New (revolutionary?) solution for Java memory leak discovery: Plumbr explained - <AUTHOR> http://www.plumbr.eu/blog/screencast-how-to-use-plumbr

<comment><USER2> Everytime I open a report, it hits <http://app.plumbr.eu/decrypt_report> with an encrypted version of the report.

Even if you don't store that information, and even if it is not really useful, you should maybe note somewhere that all the "leak" information is sent to Plumbr servers.

<comment><USER3> RTFM ;)

The info is sent when you click the Decrypt button, and there is an explanation right above the button: "You are running Plumbr with evaluation license, which means that all Plumbr reports need to be submitted to our server to see full details. /---/"

<comment><USER2> True that, sorry for being blind.

Nonetheless, people upvoting my comment probably shows that many people missed that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Neat idea, but not working for me. I tried with with Day CQ5 CMS, and Plumbr starts but it looks like it stops while loading the Lucene indices.

This would have been useful 9 months ago when we were tracking an object leak. Stress tests with AB and monitoring with jconsole combined with reading the code were sufficient to find the problem.

I advise caution, particularly with false-positives (objects with long lifecycles). If it was so easy to find the leaks, the GC would be able to resolve the leak itself.

</comment><comment><USER5> I suppose this only detects intermittent leaks? If a particular class _always_ leaks then this tool would have no frame of reference to detect it, right?

</comment><comment><USER6> Plumbr uses heuristics but no feedback from the user, thus it can't learn: this will give bogus results beyond some project complexity threshold.

<comment><USER3> You are so right, this is indeed what Plumbr lacks at the moment. There are a few possibilities to teach Plumbr already now hacked in, but these are not advertised and we are testing them with users who have had a bigger need for them.

As soon as we learn the best ways to offer this, the "feature" will be packed and released.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This looked pretty neat, but the demo is useless to me - I can't send proprietary data (whatever plumbr captures from my app) to an external server.

So without any way to evaluate the product, I'll be moving on.

</comment><comment><USER8> Really nice. I've used Yourkit profiler quite a few times to solve java memory leaks, but this automated detection seems awesome. Thanks for sharing.

<comment><USER9> How and how often do Java memory leaks actually happen? It's never stricken me as a problem. I guess some kind of global variables are involved.

<comment><USER10> You might, for example, insert an entry into a hashtable and forget to remove it. The garbage collector can't go and clean it up because it can't know whether you plan to use it or not. This way, over time, the memory usage keeps growing.

<comment><USER11> also, as grandparent guessed, static and thread local variables do not have the same lifecycle of the "normal" objects, I've been bitten more than once by some "clever" optimization caching stuff in those places.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Neat :)

</comment><comment><USER13> Detecting memory leaks is easy: run some stress tests before deploying to production! I mean, I don't see the use of this tool. Attach it to a live JVM to detect leaks which shouldn't be there?

<comment><USER14> It tends to be more complex than this for several reasons:

a) you usually cannot simulate the exact behavior of users in production environment. Users tend to be quite creative in ways they approach your workflows and your artificial tests might not catch it b) Your dev/test/staging environment is usually not a 100% replica of the production site - you might lack access to some integrated systems, have different datasets for confidentiality reasons, use virtualized machines instead of physical, etc c) Or anything else which all leads to the sad fact that oftentimes you just cannot replicate the leak in any other env than production.

<comment><USER13> Totally agree and this tool might help in this situations but still I find it more suitable to simply watch the memory usage, which in a sane application, should have a pattern.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Not so revolutionary to me. Won't use such a tool. Smart programming/peer reviewing is the way to go.

<comment><USER15> Can you explain the downvote.... what the hell, i know i could have been commented better, but this is not a reason to downvote.</comment></comment>


Show HN: A GraphQL server that executes multiple queries in a single operation - <AUTHOR> https://leoloso.com/posts/executing-multiple-queries-in-a-single-operation-in-graphql/ <comment><AUTHOR> You can check out this "executing multiple queries in a single operation" thing through the GraphiQL clients on the blog post.</comment>


Im Lainon. AMA - <AUTHOR> pg/dang/stcb are you here? <comment><USER2> Who are you?</comment>


Young Alan Turing and the Arctangent - <AUTHOR> http://angrystatistician.blogspot.com/2015/01/young-alan-turing.html

<comment><USER2> What is " _undercontrained_ "?

<comment><USER3> He means "underconstrained".

In other words, there is more than one function that satisfies the relation f(2x) = f(x) * f(x), so we need to find some more constraints to exactly pin down the Maclaurin expansion of exp(x).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The author seems to have linked to the wrong book as the inspiration for the movie though the author's name is correct.

This is the book I remember seeing named in the credits: [http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turing-Enigma-Inspired- Imitation-...](http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turing-Enigma-Inspired-Imitation- ebook/dp/B00M032W92/)</comment>


What still sucks about front-end web development - <AUTHOR> http://www.pling.org.uk/journal/2013/what-sucks-about-front-end-development/ <comment><USER3> \- Non-semantic HTML

Then why are you using a framework that provides these kind of classes ? dont like the classes , dont use it , or use a semantic CSS framework. You cant complain that tools developed by others that you use for free sucks.

\- JavaScript library management

Same stuff, I'm not sure why people complain about all these freebies today. When I started webdev , all these tools were not given , today there are thousands of them,if they suck roll your own tool,by the way i'm pretty sure you could fix bower yourself.

\- Media Queries

Not sure what you are complaining about. The way other people use media- queries? why do you care?

If you really want to complain about something , complain about the fact that most browser vendors still dont provide headless browsers for instance, or are slow to implement standards that have existed for 10 years, or release browsers will very bad debugging tools, or mark some nasty bugs as "wont fix"... The people that actually make money when a user browse the internet ... complaining about people that try to fix things without having a huge team behind them is a bit selfish.

<comment><AUTHOR> The way we can get better as an industry and professionals is by improving and iterating, and reflecting on the current state of the industry and seeing where we want to go next is part of that. I'd rather improve the tools that already exist rather than re-invent my own.

<comment><USER3> I believe there is something called forking. Instead of complaining , fix the tools yourself and make a pull request.

The current state of the industry is a lot of people are complaining about the freebies they get without contributing back to the open source.

<comment><USER4> Sometimes people can't contribute back to the projects (lack of time, lack of wilingness to create a fork + put a 'marketing page' up and convince others...).

Constructive criticism (like in this article) is a valid way of trying to convince others that a better way is possible. He is cleary stating the use cases he would like the tools to fix.

Shooting down the critic by saying 'so fix it yourself/so fork off/so go code another lib out of the 30 000 that exists' is, on the other end, not constructive. Do you have better arguments?

<comment><USER5> Lack of willingness isn't really an argument for "I can't contribute". It's more of a statement of "I don't want to".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Huge peeve of mine: "non-semantic html" Who cares? Why bother? HTML isn't structured, extracting structured data (or the 'meaning'/'information'/'purpose') from soup is always going to be an inexact fumbling, even with ML or machine vision algorithms.

HTML 5 and it's deluge of new elements - used 100% correctly per the spec - <USER2> still only semi-structured. There are all kinds of ways to interpret what should go inside an 'article' or 'section' or 'nav' element and people do - you just can't trust the hundred million different interpretations of the spec every web developer brings to the mix. Then there is javascript which may make the page completely blank/unreadable if not enabled and, and .... urgh! Stop pretending like it's something that matters to you. It's only good for readability, I guess. Maybe. I'm not advocating going back to tables, but this is such a piffling little nothing to be concerned about. The important problem is can the information embedded in your webpage be easily extracted despite all the noise?

I don't know of any solutions to the tag soup that is HTML besides introducing structured data via microformats:

\- [https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en&ref...](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en&ref_topic=1088472)

\- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microformats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microformats)

\- [http://microformats.org/](http://microformats.org/)

And even that feels like a hack sometimes.

I've started writing a browser that sucks the information out of your webpages and displays it in a very boring, very Web 0.5 kind of way. It's going to have blackjack. And hookers.

RSS is the best thing since sliced bread.

<comment><USER7> _> Who cares?_

I care. Semantic HTML is easier to work with when creating, maintaining, interacting with, or consuming HTML.

<comment><USER8> Within the context of my work, at the level of maintaining and creating the markup col-xs-4 has a much clearer meaning than main-sidebar and it is much more reusable.

It's almost irrelevant from the standpoint of interacting or consuming the markup, and even then there is no injection against telling the world an element is a main-sidebar in addition to being a col-xs-4 which will pull-left and be a list-unstyled.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There has been some discussion as to whether semantic HTML is necessarily the way to go as well.

I don't disagree with point #2 or #3, but I think these are smaller issues in a lot of ways compared to some of the other things I have seen in my short time developing.

</comment><comment><USER10> I decided to take a break from re-working my wife's website (side/for fun project) and stumbled upon this submission. Ironically, I was just wrestling with how to migrate my pure CSS bootstrap implementation to a semantic ui with Less. Bootstrap is NOT built for abstracting away it's implementation details even if you use Less...I can't get rid of a collapsible nav or input-group- addons. I wish I had a mixin for each...

