The A-10 Warthog Is Sticking Around for at Least Another Decade - <AUTHOR> https://www.defenseone.com/business/2019/08/warthog-sticking-around-least-another-decade/159365/ <comment><USER2> Former Marine here...the A10 is AWESOME. Nothing matches it. It has a huge amount of firepower, can take a beating and can stay in the area for a relatively long period of time. Grunts have a fondness for these planes.

<comment><USER3> The A-10 is great as long as the opponent isn't a near-tier adversary.

If there are real air defenses around, the A-10 will soon be a smoking hole in the ground. Even during the 70's when it was brand new, their expected lifetime in Europe was only a few days if conflict started.

Shoulder fired MANPADs and AAA are too much of a threat for a low, slow, non- stealthy beast like the A-10. And no, the armor won't help.

<comment><USER2> Sure but that's the same story with helos as well. The A-10 definitely has a valid role in conflicts like Iraq / Afghanistan.

<comment><USER3> > Sure but that's the same story with helos as well.

That's not the case, as helicopters can use terrain to hide in ways an A-10 simply can't. The Longbow Apaches only need to expose the top of their rotor mast above a hill or treeline to target the enemy. Other Apaches can then fire missiles indirectly (without seeing the target) and kill the enemy forces.

Flying "nap of the Earth" has its advantages...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Close air support doesn't seem like the role that, at least at this point, needs the next gen latest and greatest thing.

The A-10 seems to fill its role just fine.

<comment><USER5> Ask yourself who the aircraft has been deployed against.

Then ask yourself what would happen if it were deployed against someone comparable to the United States.

During the 1980's within "two weeks [of full hostilities between the US and the USSR] the entire A-10 force at the time — around 700 jets — would have been destroyed and the pilots killed, injured, captured"[1].

So now, almost 40 years on, how do you think the A-10 will stand?

[https://medium.com/war-is-boring/an-a-10-pilot-could-hope- to...](https://medium.com/war-is-boring/an-a-10-pilot-could-hope-to-last-two- weeks-against-the-soviets-1ebff9bfa4df)

<comment><USER4> That sounds like a good way to end up with a plane for use in wars you aren't fighting at the expense of those they are fighting.

<comment><USER5> It seems to me that armed drones have already taken on the new long-loitering fire support platform.

Although there are programs looking into a cost efficient replacement that still fulfills the `guy-in-an-armed-flying-metal-box replacement` [1] [https://www.indrastra.com/2019/05/USAF-OA-X- Program-6-Light-...](https://www.indrastra.com/2019/05/USAF-OA-X- Program-6-Light-Attack-Aircraft-005-05-2019-0063.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Have any UAVs been developed for close air support? Seems like one of the riskier tasks for human pilots. I wonder if command latency is more of an issue for low-and-slow gun runs?

EDIT: Looks like DARPA is working on it, sort of:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_Close_Air_Support](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_Close_Air_Support)</comment>


Ask HN: What you have automated with Python? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Five o'clock shout-outs on twitter:

[https://twitter.com/fiveobot](https://twitter.com/fiveobot)

[https://github.com/jachee/fiveobot](https://github.com/jachee/fiveobot)

</comment><comment><USER3> Long, long time ago, I started writing my stock trading robots in Python and I am still using it to this day... Not sure why I chose it, maybe it was easy to learn for a non developer like me (one thing I don't like is the syntax), but way too late to change the language, there is no way I am rewriting my robots... if something works, don't touch it :-)

</comment><comment><USER4> I wrote a script that runs a cronjob that checks if someone posted "What you have automated with Python".

If my bot is positive, it creates a post that says that we had this already a few months ago.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14339959](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14339959)

</comment><comment><USER5> \- Finding a houseshare through site scrape and keyword matching

\- Social media activity (Twitter, Pinterest)

\- Buying/Selling crypto when it reaches a certain threshold</comment>


How to add new features to the product and keep interface simple - <AUTHOR> https://blog.digitalkwarts.com/how-to-add-new-features-to-the-product-and-keep-interface-simple/ <comment><AUTHOR> We face this a lot with our custom WordPress themes. People request new features, however does it worth to implement all of them?</comment>


Why you shouldn't apply bad quality decal on your macbook - <AUTHOR> http://skinatus.com/blogs/story/13689327-why-you-shouldnt-apply-bad-quality-decal-on-your-macbook <comment><USER2> Here's a guy who wanted to change his karvt skin

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFvghXZHZI#t=3m30s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFvghXZHZI#t=3m30s)</comment>


Show HN: Pantastic - <AUTHOR> http://www.pantastic.co/ <comment><USER2> Hey, great work. We're adding panoramas at <http://cheergram.com> very soon. I like the niche printing business and I think there's definitely demand.

