Ask HN: Recommend a freelance job board - <AUTHOR>

Can anyone recommend some good freelance job boards that are not eLance/oDesk etc.? <comment><USER2> I've been doing contract work for three years; 95% of my work has come from Craigslist or from referrals from people who I connected with through Craigslist. You have to wade through an incredible amount of junk, but the volume on CL can't be touched anywhere else, and there _is_ good stuff in there. I look in computer gigs and I also periodically post an abridged version of my resume in the resume section.

Other places I've found stuff include Dice.com, 37signals Gigs Board, Freelance Switch, and AuthenticJobs.

I get a lot of recruiters for contract jobs contacting me through Dice, my resume post on CL, and my blog. That might not be the kind of thing you're looking for, but it doesn't hurt.

<comment><USER3> Can you give a rough percentage of people who respond to you from CL?

I've only recently started hunting for gigs via CL. I've picked 3 and responded (I took time to write what I thought was a good, carefully-worded response) within 24 hours or so but no one's responded back. I know sales is all about volume, I'm just trying to get an idea of what to expect.

<comment><USER4> 3 to 1 sounds about right for initial responses, assuming you pick jobs that you are obviously qualified for. this goes up and down, obviously, depending on how qualified you appear to be for the position you are responding to.

Once you get the initial response, there's still a pretty good chance of the gig falling through for whatever reason. Contracting is rough this way, really no matter where you get your clients.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This was from an another HN thread (HN Contractors) - [https://spreadsheets2.google.com/ccc?key=tk7rUIb-2aPdk_5gFJE...](https://spreadsheets2.google.com/ccc?key=tk7rUIb-2aPdk_5gFJEodCA&hl=en#gid=0)

I've been contacted for work through it.

<comment><USER6> Why was this down voted?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I got most of my contract work via networking in the local tech scene using twitter and going to a couple of events, and just generally jumping at random opportunities. Replying to local people who are urgently looking for a small job to be done is by far the easiest route to get yourself out there. Once you gain a reputation of being good at what you do, people will start referring you work.

For what it's worth, I'm fairly introverted, and talking to random people isn't all that easy for me, yet I seem to have managed just fine[1]. All I did was talk to people what they were working on, what I did, and random techy banter. The idea is to make people remember you when they need stuff done, not sell yourself right there and then. This probably only works for techy customers, if you're designing web sites for random businesses you might want to use a different strategy.

[1] I'm offered far more work than I could possibly accept 2 1/2 years later, rates increasing steadily, and I don't even have a website.

</comment><comment><USER6> IMHO, the problem with oDesk and most freelance job boards is that they are lemon markets[1] and are therefore disadvantageous to good programmers. If we take the analogy from the used car market explained in Wikipedia and adapt it to the freelance programming market:

[...] the problem of quality uncertainty. It concludes that _good programmers_ will not _offer_ their _service_ on the _freelance_ market. This is sometimes summarized as "the bad driving out the good" in the market.

That being said, I would suggest you contact companies directly to offer your services or look for _specialized_ job boards where buyers know exactly what they are looking for.

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

</comment><comment><USER8> Are you near a college with a decent CS department? Go there. Seriously. In no other place is there such a high concentration of talented individuals who are willing to work for bargin rates. Put up some flyers, get an announcement in the departmental newsletter, and buy candidates a cup of coffee once you get a good set of potentials. Of course, there is an upper bound on the talent/quality you are going to find. But depending on the type of work you need done it could work out great.

</comment><comment><USER9> A few years ago I used rentacoder.com (now known as vworker.com) and made about $10K in 3 months. I made the majority of the money from doing a good job on something (generally at a very low price) and then getting repeat business from outside the bidding system.

Most fun project was writing some software that showed prospective patients what their teeth would look like after having their teeth bleached!

<comment><USER10> I have been using RAC sporadically for 2 years now, but didnt even manage to make the tenth of that number ! Do you have a suggestion/advice on how to boost my business ?

<comment><USER11> RAC is very competitive, i suggest you move to elance or odesk or guru, where you can get decent paid projects. And portfolio is a must to win the bids there. i am in odesk for 3 yrs and now work as long term contractor for a US firm in Chino, CA. All thru odesk. i dont have enough patience with elance, it is overly more competitive

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I created this little site that aggregates around 10 fairly decent freelance job boards: <http://jobs.plasis.co.uk>

</comment><comment><USER13> Avoid them all, you will only find pain in that strategy, kind of like 6 pool. Focus on building your network of contacts, they will be the source of most of your work, mainly through word of mouth and referrals.

<comment><USER11> i agree, network is really important.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Sorry if this isn't helpful, but the direct approach has always worked for me (and job boards not so much). I try to contact people I'd like to work with on IRC, Skype, or just through email.

I include a few links and that has worked alright for me.

</comment><comment><USER15> Authentic Jobs has design/development freelance listings: <http://www.authenticjobs.com>

<comment><USER16> +1 for Authentic Jobs. The jobs are generally high quality but it can be quite competitive to get selected since so many people are watching this job board very closely.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Craigslist? _ducks_

<comment><USER18> Shit, I'm sorry. I meant to vote Craigslist up but instead gave your comment the fat-fingered iPad treatment.

<comment><USER19> Well I wasn't going to vote up or down, so consider my up vote a fix for your down vote.

<comment><USER19> Wait, seriously? Down votes for this? I don't get you sometimes, HN.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> If you are anywhere near Washington, DC check out <http://www.socialmatchbox.com>. There are not a crushing number of freelance jobs there, but there are some good ones with startups, consulting companies, and interactive agencies.

</comment><comment><USER21> I started using this strategy yesterday: <http://sivers.org/how2hire>

From the CD Baby guy. It's pretty straightforward and so far I'm getting decent responses.

</comment><comment><USER22> I've had success with this one: <http://jobs.freelanceswitch.com/>

It works the other way around. Job listing is free; job seeker has to pay.

</comment><comment><USER23> Speaking of job boards, are there any with non-trivial number of remote/telecommuting gigs or permanent positions ? The ones mentioned here have few if any such jobs.

</comment><comment><USER24> Try oDesk. I've hired a bunch of help from there. Its been hit or miss but I've found a few real gems who I now hire regularly.

</comment><comment><USER25> scriptlance.com</comment>


Tell HN: Happy 404 Day - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Some context would be nice:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/WhatToCelebrateToday/comments/fur3p...](https://www.reddit.com/r/WhatToCelebrateToday/comments/fur3pl/404_day/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Sorry, I can't find it.

Maybe that's because it's already 5/04 here.</comment>


Ask HN: Cloudflare stock as a long term investment? - <AUTHOR> I know the IPO bump already happened ... but I wonder if it might be advantageous to buy some now anyway. Who are their real competition? What is their business plan? <comment><USER2> Fastly opened at 16 and has hovered around 26-28 dollars for a while. Akamai, which I believe cf is closer to in terms of features and overall structure is around 90 a share. At 18-19 a share it seems possible that cf would gain another 10-20 per share from where it's at today.

Obviously this is just projecting. I bought shares on Friday above where it closed and today it's up so far. I think the window is still open but idk how much longer that will be true. Time in market usually beats timing in market though.

</comment><comment><USER3> The competition is Fastly for example. The downside is that there are fewer and fewer independent websites.</comment>


Ask HN: Would anybody hire a Web Science graduate? - dnt404-1

As a newer discipline, would you or do you know any companies that (will) hires a Web Science graduate? What are the potential job prospective in future in industry or is this confined to academics?<p>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_science <comment><AUTHOR> I see people who get PhDs in Web Science interview at places like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University and sometimes they get in.

<comment> dnt404-1 Do they advertise specific jobs for Web Science? And, what do they work on after they get in, if you know?</comment></comment>


S.1804: A bill to establish a Medicare-for-all health insurance program - <AUTHOR> https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1804/text?loclr=cga-bill <comment><USER2> I'm starting to think this may be the only way to stop the incessant, low- productivity "whack-a-mole" legislative campaigns. Cut off the money feeding them.

The ACA could have been the entre into an effectively regulated system of universal coverage via private insurance, akin maybe to what Germany and some others have. But politics and self-interest won out over compromise and progress.

So, maybe it's time for a public/government payor plan to cut off the lifeblood of said politics and self-interest.

Not that it would/will be easy.</comment>


"Is Apple the Worst Company Ever At Public Relations?" - <AUTHOR> http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2008/07/is-apple-worst-company-ever-at-public.html

<comment><USER2> Well, one way to look at it is that they have no need for any public relations of the kind he talks about. One consequence over the endless fawning and hyping over everything they do is that people are willing to let everything slide and will still buy and hype their products.

Anyone remember the iPhone launch when people asked about an SDK? Jobs said there's no need for one ("the web is your SDK!" or something along those lines) and people started parroting that line whenever this valid criticism was brought up. Now that they have an SDK, albeit one with ridiculous and draconian restrictions, people are still parroting Apple's lines: You can't have background processes because of security[1]! You must submit to the App Store because Apple knows better than people what they should be allowed to have!

