Californian VC (YC) wants Cambridge start-ups for new funding round - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/2009031234650/venture-capital/californian-vc-wants-cambridge-start-ups-for-new-funding-round.html

<comment><USER2> Might be worth noting that I think they mean Cambridge in the UK... not Cambridge, MA.

<comment><USER3> They do. :) From the article- "We've funded a lot of start-ups from Europe and from England specifically. We would be delighted to have more, especially from Cambridge."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> YC has taken an amazing "niche" that the UK doesn't get.

I've been looking seriously at seed/angel investment in the UK - and it's all so _heavy_ , if we want £20k to take our product _to market_ its impossible. It isn't the money hackers _need_ it's the people, the marketing, the community. And if you're investing hundreds of thousands of pounds you can't _have_ a portfolio of 100 companies you've invested in, so you can't have the great community.

Hackers like other hackers. Not money, not employing dozens of people -- hacking!

</comment><comment><USER5> Does anyone know where and when is the get together mentioned in the article?

<comment><USER3> I'd get in touch with Matt Schofield about it.

For any other Cambridge (UK) hackers checking out this thread, there's a pizza/beer meetup at the Cambridge Coworking space tomorrow (Friday) night. Plan is to chat about nefarious plans that are going to set Cambridge alight. Get in touch on Twitter (@jedc) if interested.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Maybe I am missing the point here - why Cambridge specifically ? What about London, or even Oxford ?</comment>


Programming in Elixir with the Phoenix Framework - <AUTHOR> http://gogogarrett.sexy/programming-in-elixir-with-the-phoenix-framework-building-a-basic-CRUD-app/ <comment><USER2> Nice writeup. I hadn't looked at Phoenix yet.

It seems that many Elixir people come from Ruby. One thing we should be wary of is making shallow ports of Ruby concepts into Elixir, when there's much more elegant approaches available. We, software engineers, have a tendency of doing this: for example, there's a whole bucketload of C# libraries that have Java roots (NHibernate, Spring.NET), and every single one of them is a bloated piece of nonsense that doesn't make good use of C#'s strengths. We should avoid making Elixir a Ruby-on-Erlang when it has the potential to be so much more.

I haven't figured out yet to what extent Phoenix does this, but this blog post highlights some things that make me wonder.

For instance, the router confuses me. Is there any point in making an explicit router over just splitting the URL by "/" into a list and then just pattern matching on that?

e.g.

        def get(["users", user], _params) do
            # show stuff
        end

        def post(["users"], _params) do
            # store stuff
        end

        def get([], _params) do
            # show root page
        end

Is Phoenix's routing somehow more powerful than that, for reasons that I'm missing, or is it just a Rails-ism blatantly ported over to Elixir?

<comment><USER3> We had a lot of conversations about this and it was a somewhat common topic during ElixirConf ([http://www.confreaks.com/events/elixirconf2014](http://www.confreaks.com/events/elixirconf2014)). On my keynote I addressed exactly your concerns: it is fine to do "X in Elixir", which is a very helpful learning exercise, but remember to revisit it later, otherwise you will have a project that misuses or does not fully uses this new environment.

Dynamo ([https://github.com/dynamo/dynamo](https://github.com/dynamo/dynamo)) is such an example. It was one of the first web frameworks that showed up for Elixir and it got a lot of things wrong. However, out of the lessons learned, we got:

* The configuration layer that comes with Elixir. Elixir has the concept of applications (the same as Erlang/OTP applications) which you can be stopped and started as a unit. So the whole mechanism on how you define applications and configure them is defined by the language/runtime and consequently that is one area where Phoenix is considerably different than Rails.

* I absolutely hated the view layer in Dynamo (which attempted to be too Rails like and did not fit Elixir). Chris got the lessons learned from that and provided an absolute great view layer for Phoenix, where you have the concept of views (modules) and templates (embedded into those modules). Dispatching to views is done with pattern matching (similar to your example above). There aren't any global helpers and the views are easily testable in isolation.

* Plug ([https://github.com/elixir-lang/plug](https://github.com/elixir-lang/plug)) also came out of Dynamo. It has the same goals as Rack (because you can't really diverge from the goals): a specification for web servers and an API for connecting applications. However, implementation wise, it is very different than Rack. Rack applications usually build on top of a middleware stack which receives a request environment, passing through all layers, and then returns a response that once again goes through all layers. This approach is what makes Rack uncomfortable for chunking, connection upgrades and so on. In Plug, the plug stack is one-way, you only get the connection (instead of a request and response) because we assume a response can be sent through the connection at any point during the stack (disclaimer: I am both Rack and Plug committer).

The list could go on. :) Our build tool, Mix ([http://elixir- lang.org/docs/mix](http://elixir-lang.org/docs/mix)), is inspired on Clojure's lein. The most used database layer, Ecto ([https://github.com/elixir- lang/ecto](https://github.com/elixir-lang/ecto)), borrows a lot from LINQ (hard to have an ORM when you don't have objects!). There are even some other smaller examples in Phoenix like the current attempts to remove the singular/plural nouns that we see a lot in Rails and, in my opinion, causes a lot of confusion.

<comment><USER4> I really appreciate your attitude. You are really inspirig people like me to understand it is okay to make mistakes :). Also, every mistake teaches you something. Learn from your mistakes and keep building things that matters :).

Needless to say, I am becoming a fan of yours :)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the nice words! I appreciate it!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'd love to see someone who knows Exilir/Phoenix to submit it to the Web Framework Performance Shootout [1].

[1] [http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/](http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/)

Edit: typo

<comment><USER6> I'd love to see Phoenix represented there. I'll see what's required to get it added.

<comment><USER5> Awesome! Really hope you submit Phoenix as well to the benchmark.

Info below on how to submit your test suite.

[http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=code&hw=peak&...](http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=code&hw=peak&test=json)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For those curious about the realtime layer in Phoenix, I have a screencast where we live code a Phoenix chat app. We've added a View layer since the recording, so ignore the rendering hack:

[http://chrismccord.com/blog/2014/05/06/how-to-build-an- elixi...](http://chrismccord.com/blog/2014/05/06/how-to-build-an-elixir-chat- app-with-phoenix/)

<comment><USER7> I'd love to replace Atmosphere[1] with a Elixir solution. Is there support for a websocket fallback in Phoenix?

[1] - [http://async-io.org/](http://async-io.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Has anyone used both Phoenix and Chicago Boss in anger (to at least some extent)? It'd be great to see a comparison between the two.

I'll start by saying that Phoenix seems specifically built for Elixir, while Chicago Boss appears to be an Erlang framework which works fine with Elixir after a minimal amount of initial configuration upfront.

</comment><comment><USER9> What a coincidence. Just learnt about Elixer and Phoenix this morning, and I see this :-)

Love it so far and the fact Jose created it.</comment>


Amazon Athena: Query S3 Using SQL - <AUTHOR> https://aws.amazon.com/athena/ <comment><USER2> This looks very neat. I'm someone who deals with a lot of plaintext data from a variety of sources, and so I find using ack/grep and csvkit to be efficient enough for my purposes of exploration. I love using SQL and SQLite but rarely do it for "fun" \-- that is, I'll use it when I've committed to building a project, but not for exploration. This seems like it could lighten the friction quite a bit.

If anyone from AWS is here: how is this used internally at Amazon?

<comment><USER3> The real question to ask is, will Amazon contribute back to open source? Presto itself is plenty proven and scalable: after all, it was created at Facebook.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Amazon Athena uses Presto with ANSI SQL support and works with a variety of standard data formats, including CSV, JSON, ORC, and Parquet."

I wonder if this is essentially a Presto SaaS product?

<comment><USER5> Yes

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It looks really interesting but I'm surprised they launched it with the create table flow broken. The query you see here was generated by their wizard...

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/s4cw5x7yyrdl3ch/Screenshot%202016-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/s4cw5x7yyrdl3ch/Screenshot%202016-11-30%2009.56.04.png?dl=0)

</comment><comment><USER7> Looks very similar to Google Big Query.

Even the pricing is same: $5 / TB of data scanned.

<comment><USER8> When I tried it it was slower than bigquery. Plus you've got to mess about creating hive schemas.

<comment><USER6> I don't know why you are getting downvoted. For all those data formats you have to painstakingly make table schemas for them before you can query them. Not like Snowflake or BigQuery. One of the biggest strikes against Presto IMHO.

<comment><USER3> It's not Presto per se, but running any data processing workload against unoptimized data formats is the issue.

Then again, both BigQuey and Snowflake require that you move data into their storage engine (Redshift too), and that's an additional step that's proportional to the size and complexity of your data. At the same time, it's stupid to store your logs as OLAP optimized formats and completely lose legibility. In sum, Athena trades off performance for convenience.

No matter what database vendors say, you can't defy the principles of computer science.

<comment><USER9> Note that BigQuery has been able to read files straight from GCS, Drive, and even Google Spreadsheets for a while:

[https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/federated-data- sources](https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/federated-data-sources)

(I'm Felipe Hoffa and I work for Google [https://twitter.com/felipehoffa](https://twitter.com/felipehoffa))

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I hope that Amazon contributes back to the Presto community.

</comment><comment><USER11> Would be useful if AVRO files were supported. This was the data can also be imported into Redshift if needed (Redshift does support Avro).

Other formats are schema-less (JSON,CSV, etc.) or not supported by Redshift (ORC, Parquet). Perhaps less efficient for some queries (AVRO is not a columnar format) but still useful.

</comment><comment><USER12> Is it possible to connect Athena to existing Hive Metastore?

