AeroFS (YC S10): It's Like Dropbox, But It Runs Inside Your Firewall - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/13/yc-funded-aerofs-its-like-dropbox-but-it-runs-inside-your-firewall/

<comment><USER2> I have an account and try it every once in a while. It has a nice interface and I could really see myself using it. My current problems:

\- It doesn't support symbolic links but requires you to put all the directories inside the special "AeroFS" directory

\- There is only an option to add a 1 GB "cloud" storage. While it is not the primary use case, I'd love to be able to buy some more

\- Last time I checked there was no way to install aerofs on a headless linux system (e.g. a NAS device with a JVM)

<comment><USER3> Co-founder of AeroFS here :-)

1\. Symbolic link support is currently planned, I'd go to <http://ae.ro/qc9Ey5> and upvote it. It'll allow us to notify you when it's done.

2\. Bigger plans are in the works, stay tuned!

3\. Headless support has been actually available for a while for most linux distributions, check out the "aerofs-cli" and "aerofs-sh" commands.

<comment><USER4> If you implement one feature, I will switch immediately: multiple accounts running at the same time.

I want to be able to sync my work stuff completely separate from my personal stuff. No "Shared Folders" solution or jazz like that. Dropbox seems totally unwilling to support this officially, so if you did, that'd be an awesome differentiator.

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure if this is exactly what you mean, but, last time I checked (a while ago) you could share different folders with different computers. For example, you could make a "work" share and sync it only with coworkers, and a "personal" share and sync it with your personal computers.

<comment><USER6> The problem is if me and Joe use Dropbox for personal use, and then we come up with a great startup idea and want to start hacking on it. On like day 5 of working on this idea, you'll want to start sharing/saving some PDFs or excel sheets or something. Ideally you'd be able to create a new Dropbox for this project and run two clients on your machine, one for your personal Dropbox and one for your new project Dropbox, and Joe can do the same.

But because you can't run two clients at once, you can't do this. You can create "Personal" and "Project" folders in your existing Dropbox and sync to different machines, but Joe now needs to use your Dropbox account and he can't sync his personal account. Or you both use the web client, except you're basically using FreeDrive from 1999. Or you use an entirely different file sharing service like ZumoDrive, which is kind of silly.

I get that multi-client support for Dropbox is probably a niche feature and will probably lead to jerks like me using 5 accounts instead of 1, so they don't do it. And there are workarounds like Dropboxen that allow me to sort of have multiple Dropbox instances running on my machine if I have multiple user accounts. But man it'd be nice if multiple Dropbox instances running was a native feature instead of having the same, "Ok, I filled out the Articles of Organization and put them in my Dropbox so just refer to our filing number from there."; "Why don't you put them in MY Dropbox and YOU just refer it from there?" conversation with Joe.

<comment><USER5> I don't understand, why can't you just create shared folders in your single Dropbox account and share them with whomever you like?

<comment><USER7> There is an option too in the right-click menu for sharing a folder. They may just have missed it. But the same button on the web based interface is clear enough, I suppose.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> AeroFS is YC S10? Why are they coming out as a YC company only now?

<comment><USER9> I'm writing a blog post about this now :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've been using AeroFS for a while now, and it is great. AeroFS lacks the polish that Dropbox has, but for me AeroFS fills the need of folder synchronization and redundancy much better than Dropbox. Your available storage space is only limited by your disk space on the computers you sync with.

</comment><comment><USER11> I've been watching AeroFS for a few months now, and it is a fascinating product that almost meets my needs. Just a few things keep me from using it, some of which I can't quite put my finger on enough to turn in to real feature requests on UserVoice.

\- It crashes sometimes. I think it does this less frequently now, but its favorite time to crash is when I suspend & resume my laptop.

\- Synchronization is a difficult problem to solve, and users need to have confidence that the software Does It Right. Somehow Dropbox achieves this, and I can't put my finger on how; I think part of it is the fact that conflicting files are duplicated and clearly marked. I haven't had conflicting syncs yet with AeroFS, so I'm not sure how it handles them, but I also haven't seen documentation on what happens. It's a combination of an algorithmic problem, which you presumably have solved, and a UI problem to demonstrate to the user that their data is safe and correct.

\- It doesn't yet support ignores. There's a feature request for this, and I've upvoted it, so hopefully it's just a matter of time. When I'm syncing a source directory, I don't want the built files synced. Yes, there's version control, but it's really convenient to sync portions of my Eclipse workspace so I can transparently work on the same changes on both my laptop and workstation.

\- I don't know how it works. There are two pieces of this that are interesting to me: the network topology and the crypto design. One of AeroFS's selling points is that your data is never shipped to the centralized cloud unless you explicitly use AeroFS cloud storage. However, as a privacy- conscious user, I would like to know exactly where my data is going, when, and how it is protected. Some data seems to be going to AeroFS's servers for coordination; what all data is? File lists, or just peer locations & names of libraries? A diagram what network connections are used and where data is shipped would help users such as myself understand where our data go and what the risk points are. Hopefully this can be documented without jeopardizing your special sauce/value-add. For the crypto side, it would be useful to know exactly what crypto algorithms are in use, where, and in what configurations. Some providers claim Great Crypto, and then they're using Blowfish. You've got some of this - your Features page discusses the use of the 2048-bit RSA keys. But how is the "secure channel" established? How are the RSA keys secured against theft (e.g. the Dropbox steal-the-auth-DB hack)? The crypto documentation could be overlaid on the network infrastructure documentation. In short - why should I believe the security claims? With things like this, I think extensive transparency is the best way to engender trust with your users, particularly when your competition is criticized for transparency- related issues (e.g. the encryption "misunderstanding" with Dropbox).

I think AeroFS has a lot of promise, and I want you guys to succeed. We need some good, secure, strongly-privacy-preserving competition in the cloud file sync space.

<comment><USER11> Update: they have some network documentation here: <http://ae.ro/m3bHKs>

And have responded to a feature request for documentation here, so hopefully we see it soonish: [http://vote.aerofs.com/forums/67721-feature- requests/suggest...](http://vote.aerofs.com/forums/67721-feature- requests/suggestions/2246067-document-network-and-cryptography-usage)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Previous discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=2877037>

</comment><comment><USER7> One should note that Dropbox also transfer your files without the cloud if you happens to have those devices within the same private network.

Also, as much as I think, having some Java programs running at the background is the best idea. I have already got a Java background service running (Crashplan) and it holds up to 500MB after running a longer time. I have yet to receive an invite (msg me if you've got one!), however a native client/background service/daemon would always be welcomed.

</comment><comment><USER13> I've often wondered why dropbox doesn't sell a product just like this.

<comment><USER14> Dropbox aim at the mainstream, AeroFS will be harder for a non-techie to get.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I signed up for an invite a month or so ago, any idea when you are going to open it up for more people?

<comment><USER16> Current users can invite new people by sharing a library with them.

My email's in my profile. Feel free to contact me and I'll invite a few folks when I get home tonight (in a few hours).

Edit: To help avoid losing your mail to the spambin, put aerofs in the subject line.

<comment><USER17> I just sent an email. I'm looking forward to trying it out!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I assume it runs on your computers behind your firewall and not actually 'inside' the firewall.

Also don't quite understand why TC would compare it to Dropbox. Seems like a solid service on it's on merit.

</comment><comment><USER19> AeroFS isn't merely useful for security reasons (inside firewall), but for moving huge files around a LAN. Dropbox does do some LAN syncing on individual accounts, but being able to share big media files during the capture/edit/publishing process would be a great use case. In a lot of those cases, on location, you have Gig-E or better locally, but a 3G/4G hotspot for publishing a final stream (and general Internet use), so something cloud based isn't viable.

</comment><comment><USER20> I tried this once a year or so ago, but for whatever reason it wasn't able to get through my corporate firewall, while Dropbox was. I am curious if that has been resolved?

<comment><USER9> We've done a lot of fixes since then that should hopefully address this issue.

Let's try again and let me know :) Shoot me an email (yuri at aerofs.com) and we can see!

<comment><USER20> Hello Yuri -- I e-mailed you. My invite code has expired so I'm not able to try again.

<comment><USER9> replied :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This looks pretty cool. I am curious to see how they will compete with Dropbox in time, though.

It does seem like FolderShare all over again - which Microsoft acquired, sat on, and subsequently re-released no less than three times with different a different name and different level of stability. It seems to be the role of the startup to re-implement correctly what large organisations screw up.

</comment><comment><USER22> The equivalent open source product: SparkleShare. Except it doesn't do Windows yet (but supposedly will soon)

<comment><USER23> I'm not sure how AeroFS works as I've not used it, but I've tried and had some problems with SparkleShare on larger files because of its reliance on git.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> My only comment: AeroFS is an objectively horrible name if you ever want wider consumer adoption. Even if you want to cater to the techie slice of the market it's still not ideal. Pretty important to get the name right.

