Ask HN: After 6 months, did we succeed or fail? - <AUTHOR>

After being out of beta for a little less than six months our first attempt at a startup (bitspaceapp.com), a music player that lets you upload your music collection, has around 800 users of which only a handful are active users and 25 are paying customers. Did we succeed or fail? Is it too early to tell? Right now we are asking ourselves in what direction we should take our business, if any at all.
The idea for the product was simply born out of my own frustration of loosing my music collection in a hard drive crash and my nerdy need for having a neat and nicely cataloged and index music collection. We didn't set out to create the most original product or to revolutionize anything. We simply wanted to create a good product that did something mildly useful and that could attract a lucrative niche of users (record collectors). But it's not like there is no competition in the music player market, rather the contrary. With competition from products like Spotify and Grooveshark that offer on demand streaming from a wast library of licensed music -- something we would never be able to offer -- its hard to make yourself heard in the marketplace.
So the question really is: We think we have created a useful and well executed product. But how do you know if your business model will work? When can you reliably say that it is a success or failure? 6 months? A year? 5 years? And what measures of success should we consider? <comment><USER2> I wouldn't say that you have failed.

You've done what many people haven't.

1) you launched - you'd be surprised how many people never get to this state

2) you've got a handful of active users and 25 paying customers - also not to be taken lightly.

So first, congratulate yourself for getting to this point.

Is the question you are asking 'you we continue developing this?' or 'what should our next step be?'

First off, I assume you've got the legal side of things covered? If not, look into it and make sure that your technology structure permits you to do what you are doing. As I recall MP3.com and others have been caught out on licensing doing cloud served music files.

Lets assume you're comfortable with where you stand legally.

I assume you've seen this post.. <http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668285>

I've been amazed how long it can take to get traction. After more than a year of effort with my site, I pretty much gave up further development and marketing, noticing that nobody in the space was really getting significant traffic, I just figured it wasn't going to go anywhere.

Now I see that some competitors are gaining traction two years after launching. While one who never got much traffic at all was recently purchased.

This is a LONG road. From the info you've provided, you've done very well on the first few steps. If you're still excited about the product and have a good roadmap, than I think you could be on your way to success.

Don't underestimate the need for further marketing and refinement of your product offering.

At the same time, coming from the music space myself, this isn't a high success area. Look at things like iLike, MOG, spotify, amiestreet, imeem, playlist, etc. Lots of these sites had big backing and lots of users, but aren't making much if any money.

So, how do you go from 25 paying customers to 50? To 100? to 1000???

I turned my focus away from music because as an industry, I just don't see it leading to financial success.

There are those who are doing it, but it is more challenging than other areas.

My 2cents.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great observations and advice! I guess as you say, one of the conclusions we have drawn so far is that the music industry is hard. There is simply not a lot of money there, and most of it is focused on a few big players like iTunes.

Nonetheless we have some fairly good ideas for how to grow the business and how to broaden it. So I guess you persuaded me to at least give it a fair chance.

Disregarding the meager financial returns so far one of the biggest highlights have been all the interesting opportunities that the project has created. It has resulted in a few collaborations and potential projects/consulting jobs already. So I guess that's one aspect of why it can be rewarding to not give up on a good idea/project too easily.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Steve Blank (who you should read if you haven't) has said "No one can kill you in your first 18 months except for yourself".

Two easy ways to kill your startup:

1\. Give up. No one has a smooth ride at 6 months. Everyone struggles for years, whether you see it from the outside or not.

2\. Don't iterate quickly enough. Bitspace (great design, btw) might be the wrong product. Talk to customers and try different things. When something works, do more of it. When it fails, kill it.</comment>


First evidence of planet-wide groundwater system on Mars - <AUTHOR> http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express/First_evidence_of_planet-wide_groundwater_system_on_Mars <comment><USER2> Will be interesting to find out from the InSight lander how active and hot the interior of Mars is. If there's heat and deep water, maybe life finds a way.

</comment><comment><USER3> Ancient groundwater system on Mars, not current.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, like billions of years.

But hey, maybe there's still lots of ice, here and there.

<comment><USER3> No maybe about it, there is lots of ice.

There may also be lots of sub-surface groundwater, we just don't have solid evidence of that yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> stoopid question from a total ignorant about mars

Why if we find a dry ridge have to be made by running water? Couldn't be made by another fluid, frozen methane, a stem of sand, dilatation differences or even wind?

<comment><USER6> I have very little knowledge of this, but I will say chemicals have different properties. For instance the solid of H2O floats as opposed to sinks in its liquid form.

I suspect we can narrow out options for the formations. However, we will never be 100% confident (but maybe 80+% confident) in what has occurred.