3 Things:

My biggest issue with the site is that you don't show the final product anywhere. It should really be the _hero_ of your home page (where that little dude with the chalkboard is). Even if you don't have one printed yet, make a fake print+frame in Photoshop (not hard) and throw it on an istock living room image [1].

Second, your "Buy Now" button should be other places besides the top-right corner. Took me a while to find it. Look at our site or others that sell just 1 thing. You need a big CTA button middle-left. A/B Test it for sure.

Third, consider offering a frame as an add-on. I don't think you can walk in to Target and get a frame that fits an 8x36 print and most people won't go through the additional step of finding one or having it made. You want repeat customers and the best way to get them is to make sure they use/see the product the first time they buy. At the very least, tell them where they can find frames to fit your prints and put that on your site and email receipts.

That's all I got for now. Good job.

[1] [http://www.istockphoto.com/search/text/blank%20living%20room...](http://www.istockphoto.com/search/text/blank%20living%20room%20wall/source/basic#386395e)

<comment><USER3> Hey, one advise for you at Cheergram. It would be great to be able to pick pictures from other users than myself. I want to make a print with both my photos and my girlfriend's mixed together but couldn't.

<comment><USER2> Thanks, it's good to know people want that.

We have that feature _ready to go_ but I'm trying to clear some legal/copyright questions first. For most people who want to just combine their images with friends/family, it's fine. But there are people on Instagram who wouldn't want me making money from their images being hung on other people's walls.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Your site makes it look like you keep your Epson printer[1] at Magnolia Editions' studio[2,3] in Oakland, CA.

That's a long way from St. Louis, and a long way from your basement.

1\. Your pic: <http://i.imgur.com/Ub3FVCy.jpg>

2\. Studio: [http://www.magnoliaeditions.com/exhibitions/magnolia- edition...](http://www.magnoliaeditions.com/exhibitions/magnolia-editions- studio/)

3\. Same pic: [http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id...](http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1256940781&archive=&start_from=&ucat=39&);

<comment><USER5> I hope Pantastic licensed that photo from Magnolia Editions.

Photographers don't take to kindly to companies using their work without permission.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The photo of the "studio" at the bottom looks like a large industrial space, not the "founder's basement". If that's not really a picture of this company, it's a bit misleading to have it on the web site.

Also, a single-person operation isn't usually called a "team". And while it's impressive that a college student can run a successful business, it's possible that emphasizing this on the web site might scare away potential customers who are businesses with deadlines to meet. Why limit your market unnecessarily?

<comment><USER7> And, it looks like you Really Like Chuck Close.

<comment><USER8> I think that is one of the Pace Prints workshops where a number of Chuck Close works were made. Check out this time-lapse video of one of his pulp pieces: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9R7BzJMxfs>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Great start here, I like what you've done.

Some feedback for improvement:

1) I would break the page up into multiple pages. Keep the homepage simple and let the user click ancillary links if they need to.

2) It says the printing is done in the founders basement, but shows a picture of a printing warehouse. Is your basement a printing warehouse? Honestly not sure here.

3) The textures are distracting, I'd tone them down.

4) A blurred picture of the Golden Gate Bridge is cliche, I'd try something else.

5) The 'What is Pantastic' doesn't really say anything. Statements like "Delivered to your doorstep" (assumed), and #1 quality around (a relative statement with no comparison) don't progress the sale.

<comment><USER10> I second the textures. I think the single page is fine though.

The FAQs are hard to read because the line height is the same for everything.

Agree with another comment that says the end product needs to be shown. I don't care how you create the product or what printer you use, just that the end product looks great.