The author is spot on with his concerns, but I think there is one more to the bower equation. Why does the package manger have to pre-build their assets for me to use them? Why can't I use the grunt files associated with the bower project I imported to build my assets? Let's imagine there is a scenario where I create some sort of grunt config which includes/excludes certain bootstrap js files (I'm assuming that 1) grunt allows me to extend/overwrite the package's variables 2) I can chain the grunt builds of multiple dependencies together...then when I build my project, I only get what I configured.

</comment><comment><USER11> There's little point complaining about the current state of front-end development while we're on the cusp of the next generation of front-end technology.

e.g. Non-semantic HTML is avoided with Shadow-Dom + Custom Elements + aria attributes & JavaScript library management is mostly solved by ES6 modules.

<comment><AUTHOR> Semantic HTML is possible now, but the way our tools have been built (and documentation written - e.g., add this class to your element) makes it hard to do the right thing

<comment><USER7> I'm guessing by your name that you are the author. In the post you ask:

 _> why does every single Sass/Less framework suggest first in the documentation that you should write your HTML like this?_

Most major Sass grid frameworks encourage semantic HTML and always have. See, for example, Chris Eppstein stating the rationale behind blueprint-sass in 2008:

 _" The biggest advantage of using the "sassified" version of blueprint is that you can use semantic class names again and stop putting "display classes" in your markup."_ \- [https://groups.google.com/d/msg/blueprintcss/Yyx9PpZpCRA/wq1...](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/blueprintcss/Yyx9PpZpCRA/wq1nRU5gxloJ)

Both Susy ([http://susy.oddbird.net/](http://susy.oddbird.net/)) and Bourbon Neat ([http://neat.bourbon.io/](http://neat.bourbon.io/)) follow in this tradition.

The Foundation and Bootstrap documentation is targeted at people using the generated CSS, which is why they use non-semantic class names. I'm not familiar with Gumby, but there is no good reason for them to encourage non- semantic class names when using SCSS, although presumably they are assuming their main users are similar to the CSS-only users of Bootstrap and Foundation.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's great, I wasn't aware of those frameworks, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> For your qualms about non-semantic HTML, I'd check out Neat ([http://neat.bourbon.io/](http://neat.bourbon.io/)). I've used it a few times and it provides pretty much everything you ask for.

</comment><comment><USER13> > _Did we not learn that table designs are bad because they heavily couple the > design of your page to the meaning of the document?_

Yes.

But lots of people _aren 't creating documents_. They're writing applications.</comment>


Apply HN – Madgigs "Staffing Accelerator" - <AUTHOR> Madgigs is developing a platform for staffing-prenuers to help them realise their dreams of owning their own business.
Madgigs is an "Technology Staffing Accelerator". We have created a platform that leverages crowdsourced insights to focus on markets, clients, products to help a staffing-prenuer build his/her boutiuqe staffing firm.
Our goal: to help ten thousand (10,000) people start their own staffing company and accomplish a $1M (Million Dollars) in revenue in their first 12 months.
Our Value Proposition: Educate staffing-preneuers navigate the firecly competitve staffing landscape and learn all the various factes and nuances of staffing business through insights into clients and talent data; and to stay on risk-averse model that is built for success.
Who is it useful for? staffing-preneurs and wannabes.
How will be measuring our success?
1) signups 2) revenue & profit/signup 3) growth of 1 &2 <comment><USER2> One thing that might be a friction point reading this proposal (it was for me anyway), is that I don't know what a "staffing-prenuer" is, and a quick google search raised more questions then it answered. Is it someone who starts a staffing agency like a restaurateur?

Sorry this might just be me; but I just wanted to let you know.

<comment><AUTHOR> Appreciate your comments. A Staffing-preneur refers to any Technical Recruiters who are entrepreneurs.

Would you have considered the proposal if I simply addressesed them as staffing entrepreuers? Or what would you have addressed them as? Open to suggestions/ideas.

My goal is to democratize entrepreurship amongst Technical Recruiters, especially those that are just out of college and struggling to find a job.

<comment><USER2> Ah I see. I think you can use the term but saying:

> A Staffing-preneur refers to any Technical Recruiters who are entrepreneurs.

At the beginning would have helped me. It's always hard to know whether or not to use or explain buzzwords, but keep in mind proposals might be read by lots of different kinds of people, so it's okay to be cautious.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you qopp. Your suggestion is most definitely appreciated.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I have personally evaluated madgigs website and business model. I found it extremely well designed and well conceptualized end to end solution for all staffing and execution needs -- from recruitment, interview, managing client list and following up on timesheets. A total ERP system for staffing companies

</comment><comment><USER4> Question regarding the goal - helping 10,000 people accomplish $1M in revenue in their first 12 months.

10,000 * $1M = $10B (per year). That is a very big number. It implies that the market you are addressing is at the very least $10B. Could you explain why the market is that big?

<comment><USER5> The staffing industry market is close to $150 Billion. The largest technical staffing firm does over $8 Billion itself. It is a big industry.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The word staffing seems to confuse me. Reading further, helped me understand that its only for technical staffs. I love what you do under value proposition, as data analysis of the current market will be of great guidance.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you Anushaanand.

www.madgigs.com - review of the site as it were today will give you a bit more understanding of the solution/platform.

I could provide more details on the market size and opportunity.</comment></comment>


An Antagonist's Guide To Destroying The Surveillance State - <AUTHOR> http://anarchistnews.org/content/antagonist%E2%80%99s-guide-destroying-surveillance-state

<comment><USER2> Tying your cause to "anti-tech" is a great way to doom yourself to irrelevance. The vast majority of people won't ever side with you.

We techies know we can have tech and freedom too, and that the fight is over good tech, not no tech. Everyone else always picks convenience over privacy and freedom.

<comment><USER3> >Everyone else always picks convenience over privacy and freedom.

yes, convenience is a like a drug, and this is what we, tech, exploit. The resulting disappearance of privacy and freedom is what the author blasts the tech for.

>We techies know we can have tech and freedom too

The users just should use our tech responsibly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > A tech worker with citizenship is able to negotiate pay increases by > threatening to defect to Amazon or Google, but the worker with the H-1B visa > is forever bound to Microsoft under penalty of deportation.

That is definitely not true. An H-1B worker can switch employers, as long as the new employer is willing to sponsor the candidate's H-1B.

The only thing that somewhat "binds" an employee is the Green Card process, which must be reset when switching companies. But even that is not true in all cases, since at a certain point in the GC process one can "port" their application to a new employer with no need to reset the process.

<comment><USER5> It may not be true by the letter of the law, but in practice, it does restrict employee movement.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> First rule of politics: uniting people against something is easy. Actually suggesting alternatives is more difficult.

The author is not an anarchist or an antagonist, they are merely an armchair anarchist.</comment>


On linearity: straight lines, linear operators and the Fourier transform - <AUTHOR> https://abhipray.com/posts/sigproc/linearity/ <comment><USER2> The article gives two definitions of linearity:

1) f(x) is linear if f(x)=(-a2/a1)x-b, and later

2) f(x) is linear if f(x1+x2)=f(x1)+f(x2)

But the function f(x)=x+1 is linear according to (1), but not according to (2). And there is no mention of affine functions, so it's not immediately clear why the same word is used to mean different things.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point, I'll patch it.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for a good article and actually very timely for me as I want to brush up on LA in 2019. From the above comment it sounds like you are the author? I've noted a few potential typos: 1) Length of v, should read length of a? 2) when discussing similarity between vectors you discuss the case of the dot product being 0 or 1, but the dot product could be >1, no?</comment></comment></comment>


#define CTO - <AUTHOR> https://blog.gregbrockman.com/define-cto <comment><USER2> >But universally, "sparse micromanagement" (the best term I've heard for jumping in to some random issue, overturning all the decisions, and then disappearing) is the worst.

Great essay. My favorite term for this is "drive-by micromanagement."

:)

I think it's hard to make "chief architect" work out in the long term--if the role is too weak, it often becomes nothing more than an evangelist; if too strong, it often disempowers the people who are closest to the work.

For figuring out what CTO means in an organization with a VP engineering, you might take some inspiration from Google's organizational history. Google never had a CTO, but they took care to establish ways for highly technical people to have huge impact without being forced onto the management track.

The first was Google Fellow, a level of individual contributor equivalent in to a VP engineering. Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat are good examples; they didn't manage people, but they did work on very hard technologies like GFS, MapReduce, and BigTable that were used by the whole company, and later inspired projects like Hadoop. (In general, I think having a dual career ladder—one for ICs, and one for managers—is a good idea, and the "Fellow" model really just recognizes the fact that the best engineers are worth as much or more than the best managers.)

The second model is essentially skunkworks: leading projects which are high- risk and important to Stripe's future, but far enough outside the main product that you want to treat it almost as a small startup. The first attempt at this were Googlettes, led by Georges Harik, which included projects like GMail, Google Talk, Orkut, and Google Mobile. At the time, those were very distant from search, but as they grew the successful projects became core to the company. The second version is Google X, where they're now expanding into very distant areas that involve hardware, biosensors, self-driving cars, etc. For Stripe, maybe the equivalent is something like cryptocurrencies, or physical payments, or something you've imagined by I haven't. :)

Anyway, thanks for writing. I have a lot of admiration for Stripe's culture and so I hope you all keep blogging about it.

<comment><USER3> I've heard 'seagull management' or something similar too. They fly in, shit all over everything, and leave.

<comment><USER4> you missed step 2 after fly in:

2) loudly squawk

<comment><USER3> Hah, true!