Think I'm being hard and unfair towards Apple? Then just imagine other companies doing what Apple does and ask yourselves what the reaction will be:

-What will happen if BlackBerry's email service goes down periodically and loses your email?

-What will happen if Microsoft demands 30% of all developer revenues for their products and limits the distribution of applications?

[1] Choosing security over liberty... where have I heard this line before?

<comment><USER3> "-What will happen if Microsoft demands 30% of all developer revenues for their products and limits the distribution of applications?"

Of course you don't mean across the board. You mean for a specific closed HW device via a specific channel right?

Sort of like games being sold on XBox live?

From three days ago: "Microsoft announced today that user-created games will be sold on Xbox Live through a new Community Games section starting this fall, with developers taking 70 percent of the revenue."

So yeah, let's see what the outraged reaction looks like. So far I think it's been happy developers. But yes, I suspect that you are being hard and unfair towards Apple. Time will tell if there is a huge user backlash and revolt toward Microsoft.

<comment><USER2> That is only user-created games, not _all_ games. Companies still have the option of doing regular development and controlling their own marketing, distribution, revenues etc.

For your comparison to be valid, you'd have to consider the industries you're talking about. Microsoft operates within some pretty standard console industry practices - charging (relatively) small amounts for tools/licences etc. What they do is what Nintendo, Sony, etc all do and thus are neither bad nor good in this respect.

Now take a look at the smartphone market (major competitors being RIM and MS): APIs are pretty open, allow much more integration, users have much more freedom of choice, developers have freedom of distribution, speech etc.

Apple may be better than traditional cell phones, but they fail in comparison with their peers in this respect.

Just to give you an illustration, the last two projects I did had mobile components. I could not do an iPhone version of the first one for lack of background processes, and I can't do the second for lack of APIs that allow access to the phone's system settings. Meanwhile, a friend of mine is developing a horribly crippled medical device monitoring application, because the iphone allows bluetooth pairing for audio devices only.

None of these problems exist on the BB, Android and likely WinMo. So no, I am definitely not being hard on apple at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Apple is doing the minimum that the market will let it get away with. Fortunately for the company, that bar is pretty low by the alternative: Microsoft.

This is a pretty good example of the power of branding. Customers (on the whole, not necessarily individually) are willing to overlook poorly functioning applications, lost data, expensive hardware, DRM, near-instant depreciation, lack of APIs, and so on because the positive feeling that brand imparts balances out the negatives.

As martythemaniak points out in his comment, if Microsoft were to try some of these things, the press and blogs would be all over it.

At the least, this sort of behavior from the big players in a market has one upside: It creates an opportunity for an upstart to come in and compete on service.

</comment><comment><USER5> If you want a good look into Apple, develop a long-term relationship with a sales rep. Within 9 months, assuming you're actually purchasing product, you will be colossally jerked around. (Shipment delays, EOL on products with 1-day notice.) The longer you work with this person, the more their frustrations at the system will come out, and you'll actually start to feel lucky when things go as planned.

Then watch as the sales rep (assuming you have a good one) struggles to help fix the situation. But they are as powerless as you are. And they weren't told any sooner than you were.

So then you go to the Apple support forums to see if anyone's figured out a way around the problem. Except the thread that had decent activity and a few decent leads disappeared.

But it sure feels good pulling out my Mac in an airport.

</comment><comment><USER6> OP is fairly articulate and intelligent, but would be greatly appreciated if he would stop trolling with his titles.

</comment><comment><USER7> Obviously they are not (despite their myriad problems). But nice link-bait headline anyway.

</comment><comment><USER8> Stockholders say: "no"</comment>


Databricks Scala Style Guide - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/databricks/scala-style-guide <comment><USER2> The monadic chaining section makes no mention of for-yield strangely enough. Their example

        def getAddress(name: String): Option[String] = {
          database.get(name).flatMap { elem =>
            elem.data.get("address")
              .flatMap(Option.apply)  // handle null value
          }
        }

could just be

        def getAddress(name: String): Option[String] = {
          for {
            elem <- database.get(name)
            address <- elem.data.get("address")
          } yield address
        }

and it's way more readable than their given rewrite.

Then again, for-yield might be too magical and "can confuse programmers less familiar with Scala," which seems to be a reason for a lot of the stylistic decisions.

<comment><USER3> While I disagree I've seen people object to the for/yield on monads because "it doesn't really seem like a for loop". YMMV

<comment><USER4> That's because it's not a for loop. Maybe the problem is that it's inconsistently named.

I like for/yield because it reminds me of do-notation in Haskell, and it's used for a similar purpose.

<comment><USER3> I agree that it's confusingly named, what I meant was that I disagree w/ those colleagues who avoid it like the plague because of the confusing name.

I feel like it's one of those things that seems weird the first time you see it but idioms are idioms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This style guide discourages multiple parameter lists, but it doesn't mention that they are useful for helping the compiler with type inference, as mentioned here: [http://docs.scala- lang.org/style/declarations.html](http://docs.scala- lang.org/style/declarations.html) (granted, this is a bit of Scala ugliness, but it merits discussion).

I agree with several of their recommendations, but I strongly disagree with their general philosophy of "[feature] can confuse programmers less familiar with Scala". It's one thing for [feature] to be genuinely confusing, and an entirely different thing for it to be "confusing to novices / Java programmers". In the latter case, the right course of action is to educate them; otherwise we'd be stuck programming in Java++.

</comment><comment><USER5> So far it's the best style guide I've seen for Scala. Much more pragmatic, and actually very close to the way I naturally write Scala. I love the instruction to avoid symbolic methods unless they are really using symbols that everyone use (+ - / * etc...) I really hate all the ~> <|-|> <:< madness, it gives Scala a really bad name.

I like it how they prefer JAVA_STYLE_CONSTANTS over ScalaStyleConstants and same thing for annotations.

The instruction on Implicits is really making sense. use it if you build a DSL or use it internally, keep the principle of least astonishment.

Great style guide. I'm adopting it. It's strict on one way, but let's you escape if you have a reason.

The only caveat is what others have mentioned regarding monadic chaining. I prefer to use for-yield when it's clear that I'm working with collection transformations, nested futures, and even nested options. only when it's too cumbersome to read I break it down to the desugared form.

<comment><USER6> > So far it's the best style guide I've seen for Scala. Much more pragmatic, > and actually very close to the way I naturally write Scala. I love the > instruction to avoid symbolic methods unless they are really using symbols > that everyone use (+ - / * etc...) I really hate all the ~> <|-|> <:< > madness, it gives Scala a really bad name.

From the official style guide:

> Symbolic Method Names: Avoid!

[http://docs.scala-lang.org/style/naming- conventions.html#sym...](http://docs.scala-lang.org/style/naming- conventions.html#symbolic_method_names)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Do any of you know if there is an equivalent of gofmt for scala, e.g scalafmt?

If such a thing existed some portion of this long list of sensible conventions wouldn't have to be memorized and/or constantly referenced and manually enforced.

Such a tool would empower scala programmers to focus more on that that which is most important- the functionality and logic, rather than manually applied aesthetics.

<comment><USER6> Here's a talk cataloging them: [http://confreaks.tv/videos/pnws2014-towards-a- safer-scala](http://confreaks.tv/videos/pnws2014-towards-a-safer-scala)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It'd be overkill to submit a PR for this so: it should be "to the best OF our knowledge" in the first line.

I wish organisations would provide IntelliJ configuration files (or similar) when releasing such style guides as well... ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks - fixed!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Lots of good sense, but a few things make the code clunkier than scala needs to be IMO.

        try foo catch {...}

is readable and consistent; the idea that {} _just makes a block_ is really useful, making try/catch, if/then and even method definitions a lot less "magic", a lot less cluttered by ceremony.

Infix method calls can likewise read much more clearly:

        string contains "foo"

Try is bad, but \/ makes a better alternative to throwing an exception for exactly the same reasons that Option is better than returning null.

</comment><comment><USER10> This style guide is great. I employ almost all of this at Empirical (my company) and I even learned a thing or two. Very well written, and great examples!

</comment><comment><USER11> This style guide is depressing... The author's complete oversight of for- comprehensions, the convention of using apply, the insistence on using API- leaking side effects for error handling (read: throwing exceptions), makes me weep. Spark is a Java project maintained by a company filled with Java engineers.</comment>


Unlimited instant file sharing using Armor - <AUTHOR> https://diy.labstack.com/instant-file-sharing <comment><USER2> Anyone who tried this web server before? It looks like a nice project but I'm interested to know if anyone has tested this or has used it already for some projects.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is based on a popular Go web framework Echo ([https://github.com/labstack/echo](https://github.com/labstack/echo))</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Your approach to security on the Mac - <AUTHOR> Other than running only signed apps, using a password manager, running regular updates & using a firewall, how do you secure a Mac?<p>I'm not a fan of running active AV protection, but would run regular scans. <comment><USER2> If you haven't read through this before, it's worth a read.

[https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy- Guide](https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide)

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been running stock Mac OS for almost 10 years now. MacBook Pro at home and at work. I haven't had any viruses, malware, or ransomware. That's just my experience and doesn't mean this is a safe configuration.

Mostly, security these days is securing your cloud accounts. I use two factor authentication on my Apple, Google, and DropBox accounts.