Great idea and good luck.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The actual page has several conspicuous issues. First, the typeface is consistently too thin. You really ought to be using more robust type weights. Second, there are too many textures that are too profligate. They distract from the actual content and the variations in texture from block to block create a somewhat grating reading experience. Moreover, the texture feels sort of perfunctory: it seems as though you just pulled five gaudy textures from Subtle Patterns.

The actual idea is novel, but I'm not sure how large the demand will be: panorama software (especially on mobile phones) tends to be inconsistant and produces rendering errors, and most everything my iPhone produces isn't fit for large-format display. Moreover, the price is somewhat high. I acknowledge that printing large images is expensive, but this is a non-essential service and is somewhat of a gimmick. It will be hard to convince prospective customers to drop $25 on something like this.

However, the idea is novel and the name is great.

</comment><comment><USER12> I put two together in photoshop and print them at Costco. The Fuji crystal archive paper is fantastic and works out at $4.50 each panorama. They are also more durable, more archival and have the best color matching due to the profiles being downloadable.

</comment><comment><USER13> Amazing: a landing page full of information but not one single picture of the final product.

</comment><comment><USER14> 1) I'm in the UK and can't view the video.

2) Do you ship internationally? You should answer this in the FAQ.

3) Show me an example of the finished product.

<comment><USER12> I don't get people asking to see an example of the finished product? What do you hope to see? It will look like your panoramic photo, obviously. How would showing a photo of a photo print be any use?

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> It took a while to find the price. You should probably make it stand out more so people feel more comfortable when they click "Buy Now"

</comment><comment><USER16> Interesting concept, unfortunate design.. Sorry. In this day and age of web design, you need to be at a different level than this.

<comment><USER12> Really that's it? You just say it sucks but can't offer anything substantive or actionable or even remotely helpful?

<comment><USER16> Yes in fact that is the only thing I have to say. While the concept is interesting, the lack of well done design detracts me from the page and service, leaving me uninterested. You can't tell someone how to design well, its not one specific thing that needs to be changed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Looks nice but uh oh it's sloooow. You probably want to hook into a CDN if you stay on the frontpage for more than a few minutes.

</comment><comment><USER18> Looks great! One thing I did notice is the background image (<http://www.pantastic.co/ggb.png>) loads really slow for me and the design feels a little broken without it. Overall love the look though :)

<comment><USER19> Nice looking site overall.

As others have mentioned - image optimization will help you a lot. Taking a look at firebug Net profiling, the homepage footprint weighs in at 2MB. 500K is your "studio" image, followed by the bridge bg photo at 370K.

So just optimizing these 2 images will reduce your bandwidth by around 660K or 33%. I'm guessing you can do both in 210K (150K bridge, 60K studio = 210K) possibly better.

EDIT: decided to actually fix it instead of just talking about it.

[https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6653594/pantastic-there-i-fixed- it....](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6653594/pantastic-there-i-fixed-it.7z)

studio.jpg photoshop jpg 70 quality ggb.jpg photoshop jpg 80 quality

old: 494k + 369k = 863k new: 64k + 1k + 70k = 135k

savings = 728K or 36% of your total homepage footprint.

Save more by splitting all your polaroid shadows to png, and the photos to jpg 60-80 quality.

Requires html/css change to layout studio image as 2 images stacked on top (separate shadow png)

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks so much! I didn't realize load time would be such a problem

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Good product. Has potential in the right markets. This is something I've touched before, and it makes a fair amount of money. Which market are you aiming for?

Also, publish an API for this. You can get a lot of business with a photo printing API. Don't ask how I know... ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I'm going for the mass consumer market. I think this product will definitely be aimed best at the young professional who wants to decorate a living space and who is somewhat tech-savvy. What markets did you have success with out of curiosity?

Also I have no clue how to do an api lol

<comment><USER21> Drew, Good job with launching this. I'm curious to know how you are printing this - Do you have access to an existing printer (that's shown in the image), or did you actually build up those facilities yourself?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the kind words. I have set up a studio with a high-quality Epson printer with panorama-printing capabilities. If you want to know more details, shoot me an email.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> You are selling. Pricing should be the biggest thing someone wants to look at. I had to revisit the page to find it at the very bottom in FAQ. For a second I thought I had to register my name, email and photo to get the pricing. Definitely something you don't want a user to think.

All in all, like the images and like the fact that you show how it all really works down to the printer and toner.