To take the analogy further, sometimes you need to throw some breadcrumbs to keep the seagulls busy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think one of the hardest parts about being an early stage CTO, particularly a founding CTO-by-default, is delegating away your codebase to potentially smarter engineers than yourself while still remaining a highly relevant team member. Not just relevant, but justifiably executive level (which, IMO, writing code is not).

This is an identity crises that deserves more coverage, I think. It is certainly not something the CEO faces in a typical tech startup. The CEO can delegate all day every day. In fact that's really a CEO's end game. The CTO, on the other hand, is expected to be superman.

<comment><USER6> Sometimes I think coding as a CTO is inappropriate; sometimes I think it helps garner a deeper understanding. I go back in forth.

I think the analog for the CEO might be giving up sales, if they were engaged in that early on, which is common.

<comment><USER5> Sales is sort of an analog, but really the CEO's goal is to delegate _everything_ , not just the things that he/she would otherwise excel at. In this sense, the CEO even delegates coding.

The CTO, on the other hand, ought to retain some skilled role or else risk becoming a middle manager. I'd imagine this goes for most other C-level or VP positions that aren't the CEO, so maybe some role comparisons can be drawn against those (e.g. CTO vs CFO).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It was really nice to hear someone else talk about Marc Hedlund (the VPE in the article). I wasn't one of the back channel references, but I would have said the same things: "he's been an amazing influence and mentor for me", "I still keep in touch."

Back when all I did was write code, Marc took me out for lunch and told me, "If you can write code and speak English, then you need to be in leadership."

There's some major hyperbole in that statement. I'm sure I'm not quoting him correctly, but that's how I remember it. Speak English was short hand for likes people & communicates well. I had never considered that having a dual skill set was particularly valuable or that there was a bigger impact to make than just writing really clean code. He really opened my eyes to a bigger world.

And then he followed through by making great connections and being a constant advisor. I've known him for 12 years now and he's the person I always think of when people talk about a career in startups. He's got such a huge network of people that he's helped and that now look to him for advice.

A lot of my career is thanks to Marc. Stripe is really lucky to have him.

<comment><USER8> Marc's definitely the best.

<comment><USER9> Strictly OOC, how well has he done financially, compared to actual founders and early investors?

I often wonder if there's fair compensation for what I would call "Venture Engineering". Do tech gurus join advisory boards, get bits and pieces of equity for sage advice? Or is it all about karma and the satisfaction of helping people?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I have a hunch that one of the good ways for a CTO to still occasionally write some code that delivers significant value for the company is to take on the "little" projects that reduce friction in the internals of the company itself.

Too many companies fail to invest in that kind of software, because its value is less obvious than code that's shipping directly to customers. But I think it's very high-leverage. It's literally reprogramming parts of the business itself.

It's tempting to slice off that kind of work for a new hire, because it's more self-contained and lower risk than your product. But I think that's probably a mistake -- the new hire will learn faster on a product team, and the "little" project will be bigger impact in the hands of someone deeply technical who has a vision for how the company should run.

<comment><USER11> At this point in time I would not work at a company where the cto is coding, unless the entire company is less than 10 people. The managerial job of a cto is huge, so seeing them code is a big indication that management is not fulfilling their responsibilities, or doesn't understand the tremendous and necessary role of good management.

[Response] - I know there are plenty of examples of good and bad CTOs who program or don't program, it's just been my experience that the likely situation resulting from a CTO coding is bad code and bad management. I see programming as something that generally requires full time attention to maintain good context, and _good_ management is equally demanding.

<comment><USER12> Exception: Carmack @ Oculus VR.

<comment><USER13> >>>Exception<<<

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Right on the money. I've come to similar conclusions over the years. You can't be a CTO without writing code. Not all of it, and certainly not the critical parts, but at least some code.

I've been in a company where I stopped writing code — and I found that I just couldn't keep up. I couldn't participate in architectural discussions, couldn't form opinions based solely on what other people told me. Worst of all, I started losing interest.

These days I strive for a healthy balance. It certainly doesn't make sense for a CTO to write code that is needed in production right now, because other duties might make him unavailable anytime. But prototyping, testing new solutions, writing proof-of-concept code, trying out a major refactoring just to see if it works — these things make sense and they allow a CTO to both perform his regular duties and keep in touch with code/technology.

<comment><USER15>
        > I've been in a company where I stopped writing code —
        > and I found that I just couldn't keep up. I couldn't
        > participate in architectural discussions, couldn't form
        > opinions based solely on what other people told me.

Just wanted to add a counter-point; I was CTO for a technical team of ~40 and didn't write code (and joined once the team was already almost that big). While I'm sure I had many failings, I didn't find keeping up with the technology to be any kind of problem, and frequently got involved in the nitty gritty of technical discussions.

I worked with many talented people, but I think was frequently able to make better contributions to the architecture as a direct result of having _not_ been close to the code. Not having any baggage from having not grown up with the company, and from not being day to day at the code-face gave me some altitude, I think.

<comment><USER16> Do you have a way of measuring? One of the companies I worked for was completely sunk by the "chief technical architect", who to the end was convinced he was making the right choices.

<comment><USER15> Measure? No. But I never insisted we did stuff my way, only suggested it, and we often went with it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Nicely written. I find that more often the CTO is connecting people outside the company to technology inside the company, they certainly have a mentorship role to play but Steve Kleiman (CTO at the time of NetApp) once described it as the 'technical headlights' of the company. There are technological changes that can be just as impactful on the company as business changes or changes in taste. One of those I got to witness first hand was the notion that SATA drives were "good enough" for NAS applications (as opposed to expensive FC drives). Getting the company direction changed so that it could intercept that change in the technological landscape was something Steve did quite nicely. And no, it is never as straight forward as saying "Let's do this ..."

</comment><comment><USER18> As I understood it, it is the CTO's role to make sure that the technology supports the business strategy.

It's perfectly fine to have a VP of engineering run day to day management, in this case you have more time to immerse yourself in stripe's business strategy and find and eliminate bottlenecks there.

According to the Stripe team page there are 160 people working there and engineering is the minority of it. I would be surprised if the other functional departments in your company are so optimised that they no longer have issues that technology can help remedy, these issues may accelerate the company or even prevent the company from reaching its objectives. e.g. the executives in charge of a department may lack visibility and have to beg for engineering time to get the analysis they need to do their jobs. Even worse, they may have already stopped asking for these insights and are now operating with limited insight.

A great example of this is Max Levchin his initiative to tackle fraud at Paypal, a core strategic issue for them but it wasn't part of product or engineering.

</comment><comment><USER19> This buys into Titles and Big Company thinking. It even draws on advice from a non-technical VC's blog on "rockstars."

You're far better off just defining people's roles based on what they're capable of, and what the company needs. Having titles bestowed and then filled is backwards and leads to problems.

<comment><USER20> In my mind, titles are indeed the wrong place to start.

Early on, we were pretty structureless — it was the best way to get things done. But as we grew, we found that lack of structure started to get in the way — if everyone feels equally responsible for everything, then either no one or everyone jumps to solve any given problem. So we started specializing, and structures started to emerge or were designed to help support the amazing people we were hiring. I specialized in a lot of the things mentioned in the post.

A great piece of advice I've gotten about organizational change is to make it in two cases: either to formalize what already exists, or to solve a recognized problem that's causing active pain. My becoming CTO was very much the former (putting a word to what was already happening). Hiring in a VP Engineering, in contrast, was the latter.

Titles are one way of quickly summing up a particular specialization, and there are many ways of going wrong with them. But I'm just using them as a convenient handle here: the piece isn't about "someone slapped a CTO label on you, now what?", but instead something more like "you want to be a senior individual contributor as your company grows, how do you stay connected and make a big impact?".

<comment><USER19> With respect, I think you're deluding yourself a bit. The way you've described things, what you've done is hired a VP of Engineering to do most of your old job. It's a big change and you risk creating for yourself a (very boring) Chairman of Technology role if you're not careful.

<comment><USER20> For sure, with any change comes risk, but at a rapidly growing company there's even bigger risk with lack of change. ([http://randsinrepose.com/archives/the- old-guard/](http://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-old-guard/) has some good perspective on this, I think.)

In any case, of things that keep me up at night, falling into a boring role is definitely not one of them :).

<comment><USER19> It sounds like a good environment and you're thinking about the right issues. It will probably work out well. Good luck!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Great retrospective. I saw gdb talk at HN Meetup in London and with very few years on the 'work' clock, I felt he had a much better insight than seasoned vets. Spoke to him briefly after before dashing to get a train and when I followed up with an email he was quick to respond (feel guilty for taking his time now :( ), right to the point and gave really valuable information. I've utilised his tips on how he manages technical debt. From my few interactions, reading his posts and watching Stripe scale he's definitely a rock-star CTO in my books.

<comment><USER22> I saw him speak in Sydney just under a year ago. Coincidentally my biggest take-away was also around tech-debt management. Impressive bloke.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I don't mean this as a troll, and this is largely based on my own understanding of the CTO role, but - how many direct reports does Greg have now? If not many, then I imagine that can contribute to some existentialism around the role.

</comment><comment><USER24> Before I over post here (really got me thinking on the journey home though) one more thing ...

