Show HN: AutoIterative – an opinionated way to hire software engineers - <AUTHOR> https://autoiterative.com <comment><USER2> "It provides an invalid metric for making a hiring decision, namely: "do I like how this person types and talks"

Imho, 90% of getting things done in software eng revolves more around how much the devs like each other and get along, so I'm not sure this statement is accurate.

The other huge factor which I think this platform, and many like it, completely miss is the candidates personal experience. For instance, a Dev could get completely tripped up having to learn Docker on the fly because Docker wasn't a part of their daily experience - and probably won't be in the "real job" either. That doesn't mean they can't deliver top notch Java code. I personally think all these sights are doing it backward - they should be focused on asking the candidate what skills they think they know best, and then testing on that. Maybe 70% should be on what the candidate is great at and 30% on a new type of challenge the candidate hasn't had to see how quickly they can adapt to a new challenge. These test are often the exact opposite (because engineering is a wide field) and in my experience both taking and giving these tests, they are no more beneficial or accurate than 'does this person get along with my existing team.'

Just my 2 cents. Good luck to you.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey HN!

I want to share something we've built to improve the current state of hiring in our industry. We think algorithmic interviews are the wrong metric, so we're trying to have a better approach. We tested this idea successfully for more than a year in a ~2K people company, saw great results, and decided to make it into a product[1].

If I had to sum up the idea in one sentence, it would be this: "to hire great software engineers, test their ability to deliver something as close to real work as possible." Thus, we build a product that provides a challenge, a CI pipeline, and a "production environment" \-- what the candidate needs to do is deliver something that works, making pipeline green and iterate. Sans peer review, this closely resembles the actual way it happens at their jobs. Behind the scenes, our system runs all sorts of tests against the submission, simulating the actual production. I can spend a lot of time talking about it, but we'll blog[2] about it in more detail in the following weeks.

We're currently in the super early stages, but we have a working demo that I want to share so that people can play with it, break it, criticize it and hopefully have as much fun with it as we had when building it. If you want to give us more direct feedback -- feel free to reach out over email to demo+hn at autoiterative.com.

[1]: Direct link to the demo: [https://ais.autoiterative.com/demo](https://ais.autoiterative.com/demo) [2]: Our blog: [https://autoiterative.com/blog](https://autoiterative.com/blog)

<comment><USER3> I gave myself an invitation to complete the challenge. Worked like a charm. This is an amazing idea. Wish you guys success!</comment></comment>


Record-breaking algorithm packs 2D shapes with unprecedented efficiency - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16716-recordbreaking-algorithm-really-packs-them-in.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=physics-math <comment><USER2> Interesting, but I must admit that I was a bit bummed that it wasn't about Tetris.</comment>


Subversion 1.6 released. - <AUTHOR> http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/NewsItemView?newsItemID=2261 <comment><USER2> >Subversion 1.6 recognizes a new kind of conflict, known as a "tree conflict". Such conflicts manifest at the level of directory structure, rather than file content.

>Situations now flagged as conflicts include deletions of locally modified files, and incoming edits to locally deleted files. Files and directories which are victims of a tree conflict cannot be committed before the conflict is marked resolved.

Wow - finally! This is great. We've had to handle these edge cases during merges (greatly slowing our scripts) for a long time. Hopefully this will give us significant speed improvements which should help with one of the minor irritants of our users.

</comment><comment><USER3> While many responses are going to be "yawn", especially in the face of the git juggernaut, a great many enterprise systems are locked into svn for the foreseeable future (given economic forecasts, IT departments aren't getting tons of budget for SCM migration / upgrade). Therefore a few extra features coming in are welcome...even if they don't begin with git-

<comment><USER4> _great many enterprise systems_ \- oh please give me a break. Subversion has nothing to do with enterprise blah. Many of us simply use svn because it is a fine tool and gets the job done. For all kinds of projects, from open source to 'enterprise'.

Seriously .. don't put the enterprisey stigma on it. It does not deserve that.

<comment><USER5> Subversion... the version control system of choice for people that don't understand version control.

<comment><USER6> Please feel free to educate us. I use version control and have done for years. I don't branch or merge, and svn works brilliantly for me. It stays completely out the way and allows me to rollback, see changesets, logs, etc if I need. If I wrote a version control system based on my own use case, it'd end up pretty much like svn.

What am I missing?

I've read all the "Git is ___AWESOME_ __" posts. If I switched to git, it would be exactly the same. It wouldn't solve any problem for my use case that svn doesn't.

Seriously unimpressed with your comment to be honest.

Either make a valid argument as to what I don't understand about version control, or retract it.

<comment><USER5> How do you un-"svn update" after you don't like its auto-merge?

(Unless you never use svn update, you _do_ branch and merge. You just don't have any control over how it works.)

<comment><USER6> I've never needed to do that. The auto-merge has never failed for me.

Give me an example of when you "wouldn't like its auto-merge".

<comment><USER5> All the time? Sometimes I am working on Bar, and want to update Foo. Unfortuantely, someone changed Bar, and now I have to deal with that change right now no matter what. And, I don't get the opprotunity to decide if I want the change to Bar; svn just auto-merges the changes in. There is nothing I can do to stop that, and no way to revert the change once it's happened. (In git, you can roll-back to any committed state. In svn, you can't even commit if there is a conflict.)

Anyway, I am glad you like svn. But it is probably due to some reason other than svn's technical merits like, "at least it doesn't have all these Ruby fanbois." That is totally understandable, ignornat fanboi-ing is VERY off- putting. (To be fair, I started using Git loooong before it was popular. So I don't consider myself a fanboi.)

Also, you don't learn anything new by sticking with what you already know. Perhaps it is worth expanding your horizions. Maybe try creating a branch in svn and go from there -- you might like it.

<comment><USER6> For me, it's like trying to persuade me to use ReiserFS, rather than ext3. I just don't care unless it's performing badly.

Why can't you just "svn update Foo" ? Then you don't have to deal with the changes to Bar :/ I don't really see what the issue is. Are you often working on exactly the same files as other developers, and not co-ordinating what you're doing?

>> "Anyway, I am glad you like svn. But it is probably due to some reason other than svn's technical merits..."

I like it, because it solves my use case perfectly. I'm not quite sure you understand that.

I'm not one of these people that love technical solutions for the sake of being technical.

<comment><USER5> You also seem to be intentionally closed-minded, for the purpose of gaining karma on social news sites. I think that's sad, but I realize that it's your loss, not mine.

<comment><USER6> I care not a jot about karma. What I do care about is ill informed people spouting rubbish.

You stated that anyone using subversion must not understand revision control. Which is an idiotic comment.

I detest this pompous high and mighty tools based attitude. Does anyone not using lisp not understand programming? Anyone not using ruby on rails not understand how to build webapps?

I'm actually very open minded. When I have problems with subversion, I'll likely try git if it fits my use case at the time. At the moment, it doesn't.

<comment><USER5> _You stated that anyone using subversion must not understand revision control. Which is an idiotic comment._

But you said above that you don't want to understand version control; you said you just want to use it. This does not disprove my statement.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Here's a scenario - there are 2 coders working on basically the same base code, but each doing something different. Now the code from both these guys needs to be merged to the base code periodically, so what do you think these guys should use - git or svn , or any other VCS for that matter ?

<comment><USER2> I suppose any good VCS should work fine. Each dev should get his/her own branch which is periodically merged upstream.

We use SVN and it does the job just fine. In fact, we are still stuck on 1.4 so we track merges ourselves which isn't really a big deal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I wonder if the CTypes Python bindings will help out the DVCS clients such as Bazaar or Mercurial. Bazaar already has good client support for SVN. It would be nice if Mercurial would get first class support.

<comment><USER9> Not really. I've looked at the ctypes bindings (I've got a set of incomplete patches to them), and they lack diff _and_ replay support, which makes them basically useless for building a client. Git uses the perl bindings, so I can't speak to the quality of those. Bazaar uses a library called subvertpy that they wrote when they got tired of the suck and pain that is the Python SWIG bindings for Subversion. I'm about to switch to using that for hgsubversion, since fixing up the ctypes bindings has proven to be nothing more than a monumental pain.

<comment><USER8> That would be awesome. I prefer using Mercurial to Bazaar, but I really need the subversion client interface.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> After updating my svn client on my mac and my ubuntu box to this, eclipse no longer manages to do anything with the team features....

</comment><comment><USER11> _yawn_

</comment><comment><USER12> <sarcasm> Hackers were still using svn and not a dvcs? </sarcasm></comment>


Microsoft Open-Sourced Calculator - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator <comment><USER2> This reads like those java enterprisey code style satire/spoof codebases.

<comment><USER3> Sure does.

[https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpris...](https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpriseEdition)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can anyone link me a PERFORMANT universal app? fast startup, fast usage, the works. i've never seen one in the wild and even this calculator is kinda dogshite by those standards. is it just not possible on this stack?

<comment><USER5> I don't understand why this is downvoted. The most obvious problem with the new calculator is it's slow startup, noticeable also wits SSD.

<comment><USER6> It's a "your mileage _will_ vary" subjective judgment that isn't particularly helpful as a constructive criticism.