</comment><comment><USER25> It sounds like a great idea, but I'm curious how it will perform along side a traditional file sharing system. I'm not sure users will find the benefit. Windows allows cacheing of shared drives already.

<comment><USER26> Windows shared drive performance is abysmal. Anything to improve that would be a boon. Plus this is cross platform.

The biggest competitor is a usb stick.

<comment><USER25> It is poor, to say the least. Good point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Does anyone has an invite, pretty pretty please? :)

Or better yet, when can we expect the public beta? I am waiting for this over a year now!

</comment><comment><USER28> I know DropBox has had security fallacies in the past.

Inside Firewall or not Inside Firewall, how is the security designed here?

</comment><comment><USER29> This sounds very interesting. Would it be possible to install the linux client on a cheap VPS to get your own "cloud" storage?

</comment><comment><USER30> does this work between 2 computers not behind the same firewall. i.e. can i sync with a computer in la while im in ny?

<comment><USER9> Yup! :)

<comment><USER30> so how is it getting around the double NAT problem? Are users acting as bridges (like Skype super nodes) or is it going though aerofs's servers?

<comment><USER31> An aerofs server is used to help establish a "connection", more or less along the lines of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STUN>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I used it with my friend to share media. But It always kept requesting. Our computers are on all the time.

I believe this happened because on my laptop I started a folder called media. It was shared with my friend and my desktop. After a while I removed the folder tracking from the laptop. The syncing looked like it was working but all I ended up getting were empty folders and requesting or nothing at all.

Bugs maybe?

</comment><comment><USER33> I wish it allowed you add an external HD to sync with.

</comment><comment><USER34> I'm always suspicious of great new infrastructure that is free. Exactly how are you going to make money?

Presumably by waiting until i rely on this and have invested time and effort into moving all my data into the system - and then you will impose some pricing model.

I prefer to know upfront how much you are going to charge for what.

<comment><USER35> I would imagine that if they are offering it for free to consumers now that they will make money by offering special enterprise solutions and/or support packages and/or premium options.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> This sounds like a problem only techies have, and already have solutions for, like centralized file servers. I don't sync files, I keep one copy of my files, and access them over the network.

<comment><USER12> I have a large music/photo collection I sync with AeroFS.

I have multiple machines on my network with ten's of GB of spare disk space, so this provides a good backup policy without needing to consider how I should back up all that data off a central file server.

<comment><USER37> That's a good backup policy until your building burns down. Better do some off-site backups too!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Where is the source code?

<comment><USER38> Ok, no source (jet).

Please vote: [http://vote.aerofs.com/forums/67721-feature- requests/suggest...](http://vote.aerofs.com/forums/67721-feature- requests/suggestions/1728653-open-source-aerofs-and-only-take-payment-for- clou?ref=title)

<comment><USER38> WTF? Why is this being down-voted?

<comment><USER39> Honestly its probably because your original comment was a one line request for the source code to an application that isn't open source, nor whose feature article mentioned anything about open source. I'm just guessing though, I lack the karma to dv.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Mysteries of Animal Movement - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/science/hu-robotics.html <comment><USER2> The piece mentions some articles by Hu, associates, and his advisor at MIT

By his advisor at MIT, Dr. Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan: > _Geometry and Physics of Wrinkling_ \- [https://www.seas.harvard.edu/softmat/downloads/2003-03.pdf](https://www.seas.harvard.edu/softmat/downloads/2003-03.pdf)

By Dr. Hu: > _Fire ants self-assemble into waterproof rafts to survive floods_ \- [http://www.pnas.org/content/108/19/7669](http://www.pnas.org/content/108/19/7669)</comment>


Xamarin vs. Phonegap vs. Native from an Outsourcing Perspective - <AUTHOR> http://blog.a9t9.com/2015/03/outsourcing-mobile-development-xamarin-phonegap-native.html

<comment><USER2> tldr; asking for a port of a C# app to windows phone and android gets you a lot of xamarin developers</comment>


Syncly - Simply Backup Android Photos - <AUTHOR> http://www.dainbinder.com/2012/01/syncly-simply-backup-android-photos.html

<comment><USER2> The biggest issue that I have with an app like this is the set of permissions that it needs with Dropbox. It needs access to my 'complete dropbox'. That implies it can read everything on it.

I would rather that it only have a 'write-only' access or a limited access to a certain folder in my Dropbox. The Dropbox API[1] makes it possible for you to sandbox your app to only one folder.

[1] <https://www.dropbox.com/developers/start/core>

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good point and I am surprised after reading the page you linked to I am surprised Dropbox would have approved it.</comment></comment>


Why Pinterest can help you quit your job. - <AUTHOR> http://drewonstuff.com/post/17836423044/why-pinterest-is-ok-and-not-just-a-giant-waste-of

<comment><USER2> Before reading that, I had never heard of Pinterest.

After reading that, I knew that something named Pinterest existed, but still had no idea what it was other than it was some kind of site.

The article would be clearer if after the first mention of Pinterest it tossed in a parenthetical or comma phrase comment saying what it is, and if the word Pinterest were a link to the site.</comment>


Edward O. Wilson: Marx was right, he had the wrong species - <AUTHOR> http://www.froes.dds.nl/WILSON.htm <comment><USER2> That was a remarkably well-reasoned and plainspoken summary of some cool facts and trends in "sociobiology." I remember seeing a talk about evolutionary psychology early in my college career and dismissing it as imprecise, speculatory nonsense, but perhaps I judged too quickly. It seems more interesting and credible when the person talking about it doesn't seem like a crackpot. I'll take another look when I get the chance.

Also, on "A scientist would rather use another scientist's toothbrush than his terminology," I think that goes double for mathematicians. For instance, in complex analysis, "analytic," "holomorphic," "regular," "differentiable," and "complex differentiable" all mean the same thing in the context of functions/maps, with various subfields of mathematics adopting one or the other at various times.

<comment><USER3> The worst is mathematicians only seem to have about 20 words, they just constantly redefine them in context. ;-)

<comment><USER4> You're so normal!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Reminds me of a great quote Len Sassaman has in his Orkut profile:

"Some day, I will invent a machine that turns all marxists into ants. Then, we will all be happy."

</comment><comment><USER6> Sure, ants can work harmoniously because of genetic incentives, but how is that really different from the way cells work together in a human body? Selfishness is inescapable and constant, like the speed of light. Justice and individuality are illusions, like time and space, that become meaningful when determined in terms of selfishness. That which is selfish is an individual; that which is an altruist member of a greater being is like a cell in an individual.

<comment><USER4> Nice definition. Only works in a context of evolutionary stable strategies, though

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Speaking on behalf of empirical data, many humans are not content to have just enough. They always want more. Give someone a million dollars and they want more. Give them a comfortable house, and they will dream of having a better one. It's all relative, but by nature, I think humans will never be content with what they have or know. They will always seek out something more. To elaborate on the comment above about greed, agreed: This is why Communism, one form of Marxism, in favor of a single class, will never work.

</comment><comment><USER8> Great interview with him from RadioLab

<http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2008/09/23/chasing-bugs/>

</comment><comment><USER9> Has anyone read the books by E.O. Wilson? Any good ones?

I read The Insect Societies, and while I'm sure it was very useful for biologists, the ratio of detail to intellectual insight was much too large for me. I didn't dare to tackle the other ones.

<comment><USER10> I read Consilience and had a similar impression. Useful for entomologists, not a terribly great read otherwise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> For all those who are hating on the free-market and greed and selfishness, I advise you to check out Ayn Rand's collection of essays compiled into a book called The Virtue of Selfishness.

[http://www.atlassociety.org/cth-- 406-FAQ_Virtue_Selfishness....](http://www.atlassociety.org/cth-- 406-FAQ_Virtue_Selfishness.aspx)

<comment><USER12> Rand's fiction is better than her non-fiction. She makes a good artistic case that selfishness is not a priori evil and is often good. However, if you are looking for rigorous philosophy or social analysis to support such viewpoints, then I would suggest one look elsewhere.

<comment><USER4> How about Adam Smith's works? They are very readable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This article debunks the myth that us humans are a "unique" species far removed from "other" animals. Plus now I know who a myrmecologist is! Thanks Google.

</comment><comment><USER14> 99.99% of humanity has been religious so far (from its early beginnings until now, being atheism a very rare phenomenon in the past).

If you want to really understand humans, why ignore that fact?