<comment><USER7> Geochemistry is a lot more concrete than that, from my exposure to it. Mars also doesn't have an exotic composition or environment for a liquid solid gas phase of something else.</comment></comment></comment>


How programming lets me know I'm getting older - <AUTHOR> http://shrik.theswamp.in/2012/07/how-programming-lets-me-know-im-getting.html

<comment><USER2> As I see it, the eureka moments become less frequent because when you're starting out, the low hanging fruit become eureka moments. As you get better, what was once a eureka moment is just a I-fixed-it moment, which is much less satisfying, though no less useful.</comment>


Apple may demo tablet on Jan. 26; Jobs "extremely happy" with final product - <AUTHOR> http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/49293

<comment><USER2> We're probably playing right into Apple's hype/secrecy marketing strategy, but it sounds intriguing and quite different than existing e-readers.

<comment><USER3> Yup. Here we go again. Four+ weeks of this stuff clogging the top of every blog aggregator.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I see a reference in this thread to it being a macbook air sans keyboard.

I think its much more likely that its a 4x sized iphone.

</comment><comment><USER5> I am looking forward with joy on the coming tablet explosion market. Be it crunch..joojoo, apple or whomever makes it "just work" and easy to carry around. I NEED that device! One thing about apple hardware though to be cautious is that history tells us to skip their 1st generation.

edit:

my ideal tablet would be the size of what joojoo showed, about A4 with wacom surface like cintiq so I can carry it around and draw/paint in corel painter + photoshop. I know this is a few generations of tablets away, but one can dream. Basically a portable cintiq.

</comment><comment><USER6> Here is my prediction for the tablet if it is shown on the 26th.

It will have three methods of input:

1\. Multitouch screen of course. 2\. Pen based as well for note taking but the primary interface is the multitouch. 3\. Front facing camera with dedicated hardware for eye tracking.

You heard it here first: There will be eye tracking on the new tablet. (of course this is just speculation but so is the article. Hearsay rumors.)

</comment><comment><USER7> Sounds like hype. We haven't even seen anything yet, so it is all speculation about how great this is.

<comment><USER3> But STEVE is INSANELY HAPPY with it! Whatever it is! So it _must_ be great!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Have you noticed that every post that is BORED - BORED BORED - with mindless speculation about new possible maybe crappy consumer goods from a once computer company get voted down?

Well all the intelligent folks have,

</comment><comment><USER9> may or may not. who knows.

</comment><comment><USER10> We can all guess what this product will be like, probably a tablet resembling an enlarged iPod Touch/iPhone. But I can't wait to find out how this product will surprise and feature something new and unexpected. That's what Apple delivers so well, they continually innovate instead of just rebranding/repurposing. It will be interesting to see how the upcoming presentation will deliver an innovation.

</comment><comment><USER8> For the sake of Christmas if not our collective sanity - please stop posting this sort of crud. Who cares about posts about what a consumer goods company might market at some indeterminate time in the future?

I for one could do with a holiday from this sort of nonsense.

Apple fanboys click away!

<comment><USER11> _Who cares about posts about what a consumer goods company might market at some indeterminate time in the future?_

Those of us who are want to launch products on the new platform and get a step on our competitors. That's why I read HN for the most part - I can keep a good pulse on not only new technologies, but what other entrepreneurs are thinking.

Imagine if.. 4 years ago you had even an inkling of what the iPhone and iPhone App Store model would become in 2009.. you'd probably be richer than you are now, even if you were ignorant of tech entirely and only bought Apple stock ;-) Heck, even knowing six months before app fever hit, you'd have cashed in if you were quick enough as a publisher or developer.

I want to know everything about this Apple tablet - even the pointless speculation - because _anything_ might be the scrap of information I need to connect a ton of dots together and come up with an idea or a product that could make me a ton of money. I did just that when people were ranting under the radar about Ruby and Rails in 2004 and I've made quite a bit of money from being quick off the mark.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm sorry, but I just cannot get excited about an Apple tablet.

I have a feeling that it is going to be like a macbook air without the keyboard: absurdly expensive, not all that useful, and replaceable with things in the PC world that are better and cheaper.

Apple got lucky with the iPod in that they were the first company to do it _right_. They carried this success into the iPhone, but their iPhone success is starting to wane in light of the Android.

I think that an Apple tablet is going to combine all of the things that I hate about the MBA with all of the things that I hate about the iPhone (appstore nonsense, restricting apps like spotify or anything with similar functionality).

Good luck to you, Apple, but I don't see this succeeding.

edit: I was mistaken about spotify, that is not available in the US at all. The point was that I was trying to find a subscription music service for the iPhone and couldn't. The general consensus among the people doing the same was that Apple won't allow it.

<comment><USER11> _but their iPhone success is starting to wane in light of the Android._

Are you trolling? If so, it's a good one because I'm falling for it :-) The iPhone's success is far from waning. Android as a term is barely known outside tech circles whereas even Mac haters at least know what an "iPhone" is.