For what little it is worth, and it is presumably quite little as anecdata in present company, I've never noticed any performance issues with the Universal version of Calculator, and "time until first keypress recognition" feels the same to me as Windows 7's Win32 Calc.exe, with the old synchronous window message pump "wait for the hourglass to stop spinning" of a classic Win32 window replaced with a usually very quick splash screen.

It seems to me just as likely that y'all've forgotten all the time you've spent waiting for spinning hourglasses in Win32 (good old, rose tinted glasses phenomenon that) when you deride Universal app performance. Sure, there are plenty of Universal apps that could use a performance tune-up, in general, but there are just as many (or more likely plenty more) bad Win32 apps out there whose terrible performance is papered over with hourglasses and the passage of time afforded by Moore's Law.

<comment><USER5> When i type calc and hit enter, I espect that I can immediately type the number key strokes for the calc app, with no any pause between the enter and my first number keystroke.

I have a 8 core cpu, 32 gb ram, ssd. There is no any good reasoning for why I shoud wait for a calc app stratup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> More discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19321217](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19321217)

</comment><comment><USER7> Has anyone heard anything about MS File Explorer getting open sourced?

I'm using a Lite version of Directory Opus from a Humble Bundle mostly because the MS File Explorer does some weird things with the left-side tree view. It would be _awesome_ to fix + recompile that :)

(Side question: Is the file explorer it's own app, or part of the larger Windows GUI shell?)

<comment><USER8> WinFile is MIT licensed now, maybe you have confused it with File explorer -don't think that could happen anytime soon.

[https://github.com/Microsoft/winfile](https://github.com/Microsoft/winfile)

<comment><USER6> Aside: the Windows OneCore and Shell Experience and C-Shell refactoring efforts have done a lot of work moving File Explorer into its own application finally divorced from a lot of the rest of the GUI. You can see it in Task Manager in 10 versus previous, esp. XP: fewer miscellaneous Explorer.exe processes and more fun new components like Windows Shell Experience Host. (Hard-crashing Explorer.exe is a lot less devastating to overall the stability of Windows 10 than it was back in XP [or 95].)

So we seem to be a lot closer today to a world where File Explorer is just another app, and maybe even considerable for open source development, than you may imagine.

<comment><USER7> I hadn't heard about CShell. Thanks for posting!

<comment><USER6> Yeah, it's an interesting topic that Microsoft for multiple reasons is keeping mostly behind the curtain. I like following C-Shell rumors, as a Windows mobile fan (rumors are that it was hoped C-Shell would have been a lot faster to build and might have kept Windows 10 on mobile form factors "alive" longer), and also because it sounds like a lot of cool effort that will probably be underappreciated when it actually finishes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Note it's _Managed_ c++/CLI, not old school original native c++1337. Why not just use C# then...? It's so much easier to write.

<comment><USER6> A lot of the guts of it are still the same ones that have been in C/C++ from the "dawn of time" of calc.exe. One thing to notice, for instance is that the "RatPack" infinite-precision rational library in the middle of the repository has a Copyright date specifically in it of 1995 and that seems credible.

(Also, it's C++/CX which is similar in syntax but different in runtime to Managed C++/CLI. C++/CX produces WinRT-flavor COM bindings, not CLR-intended IL code. It sounds like some folks are hoping to migrate it, now that it is open source and could be done as a community effort, to even more modern C++/WinRT which uses modern C++ features and does away with the need of special syntax.)

<comment><USER3> Oh you're right it is c++/cx. I saw that carrot pointer and jumped to conclusions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Over 4000 stars. Nice.</comment>


Ask HN: What is best laptop I can get for minimal money (under $300)? - <AUTHOR>

I am looking to get a laptop and am looking to spend as little as possible for something that can handle multiple internet tabs and code editor (once in a while I might use vector software Inkscape). What do you guys suggest? I prefer Intel (i3 probably fine) over AMD processor. I would also like a 13 - 14 inch screen with a nice (backlit perhaps) keyboard. I'm fine with refurbished / used but just don't wanna get screwed over that way. Any suggestions appreciated. If you live near NYC and wanna sell a laptop, then let me know! <comment><USER2> See if devonbarrett owns a laptop? Two birds with one stone.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5868881](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5868881)

</comment><comment><USER3> Check your local craigslist, check your local pawn shops. Make sure you know what you want, and how to haggle. Everyone asks for too much, but there should be a flood of used laptops on the market since it's in between semesters.

Otherwise, your best bet would be a chromebook running chrubuntu(not crouton), however, there are some caveats:

1\. There won't be a backlit keyboard

2\. You won't be able to get a great processor, but it'll be able to handle ubuntu just fine. You may want to consider a slimmer desktop manager than unity.

3\. You'll be limited on browser tabs before your memory runs too low and things slow to a crawl. Extensions like The Great Suspender for Chrome[1] allow you to work around this somewhat. It requires some manual tab management, but the alternative is maintaining a bookmarks folder so you can close the tabs and come back to them later.

4\. I was able to get an IDE(PyCharm) running, and it worked pretty well, except being slow in code completion.

5\. Inkscape runs, though not well. I'd suggest you running the app by itself if you need to use it.

[1] [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great- suspende...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great- suspender/klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg?hl=en)

(edited for formatting)

</comment><comment><USER4> Don't buy a new one. Get any old Thinkpad or Macbook on ebay.

<comment><USER5> I'll second this. I've picked up a couple of Thinkpads like this. Just make sure to read the description carefully. (Too many are sold without a HDD.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I personally use an HP beater that I found on clearance at my local RadioShack. In my opinion most people don't think of them as the first place to buy a computer.

</comment><comment><USER7> Chromebook? You can run Ubuntu on it.

<comment><USER8> +1 but I'd recommend a lighter Linux distro. In my experience Crunchbang runs significantly better than Ubuntu on mine.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Share your best coding Spotify playlists - <AUTHOR>

I have run out of music. I would be interested in trying out some of the community's best code playlists.. I would suggest that we up its the best ones to determine the unofficial HN playlist winner! <comment><USER2> I actually like to pick one song and listen to it on repeat. I've heard others say the same (Ryan Holiday comes to mind). Similarly I like listening to the Vitamin String Quartet, which performs recognizable pop songs with string instruments. Both listening methods help me focus because the lyrics (or lack thereof) eventually become background noise, but I don't lose the beat that I enjoy.

</comment><comment><USER3> I usually go for my 'musak' playlist because it's not distracting at all: [http://open.spotify.com/user/121472720/playlist/5CToJcwo4OEK...](http://open.spotify.com/user/121472720/playlist/5CToJcwo4OEKYYIiEvgdRF)

Or 'Chill', which is a little more distracting: [http://open.spotify.com/user/121472720/playlist/4kDc0bRoAf3U...](http://open.spotify.com/user/121472720/playlist/4kDc0bRoAf3UzDQugwKXG9)

I used to have one named 'Programming', but I renamed it and forgot which one it was. -.-'

</comment><comment><USER4> I actually find listening to specialist radio shows on some of the BBC's stations to be really good to code to. Your mileage may vary depending on what you're in to, but I'd recommend The Essential Mix, most things on overnight Radio 1, most things on 6music, and some Radio 3 if you're into classical or jazz. It's not geoblocked either. Just go to [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio](http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio) and look around.

</comment><comment><USER3> Spotify does collaborative playlists too. I made one, but I'm not sure how it works. Feel free to add/follow, and I'll follow you back or whatever so you can add to the playlist I linked below.

Sounds like it'd be fun if anyone wants to contribute. I love sharing music because I don't have the time to spend looking for new stuff like I used to. ^.^

[http://open.spotify.com/user/121472720/playlist/5rNRmWIUZ7E4...](http://open.spotify.com/user/121472720/playlist/5rNRmWIUZ7E46h37Sw0qNL)

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't use spotify but if I feel like listening to music while programming it is almost always video game sound tracks. Among my favorites are:

Deus ex

System shock 2

Wipeout pulse

Final fantasy (sound tracks for all of them are great but my favorite is battle on the big bridge)

Monter hunter freedom 2 (The town theme)

As I am writing this I have Innocent sea (Sieken Densetsu) on repeat :) If you do listen to music while programming make sure that you don't leave the earphones plugged in for too long for me 30 minutes at a time works.</comment>


The Porcupine Attack: investigating millions of junk requests - <AUTHOR> https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-porcupine-attack-investigating-millions-of-junk-requests/ <comment><AUTHOR> I previously submitted this at [1] but somehow bozwangled the URL and didn't notice. Hope a re-submission is OK.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13363806#13363898](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13363806#13363898)</comment>


How I Learned Go Programming – Codementor - <AUTHOR> https://www.codementor.io/codehakase/how-i-learned-go-bl9bow05o#.WaxUvRRucwU.hackernews <comment><USER2> For me the Tour of Go was a bit terse. I found out that typing out all examples in Gobyexample is really helpful. Visual studio code, with go extension and Gobyexample were the tools that enabled me to learn Golang.</comment>


Microwaves transmit stock trades faster than fibre optics - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/06/microwaves-transmit-stock-trad.html

<comment><USER2> With transatlantic cables built for trading, this gives new meaning to the term "boil the ocean".

Ba-dum-CHING!</comment>


The genesis of the perfect programming language - <AUTHOR> http://slidetocode.com/2012/05/06/the-perfect-programming-language/

<comment><USER2> I'm pondering this perfect language myself quite often. So far, I have only published what this language should _not_ contain:

<http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/articles/proglang_mistakes.html>

<comment><USER3> That's a nice article. But I feel like tweaking something in it.