<comment> a-priori Don't forget that persecution of a thing tends to drive it underground but not eliminate it. There is no way of knowing how many people in centuries past were non-religious because they would have hidden this fact to avoid persecution.

<comment><USER14> And if we substitute religion with faith?

We all know (from daily experience) that we need to trust / have faith / etc. in someone or something. No single human is able to start from 0 and to do it all by himself.

Now, the current faith of 'modern' (non religious) people seems to be one of: Science, Politics, Evolution (in the sense of: Nature will solve it all for us).

But: if the solution to a human problem can't really be found _inside_ himself, that fact already excludes any possibility of being the human itself something similar to God (Batteries AKA All Solutions To All Problems Already Included).

Concluding: it's much more reasonable to actually believe in some God than the opposite. (And I really appreciate the intelligence/knowledge/wisdom of past generations.)

<comment> a-priori And the point of this comment is... what, exactly?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Because we have reproductive independence, and we get maximum Darwinian > fitness by looking after our own survival and having our own offspring.

i.e. we are selfish and greedy.

If everyone recognized and accepted this we'd be able to move past fantasies like the free-market and "our leaders have our best interests in mind"

<comment><USER16> The free market is modelled around the fact that we are greedy. Communism assumes that we are (or can be made) purely altruistic ("From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" collapses if there is just a single selfish, greedy actor present).

That's why free markets work remarkably better than communism.

<comment><USER17> You know, I never thought that free markets vs Communism made very good polar opposites. They don't cover the same sort of ground. They clash terribly over invisible hand vs command but Communism also covers a 17th- 18th centuryish theory of history at its core. What do free marketeers have to say to that?

The command vs freee hand, particularly for physical goods production has been largely decided. I think very few politicians left that would directly control production in a red sort of a way. They might for micro political reasons, but probably wouldn't try to control the economy some other way.

Marx got moulded into a religious figure. But read in a similar context as Kant, Bentham, or even Ayn Rand, it's definitely interesting.

<comment><USER18> you're right. marxism is intertwined with the idea of a class struggle throughout history. I would say the free market version would be considered aristocratic: that it has been a small handful of entrepreneurs in each age that has advanced things. This in spite of the petty concerns of the proles, not because of them.

<comment><USER4> No, elitism and free market do not have to go hand in hand.

For example look at the "I, Pencil" essay (<http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html>) that argues that no single person knows how to make a pencil, at least not effectively. People of all walks of live contribute to our economy in varying degrees.

The history of science and technology is still told as the history of great men. Just look at the wealth of independent re-inventions, to see that seldom does progress hinge on individuals.

I still admire entrepeneurs and great scientists as great role models.

<comment><USER18> wait what? what do you call the CEO of the pencil company? none of those individual workers would have jobs if the need for pencils didn't exist and there wasn't someone who was capitalizing on that need. That fact that the most efficient way of doing business in modern times involves shipping materials from many parts of the world is a testament to the efficiency of the market.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The ultimate cross platform language - <AUTHOR> http://lambdabrella.blogspot.com/2011/08/haxe-book-secret-weapon-under-spot.html

<comment><USER2> haXe has been around for a long time, so it should be pretty solid. I played around with it in 2003 or 2004 because I wanted to have a way of writing flash applications in a good editor like Vim instead of the frighteningly bad Flash Editor. And I wanted to work under Linux.

The main problem why it never got traction is probably that it is aiming for too much at once. If you try to do everything, you're just mediocre across the board. It may spit out JS, but how do you use advanced frameworks like Jquery in there? It may spit out C++, but how advanced is that code, and what if you want to use GTK or even Qt. From what I understood, you're pretty much limited to what haXe has to offer. And that, on the other hand, limits your choice of what you can implement. Granted, you could port stuff over, but then it's more work again.

Instead, it may be smarter to know 2-3 dedicated languages for specific tasks. This also helps you to understand and port different design patterns back and forth.

<comment><USER3> I think it did bite off more than it could chew in the beginning, but it's really coming together these days. You can link in with third party libraries just fine, though only by calling a Haxe like external interface functions, so you'd probably write your jquery in separate files.

It's no silver bullet, and I'd probably still agree with your assessment of using tools designed for the job - my web stack is Django + hand written javascript/jquery + node.js for multiplayer.

But I think it's well worth checking out for the news.yc crowd. I believe something similar will eventually win out - being able to write every part of a stack in the same language - but that language is probably destined to be Javascript.

<comment><USER2> I concur that it is interesting. I mostly wondered why it didn't catch on since it's been available for so long already. Also, for certain niches, like simpler games, it is probably a great solution since you can create it once and then publish / sell it on multiple platforms.

I'm also pretty sure that someday Ruby or Java or Javascript or Python will evolve into something which runs on almost any platform. Already, you can compile Java to Javascript, Python to Javascript, and so on. Especialy the LLVM is going to allow for way more inter-language swizzling.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The ultimate cross platform language for me will be one that runs on Android, iOS, Windows, MacOSX and Linux without any change in code. From the article it doesn't look like haxe is trying to do that. But it will be great to have such a language.

P.S. I think Javascript, HTML and CSS is a good combination but not what most people want.

<comment><USER5> Flex/Air is probably as close as it will ever get to being write once/run everywhere.

<comment><USER6> As far as I can tell, Air is designed to only run on Linux systems with the Apt, RPM or YUM package managers. I had tried to set it up on Slackware using some workarounds (see [http://cookbooks.adobe.com/post_Adobe_AIR_Application_Instal...](http://cookbooks.adobe.com/post_Adobe_AIR_Application_Installer_on_Slackware_12_2-15226.html)), but never got it to work. The .bin installer would just produce cryptic error messages and fail.

I did succeed in installing Air by using rpm2tgz on the RPM package, but installing an Air application still fails.

Am I the only one with this experience?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The topic itself is very interesting, I find that excelent libraries (i.e.: NetworkX) in a language (i.e: Python) can be quickly ported to other languages. It's a pity that those libraries can't be isolated and translated to many languages without an important extra effort. In the case of graph algorithms we have libraries for C++, C#, Python, Ruby, Java, etc with different features and qualities, but the weakness is that the library comes attached with a single programming language or VM.

It's an important trend to look and hope HaXe to be just one example of a project going in that direction.

</comment><comment><USER8> I used haXe a while back when implementing a concept SCUMM interpreter which worked in Javascript & Flash. It fitted the gap nicely... i could literally use the same code when compiling for flash and javascript.

My only big problem with it was the standalone "neko" target used a bizarre hack which meant integers were limited to 31 bits. This became incredibly problematic when implementing code (e.g. drawing, file loading, interpreting bytecodes) which relied on the assumption that integers were at least 32 bits in size.

There was an official workaround which used an "Int32" class. This effectively meant if you built for "neko" you had to rewrite half your code to use Int32. Bizarrely haXe had no in-built abstraction for transparently handling 32bit integer types in this case.

<comment><USER9> Common Lisp also has fewer-than-32-bit integers. It uses a few bits so that the VM can tell whether something is a pointer or an unboxed integer.

<comment><USER10> No, it has fewer-than-32-bit _fixnums_. Integers are practically unbounded. Also, on cmucl and it's derivatives you can declare something to be (unsigned- byte 32) and when possible it will use untagged integers for performance.

This makes a difference because if you declare something "fixnum" you know you're being non-portable, but if you declare something (unsigned-byte 32) or just integer then you expect it to work across all implementations.

<comment><USER9> I didn't see a need to introduce another piece of jargon, but thanks for the clarification.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> One of the nice attributes of haXe is that you can use one programming language to target different domains. Where in web development you'd normally use PHP and Javascript you can use haXe since haXe compiles down to either PHP or Javascript.

Of course, haXe code has to be written in such a way that you know you're going to compile it to PHP. You can't simply "cross" compile for different run times.

But learning one primary language is definitely appealing over learning many different languages. Reuse...

</comment><comment><USER12> I'd like to see how it looks. Anyone know of a framework or a web app example?

</comment><comment><USER13> It won't install for me on Mac OS X Lion: [https://img.skitch.com/20110803-f5y8w3yngw6j4n1wi9ma33xmbu.p...](https://img.skitch.com/20110803-f5y8w3yngw6j4n1wi9ma33xmbu.png)

</comment><comment><USER14> Would it be a good decision for a company to replace a RubyOnRails development environment with haXe??