The description of wanting to go back to coding is laced with guilt and uncertainty - and we have all felt it. But it reminds me of Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage - if coding is what you are best at, you should code even if you can do other things (like recruitment) better than some others.

So yes, go back to coding, get a feel for the boat thrumming over the waves again, listen to people's problems in the only way that matters - by sharing them. Your authority is useful but it is not what makes a good CTO else every idiot would be a good one. You aren't supposed to know the answers - enjoy the journey of discovery and speak not because you think you the CTO should weigh in, but because you the hacker feels it.

Ok, Time to stop pontificating, that's enough posts on one thread:-)

</comment><comment><USER25> Great Post.

If you are in NY (or Melbourne, Sydney) and are interested in becoming a better technical leader, whether CTO or VPE, or lead dev, please check out the CTO School Meetup We discuss topics relevant to technical leaders with both educational and networking components.

[http://www.ctoschool.org/](http://www.ctoschool.org/)

[http://www.meetup.com/ctoschool/](http://www.meetup.com/ctoschool/)

We've been doing it in various forms since 2010, and have about 1500 members in NYC, most of them in various positions of technical leadership.

(ONLY people with technical background can be members).

<comment><USER26> Nice! Just submitted my application.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> One thing I have not tried, yet seems viable, is instead of frequent 1:1's (which only really matter when there is a personal problem) is something similar to the Oxbridge Tutorial (small group of students sit with Professor and discuss problems at hand.)

I think this approach could hear fruit as it moves the discussion from "how are you feeling" and onto "let's have an open but focused discussion on the problems facing us - not writing code but thinking first and foremost"

When me or my teams think first, things always flow better.

It's rather an indictment of me that I miss it and want to try it again ...

<comment><USER27> That's basically a sprint retro, no?

<comment><USER24> Not the way I am thinking of it. A retro is more what went wrong / right with our interactions in the team or outside team. It's rarely in my experience a technical what if discussion

I am thinking more a way of allowing a single CTO to engage regularly with individuals, less time consuming than 1:1, more free flowing and technically focused - a discussion on what are good or bad or crazy approaches.

Again the main things not to do are give the answers nor set deadlines. That's for the team / coders to do.

I think I see a blog post sized comment coming so will stop now :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Thanks for posting this. One question I have is this: When, as the CTO, you approach an engineer with the intent on coding together or otherwise building some system, are there not organizational challenges with an executive working with a subordinate? I realize that this has been tremendously beneficial to you, but I wonder how this works mechanically--do you just say, "Hey Jeff, let's build this together."? I have to imagine that if you're ever wrong technically, an individual contributor-level engineer might hesitate to tell you.

<comment><USER29> I would suspect that their culture has evolved in a way that allows people to point out the CTO that they are wrong.

If he has always been involved and close to his team then pointing errors would feel more like giving feedback to a peer rather than giving feedback to a superior.

<comment><USER24> Yes, but it is a very difficult line to walk.

The difference between "have you considered using X?" and "I tell you to use X", the difference between "can we hit date Y?" And "we must hit date Y so start cutting corners"

Authority as a position is a difficult stick to carry - if you are telling people "my way or the highway more than once of twice a _year_ " you are over doing it.

"I feel uncomfortable with this architecture" or "this will take longer than you hope" are all indicators you are doing it right. Stop hearing those and you should worry.

<comment><USER20> I think a lot of these cultural questions require you to say over and over what's important, and demonstrate that you really mean it. I always ask people what they think, and when I sense hesitance I work to draw them out. In the end a lot depends on your relationship with the individual; I make sure to spend time getting to know every engineer who joins.

More broadly, one point Marc often makes is, if someone does something you don't like/disagree with, let them know directly. (There are some exceptions to this, and sometimes it's helpful to role-play with a manager to get some practice before doing so, but we work hard to make direct feedback a core part of Stripe.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I used to use the idea of a head chef as an analogy to CTO (well ok I had itmanagerscookbook.com - back in the day when IT manager meant what it said.)

Anyway Basically a chef must be able to _cook_ and well, but their role is much more teaching and training people in how to do excellent cooking _whilst fitting in around this kitchen_.

I like this article ("I started doing things I thought were missing like culture") and I wish we could get a more useful definition of CTO rolling - something like a wiki editable only by good CTOs explaining the role to new ones.

<comment><USER20> Yeah, I think one of the biggest shocks about the role is how little documentation there is on being a CTO. (Contrast that with the CEO role, where you can read Andy Grove, Ben Horowitz, Fred Wilson, etc..) I'd love to see other people talking about their experiences: I think many of us are going through the same struggles.

<comment><USER24> It's almost like a starter pack...

I am convinced we are entering an age of 'software literacy' similar to the literacy explosion after Gutenberg. And that era generated organisations that learnt to follow written policy - this time around the policy will be executable. So it's not a major stretch to imagine a younger version of you downloading the equivalent of Grove or Welch's GitHub and running their recruitment process with the same code - sort of like an executives dot-emacs.

Ok maybe it is a stretch, but at some point our companies processes will be programmable - and that means shareable.

<comment><USER30> Everyone can learn to read but only some are capable of learning to program. [http://blog.codinghorror.com/separating-programming-sheep- fr...](http://blog.codinghorror.com/separating-programming-sheep-from-non- programming-goats/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> There's a chapter in HBR's On Managing Yourself called, "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time," by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy.

Briefly, it is about having rituals and behaviours in place such as: getting enough sleep, doing cardio at least 3 times a week, have small snacks every 3 hours, take brief but regular breaks at 90- to 120- minute intervals 'away from the desk.'

I'm sure these are obvious, but they are easily dismissed or forgotten. There's a lot more in the essay, so it's worth taking a peek.

</comment><comment><USER32> Twenty plus 1-1s, means twenty plus direct reports.

No wonder the guy was burnt out. That number is simply not manageable in any worthwile way.

The rest of the article just reads like someone is CTO purely because when he joined.

The friction with the VP in terms of how the VP executed hints at someone a little out of there depth maybe.

<comment><USER15>
        > The rest of the article just reads like someone is CTO
        > purely because when he joined.

I disagree. I joined my last role as CTO in a slightly bigger team, taking over from someone who hadn't put in a very good structure. I found the article to be thoughtful and insightful, having gone in to it with the suspicion it was going to be another CTO at a 7 person company self-aggrandising.

        > The friction with the VP in terms of how the VP executed
        > hints at someone a little out of there depth maybe.

If you're not out of your depth at least a little bit in your role, then it's probably time to be looking for a promotion. If you're a pure developer (and want to stay that way) it's time to find some harder problems, and if you've segued in to management, it's time to start thinking about how to do your boss's role.

<comment><USER33> > If you're not out of your depth at least a little bit in your role, then > it's probably time to be looking for a promotion. If you're a pure developer > (and want to stay that way) it's time to find some harder problems, and if > you've segued in to management, it's time to start thinking about how to do > your boss's role.

Very well said, I think complacency is killer and thinking about how much you need to challenge yourself to move up the ranks is always a good think to reflect on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> > We then set up interviews with Marc: four days of back-to-back 1:1 or 1:2 > meetings with everyone on the team from 10a-6p, as well as a talk to the > whole company.

When the article says Marc had become available, should we assume he wasn't working at the time? That just seems way over the top. I can't imagine asking any serious/heavyweight candidate to 'interview' that way in the UK. I'm curious to know what others think.

<comment><USER35> A 32-hour interview? That's insane. It's completely irresponsible of a company to ask that of anyone.

<comment><USER36> Pretty much insane. I'm not sure if they asked this from their other candidates but if they did, they probably eliminated 99% of all the other great candidates just because they would refuse to waste a week of PTO just to deal with this request.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Being as cynical as I am, my immediate thought was that the title was a summary of the article:

        #define CTO

i.e., "CTO" means nothing at all.

<comment><USER20> Maybe that's secretly the point of the post — the CTO title itself isn't going to magically provide meaning for you :).

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> How to define the role of CTO is a question which has been asked for many years, and there are some "general" answers. I would recommend two things.

First, read these two articles. They're older, but provide some answers into how others have defined the role. You might be able to pick and choose to further define your role:

[http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring12/cos448/...](http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring12/cos448/web/readings/smith.pdf)

and

[http://www.brixtonspa.com/Career/The_Role_of_the_CTO_4Models...](http://www.brixtonspa.com/Career/The_Role_of_the_CTO_4Models.pdf)

Second, I think right now it's best to look laterally into the business world as to your role. You are essentially the "CEO" of your company's technology realm. The VP of Engineering is the "COO". Look and talk to your business-side counterparts on how they handle their roles.

Your job is to work with the business to develop both business and technical strategies, and oversee the development of the technical architecture to get you there. To monitor competitors technology. To monitor emerging technologies. To prototype. To provide business and technical analysis and advice for M&A's.

The VP Engineering's role is to handle the day to day stuff. To be more tactical than strategic.

In the end, the role of CTO is still ambiguous, meaning different things to different companies. And it's changed in the past few years--I'd never heard of developers being in the CTO role until maybe five years ago or so--and it will continue to change.

</comment><comment><USER39> The CTO role is completely different depending on size of company. Here is my experience.

Startups: <10 I have had roles in small start-ups as CTO, but did the role of a Lead Developer in reality, it was important to get investment that they had a CTO on board that had a track record and could talk to investors, but I still had to build everything as well. Thinking back it would have been better to get a 2 day a week CTO and a full time Lead dev.