> The programmer should be able to use Unicode, so the source file _must_ > declare its encoding.

Another Great Lesson we've learned, is to avoid clutter. So a reasonable rule, IMHO, would be that any standard Unicode encoding can be declared, but the lack of such a declaration is equivalent to a declaration of UTF-8.

<comment><USER4> We also learned to only use UTF-8, so we _should_ make it yet more simpler :) [1] Really, why declare the encoding of source code, given that we do have a universal character set and an endian-agnostic, compact representation?

[1] <http://www.utf8everywhere.org/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The author conflates quite a few unrelated concepts. Monads with "interfaces and object models," and templates with type inference. Perhaps in the programmer's head these all serve similar functions (often erroneously. See, e.g. [http://blog.tmorris.net/type-classes-are-nothing-like- interf...](http://blog.tmorris.net/type-classes-are-nothing-like- interfaces/)), but language designers need to make clearer distinctions.

</comment><comment><USER6>
        Even C++, OOP's flagwaver-in-chief, now supports
        templating, which is effectively a competing compile
        time strategy for writing polymorphic code.

When did C++ become OOP's flagwaver-in-chief!?!? It's a multi-paradigm language and hasn't been held up as an OOP exemplar for like 2 decades.

</comment><comment><USER7> The author seems mistaken about the purposes of Monads in Haskell. The essence of monads is control flow, not encapsulating code or providing interfaces.

<comment><USER6> I was confused by this reference too. I'm still trying to figure out what the author meant by that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Rubymotion is built around a slightly restricted ruby that compiles to llvm. A non iOS focused version would seem to fit the criteria.

Along similar lines, Unity uses a slightly restricted JavaScript than compiles to Mono's CLR implementation, as well as Boo, which is a Python-like language that also compiles to Mono. Iron Python, of which I have no direct experience, is another example.

And of course there's Clojure if you're so inclined.

</comment><comment><USER9> I can't recall a single instance of language being an actual issue when solving a business problem, and I've been programming for over 30 years. Discussions about language can be tiresome, but languages themselves havent been a problem.

The only real problem I know of with languages is that they don't die off fast enough. If the perfect language arrived tomorrow, it would be lost in the sea of languages anyway.

A language debate is a sign the there is an extra language lurking and it should die off. Python vs Ruby is a lively debate. I don't care which one survives, but do we really need both? The most curious debate of all is "Haskell?", a debate that seems to exist apart from any other language, the clearest sign of a lurking "extra" language.

<comment> Tuna-Fish Haskell isn't, and isn't trying to be, the next big language. Haskell is first and foremost a vehicle for programming language research, and it's primary proponents aren't shy about that. As such, it has been extraordinarily successful, and necessary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> _the only Objective-C feature I miss when coding in other languages is named arguments(e.g. [self drawRectOfSize:size atPoint:point inColour:colour]). Doxygen, rdoc, javadoc and similar tools do a great job of generating API documentation from source, but I prefer the self-documenting nature of Objective-C method calls._

This sentiment seems to be at odds with the preference of

      abs(val) {

over

      int abs(int val) {

I'm all for type inference, I think it's wonderful. But if there's anywhere where I _do_ want types to be explicit, it's in function signatures.

<comment><USER11> An interesting idea is for the types to be inferred, but not everytime you compile the code, but only the first time, then the compiler edits the source and adds the infered types. Or an IDE could do that.

<comment><USER12> I prefer my compiler to be a pure function. What if I'm generating source code and sending it over a pipe? I prefer not to need an IDE, either, though that's a tad more subjective.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> > _I've no complaint with this, but it leads to the mistaken impression that > great applications are written in dynamic languages. They aren't. Great > prototypes are written in dynamic languages, but the lasting replacement > will be written in a dull typed language like Java/C++/C#._

Common Lisp is the only programming language I know of that provides both the prototyping power of dynamic languages and the execution power of static languages. This is achieved through the Lisp declarations system.

The maxima computer algebra system also offers a variety of algebraic declarations such as linear, additive, multiplicative, outative, evenfun, oddfun, commutative, symmetric, antisymmetric, nary, lassociative, and rassociative. In my opinion all programs should be written this way - the Lisp way.

> _So far my fondness with Scheme has coexisted with disappointment at its > unsuitability for real world tasks_

I am fond of Scheme, Kernel, Arc, Shen and many other Lisp dialects. The unsuitability of these languages for real world tasks can be solved to some extent by embedding them in a larger host platform. Clojure does the embedding approach quite nicely.

</comment><comment><USER14> > I've no complaint with this, but it leads to the mistaken impression that > great applications are written in dynamic languages

Right, except for Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Wikipedia (yes, Facebook has a different PHP runtime which uses gcc to get a performance boost, this is an irrelevant implementation detail).

<comment><USER15> Twitter was Ruby but moved to Java.

<comment><USER16> The last thing I know was they moved from Ruby to Scala. Did they move to Java without me noticing or do you mean Scala by Java (since it's a JVM language too)?

EDIT: according to Wikipedia the service itself moved from Ruby to Scala while search moved from Ruby to Java.

<comment><USER15> Twitter was Ruby but moved to Scala and Java :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Go! and Go are different languages btw, you probably should fix that on your post :)

</comment><comment><USER18> I've come to see programming languages, like applications, as a collection of features bound by a narrative. (By 'narrative', I mean a set of styles and goals that allow one to make particular implementation decisions.)

</comment><comment><USER19> Language design, like most engineering, is all about weighing tradeoffs. There may be a language that's ideal for a particular application but there will never be a perfect language.

<comment><USER20> The difference between Jython and CPython may tell a slightly different story: with them, you have the same language but different implementations that may be more appropriate in one circumstance than another. If you really want to utilize threads to accomplish your goal, use Jython (yes, there are ways to do the same thing in CPython). If you want very fast startup, use CPython.

Maybe there could be a single, perfect language with different implementations providing the tradeoffs. The most difficult challenge may be bridging the performance/productivity gap between the C's and the Pythons of the world, but that may be a side effect of making multi-core programming easier. Amdahl's law[1] may prohibit that, though.

1\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahls_law>

<comment><USER19> Static vs dynamic typing, OO vs procedural, stateful vs functional/pure etc all have intrinsic strengths and weaknesses. You can only compensate for so much in implementation. Python will always be a bad language for writing kernels, for example.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Go is not the solution. It has a mandatory GC.

"need for a multithreading-centric, statically typed, type inferred language that compiles to native code but possesses the feel, readability and programmer efficiency of Python."

Language designers have moved on to writing on-top of LLVM to provide the native code benefit. That includes even Apple, Objective-C's backer. Of these, the highly interesting languages that provide the other benefits demanded:

Julia

Rust

Clay.

</comment><comment><USER22> People have been searching for the One True Language for decades. Why is it so important that there be one? The interfaces we use to talk between components are so much more important, so that we can use what fits for different parts.

<comment><USER13> > _People have been searching for the One True Language for decades._

The one true language is mathematics. John McCarthy (a math professor) discovered that programs could be represented as out degree one directed graphs (cons cells) that compose mathematical functions (lambda expressions). These simple mathematical principles form the basis of the functional programming paradigm and they have led Lisp programmers to success for nearly a half a century.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> "Great prototypes are written in dynamic languages, but the lasting replacement will be written in a dull typed language like Java/C++/C#" That is the gist.

</comment><comment><USER24> currently my "perfect" language is D <http://dlang.org>

<comment><USER25> Cross platform support is king for me right now which means Java and Javascript are getting a good run even though I don't much like the languages themselves.

How easy is it to take a D program cross platform? Can it cross compile easily?

<comment><USER26> The gdc compiler sticks the D front end over gcc, so cross compiling is the same as with gcc/mingw, to the best of my understanding. LDC is another compiler that uses the LLVM backend and it might support cross compiling, I don't know.

Setting up a virtualbox and building from that is pretty easy these days. And you need to test the executables somewhere anyway.

D will be perfectly portable by default, just as with modern C++. If you use the standard library it will compile and run everywhere.

<comment><USER6> If it uses the LLVM backend... that kind of means it is as portable as LLVM, no?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Why does everyone seem so obsessed over typed vs. untyped? Why are typed languages so undesirable to "hardcore" uses?

<comment><USER28> What gives you the idea that statically typed languages are undesirable to "hardcore" users? If anything, I've seen the opposite--the really advanced programmers (especially those who specialize in programming languages) seem to prefer statically typed languages.

Of course, there is some serious selection bias here for me, largely because programming language design has been one of my primary interest lately, and as I said earlier, the field seems generally biased _towards_ static typing.

<comment><USER27> Actually that was a typo... I can't go back and edit it now... I meant to say "desireable" :-)</comment></comment></comment>


Beans Were an Ancient Egyptian Emblem of Death - <AUTHOR> https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/favism-fava-beans <comment><USER2> this relates to one of my favorite hidden fart jokes in capital-L Literature.

from Moby Dick,

 _For as in this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part the Commodore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at second hand from the sailors on the forecastle. He thinks he breathes it first; but not so._

<comment><USER3> English is my second language, but couldn't this just mean that the sailors inhale and exhale the air first, before it reaches the quarter deck? It talks about "breathing it first", but you don't fart out air you've breathed in, it's gas from the digestive system.