<comment><USER23> There is a price for it right at the top. Granted, the page took ages to load (could just be the HN load though).

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> A lot of people are complaining about the speed of the site.

They'd be complaining less if they could read the texts before the images were loaded.

A simple way to do this, is to give the areas containing background-images a background-color that's close to the color of the image. This way, if there's text on top (white text for example) it'll be readable BEFORE the image loads.

They'll notice the wait time less.

</comment><comment><USER25> Great idea! One suggestion in terms of design--the FAQs are difficult to quickly scan/read because the line heights are the same for questions and answers. Consider adding additional spacing between Q/A groups for better hinting at where an answer ends and a question begins. Great idea though, and best of luck!

</comment><comment><USER26> Clean. Very clean and easy.

Quick Bug: (Chrome on OS X, haven't checked elsewhere)for your modal (specifically modal.fade.in in bootstrap.css line 5004) you have "top:50%", which causes the very top of the modal to be cut off. Simply bumping it to 60% fixed it. Don't know if anybody else is having this same problem.

Best of luck to you!

</comment><comment><USER27> The "What is Pantastic?" section doesn't really answer the question. Those three points could be applied to almost any decorative item sold online; they don't tell me that you print panoramas that I upload.

I'd also really like some pictures of the finished product.

</comment><comment><USER28> Congratulations. The photo of your physical printing space is a big plus, it shows that you're for real. You could look for ways to highlight that more, and have real people with the final printed product to show its scale and quality.

</comment><comment><USER29> Awesome idea! Maybe have a section on your site to show some of your printed canvas?

</comment><comment><USER30> Hey great job,

the images load quite slowly, so I'd compress them, but it looks great nevertheless!

</comment><comment><USER31> "The uploader did not make this video available in your country" - Way to go!

<comment><AUTHOR> what country? It was a video from CNET...

<comment><USER32> Not available in Canada at least...

<comment><USER33> Working in canada for me

<comment><USER34> Not working in Canada for me :|

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Awesome. I see you're from Houston, which makes me smile. In a world of high speed Internet and amazing cloud options, it's funny that there's a handful of "startup epicenters".

</comment><comment><USER36> There's nothing wrong with being the only employee - if it's just you, say so. Talking in the third person and using 'us' and 'we' is irritating.

<comment><USER37> Irritating to you - reassuring to his/her actual target demographic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Looks great! A little issue with the menu hovering over other text when zoomed @ around 200%. Nicely done though.

</comment><comment><USER39> Congratulations, looks nice! :)

P.S.On a completely unrelated note.. Is Mr. David Veselka Lithuanian?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! haha I'm actually not sure

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I spot Comic Sans (probably a fallback font for @font-face styling?)

</comment><comment><USER41> I like that you have a picture of your studio. great work my man.

</comment><comment><USER42> Why would you not make this video viewable outside of US?

tsk tsk...

<comment><USER35> I think the video is from elsewhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> The body text font looks really bad in Chrome.

<comment><AUTHOR> really? what does it look like? I'm using chrome and I thought it was rendering ok..

<comment><USER44> Chrome on Windows looks janky: [http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=e7y05l&s=6](http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=e7y05l&s=6)

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks hvs, I'll look into it

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Thanks for blocking the video on my zone ...

</comment><comment><USER46> optimize your background images</comment>


Atlassian lets down gr startup TEGames that asked $80 credit due to cap controls - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/TomLautenbacher/status/617811532358000640 <comment><USER2> It's tough to ask for these one time freebie exceptions. I feel like the better route is to get some small loans from folks abroad who will pay on their behalf (one time payment page, paypal, etc.) in exchange for a simple IOU note. Given the small amounts at play here ($80), a verbal IOU should be fine.

<comment><USER3> Reading the exchange, they were not asking for a freebie. They were asking for 2 months grace on paying the bills. Meaning in 3 months, when they had new bank accounts setup and funded, they would pay $120 to catch up on their billing.</comment></comment>


Henry Evans and Chad Jenkins: Meet the robots for humanity - <AUTHOR> http://www.ted.com/talks/henry_evans_and_chad_jenkins_meet_the_robots_for_humanity.html

<comment><AUTHOR> We hacked the Oculus Rift AR Drone control together for Henry. It was a really awesome experience and Henry is great to work with.</comment>