<comment><USER15> I assume you are thinking of using something like this; <http://code.google.com/p/hails/> ? But I would say no ; haXe is great and I love using it, but it's very game oriented; the rest (other uses), last I checked are not very mature (yet). That said; for cross platform gaming it is cool; you can target many platforms and with a bit of hacking it all works nicely.</comment></comment>


Without LinkedIn account I won't get a job in US? - <AUTHOR> Is it true that in US you have to have linkedIn account to get a job? Such gossip is circling in Poland among HR people. <comment><USER2> I always look someone up by LinkedIn before meeting them. Usually people do the same for me. It's a good way to see who you know in common (better than Facebook on a business level) and in general saves a lot of time. Almost everyone I meet for work has a linkedin profile -- though literally just yesterday I (independently) met two people without a linkedin profile: one a quasi-celeb and the other someone simply so specialized in skill and so appropriately connected that it just didn't add value for him.

Now there are drawbacks to linkedin. For example some people will link to just anyone. I only link to people whom I actually know well enough personally to have a good opinion about them.

The linked in interface is terrible. It generates too many messages and basically just sucks. They know, and it sometimes improves, but there you are.

You will get recruiter and other spam. But then again the whole point of it is to connect people professionally, so...

<comment><USER3> I like looking people up before a meeting as well, just to get a measure of how technical they are, what their backgrounds are, etc. But I hate that LinkedIn tells them I've been looking, at least when I use the free version. It sounds reasonable to do some prep work before a meeting, but gets decidedly more creepy when you get e-mail to tell you that someone was checking up on you.

<comment><USER4> Its a reciprocal setting. If you want to know who looks at you, you have to show who you are.

Why is it creepy that someone you're having a meeting with looks you up? Sounds perfectly appropriate to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> No. I've never seen the LinkedIn profile of anyone who I've been involved with hiring & do not have one myself. It's never been mentioned.

<comment><USER6> I've had a LinkedIn account for over 11 years now. Pretty much the only thing that it has done for me is caused a few hundred salespeople to look up my contact information and try to sell me something.

<comment><USER7> Why do you keep it then?

<comment> lloyd-christmas I get recruiter spam mainly. I keep it just in case I might actually need that recruiter spam.

<comment><USER8> Agree, I have 500+ recruiter/sales spam ([http://i.imgur.com/W92SuAH.png](http://i.imgur.com/W92SuAH.png)) which I never check. I still have an account on LI because everyone else is there and I think I _might_ need it but I have never used for anything useful yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Definitely not true. While many people have profiles, most everyone I know barely uses the site. It's become mostly a wasteland full of spam.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is not true.

I've been part of the hiring process repeatedly throughout my career, and while it's nice to find a candidate's LinkedIn profile, it's far from necessary.

In terms of hiring front end engineers, I want to see a portfolio. For back end engineers, I want to see source code - preferably on Github. But LinkedIn? That's a nice-to-have, nothing more.

<comment><USER11> Wouldn't a back end engineer most likely have been working on proprietary source code for their time with the previous company?

Or are you talking about code they've written out of work hours? If so, that's never going to be indicative of the kind of code they can and normally do write is it?

* To clarify, I'm asking because I'm nearing the end of my third year at my first dev job at an engineering consultancy as an enterprise Java/Spring/Hibernate/Gradle developer and am planning to leave in the next few months but the question of how to demonstrate code to a potential employer is one that worries me.

I cannot show anything I have been working on here as it is wholly proprietary and my development outside of work is not at all comparative.

<comment><USER12> While likelihood is something for debate, it is true that there are plenty of people who have no public code, or no public code worth looking at. Those people have made a grave career mistake.

This really isn't any different from hiring an artist. What would you say to someone who walked in your door and says: "I'm a great painter; look at all these people I have painted for" but can't/won't show you any examples of their work? Hiring this way is basically a random chance that you'll like the work product.

<comment><USER11> What I meant was, I have personal coding projects but I don't have access to the kind of high-performance hardware and expensive 3rd party software that we use and that I have most of my experience with at work.

So while I have experience writing some fun little Android apps and contributing in a small way to some projects here and there outside of my 9-5 working hours, that code is not going to ever be close to what I am actually capable of or am used to writing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> No, there is no truth to this whatever.

Having a professional network is enormously helpful but not (as of this minute) strictly necessary. LinkedIn offers a representation of that network, not the network itself. It isn't a relationship-creating tool, and whether you have an account there is not relevant to the hiring process. At the very most, it might offer you a way to contact someone you've worked with in the past who might help you get an interview. Just like email or your phone's contact list or that group of people you drink beer with on Fridays.

</comment><comment><USER14> Of course this is just anecdotal, but I haven't had a LinkedIn account in 5 years and have had many job offers. I have never heard of this being a prerequisite or even a contributing factor.

<comment><USER15> But sounds like you might be well-connected (friends in the business). That's huge. A Polish immigrant would be a different deal.

<comment><USER16> I have almost always got jobs by sending resumes out, I have no social network to fall back on. I have a job, I will not start a linkedin profile.

Sending resumes will get you jobs, knowing people is not the only way.

<comment><USER13> > Sending resumes will get you jobs, knowing people is not the only way.

Right now, yes. That was true in 1998, too. In 2001, if you didn't know someone you were welcome to wait in the unemployment line with everyone else. You don't need an account on some data-grubber, but I would suggest very strongly that you invest in some kind of professional network. That doesn't mean a web site, it means a group of people you've worked with who can vouch for your skills and would like to work with you again. There will come a time that you will be nowhere without it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've never hired or seen anyone hired in the past 5 years at least that did not have a LinkedIn account. I don't think it's a prerequisite but pretty much everyone has one. I worked with a U.S. company with an office in Poland all of the devs there had LinkedIn accounts if that's any indication.

<comment><USER18> Did the content of their LinkedIn account in any way cause or influence their hiring, or was it just incidental?

Because while almost everybody I know has a LinkedIn account, few people bother to regularly updated, and no one I know has gotten a job because of it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Not true in the slightest. It can be helpful (recruiters seem to peruse LinkedIn for a living) but I've never had one and I'm doing fine so far.

</comment><comment><USER20> No, this is not true at all. LinkdIn is pretty much a joke at this point.

</comment><comment><USER21> Not true.

LI is _slightly_ useful for finding a job (at the expense of getting lots of recruiter spam). But it won't get you a job, and won't prevent you from getting a job. If it ever does prevent you from getting a job, trust me, you didn't want to work at that company anyway. (It's like companies that ask for your Facebook account and/or password. WTF?)

LI is also useful if you have no other web presence. But if you are a technology guy, what better way to say it than a custom domain name?

As a hiring manager, I find LinkedIn worse than useless for evaluating candidates. It's much simpler and easier to read their experience via their Resume compared the the kinda ugly LI formatting. Trying to glean info from their "connections" is useless, since many people connect at the drop of a hat. (i.e. being 2 links away from Bill Gates doesn't tell me anything about your coding ability.) The "recommendations" are also useless, because it's just one random internet user you don't trust vouching for another random internet user that you don't trust. Even the "skills" listing is broken: There is no "meaning" to +1 a skill, so people +1 skills they THINK their connections are good at and there's not objectivity to it.

</comment><comment><USER22> I wouldn't believe that. LinkedIn is worse than Facebook these days in its uselessness.

</comment><comment><USER23> It's not a major benefit, but it doesn't hurt. It's just an online resume, and you'll occasionally get spam from recruiters. I did work at one marketing agency that would, every week, send out an email to every employee (~40) saying who needed to get X more connections on linkedin that week. So I guess some people are crazy about it.

</comment><comment><USER24> You don't have to have a LinkedIn profile to get a job.

That said, having a LinkedIn account and using it can be beneficial in finding a job, in several ways that I suspect most technical individual contributors don't typically use or gain value from.

1) Online rolodex: It's a convenient way to maintain and grow a professional network, and it's a place where most participants actively endeavor to keep their contact information & job information current.

2) Groups: LinkedIn groups are the equivalent of G+ Communities or FB Groups, but with a professional bent. Participating in groups is an excellent way to get noticed by people you want to notice you.

3) Publishing: LinkedIn added a sort of blogging platform last year that lets individuals publish longer form posts. These can be used for whatever purpose you choose: project details, topical thoughts, career learnings, whatever. They're all then associated with your profile.

4) Projects & documents: Most programmers these days have a Github account or similar, where a portfolio is pretty easily visible, but if you're not in that kind of a role it's not always obvious how to present your work. LinkedIn lets you upload documents & video, and lets you associate projects with your job history (as well as letting you tag colleagues so they show up in your projects, too).

5) Recommendations. Endorsements are bollocks, but recommendations can be helpful, especially from previous or current managers. This is still iffy and I doubt many recruiters or hiring managers actually read them, but they fall under the "can't hurt" category, especially since you have to vet and manually approve any recommendations before they appear on your profile.