<comment><USER4> That's most of it, but note the mention of the "Pythagorean maxim". The fart joke is an aside, not the main thrust of the passage.

<comment><USER5> What's the "Pythagorean maxim"?

<comment><USER6> Don't eat beans

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The pesky house sparrow was also the hieroglyph for misfortune. The nearly identical swallow hieroglyph meant good.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallow_(hieroglyph)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallow_\(hieroglyph\))

</comment><comment><USER8> This reminded me of an article I read about the "Pythagorean" diet which not only excluded meat but also beans. Can't find the exact citation but summary with [https://brooklynbrainery.com/blog/pythagoras-the-superior- ve...](https://brooklynbrainery.com/blog/pythagoras-the-superior- vegetariansimilar) content here:

</comment><comment><USER9> TIL Favism.

</comment><comment><USER10> Is there a way I can filter out posts like this? I go to HackerNews to avoid the meaningless buzz posts of Reddit, while everyday it feels more like it.

<comment><USER11> You may be interested in using [http://hnapp.com/](http://hnapp.com/) to set up a custom filter. It can create an RSS feed with your custom filter.</comment></comment>


Google's Wonder Wheel Experiment, and More - <AUTHOR> http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-03-24-n84.html

<comment><USER2> it is a rip-off of: <http://quintura.com></comment>


Queens of the Stoned Age - <AUTHOR> http://www.gq.com/story/green-angels-weed-delivery-models-new-york <comment><USER2> She should expand to my State. where it is already legal!

Weed deliveries are even advertised on billboards now.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is literally a plot line from the show "Weeds".</comment>


Show HN: Show My PR's – See all your Open Source contributions in one place - <AUTHOR> https://showmyprs.com <comment><USER2> No: this only shows your open source contributions that were structured using a single feature of GitHub; it fails to even be able to show all of your open source contributions that are stored on GitHub, much less satisfy the tag line of "see all your open source contributions". Another way of putting this: it is only able to show all your open source contributions "in one place" if you already happened to have them all "in one place".

</comment><comment><USER3> This is pretty awesome. I got a good recap of what I did over an year.

Github should have something like this.

Although some of my friends have a lot more commits than I do. Makes me sad.

</comment><comment><USER4> This gives me an inferiority complex, when comparing me versus some of the people I follow on github</comment>


Ask HN: What's your Mac/OSX web development software set-up? - <AUTHOR>

After over 10 years of becoming gradually removed from development (as a director of a 50+ person company), I've taken a head-first dive back into it while I travel around the world and freelance.
What tools/software do you currently use for web development, on a Mac platform? I'm not attached to anything, and want to use whatever will make me most efficient (even at an initial cost). Here's my current set-up (mostly PHP development). I should also note that, because of intermittent wi-fi access while traveling, I usually prefer native desktop apps to web apps.
* MacBook (aluminium) with a small Verbatim back-up drive and hard case (I'm traveling the world at the moment), plus Time Machine
* DropBox for real-time backing up my ~/Sites/ and other important directories
* MAMP Pro for easy administration of the LAMP stack
* Quicksilver (I find it fractions-of-a-second faster than Spotlight, which makes a difference)
* InstantShot and Paparazzi! for website screenshots (for pitches, etc)
* SimpleTask (for To-Do list)
* Mail.app (managing multiple accounts, including Gmail)
* TextWrangler (as my main text editor / IDE - I'm especially not tied to this)
* Filezilla (SFTP/FTP/etc)
* Terminal (love the multi-tabs; always have a tab open with a grep -R ready for searching; find it much faster than using an in-IDE search across files)
* Chrome (with the Web Developer extension) as my main browser; also Firefox, Safari
* Parallels with Windows 7 (to run Internet 8/7 natively with debugging tools; prefer it to WineBottler, etc)
* Skype (for cheap/free conversations and screen-sharing with clients)
* OmniGraffle Pro (UX, Wireframing, sketching)
* Fireworks (Graphics work)
* Flux (for making late-night work semi-comfortable)
* Silverback (usability testing)
Anything I should switch-out or add? I'm looking for efficiency and speed over detailed configuration, open source / licensing or price. Thanks in advance, HN'ers! <comment><USER2> USB Overdrive to correct mouse acceleration curve.

Divvy is amazing to quickly organize your desktop.

Cloudapp for screenshots (or Scrup).

<http://Drop.io/> for files sharing

Evernote for saving info.

PTHPasteboard for clipboard manager.

CoRD for remote desktop to windows machines.

TextMate with the "Disable Refresh Refresh on Regaining Focus" plugin installed.

Sometimes I use MacVim as well. Got a bunch of plugins setup for it. But I still use Textmate 99% of the time.

Zen-Coding for both TextMate and VIM.

Photoshop

Balsamiq for screen mockup.

Virtualbox for IE testing stuff. I do have another Windows laptop so I rarely run this virtual machine.

No QuickSilver -- Spotlight is good enough as an app launcher.

iTunes with Volume Logic, Last.fm, TunesText to lookup lyrics. I have a little more than 25,000 songs and TunesText is pretty awesome.

Colloquy for IRC

SequelPro and MySQL Query Browser (which can do tabs while Sequel Pro can't)

Acorn for quick image editing/color dropping.

<http://unfuddle.com> for my SVN needs, and Github for public repos.

Of all of those above, USB Overdrive and Divvy are probably the most essential tools. Check out my other post on this topic here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1523763>

<comment><USER3> Check out the nightly builds of Sequel Pro for tabs. They'll be included in the next major release (0.9.9):

<http://nightly.sequelpro.com/>

<comment><USER2> I downloaded the latest nightly build (2568) and found the new tab feature. It looks promising. However, I really like the way MySQL Query Browser creates new script/query tabs sharing the same session (<http://cl.ly/4c353b77cac746d51698>). It's more convenient to have multiple query tabs that can be quickly created, switched to or closed down, then having to create a new connection every time for a new tab.

PS: also the shortcuts to switch between tabs weren't working for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> My setup is quite a bit like the OP's.

Macbook pro with:

* TextMate for code editing (with the Ack in Project/AckMate bundles for searching through a large codebase, and updated bundles for Ruby on Rails, RSpec, Cucumber, Shoulda, etc)

* rvm for Ruby version and gem management

* Terminal (nothing special added here)

* Quicksilver for quick tasks and app launching

* Transmit for SFTP or simple Amazon S3 management

* Photoshop when graphics work is needed (or sometimes Acorn when it's a simple resizing)

* Skype for co-worker coordination and calls

* OmniGraffle for wireframing

* Chrome & Firefox with web dev related plugins (web dev toolbar, firebug, rulers, color pickers, etc)

* Mail.app for all email

* GitX for easier viewing of repo history/diffs (one of the alternate forks with added features) - still mainly use CLI for day-to-day operations

* SequelPro - a great, free MySQL app for mgmt, queries, etc

* pgAdmin - the same as above, but for Postgres

* and iTunes for the background music

<comment><USER5> Have a look at GitY if you haven't its a pretty neat Gitx replacement (in my opinion...)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> _I've taken a head-first dive back into it while I travel around the world and freelance._

First let me say welcome to the good life. I did almost exactly the same.

Personally I use Netbeans it is a great all around IDE, for a good portion of languages not only is it a great development environment but, in some cases it actually is best of class. I use the same IDE for Java, Javascript (supports jQuery and Dojo out of the box), it has good clojure support, scala, C, PHP, Python, Ruby well the list goes on. I suggest trying it for 2 weeks and I can gurantee you will be sold. I do web, and Android development in Netbeans.

For OSX /iPhone/ iPad I use xCode for obvious reasons. Join the developer program and get the beta of 4 it is infinitely better.

For wire-framing I use OmniGraffle Pro, it is best of class out of all offerings both mac and PC.

for screen-shots I use command + shift + 3 for full screen and command + shift + 4 to do a box lasso of a portion of the screen, I don't use a tool.

To-Do-List I just use iCal wired up to Google calendar.

Web browser I use Firefox and firebug as my main browser and Javascript debugger. I also have Safari, Chrome and Opera

virtulization I use Virtual Box, it is free and as good as the rest of them. I used to use VMware fusion, but virtual box was just as good.

Skype yep probably the best developer collaboration tool out there. I work with 6 other freelancer as a co-op and we would not be as efficient as we are without skype. We are distributed across the globe.

I use Photoshop for graphics.

I think you have the big ones covered and the small ones are preference really. Other than the IDE I would not change a thing, You should really give Netbeans a try it is not just a Java IDE and specifically for Java it is far Superior to Eclipse.

Here are some other tools you may want to look at as well:

<http://www.panic.com/transmit/> <http://www.ragesw.com/index.php> <http://www.advancedwebranking.com/>

</comment><comment><USER7> _TextMate + Visor + Growl make my coding a lot easier for most Ruby and Python needs - TextMate & visor is a must for anyone who writes code for a living on the Mac! TextMate Bundles is awesome + get ZenHtml and ZenCSS to make your life even more easier. Besides, cmd+T on TextMate is reason enough to switch and the fact you can invoke TextMate from terminal.

_Eclipse/NetBeans for java. Xcode for iOS.

 _{Chrome & Firefox} + firebug saves the day for js.

_Cyberduck is awesome though SCP does the trick well from terminal.