</comment><comment><USER13> Anybody have an example of storing NGINX access logs and using Athena to search them?

</comment><comment><USER14> Any examples of queries and what this can do? S3 was file storage as far as i thought?

<comment><USER15> Athena (Presto) supports standard ANSI SQL - you can query data that's stored in S3.

<comment><USER14> How does that work though, so say my bucket has 10,000 json files in it and I want all of them with the name attributes being like '%john'. Is that possible?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> $5 a terabyte jeebus...don't f that query up

<comment><USER4> Just like with BigQuery, a carefully thought out partitioning scheme is critical, or your queries need to be carefully locked down to prevent excessive table scanning. I burned through my BigQuery trial credit fast, by not using partitions during a quick-and-dirty test.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Wondering if I could use this like SQLite for Lambdas. I'd like to build some serverless apps, but the commitment to a monthly fee from DynamoDB puts me off. Could I use Athena to drive down my cost to zero as long as the app is unused?

<comment><USER18> DynamoDB is like $5 or $10 bucks a month? but I understand the need to keep it to a minimum.

Athena is really interesting and if it can be as it is advertised "Serverless SQL" then they've got a killer product in the pipes: A future where developers no longer need to spend time on scaling, configuring, maintaining, strategizing deployments but upload code and instantly begin reaping the benefits of serverless tech.

The only missing component that would be a killer feature is something that answers to Azure's Active Directory. It would be nice if we had serverless plug-and-play user authentication and access control that integrated with Lambda and Athena.

I'd imagine some sort of "RoR on Serverless" type of framework that will scaffold out CRUD, User Management & REST Api is going to be in the works as well.

The only potential downside I see at the moment for Serverless is the uncertainty surrounding cold boots, it will directly affect user experience. It's fine when you got enough traffic to keep things in the "warm" state but there needs to be no dead zone when the call to the API Gateway is taking many seconds waiting for Lambda function to fire.

<comment><USER19> Re: users auth. Isn't that what Cognito is supposed to be? I mean, I don't fully understand it, but I think so.

As for the cold boot issue, I thought the standing solution was to have a "fast-exit" ping-like code-path within the lambda. Query it on a regular basis (you can even do it with a lambda scheduled-event). That way your lambda should be kept warm.

<comment><USER18> TIL Cognito!

That completely flew under my radar, not sure why I didn't see it before (oh that's right I was heads down in Azure).

With Athena the circle is complete for me.

That fast exit ping thing is pretty cool, any more information regarding that?

Your comment is probably the most valuable one I came across to date since signing up, I wish there was a way to award a gold star like on reddit :D

There's very little objection at this point in moving to a Serverless architecture = Athena (SQL) + Lambda (CPU) + Cognito (User).

<comment><USER19> What's your usecase for Athena (Really curious how this changes anything)?

You can hook your lambda up to a cloudwatch scheduled event ([http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/events/Sc...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/events/ScheduledEvents.html)). If you don't do much when this happens (like, you exit immediately), then you won't be charged much compute time. Can't find the reference to how often you should ping it to keep it warm, probably varies, IIRC hourly would be plenty.

<comment><USER18> building user management, security has always been a "build your own wheel". While I think a properly secured SQL table with encrypted keywords is certainly possible the risk remains. We see even for prolific and large websites their entire user tables are dumped online on a regular basis.

Off-loading this burden on a cloud vendor whose sales are directly tied to the security, gives me peace of mind. Ashley Madison had no financial incentive to keep their user base as secure as possible or actively defend against it using R&D. Yahoo Mail as well. But AWS and Active Directory are products that sell this security and for them to fuck up on an epic scale would mean their end.

so the tldr is piggybacking on the tremendous resources from a cloud giant which frees up resources to focus on the core product.

This is not to say that it's impossible to roll out your own wheel, I'm just saying it makes more sense to align the financial incentives of vendors maintaining the user base security. This may or may not mean I'm open to focusing on companies solely focused on user auth/management products, it's tough to beat the branding and trust built into AWS & Azure that developers are voting everyday with their money & data.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Tried it twice, and it crashed big time.

<comment><USER20> Also gives me a 500 on US-WEST-2

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I wonder why they haven't chose Apache Drill over Presto. Anyone knows?

</comment><comment><USER22> what does "point your data in S3" mean?

<comment><USER23> Are you talking about this? you left out a word.

Simply point to your data in Amazon S3

<comment><USER22> Still makes no sense. Please explain if you understand.

<comment><USER19> To me the obvious use case is querying your log files as stored on s3. Query for a specific combination of features, or do some (simple) processing on them.

It's really only useful for a small list of file formats. Doesn't really do much for you if you primarily use s3 for binary data or static web hosting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> John Forstrom: Amazon Athena - welcome to 2010! [https://twitter.com/jforstrom/status/804007642246938624](https://twitter.com/jforstrom/status/804007642246938624)</comment>


MIT's: $100 Laptop Production Begins - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6908946.stm

<comment><USER2> I think the question we should be asking is: how can _my_ app be on those kids' computer (assuming they have internet)? Obviously, it would need to be in their language...

</comment><comment><USER3> One high-quality computer per school might make more sense. The potential Bill Gateses among them would still find it. I have a bad feeling about the potential expansion of the spam and pron markets these laptops might create. I guess it's to be seen...

<comment><USER4> "OLPC Used to Browse Porn" [http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/21/1353241...](http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/21/1353241&from=rss)

probably the killer app in bridging the digital divide :P</comment></comment>


If You Found That 'Plandemic' Video Convincing, Read This Too - <AUTHOR> https://vitals.lifehacker.com/if-you-found-that-plandemic-video-convincing-read-th-1843339002 <comment><AUTHOR> Most people here probably don't need convincing, but our friends and relatives might. My own mother sent me a link to the original video, I'm sad to say, and this (extremely well written) breakdown saved me a lot of time doing research and debunking it.

</comment><comment><USER2> This article does an excellent job at debunking a poorly made conspiracy theory video. Getting the truth out there is important. Despite this, I did find one or two instance of needless spinning of the truth in this article.

1) I'll admit that it's a silly theory that anyone would create a pandemic to ruin the world economy just to market a vaccine. However, saying it's silly idea because once everyone's had the virus they'll be forever immune to it and therefore won't need a vaccine is equally silly. Science suggests that your antibodies might protect you for roughly two years. So, you'd still pay for a vaccine.

2) A good yardstick for evaluating the accuracy of any COVID-19 article is how they describe hydroxychloroquine. Saying that there are 169 trials of it going on right now, and that it's being prescribed off-label so much that it's getting hard to come by, and then saying there's "no solid evidence, only hope" may be technically accurate, but it's more spin than I can tolerate. Rather than linking to an article from March back when no real studies on it had been completed, it would probably have been better to have the link text be "Doctors are seeing promising hydroxychloroquine results when combined with azithromycin (or tocilizumab)" and to have that link go to the URL below:

[https://www.the- hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/221558/c...](https://www.the- hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/221558/coronavirus-updates/yales- covid-19-inpatient-protocol-hydroxychloroquine)

At this moment in time throughout the world there are some hospitals that provide very promising medicine for COVID-19. However, other hospitals are simply allowing patients to suffer without prescribing any medicine. I can't understand why so much of the media is basically suggesting that those Yale doctors are wasting their time by prescribing hydroxychloroquine. Those front- line Yale doctors just might have more medical expertise than the mainstream media.</comment>


Parse Hosting, head-to-head with Heroku? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/07/facebook-parse-web-hosting/

<comment><USER2> I am using Heroku and Parse Data, I am going to try out Parse Hosting.</comment>


Show HN: ChiefOnboarding – Simple, Fast and Efficient Employee Onboarding - <AUTHOR> https://chiefonboarding.com <comment><USER2> Why do you think companies would drop their existing systems and use this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good question! Based upon my own research and experiences, I know that most companies don't have an onboarding system at all. Some HR tools don't even have it. The onboarding process is a part that is overlooked a lot of times.

Next to that, we are constantly working on a faster and easier way to onboard the new hires. For example: you only need to create a task once and you can add it to every new hire. If you have checked out the demo (it's free and doesn't require any information) you will probably notice that there is a very smooth workflow. And last, but not least, business can upload their own logo and chose their own color. There won't be any branding visible from us to the new hires. That way it looks like it is part of their own system.

If you have any feedback, please let me know. It is highly appreciated!

<comment><USER3> I like the idea because the faster people get onboard the better it is. Which type of companies do you target? Is your customer a large company with a structure HR department or small / mid company without any process yet? Large companies will be aware of the necessity of such a tool and have a budget for that but you will potentially be in competition with internal systems. Small / mid could find this interesting but will it be on their top priority? What is the your pricing model?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! You are spot on, there are HR systems available that have this integrated (but we will be better anyway, ha). We will be focussing mainly on fast growing startups and just funded startups, but any size of business is fine with us. Our (current) pricing model will be simple and straight forward, just like our software: $50 one time fee - up to 5 new hires (No company branding), $100/month - up to 50 new hires (company branding and API access) and a custom package starting at $200 per month (several modules that can be chosen from like unlimited new hires, priority support...)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Coworkation retreat for digital nomads in Indian Himalayas - <AUTHOR> http://remoteexplorers.com <comment><USER2> Namaste folks,

We are super happy to launch Remote Explorers, the first digital nomads and location independent entrepreneurs' retreat in India.