6) Job applications & recruiter contact. Say you find a job listing, perhaps on LinkedIn or perhaps not. The odds are good that the company also listed it there. The odds seem (in my experience) to be about 50/50 that the job listing on LinkedIn has the recruiter's name & contact info (LinkedIn profile) associated with it. This makes it SOOOOOO much easier to proactively go after jobs that look interesting, and as well to subsequently make direct contact with interviewers & hiring managers.

Take all this with a shaker of salt, because it may not actually be useful for you at all, but it has been extremely helpful for me. I've spent quite a bit of time cultivating my account and working on my profile the past few year and it's reaped benefits. If you're interested, take a look: [http://www.linkedin.com/in/elliottally](http://www.linkedin.com/in/elliottally)

<comment><USER25> Recommendations are actually way more important than you think, so be sure to solicit them. When a non-technical person looks at a technical person's body of work, they can't really evaluate the quality of your code, so recommendations help a lot. It's been very helpful in the past in landing consulting gigs with small companies.

<comment><USER24> Thanks for the tip!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I am in Canada, but I think it can also apply in the US:

I am working in security , which is a small world where I am. I usually take a look at a LinkedIn profile to know who an applicant knows that I know as well, that way I can get more insight from people I know and trust if I feel the need. I had a few people call me as well to confirm a suspicion or get a bit of insight into someone's personality. Lots of people can sail an interview but are lacking in person. It saved me a few bad experiences i<m sure, and I know a few other people that hired anyway and regretted it later.

Hope that helps a little. Obviously it does not apply for international candidates or people new to the country/region, which is a profile we see often at the moment.

Also, I decided to change job a few years ago, getting LinkedIn alerts on jobs helped me target decent recruiters that really know the specific field, and it landed me 3 interviews and job offers.

</comment><comment><USER27> It's just an easy way for HR to indirectly socioeconomically or racially profile you. Have a clean cut picture of yourself on any easy to find US-based social media site to help stay near the top of the pile.

<comment><USER23> This seems like a pretty paranoid generalization. In my experience linkedin is more of a way for recruiters to just mass-email people that fit keywords so they can keep their numbers up. I don't put much about my socioeconomic status or race on my linkedin....

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I see a lot of people complain about recruiter spam on LinkedIn. This never happens to me. Is this because I'm not in a major tech hub, or does my profile simply suck?

<comment><USER29> It's keyword based. I live in Avignon and I get dozens of messages per week from US tech recruiters. It also may have something to do with how many connections you have (or actually who those connections are.) I am not sure exactly, but it's possible your profile does not suck, it just may be somewhat thin in the particular keywords and former job titles upon which they are searching. Add "lead Ruby engineer" or something similar and let the spam begin! Through the world Java and iOS in your profile for even more glorious recruiter contact!

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> We hire people via linkedin and always check people profiles there. It's very useful for this purpose. However, it's not a requirement.

</comment><comment><USER31> None of the jobs I've had over the last few years have made it mandatory to have a LinkedIn account. I don't see how that would make sense and why employers would require you to have it. Do Polish employers require you to have a GoldenLine account? I have both, just to see if it leads to any solid opportunities. It hasn't yet.

</comment><comment><USER32> Depends on where you want to work / what you want to do - If you are a software engineer, a strong Github/Stackoverflow presence which demonstrates your technical competency (and that you can draw attention to early in a cover letter) would likely help you stand out more than a standard linkedin profile IMHO.

<comment><USER33> Or not. My current job has nothing to do with Github / Stackoverflow presence.

I do know people who have made connections through Github / LinkedIn / StackOverflow. But I personally don't have an active account on any of those three.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Just a general thank-you to the OP for bringing this up, and for all participants. I've resisted creating a LinkedIn account on principle(s) despite the invitations.

I'm sure there's some selection bias from the title, but the comments help address the nagging fear that I'm shooting myself in the foot.

</comment><comment><USER35> You don't need LinkedIn to find a job any more than you need OkCupid to find a girlfriend. I don't need pushy recruiters bugging me. If I was looking for a job, I wouldn't find it on LinkedIn, I'd find it in the real world through friends, family, former coworkers, meet ups, etc.

</comment><comment><USER36> This is 100% false. LinkedIn will do nothing for you but make you a target for recruiters who are full of shit.

</comment><comment><USER37> In Canada, I used to get a lot of recruiters contact me from Monster and Workopolis, but now I get a lot from LinkedIn. Just a few days ago a manager at Amazon reached out to me on LinkedIn. So it's definitely helpful, I wouldn't discount it.

</comment><comment><USER38> I think it's untrue, but more true for middle management positions.

</comment><comment><USER39> Seems the answer is all the above. In my case, I got two major jobs via LinkedIn. And I've never got one by sending resumes out. Most of my career has been via personal network.

So, YMMV.

</comment><comment><USER40> If you have a position where part of the job is to be connected to other people in the industry, then yes. If you didn't have a LinkedIn account it would suggest you weren't too serious about building and staying in touch with your network. If it's not a client or industry-facing position then no. Doesn't hurt if you're looking, especially if you want headhunters to contact you.

<comment><USER41> So if somehow LinkedIn collapsed the people in the industry would cease to be interconnected? LinkedIn to me, seems unnecessary and silly. A web page with a link to a CV and a mailto: link would be enough. A tech/IT person w/o a website somewhere, that would make me dubious if I was hiring.

<comment><USER40> if I was hiring a business development guy and one guy was connected to all the senior people I wanted to do business with and another guy didn't have a LinkedIn, I would favor the first one. For some things it's an important signal, if not a red flag that someone isn't switched on and plugged in.

If someone wanted to be my social media guy and wasn't on social media/Twitter, that would be a red flag too!

Just like there are jobs where one should probably have a Github or public portfolio, there are jobs where one should be on LinkedIn. It's a tool one should know how to use, not the sum of one's identity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> I don't think you need it, but it is useful, particularly if you are doing any kind of sales.

</comment><comment><USER43> Definitely not true.

</comment><comment><USER44> [http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/](http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/)

I don't find much value in LinkedIn. I did at first, but then it was overrun by recruiters.

<comment><USER45> Having so many recruiters is the value. I get multiple recruiters a week messaging me on LinkedIn, and it's growing constantly. By the time I'm job hunting I'll be able to message a lot of recruiters all at once.

<comment><USER44> I don't find that recruiter contacts don't result in actual job offers. I do a lot better when I find my own work.</comment></comment></comment>


Why you lose a pound of weight at night in your sleep - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/06/19/193556929/every-night-you-lose-more-than-a-pound-while-youre-asleep-for-the-oddest-reason

<comment><USER2> Just because you're inhaling molecules that have 2 oxygen atoms, and exhaling molecules that have 2 oxygen atoms for every 1 carbon atom, doesn't mean you're exhaling more matter than you're inhaling. The numbers are ratios. They don't imply a larger volume. Not to mention the composition of what you inhale and exhale is not simply oxygen and carbon dioxide.

As it usually goes, reality is much more nuanced than this short article implies.

I know nothing about this topic. I definitely don't know enough to say this reason for losing weight is wrong. However, the explanation is utterly unconvincing.

edit: apparently there's a youtube video that didn't load for me the first time. I think it's trying to say that for the same volume CO₂, there's more mass? I think I should have avoided commenting on a subject that I know little about.

</comment><comment><USER3> See the video! It's has interesting information in spite of the informal format.

Back of the envelope calculations at 5:15 (I checked them and look legit)

Experimental measures at 2:06 and 4:07.

<comment><USER3> But it's also possible to gain some mass from the Oxygen in the air. The burning reactions for example typical compounds are:

 __Typical sugar (Glucose) C6H12O6

C6H12O6 + 6 x O2 (air) ---> 6 x CO2 (air) + 6 x H2O

6 Carbons get exhaled, and you lost a little of mass.

 __Typical Fatty Acid (Palmitic) CH3(CH2)14COOH

CH3-(CH2)14-COOH + 23 x O2 (air) ---> 16 x CO2 (air) + 16 x H2O

16 Carbons get exhaled, but 14 Oxygens get absorbed in water. The mass of the Oxigens (14x16) is slightly more than the mass of the Carbons (16x12), so you gain a little of mass. But this is much smaller.

 __Typical aminoacid: more complicated.

I think that the total mass lost dew to the first kind of reaction is much bigger than the total mass gained dew to the second. So the calculations in the video are probably a good approximation.

(Anyway, most of the difference is water (transpiration / exhaling).)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is this actually true, or is it water vapor (H2O) that we're expelling each night?</comment>


Schedule recurring AWS Lambda invocations with the Unreliable Town Clock - <AUTHOR> https://alestic.com/2015/05/aws-lambda-recurring-schedule/

<comment><AUTHOR> A public SNS Topic with a trigger event every quarter hour. Can be used to drive AWS Lambda functions, SQS queues, and email. Free service from an old hacker (me) giving back to the hacker community.