*I loved QSilver, but google quick search box is just as OK but mainly less CPU hoggin'But QSilver shortcuts are amazing for quick iTunes playback.

</comment><comment><USER8> FileZilla for Mac is a disaster. I was pretty happy with it on Windows but the OSX build has some serious issues. CyberDuck is another OSS FTP client that's a bit more reliable for me, but it lacks the two-pane synchronized browsing of FileZilla. I think I'm going to break down and buy Panic's Transmit.

+1 for f.lux, OmniGraffle, and Dropbox

A major hardware mod you should consider is an SSD. Really really noticeable improvement.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm a big fan of Coda for the actual IDE. Well, more of a text editor, similar to TextWrangler. Not free, but it has the built in SFTP client, so it covers that.

Also suggest balsamiq as an alternative to omnigraffle; both are excellent products. Might want to try balsamiq (free for a month) just so you know what else is out there.

</comment><comment><USER10> * TextMate (I also own Coda and Espresso - both good alternatives)

* Terminal

* RVM for Ruby management

* Git

* Colloquy for IRC

* Namely (<http://amarsagoo.info/namely/>) for application launching (I don't need the full power of Quicksilver)

* SequelPro for MySQL

* MongoHub

* Chrome Mac developer branch

* Homebrew for package management

About to get a new Mac and I'll hopefully clean out all the cruft from years of trying new things and just settle with what I listed above :)

</comment><comment><USER11> I had:

Espresso and TextWrangler as IDE

Cyberduck for FTP

Skitch and Cloud App for Screenshot sharing

Chrome with Web Developer Plugin + Firebug Light

Sequel Pro for MySQL management

FileMaker 10 Pro Advanced

ToodleDo Fluid App for To-do List

OmniGraffle + OmniPlan

On a sidenote, Does anyone have recommendations for some alternatives on a windows platform? I made a new post (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1620115>) since i just got a new Windows machine

</comment><comment><USER12> I've been working with MAMP and Coda for about 8 months now and I love it. I'm just working on personal projects so I don't have a need for a whole suite of tools

<comment><AUTHOR> Well that's two votes for Coda, I should definitely give it a go. I've just this second installed Aptana too (for an AIR project that I've been asked to look at).

I like to keep things as simple as minimal as possible too, so if MAMP and Coda works for you, I suspect it might for me too. Thanks.

<comment><USER13> Another vote for Coda & MAMP. Coda is great to have text editing, browser preview, SVN, file transfer and reference documentation all in a single polished application.

Have found that MAMP is so much easier to setup and manage than trying to struggle with changing the inbuilt OS X services into a apache/php/mysql development environment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Some other tools I use everyday:

* Balsamiq Mockups for web application mock-ups

* Evernote for notes (synchronized with iPad)

* Things for todolist (synchronized with iPad)

* Intellij/Pycharm for java/python dev

* Pomodoro (<http://pomodoro.ugolandini.com/>) for productivity/GTD

</comment><comment><USER15> * _Balsamiq Mockups_

* TextWrangler

* Things

* Pomodoro

* 1Password

* CloudApp

* Skype

* Adium

* Socialite (Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook)

* Virtualbox

(+Terminal, iTunes, iCal, Safari, Mail, iPhoto, iMovie)

</comment><comment><USER16> Cyberduck is a beautiful replacement for Filezilla. Also open source.

For text editing, TextMate is powerful albeit not free.

</comment><comment><USER17> DTerm. <http://www.decimus.net/dterm.php>

</comment><comment><USER18> > I'm not attached to anything, and want to use whatever will make me most > efficient (even at an initial cost). Here's my current set-up (mostly PHP > development).

If efficiency is important to you, might I suggest you use a better language/platform, or are you attached to PHP, after all?

</comment><comment><USER19> Photoshop and Coda. And a good cup of coffee.

</comment><comment><USER20> ies4osx and macports are handy.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah yes, I'd forgotten about that - I have installed Macports, but find ies4osx a little slow/crappy (compared to Parallels), but it was definitely handy before I splashed out on parallels.

<comment><USER21> I'd recommend brew over macports any day of the week. <http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew> much faster and much more momentum</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Review my Startup -- MyPlenaryIndulgence.com - <AUTHOR>

Idle hands are the devil's tools. I had just enough time between switching jobs to play with GWT, AppEngine, Google Charts API and iText PDF library.
Here is the outcome: http://www.myplenaryindulgence.com
Web 2.0 implementation of business idea that peaked in early 16th century.
At least this time I don't need to worry about the question: "Nice thing, but what is your business model?" 0:-)
I would like you to tell me what do you think about it? What kind of experience would you like to have while you are buying an indulgence on line? How far is this web site from it? Am I missing something important? Do you have any other suggestions?
Oh yes, I almost forgot. There is a special discount for first 30 customers. You can get 50% off if you type "launch" as a coupon code in the purchase form.
Thanks, Johann. <comment><AUTHOR> I have expected more technical advice, but I understand your concern - <USER2> main question is how to make visitors actually take out their wallets and spend the money.

I am not sure about lowering prices since that would make indulgences less exclusive.

What do you think about annual subscription? Or some kind of freemium model?

What are your experiences regarding that?

</comment><comment><USER3> Huh? What's the point? And what exactly would I receive in return for my $20? A PDF certificate stating some crap that I won't read.

No thanks. I'll just create my own PDF docs using Old English font or whatever that was.

And this might have actually been kind of funny if it was actually _intended_ to be a joke. (And minus the part of the $20 fee.)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> My Plenary Indulgence: <http://www.myplenaryindulgence.com/>

</comment><comment><USER4> At first I thought it was a joke, and I found it pretty funny.

But you're not joking, so now I'm just disturbed.

</comment><comment><USER5> Sorry...I do not understand this really. What is this for? Why would I pay for it? I am missing somehting...

<comment><USER6> yes

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> 90 bucks for one of these things? I don't think so.

</comment><comment><USER8> LOfreakingL.</comment>


Ask HN: Remote workers of HN, what is your experience? - <AUTHOR> I have seen a lot of good paying remote jobs in the last "Who is hiring?" post. I am wondering what remote workers are experiencing in terms of payments, communications, job satisfaction etc? How companies are handling time differences, time tracking issues? I have heard a lot that some companies have strict rules for the time spending in front of computer. They are using some kind of screen and webcam recording software. Is it the case for majority of companies? <comment><USER3> I found my current position through the whoishiring post in November 2015. Payment is monthly, just invoice at the end of the month for hours worked in the month x hourly rate and payment is made via direct deposit 2 weeks later. During the month we track daily using Jira for our clients and weekly using an internal tool to track what hours we worked for each client so the clients get billed accordingly. Hours are reported based on the honor system, so as long as they are reasonable nobody questions them.

Since our model is to assign engineers, designers, and project managers to various clients, some of the workflow depends on the clients' needs but so far 4 clients have followed the same pattern: daily scrum with one of our project managers, our engineers, and any of the client's team members, weekly project summary, and periodic updates to any budget estimates. As far as scheduling, our company only provides US and Canada based workers so in theory timezones aren't that big of a problem.

If you have any questions or want to work with us, my info is in my profile.

</comment><comment><USER4> Answer to all of those is: "it depends". It all depends on the company and contact you negotiate and whether your remote position is a unique one or the standard way of working.

A lot depends on what you accept as ok. I'd reject any offer that involves webcam/screen recording. Both because it's creepy and because the company defaults to no trust. If the manager can't figure out if you're doing a good work or not by looking only at your work output, that manager is useless.

Time difference is annoying. Small shifts shouldn't matter. For big shifts like US/EU you have to learn to communicate in large batches that people can respond to overnight completely and without a need to clarify more details.

If you never worked remotely before and the company doesn't have at least half of the team in remote positions, you'll likely struggle. There's going to be too much ad-hoc communication you're not involved in.

</comment><comment><USER5> Agree with the previous answer - "it depends", so I can tell only about some of the companies I know. My company is very flexible in this regard - <USER2> employee works when he/she is comfortable. We agree on calls in advance. To organize the workflow, we use several tools:

\- Git for all software development (Github, Gitlab);

\- Skype, Telegram for chatting, calls;

\- Riter for project management/teamwork (plan and estimate sprints/tasks, add and track time spent on them, comments, file sharing, reports and so on);

And that's enough. Another company that I know prefers that all team members work simultaneously, but their employees live in some of the neighboring time zones (the difference is up to 2-3 hours).

</comment><comment><USER6> If you see reports of screen recording I'd avoid that company completely. I've never heard of it as common practice for remote jobs and more something that has come out of Upwork.

The best remote jobs focus on output not time anyway, and everything else is to facilitate that so they're best suited to independently motivated people.

Pay seems comparable to local jobs, unless I guess you're getting US/Bay Area salaries and you don't live there.</comment>


Show HN: Alarm Clock Audio - <AUTHOR> https://alarm.clock.audio <comment><USER2> Useable only from a desktop computer, but I appreciate that the developers made the effort to check if the user was in mobile and then let them know that a mobile version is not yet available.

Thanks!</comment>


Why is Science Behind a Paywall? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/50096804256/why-is-science-behind-a-paywall

<comment><USER2> There's a pretty simple explanation.