While travelling around SE Asia working remotely, we realized that India offers an immense potencial to be on the map of remote workers. However, through interactieve with other remote workers around the world, we also realized that most of them keep their India plans on hold owing to the perception of poor internet, culture shock, and so on.

We have launched Remote Explorers to take care of all infrastructure and logistical issues to make sure that the participants can focus on what is important to them while also enjoying their India experience.

Our border vision is to build a collaborative community of location independent professionals and to leverage on technology to truely exploit Remote Work by taking coworking scene beyond big cities.

With this in mind, we have choosen Dharamshala in the Indian Himalayas as the venue for our first retreat. Dharamshala is home to Dalai Lama and has a lot to offer in terms of activities. We have included Treking, Mountain Survival Camp, Paragliding, and a lot of cultural experiences in our itinirery to make sure it doesn't become a retreat focused only on work. We have also added daily yoga and standups, masterminding, and skill share sessions to aid your work.

Join us this September for 30 amazing days of productivity, inspiration, exploration, adventures, and cultural experiences in the Indian Himalayas!

Vote for us if you like our product!

Thank you शुक्रिया।

<comment><USER3> This seems a really neat idea. Can you please tell more about the stack that you would be focussing and the reasons behind that choice?</comment></comment>


Podcast: Is Dubai the Next Silicon Valley of the Middle East? - <AUTHOR> http://kerningcultures.com/episodes/uae-startup-scene <comment><AUTHOR> Let us know your thoughts from this latest episode -- we're Dubai-based ourselves, happy to answer any questions!</comment>


Moving 65,000 Microsofties to DevOps on the Public Cloud - <AUTHOR> https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/articles/devopsmsft/moving_65000_microsofties_to_devops <comment><AUTHOR> A lot of interesting tidbits in here about how Microsoft thinks about scaling up DevOps.

In particular, it's fascinating that the overhead from multiple repositories was so difficult that they consolidated into one 270 GB repo.</comment>


Ask YC companies: What are you using to send emails? - <AUTHOR>

Sending automated emails (verify email, share notices, etc.) is necessary in many apps today. Was wondering if you rolled something in-house or outsourcing to a provider.
Making sure emails are delivered into an inbox is also a pain with SFP, etc.
What are you guys using? Thanks in advance. <comment><USER2> For Merecal (<http://merecal.com/>) we're using Qmail and our web hosting provider supports DomainKeys, etc. However, we're still seeing emails being sent to the Spam folder in Yahoo! Mail and even not arriving at the destination at all for email addresses at hosts like @comcast.net.

Great idea for a thread. I'm looking forward to the responses.

</comment><comment><USER3> Also, related question, which ones are free?

Are most other people using gmail smtp as a workaround?</comment>


Ask HN: How to negotiate a domain name sale - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN
I recently received an email asking me if I was interested in selling a domain name I've owned for a while. The enquirer is from a top tier VC company, and the domain they're enquiring about is pretty memorable, but not the most amazing domain name ever.
So, I'm interested in selling for a good price - what's the best way of getting a good deal? I think that automated domain name valuation services are useless, and in any case, for these type of 'unique' items, it all comes down to negotation as opposed to some intrinsic and external assigned value.
Is asking for an equity share completely laughable? Should I just ask the enquirer to make an offer? But when she comes back with a low-ball offer, what next?
(long time HN'er - first question, and of course, a throwaway account) <comment><USER2> My strategy is to ignore what the domain is worth and name a figure out of the blue, then imagine selling it for that. If I feel resentful then it's too low, if I'm super excited about selling it, then it's too high.

Basically, price it at just above the minimum you're willing to sell it for, not what it 'could be worth'.

</comment><comment><USER3> Several years ago I was looking for a Buyer for a domain I owned, for which I was confident I could sell for $35.000. So I looked for potential Buyers by consulting several trademark databases that contained registered trademarks similar to my domain name. While I found several potential leads, there was one in particular I knew would be keenly interested in my domain. And, while I relayed my asking price, and while the Buyer was eager to purchase my domain, their budget for such acquisitions was capped at $20.000. So, being unable to find another Buyer at the price I was asking, I sold it for the $20.000 that was on offer.

So, the moral of the story is this:

(1) Know the value of your product; (2) Be able to defend your price point; (3) Find competing Buyers; (4) Know when to let go.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER4> > I think that automated domain name valuation services are useless

You could say that again :)

You might want to check out moniker.com - I think they (still) offer an appraisal service. You'll need to shell out some change but their appraisals are generally considered to be quite authoritative in the domain/domaining industry: <http://www.moniker.com/>

All the best with the sale.

</comment><comment><USER5> Ask them to name a price, then double if not triple it. When I make an offer, I usually offer 1/3 of what I really am willing to pay for it. And don't back down.. they inquired for a reason - they want it badly.

</comment><comment><USER6> Equity for a name? That's unreasonable.

However you come to terms on price, use an escrow service for the transfer. Escrow.com has a process set up specifically for domain sales.</comment>


Will Automation Lead to Economic Collapse? - <AUTHOR> http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/15/martin-ford-asks-will-automation-lead-to-economic-collapse/

<comment><USER2> Probably not. These sorts of "fear the machines" articles are all basically the same, and usually ignore the part where innovation usually creates more jobs than it destroys.

<random thought> It does bring to mind one thing I kick around in my head sometimes: Fundamentally the economy is based on stuff: making stuff, and moving it around. It used to be about food, but that seems to be a special case of stuff, and it is doing just fine treated as such. Nowadays there is this talk of "service economy" but that seems to translate directly into "I'll push around stuff for you".

Is there an economy that is not based on stuff? It seems that we are approaching a point where stuff doesn't matter as much any more, and most everything tangible is a commodity. (pg does better at explaining that concept than i do in his "stuff" essay). Can we have an economy based on ideas or something (which could easily incorporate stuff as a subset, a la stuff and food)? </random thought>

</comment><comment><USER3> The Roman economy was based on slavery, it collapsed when they ran out of slaves. When we get machines which are equivalent to human slaves, we'll still have rich people and politicians, and a large under class on social welfare. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think we'll transition to more socialistic system when people begin to get desperate. It's that, or mayhem, and the people who aren't desperate are the very people who can buy reprieve from mayhem in the form of socialism. It'll be worth the cost.</comment>


GoDaddy Bye Bye - <AUTHOR> http://blog.herlein.com/2012/02/godaddy-bye-bye/

<comment><USER2> Just remember, you can't move domains within 60 days of expiration, and if you let them expire, GoDaddy will snag them through one of their "partners" that they sell expiration data to.</comment>


:-) - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/smiley/history.html <comment><AUTHOR> > So the message itself, and the thread that gave rise to it, are here. The > exact date of the smiley's birth can now be determined: 19 September, 1982.

</comment><comment><USER2> First use by Scott Fahlman, CMU professor.</comment>


Microsoft Aims to Cure Server-Hugging Engineers - <AUTHOR> http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/09/09/microsoft-data-center-battles-server-hugging/

<comment><USER2> Dogfood software moves to a dogfood cloud.</comment>


Quicksilver: Smalltalk implementation in Javascript - <AUTHOR> http://www.silversmalltalk.com/

<comment><USER2> If you're into this sort of thing, there's also Clamato by Avi Bryant: <http://clamato.net/>

</comment><comment><USER3> It's sad that it isn't openly licensed.

[http://groups.google.com/group/silversmalltalk/browse_thread...](http://groups.google.com/group/silversmalltalk/browse_thread/thread/5bc532e7fd3ae780?hl=en#)

<comment><USER4> Developers need to eat too...

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Work in progress, but seems to be pretty slick and have decent performance.

Right-click on the "desktop" to bring up the toys. :-)

Author's blog is here:

<http://silversmalltalk.wordpress.com/>

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm not a dolt, why is the workspace window calling me a dolt? :)

</comment><comment><USER6> It claims to be 10 x faster than Squeak, wow. OTOH, comparing speed with native Javascript would help too.

</comment><comment><USER7> "in Javascript" is right. Apparently it's not self-hosting Smalltalk.

</comment><comment><USER8> Are there any useful applications of Smalltalk for Javascript?

<comment><USER9> This question is similar to asking "Are there any useful applications of Ruby for the JVM?"

Of course there are. Smalltalk ported to the browser and able to interact with javascript libraries (in this case it is using ExtJS) gives greater flexibility to developers and the language. Any language being ported to a platform (Yes. Javascript is also a platform.) is a boon for both the language and the platform.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Any mirrors?</comment>


How Google's AMP project speeds up the Web - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/googles-amp-an-internet-giant-tackles-the-old-myth-of-the-web-is-too-slow/ <comment><USER2> So, I figure this is as good a place to any to ask: I'm not totally clear on how AMP is supposed to work. From what I can tell, it "speeds up the web" by being a subset of HTML that forbids JavaScript, but there's nothing stopping publishers from just not putting any JS on their page right now. The reason they don't is that they need the ad revenue, and I don't see what AMP is doing to fix that. Is Google paying publishers to host AMP versions of their pages?

<comment><USER3> It sounds like you're on the right track: AMP is a subset of HTML with restrictions on what can be on the page. The key is, if a page meets those restrictions then the page can be pre-fetched _and pre-rendered_ to allow for an instantaneous display for the user. It is up to the browser to determine if a page is AMP-compliant (following the execution of JS of the AMP project itself, loaded with the page), and if it is not (because a publisher inserts non-compliant JS, for instance) then it will fail the pre-render and load as a typical page, negating the speed benefits that AMP purports.