<comment><USER2> I love the spirit of this -- A real "public service". thanks.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you track your personal goals? - <AUTHOR> I wonder if you just have a todolist or if you have other ways to break your goals down into actions that you can execute on on a daily basis, to break through the noise of every day life... <comment><USER2> May I recommend you check out Trello with the "Trello Card Repeater[0]." Trello without the repeater is a really powerful way to organize your life, turning your life into a series of big cards with tasks in it, that give you a sense of accomplishment when you close one.

You then tack on automatic cards which appear on a schedule (e.g. "take out the trash," "clean this," "fix that," etc) and you have a even more useful productivity tool. You could of course use a traditional digital calendar for these with reminders, but pop-up reminders can be distracting/overwhelming, or ignored. A Trello card can sit in a bucket waiting until you have time in your schedule.

You can then combine it with something like the Pomodoro Technique[1] to help with uncontrolled procrastination.

Best of luck!

PS - There are other competitors to Trello which offer a great list experience (e.g. KanBanFlow, Microsoft Planner, etc). They're all good. Unfortunately few offer the Card Repeater. KanBanFlow offers built in Pomodoro timers tied to particular cards which is a huge win (Trello has third party support for Pomodoro timers, but that doesn't follow you cross-device).

[0] [https://blog.trello.com/trello-card- repeater](https://blog.trello.com/trello-card-repeater) [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)

<comment><USER3> I did something similar for 2-3 years, then eventually wrote a piece of software that handles specifically this use case: [https://github.com/ioddly/meditations](https://github.com/ioddly/meditations)

(It actually doesn't repeat automatically, but you can copy monthly tasks down to the day). I also have it doing a little bit extra, tracking completion rates.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I use Complice.co[0]. I switched to it because it is centered around goals and daily intentions. My todo lists can get bogged down after some time. Also the post is for personal goals so this works even better.

Complice has you set goals up, optional milestones, optional reviews weekly and monthly, and the biggie is daily intentions. You set your todos or intentions daily. Intentions are also set using which goal an intention is geared toward. You can have repeating or saved intentions too. It's hard to describe because it's pretty unique. It also has virtual coworking rooms. I hover usually in one of them[1].

[0] [https://complice.co](https://complice.co) [1] [https://complice.co/room/open](https://complice.co/room/open)

<comment><USER5> Yes! I also use Complice and think very highly of it. Coworking rooms with friends are incredibly useful at turning nights I otherwise would be slacking off into productive nights. Another feature that I find useful (aside from the core feature set) is the Beeminder integration, which lets me update all the things I Beemind w/ little effort.

I do use Complice in tandem with Omnifocus. I use Omnifocus to store big picture planning and all the tasks I want to do in the future. Then on a daily basis I set intentions for the tasks I want to do that day in Complice.

<comment><USER4> Yeah I use Complice in tandem with either Basecamp or Asana, whichever one I'm not switching away from. Helpful that way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Pocket notebook.

Some pages have notes of stuff I think about during the day (for future goals). Mostly, though, I have per-day todo lists. I leave a blank line between items to add optional metadata later, like scheduled/due time, category, time estimate, when I started and when I finished.

I chose paper media because it makes it easier to experiment with different formats. The pocket form factor allows me to carry it everywhere.

When I want to track my goals and progress on a software project, though, I opt for org-mode in emacs. It's mostly because it's faster to type than to handwrite and staying on the computer keeps me in tune. Also, it gives tremendous freedom to organize notes and tasks. There's a lot of features and minimal clutter despite that.

It's too bad it's lacking a good android app.

</comment><comment><USER7> What I do is pick one goal for a period of time and focus on that.

Sometimes that goal is simply getting my job done - get enough sleep, get up early.

Sometimes it's to learn something, read a book, finish a personal project, get a job, win a game. In these cases I'd break down what I need to accomplish these tasks, along with a plan.

Sometimes it requires more information and so the plan becomes to set the timeline.

The biggest issue in this field is that there's a bottomless amount of interesting things to do. So if you do whatever just feels interesting, you bounce from one thing to the next without really getting anything done in depth.

</comment><comment><USER8> Todoist, ui/ux is intuitive, allows you breakdown tasks into subtasks, set reminders, group project tasks, can sync to google calendar. Though what I like most about it is the 7-day tasks view's simplicity. (I'm on premium, the free version losses a bunch of features eg reminders)

I was using Trello for a while but found the UI to be a bit of a pain as both mobile and desktop require a lot of horizontal scrolling and it was hard to take a high-level view of upcoming tasks. Maybe I was just using it wrong.

</comment><comment><USER9> Daily Goal Tasks with Todoist.

In order to accomplish goals, I set regular repeating tasks that I do to help me accomplish the goal. For example, I want to learn Spanish, so every day my task is to study 3 new Spanish words and once per week I review the words I learned.

I found if a goal (like a software task) was too broad, it wouldn't get accomplished. Breaking my goals down into small repeating tasks has helped me accomplish them.

</comment><comment><USER10> Habitica - if you're into gamification, it's a cool way to build positive habits, daily todos and long-term todos.

</comment><comment><USER11> Apple Notes app

</comment><comment><USER12> Text / markdown file on Dropbox

</comment><comment><USER13> I have been using a Google Sheet</comment>


5 Notable Women in the Blockchain and Crypto Industry - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/5-notable-women-in-the-blockchain-and-crypto-industry-6dd5981c0e7d <comment><USER2> Most of my co-workers and friends who are women work in the industry / realm of software are put off by this kind of virtue signaling. When can we all accept that special treatment is not equality and just stop caring about what genitalia are attached to programmers or people making cool shit?

</comment><comment><USER3> Surprised that Jutta Steiner didn't make the cut.

</comment><comment><USER4> The crypto field is such a cis-dominated fired where is the non-cis representation?

</comment><comment><USER5> Why not "5 notable people"?

Why segregate humans by looking if they carry a penis or a vagina around with them?

<comment><USER6> The opening sentence of the article gives the reason "why":

"One could be forgiven for assuming the blockchain tech and crypto industry is a male-dominated field."</comment></comment>


Want to Get Rich? Forget Work-Life Balance - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-dont-have-work-life-balance-2015-6

<comment><USER2> Then you better start your own company, as working for somebody like this means you won't get rich (they will) and you won't have a work-life balance either. Know what you want to do in life, and then make the moves you need to pull it off.</comment>


Drip, drip, drip goes the Twit - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/04/drip-drip-drip.html <comment><USER2> Seth's point is so right-on - setting yourself up with a rich Internet history will go a long way in securing your future. Start with a blog - or a twitter stream - or a Tumblr - but start NOW.

<comment><USER3> _or_ you could spend your time making something people want :/

<comment><USER4> it doesn't take much time to contribute something back to the community, whether it's advice on your blog, contributions to open source software or just releasing some of your own work as open source. It will only help later on when you have an actual product/business to launch.

<comment><USER3> Yeah I agree, it's just a matter of balance I guess.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Whitehouse Website Let Their SSL Certificate Expire - <AUTHOR> https://whitehouse.gov/

<comment><USER2> If you examine the cert, it's not expired. Akamai is serving the wrong cert so there's a hostname mismatch.

<comment><USER3> the cert on www.whitehouse.gov is down as well (that's where the *.whitehouse.gov cert would fit in nicely). I think the setup is messed up

<comment><USER2> www is the problem, where Akami is serving their own instead of the whitehouse.gov wildcard. The cert coming in for whitehouse.gov is fine and not expired.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> May I recommend to set up the SSL expiry notification using this website: [https://www.expeditedssl.com/simple-ssl- scanner/scan?target_...](https://www.expeditedssl.com/simple-ssl- scanner/scan?target_domain=www.whitehouse.gov) ?

That might help to prevent such incidents in the future.

</comment><comment><USER4> But we can trust them with "cyberpolicy".

<comment><USER5> No more or less so than yesterday.

"Everyone" has had an certificate issue at one point or another, Microsoft, Google. Apple, and if tech' firms get it wrong then what chance does anyone else have?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> And of course, this is on the same day as their cybersecurity summit at Stanford.</comment>


Ask HN: What's your approach to learn new language/technology? - <AUTHOR>

Hi
I am interested to know how do approach to learn a new technology/programming language so that you can get into deeper. I know that best way to do is to actually implement it but how? Do you write Hello World kind of programs or use it in some big project?
Please share <comment><USER2> I wrote a blog post explaining my approach: [https://medium.com/@chrisrodz35/a-guide-to-picking-up-new- pr...](https://medium.com/@chrisrodz35/a-guide-to-picking-up-new-programming- skills-2f1ff142d17f) Let me know if you have any questions.</comment>


We redesign the Internet - <AUTHOR> https://cliqz.com/en/blog/we-redesign-the-internet

<comment><USER2> To anyone creating a landing page:

        MAKE IT OBVIOUS WHAT YOU DO!