I use Firefox as my primary browser. It's configured to delete all cookies and browsing history when I restart.</comment>


Behold Xanadu - <AUTHOR> http://wave.google.com

<comment><USER2> Forgive me if this is obvious, but are you making a comparison to Project Xanadu with your title? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu>

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep</comment></comment>


Show HN: Spoiler free e-sports (youtube/twitch skin) - <AUTHOR>

I've put together a web app for watching spoiler free starcraft2 and also keep track of team livestreams! Let me know what you think!
keep in mind it's just version one at www.spoilerfreecasts.com
The site 1.) hides how many games are left in a "best of" series and  2.) hides the time remaining in a game. 3.) Intelligently loads comments, so as to not spoil the result.  Honest feedback is requested <comment><USER2> The website is a example of elegant U.I. design. I think I will be using this instead of youtube.</comment>


Ask HN: Do you really never waste time? - <AUTHOR>

After reading some comments on this post : http://hn.premii.com/#/comments/9549888 , about how reddit can be very time consuming, I wonder, are HN readers always working ? Do you never waste time ? <comment><USER2> I waste time on Reddit during the work day or when I know I should be doing other things. I don't necessarily consider it wasting time as I've found that diverting my attention to something unrelated to what I'm working on from time to time helps my mind to focus in the long run.

Reddit is easy to access and provides a steady stream of diversions that are just a click away. I think for some this becomes too much and they need to find a means to break the cycle of "This task I need to do is hard, I'll Reddit instead, that's easy and rewarding".

I've had to take a break from Reddit in the past because I was becoming disappointed in how I used my free-time. I never got further on any of my projects or hobbies—I just browsed Reddit on my phone.

When I'm at work I try to limit my Reddit consumption to mostly text-based or programming related subs. This way I don't endlessly fill my mind with memes, fun pictures, comics, etc and my browsing doesn't go from beneficial-diversion to procrastination-catalyst.

</comment><comment><USER3> yup, all the time! I actually just noticed there's options on hn to prevent you from wasting too much time on hn: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)</comment>


Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/2012/03/09/green-dot-acquires-location-based-services-pioneer-loopt-for-43-4-million-in-cash/ <comment><USER2> In case anyone is missing what has happened here, this is why people hate on private equity/VC.

As far as I can tell, Loopt wasn't doing very well. [http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=loopt.com&cmpt=...](http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=loopt.com&cmpt=q) They had an attempt to revive the company to compete with Groupon last year that many here thought was stupid and died an early death (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2696412>)

Michael Moritz (Sequoia partner) is still on the board of Green Dot, now a publicly traded company worth north of a billion dollars. Almost the entire board ([http://ir.greendot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=235286&p=irol- gov...](http://ir.greendot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=235286&p=irol-govBoard) ) is Private Equity/VC guys, they do this kind of inside baseball all the time, it's no sweat off their back to do Moritz a favor.

He convinces Green Dot to acquire Loopt for a huge amount of cash (Green Dot was sitting on $225 million in cash). Sequoia makes a cool $15 million.

Related: the always-informative Planet Money did a special on Private Equity and you can see how Bain Capital got its money back on a company that went bankrupt: [http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/02/23/147257517/how- mitt...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/02/23/147257517/how-mitt-romneys- firm-tried-and-failed-to-build-a-paper-empire) TL;DR the company they bought acquired another company and raised significant debt- they used that debt to pay back Bain Capital.

<comment><USER3> Buddy exits like this one and the Hunch exit are very demoralising. They make startups look like some sort of game. As you indicated, Loopt was clearly dying ( [http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=loopt.com&cmpt=...](http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=loopt.com&cmpt=q) ) and yet people still got rich off of it.

Product + Hype -> Big Exit is starting to seem like a perfectly legitimate business plan nowadays.

<comment><USER4> I think calling this a "buddy exit" isn't really fair. Same with Hunch. That's like calling Next selling to Apple a "buddy exit". If Square went south, what kind of exit could they command based on Jack and his team? If Facebook was dying, what would Zuck and his team be worth?

Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS. Not Steve Jobs great-- but great nonetheless. Guys like this attract A-players and attract PR. Could Sam and his group have $43M in impact for the buyer? Surely.

Listen, success is just a big multiplication formula. If your "leadership brand" number is high enough, you just about can't lose. But that holds true for any other number in the formula (product awesomeness, timing, marketing, business model, etc).

<comment><USER5> Next was profitable. OS X and iOS are Next. Care to make a long bet on how much of Loopt tech is still around in 5 years?

<comment><USER4> Next was profitable? Do you have a source for that? They raised hundreds of millions of dollars and sold 50,000 units. In '93, Canon plowed a second investment in to keep them afloat. Even with the new $, they laid off 300 of 540 employees. They couldn't sell their hardware operations and went pure software. I'm not saying they toss out all of the tech, but calling NeXT profitable is just plain false. It was a failed company with great leadership. Certainly there was some technical value in the deal, but much of the $429M paid was for Jobs and the people he had working with him.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Congratulations, Sam!

Though Sam himself may not realize it, he has had a big effect on Y Combinator. One of the most important components of YC is the alumni network. It's now quite large (over 800 people) and the founders help one another a lot. We can affect the size of the alumni network very directly, but we have less control over how much they help one another-- without which of course the size doesn't matter.

Sam is, more than any other single person, the one who set the standard for how much the alumni help one another. He set it by example. After each new batch of founders got lots of help from Sam, it seemed natural to them when they in turn became alumni to help new founders that much. We encourage the founders to help one another of course, but Sam's example had more effect than our exhortations. And we lucked out in that respect because Sam is remarkably generous with his time. He's a sort of natural teacher.

He also knows everyone. He has not only done countless introductions for alumni, but did most of the initial intros in Silicon Valley for YC itself. He introduced us to our lawyer, Wilson Sonsini, and he was even the one who introduced us to Sequoia. YC now does many intros per day, but if you follow the tree back to the beginning, Sam was the root node.

</comment><comment><USER7> I get so annoyed when I see people pick apart an acquisition. I saw this same behavior for Gowalla, and then Mint before it. "They didn't make any money. They sold too early." They remind me of people that would be sitting at the finish line of a marathon telling the last people to cross "Boy, your time really sucked."

If you are one of the few entrepreneurs that has come far along enough to get to a sale - for any amount - I just flat out applaud you.

<comment><USER8> Thank you. It's a bummer to be so excited for something I've worked hard for and then read haters hating all over the internet. This brightened up my day; hope we meet in person some day so I can properly say thanks.

<comment><USER9> Congrats Sam, it sounds like a good outcome, and I've always been impressed that you had the boldness to pursue a vision that involved working with carriers.

Ignore that haters - unfortunately Hacker News comments seem to have reverted to the mean (pun intended) as the site has grown.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Happy to answer any questions I'm able to. Looking forward to the great stuff we're going to do at Green Dot!

<comment><USER10> 1 - Would you say you guys were too early to market?

2 - Was your monthly active user base above 2M?

3 - What contributed to Loopt loosing its appeal over the past 12/18 months?

<comment><USER8> 1\. yes, although that gave us some advantages as well.

2\. not for our core loopt app.

3\. i think in general location services have lost some luster over the last 12/18 months, but i also think a lot of the things that we've been doing-- real-time deals, loyalty offers, etc are generating a lot of interest among users and we'll hopefully be able to take that to the next level at green dot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I am very curious how YC makes out in a deal like this - when there is 17M of capital invested after them in A and B rounds if there was any sort of liquidity preference you can pretty much guarantee YC didn't see a dime. (especially since 9M of this was retention for employees which makes me think that the employees weren't going to make anything from their equity/shares)

<comment><USER12> I would imagine there's a lot of long term value created by folding sama and team into the YC ecosystem. I'd be willing to bet that Loopt isn't the last venture Sam's going to be involved in, and when the time comes to start something new YC will likely be part of the conversation.

This is why pg talks about looking at founders before their ideas.

<comment><USER13> Or sama becomes a full-time YC partner. Either way, it's a win for YC.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've been incredibly impressed by Sam since he started as a part time partner at YC, as have all of the founders. Greendot are lucky to have him and his team.

<comment><USER15> Likewise. Sam is extremely effective, works super hard for YC companies, and knows something about seemingly everything. Even as a talent acquisition alone this would make sense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The sad truth about startup life and Silicon Valley is that many people become wealthy not because they created something meaningful with lots of customers or users or revenues, but because they get acquired and let die. This would be all fine if founders did not equate net worth with success and smarts. I admire Companies that get acquired and where the product continue to live on beyond the acquisition like PayPal, Siri, Youtube, Admob etc... That's the proof you created something really meaningful!

<comment><USER17> I think you're missing the point, If you're in this just to get wealthy there are many other professions that offer a much safer route to get there (Lawyer, Doctor) I don't think you just fall into being an entrepreneur for the money, otherwise you would give up when you're eating ramen noodles pulling 18 hour shifts for months on end without a return. Nope, I think to build a company you need something else driving you rather than the dream of wealth alone. From what I have seen it's clear that SamA has that drive or the company would not have made it as far as it did.