It's called tenure. As a result of tenure, the official policy of the university is "Aproi moi le deluge"

One symptom of this is continuous handwringing about problems that never go away. If you look at CACM, for instance, they've been running pretty much the same article about "Why don't women major in computer science?" every two months for every twenty years. Physics Today, on the other hand, runs an article about every six months about the terrible academic job prospects for physics PhD's. (The last 10 Einsteins we created all went to work for Goldman Sacks)

Because a professor doesn't personally have skin in any game (he can't find himself on the street) he's really got no reason to address problems that affect his field or academia as a whole.

I know some people who talked with Don Knuth about libraries and open access and Knuth displayed his ignorance: "there's no problem, we don't need libraries, I just read all the journals for free on my computer." He was ignorant of the facts that: (1) the library at his school cuts a huge check to Elsevier every year, and (2) people outside the ivory walls don't share his privilege.

It's that kind of thinking that keeps science behind a paywall.

<comment><USER3> _Après moi le déluge_

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "One game changer would be governments mandating that publicly financed research be made publicly available. Every year the United States government provides over $60 billion in public grants for scientific research. In 2008, Congress mandated (over furious opposition from private publishers) that all research funded through the National Institute of Health, which accounts for 50% of government funding of science, be made publicly available within a year. Extending this requirement to all other research financed by the government would go a long way for OA publishing. This is true of similar efforts by the British and Canadian governments, which are in the midst of such steps."

This is the solution. As taxpayers we say the research must be open. If you research based on our grant money, it must be open. If you are a public school, it must be open. If you are on public land, it must be open. If you want non-profit status, it must be open. If you want to it be closed, then you must be a self-funded for-profit institution. (Sometimes we call these things businesses)

</comment><comment><USER5> Very informative article, even if it explains things that most of us here already realize, it's very useful to point others to with less background on "open science".</comment>


Google at $1000 a share - <AUTHOR> http://fishtrain.com/2007/10/08/google-at-1000share/ Google can surpass Microsoft in market capitalization when it hits $1000 a share. <comment><USER2> I imagine they will issue a split well before they reach $1000/share. Unless they have some Royal Dutch-like policy I don't know about..</comment>


OUP/M: CP/M-like operating system for 6502 - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/option8/OUP-M <comment><USER2> For another CP/M take on 6502 see DOS/65 at [http://www.z80.eu/dos65.html](http://www.z80.eu/dos65.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> 6502 is a harsher environment than Z80 which CP/M was originally designed for. It's a good candidate for a C64 port too.

<comment><USER4> what makes it harsher? Also I believe CP/M was originally designed for the i8080.

<comment><USER5> I guess it's about the 6502's more RISC-like philosophy, which made it a bit more cumbersome to program in assembly code (even though the resulting performance was mostly similar to the Z80 because the 6502 could do more things in fewer cycles).

Even with the whole 'extended register set in the zero page', the 6502 didn't have convenient features like 16-bit math, memory block instructions, and even 8-bit math was less convenient (e.g. no separate add/adc, sub/sbc instructions, so you always had to clear the carry flag before a math operation etc...)

But I think this didn't matter for porting the operating system CP/M itself to 6502, the actual problem was binary compatibility with applications, and the Z80 was backward compatible with the i8080 (as long as only documented instructions were used).

I guess being compatible with the i8080 (and CP/M 'office software') was the whole point why the Z80 was even created (as an i8080 killer), and that it was as successful as it was.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is there a C compiler for it?

<comment><USER7> Probably not a very good one. 6502 architecture is quite hostile to c compilers

<comment><USER8> Interesting - I grew up with a 6502-based computer (Atari 800), and never got around to using C. Any sources for this?

Edit: here's one. [https://dwheeler.com/6502/](https://dwheeler.com/6502/)

<comment><USER9> A couple of major reasons:

1\. The 6502 is heavily register-starved. Three limited-purpose registers is pretty rough.

2\. There are no 16-bit registers, so you can't put a pointer in a register. You can put one on the zero page, but that's much more limited. Indexing into arrays larger than 256 bytes gets complicated, too.

3\. The 6502's stack isn't well suited for storing data. There's no SP- relative addressing, for instance. It's possible to get the value of SP with PHP/PLA, but this is pretty awkward to work with.

<comment> david-given I wrote a self-hosting (if you're very patient) compiler for the 6502 and Z80 a while back. Both are a bit of a shock if you're used to true 16 bit arch architectures. I did a couple of writeups on the problems of doing basic arithmetic in them:

[http://cowlark.com/2018-02-27-6502-arithmetic/index.html](http://cowlark.com/2018-02-27-6502-arithmetic/index.html)

[http://cowlark.com/2018-03-18-z80-arithmetic/index.html](http://cowlark.com/2018-03-18-z80-arithmetic/index.html)

The 6502 is more orthogonal, and while each instruction does less they're very fast; the Z80 is fundamentally more powerful but weirdly inconsistent, terrifyingly slow, and the unorthogonal register system means that you spend half your time shuffling registers.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Python binary decision diagrams - <AUTHOR> http://pyeda.readthedocs.org/bdd.html

<comment><USER2> Anyone know how this compares (in performance) against BuDDy?

<comment><AUTHOR> I haven't done any comparisons, but the BDDs in PyEDA are pure Python. Chances are that any C++ library (CUDD, ABCD, BuDDY, etc) will out-perform in time/space.

Probably the most compelling feature is the ability to use IPython for visualization.</comment></comment>


Ngmoco Axes Bulk Of Staff At iOS Game Studio Freeverse - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/30/ngmoco-dena-freeverse-layoffs/

<comment><AUTHOR> They had some huge hits on iOS: Flick Fishing, Skee Ball.</comment>


Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html <comment><USER2> This covers two textbooks- same name, same authors, one for california and one for texas. Some significant differences occur: California's version indicates the second amendment opens some regulation, Texas' does not. California mentions that white flight happened and was racially motivated, Texas said that people merely wishes to escape 'crime and congestion' of city life. Where California includes an excerpt from Dominican-American novel, Texas includes the words of a Border Patrol officer.

How can we hope to resolve the greater difference in our partisian society while also teaching different versions of the same history to our kids?

<comment><USER3> Which one do you pick?

I have a belief that our nation is so large and its people so vast in difference of opinion we are technically different social nations. I would not be able or want to live in a place like California- their laws are incompatible with my way of life. From my firearms collection to my automotive hobbies. Things that make me happy are illegal in California. And that is OK!

See I am happy to visit the nation of California- and will will act in their way when I am in their land. When they come to Texas they can choose to hang out with us and enjoy our local customs and culture.

What unites us is our common bond in the fact that we are all Americans. I may not want to live in California, those are still my fellow countrymen and I hope that they will find continued success in their ventures despite of difference in ways of life.

Why does one view have to be wrong? Different strokes?

My artsy pals moved to Portland to hang with their kind in an art community. My Alone in the woods friends who wanted to be more alone moved to remote Idaho.

Why does anyone have to be wrong, in the end they are all just seeking happiness and moving to where people around them share their values, culture and belief systems.

America is a divided nation, unified by an ideology of individual liberty and personal autonomy. I find it no surprise, nor do I see it as a problem that our textbooks reflect this fact.

<comment><USER4> I wonder if someone could design a country such that each "social nation" could operate largely independently and only be tied together by a tiny, weak federal government. A "united states", perhaps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Buried in the middle of the story:

> Still, recent textbooks have come a long way from what was published in past > decades. Both Texas and California volumes deal more bluntly with the > cruelty of the slave trade, eschewing several myths that were common in > textbooks for generations: that some slave owners treated enslaved people > kindly and that African-Americans were better off enslaved than free. The > books also devote more space to the women's movement and balance the > narrative of European immigration with stories of Latino and Asian > immigrants.

> "American history is not anymore the story of great white men," said Albert > S. Broussard, a history professor at Texas A&M University and an author of > both the Texas and California editions of McGraw-Hill's textbooks.

So, in short, all the textbooks are moving toward a more multicultural worldview and ideas traditionally associated with "the left," but California is moving that direction faster than Texas.

</comment><comment><USER6> Feynman's account of his brief time on the California textbook selection committee: [https://rangevoting.org/FeynTexts.html](https://rangevoting.org/FeynTexts.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> Writing textbooks is political, but the battle starts much earlier, already in hiring - University of California requires all new hires to submit a political litmus test [1]. A story which, I couldn't help but notice, the New York Times failed to cover.

[1] [https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/19/mathematician...](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/19/mathematician- comes-out-against-mandatory-diversity-statements-while-others-say-they)</comment>


AXA Is Using Ethereum's Blockchain for a New Flight Insurance Product - <AUTHOR> https://www.coindesk.com/axa-using-ethereums-blockchain-new-flight-insurance-product/ <comment><USER2> How exactly does the information on whether the flight was delayed or not become available to the executing smart contract?

</comment><comment><USER3> _> It maintains an accessible record of the insurance contract itself within a smart contract_

And why would I want details of my insurance contract on a publicly visible blockchain? What am I missing here?

edit, to elaborate: A currency ledger blockchain _has_ to be visible to all participants, that's how we can all come to an agreement on who owns what. What I don't get is why my insurance contract has to be visible by any parties other than me and the insurer. Hence, what value does putting this data on a blockchain bring?