Look, here's the text I see from the submitted landing page:

        We redesign the Internet

What?

        Today is an important day for us: We are launching
        a new version of CLIQZ for Firefox.

Bully for you. What do you do?

        Our users have helped us with their feedback and
        input to bring the direct, fast, and smart way of
        navigating the Internet to the next level.

Great - I'm so pleased that you've listened to your users. What do you do again?

        I also want to take the opportunity to explain our
        vision and how CLIQZ for Firefox fits into it.

I'm sure your vision is important. Remind me - what do you do?

        In fact, this small browser extension ...

Ah! A browser extension! What does it do?

        ... is only the tip of an iceberg in the sense that
        the visible part of our product hides a very large
        story and ambition: We redesign the Internet.

Hmm. What does that mean, again?

Oh, I see, you haven't told me yet.

        EVERYTHING ON THIS PAGE IS ABOUT THEM, NOT ME.

People, if you want me to engage, ENGAGE ME!

Rookie mistake. I'm out.</comment>


Ask HN: How often do you check your spam folder? - <AUTHOR> Years ago, I regularly checked my gmail spam folder and often found things were mis-categorized. Now I check it maybe once a month, and perhaps once a year I find something in there that didn't belong. What's your approach to the spam folder? <comment><USER2> Basically, I only check when I haven't yet seen an email that I'm expecting. Works so far!</comment>


Is this really realistic: self-taught programmer? - <AUTHOR>

So I'm 31, and decided to change careers.  I was previously an engineer (not CS), and did well @ a small company, made and saved money, and now I make about 60k per year after tax from my invested money.
I live off about 2.5k per month, but can probably live off less, so I'm still saving money per year, but not making any money other than my investments.  I made about 20k worth of angel investments via angel.co, so hopefully I win the lottery there, but I'm not planning on it.
I have always tooled around with computers, but I'm nowhere near an expert, nor have I ever been a coder.
I am currently taking the one month rails course, and also considering something like LPTHW or similar, with the main goal in mind to just make prototypes, then hire the real talent if I get something going.  I don't expect to get hired as a dev, but what about getting work or consulting from front end stuff, or just prototype stuff?
I read posts on here all the time about people who have CS degrees, the whole 9 yards and have problems finding work.  So it seems asinine for me to believe that I could do it on my own.
What should I expect?  Should I just accept that my life is going to suck and go back to my old job that I hated?  I really don't like not working, but I really don't see how this whole coding thing is going to work out for me.  I need some HONEST feedback.  I feel like maybe I've been a bit jaded by all this entrepreneur/ self taught coder talk.  I mean, my chances to make millions doing this is pretty much non existent, isn't it? <comment><USER2> Here is my story.

5 years ago I was an apprentice copper and tin smith, I have always been good with my hands, and because of the dot com crack around 2000 I decided to go for a career in construction. However, it didn't turn out that way. To cut a long story short, 5 years later I started to learn web development, 2 years into web development I was the acting lead developer and teacher of others. Now 4 years later I am in a new job, well paid, respected by my bosses, and I am still learning new languages and frameworks. Point is, anyone can learn programming, and I dare say, after what I have witnessed, anyone can excel at it too.

</comment><comment><USER3> If I read all that right:

\- you are making $60k/year post-tax off non-angel investments

\- your yearly expenditures are about $2.5k * 12 = $60k

\- you are about to quit your job (or already have) and anticipate an even lower expenditure next year (<$60k)

Dude/dudette, forget switching careers---if this is really and truly your financial situation (no debt, etc.), you could just go ahead and _retire_. You don't have to go back to your old job that you hated. You don't have to go back to _any_ job. You are pressure- and fancy-free.

If web development is what you want to do in your first year of retirement, well, go for it. Financially speaking, you have nothing to lose. You could just as easily become a fly fisherman in Montana.

High five yourself! And go read [http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/).

<comment><AUTHOR> Well I think your math is off there, more like 30k, or closer to 35 actually per year for expenditures.

I want to have a lot more money though. I want to be one of those guys with 100 million. So I don't like the idea of not working anymore. Plus, I want to work on something I am passionate about. I have had enough relaxation and vacation to last me a lifetime. I am sick of it. I want to find meaningful work.

I feel guilty right now that I'm not producing anything, and ashamed. [There are people a lot less intelligent than me with a lot more money than me. What is wrong with me? Why can't I be one of those people?] is the recurring thought in my head. But I think it's more about finding meaningful work than it is the money. Easy example, but if I was Anthony Bourdain, Paul Graham, Carl Icahn, Steve Jobs, I would be more than happy doing their work even without making the insane amounts of money that they obviously do. Because their work is meaningful.

I worked hard and made some money, but I am 31 and this is all I have to show for it [http://i.imgur.com/ACsNRpi.png](http://i.imgur.com/ACsNRpi.png). I mean, I was paid by an employer and the market for that money. I want to create my own way, not crutch someone else's way. I must figure it out somehow. Just stuck and scared right now. I'm just not sure what to do. I need to push myself more I think.

<comment><USER4> First of all good job on being where you are at.

You said, "I feel guilty right now that I'm not producing anything, and ashamed. [There are people a lot less intelligent than me with a lot more money than me. What is wrong with me? Why can't I be one of those people?]"

This is a very dangerous attitude and will lead to great disappointment in your life.

On the spectrum of why anyone is more or less successful than someone else, the notion of where you are born, who your parents are, what school you went to, how rich your family is, when you are born, what race you are, etc. all play a large factor. Don't also forget luck.

The American dream is very nice and all and it emphasizes the "you could do anything you want" mantra but for most people its a nice bowl of bullsh*t soup.

My recommendation would be to take a couple of weeks and figure out what you really want out of life. Why do you want the 100 million? Why are you so driven by this desire? What void are you trying to fill? We all struggle with these questions but it takes a certain kind of person to actually take the time and try to fully understand one self.

You are already 10 miles ahead from most people. Please don't equate meaning with your life with making lots of money. Find the most needy organizations in your city and go devote your time to helping them. These organizations need people's time as much as they need the money. You may already be doing this but if not, seriously think about doing it. Also, do some travelling around the world. Travel to Europe on the cheap, visit the Middle East, visit South America. These are good uses of your money not bad.

Also, relax, you are still a spring chicken and you have accomplished already what most Americans will not. Understand that your questions of finding meaning are not unique and we all go through it at some point. For some of us, our life circumstances resolve us to certain goals (and no, no amount of Anthony Robbins "go do it" message can change things). I would recommend looking at this mind map to provide some kind of framework for your thinking: [http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/g304883/life- planning](http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/g304883/life-planning)

We are creatures of change. We change, the environment around us changes. Find what makes the most sense to you knowing that you will likely change to something different in a few months, or years. We operate on feedback. Give yourself feedback so that the loop can be complete. Doing different activities, volunteering, traveling, etc. All these are giving you feedback. You have the privilege of having the luxury to try out many things to see what fits.

Don't chase software development as a way to make lots of money. A lot of it depends on where you are and your unique skill set. If you do want to go down this road, pick a project you want to do and use the technologies that are the most in demand in your area and will pay the most. Start learning and stick with it for a few weeks. If you can't stick with it then its not for you. Sure, learning to develop is worthwhile but it doesn't stop you from building a software business, you can always hire developers (especially someone in your situation).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Congratulations on your success so far . . .

As for changing careers start here . . .

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY)

Then catch up on . . .

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

Sounds like you would be more interested in starting your own business rather than working for someone else.

Learning development is a great start . . . and great skill to have.

Rails is a good choice . . .

Before jumping into Rails I would start with HTML/CSS create some basic websites . . .

Then learn some javascript and jQuery . . .

I think you would learn more by building a few simple web apps using PHP and MySQL so you can learn what it's like to build one without a framework . . . login/user types/CRUD . . . then once you have the basics down then see what it's like creating the same app in Rails. Rails is easier to understand once you know what is going on behind the scenes.

[http://teamtreehouse.com](http://teamtreehouse.com) Has some great tutorials . . . for HTML/CSS, js, PHP MySQL and RAILS.

If you're not interested in starting your own business becoming proficient in rails is a great career track.

</comment><comment><USER6> "You've got to find what you love... And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle." \-- Steve Jobs

<comment><USER7> Concretely, go further with programming and see if you _like_ it: see if it's hard not to think about the things that could be built, and the hard part is picking a single thing to work on; if new tools and technologies or ways to do the work better are interesting even if you're not sure where you'd use them yet; if you can see yourself occasionally building stuff for fun.