Mid Size:10>40 In a company this size with a dev team of 10ish its more of a Development Manager Role, this is some times worst than a startup as you have to be hands on, speak to investors and run a team.

Larger:>50 This is where a real CTO can really make a different, by this size you would have a couple of functional managers as your direct reports to look after day to day and get the time to focus on culture, team, investors, new tech, presentations etc.

</comment><comment><USER40> What I enjoy most about Greg's writing is the honesty. Here is someone who appreciates that software is a relatively young industry and many best practices are still a work-in-progress.

<comment><USER41> The age is not a problem. Speed is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> At Magnetic ([http://www.magnetic.com](http://www.magnetic.com)) - we've implemented a policy of code review - maybe you could participate on some code reviews in one part of the code base - reading code isn't as fun as writing code, but at least you could still feel part of the codebase and have influence.

</comment><comment><USER43> I think for CTO architectural discussions and code reviews are better than writing code.

But code review should not be done alone. It should be review and discussion with the developer who committed that code.

</comment><comment><USER44> This is so true. Moreover, our industry moves so fast that if your not in the dirt and on the ground for more than a year... it's hard to catch-up. Another things, is that I see some technical people move up so quick that they are never seasoned and thus end up making high level (architect) choices -- with alot of issues. I am not sure how other industry do it, for example, in medicine when someone becomes head of the hospital or something like that.

</comment><comment><USER45> I recall reading somewhere of companies that split the CTO role into two, internal and external. I can see this. The internal CTO is primarily focussed on the technology and product, while the external one mostly talks to customers.

</comment><comment><USER46> Does John Carmack (one of the true legends among great programmers) still write code? If yes, then it will be intriguing to find out how he manages to do that while being CTO at Oculus.

<comment><USER47> I was curious, too, so I asked him:

>@ID_AA_Carmack Do you still write code in your day-to-day work?

>@sircmpwn yes, most of my time is spent writing code

[https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/527173010219102210](https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/527173010219102210)

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Manages the technical team. Provides direction on infrastructure, tool chains, architecture goals. Hires and fires.

</comment><comment><USER49> Site is down. Cached:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Nz1ajuW...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Nz1ajuWmOVwJ:https://blog.gregbrockman.com/define- cto+&cd=1&hl=da&ct=clnk)

<comment><USER20> Hm, what error were you seeing?

Assuming it was a 404: the setup is a bit weird since I changed the slug early on and added a Cloudflare-level rewrite to keep the old one working, but the Cloudflare rule was doing an exact string match. So if you went to something like "[https://blog.gregbrockman.com/define- cto?"](https://blog.gregbrockman.com/define-cto?"), it would 404, while "[https://blog.gregbrockman.com/define- cto"](https://blog.gregbrockman.com/define-cto") worked fine.

Just updated the rule to have a wildcard at the end, so feel free to append query strings galore :).

<comment><USER50> https failure for me. http works, but Chrome reports: Error code: ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH

<comment><USER20> Ah interesting. I'm running on Cloudflare's free SSL tier (have been very curious to see how well it performs). What browser are you on?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> would be much more convenient if the article would say in the beginning what it is about...

</comment><comment><USER52> Changing the title from the original "#define CTO" to "Define CTO" does not seem particularly helpful to me.

<comment><USER53> We changed it back.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> _I also talked with a bunch of people who had worked with him previously, some of whom were references given to me by Marc and some of whom were backchannel._

[Edited to be less confrontational.]

That's reckless and unethical. I'm sorry, but if you make reference calls that aren't provided, you're engaging in the kind of invasive, fratty, white-male- privilege shit that gives Silicon Valley a bad name. It's also why we, in the technology ecosystem, don't have the credibility to get the rest of society to respect us and get some genuinely competent business people (see: Damaso Effect) in our mix. We let immature psychopaths get away with shit, and the rest of the world (rightly) thinks we're all a bunch of sexist, classist, oblivious tools.

Also, going beyond the "classic 3", in reference checking, backfires. Average people can provide 3-5 references, but the people who can survive a double- digit, backchannel reference check are mostly the ones who bought references (it's a real thing) and intimidated people into saying good things about them. Somewhere around 6-8, the empirical relationship between the number of references and the quality of candidate actually goes the other way, because you exclude more unlucky good guys than you filter out bad guys (i.e. unethical people you'd want to not hire, and hope to filter out by checking references). The worst of the bad guys almost always have their act together.

<comment><USER55> I think when you hire someone who is a manager, you have to do this kind backchannel reference makes sense, otherwise you get someone who is not experienced at all in managing people but pretends to have done it already.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> Sorry to comment on only the subject and not the content, but "#define CTO" just makes sure that CTO is recognized as something but makes it completely empty. All it's good for (standard C pattern) is asking "#ifdef CTO" and then it will happily reply: yes there is a CTO, just don't try to use it! Actually this does fit in nicely with the article, but to be pedantic maybe a typedef would have been better!

<comment><USER57> My thoughts exactly. I thought it to be oddly correct, regarding the way CTOs like to use technical jargon in a way that does not throw off the layman, but is immediately obviously wrong to anybody of their unfortunate inferiors.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Workspaced – A weekly newsletter featuring creative workspaces - <AUTHOR> http://workspaced.com <comment><AUTHOR> I'm excited to be starting Workspaced, a free weekly newsletter that will bring you inside the workspaces of people doing cool things! The newsletter will be sent once per week, starting this Wednesday.

There are some awesome workspaces in the pipeline but if there are any specific workspaces you'd like to see let me know!

</comment><comment><USER2> Curious if there is sample content.

<comment><USER3> Me too. I'd like to see some sample content before signing up.</comment></comment>


Show HN: little tool you can use to discover feeds in bulk - <AUTHOR> http://www.nostonepr.com/feedfinder.php

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a silly little tool I made for myself. I thought it might be useful for someone else as well.</comment>


Blue Screen: Teenage hacker tries to save the world but accidentally destroys it - <AUTHOR> https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Screen-Peter-Gustafson-Defragmented-ebook/dp/B084GHLYSX/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= <comment><USER2> Is the title a spoiler for the book?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes but I've found a lot of people don't seem to know what the word 'defragment" means.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate and from what? - <AUTHOR> I think it's time for a follow up / new thread. Previous threads:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8629919 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4467603 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2567487 <comment><USER2> Around $40K/month

* [https://www.improvely.com](https://www.improvely.com) \- Pure SaaS, with most of the revenue coming from agency customers on higher end plans

* [https://www.w3counter.com](https://www.w3counter.com) \- Ad-supported freemium. 99% of the users are on a free plan and see a couple banners around their reports. A couple hundred users pay to remove the ads and get other features.

* Recurring commissions from affiliate programs. Mainly from personally referring other small business owners to a good merchant account provider for credit card processing and a web hosting company. They both do a revenue share where I get a percentage of each referral's monthly fees.

<comment><USER3> Care enough to share:

1- How did you start?

2- % of Revenue are you getting from W3Counter?

<comment><USER2> > How did you start?

Early 1990s, writing HTML tutorials on a site I called "Website Goodies". I learned HTML myself from a GeoCities site. I had ads on there from the start, from TeknoSurf AdWave (now Advertising.com), ValueClick (now Conversant), and IIRC briefly some kind of ads from Microsoft bCentral (defunct). Enough to pay for the domain and web hosting, and eventually enough to buy a computer of my own and cable internet from @HOME under a parent's name.

WSG started with articles (outdated and long gone now), then I started adding "tools" as I learned to program. Originally they were all CGI scripts written in Perl with text files for storage. Later PHP and MySQL after reading Kevin Yank's tutorial, which was later picked up by SitePoint as a book, now on its 4th edition. I made hosted guestbooks, a banner rotator, a hosted hit counter, things like that. At some point I came to know of hosted web analytics tools. This was long before Google Analytics, and the cool looking ones were B2B products that cost way more than I could afford.

I made my own web stats program. Each website got a separate log table with a couple hundred rows before I purged old entries. Real-time reports based on querying that log for the top pages, top referrers, etc. I learned to use PHP and GD to draw numbers on images, made a bunch of counter backgrounds in Paint Shop Pro, and offered customizable counters that doubled as the tags for logging to the database for the reports. At some point I decided to move it to its own domain, and chose W3Counter for world wide web counter.

By that point I had just graduated high school. Got serious about earning enough to pay bills, started a bunch of e-commerce sites. That's when I found a need for e-commerce conversion tracking, and being too cheap to pay for it, made another analytics tool for that. Eventually rewrote it and tried to sell it SaaS as the poorly named "W3ROI". Learned from the couple dozen people I got to try it, started over from scratch in 2012 and Improvely was the result.

<comment><USER4> Just came to say, I think some of my understanding of HTML may have come from WSG, and that I remember the name from the early 2000s, about the time I was learning HTML. I also remember messing with the CGI scripts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> currently around $20k/month from [http://park.io](http://park.io)

I don't know if it is technically "recurring" because it isn't subscription- based, but it is consistent and growing each month since I started one year ago

<comment><USER6> That's awesome! Any insights on how you did marketing for this service?

<comment><USER5> I haven't really done any marketing - most users find it from either parked domains or word of mouth

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> We are currently at $392/month from 3 customers who has signed on as early bird users on the TimeBlock method, we wrote the first line of code mid march, after 1 month of interviews with potential customers.