AMP does support ads, with a built in amp-ad element[0] that works with most major ad networks. It also includes several other elements for handling dynamic JS-driven media, but it's put together so that the media is sandboxed via web components and the browser can easily determine the dimensions on the page that the components will take up.

[0] [https://github.com/ampproject/amphtml/blob/master/builtins/a...](https://github.com/ampproject/amphtml/blob/master/builtins/amp- ad.md)

<comment><USER4> I agree with idea of the general idea of AMP. BUt this is simply wrong.

What happens if I am an owner of "minor" ad network. It's essentially trying to prevent anyone entering ad bussiness in my oppinion.

And what does it mean to the developer who has to create some custom interactive component because that's what management wants?

I fully understand that it's counter measure against facebook and apple. But there should be better ways to improve websites performance not just removing years of web standards development. Google as a major search engine could influence faster web by giving it more influence on SERPS which would make publishers take a notice on how to make their sites faster.

This is not reasonable to create yet another version of the website just to please google.

Sorry for the rant, you can guess what I do for a living:)

<comment><USER5> > _What happens if I am an owner of "minor" ad network. It's essentially > trying to prevent anyone entering ad bussiness in my oppinion._

I'd suggest reading the whole page :)

You can load any ad as long as it can go in an iframe and is served over HTTPS

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Did Google effectively just take their own stab at WML and WAP? I remember using a flip phone around 2002 with that awesome technology to view sports scores.

<comment><USER7> It seems like it. This was also brought up the arstechnica comments.

Google still has their WAP transformation tool ("Google Wireless Transcoder"):

[http://www.google.com/gwt/n](http://www.google.com/gwt/n)

edit:

It looks like Google more recently rolled out another tool (googleweblight.com) for shrinking web pages. This does not generate WAP, however.

[https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6211428?hl=](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6211428?hl=)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > In other words, AMP is technically half baked at best.

Yeah but it's still in the oven. They said from the start that they were announcing this project specifically to get feedback and that there's still a long way to go before they would call it production-ready.

</comment><comment><USER8> If you'd like to enjoy the benefits on the desktop, there are extensions: [https://github.com/edlea/DesktopAMP](https://github.com/edlea/DesktopAMP)

</comment><comment><USER9> omg a model 100, and people say I am stubborn to change because I still use XP

(I loved the 100 but wow that is ancient)</comment>


The End of the IPO as We Know It? - <AUTHOR> https://marker.medium.com/the-end-of-the-ipo-as-we-know-it-85b7220d67b1 <comment><USER2> I would summarise this post as:

"Public markets didn't like a few bad Softbank backed IPOs. This clearly is _not_ because only Masayoshi Son loves giant bonfires they can shovel cash into, but instead means that public markets are just horribly broken, and everything we think we know about finance, economics, and the market is wrong."

After listing a bunch of loss-making stinkers (Uber, Lyft, Peloton, Pinterest, Caspar) we get the line:

> How is it that the hottest growth companies have stumbled out of the gate?

If you have to ask the question of why public markets might not think a company whose business strategy is _mailing people mattresses below cost_ is worth a billion dollars, then really, you're not going to understand the answer.

Also, note this:

> And B2B player Zoom, the videoconferencing software company, which had a > juicy pop of 72% on its first day of trading, has seen its fortunes seesaw, > falling from a high of $102 to roughly $88 at press time, even as the > broader market, especially the tech sector, has been on a tear.

Zoom is one of the only _actual_ profitable companies discussed, but the author tosses them into the list of disasters like WeWork. But let's unpack that: They IPOed at $36 a share, and they're down to $88, and the lesson here is "oh man, public markets hate startups"? ...like, really?

The entire article is just one long "wow, profitable companies are valuable, I wonder what deeper lesson entirely unrelated to profitably we can draw from this if we ignore the obvious answer".

> But as they watch the public drubbing suffered by the likes of Adam Neumann > [...] founders are more apt to see themselves as mistreated and even > harassed by various gatekeepers

If you are a founder, and the person you feel the closest kinship too is _Adam Neumann_ , you probably don't deserve to be treated very well by the markets. The issue is _you_.

What a infuriatingly obtuse article.

<comment><USER3> While I agree with you, I wouldn't be terribly unhappy if IPOs changed in the future. I'm actually quite worried that, as you say, people are looking at a company that is nearly 3x its IPO a year later and calling a flop. But I'm even more worried that a company with a value of $1 billion (after a $100 million series D) 2 years before IPO can have a market cap of ~$10 billion one year after an IPO -- and it's still seen as a failure by somebody. Because that's a bloody miracle.

I'm not just worried about that, though. If we accept these numbers (which I mostly got from Bloomberg and Wikipedia), we're saying that a $100 million infusion of cash propelled the company to $10 billion market cap in only 3 years. And looking at the balance sheet: $330 million revenue in 2019. Net income $7.58 million. Total assets: $355 million. Total liabilities: $202 million. Annual operating expenses: $51 million.

So I'm seeing a company with a $10 billion market cap, with earnings of $7 million a year, and about 2 years worth of operating expenses in assets after liabilities are taken into consideration. So I'm wondering what fueled that 10x increase in 3 years. Because _on paper_ I don't think I'd be touching it with a 10 foot pole at it's price. It seems like only its promise to be the next Google or Amazon is what's keeping the price high.

So that's what worries me about IPOs. People are expecting massive multipliers and even when they get them, some people are upset. But these massive IPOs also seem to be super fragile (at least in principal -- I have no idea if Zoom will be the next big thing or not). It doesn't seem like they are doing anything near the business necessary to justify their market positions. So I worry that someday the emperor will notice he has no clothes...

<comment><USER4> I never understand this line of reasoning. It amounts to lamenting that the market is not predictable (accurately reflecting "real value"). If market positions were merely a function of "how the business is doing" then who needs a market? My point is a market has a huge amount of speculation in it.

<comment><USER3> That's not really what I'm saying. I'm saying that there is _too much_ speculation. The bets are too big. I don't care one lick if people lose their shirts. The problem is that if we put a lot of money into ventures that have a very low probability of success, then that money is not at all efficient. The idea that you have to bet big to win big could very well guide us into recession (or worse). It wouldn't be the first time it has happened ;-)

<comment><USER5> How much is too much? There are many regulations protecting people from investing accidentally too much. What's wrong with people with billions putting it wherever they thing might potentially make some more?

<comment><USER6> "Too much" is that there's literally only so much value out there to buy. Publicly listed companies will earn $X over the next year or ten years. Buying a stock buys you a piece of that. If so much money flows in that your share of $X is worth less than some other investment, you're making a bad choice. The flood of money implies that you can get rich by selling your piece of $X to somebody else, but that's not real money. It's just a pyramid scheme that will collapse.

There's always genuine uncertainty in the value of $X and even more uncertainty about how it will be distributed, so there's room for real speculation. But "too much" is reached where even a broad index fund would perform poorly because the price is bid up by speculation rather than investment.

<comment><USER5> Buying a stock gets you expected earnings. Of course a lot of people bet that real earnings will grow a lot. Why do we have to tell them that they are making a bad bet?

> If so much money flows in that your share of $X is worth less than some > other investment, you're making a bad choice.

Or not. Who knows. If it were that easy to know people wouldn't do this. Stocks are fickle, but liquid and with almost no transaction price. Buying and setting up a stop loss is easy. (Even if placing the limit order has a fee.)

It's not a pyramid scheme. At best you might call it a pump-and-dump. But what's the problem with that? The people buying the share for its expected spot price rise are not dumb. They are just rich fools, with bad timing, because were they the first ones to buy and later sell, they would be very rich fools.

Who cares how an index fund performs. If the price signal gets so bad people will stop pumping money into the stock market. Just let them play their idiotic games. It's just froth. Sloshing back and forth.

The underlying economy is solid, it grows at a steady pace (minus the occasional recessions).

The problem is of course that the benefits of that real growth take an awful long time to trickle down into meaningful changes due to ... sociopolitics.

<comment><USER6> I think I may have appeared more anti-stock than I am. I'm an investor myself, and was just trying to give my opinion on your question about "how much is too much"?

My intention was to point out the limits. The stock market can only hold so much money (for a given set of companies). Precisely how much, I can't say, and of course it's constantly growing (both from existing company growth and adding new companies.

In particular I can't say if we're beyond that point or not. I do think we're getting close: the P/E ratio of the S&P 500 is over 23 at the moment. That corresponds to getting 3% interest on an investment. That's a crude measure, of course, but an indicator that new money coming into the market might be better invested elsewhere.

<comment><USER5> I haven't read it as anti-stock :)

In theory the market should/will optimize, maximizing opportunities, which in turn basically turns everything into the same risk-weighted-yield-wise. (After all, if there's enough information, depth, participants, liquidity, low transaction costs, then people will go after whatever market niche they may find.)

So, yes, there's a limit of how much money should be in stocks, but my belief/theory is that the investing market is very good at figuring this out (in the grand scheme of things).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Everyone is getting tired of the bullshit industrial complex that so many companies seem to tread in. If you have zero plans for profitability, zero plans for sustainability, zero ideas for actually creating a new useful product or service then you shouldn't be forcing a semi-fraudulent IPO through the door that is s transparent cash grab for the stakeholders.

This is a good thing. The number doesn't always need to go up. Especially when it's all bullshit.

<comment><USER8> But that's the great thing about the market, there still have to be buyers and the public is getting wise about these "semi-fraudulent" IPOs (see WeWork). This is exactly how the market is suppose to work.

<comment><USER9> Markets can't really get smarter over time as they represent all investors. From young teenagers to experienced institutional investors. You just get cycles of people learning the same lessons over again, but that doesn't last long term just at best a few decades.