<comment><USER16> I don't know SamA, and so I am not saying this against him at all. Nor am I saying that people become entrepreneur for the money. As you mention, there are safer routes to get money. I am describing something I have observed in Silicon Valley, especially in the last few years. You have the lucky folks who flipped their Company fast, and sometimes see themselves as the master of the universe. You also have the dedicated ones - and Dennis Crowley from Dodgeball and Foursquare is definitely in this category.

I think it is sad, especially because of all the efforts that we as entrepreneurs put into these Companies. Most of all, I criticize this general sentiment in SV right now, that success=money through acquisition/IPO. If SamA gets his vision realized through Green Dot - all the better for him and for the Loopt team! (and us as users!)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I don't think that the team at Loopt deserves anything less than a huge amount of respect. They built something big and it did not work out, it happens. It's easy to sit and play armchair quarterback but I doubt anyone who has ever tried to make something big would chalk this up as a failure. No one one learns how do ride a bike without a few scrapes but eventually you do _learn_. I'm certain Sam and the team will know nothing but success if not in this venture than the next.

Good luck guys!

</comment><comment><USER18> The world of payments has already changed dramatically with technology companies from Square to even Groupon essentially building a way to "pay with your phone".

To continue succeeding, currently successful but "old world" payment companies like Green Dot need to become technology companies. Given Loopt's stellar team, Green Dot couldn't have chosen a better company to acquire. I have been fortunate to receive advice/help from both Sam and Nick, but read "Shit Sam Altman says" and you'll know how smart these guys are. <http://anandkulkarni.posterous.com/-sam-altman-says>

It also seems to me that the demographics of Loopt users overlap nicely with the demographics Green Dot wants to target. A head start of 1M+ users in the demographic you are targeting is very valuable.

Congrats Loopt!

</comment><comment><USER19> "It also helps that Sequoia is an investor in both Loopt and Green Dot, of course."

That makes more sense now. I was wondering how the talks got started.

</comment><comment><USER20> I think Loopt made an error in partnering exclusively with carriers. I remember when I was in the UK and heard of loopt the first tifme. I visited the site and was told to put in a US number. It was there they lost it.

I am really looking forward to what Sam has up his sleeves now that he is free.

<comment><USER21> You're essentially saying that trying to do Loopt at all was a mistake and we just should have done something else.

Everyone seems to forget that before iPhone, and later Android, you had no choice but to partner with carriers - there was no other way to distribute your application.

Even in Europe, where the phone ecosystem is different, access to location required carrier support, and nearly no handsets had the ability to locate themselves without network assistance.

Loopt made mistakes, many of which were mine, but that wasn't one of them.

<comment><USER22> "You're essentially saying that trying to do Loopt at all was a mistake and we just should have done something else."

Which is a perfectly valid option. Just because someone has an idea a good idea doesn't mean that it will make a good business.

The cell phone software market pre-iPhone simply wasn't a good place to be starting a business, no matter what the idea.

<comment><USER21> While you're absolutely right, I don't think the OP realized that's what he was saying, or he would have written it. I was merely pointing this out.

There were successes though, even back then. It was a long shot, yes, but not a proven dead end.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is the second biggest announced and second to fifth unannounced amount YC sale to date, right?

</comment><comment><USER24> Sam - Did Loopt ever make any profit, if so what area of the business turned out to be most profitable for you guys ?

(This is meant as a genuine question, not a snarky comment)

</comment><comment><USER25> How much money did the founders make off of this?

</comment><comment><USER26> Congrats to Sam and the team. Green Dot is lucky to have him.

During last summer at YC Sam helped us quite a bit on different fronts. He has this amazing clarity in his thought process and is generally a really helpful guy.

</comment><comment><USER27> Congratulations to Sam & team.

A brief conversation with Sam was what convinced me to apply to YC in the first place, and I'm very glad I did. Sam has shown himself to be an expert, a smooth operator, and an excellent teacher. Green Dot is very lucky to have Sam & co joining them.

</comment><comment><USER10> The lesson here is social applications go in and out of style and entrepreneurs must really entertain early acquisition offers when they are hot.

<comment><USER17> That's not always an option. Check out this Article (also on the HN front page) [http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity- economics...](http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> what a shame if anyone can walk out this failure with the illusion of success. The funny part is there is no failed founder, only successful or very successful founders, it also tells us how risky to join startup not as a founder...

</comment><comment><USER29> Congrats sama. Looking forward to your next one.</comment>


Trump suspends all immigration to the US - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1252418369170501639 <comment><USER2> Dear god. Reading the comments and tweets under that makes one thing clear. Twitter is toxic as all hell. Is there any way to do social networking that promotes healthy discourse and surfaces fact based information? Or are we doomed to this kind of thing everywhere being our future?

<comment><USER3> Twitter is amazingly toxic, and alas that toxicity escaped Twitter and has infected everyday life.

Twitter toxin might actually be more deadly than the coronavirus in the long run

<comment><USER4> We like to call it "toxoplasma" around here. Because feeding that kind of toxicity just keeps it flowing in an endless cycle. No matter if it's a white cat or a black cat, the toxicity is the same.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There isn't any clarity on the order. Is it suspension of immigration visas or work visas or both? Anyone have any ideas?

<comment><USER6> And what about MasterCard?

<comment><USER7> I was so tuned into the subject, it took a minute to understand the lol material in the statement. @csence, thanks for showing that there is life outside of immigration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Title of the HN post is wrong, immigration hasn't been suspended yet.</comment>


Ask HN: Why youtube explicitly doesn't allow downloading videos? - <AUTHOR>

Why does youtube does not have any "download" button for it's videos. After all these videos are free to see as many times as someone wants. It can be downloaded through other indirect means then why not provide it explicitly?
Is the issue here is legal or more related to revenues?
I think legal issue can be solved by providing an option to the uploader to make the video downloadable if he wants to. <comment><USER2> YouTube does have a download option for specific channels (e.g The White House <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P21yLeBFKHY>). My guess is that we will also see paid-downloads through Amazon (or equivalent) for things like music videos. But I can't see YouTube offering the download option for dog-on-a- skateboard vids.

</comment><comment><USER3> The adverts aren't in the video, they're on Youtube.</comment>


Computer Vision Using Go and OpenCV 3 - <AUTHOR> https://about.sourcegraph.com/go/gophercon-2018-computer-vision-using-go-and-opencv-3/ <comment><USER2> Previously: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17863399](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17863399)

</comment><comment><USER3> The post links to open source robotics projects Gobot.io and Gocv.io, which make me wonder...

a. Why use Go for robotics? What pros/cons are there compared to Python and C++?

b. Is Gobot intended to compete with ROS?

<comment><USER4> In regards to question a, I think that Go's compile time checking makes it better than Python when each deploy to your robot takes a long time, or when the robot moves and you have to physically reset its position for each run (it sucks to have to restart a long physical action because you misspelled a variable). If your timing requirements allow for Go's GC, then you can avoid C++'s lack of safety and manual memory management. Some people also just like using Go.

<comment><USER5> If you care about speed of deploy, stay on Python. If you care about speed of application, why Go instead of C++? I don't really see the win/win situation when using Go with OpenCV instead of C++, which is the native language used by them and it feels more natural on the API level.</comment></comment></comment>


The Downside of Immortality - <AUTHOR> http://21stcenturystoic.org/?p=274

<comment><USER2> In Hinduism, the body dies and the self (soul) is reborn. For a staunch Hindu believer he, i.e. his self, is immortal. May be, in a next article I would love to see the rebirth side of many religions.</comment>


Do-It-Yourself Magazines, Cheaply Slick - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/technology/internet/30mag.html <comment><USER2> Would be publishers will quickly realize that the actual printing is a small part of overall distribution. It's great news though that the barriers continue to fall - I suspect that the applications will be for more generalized print applications (e.g. small run brochures, etc.).

</comment><comment><USER3> My wife's friend runs a small business that produces magazines for upscale shopping malls. I can see her using this service for sample production or prototyping. Even though the per-book cost is high, the pay-off from increasing the probability of a sale is even higher. However, she would use a traditional printer for actual production printing.

It doesn't seem like there's much of a market for this service beyond prototyping though.

</comment><comment><USER4> There is noting cheap about 20 cents per page.

<comment><USER5> To print a single copy of your average 110 page publication with this service would cost $22.00. Perhaps this will be a novelty (Look Dad, we made a magazine about your life for your 50th birthday!), but I don't see how this is a viable option for any regular publication that hopes to make money.

For reference, a magazine with a circulation of around 100,000 will pay around $1.00 to print and mail each copy.</comment></comment>


Show YN: Get my new Ruby/Chef Deployment book for free - <AUTHOR> https://leanpub.com/deployrailsbluebook If you ever wanted to learn how to deploy a Rails server manually or automatically using Chef solo this book is for you. This book is intended to be a quick reference to best practices with new Rails deployments.
My book is still going through proofreading-I decide to release anyway to make sure there were no technical problems.
Please let me know of any technical errors or ways to improve the book.
Coupon to get the book for free: HackerNews2014 https://leanpub.com/deployrailsbluebook
I love how social the Ruby and Rails community is. I hope this book helps give something back to all you wonderful people that contribute to make such great tools with Ruby. <comment><USER2> Since you're standardizing on Debian/Ubuntu, you should use the official Phusion Passenger Debian/Ubuntu packages instead of the gem. :) [https://www.phusionpassenger.com/install_debian](https://www.phusionpassenger.com/install_debian)

<comment><AUTHOR> :-) I'll look into it. I think I stayed away from it to avoid using Ubuntu's version of Ruby.