Besides being a tool to do project management easier than in trello, it is primarily a new methodology that helps Makers and Managers understand their differences and their needs.

The method helps Makers be in flow by teaching Managers to leave them alone, help minimize procrastination by helping Makers divide projects and plan their week, thereby increasing their internal motivation.

Sign up for our launch list and read more at [http://timeblock.com](http://timeblock.com)

Edit: Changed the number, signed on a new customer :)

<comment><USER8> I'm sorry, but please, please, PLEASE, do not hijack scrolling. There is no reason for it, it's distracting, often fucks up mobiles. I mean no disrespect, just don't do it. Cool product!

<comment><USER7> Uhm, I do not understand what you mean by hijacking scrolling? Could you elaborate, perhaps on email anders at timeblock.com

<comment><USER9> Agreed, the page loads, shows data, then goes completely blank for 1-2 seconds while the scroll bars load. Safari 8.0.6 OS X Yosemite.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Set to make $10-15 this month from Adsense!

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

</comment><comment><USER11> For me it's around $1600-$1800/month [https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/cobbysoft-media- inc./id40...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/cobbysoft-media- inc./id408648577) A portfolio of paid apps. Most of them were created to scratch my own itches. I was learning saxophone at the time and couldn't really find a fingering chart software that can play the exact notes and vice versa. One thing lead to another, that's how it all began.

[http://www.optimalplugins.com/](http://www.optimalplugins.com/) Branching out to wordpress plugins. Speaking of which, I think the headline generator is a really awesome plugin for any blogger. Just need some help to scale the marketing part.

[http://www.stickynotespro.com/](http://www.stickynotespro.com/) A tiny SaaS working in progress :). My mind is always coming up with ideas and I usually write them down in sticky notes or in the note app. However, being a visual person, I need to see the post it to make things happen. If some one cover the sticky notes with a blanket, the task will never get done. Creating this site to store big ideas digitally and have the ability to see all the sticky notes on demand.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm making close to $100 from DigitalOcean Referrals every month. I'm one of the early adopters who get paid via Paypal for referrals, rather than getting paid in Hosting Credits. I've already made more than $1500 in commissions.

Around $30 from Madmimi Referrals every month (They have recurring 25% commission with a max cap of $10000). I've made around $600 in commissions.

My Affiliate links if you want to sign up for any of the two services:

DigitalOcean - [https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=4d7fb2079a96](https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=4d7fb2079a96) Madmimi - [https://madmimi.com/short_ref/iMk](https://madmimi.com/short_ref/iMk)

</comment><comment><USER13> Another request to add to OP's post - could you also add how you got started, especially if it is SaaS? Meaning, how did you get the idea first for your service/product?

<comment><USER7> I got the idea to [http://timeblock.com](http://timeblock.com) without knowing it :)

January 5th this year I did another adjustment to how we worked in my consultancy. Another bc. I have been trying all kind of stuff for many years, leaning on NetFlix, Valve software and many others who are trying to remove management, control and rules.

After three weeks I noticed I had started to sleep better than I had since I started my business in 1998. I told my accountant about what I was doing now and he was very excited, this made me think that I better tell some more about this.

The next company I told about the TimeBlock method switched to it within 36 hours, this made me realize that I was onto something. I then used a month to talk to potential users until I was sure that I had something. This something is TimeBlock.

<comment><USER13> Thank You for the answer.

wow, that must be a nice feeling to solve their problems :)

For someone who is just a programmer, how do I find such problems?

<comment><USER7> Your welcome, and yes it is nice and gratifying (and quite a bit scary) to have invented something that people start using after 45 minutes introduction.

In the beginning I thought it had to be a fluke, so I tested it more and more, pushing then envelope and finally asking customers to pay for a beta product.

They said "ok", which was even scarier, because now we had to deliver!

I found the problem when I stopped looking for it - I have been reading the zenhabits "letting go" book many times (six at last count) and part of finding something worthwhile to work on was stopping to search for "the thing"(tm) and start looking at what was around me.

When you stop forcing yourself to get an idea and start looking with an open mind and open eye you start noticing stuff that others do not, and perhaps you might even discover something that is right for you to spend some time on

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> £10-20 per month. I am _so_ living the dream right now.

£10 comes from my very first paying SaaS customer for Storytella[0].

The remaining £0-10 comes from self-publishing my fiction through Amazon KDP.

[0] [https://storytel.la/](https://storytel.la/)

</comment><comment><USER15> $200 per month from Google Adsense

[http://portchecker.co](http://portchecker.co)

</comment><comment><USER16> @andersthue, which book are you referring to ?

<comment><USER7> It's the "letting go ebook" from Leo Babauta : [http://zenhabits.net/lg/](http://zenhabits.net/lg/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> $2,550 a month from a rental property.</comment>


Khronos Group's OpenGL ES 3.0 should lead to more console-like games on mobile - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/06/khronos-group-opengl-3-0/ <comment><USER2> Is there a high-level changelog / "what's new" overview available somewhere for OpenGL ES 3.0?

<comment><USER3> The spec is here (PDF): [http://www.khronos.org/registry/gles/specs/3.0/es_spec_3.0.0...](http://www.khronos.org/registry/gles/specs/3.0/es_spec_3.0.0.pdf)

Appendix E on p312 has a list of new features.</comment></comment>


Policing, Mass Imprisonment, and the Failure of American Lawyers - <AUTHOR> http://harvardlawreview.org/2015/04/policing-mass-imprisonment-and-the-failure-of-american-lawyers/ <comment><USER4> There's all this discussion of these issues, which relate to racism, economic issues, police brutality, crime, etc.

They seem complicated and nuanced and people throw their hands up and say well what can we do. The answer to that question is actually so simple you can say it in four words:

 __End the drug war. __

Someone far more eloquent than me, The Wire creator David Simon, can flesh that out a little:

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/rweb/commentary/want-to-fix- ba...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/rweb/commentary/want-to-fix-baltimore- end-the-drug-war-says-david- simon/2015/04/29/696c2063a2386c61999ad0ae2f96956d_story.html?tid=kindle-app)

<comment><USER5> I'll agree that the drug war is out of control and as a "cure" it's worse than the disease. But people are not being locked up just because they are black, or poor. They are committing crimes, and pleading or being found guilty. The problem I have with pieces like the original article are that they are making it sound like we are engaging in a Gestapo-like rounding up of large numbers of minorities for _no reason_ and throwing them in jail.

By blaming the war on drugs we are also completely ignoring the other elephant in the room, and that is the massive breakdown in family structure that has occurred amongst the impoverished.

This is particularly the case for African-Americans but I don't claim that it's a racial thing, directly. It's part of the cycle of poverty. In DC, which is a large focus of the original piece, over half of babies are born out of wedlock. For African Americans it's close to 70%.

With no parents working, and fathers typically absent, children do not learn the behaviors and responsibilities that are required to be a productive and self-supporting member of society. They then perpetuate this in subsequent generations. Our "war on poverty" has, like the war on drugs, been a failure. The poverty rate in 1965 was about 15%, same as today, with trillions of dollars spent.

The war on drugs funds a massive effort to catch and punish drug dealers and users. So of course that happens. The war on poverty rewards disfunctional, irresponsible, and self-destructive life choices.

You get what you pay for.

<comment><USER6> The problem isn't that we're throwing them in jail for _no reason_. The problem is we aren't throwing non-poor non-minorities in jail for the same reasons.

Most friends of mine regularly do drugs. Even the self made multi millionaires. None of them have been to jail. They aren't subject to the random ass searches like the poor are.

If things were different - if the millionaires were treated with the same suspect, you bet your ass these laws would change.

But they aren't. So the laws stay the same. And that's a problem.

<comment><USER7> Growing up I lived in a town where there were hippy dealers and there were dreadlock dealers. They both got harrassed pretty evenly and the users I knew also would get stopped and issued summonses for small possession. The police would also confiscate beer in the car, etc. They were nice enough not to cite us for underage drinking, but I think the police were busy with the car thieves and guys testing out the small time illegal arms trade.

So if the police get complaints from neighbors they respond to that. If your rich neighbors tolerate your coke addiction, they don't come knocking. If you have a noisy neighbor who complains they do come knocking. Police respond very much to community complaints, from my experience with them growing up.

Whenever the police came to "bust" activities, it was mostly due to neighbors calling in "suspicious activity" I.e. Underage drinking and weed.

<comment><USER8> >> it was mostly due to neighbors calling in "suspicious activity" i.e. being black

FTFY

<comment><USER7> We were middle and lower middle class, a majority non black with a few blacks who acted like other middle class kids in the burbs. So in our case it was "underage drinking teenagers" in places we "should not be".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > The United States has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's > prisoners.

This sums it up for me.

<comment><USER10> I find it disturbing how those two tiny stats "sum" it all up for you, yet you make no mention of the third and elusive stat that makes the biggest difference of all:

"The percentage of criminals in the United States"

Like I said, drawing and inference from the two stats you posted is disturbing because both of those stats say nothing of the actual amount of valid criminals/lawbreakers.

<comment><USER11> _> "The percentage of criminals in the United States"_

Not sure how this is really an additional fact. If you defined criminals in the sense of "criminals as defined in the US", you have almost by definition a direct correlation to the number of prisoners.