<comment><USER10> That's not how evolution works. The new generations learns aggregated knowledge of previous generations really fast.

Babies don't have to invent their toys from scratch, huh?

<comment><USER11> That also isn't how evolution works...

You're conflating evolution with education. Education also varies from one generation to the next as the educators learn from their own experience, or are imposed upon by government in curricula and standardisation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Article provides really some terrible examples of IPOs that failed. All of those companies were unable to deliver revenue even close to what were asummed during private investement rounds. System is not broken and it punishes disfunctiinal businesses pretty well.

<comment><USER13> You write that the system punishes the businesses. Does it also punish those who were lying in their work towards the IPO?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Late stage VC and PE went after sky-high valuations, startups didn't see the need to go IPO for much longer than the yesteryears. At some point, they run out of money and IPO is their only option to raise afresh. VC/PE must correct this by bringing their valuations inline with the IPO market and be just a stepping stone and not the ultimate step in the fundraising market

<comment><USER15> That rather depends on who's right and who's wrong, doesn't it? If late stage VC and PE are by and large better at understanding the net present value of all future cash flows than the public markets, the best way forward is for them to find a way to provide liquidity for founders, employees, and earlier stage investors other than going public. Lowing valuations instead would be leaving money on the table for all those existing stakeholders.

<comment><USER14> Completely agree. But I'm guessing today's late stage VC and PE still think of IPO as the ultimate 'exit'. If the investors sign up to provide enough liquidity or even providing partial exits to founders/employees, they'll have provided the company enough leeway to turn profitable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Does anyone else find it quite funny that the article about the Renaissance IPO Index is literally headlined:

>2019 IPO Market: Better Than the Headlines

and literally says:

> beyond these headline-grabbing disappointments, the IPO market had a mostly > good year.

If you're going to write a boring cherry-picked article making the case the sky is falling, here's a tip: Don't literally cite research that says "The data says the sky isn't falling even though people are writing articles about it"

Shouldn't we be talking about the opposite of this article. If IPOs are not making great returns, shouldn't that indicate VCs are dying, not IPOs? Of course it doesn't matter because IPOs are fine and so are VCs.

</comment><comment><USER17> Not the end of the IPO - end of private cabals who shake hands and sermon a 10X P:E price on a comparable stock/product currently public at 1X P:E. Despite the jowly greed of influential VCs et al. they cannot bend reality

</comment><comment><USER18> The majority of unicorn valuations are bogus- small slices purchased at astronomical prices to make the valuation appear an order of magnitude higher. A true stock offering, whether using conventional IPO banks, or creative methods like Google did, obtains a more accurate valuation.

</comment><comment><USER19> The lack of disclosure...or worse Spotify's argument makes me skeptical of this alternative route.

</comment><comment><USER20> The primary buyers of newly issued stocks are precisely who have been forced into buying artificially supply constrained private shares with in many professional opinions made available to me under assurances of my probity, unlawful restraint and restrictions and highly unnatural interpretations of GAAP. I recently received a three word share report from a former limited partner and it read "Out Of Expletives ". Okay six words or three plus one acronym for "E&EO" ended the message.

Price increases are macro driven or trading and execution or business distribution factor sensitive appreciation. There's no real economic growth. I am presently held from advancing my own business because such a incredible burden of anecdotal evidence that's my direct experience has accumulated until I realised only this year that I am duty bound to account for and attempt to report the findings however that may be possible, before committing to a major investment. I owe my partners my experience and that's become a consideration under my employment contract as my responsibility to so do. At least I am sure I will not be imprudent if I do spend the necessary time in writing. Health forced me into a prolonged period of sabbatical and I am changed by my experiences. I genuinely fear for a complete paralysed economy and not even paralysis is correct nomenclature because that word implies a otherwise viable body capable of resuscitation. I think we killed capitalism as we thought we knew it and we have all become parasitic unknowingly and blind to the ways we so became. I suffered memory loss from a head trauma and actually had to somehow reboot my system for thought about every aspect of my life. My business was all consuming to my near death by self neglect and the upshot is I regained or just gained a humanity I cannot believe but know was horribly diminished if not lost over almost thirty years pursuing a ridiculous ambition without any rest. I never noticed the time passing but I was matrix style patched in to the business world and ignorant of everything else. Learning about business and economic opportunities from scratch in much needed normal conditions instead of catapulted from a exclusive education has confronted me with a sense of total terror at the frailty of our economic civilisation. Even more frightening and yet optimistic I discovered that the communities of computing nerds actually are most attuned to global risks and dangers. Which means that the most important knowledge is altogether compartmented separately from political potential for action. This isn't non obvious of course but I think it's a different level of separation from forty years ago and now the majority of logical arguments are happening apart from mainstream media and society. Because every science is become just "tech news" as if they saw the world of science through a Slashdot filter

<comment><USER21> Someone working on an HN chatbot?

<comment><USER22> Lol. Posts of this length scream 'adderral just kicked in'. At OP, I hope you are doing okay, recovery can be tough. Plus, you are probably mostly on point, work on that conciseness though.</comment></comment></comment>


The Ten Top Business Trends for the New Future - <AUTHOR> http://www.globalfuturist.com/about-igf/top-ten-trends.html

<comment><AUTHOR> "8. Human capital, the value of talent will be the most valuable resource in the 21st century."

Although this was probably always somewhat the case, this will be the FOCUS for the next generation of innovation. Human Capital can be defined in a number of ways, but my belief is that this equation captures the essence of this term...

DETERMINATION + INTELLECT + PEOPLE + VISION = HUMAN CAPITAL

what do you think?</comment>


Show HN: Fast.ai Camera App for CNNs - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/TylerNoblett/fastai-cnn-camera-app/blob/master/README.md <comment><USER2> Pretty bad imo. Tried three objects: Diet Coke can, bottle of cleaning fluid, desktop cactus. Didn't identify any even remotely close. Was just like a random guess.

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here: I shouldn't have added the word 'etc' to the list of things it classified, but have changed the readme to show a full list of objects that the demo works with. My intent was not to make a classifier for any and all objects, to serve as a demonstration of what someone could use the app for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm going to suggest it's pretty bad form to call this "Fast.ai Camera App" when it's not a Fast.ai product.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi! I can see where you're coming from; however, since this product is initially intended to tightly work in conjunction with Render, which uses the fast.ai name in it's repo ([https://github.com/render- examples/fastai-v3](https://github.com/render-examples/fastai-v3)) and the fact that this model (to my limited knowledge) only works with models produced by fast.ai, making a clear naming distinction was crucial so that someone creating models using another library would realize they couldn't use this. If you have a suggestion for how to make that distinction in a clear and concise manner without coming across as an official product I would definitely be willing to hear you out!

<comment><USER3> Well I don't see why the fact it uses a fast.ai model is particularly relevant for the name.

You don't mention PyToch or ResNet of Python or any of the million of other libraries it needs.

<comment><AUTHOR> Right, but this library is designed only to be used with a fast.ai model (and the hope is that fast.ai practitioners will find it helpful). I suppose you could create your own backend that worked with another library if you wanted to take the time, but that's not how it's designed.

EDIT: Regardless, I've updated some of the language on the readme to be more clear that this is not an official fast.ai product (and made it more clear in the header that it uses fast.ai models), because I do think your criticism had some validity and I really do appreciate the feedback.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wasn't familiar with the that fastai model until now. I took 6 photos and the classification was an utter failure.

</comment><comment><USER5> Pretty neat, it recognized a chair even though it was obscured with clothes. Granted it does not recognize some heavily specific objects (as it says in the description) but it is a start.

</comment><comment><USER6> this can be done in browser with tensorflow.js + a pretrained mobilenet in a couple dozen lines of code

example: [https://jott.live/html/tfjsmobilenet](https://jott.live/html/tfjsmobilenet) code: [https://jott.live/code/tfjsmobilenet](https://jott.live/code/tfjsmobilenet)

</comment><comment><USER7> > After the picture is taken, it's sent to a fast.ai CNN model running on > render

Why does the model have to run on render? Can it be run on other servers?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good question! Like I mentioned in the readme, I'm hoping to add a flask server soon; however, render is recommended on the fast.ai website and is the simplest way to get a model running ([https://course.fast.ai/deployment_render.html](https://course.fast.ai/deployment_render.html)), so I thought connecting my app to render would be the most helpful way for fast.ai practitioners to get started.</comment></comment>


6 Ways Law Enforcement Can Track Terrorists in an Encrypted World - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/view/543896/6-ways-law-enforcement-can-track-terrorists-in-an-encrypted-world/ <comment><USER2> The article seems to forget that encryption isn't a requirement to perform evil actions.

Code words/phrases and various ciphers have been used to pass information and make plans for hundreds of years. They don't require any encryption whatsoever.</comment>


Craigslist Blocks Search Engine Indexing, Hangs Itself to Remove Competitors - <AUTHOR> http://pandodaily.com/news/craigslist-blocks-search-engine-indexing-hangs-itself-to-remove-competitors/

<comment><USER2> "Hangs itself" seems overly dramatic. Given the time-sensitive nature of many Craigslist, it's likely that most of Craigslist traffic comes from people using the Craigslist search. Others may object to Craiglist protecting their data because it stops them from creating value-add businesses on top of it, but few complain of the high cost of the Twitter firehose.

If the data has value, it's perfectly reasonable for the owner to charge for access. And Craiglist owns the data, as their T&Cs make clear.