<comment><USER2> Ubuntu's Ruby is actually not that bad anymore nowadays. RubyGems is no longer broken like it used to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Huh, the text I wrote for this post didn't show up. I posted a coupon code in that block to get the book for free.

The book has been set for free directly on the website and it will be for the next 3 days.</comment>


Ask HN: Best certificate authority for personal web/email server? - <AUTHOR>

I've decided I want to run my own email server for my personal consulting business.  I'll be hosting on EC2 and have applied to remove the email limits from AWS.<p>The CA space is dizzying and seems like all options are drastically overpriced.  I'm leaning toward the free option from startcom.  Would this be fine or should I bite the bullet and go for one of the majors like verisign, comodo, thawte? <comment><USER2> I use godaddy for personal test stuff. Cheapest place i've found and really simple.

In general i'm not a godaddy fan.</comment>


The quest to liberate $300k of Bitcoin from an old zip file - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/quest-to-liberate-bitcoin-from-old-zip-file/ <comment><USER2> Duplicate:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22774057](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22774057)

The original article has a lot more technical details. Also here's the firsthand account by the author in April:

[https://twitter.com/metaweta/status/1246166302688808960](https://twitter.com/metaweta/status/1246166302688808960)

</comment><comment><USER3> Completely unrelated to this article. But can anyone explain why my WH-1000MX3's (Bluetooth on Android) volume lowers for a few seconds loading this article? Seems to restore to normal volume after the cookie wall disappears.

<comment><USER4> Fingerprinting scripts often use the Web Audio API (see [https://audiofingerprint.openwpm.com/](https://audiofingerprint.openwpm.com/)). Sometimes, they use enough of the Web Audio API that the OS thinks they're trying to play audio, and it temporarily reduces the volume of other audio sources, sort of like when it makes your music quieter so you can hear GPS directions more clearly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> [https://www.wired.com/story/quest-to-liberate-bitcoin- from-o...](https://www.wired.com/story/quest-to-liberate-bitcoin-from-old-zip- file/) is the original source

</comment><comment><USER6> > The Guy paid about a quarter of the original price tag.

Cool story but this line doesn't make sense to me? So did he just pay them $25k instead of $100k as agreed. Am i missing or misunderstanding something?

<comment><USER7> The line read something like 'he thought he'd have to charge 100k' so he made an estimation of the required costs of infrastructure and hours worked I think. He probably communicated the 100k more as a 'I cost this per hour and the machines would likely cost so-and-so would you agree to pay this or can we call it off?'.

<comment><USER6> Oh okay. That does make sense.

I got the idea that the 100k was a flat fee for decrypting, like 1/3rd of the bitcoin if he could do it. For someone who is about to lose all the moeny that too doesn't sound like a bad deal.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> How did the bug originate and what about the timestamp fixed the problem?</comment>


'A white-collar sweatshop': Google Assistant contractors allege wage theft - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/28/a-white-collar-sweatshop-google-assistant-contractors-allege-wage-theft <comment><USER2> > "It was made clear to us that we were never to log more than 40 hours, but > we were never told not to work more than 40 hours."

> "'This is not a temp-to-hire position. There is no moving up' … But the > reality on the team is very much one where there is clearly a ladder. A > certain percentage of the associate linguists will get project manager. A > certain percentage of project managers get converted to full time. We watch > it happen, and they dangle that carrot."

These are master manipulators. So on one hand they tell them not to log more hours, and then they assign more work than can be done. And even though it is implied, I bet they shame and berate those that can't finish the assignment.

> On Friday, 17 May, Adecco sent emails to current and former Pygmalion temps. > Recipients were asked whether they reported all the hours they worked, and, > if not, to estimate how many hours they worked unpaid. The emails requested > a response by Monday

I wonder how many raised their hand so to speak. I bet very few, because they know as soon as they do, they'll be let go for "unrelated" reasons or due to "market demand changes". Then their PR representatives can turn around to the press and issue something like "look, nobody worked overtime, stop making stuff up, we are nice people here...".

Many would say that all companies do it and it's not that unusual. What makes Google different that it profits off of its PR image about not being evil, promoting diversity ([https://diversity.google/commitments/](https://diversity.google/commitments/)) and whatnot. Consequently, I think it is also fair to criticize it more when it starts do diverge from that bright and happy PR image.

<comment><USER3> At will employment and contracting voids all work boundaries.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm sorry, but saying that a contractor who is making $25-$35/hour working in an air conditioned office a victim of sweatshop working conditions is hyperbolic and stupid.

I understand the complaint about unpaid overtime, but the solution is simple. Don't work if you aren't being paid.

I have no love for Googlebet, but this article trivializes the millions of people around the world who actually do work in sweatshops.

</comment><comment><USER5> Unlike some populist rage pieces that are more heavy on narrative ... this one seems poignant: if contractors were pressured to work overtime, for free, which the Guardian contends 7 former workers indicated ... well then shame on them.

Sundar: Google is rich enough to pay contractors for whatever time they work. Can you grasp that simple idea, and send out a memo to the company? Because I'm sure they'll do whatever company policy is.

<comment><USER6> Sundar is busy improving diversity. Don't distract him with all these petty payment issues.

<comment><USER7> This is not a problem with or due to Sunday. Google always had this hands off humans and bot doing dirty work. As more and more honest people got under it's wheel, the more dirt is coming out.

I always said that people will love Google until one day it's stomps it's feet on their face.

Stop with banning people FOR A LIFETIME google. How is it even legal for a monopoly company to do that?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A lot of temp or contracting jobs are like that. Even for software engineers sometimes. In general, temps or contractors are treated as a lower social class and exploited to a small degree or a large degree.

I really hope they get together a very large lawsuit.

Say they work an extra 8 hours a week, * 1.5 * 25 = 37.5, is $300, * 4 is $1200 wages owed per employee per month. Times 12 months is $14400 per employee per year. Plus 30 days wage waiting time penalty is $18400 per employee. Times 150 employees is $2,760,000. Times three years is $8,280,000.

</comment><comment><USER9> Instead of being paid by the hour, why don't they just pay salaries? Then they can have everyone work longer hours without cheating them overtime.

</comment><comment><USER10> This seems like a classic principal-agent problem. I can guarantee you that Google leadership _doesn't_ want this happening. It's illegal, it's possibly more expensive in the long run, and it leads to PR black eyes like this article. But the executive in charge of the team is motivated to deliver as much as possible without going over budget; gotta get that promotion even if you quietly act against Google's interests along the way. Designing correct incentives is really hard at Google's scale and in this case their failure led to really shitty illegal behavior by the management of this team.</comment>


E-books spark battle inside the publishing industry - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/24/AR2009122403326.html <comment><USER2> The publishers are going to lose this one, and probably disappear as an industry. They truly have no leverage. What can they offer to authors? Editors? "I'll hire one", says the author. Advertising? "You make me pay for that anyway", says the author, "and there's the web, and without paper and the associated payola, advertising will be much cheaper." The sensual experience of a physical book? "That doesn't put food on my table", says the author.

<comment><USER3> I imagine the way that it might work in future is that the author registers their new book with Google or Amazon (or some other similar company acting as a distributor), and they then make the book searchable and downloadable by readers. The author selects what price they want to charge, with some percentage going to the distribution company. The distribution fee might vary depending upon whether the author decides to opt for additional promotion/advertising, or just do that side of things themselves on their own web site, or via their own social network. Authors retain copyright on their works, and can at any time cancel an account with a distributor and go to a new one.

<comment><USER2> I think any big-name distributor would want at minimum some sort of fixed term contract. Or else, the author could pull their book (or series) to a private site (and pocket 100%) the moment it took off.

Amazon and friends _do_ have something to offer: eyeballs, and their good name. So they can negotiate.

I think you'll see newbies entering through what used to be called "vanity publishing" via Lulu etc, getting picked as a rising talent by reviewers, getting in the press, and finally being offered a contract by Amazon. This latter will become the equivalent of the old status of "published author".

<comment><USER3> In the sort of system I envision the author could pull their book as soon as it became popular, but it's unlikely that an author using their own web site or social network would be able to compete against the large marketing and delivery potential of companies like Google or Amazon. Perhaps there would need to be a minimum term.

Even so a system something like this would be a win-win situation for authors, distributors and readers (and more arguably for the environment in terms of reduced need to chop down trees and transport books around). The distributor could also supply additional services at a cost, such as the ability for readers to have their private libraries in "the cloud" as a dropbox type of system. So I think the distributor would have sufficient scope to add value around the product that an author may not have much incentive to leave prematurely.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Personally I would rather use a ebook reader as target practice for taking a squat than ever read a book on one, however that's personal preference and is a world from an equitable arrangement on digital publishing rights.