BTW, here in Germany we also have politicians who think that Europe's criminals concentrate in Germany. Probably every country has some people believing that all criminals come to them. The difference between countries is how much influence those voices have.

<comment><USER10> The point I'm making is that it's implicit that they are "not" criminals by virtue of there being such a huge discrepancy. This needs to be addressed in a clear, and concise manner instead of making sweeping generalizations about the discrepancy.

<comment><USER12> Who is 'criminal' is fairly arbitrary in many cases. Say you sell some hash to a friend. Legal in some states, can lead to 30 years in some others, generally not a huge crime in the sense of harming others.

<comment><USER13> Find me one specific example of a person in state or federal prison for small time marijuana dealing or possession. No other crimes involved. Doesn't happen.

Often, the DA will structure a plea bargain on drug or weapons posession (over a long list of more serious charges) because those are very easy to prove.

This idea that the prisons are full of good guys caught up in the system is detached from reality. Most guys doing hard time are guilty of about twenty other things that they haven't been prosecuted for.

<comment><USER14> Three strike laws in certain states can result in long prison sentences despite relatively minor crimes being committed - including simple possession - [http://www.lao.ca.gov/2005/3_strikes/3_strikes_102005.htm#cr...](http://www.lao.ca.gov/2005/3_strikes/3_strikes_102005.htm#crim) justice system

Furthermore black offenders receive sentences that are longer than white offenders - [http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241278873244320045783044...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324432004578304463789858002)

And white people are significantly less likely to be arrested for drug possession, despite usage rates being fairly similar - [https://www.aclu.org/news/new-aclu-report-finds- overwhelming...](https://www.aclu.org/news/new-aclu-report-finds-overwhelming- racial-bias-marijuana-arrests)

A prisoner deserves to be sentenced for the crime they were convicted of, not for any possible crimes that we think they may have committed. To behave otherwise is completely antithetical to a society that supposedly values justice

So no, prisons aren't "full of good guys", but they're full of people serving sentences that are longer than any rational policy would dictate who have been prosecuted in a system that has been shown time and again to have deep issues with bias and inequality.

Not to mention the violence and overcrowding endemic in the prison system. It should be a source of national shame that it has continued this long without real reform.

<comment><USER13> > white people are significantly less likely to be arrested for drug > possession, despite usage rates being fairly similar

This is an oft repeated lie. Blacks use narcotics at well over double the white rate. Claims that rates are similar are based on surveys, as opposed to test data.

Anyway, you are missing the point here that prosecutors know exactly who they're convicting. Sentences now are almost all plea bargains. They get serious criminals to plea out on narcotics charges rather than go to court and face the full set of charges and a 25 year sentence. They don't even bother prosecuting some kid with some drugs. This is how the system works. It may be problematic, but it's not as broken as naive people assume.

<comment><USER15> You point to data (not really, no sources) You ignore alcohol usage entirely. You generalize the behavior of all prosecutors, without data again. And you seem think you are not naive and that in some way the system is "working"...

System works to what end ?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> In the US, back in 2007, I met some dutch guys, aged 20 and 21, the 20 y/o just spend a night in jail because he was drinking in a bar. He didn't even realize, back home he was drinking legally for over 4 years (and for drinking before the age of 16 there was no real punishment). We had a good laugh, "they must have a lot of jails here" we said.

Lately the government is becoming more firm here (the Netherlands) as well. Beer drinking is now legal only from age 18 and up and serving minors is punishable by law now, a bar owner pays 1360 euro the first time but may risk closure of the establishment. Drinking in private is never punishable. For public drinking (but not for being drunk) the fine is 90 euros, 45 when below age 16. If you are sick from alcohol you will never be punished as it may be inhibiting for seeking help.

<comment><USER17> In the US if you go to the hospital for alcohol related symptoms and you are under 21, you are essentially guaranteed to get an arrest ticket for underage drinking.

Yes this is inhibiting for seeking help.

[edit] See replies, this isn't universally true.

<comment><USER18> There may be some jurisdictions in the US where this is true, but it doesn't seem to be _generally_ true. As this kind of thing is a matter of state law and local agency practice, there probably is _no_ valid generalization one way or the other on the level of "in the US".

<comment><USER17> For the 3 towns in 3 different states I have lived in, this is true. I accept that this is a very small number of data points.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I've been "stopped and frisked" in France before, and it didn't seem out of the ordinary at the time. I just assumed random identity checks was part of the police's job. So I wonder how other countries' laws compare to the U.S. when it comes to random checks like this.

And of course, it happened maybe twice in my life, not a couple times a week.

<comment><USER20> IIRC, in Austria, police CAN ask you about your name and home address at any time, and they can even bring you to the police office if they don't believe you and you don't have an ID to prove it. Even though we don't have an "Ausweispflicht" like Germany, having an ID with you can be a good thing in this situation.

They are not allowed to search you without a reason (In theory. I heared that they might just say "I think I smelled cannabis" and then they have a reason.)

Disclaimer: IANAL, and maybe I got some details wrong.

<comment><USER21> "Ausweispflicht" in Germany only means you have to own an id card or passport, not that you must carry it all the time.

<comment> maze-le Yes, that is true. Interestingly most Germans I know don't even know that, and think everyone has to carry an ID with them. This is really a common misconception.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I completely agree that we overcriminalize things and imprison far too many people in the U.S. I'm 100% on-board with this. It's our shame the way we treat non-violent offenders. A disgrace.

But guys, nothing is ever 100% one way or the other, no matter how much you support it. So you have to look at differing points of view -- unless the objective is just to have a good rant.

Here are the things that come to mind reading this:

\- Yep, highest incarceration rates ever. Also violent crime has been dropping to unheard-of lows and the country is safer than it ever has been

\- Prisons are not about justice or reform. [insert really long discussion here]. Political systems exist and function for political reasons. Therefore the prison system is made and maintained to keep society together. They don't put the guy who killed you friend in the electric chair because of justice. They do it so you don't kill him yourself, or have a lifelong vendetta against both him and the system.

\- This piece is written by a lawyer. Do not expect it to fairly talk about all of the options. It's invective; well-written, emotional, powerful invective. The goal is to make you turn off your brain and feel a certain way. Treat it as such.

\- Although this is targeted at lawyers, whatever failings there are? Most likely a result of judges and elected officials -- in other words, the public. If the public wants something, and it wanted harsher sentencing, it gets it. That means changes need to occur with the electorate, not elite legal minds

\- If the system is broken, it's broken. Toss out all of that racism stuff, it's a red herring. People shouldn't have their civil rights abused because it's the wrong way to run a country, not because they're a member of an oppressed minority. If you want to win this fight and fix things, toss out every other issue aside from fixing the system. Sure, use various things like incarceration rates among blacks as an argument, but only very carefully. If this is a true problem affecting everybody (and I believe it is), then don't attach yourself to one particular cause or the other. That's just an easy way to lose the discussion.

We desperately need to fix things, but that's only going to happen if we make both impassioned and dispassionate arguments -- and only if we understand the terms at stake. I'm not sure this article helped any, but it damned sure made me angry at how broken things are.

<comment><USER23> The racism is _not_ a red herring, it's the primary driver for the electorate demanding that the system be broken in the ways it is. It's used to argue that the victims of the system deserve it, and thereby to prevent change.

<comment><USER24> Pretending that racism is the main problem with inner city poor actually contributes to the problem. Not all poor in the city have the same outcome. Victimology is crippling. If nothing I do is my fault, because racism, then why would I not do whatever I feel like, consequences be damned? It is white people's fault, right?

<comment><USER25> Ignoring the disingenuity, if racism (e.g., redlining, gerrymandering, selective use of semi-legal police procedures, etc.) _hasn 't_ led to the current disparate state of affairs between races in America, then what _has_ , pray tell?

"Racism" isn't merely a buzzword or an excuse if it's actually a historic and ongoing phenomenon.

<comment><USER26> I think racism plays a part, but there are are factors to consider as well, including victimology. The current way we are approaching race in america seems to be part of the problem.

We seem to be telling people of certain races that they are born disadvantaged, that they are somehow second-class citizens and not fully responsible for their actions or outcome of their life. We then distribute aid and provide services based not only on economic or educational status, but also on race, and we form organizations to benefit members of that race. We become outraged when their rights are violated (but no so much when the rights of members of another race are).

I don't think we'll truly eliminate racism in our society if we continue to focus on race the way we are. Instead we need to care just as much about the rights (or the violations of those rights) of a black man as we do a white man (or any other race). Race needs to not be considered when creating programs to benefit the poor or uneducated. After all, shouldn't a poor white man be just as entitled to our compassion and assistance as an equally poor black man?

Martin Luther King said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." For me, that cuts both ways. Not only should we not be judged unfairly in a court of law or be treated different by police because of the color of one's skin. It should be a non-factor in determining any sort of benefit or assistance as well.

<comment><USER27> The reason blacks growing up poor in this country suffer bad outcomes isn't because they're told that they're victims by well-meaning social programs. It's because they're treated like criminals and given very few opportunities to achieve something better.

<comment><USER26> They may not tell them that directly, but when you consider someone's race in giving aid, aren't you telling them that they are disadvantaged because of their race?

We should be focusing on helping someone because they are poor, because they are unjustly treated like criminals or because they have few opportunities to succeed, not because they are black or of a certain race.