<comment><USER3> was about to say exact same thing - hangs itself? cmon.

Does anyone have an idea how many people go to craiglist from search engines anyway? Aside from people using the API type/scraper sites... is it common to find jobs/furniture/apts from sites other than the site itself?</comment></comment>


Are you like me? Or do you have discipline? - <AUTHOR> http://www.kevinjcurtin.com/home/2011/9/18/are-you-like-me-or-do-you-have-discipline.html <comment><USER2> Learning Ruby on Rails is a means to an end, not an end unto itself. How do you know when you're done? When you've finished reading through a book? When you've launched a web app built with Rails? When a bug fix of yours is accepted into the Rails project? When you're hired for a job on the strength of your Rails experience?

Perhaps if you set yourself more measurable goals, it'll be easier for you to finish. I know this is the case for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a great point. I think goals can be an incredibly powerful motivator and can help with accountability - especially when shared.

I have been setting weekly goals (get through x amout of lessons and complete x amount of excercises). Daily goals are tougher due to work and an unpredictable schedule but so far for me it has been to do something RoR related each day.

I need to think more about long term, but in general I want to be able to prototype and have built a simple web app within 6 months.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I find keeping my eyes on the prize motivates me. I like watching interviews of people who've been successful its inspiring. ThisWeekInStartups has plenty of this. Keep long term benefits in mind, like having the freedom to do what you want, whatever that is. Combine that constant enticement with a regimented schedule and things begin coming together, at least for me they did. Plus once the ball gets rolling its hard to stop!

<comment><AUTHOR> I like the idea of a regimented schedule. You are right, as soon as I begin to see progress and things start rolling it instantly becomes MUCH more fun.

For me, reading/watching inspiring stories helps briefly, but the initial impact quickly wears off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've recently also started learning RoR. For me, the best motivator is to have _something_ in my head that I want to accomplish as soon as I finish the "learning" phase.

For this language, I have two projects - one as a "I just learned this, and I want to make my first app using RoR" project, and one as an actual product that will generate income. The first project is a pretty important part of my learning process, because I know that it's going to take a while to accomplish as I learn all the little things that I didn't pick up in the tutorial. However, hopefully that exercise will make the second project go smoother.

One particular problem for me is when I get to the part of the learning process where I have to deal with things I don't do well. I know that doing actual site layout takes me forever, as I'm a developer and not a designer, so I always end up dragging my feet at that part. If you find yourself quitting then, pay someone to do it for you. Seriously. Even if you're just making the project for fun. Consider that investment as part of the learning process... you'll be much better off having completed the whole project than if you abandon it in the middle.

<comment><AUTHOR> I really like the idea of having 2 projects to work on. Also agree about reaching out to people so that you dont end up getting bogged down with areas outside of the "core" of your project/learning process.

Keep us posted on your progress!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I jump from project to project, but I stop doing things after I solve the problems I thought were interesting. After all uknowns become resolved knowns and there is no more technical challenge, I quit. I know you can't build a business without dedication of another kind that's why I work for someone else...

</comment><comment><USER6> You may benefit from reading a pyschology book on willpower and how to reach goals.

My recommendation is this book:

[http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-How-Can-Reach- Goals/dp/1594630...](http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-How-Can-Reach- Goals/dp/1594630739)

It cited real world scientific research and gave practical advice on how to set goal and to succeed at one's goal.

Disclaimer: I am only aware of such knowledge, not actually putting into practice said knowledge. Currently, my only implementation of scientific self improvement is spaced repetition, which simply exploit the fact that we retain more information learned over a long period of time.

</comment><comment><USER7> 1\. It takes on average 66 days for a habit to be formed.[1]

2\. The intensity need not be there to form the habit. After a habit is formed you can increase the intensity of the activity. Start small like reading 2 pages a day and add a page every two weeks. This is probably the most important step.

3\. Willpower is at a maximum right after waking, so whatever you are trying to accomplish do it first thing in the morning.

4\. Stop dieting. It will burn through your willpower.

[1][http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5857845/It- take...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5857845/It- takes-66-days-to-form-a-habit.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting article.

Making incremental increases makes sense. I can see that helping with the issue of getting overwhelmed by details and frustration from getting ahead of yourself.

<comment><USER7> I wrote about it here like a year ago: [http://chestergrant.posterous.com/consistently- underperformi...](http://chestergrant.posterous.com/consistently- underperforming)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Everything takes longer than expected. That's why you should choose projects carefully--don't just jump into stuff. Here's a somewhat nerdy treatment of these topics: [http://lesswrong.com/lw/600/heuristics_for_deciding_what_to_...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/600/heuristics_for_deciding_what_to_work_on/)

<comment><USER9> Not too carefully, or you'll end up not doing much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Thanks for your brutal honesty.

It's difficult, but that's why its valuable. Build your character, it'll serve you well.

Overlap your skills when learning new stuff: Eg it seems you're great at photography, so make a simple rails photo slideshow.

Start small, and build. Don't bite off more than you can chew: Eg don't try to learn anything more than the absolute minimum between each time you ship.

Learn to SHIP. Eg build a small site or open source project, and ship it! This will keep you motivated.

Find your intrinsic motivation. For me, it was when i had an awful soul sucking job and just HAD to do something to improve my lot in life.

Find friends to walk the journey with and keep each other accountable. Eg i started a book club.

<comment><AUTHOR> Some really great stuff here. Thanks for your feedback. I like the idea of starting small - I can imagine getting ahead of myself and setting unrealistic expectations. Also, the idea of overlapping your skills is great. It would definitely help to see my progress in another area to remind me what I can do!

The bit about intrinsic motivation is spot on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> On the topic of discipline, yesterday I tried a new way to work.

I placed a few large boxes on my regular desk, and placed all my peripherals and monitor on an elevated plane (too cheap to get a standing table :D). Then, turned on some good dance music.

Funnily enough, I found that by dancing (in my own awkward way) to my favourite music I actually stayed on track with what I was working on instead of procrastinating by visiting HN or Reddit :)

Well, bring on day 2.

(solo-ing a project for 6 months now.)

<comment><AUTHOR> hahah.. wasn't expecting this. Interested to hear how this turns out.. I think. Whatever works right?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> You're right, you're not alone, I've had the same realization. These skills aren't obtained through sprints but through marathons.

I find accountability is my biggest motivator, so if you can gain it (via class or job) or fake it (study partner or collaborator) it will be easier to stay on the wagon.

You might also get some ideas or methods out of this post:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2983834>

</comment><comment><USER13> I jump between a few projects but my bigger problem is running out of money. Sometimes I have enough money saved that I can quit "real" work for a while and focus on projects, but usually I run out of money before I am anywhere near finished with any given project. Most areas I work in are also too obscure/risky/complex to obtain funding for.

</comment><comment><USER14> i am very much like you :)

"learning" something, i'm finding, is very hard to do outside of a school setting, so i've been trying to think of why that is. what i've found is this: in school, you're given _assignments_ , little (or sometimes not-so-little) programs to write that do something. of course, the assignments are designed to illustrate a point, something you've learned recently. but it can serve the same purpose in real life. think of something (doesn't have to be a novel idea), then try to build the functionality of it. it'll be frustrating working through finding bugs and learning how to do xyz, but you'll find that you've _learned_ to use your tools, even if the project doesn't ultimately get finished.

good luck with RoR!

<comment><AUTHOR> I like this approach.. It seems to be what people say about learning to program in general. There's no substitute for just diving in I guess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Looking at your previous post, it might be overly ambitious for you to jump directly into Rails. How much have you played around with Ruby by itself?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think so. I spent around 2 weeks going through a serious of 10 or so lessons just to get familiar with the syntax and basic elements. I'm interested in web applications so the sooner I can begin building the basics the better (from a motivational and practical standpoint).

There are a ton of great Rails resources out there for beginners you don't need to know alot of Ruby to get started. I do think it will be worthwhile to revisit Ruby outside of the context of Rails after I make some progress and if I think it is necessary for what I am trying to do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> It happens to everybody, like you mention dedicated discipline makes the things a piece of cake next time.

</comment><comment><USER17> If you don't have this habit by the time you're a teenager, you're never going to get it.

Please, do your kids a favour: have them learn an instrument to an "expert" level by the time they're 13. Do not let them quit. If not an instrument, then _something_ else.

If it's anything I see around me in my daily work, it's a bunch of people who never get shit done.

<comment><USER18> I don't agree with your first statement in the slightest.

"If you don't have this habit by the time you're a teenager, you're never going to get it."

Habits are learned patterns habituated by positive or negative feedback cycles throughout life. Habits range from social skills (are you the social butterfly or the quiet kid who keeps to himself), to health (exercise a lot and eat well or lounge around watching tv and eating Doritos), to work ethics and more.

We are all, as individuals, the collection of habits that we have learned over the years. A frequent topic here on HN is how you can go about hacking yourself to change your habits. A popular one is to force yourself to talk to random different strangers every day in order to 1) break the habit of being shy, and 2) learn the skills necessary to make friends with people easily. For many people, this is successful.

Being a teenager is only the first small part of a person's life. We continue to grow and mature and have new experiences all throughout our life. Those are much more important than the awkward and often painful childhoods we all endure. Even when we're on our death beds, we still learn new things.

I myself was an introverted kid. As a teenager, I was an arrogant s.o.b that thought I was better than most people around me. When I was 17, during that summer I played baritone in a drum corps and had such a set of experiences that even then I could viscerally feel the change in my outlook on life and on others. Throughout my 20s I began to get more perspective on life and bad habits I had growing up melted away.