Building shippable software will still be maddening when you're almost done but for one fiddly piece of code that behaves wrong and you can't explain why. The clever and visible and intrinsically exciting stuff will only be a small part of the larger product. Much of what you do will sound interesting to nobody (maybe not even fellow techies).

But if there's fun there, it's a huge help getting past all that and finding the whole exercise worth it nonetheless.

Relatedly, I don't think you should necessarily cut yourself off after introductory Rails or Python classes; as long as you're having fun, you're probably learning something, too.

And work on subject matter you care about--you seem to have a bit of room to do what you want, and liking the goal to which you're applying your skills is huge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A friend of mine used to say, "for software you just need a computer, electricity, and time." You probably can afford a computer and electricity. And since you spend less than your passive income, you have time.

Your other advantages:

1\. You have an engineering background

2\. Internet makes it so much easier to find information; don't even need to buy so many books from amazon

You can definitely become a very good self-taught programmer, if you put the time into it. But whether this translates into millions is a different story (more subject to randomness -- whether market wants to pay for your software, etc.)

</comment><comment><USER9> Hi beginagain, the truth lies somewhere in between. It shows courage and it seems a good idea that you're looking for help or encouraging words from others in order to understand your situation better. Now, for what I see, you already took a decision, didn't you?

"So I'm 31, and decided to change careers". That's the first step.

Now, 22 hours ago you might have had a bad day but hey, you already decided to change careers - so, that's all you and we and everyone needs to know. Many people with a CS degree will never start or work at a startup as well as many others with an engineer degree will never invent a new machine or technology. Many people will live and die and never have a year's salary in their savings account. It doesn't make them better or worse, some decisions you take, some others life takes for you.

But as you don't seem to be living neither in Bangladesh nor Sierra Leone, you're in the wonderful position to just give it a try. Shine a little bit, give it a try and have a look if it works out. If it does fine, if you think you have committed sincereously to it but can't find the strength to go ahead, it's okay as well. Just do something else.

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." George Bernard Shaw

</comment><comment><USER10> If you already have a degree in engineering and solid experience, then you probably have the ability to learn effectively. Software development is often called software engineering - which is how it should be practised. That is, construct "things" based on sound engineering practices and a good understanding of the underlying physics / maths.

Any given library/framework is a collection of sub-assemblies that you then "glue" together using the programming language that it is implemented in. Personally I like Python with its "batteries included" philosophy. As long as you can avoid the "not invented here" syndrome you will do well by reading the documentation and source code for the components you are looking at using.

I've met history majors who became accomplished programmers purely by teaching themselves. There are lots of resources out there, books, videos, forums, etc. I would suggest that you pick a language and stick with it. Once you are competent in one language and a couple of frameworks implemented for it, it is much easier to transfer the knowledge to another combination. Just remember that almost all languages are "Turing Equivalent".

<comment><AUTHOR> But is it really realistic that I will make money doing this? I hear about all this freelancing etc..., but is that just to lure in dumb money into the industry? I just have trouble comprehending that I will be able to compete with the current force, especially when their foundation in CS is much more stable than my layman understanding. I will essentially just know how to write code for the sake of writing code. I won't understand assembly and compilers, etc...

<comment><USER10> If earning money is your sole criteria, then you'd be better off doing what you already have qualifications for.

You can learn about assembly, compilers, etc by reading a couple of good text books. There are some excellent video CS courses out there if you prefer that sort of tuition.

Yes, there will be a period while you are learning and not earning. But that's how it was with your original degree - wasn't it? If you have a keen desire, then you will accomplish your goals. Read some Anthony Robbins, e.g. Awaken the Giant Within. Everything is possible, and you have to work for it, which means you really have to want it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So, even though you hated your previous job, you obviously did well at it -- at least well enough to save-up a nice nest egg. Let's presume that you will progress over time from crappy programmer to a solid one. Anyone like you will get at least that far and likely much farther. The question at hand is simply what you should do to facilitate this progression. Have you considered solving some small but pesky problem which you know is common in your industry? A calculator for compliance with Governmental Rule XYZ? A converter between two 90's era (or worse) file formats still in use within your previous industry? I have no clue what you did before, and I probably wouldn't know what projects to suggest even if I did. My point is only that you can make-up for being a mediocre programmer with deep knowledge of a specific industry. If Patrick can make $30K+ selling bingo card software to teachers, you ought to be able to do similarly in the niche you know well. To avoid having to be a good salesman, maybe you put up a website with the file converter thingy and then sell premium advertising space to vendors in that niche.

</comment><comment><USER12> Alternatively, since you're financially stable and don't technically need any more money, how about working for a non-profit as a volunteer?

Sure, learn software development in your spare time, but why not find ways to use your engineering skills & talents in (say) building wells in rural Africa, or helping Haiti become a safe and stable country again? What about teaching engineering or building safety in Cambodia or Laos? Help figure out how to get plumbing or sanitary systems that are affordable in the slums of Manila or Rio? Or even spending 3 months a year teaching or helping out in the Dalit schools in India?

Instead of making millions, how about helping millions?

(I've been working the last 7 years for 'OM' (www.om.org) mainly doing Audio/Visual Engineering, and some software development. I'm not financially independant, so rely on sponsorship from friends/family/churches, etc.)

<comment><AUTHOR> I may not 'technically' need more money, but I feel extremely uncomfortable where I am right now. While I appreciate volunteers who do these things, it also makes me depressed as I know their efforts are largely for naught. Unpopular opinion I'm sure, but I think it's ridiculous how much money is poured into these efforts when the real cause of the problem is not addressed. Humanity is suffering by the hands of immoral government. Would I fund ventures to kill the people responsible? Absolutely. But this would also include taking out many members of our own government, which is illegal and not realistic. So until some major changes are made in respect to political authority, I feel like it is a waste of effort, and I would not be happy being a part of it. As tragic as it actually is. Thank goodness for the people who ease the pain and suffering of the people who are being oppressed. They desperately need some kind of hope.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Computer Science <> Practical software engineering / development!!

If you're a competent problem solver, learn something very practical and immediately in demand; mobile development comes to mind. Expect to be paid entry-level salary, and work your butt off to prove yourself, and move up.

I have an engineering degree, but had only a few comp sci classes. My friends are in the same boat, but we're all good problem solvers, dedicated, and willing to learn. My friend was a hardware engineer, was worried about transitioning to development. He's smart, dedicated, and made the most of the opportunities given him.

I can't say that any of us will be making millions off our ideas, but we're all successful in our careers, and that proves that it's possible. Just set your expectations, make most of your opportunities, work hard, and you'll do great.

</comment><comment><USER14> It's entirely possible to teach yourself to be a very competent programmer. It's going to take time though and a lot of dedication, but I'd say it's a very worthwhile thing to do. Before you launch into that though I'd try to reassess why it is you hate using the skills you have. You might find there are plenty of opportunities there that don't require completely retraining yourself. While programming is great, there is a huge need for other skill sets and products that aren't webpages. What's your technical background? What are you interested in? What aren't you interested in?

</comment><comment><USER15> I wrote something up some time ago about my friends and I, many of whom switched from electrical engineering to software dev. We are the same age as you, and nowhere near as well off. But we are all infinitely happier for having changed careers.

[http://elaineou.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/how-do-i-change- car...](http://elaineou.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/how-do-i-change-careers- without-investing-in-an-expensive-degree/)

</comment><comment><USER16> Seems like you not need an occupation, but motivation, preceeds by vision.

Think deeply on what you want to make better of this world. Start from there.

</comment><comment><USER17> Hi beginagain, check out:

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

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

(those are perhaps some solid references for good paced learning).

</comment><comment><USER18> If you are motivated you can learn to program well, as good as any other. BUT: Do you envy the success of industrious males and covet their hard earned money and its attached status? Why do you want to "be one of those guys with 100 million (idol-worship)?"

The people you listed had nothing in terms of financial assets during the start of their careers. Jobs was a nobody who lived with his parents.It may be difficult for you to muster up that same level of motivation with 1 million in your portfolio.

Look, programming and computer manufacturing may have been the medium through which a subset of motivated and imaginative people created their wealth during the past 20-40 years, but programming and computer manufacturing were just the medium. The foresight of these men is what led to their success (Paul Graham is a brilliant guy.)

Do you deserve to take a job from a younger, hard-working CS guy just because you are not satisfied with your career choice? Do you think that human progress is measured in dollars? Maybe what you need is some substance in your life other than phantasies of wealth and portfolio screenshots. If you had had the foresight of the successful men that you listed, then maybe you would already have "100 million," or more! (Are you married? Kids?)</comment>