<comment><USER4> accessible/visible could mean the details of the contract encrypted (or more likely crypto hashed), not publicly readable as plaintext

later if some authority needs to validate/litigate, it would be easy to decrypt the pertinent data with the key or by comparing hashes

that said, simply letting the world know that you did enter into a contract - regardless of the details - is leakage of privacy so buyer beware

EDIT: elaborating in response to the above edit...on their FAQ they say they use blockchain to speed the process - instant gratification and automatic payment. i am sure this is merely a marketing PoC to gague consumer comfort levels with blockchain apps. and buzz, which it is obviously getting here. but long term, think about the cost savings if you automate claims processes. in Florida and Houston right now they cannot find enough insurance adjustors to process claims for victims. in 5 years you can likely use a fancy AR+AI mobile app to do self-inspection, which would trigger a smart contract for payment of the claim. feel free to apply to YC with that :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Crypto currency novice here. Would it be possible to see how many policies they sell, and how many they payout?

</comment><comment><USER6> What are the advantages of having this service run on a blockchain? There is nothing stopping a company from providing a similar service with a traditional server setup, right?

Is it simply that the contract is visible to others to validate it took place?

</comment><comment><USER7> Ironic considering how ancient their IT is.

My friend was an advisor and they are solidly in the 2005 era as far as security and maintenance goes.

<comment><USER8> They somehow managed to get a gTLD [https://icannwiki.org/.axa](https://icannwiki.org/.axa)</comment></comment>


Version-controlling My Dotfiles - <AUTHOR> http://m.odul.us/blog/2015/7/6/version-controlling-my-dotfiles.html

<comment><USER2> I'm just going to leave this here:

[https://gist.github.com/lonetwin/9636897](https://gist.github.com/lonetwin/9636897)</comment>


134-year old Manchester United to IPO as JOBS Act "emerging growth" company - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/node/21558312

<comment><USER2> Story aside, I'm surprised at the usually professional Economist running a caption of "A naive investor kisses his shirt goodbye" under a picture of Wayne Rooney. Very _tabloid._

<comment><USER3> Why are you surprised? They've been doing that sort of thing (illustrate a story with a photo vaguely related to it, with a sarcastic/snarky not- literally-true caption) for as long as I can remember.

<comment><USER2> To be fair, I'm not a regular reader. I've repeatedly heard their journalism is top rate, so I was surprised simply because caption tricks are the journalistic equivalent of Comic Sans - funny on lighthearted stuff, weird at the high end.</comment></comment></comment>


Universal Radio Hacker: investigate wireless protocols like a boss - happy-go-lucky https://github.com/jopohl/urh <comment><AUTHOR> Looks fun! I did some reverse engineering for the RF sensors of my weather station a few weeks back, I used gnuradio, audacity etc but it was all 'manual', ie feeding the .WAV capture file to my own program and trying to find the decoding [0]. Turns out it was a _known_ protocol of course, but it was still fun! Next time I know where to look for the proper tools, this looks awesome!

[0]: My RF/MQTT bridge for switches and sensors: [https://github.com/buserror/rf_bridge](https://github.com/buserror/rf_bridge)

</comment><comment><USER2> Nice, thanks for sharing! I'll have to check this out. Not sure how I missed hearing about this one when I was working on understanding the mesh network protocol for the water and electric meters on the side of my house. Aside from GNU Radio, which has already been mentioned, Inspectrum also proved to be invaluable to me.

<comment><USER3> Can you elaborate on the mesh network part? I've recently discovered mesh networking. What do you recommend as a good beginner project?

<comment><USER2> Sure. The electric and water meters used by the city I live in are by a company called Elster. They use the name EnergyAxis or EA_LAN to describe the mesh network. Either of those should return hours of reading material on a Google search. The short version is that each electric meter communicates on the ISM 915MHz band using the Texas Instruments CC11xx chip, and relays messages from meter to meter until it reaches the "gatekeeper", which is tied to a WAN and to the city's infrastructure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> what is the advantage of this over something like [http://gnuradio.org](http://gnuradio.org) ?

<comment><USER5> Ever tried to install gnuradio?

It's a nightmare of twisty dependencies. You can either run the obsolete version in your distro or be prepared for a world of pain.

And it's made even worse because Qt decided they couldn't be bothered with binary compatibility so a whole bunch of things dependent upon Qt all broke and lots of things now all need to get fixed.

<comment><USER6> No kidding! It's a complete nightmare to set up, urh is significantly simpler to set up and to use.. though of course the other side of that is it's not as powerful as gnuradio

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A question to RF people here - if I want to snoop on the 433MHz and 868MHz signals in the air, what's the cheapest setup I can get that would let me do some useful work? I've been reading up on the RTL-SDR thing, but there seems to be so many variables to consider that I can't even estimate what's the minimum set of hardware required, and whether the cheap modules are of any use.

<comment><USER8> Probably depends on how much bandwidth you are interested in seeing at any given time.

If < ~2MHz and budget is everything, this sort of thing will get you started [http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272267647631](http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272267647631)

These guys have iterated on the RTL stick a bit, though expect to pay a bit more: [http://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/](http://www.rtl- sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/)

If < 8MHz, try this [http://www.sdrplay.com](http://www.sdrplay.com) (Not an RTL stick, performance FAR better. I own this, it's great.) I notice they have a new model out.

Above that, sky's the limit. Filters are possibly useful on the TV stick but by no means essential.

Antennas - all depends on proximity. If you're in the same room as your RF source, a bit of wire will do, for all but the weakest signals. Beyond that, it depends what you're doing.

My recommendation: Buy the £7 stick, see if it gets the job done for you. If not, try the SDRPlay unit. I own both, they're both good and will likely get the job done.

Software: HDSDR [http://www.hdsdr.de/](http://www.hdsdr.de/) SDR Console [http://sdr-radio.com/](http://sdr-radio.com/) (current beta is excellent with SDRPlay RSP 1)

No affiliation to any links posted.

<comment><USER7> Thanks! I'll start with the stick then. I am afraid to spend triple digit sums on more hardware that I don't yet know if I'll end up using much, but I wasn't sure if cheaper options are usable at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is genuinely awesome. I can't wait to try it out!

</comment><comment><USER10> maybe pair with an rtlsdr for some low-cost input?</comment>


Show HN: Buildcache memoizes execution of build commands - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cambridgehackers/buildcache

<comment><AUTHOR> Buildcache uses strace rather than parsing command line arguments of the compiler to save and reuse compilation results, speedin up subsequent builds.</comment>


Anti-pattern - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern

<comment><USER2> The Database-as-IPC isn't that evil... If you're using PHP there are worse options.

</comment><comment><USER3> I almost clicked back because the summary at the top wasn't so interesting, but glad I scrolled down. There's a list of anti-patterns there that is interesting:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern#Known_anti- pattern...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern#Known_anti-patterns)</comment>


Are domains too cheap? - daniel-cussen

Making domains more expensive makes it much harder for squatters to take good domain names and leave them parked.  If the price went up to $50, do you think it would hurt or favor Web 2.0 entrepreneurship? <comment><AUTHOR> I really don't think it would matter much. It might change the process of picking a name slightly, but ultimately $50 is still a small cost to pay in the grand scheme of a startup. That puts it still under incorporation costs.

<comment> daniel-cussen I agree it wouldn't matter much---to the startup. However, if the fees ICANN and VeriSign charge for registration rise from .25-6.25 dollars to 50 or perhaps 150 dollars, the squatting industry would get seriously injured. New startups would get more normal names, making word-of-mouth easier. www.justine.tv would belong to justin.tv instead of a porn site.</comment></comment>


Nothing Keeps Apple From Making an Android Phone Except Common Sense - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-06/there-nothing-keeping-apple-from-making-an-android-phone-except-common-sense#r=hp-ls

<comment><USER2> Apple has been doing the right thing all along. Because the very thing that enabled Apple to rise from near bankruptcy to just about the most profitable company in the history of capitalism is providing and controlling an integrated, soup-to-nuts hardware and software ecosystem. A big part of the reason why Android still feels so janky is that it has to cater to multiple hardware vendors and other stakeholders (carriers), as well as Google's advertising business, with the end user a secondary concern. Apple's total control enables it to make the user the highest priority.

<comment><USER3> The jankiest thing about Android (well, aside from crappy manufacturer skins and undeletable carrier spamware) is the pauses and delays in user response. Those all come from the disastrous choice to use Java as a programming language. User facing software always feels slow when it's subject to the performance losses of automatic memory management. Java is inherently garbage collected and low power mobile devices just multiply the performance failures inherent in that design.

Garbage collection is actually better for performance where instant response isn't important, such as in servers. In UI and realtime it always seems janky and slow.

But even the choice of Java is related to multiple hardware vendors. There was some idea initially that Android might run on non-ARM platforms. That hasn't turned out to be an important use of Android, but it probably helped push Android to Java initially.

<comment><USER4> It's important to note that it's the Java language, but not the Java bytecode or Java Virtual Machine that are used in Android. It could easily have been really any language that Google wished to provide a compiler for towards their custom bytecode/VM. It was somewhat arbitrarily the Java language but was a good business choice IMHO due to the prevalence of Java developers in the market.

Secondly, there's nothing stopping you from writing your apps in C/C++ to get whatever sort of response you need.