Now here I am in my early thirties (31 at the time of writing this), and I can feel my perspective on life changing again. I stopped getting angry about things a couple years ago. Literally when everything seems to be breaking and failing around me, I just find it funny and keep working through it. That happened again a few weeks ago. I'm at a point now where if I am getting depressed, I can rationally sense where my emotional state is heading and most of the time do things to bring myself out of it early.

I'm able to recognize my bad and good habits and I'm able to make conscious choices now to change what I want to change. Its not easy, but I'm able to do it.

So I hope that for everyone else that I'm not unique, and that your statement is untrue. Else its a sad life that human beings are meant to lead.

<comment><USER17> I think for the majority of human beings, it is true. For people on this site, it may not be.

The point is really the following: * Pick a long-term thing * Finish it * Do this a lot of times * Get good at finishing

It's a really hard thing to learn post teenage years. I had the same problem but started fixing it in my mid-teens. I couldn't finish anything before then. But then I started a couple of music businesses which were very interesting to me and I learned to finish what I started.

Compared to my 10 year old daughter who can now zip through many long-term projects with appropriate levels of planning. At her age, I remember basically not finishing any school work. She started out the same but working on a lot of projects, she's learned to finish what she starts.

The natural state of a human being is to be stagnant. It's very few people who continuously try to improve themselves. Therefore, get the continuous improvement habit as early as possible.</comment></comment></comment>


Is it possible to make floating point calculations completely deterministic? - <AUTHOR> https://gafferongames.com/post/floating_point_determinism/ <comment><AUTHOR> I discovered this link in a blog post discussing the nuances of constant evaluation in Rust: [https://www.ralfj.de/blog/2018/07/19/const.html](https://www.ralfj.de/blog/2018/07/19/const.html) . Turns out that the vagaries of floating point make it a bit of a hazard to do constant evaluation in any case where the correctness of your type system relies on constant calculations having the same result as runtime calculations. :)</comment>


Could Apple become the next Comcast? - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/could-apple-become-the-next-comcast/2015/03/18/a90a8e9c-ccc3-11e4-8c54-ffb5ba6f2f69_story.html

<comment><USER2> Apple is developing really slow after Steve Jobs, but if they play their cards smartly they will dominant this Online TV industry with their devices in every people's houses and pockets. They already have the fundamental background as hardware, only thing they need to do is signing contracts with shows and channels.

</comment><comment><USER3> _If it succeeds, Apple could become the biggest gateway to online video — the new Comcast for the Internet._

Um, unless Apple has some means to cancel and overtake thousands of municipal cable franchise agreements and string millions of miles of coax, Comcast will still be the gateway to <x>. Comcast will _always_ be the internet, unless they're broken up by the feds.</comment>


The 9/11 Tapes (Great Presentation of Audio Material) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/nyregion/911-tapes.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I submit this not because of the story it tells (which, while breaking my heart, is clearly off-topic for Hacker News) but for the presentation.

The New York Times does a terrific job when it comes to presenting information. They could have just embedded a standard audio player but they did not. They present the audio in a way that makes it accessible even if you have little time. It's possible to skip around effortlessly and you never lose sight of the big picture. They are also not shy to use new web technologies when possible. This particular page works on my iPad without a hitch.

This is one of many examples where the New York Times really shows that they are able to find new and better ways of presenting information.

</comment><comment><USER2> I am so overloaded with 9/11 coverage I don't even want to click it. Really looking forward to Monday, 9/12, so I can go back to the old life, where I am only reminded of the impact of 9/11 two or three times a week, instead of two or three times a day.

<comment><USER3> Seriously? I had no idea it was even the 10th anniversary until your piteous reply.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not to flame, but a genuine question - so _was_ there a plane that hit Pentagon? All released photos were odd and ambiguous at best.

<comment><USER5> Should explain things adequately for anyone interested.

[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/deb...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/debunking-911-myths- pentagon)

*EDIT: Hit submit too soon...</comment></comment>


The Failed Attempt to Rebrand the Word 'Hacker' - <AUTHOR> http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-failed-attempt-to-rebrand-the-word-hacker?trk_source=homepage-lede

<comment><USER2> "Cracker" has nothing to do with what article describes,or what Stallman, Raymond and others want it to mean. "Cracker" has very technical definition: subclass of _hackers_ , who is involved only in removing of copy protection in commercial software and making keygens; "crackers" are the original creators of the demoscene, because cracks often included visual/sound effects; also the industry of reverse engineering has roots in cracking.

</comment><comment><USER3> Don't we say black hat / white hat now?

<comment><USER4> Why does there need to be a distinction?

How about "good people" vs "bad people"

<comment><USER3> They're kind of self labeling.

[https://www.blackhat.com/us-15/](https://www.blackhat.com/us-15/)

[https://www.whitehatsec.com/categories/events/hat.com/us-15/](https://www.whitehatsec.com/categories/events/hat.com/us-15/)</comment></comment></comment>


Slack vs. HipChat – The Chat Wars - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/slack-and-hipchat-are-on-the-verge-of-launching-chat-wars/ <comment><USER2> I would like to see some kind of standard. Having multiple closed platforms is great for the profits of the companies that run said services, but the users are the ones that have to pay the price.

We've seen this already once with messaging systems. Remember AOL, MSN Messenger, ICQ, etc? Now, it's no better, just that the actor's names are different. Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Wechat, Line.

Do we really want this to happen all over again? I certainly can see the appeal of a system like Slack. After all, we used it ourselves for a while until we decided that we didn't want the vendor lock-in, and instead started developing out own, open source system that implements lots of what Slack is, but that can be self-hosted by anyone.

I would love to see the makers of these kinds of applications to create some kind of standard around these systems.

<comment><USER3> Xmpp + a modern web client.

Honestly at this point any open source chat/IM system not building on xmpp or irc would need a pretty good reason why not

<comment><USER2> If I had read this message before we started our project I would have agreed with you much more than I am right now. That's not to say I completely disagree with you either, I don't.

Originally we tried to build something on top of either IRC or XMPP. But, it turns out that a system like Potato (or Slack, if you like) is less a messaging system and more like email, or a wiki.

Messages are persistent, searchable, and editable. You can attach files to messages, and for some kinds of messages you can even have interactions like votes. None of this is part of IRC which is designed to be a messaging system where a message is sent, and after that it really doesn't exist anymore (other than in the scrollback of the users who happened to be in the channel when the message was sent).

When testing Slack, I used to be really frustrated about their horrible IRC support. I still am, but I now understand why they don't give it much attention. It's really not compatible with how these systems work.

I'm definitely not against IRC. I'm always on our Potato channel but I'm also on IRC. After all, I wouldn't want to leave #lisp or #emacs.

As for XMPP, it suffers from many of the same issues as IRC. However, it does have an extension mechanism that could be used to support features such as persistence but as far as I know there is no standard for this, which means such standard has to be agreed upon, which is what I called for in the last message.

<comment><USER3> Apache wave (aka Google wave) has a lot of what you mentioned, and it's based on xmpp.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Dungeons and Developers: 5 Traits of Great Tech Leads and Dungeon Masters - <AUTHOR> http://www.conductor.com/nightlight/dungeons-developers-five-things-good-dungeon-masters-good-tech-leads-common/

<comment><USER2> What every tech lead worth his salt should know</comment>


Report: The iPad won't go mass market anytime soon - <AUTHOR> http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/05/12/report-the-ipad-wont-go-mass-market-anytime-soon/

<comment><USER2> I recently went to work at a local cafe for a few hours over the weekend. It's a cafe that is well situated for people to grab coffee and a snack, and then sit down to get some work done.

What was striking to me was that I saw no fewer than three people pop open their iPads and work for a few hours. And I'm not in the Valley.

To add to this, on my last business flight last week, I noticed two middle- aged businesspeople with their iPads in their laps while I walked down the aisle.

I don't know what definition of "mass market" the researchers are using, but when you see multiple people casually use the same device in a random coffee shop, and random businesspeople on a flight popping open the same device, it's tough to argue it's not getting widespread adoption.

The market may have proven this report wrong before the proverbial ink was dry.

<comment><USER3> I thought the same thing. For mother's day I got my 79 year old mother an iPad, and so far she really loves it. I don't think I've ever seen her this excited about a gadget. While I was at my parent's place for mother's day, I got a chance to talk to my other siblings, who called. Turns out my older sister also bought one and loves it. My mom and sister spent most of the call talking about it.

<comment><USER4> These anecdotes remind me of the videos & articles of young children, teens, and grandparents (and pets) using the iPad. They are definitely interesting examples of possible early majority[1] members adopting this technology - though perhaps it's more telling to look at the buyers of the technology (who are probably early adopters) than the recipients of it.

My own experience in a suburban area of Southern California is that I have yet to see someone using an iPad. That doesn't mean it's a failure anymore than seeing it in a cafe mean it's a success, of course.

I think more time has to pass, and more data needs to be collected, before anyone can declare the iPad a true success or failure with the mass market.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_lifecycle>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Unfortunately, sales receipts and investment firms don't share your reticence. What is mass market anyways? is it 1 million? 100 million? 1 billion sold? If the mass market was just techbloggers you might be right, but now they are looking like the new Cmdr Taco iPod review.

The mass market are people like my family and friends who don't know what it does but know they have to have one. I don't need one and I plan on getting one. Just waiting for v2, Apple has a history of v1 bugs I'd rather avoid.