Authors have the ability to score a 50/50 revenue share on digital publications and make it a standard, which would be a phenomenal step in bringing fair payment to writers. It would put a writer five times further ahead than any artist selling on itunes, who's lucky to get 10 cents for a sale.

The reality here is that publishers are trying to take a cut of a pie that doesn't belong to them. I legally own digital publication rights to _all_ my works, unless expressly stated in a contract that I'm signing them over, in most backlist publications those rights were never even considered, unless the contract stated the author was selling 'all' rights. The publishers here legally have no right to be interfering, and so far (quite rightly) appear to be losing the battle. If authors switch to fully digital publication to get a decent revenue share, as a writer myself I'll have to back them and, perhaps I'll have to pick an ebook reader off the floor and try to keep my pants on, because as a reader I want quality works and they're only going to appear if authors can continue to make a living. If the publishers get their way and cut the profit the authors can receive, then we might as well abandon all hope of another literary masterpiece.

</comment><comment><USER5> _Readers want books that are plentiful and cheap, publishers want to preserve their profit, and authors want a larger share of revenue._

What this article misses out _entirely_ is the distribution chain.

Publishers aren't distributors. Amazon is a distributor and a retailer rolled into one. Ingram is a distributor. The other wholesalers are distributors.

The distributors take 70% of the gross revenue from a book, leaving 30% to split between authors and publishers. The reason the publishers are defending their margins is that Amazon are trying to increase the already-silly 70% cut that they're taking (by combining the retail and wholesale distribution stages into one entity). Amazon are also trying to bootstrap ebooks by cutting prices, and they don't want to run the whole process out of their own pocket. So the squeeze is on.

The _smart_ publishers would be setting up ebook storefronts and selling direct to the public -- establishing their own distribution arm, in other words. But they're not used to thinking in those terms (if anything, they've been moving in the opposite direction for decades, shedding direct sales forces and outsourcing printing and low-level production work like typesetting).

</comment><comment><USER3> The other issue surrounding electronic publishing besides the cost is the DRM issue. I should be able to transfer electronic books between devices without restriction and without the possibility for some remote company or organisation to delete purchased content from my reader.

I imagine that book publishers will eventually become what iTunes is to music, but like the music industry they may have to go through a painful period of denial, loss of old business models and restructuring. Google are also paving the way for the future of publishing with their books service. It seems likely that before long in addition to merely previewing a few chapters on Google there will also be some convenient mechanism to purchase and download the entire book to a reader device.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if anyone has thought about doing a typesetting/proof reading service for self-publishing authors but no marketing

<comment><USER2> Ebooks are "typeset" in the e-reader. Formats are necessarily reflowable.

<comment><USER7> Proofing and editing the content would still be a valuable service, but I don't know if you'd be able to get authors to pay a sustainable amount for such a service.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Overall I worry that all this squabbling is just accelerating the shrinkage of an already diminishing market. I realize that the e-reader format is ideal for technical works, but what about fiction?

Does anybody outside of us old fuddy-duds just read for fun any more?

<comment><USER8> As someone who has just finished reading the entire Discworld series on my Kindle, I would like to say that while e-books on a screen are more suited towards technical documents and "look them ups," any e-ink reader is just as good as, if not better than the paper version.

People are constantly surprised at how paper-like the screen is, and I've never noticed any eye strain or fatigue, even after reading my kindle for hours.

I would seriously recommend checking out an e-ink based reader if you want to try some fiction reading. Then head over to project Gutenberg for a metric load of free, public, e-books.</comment></comment>


Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone - <AUTHOR> http://www.vox.com/2014/8/28/6074177/coffee-naps-caffeine-science <comment><USER3> This is a well known practise in Spain. I com from Spain and I have always seen my family (parents and grandparents) drinking coffee after lunch and, then, doing a nap on the couch. Usually, we sit on the couch, take the coffee together and then every person takes a newspaper or magazine and after a few minutes of pseudo-reading everybody is sleeping or in a state of deep relaxation. We sleep for 20 minutes. That's all. I guess this is very common in Spain.

This works well because we often take lunch at home. But, now that I have lunch at the office, I do the same. I have a 1 hour pause. The first half hour I have lunch, then I take the coffee and I go to the office to sleep on the floor, on a very thin mattress. If my brain is too active, I listen to a foreign radio station with my iPhone. I like to listen to ICI Radio Canada (in French). When I have lunch here, they broadcast the morning news and commentary. The news are about stuff happening in Quebec. It is interesting enough for me to forget the work stuff, and dull enough to induce me into a deeper relaxation state, which allows me to fall sleep fast. Being the broadcast in a foreing language, also helps to fall sleep. I often dream during this 20-30 minutes naps.

An interesting detail is that I had to learn this habit. I remember being a child and being pissed off because I wasn't allowed to make noise after lunch. Now, that I'm a father, the roles are changing and I'm the one sleeping after lunch.

By the way, at night, in order to fall sleep, I never take phones, tablets or computers to my bedroom. Instead, I take a shortwave radio and I tune the BBC world service news (fortunately, in Spain we can hear the broadcast directed to Africa). I put a 30 minutes timer on the radio and I almost never hear it stopping, because I fall sleep before. The day that the BBC will shut the SW broadcast, I guess I will take a bluetooth headset or speaker to my bedroom, but not the iPhone. It is very important to avoid computers in the bedroom.

<comment><USER4> I was an avid napper back at college and thoroughly employed the coffee nap technique. Now I'm in the workforce, but my body is still yearning for naps at work. I find myself drifting off here and there, but never fully commit.

I'm afraid to take a full nap at work due to how it may look. Do you find yourself being judged for taking naps at work?

<comment><USER5> You can take surprisingly good naps sitting in a toilet cubicle - I did so for many months at Accenture and never had a problem. It energised me and enabled me to do better work the rest of the time.

<comment><USER6> I thought I was the only one weird enough person in the world to actually nap in a toilet. I can say a lot of good things about my company work culture, but unfortunately, naps in the middle of the work day are frowned upon there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wish I was able to take naps. Do people can really fall asleep on command just like that when they have some spare minutes in their day? Shit, even when I am sleep deprived, I can barely fall asleep in my own bed, sometimes it literally take me hours.

When I manage to take a nap it's usually involuntary by falling asleep in front of the TV.

<comment><USER8> It just takes practice. For a nap, it helps to unwind quickly by focusing on deep breathing and allowing your mind to wander.

During a nap you're not trying to lose consciousness as if you're "totally asleep" either. It's almost like you're hypnotizing yourself into a deep state of relaxation. A pair of sunglasses or sleep mask can also help to reduce any daytime light to make it easier.

Practice it for a year, you'll be an expert after that and have a highly valuable skill.

This guy has all you could ever hope to know on becoming a Master of Sleep: [http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm](http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm)

<comment><USER9> I agree, it takes practice. I can't let my mind wander though. If I want to take a nap in the middle of the day I have to consciously visualize something. The visualization that has worked best for me over the last year has been sitting in my childhood home, assembling the tail section of a scale model Su-24. The end product looks a lot like this one: [http://paperwings.orgfree.com/su24/index.htm](http://paperwings.orgfree.com/su24/index.htm) (except I never finish it, just doze off)

The sleep is worth the practice :)

<comment><USER10> Well there is a right and wrong way to let you mind wander. The right way is what is taught in Mindfulness meditation. It requires hard training, and I'm not very good at it (yet I hope).

The "trick" is to let you mind wander without intentionally thinking about anything, but just letting thoughts float on by without getting attached to any one of them. Just notice all the different things your mind is bringing up, and let it happen, without grabbing hold of any one thought.

My big problem is that I have a strong inner voice that is explaining or narrating almost all that I do. This voice if focusing my thoughts, so I need to stop talking inside my head for this to work. I kind of just need to shut up and watch my thoughts instead :)

<comment><USER11> Just a note: that inner voice is also a thought. A strongly habituated one, certainly, but still just a thought. You don't need to stop 'talking', just take a step back, so to speak, and watch that voice and it will gradually dissolve on its own (over time, it will get less demanding on your attention).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I found this by experience few years ago. It works. At first, I started with naps, and drinking coffee after. Accidentally I had few times coffee before nap, and noticed the difference.

But I don't recommend this kind of nap all the time - because after a while it's not that effective.

So, after years of napping (I'm an expert - I became so good at napping, that I can fall a sleep in 1-2 minutes, and wake up without alarm after 15-20 minutes), my advice would be: take a nap after lunch, between 1 and 3pm, without coffee before nap. Only in special situations, when you are under high pressure and lots of work, take "coffee nap" as they call it in the article.

<comment><USER13> > I can fall a sleep in 1-2 minutes, and wake up without alarm after 15-20 > minutes

Any advice on how you were able to achieve this ability? I always try to take a quick nap but can never fall asleep fas t enough for it to be effective.