<comment><USER27> But the aid isn't itself racial. That's a myth.

Have you ever had to apply for any sort of public assistance? The process is tremendously slow, complex, and bureaucratic, driven largely by layers of demands for proof that the aid is actually necessary. The basic takeaway of this process for the person in need isn't feeling like a victim, but rather feeling like society assumes you're a lazy thief.

<comment><USER26> You say its a myth, but then don't provide not explanation as to why. I guess I don't understand how race-restricted aid isn't racial. By restricting assistance, scholarships and other aid to a particular race aren't you in essence saying that you care more about helping people of a certain race than you do about helping people of other races?

If a person is in the same circumstances, economic or otherwise, as another person, why should I only give aid to one of those people based on their race? How would restricting a scholarship to white students be less racist than restricting a scholarship to african-american students?

<comment><USER27> I'm saying that there isn't any race-restricted aid. You're saying there is. You're wrong about that. Feel free to prove otherwise.

And sure, you can bring up some scholarship as an exception that proves the rule (I wonder how Daughters of the American Revolution scholarships fit?). But that's a very weak argument. I'm talking about the welfare state in general, and it is pointedly _not_ about race.

<comment><USER26> I didn't mean to imply that there was government sponsored aid that was race- restricted. There definitely is for scholarships[1] and affirmative action policies for admission to schools or specific programs in those schools. (although that's not necessarily monetary aid)

Some quick googling shows results of what appears to be private organizations solely focused on providing assistance to african americans or people of african descent. [2]

[1] - [https://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/college- scholarsh...](https://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/college- scholarships/scholarships-by-type/minority-scholarships/african-american- scholarships/) [2] [http://www.diversitybestpractices.com/news- articles/20-afric...](http://www.diversitybestpractices.com/news- articles/20-african-american-organizations-you-need-know)

<comment><USER27> Think about how circular this is... you're now arguing that the problem is a sense of victimization brought on by racially-driven aid _in the form of college scholarships_. So your victims have already succeeded in finding their way out!

There are excellent arguments that the welfare state structure is a significant cause of racial inequality. But your "teaches them to be victims" argument is not one of them.

A much more interesting and defensible argument would be that the welfare state in its current incarnation punishes people for getting off of welfare. If the "reward" for finding a job is to take away aid on a 1:1 basis, why would getting a job be a good idea? Another interesting angle is the fact that minimum wage is not sufficient to keep a family out of poverty - <USER2> when you throw in the costs of transportation and child care associated with a job.

To find the racial problem, look at history. When the welfare state first came into existence, racism had kept the black community in deep poverty, so poverty was already unevenly distributed. Since the welfare system merely treats the symptoms rather than the causes of poverty, the disparity has continued. And the disparity is driven not by welfare, but rather by institutional racism.

There was a great photo by a trio of black artists at the Henderson protests. It was a black woman dressed as a slave, a shirtless black man wearing a noose, and a black man in an orange prison jumpsuit, standing together - <USER3> history of institutional racism in America.

<comment><USER26> My main argument actually is that I think racism will continue until we eliminate race from our decisions, positive or negative and treat and value each other as members of the human race, regardless of one's skin color.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> A recent article on HN made me realise that the U.S. might be on the right track for fixing this. The article was called Game Theory's Cure For Corruption Makes Us All Cops [0]. The solution is in your pocket.

 _Imagine a city where police commit blatant traffic violations and never ticket one another. The authorities could decrease power inequalities by developing an online system in which all citizens are able to anonymously report dangerous drivers. Anyone who received too many independent reports would be investigated – police included. This sounds almost laughably simple, and yet the model indicates that it ought to do the trick. It is, after all, essentially the same system used by many online communities._

[0] [http://aeon.co/magazine/society/game-theorys-cure-for- corrup...](http://aeon.co/magazine/society/game-theorys-cure-for-corruption- make-us-all-cops/)

<comment><USER29> The article mentions but does not address the point of altruism. Nobody wants to be a stool pigeon singing to the police on someone they know, even if it's anonymous. The result is that the set of enforced laws is a strict subset of the set of laws that the majority of people would find reasonable. That's why we create police forces in the first place- to be our better selves. The war on black America needs to end, but simply democratizing enforcement isn't the way to do it.

<comment><USER30> asanagi, you are unfortunately "hellbanned", which means no one can see your post unless they are logged in and have "showdead" turned on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> That is the nicest and most readable typography I've seen for a long-form article on the Web.

</comment><comment><USER32> > _myths that the most serious types of crime affecting our society are the > kinds of violent crimes that police patrolling the streets supposedly fight > and that entire poor communities are "high-crime areas."_

...

> _An intellectually rigorous system would, for example, study in great detail > the connection between hundreds of billions of dollars in financial fraud > and tax evasion and millions of easily preventable deaths, not dramatically > reduce every year the resources devoted to fighting crime committed by the > wealthy._

I'm glad when they said how over-policed some areas are that they also pointed out how we don't police other areas at all and the effect of those other areas, like white-collar crime, are HUGE.

The article stressed injustices based on race and geography. It touched less on differences of injustices based on class. I don't think it mentioned sex at all. Since I applied to volunteer with the Innocence Project -- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project) \-- I've become much more aware of how what we all know, which is how much more men are targeted and jailed.

I volunteered because after seeing a documentary on the project I felt compelled to do something. The innocent people the project freed spent an average of 13.5 years in jail -- completely 100% innocent. My taxes are paying for the system this piece described.

You can do something to change the system too.

Edit: a quick search for the question below on differences in sex for the same crimes -- " _Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases_ " [http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2144002](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2144002), which I found in " _Men Sentenced To Longer Prison Terms Than Women For Same Crimes, Study Says_ " [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/men-women- prison-se...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/men-women-prison- sentence-length-gender-gap_n_1874742.html), which has links to other research too.

<comment><USER33> I'm sure there are some disparities in the way men and women are prosecuted and sentenced, but doesn't the bulk of the difference in incarceration by sex come from the difference in criminal behavior by sex?

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> There is an insidious reason driving our incarceration rates: prisons rent inmates to corporations as contract workers for pennies an hour. With guarantees of the number of inmates they will be supplied. Follow the money. Follow the money. Follow the money.

<comment><USER35> I don't think that's the main cause (for-profit jails and police/prison-unions are surely primary), but the argument does work - incarceration costs the public far more than it could save in suppressed wages, but the companies that benefit don't care about that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> This article was a great read; it made me feel awful.

> ... we're starting to have symposia in which people talk about whether > everything will be better if we give police more money to buy cameras for > their lapels.

This was my mindset--that with more accountability, police will shape up. However, this article highlighted this solution as a symptomatic treatment.

I wonder how we could help address this major problem technologically?

</comment><comment><USER37> So when get over the depression of observing this system in action and the desire to leave the US I feel the desire for action. This problem of over criminalizing and over incarceration must be reversed and corrected. I refuse to live in a country like this unless this is corrected.

</comment><comment><USER38> There is a question no one ever seems to ask anymore, "Does the punishment fit the crime?"

</comment><comment><USER39> I guess the best you can do is hopethat you know the laws for the area you live in. The u.s. has so many laws that are different across states and also so many laws that are enforced arbitrarily.

Some states you only have to verbally identify yourself to police. Some states you're required to show I.d. if requested. Some states you can decline a breathalyzer and other states you cannot.

And if you know the law then you should exercise your rights to the limit of the law. Of course they keep passing new laws to push the limits in the other direction. And I don't think anyone wants to be a test case for throwing out a bad law in the courts.

The problem is similar here in Switzerland with the exception that there are fewer laws and that the federal government has very little power (unlike the u.s. With its strong federal laws). For example, here in one canton you can grow 2 marijuana plants for your own use while in another canton you will go to jail for even a small amount of marijuana.

<comment><USER40> There's this widespread misconception that there are things the police _can 't_ do to you because some text somewhere says so.

In reality, it's just a question of what they _want_ to do, and whether they can get away with it. For example, if an officer _insists_ on seeing your ID even if the rulebook says you don't _have_ to show it, he can escalate until he gets his way.

A police officer _can_ saw off your leg and feed it to some crocodiles if he wants to, and no one's looking or filming.

But of course, this misconception is central to the belief in "the rule of law", which keeps us misguidedly comfortable with the fact that there's a bunch of guys in blue costumes who can abuse you as they please, confiscate all your cash, shoot your dog, or just ruin your life on a whim.

<comment><USER41> There's a saying among cops, "You may beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride." In other words, they can harass you all they want, with impunity. "Oh, he was innocent? Well, darn."

<comment><USER40> Yep, and we're guilty of whatever bullshit crime they accuse us of, until we somehow prove we're not.. from jail, after having all our accounts seized.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Public email API for your apps, sites, contact forms - <AUTHOR> http://mailthis.to

<comment><USER2> Wanted to say I am having this exact problem right now. I ended up solving it using Campaign Monitor and zapier to get signups into Highrise CRM. I will look at using your system next time - any chance you've thought about making the data available in a structured way, such as csv/json either in the email or attached?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback, That's an interesting possibility!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is brilliant.

I wanted a solution like this for static websites, especially ones that I host on S3.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a great idea. Do you plan on keeping it free?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes. We have other ideas to monetize it that wouldn't involve targeting high- volume users directly.</comment></comment>