If anything, Apple has already established the long tail. They've got apps and add-ons. It's hard to find an alarm clock without an iPod dock these days. j/k

</comment><comment><USER6> > "everything it does I can do on my PC or my phone right now."

Right. But when your PC gets a virus/hardware-failure or your phone keypad is too small to type up a paper, what would you buy? Maybe not this current version of iPad but eventually the only computer my parents will use/buy will be an iPad or a very similar device. It will be something that works like iPad Wifi (3G not required), will connect to cameras, printers, and have live video chat features.

If it runs Farmville, it addresses every single use-case for my parents. And since it will be easy enough to move around the house, they will love it. I bought them an iPad Wifi for now but hopefully will get them the iPad + USB + Camera device sometime in the near future.

<comment><USER7> The article isn't asserting that people won't like an iPad if you buy it for them. It is asserting that (most) people like your parents won't decide to go buy an iPad.

Were your parents planning to buy an iPad anyway, or did you buy it for them because you believed they wouldn't figure out that they wanted it?

<comment><USER6> You're right in that regards. My dad had read all the newspaper articles (in Kolkata, India) about the iPad and based on the tech-journalists' observations, decided that the iPad is a toy and can't do anything useful. When I told him I am thinking of buying an iPad for my mom for her birthday, he said "No! iPad sucks. Just buy us a regular laptop."

I explained to him that for the first time in the history of computers, there is now a low-priced portable computer that he doesn't need me to fix or setup. It won't get viruses, it is easy enough that my grandma can use it, and it just works like the iTouch that he is so familiar with. Suddenly it clicked in his head. He asked "So this will let me go to Gmail, Facebook, all the news sites?" I said yes. "And this will have games that your mom can play all day? And it will let us read your blog and see your photos? All of it wirelessly?" I said yes.

He said "Ok. Get two then." I said it doesn't have webcam yet so I'll give you one now and next year or so when it gets a webcam, I'll buy two. You'll get one and I'll keep one and we can video-chat from our sofas across the world (I'm in Florida). He was happy with that.

I think the real problem is that even though most tech-journalists aren't programmers or engineers, they still align their interests with the techies and try to think like Slashdotters: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." Good journalists see through the different layers and can more realistically describe a technology for what it's worth. Yes, it sucks that the iPad needs a regular computer before it can even be turned on and it sucks that the iPad doesn't have a webcam. But think about it. Dynabook is finally here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook> and it has a LOT more software applications available than you could imagine. My dad doesn't care about USB or even true multitasking. He just wants to go to a website, listen to music, and play a game or two. iPad is a true consumer electronic product. A laptop is not.

<comment><USER8> It is a wonderful step forward to be sure, and it is probably a great fit for your parents and numerous other uses. But can you please not bastardize and hollow out, in this "good journalist" zeal, the soul of the Dynabook ideal. Not reduce that concept in service of making sound better this product which uses, as fall-back position number one, in response to any criticisms, the line "but it is for content consumption". This device could have been, and still could be (if it were allowed) the embodiment of that ideal. But Apple has held it back from crossing that line.

Maybe I'm being crotchety here, I can see that possibility. Maybe this coffee buzz and this morning's urge to hold on to some piece of naïve idealism is leading me astray, but there was something deeper in the ideal of the Dynabook. Something noble and in line with the best of humanity in the intention to free every individual to use the computer as an expansion of themselves. Not just the narrower vision of the next step in couch-potato consumption along controlled and approved channels. Do the journalists' eyes not see the difference? Can't you?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wasn't going to buy an iPad either. I'm a gadget geek, so I had all the same feelings about the iPad that are outlined in the article. "It's just a big iPhone," I thought. And I already had an iPhone, so why bother? Then release date went by and I was sitting around using my tiny iPhone when I finally realized: it sure would be cool if this thing had a bigger screen.

I went out and picked up an iPad, and I'm glad I did. People are wrong when they say "it doesn't do anything my PC won't do right now." Your PC doesn't fit in your hand. I owned a netbook for a short time as well. It's light, it's small, and in a lot of ways it's similar to the iPad, but it still follows the laptop format. By consequence, it's most comfortable on your lap. When I hold my iPad I hold it at right at my sternum; just like you would a book. When I used a netbook I'd try resting in the same location, but netbooks get pretty warm, and it quickly becomes uncomfortable. The laptop form factor just isn't built for casual consumption. They're built for a desk.

I agree with the assessment that the iPad won't go "mass market" any time soon, but Apple has a long history of not caring about "mainstream". They only care about making a good margin on a reasonable number of units. Mission accomplished.

I'm hoping that more companies will roll out touch-based devices in a tablet form factor. All Apple-fanboy-ism aside, I think the form-factor is incredible exciting for personal computing. I'm finally untethered from my desk, and most importantly, REALLY comfortable when using a computer in my comfy chair. Unlike Apple, I'm not principally opposed to Flash. I'm principally opposed to sacrificing good battery life, heat, and performance to Flash, but I think the recent spat with Apple has lit a fire under Adobe. I won't hesitate to jump ship when a better touch-tablet comes along.

</comment><comment><USER10> I had to order one online because all 4 Apple stores in Manhattan, and the closest store in NJ, are sold out. I originally thought they would only sell 5 million in the first twelve months. Now I'm guessing 12-15 million. Let's see what happens once you international units ship. 50 million units in 3 years? Mass market? I guess it's hard to be held accountable if they don't define exactly what they mean.

</comment><comment><USER11> > It occupies too much territory already covered by > smartphones, PCs, > laptops and traditional media.

For me, the question isn't whether it covers territory already covered by existing electronic devices like netbooks or what have you, but whether it covers a significant amount of the territory covered by _paper_. Can it substitute my A4 notebook, or my diary, that's what I want to know. It won't be the same, but will it be as good or better, all told?

As a substitute for a PC, netbook or smartphone, it's compromised in important, possibly fundamental ways. I don't know if it is similarly compromised as a paper substitute. If not, mass market acceptance awaits.

</comment><comment><USER12> Interesting how the TechCrunch article cites the "qualitative research" of simpsoncarpenter.com -- whose site my grandmother would _never_ navigate to find whatever article Mr. Carpenter wrote about the iPad. I guess he knows about what "won't go mass market anytime soon" from his own example.

For HNers purposes, _quantitative_ research might be more significant. Me, for example. I don't care whether an iPad has no place in _my_ work/personal life.

I _do_ care whether enough (quantitatively) people are purchasing/using iPads to influence my business decisions about how I target my app development work. (I know, I'm a mercenary SOB, right?)

</comment><comment><USER13> As an owner, I can say that it's only substantial drawback for me, is the inability to access or manipulate shares of any kind. Seeing the world through the iTunes keyhole is infuriating.

I have several hundred gb of media on AFP and cifs shares, and I hate that I have to drag out the lappy to move them around, or even view them. On the upside, lacking cell juice makes cracking the iPad much more attractive than the iPhone.

<comment><USER9> I know how you feel, and you should still be backing this horse. The better the iPad does, the more likely it is that other manufacturers will create a touch-based tablet. Android is probably the best hope for a geek-friendly touch-tablet in the near future. We just need a manufacturer with a commitment to quality to produce one. Most of what we've seen so far has been junk.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> These are the same flawed reasons the iPad wasn't going to be a huge hit in the US and we've seen how well those predictions worked out.

</comment><comment><USER15> People can make theoretical arguments all day long, but nearly every person that's seen my iPad has been interested in it, hesitantly asked if they could pick it up, then stood there and played with it for as long as they could, usually just saying "wow". Often punctuated with "I'm gonna buy one of these."

If Apple can continue to get these things into the hands of ordinary people (and from reports about how many people are playing with them at their retail stores, they're accomplishing that), they'll continue to sell amazingly well. I've _never_ seen a product sell itself as easily as iPad does, including the original iPod and iPhone.

<comment><USER16> The whole store strategy makes sense based on what your saying. They got the traffic and a good setup for demoing.

//my Dad bought 1 for himself. It is the first "computer" my Mom has used (MLB app)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The iPod isn't trying to go mass-market by exposing a focus group for a short time. It's trying to go mass-market by exposing a minority of vocal earlyvangelists and having _them_ show people why it's useful.

So far it's working really, really well. The question is just whether they can keep it up -- if the use cases continue to be interesting and compelling to, say, 10% of the population rather than just 1% of it.

Still too early to tell.

</comment><comment><USER18> I believe one of the most important ways for this to fit into people's lives is by seeing others (especially non-tech people) using it. So yeah, it'll take a while. I get the same kind of feeling as when the white headphones were starting to appear, though.

</comment><comment><USER19> I think I'd fall into the impulsive group, have a desktop/ laptop/ netbook/ decentish phone but still could see myself buying the ipad if I had a bit more money currently.

</comment><comment><USER20> Here is a clue: TechCrunch is a technology reporting tabloid. This article is click bait. Prognostication at this level is no better than picking lint from your navel.

</comment><comment><USER21> This reminds me of the initial opinion of the telephone 100+ years ago: nice toy, but it has no practical business purpose.</comment>


USA warns Democratic Republic of Congo not to use electronic voting - <AUTHOR> https://www.iafrikan.com/2018/02/16/the-democratic-republic-of-congo-warned-against-using-electronic-voting-for-presidential-elections/ <comment><USER2> Paper ballots can be manipulated physically, the questions can be put in confusing ways, irregularities can exist in the counting process, and they can be physically lost.

Yes, there can be observers that seal boxes, watch over the whole process, etc. But fraud can still exist even if they have full access.

How is that any better, apart from an appeal to tradition?</comment>