<comment><USER14> Two techniques from my experience:

\- 'walk back' in your mind to center yourself away from forebrain activity and visual activity (this is a visualization technique)

\- cover your back with something insulated and/or warm. The less your back is staying tensed against chill air, the more physically relaxed you can be. I have a Thinsulate-filled sleeping bag that I use like a throw for this as it reflects body heat better than a comforter. Sleeping on a sofa, up against the back cushions, and noticing how it was good for naps, was what alerted me to this one.

<comment><USER15> I noticed this when I started sleeping with my back against a body pillow. I wonder if it has anything to do with wanting to sleep with pressure around our bodies?

<comment><USER14> That's not universal. I've read that infants / small children tend to like sleeping while wrapped / confined. This adult: not so much. (Part of that is probably the Minuteman attitude I've adopted since becoming a single parent a couple of decades back. Anything which interfered with my ability to quickly respond to / protect my kids had to go.)

I do think it's the warmth. Part of our maintaining constant muscular tension is maintaining body heat. While we do seem to want to chill down slightly for sleep -- my observation, based on how often I'd nap on the bus and awaken sweaty, and I seem to recall reading something about that -- IME that tension does noticeably interfere with quickly getting to sleep.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I have read this before. I do not understand how you can sleep for 20 minutes. It takes more than 15 minutes just to fall asleep.

<comment><USER17> Read this carefully: I used to think this way as well. This thinking lead me to the exact wrong strategy for naps.

There are many stages of sleep; stage 1 through 4, and REM sleep. These, it is hypothesized, have distinct physiological functions. Most importantly for this discussion, waking up out of each have very different effects.

Waking from stage 1 sleep makes you feel immediately refreshed, and people perform better immediately have tests of mental acuity. This is also true of REM sleep; additionally you often remember dreams.

Stage 2 is also good. A good 30 minutes afterwards, you will feel better rested, and your mental acuity will rise; for longer than from stage 1, but it is a delayed effect.

But if you wake up out of a deeper sleep cycle, you get 'sleep inertia.' Mental acuity plummets. You feel poorly rested and ill.

The problem:

The body is often not even aware that you are sleeping in stage 1 sleep. You are in a different physiological stage, but you may not have lost consciousness.

You usually are in this stage from minute 5 onto minute 10. And in stage two up to about 15-20 minutes. After that, you can fall into a deeper sleep; which waking up from is very problematic.

I used to set my alarm for 30 minutes. I'd way up, feel even more tired, and set my alarm for 30 minutes _again_. This was ruining my life.

\---

tl;dr

Even if you don't lose consciousness, you can still be 'sleeping' and a nap of 20 minutes will greatly help you feel healthy and well rested.

<comment><USER18> I always had difficulty finding the correct amount of time to nap for where I would wake up feeling refreshed and not drowsy, until I read about Dali napping with a spoon in his hand. The idea is that you hold the spoon off the bed/couch so that as soon as you start to drop past stage 2, your hand releases the spoon, it falls to the floor and wakes you up.

I now do this combined with a caffeine nap (green tea) and it works perfectly. There's a point where I deep in my conscious I realize I'm dropping the item. As it hits the floor my eyes open, and I feel refreshed almost immediately afterwards. The time for me is about 25-27 minutes from laying down to the drop.

<comment><USER17> That's awesome!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What is the tolerance level for naps in silicon valley companies (both big and small)? Does it depend on the role/position? Wouldn't they rather have all their employees down mugs of coffee instead of taking even a quick nap?

</comment><comment><USER20> Is there any downside to doing this? It seems like there must be a _reason_ why the adenosine signals that it's time to sleep - like your brain actually needs that rest to recuperate properly after activity. Does a "coffee nap" (or caffeine in general) lead to increased fatigue once the effects wear off?

Although I guess to some extent if you're going to ignore the sleep signal otherwise, there likely isn't much harm in feeling alert while doing so, except inasmuch as the alert feeling causes you to tax your brain more than you otherwise would.

<comment><USER21> Natural sleep cycles vary not just by person but also by age. There is some evidence that a small community with 0 to 70 year olds will always have someone awake. Which would seem like a likely survival adaptation. Which suggests sleep cycles may relate to more than just biological need.

<comment><USER22> I've read this before too, I cant remember where. Basically your 25-50 year old typically sleeps from about midnight to 8am. Teens and young adults typically sleep much later, with the "crack of dawn" not being uncommon and the elderly typically awake at the "crack of dawn".

Basically most preditors are active either just after dark, or in the late morning.

Teens are typically strong (a 13 year old male is as strong as your average adult female), alert and they have the best vision, and noise making in the night would keep predators and scavengers away. Evening predators likely weren't a great risk, but scavengers definitely would be an issue.

Adults are obviously the strongest and most alert, and are awake when the most dangerous animals are also awake: lions, tigers, hippos, etc.

The elderly are our weakest, their vision is poor and their alertness becomes questionable. However, there's theories we live so long after infertility sets in specifically for the reason they care for the young. Both infants and the elderly have surprisingly similar sleeping patterns. Predators are least active in the early mornings and so are most dangers. Insects and reptiles (venomous things) are least active in the coldest hours of the day, which is right around dawn.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> The Jawbone up is the BOMB of all bombs for taking naps. Put it in nap mode and it waits for you to fall asleep before setting the alarm. So you can get a proper nap without wondering whether you're taking too long to fall asleep, etc.

It can also attempt to time your nap based on your latest sleep patterns. No idea how effective this is.

I love this thing just for it's nap mode.

</comment><comment><USER24> After a couple months of protracted late nights at a startup I worked for, I came up with an idea for a place which would offer by-the-hour nap+shower+coffee pods. You'd go in, pay $20 or whatever, have access to a shower and a bed, and at the end (or beginning) you'd get a coffee of your choice (if after, it would be ready for you when your nap was over).

I think this could do really well in Soma or the Financial District in SF. Just gotta enforce one-person-one-rule so that it doesnt become a place for prostitution.

<comment><USER25> So like a love hotel ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_hotel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_hotel)), but sans coupling. Or like a capsule hotel ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel)), but with attached shower.

Even on non-prime real-estate (which does that exist in SF?), I don't think you could hit your $20 price point with the amount of housekeeping needed for a bed _and_ shower. Even if you could, after a week your staff might hate you. :-)

<comment><USER26> > So like a love hotel > ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_hotel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_hotel)), > but sans coupling. Or like a capsule hotel > ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel)), > but with attached shower.

To be fair, they say Japanese love hotels allow single guests ([https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Japan#Love_hotels](https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Japan#Love_hotels)) and capsule hotels have showers ([https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Japan#Capsule_hotels](https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Japan#Capsule_hotels)).

I don't doubt, though, that even in Japan there's a niche for specifically targeted establishments of the kind described by grandparent.

<comment><USER25> Capsule hotels don't usually have attached showers though do they? It's more of a communal thing, which maybe that would work just fine for what mmanfrin was thinking of. Though historically Americans aren't as accustomed to communal bathing (well except for gyms) as the Japanese.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> > _...it takes around 20 minutes for the caffeine to get through your > gastrointestinal tract and bloodstream anyway._

This isn't really true, right? On an empty stomach a strong coffee seems to get me high as a kite in about two minutes.

I've been doing this coffee+nap thing for a long time. It definitely works for me. My trick for falling asleep reliably and quickly is listening to an audiobook.

<comment><USER14> How do you drink your coffee? If you sugar it, you're not dealing with just the caffeine.

<comment><USER27> I don't but how would sugar beat caffeine into the blood stream?

<comment><USER28> Absorption of some nutrients happens in the mouth and gums. Perhaps the poster is speculating that sugar (simple carbs?) molecules might be quickly absorbed into the bloodstream through the mouth and esophagus while caffeine has to be digested in the stomach?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I have read before that drinking coffee before a short nap is a good combination. It's nice to read that someone has actually tested it. I can't always do it at work but I have used this method at home and it works well. One other suggestion I follow is that I don't take short naps lying down. That encourages my body to go into a longer, deeper sleep. I nap sitting in a comfy chair, in a quiet, dim room if possible. It's very refreshing; I'm more alert and productive for the rest of the day.

</comment><comment><USER30> This works well with other stimulants and other medications too. Take methylphenidate and an opioid, take a quick nap, wake up feeling fantastic.

It's also got emotional benefits. If you are feeling down, then simply waiting for the medicine to do its job can make things worse, as your mind goes in a negative spiral. Taking a nap _can_ give you peace that you're just putting everything aside and going to concentrate on the warmth of the nap and a dream. And before you know it, bam - everything's perfect again.

</comment><comment><USER31> Keep in mind that after 2-3 weeks of habitual coffee drinking, your body acclimates to the effects of caffeine and you no longer receive a performance benefit. At that point all drinking coffee does for you is ward off the effects of withdrawal and return you to baseline performance levels - <USER2> the effects wear off and withdrawal kicks in again, at which point your performance is below average.

Caffeine is best used strategically, which means not every day. Save it for days where you're feeling particularly low energy, or need a boost to tackle a problem you're not particularly excited about doing.

That said, the half-life of caffeine is around 6 hours, which means if you have a coffee at 3pm, at 3am you still have a quarter-cup's worth of caffeine in your system, preventing you from entering deep sleep. So even then I'd keep caffeine as a first-thing-in-the-morning type of deal.