<comment><USER5> From what I've read on the net, using the NDK is not an ideal way to write Android apps. It's fine if you want to write an OpenGL game, but it doesn't interface well with the Android API.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The company that really disappointed everyone is Sony. Sony was Apple when Apple was beige boxes, and then Sony turned into just another commodity vendor when it comes to non-playstation hardware.

The new Xperia products give the hint that Sony is crawling out of that hole, but they have a long way to go.

<comment><USER7> Too true. I remember some of the razor thin VAIO's from many years before the Air was every a prototype. And that from a company that was a leading maker of floppy disks no less.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> If it wasn't for that quote from Woz, pretty much everyone would go 'well that's ridiculous'. And it is, it is ridiculous, Apple would _still_ want a hardware premium because that's the business model, so they wouldn't be able to try and out price the other manufacturers. They'd gain _nothing_ from it. People that want an iPhone want it for the hardware software combination.

<comment><USER9> > People that want an iPhone want it for the hardware software combination.

I'm not so certain that's case. Today the iPhone is at least feature comparative to Android (turn by turn navigation, LTE, decent google integration and hangouts) - but Android still doesn't have as nice hardware as Apple.

I really wanted Nokia to start making Android devices because they do make beautiful hardware, but unfortunately they went to Windows phone. I'd imagine many android users would switch to apple made hardware if it was available.

Then apple would likely dominate the hardware market for both operating systems - which would be interesting.

<comment><USER8> I found the HTC One to be pretty solid, not _as_ good as Apple but very nice and very well built. If I remember rightly the stats show a lot of the Android sales are low-to-mid range hardware, so there's possibly not as much reason for companies to build really high end phones if they don't think there's a market.

<comment><USER9> The HTC One is beautiful, but the battery is atrocious - the iPhone has an incredible battery. The Nexus 5 is also a really nice phone, but the hardware is still not as nice as the iPhone (I admit this is a bit subjective though).

I think you're right that most of the android sales are low to midrange hardware, but there are no real high end options except for the HTC One and Nexus 5 which are not readily available in stores. The Moto X was solid though too - shouldn't not mention that one.

I think people who use iOS probably would not jump to an Apple device running Android, but there are Android users who would jump from their samsung device to an Apple one.

I don't think Apple would do this because they want control over their ecosystem and they want to force people into iTunes, Apple TV, iBooks, iMessage etc, but I don't think it's necessarily a terrible idea.

<comment><USER8> I'd heard about the battery life, which is a shame as I thought the HTC One could be the one (no pun indeed) to get me to think about switching to Android for a while.

I do see your point about bringing people from Samsung to Apple, but I'm not sure there's enough that would be tempted that it'd make it worthwhile for Apple to actively pursue and put money into it.

Apple do want people actively in their ecosystem, but they could spread that to Android whenever they want anyway with some development time, as it is it keeps everything nicely uniform for users of iOS/OS X.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Everyone's boring opinions always appear to themselves as common sense. You see this all the time in politics too, and I'm becoming more and more suspicious every time someone uses it in an argument. If you have a good case, your best foot forward shouldn't be that it's popular and makes sense to you. Show, don't tell.

</comment><comment><USER11> All the article really needed to say was "but then Apple fans would try an Android phone, realise the software is better (and likely start experimenting with having root access to their own hardware, which apple certainly dislike), then get an Android phone comparably specced to and cheaper than the iphone 6 instead of one come upgrade time".

<comment><USER12> >realise the software is better

At the risk of noshing down some trollbait, could you perhaps qualify this statement or are you just going to go with your subjectiuve view as fact?

<comment><USER4> As someone that owns both an Android and iOS phone I think Apple has nicer form factor than the various Android options but Android has superior software. Here's my quick thoughts. iOS has caught up in a lot of the features it was missing early on (multi-tasking) but it still lacks widgets. It may not be for everyone, but I use two widgets on my desktop daily and Apple's answer to it in the notification center is bleh. I originally liked Apple's Passbook but Google's Wallet and Now surpass it in features and in some ways usability. By this I mean Google automatically creates cards for my packages from UPS without any effort for me at all. It also keeps track of my boarding passes, tickets, etc with no effort. Apple's solution requires (generally) that I open an e-mail attachment or something. Last but not least are the Google Apps, most notably Maps but it does include the others. iOS is made better by Google software and most iOS users I know use one or more Google apps. In a full Google platform though the integration is superior. Let's say I'm sitting at my desktop and search for a restaurant. The next time I open Google Now it'll have a card with that restaurant and allow me to navigate there in a single touch.

<comment><USER12> Google Now is just the coolest thing. I really hope we see more of thin kind of thin, especially in terms of integration.

Noticing that Now and Glass are clearly made for one another - this gives me a lot of hope for where Glass might be in say, five years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> >People like the precious looks of stylings and manufacturing that we do in our product compared to the other Android offerings.

Is he essentially saying, people who admire the iPhone hardware, do not really admire iOS? Or Am I missing something. Taking into account the premise of Steve, Apple should make Windows Laptops too?

<comment><USER14> They do make Windows Laptops. All you have to do is provide a copy of Windows.

That being said, few people would buy an Apple phone without getting the iOS.

Samsung has pretty much captured the market for Android phones for people who admire iPhone hardware, so Woz isn't completely misguided.

I just don't see the upside for Apple. Does he think Apple can gobble up the Android market with well-made, high-quality Android handsets? It's not worth using your resources to manufacture lower-margin equipment when it could be used to make/sell higher-margin equipment.

<comment><USER13> From my understanding of how Apple Inc work, they are not really focused on market share. It could be one of their goals, but not their entire focus, instead they solely focus on producing products the best human can do and produce. Much like Merce or BMW, are they focused on market share like Toyota? No.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "And Android is outpacing Apple in the cheaper markets that are gaining importance, so there's a sort of intuitive sense in the move, if you're willing to twist the logic into uncomfortable directions."

s/Android/Windows/, move it back ten years, and then count how many PC OEMs are still in the business today.

Did I miss the part where "Businessweek" became a "how to light your money on fire" journal?

</comment><comment><USER16> Instead of making an Android phone Apple should offer Bootcamp for iOS devices so any OS can run there. This works on Macs so why not offer it on iOS devices?

<comment><USER11> That only works as macs have an x86 architecture.

<comment><USER17> Most current smartphones are ARMv7, Apple's A7 stands out as a(n albeit slower) ARMv8 SoC. I'm not quite sure about the compatibility between the two, but at least iPhones 5/5C should be architecturally compatible.

Performance might be questionable, as current Android phones tend to be quad- core models clocked around 2 GHz while A6/A7 feature only two cores at around 1.3-1.4 GHz.

<comment><USER18> It's not just the CPU, they would have to provide Android drivers for networking, bluetooth, cameras, etc. ARM platforms aren't standardized like PCs.

<comment><USER19> I feel like it's almost a quirk of history that the PC has become home to so many different operating systems.

Hardware platforms that allow me to swap software on them are very few and far between. The fact that PCs were like this over 20 years ago and continue to be so to this day is amazing.

It's a shame that phone hardware didn't follow the same path. Android's openness (for varying levels of "open") is great and all, but I'm more interested in hardware openness. The Nexus line seems to be the current leader in openness + consumer availability + quality, but it's a shame there aren't more.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Flow XO – Zapier/IFTTT for business workflows - <AUTHOR> https://flowxo.com/

<comment><USER2> It certainly looks like Flow XO fills a need, but how does it differ from IFTT? I'm familiar with the concept of IFTT, but have never used it.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a slightly different use case - IFTTT and Zapier are good for duplicating data from one app to another, but the idea of Flow XO is that you can do many things in sequence. Each step can use data or make decisions from the step before it.

We also have this feature called 'Forms'. That allows someone to start a workflow when a new person is added to their CRM, send that person a form to check existing info or add new details, and then add that to the record in the CRM. Or even create something else, such as a deal at that stage.</comment></comment>


I'll pass on #talkpay - <AUTHOR> http://www.techlibertarian.com/post/117939613110/ill-pass-on-talkpay

<comment><USER2> As I've said in previous discussions about #talkpay, it only hurts your negotiating power as an employee. Even if you are a better at negotiating than your co-worker, they aren't going to care, which will hurt morale.

All Tax records and salaries are public information in Sweden and Denmark and it doesn't mean you, as an individual will get paid more. It means you get paid at exactly your market rate, which tends to be less. It's great for the person that doesn't want to work on their negotiating skills, but bad for the person that does. Some people are also worth more as an employee (IE: better skillset, more experience, etc), but the person making less will most likely not see this.

Privacy is one of the only things as an individual that gives you power over a big company during negotiations. Why in the world would you ever just give this up?

I never talk about my pay. I run a business now and won't divulge this information to anyone. Many people are jealous by by nature and when they know for sure you are doing better than them, will bad mouth you, spread rumors, and do anything in their power to hurt you. I've seen it in my personal life and I see it every day on Twitter.</comment>


On Failureship Bias - <AUTHOR> https://www.nealkhosla.com/blog/on-failureship-bias <comment><USER2> Meta: entrepreneurship seems to be discussed much less on HN now, and I feel that there are far fewer founders commenting. Is this a trend?

I think that this article is bang on. The other problem with failures is that there seems to be an endless list of failure modes. I am sure it helps to understand some of them, but no founder should have the "engineers" mentality of looking for all the reasons why a product or business won't work... What matters is why it will work.</comment>