Naps I'm a big fan of. I take one every day after lunch. The trick is to simply lay down and close your eyes for 20 minutes. Don't worry if you fall asleep or not - just give your eyes a rest. For the first few days/weeks, you might not fall asleep. But eventually your body grows accustomed to the ritual and it becomes easier to actually fall asleep at hat time.

</comment><comment><USER32> I have found that a Provigil/Nuvigil nap works wonders. Take a Provigil and take a nap. When you wake up you'll be crisp morning-fresh.

<comment><USER33> What is Provigil? (I am in Australia) Is it like dexedrine or something?

<comment><USER34> A prescription medicine for people with sleep apnea and other sleep disorders.

<comment><USER35> They prescribe modafinil for sleep apnea? I have apnea and I'm curious because I've never heard this. I've heard it is used for narcolepsy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I support the napping for productivity without having artificial stimulants (OK, natural organic drugs) involved.

The studies likely involved mostly habitual users rather than unindoctrinated subjects, but from the abstracts' documentation it is difficult to be sure. Perhaps the researchers did not recognize the distinction and just selected random participants, therefore likely to include mostly habitual users.

When I was a caffeine addict (habitual user) I could also sleep after ingestion.

In fact without a fix right before bedtime it was more difficult to get to sleep because nominal concentration level was unsatisfied, resulting more in agitation than identifiable craving. A nice hit would actually help me relax. I was not the only one who could relate to this as an indication of true addiction, where you need the substance just to be normal.

Complete withdrawal took a few weeks (of hellish tiredness, achiness, and irritability) but after this it was even easier to more alertly conduct high- stamina activities and out-perform my still-addicted colleagues without the toxic load on my system.

Sleep & nap much more productively without it after kicking the habit too.

Sure can write a lot better code when drug (addiction) free as well.

When I do feel it's necessary (never for marathon coding), a single cup of coffee (after I have already been awake 24hrs and need a little boost) naturally keeps my otherwise drug-free system awake for the next 24hrs easily which can be helpful for things like long-distance driving once or twice per year. As an addict I would have needed two or three times my nominal habitual doses to feel as alert on those same lonely roads.

To me coding does not benefit from this type of non-stop alertness, even if you are working to exhaustion, when tiredness truly comes a plain nap is better whether it is after 6hrs, 12hrs, 20hrs, whatever, then freshly go into another session, exahustion relieved.

Same with driving too, but if the schedule is too tight, a couple times a year will not make you a habitual user like everyday dosage does. I'd rather drive slow for long hours than exceed the speed limit, waste energy, and prematurely wear out my machinery.

YMMV [0] but just because everybody does caffeine won't make it good for you, especially in the long run.

[0] depending largely on body weight, metabolism, and dosage, and for driving, road speed

</comment><comment><USER37> (from the article) "energy drinks are disgusting.."

I disagree. Monsters in particular I find delicious. (I try not to drink them often though... they tend to really hype me up then wear me out not long after).

<comment><USER35> I don't like monster but rockstar zero carb or sugar free does it for me. Also anything sugar free with erythritol as a sweetener is gross to me. It tastes way sweeter than sugar.

I wish I could acquire a taste for coffee because it seems like the healthiest way to get caffeine, but if I have to load it with sugar and cream it defeats the point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I thought I invented this 5 years ago during a weeklong coding sprint before a live demo. I called it a red bull nap but otherwise it was exactly the same. They are amazing.

</comment><comment><USER39> Hardest part for me is falling asleep in such a short period of time, especially during the day. When I have succeeded with these naps, it's been amazing.

</comment><comment><USER40> This is definitely how siesta time goes in Southern Spain. It seemed an odd habbit when I was introduced to it but it definitely does the job.

</comment><comment><USER41> I don't know if it's just me but, how the hell do you nap?! I tried once, and I was still wide awake when my alarm that was supposed to wake me up from my hour long nap went off. I'd have to be really drunk, or not have slept for days in order to nap. I don't understand how people just nap on queue, I feel like I'm missing a trick here :(

</comment><comment><USER42> I have noticed this occasionally on weekends, when the luxury of a nap is more practical. I'll have a small late-morning coffee, feel cozy/sleepy, then nap briefly and wake up refreshed. Seemed crazy at the time. I'd guess you need to feel somewhat tired for this to work (and I am able to fall asleep quickly).

</comment><comment><USER43> For those who have trouble falling asleep quickly I recommend good earplugs, a quiet place where you can nap undisturbed and a dark opaque towel or cloth with which you can cover your eyes and block light completely. Given that, there's little to prevent sleep once you've settled in.

</comment><comment><USER44> Caffeine naps are my secret "crunch time" weapon. It's astounding how effective they are - it feels like a reboot. I wake up feeling like I've been out for 8 hours. The effect only lasts for a couple of hours post-nap, but it's often enough to get you over the hump.

</comment><comment><USER45> I use this napping mp3. White noise for about 23 minutes followed by silence then animal sounds. It's fun give it a try. [http://www.grelly.com/napping/Polynap5_23_minutes.mp3](http://www.grelly.com/napping/Polynap5_23_minutes.mp3)

</comment><comment><USER46> I've done this many times. It's really quite refreshing. I made a habit of this after lunch for a time. It helped give me an extra 3 or 4 hours of high productivity. The only downside is that it's better to chug the coffee, rather than sip it slowly.

</comment><comment><USER47> Works great on road trips, I need to be just right amount of tired for it to work for me though then stop at a diner like Waffle House, get a bite and a coffee, head back to the car and nod off for a spell. You wake-up peculiarly alert.

</comment><comment><USER48> I can attest to this. I've done this several times for the energy boost. I didn't know there is a name for it; "coffee nap". I tend to add dance/techno music to know when to wake up and get back to work.

</comment><comment><USER49> This is anecdotal, but I discovered this in undergrad - I would drink coffee before a class, and end up falling asleep briefly during a lecture, and then end up wide awake the rest of the time and more. It really does wonders.

</comment><comment><USER50> What's the point? Unless you work at Google, at home, or at a super trendy startup, or in your own big office with a sofa in it, this doesn't really mean anything for you because you have no place to take a nap.

</comment><comment><USER51> Can confirm it works. Have done this often in about 3-4 years. It's easy to fall asleep really fast if you are actually tired (physically or mentally)...doesn't work if you are just bored and wanna pep yourself up.

</comment><comment><USER52> How long can coffee napping be used, and what are the after effects?

The article says the test subjects used it to good effect for 24 hours. I wonder if the following day was a compete productivity waste.

</comment><comment><USER53> Serious Question: What can I do where I really need to do this in the afternoon (and would of course really increase productivity), but I'm not allowed to nap at work?

<comment><USER52> Best bet is to leave work for lunch. Sit in your car if you have one, wearing sunglasses. Best if your car has tinted windows. If your building has a parking garage, that is ideal, less chance of random person thinking you are dead and calling the cops. If you don't have a car, bathroom stalls might work, if you can find a clean spot where you can sit on the toilet and lean your head against the stall wall. Wiping down the area where you lay your head with hand sanitizer might be a good move. Some libraries have private rooms you can reserve for studying. If it's too hard at your job, you may have to decide whether it's worth changing jobs. It sounds silly, but if taking a siesta would have a significant positive impact on your productivity (and it does for many people), then changing jobs is a reasonable step IMO.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> It's hard for me to just take a nap on command in the middle of the day. I wish it was easy for me because a nap would help a lot.

</comment><comment><USER55> Sounds like this would pair well with specially designed time release caffeine capsules that release 20 minutes before you wake up.

</comment><comment><USER56> A 20 minute nap does way more for me than a cup of coffee, but this is a promising approach I'll definitely try.

</comment><comment><USER57> Common practice in elite military units for putting off proper sleep for long periods of time.

</comment><comment><USER58> Hmmph! No Thanks. Coffee makes me sort of nervous when I drink it. -Slingblade

</comment><comment><USER59> I knew this worked in practice, now I understand how it works in theory.

</comment><comment><USER60> When I tried this as a teenager I ended up having lucid dreams.

</comment><comment><USER61> It's thought this practice is a common knowledge, strange that it's "news". I have been using this for years.

</comment><comment><USER62> No shit.

</comment><comment><USER63> I'm thinking of putting a mattress beneath my desk/cubicle. I have a hard time falling asleep on command or taking naps at all. Maybe properly lying down instead of lying kind of uncomfortably on the floor will help with that.

This is in a university setting, so I have no managers to worry about. The only problem might be noise (I often sleep with earplugs anyway), and weird looks.

</comment><comment><USER64> coffee naps? It's like Joseph is talking to my heart.</comment>


SimRank:  Two objects are similar if they are related to similar objects. - <AUTHOR> http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~glenj/simrank.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> And just like PageRank, SimRank also has a random surfer model, which is described in Section 5.</comment>


There is no luggage storage at any US airport - <AUTHOR> https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g35805-i32-k11672345-Daytime_luggage_storage_O_hare-Chicago_Illinois.html <comment><USER2> Have the terrorists won?

</comment><comment><USER3> I stored bags at Seatac a few months ago.</comment>