 _Apple got lucky with the iPod in that they were the first company to do it right._

Far from it. The first generation iPod reviewed poorly and sold poorly. It wasn't until near the end of 2004 - and the fourth generation - that it really "caught on." Apple didn't get lucky.. they got it right after iterating and redeveloping a few times.

 _restricting apps like spotify_

Did they? I have Spotify on my iPhone right now and enjoy it using it most days. It took them a while to approve it, but it takes them a while to approve almost everything.

<comment><USER12> Haha, no not trolling. Maybe things are different here, then? I'm in Phoenix and there are Android billboards/advertisements _everywhere_. One of the more brilliant ones was something I saw in a mall: it was a multitouch surface mounted in a poster-space running a game; kids were lined up to play it.

People are genuinely, organically (as in not prompted by a billboard they just drove post) talking about the Android. Cellphones are something that falls under my umbrella of responsibility at work and I have had several people jokingly beg me to lobby for us to switch from AT&T to verizon so they can get droids.

Also, on spotify: are you in the US? I was trying to find my little sister a subscription-based music service she could use on her iPhone and couldn't.

<comment><USER13> Anecdotes != evidence. I hate when people make claims like this based only on their own biased perceptions of the situation.

<comment><USER13> I resent being downvoted for this, and expect more out of HN.

You cannot make a claim like "iPhone success is starting to wane in light of the Android" and back that claim up with your own anecdotes about how you hear about and see the Droid more often. This is simply not real evidence that the iPhone's success is declining on a wide scale as you suggest.

I'm not saying that the iPhone's success _isn't_ waning in light of the Android. I'm just saying that I, and usually this community in general, require better evidence/citations than "because I see it a lot more now."

<comment><USER11> I'm not the person you're responding to, but I wanted to back up my assertion that the iPhone isn't waning. 2008 Q2 global smartphone market share for the iPhone was 2.8%. 2009 Q2 equivalent was 13.3% - [http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/08/13/iphon...](http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/08/13/iphone- market-share-grew-375-in-q2/)

Another article shows similar growth from Q2 2008 to Q2 2009 and then continuing on to Q3 2009: [http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/idc_q3_2009_smartphon...](http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/idc_q3_2009_smartphone_market_grew_iphone_up_android_reaching_critical_mass/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Patterns for use of Ruby's #method_missing - <AUTHOR> http://olabini.com/blog/2010/04/patterns-of-method-missing/

<comment><USER2> Title correction: Patterns for use of Ruby's #method_missing

Ola is an incredible programmer and language enthusiast and this is a really great writeup on one of Ruby's most interesting dynamic language features.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well that was a stupid typo for me to make. Fixed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great article. I agree with the other comment: Ola has an interesting way of thinking about programming. Very creative.</comment>


MyGameMug categorizes and matches gamers - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2008/08/05/mygamemug-categorizes-and-matches-gamers/

<comment><USER2> Seems like a social enabled rehash of the old Bartle test.

It's also really annoying it forces you to try to register before you can do anything. I gave a fake e-mail and fake name to registration and then it told me I could take the test, though it had sent a confirmation to my fake e-mail... Strange.

I took the test and the results seemed a bit off, however... some of the questions were strange as well.

</comment><comment><USER3> The site doesn't show me anything about how it works when I visit the homepage. There's some vague promises, but not even a screenshot of a profile or a forum. What do I get for trusting you with personal info?

<comment><USER4> Sorry, we have not included a tour of the site yet... we were rushing to get the product out the door (we are big fans of release early, release often), so we haven't had the chance to.

We do have a "screencast" that hopefully answers some of your concerns: <http://www.vimeo.com/1448309/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hi guys, I am one of the founders of MyGameMug. We would love your most critical feedback and suggestions!

Thanks in advance!</comment>


Ask HN: How to plan getting out of tech? - <AUTHOR> I could go on about where I work and why I'm unhappy there, but ultimately, I just think there is something deeply wrong and unhealthy with the industry and the people in it, and I want to stop doing this to myself.
I'm American, 35, single, no kids, living on the west coast of the US. I have no debt and around 100k in the bank. I don't own any property. Is there anyone out there, who was in a similar position and figured out a way to stop working in tech? I feel open to a lot of different possibilities, including of course moving abroad.
I guess I'm just wondering if there are others who have been in a similar position and what they did, or, what resources I can use to figure out my next steps. I wish I could be more specific about what I'm asking, I don't want to be spoonfed information, but I just need some guidance on where to look to start planning what to do.
Thanks for any advice or input. <comment><USER2> If you are unhappy working in tech, what makes you think you will be happy working in another sector? You need to find the underlying reason why you are happy and address it. It could be the people, the culture, working on a product you don't believe, working with tech you don't like. Maybe you like C++ but work with PHP, or vice versa. Maybe you like DB but find yourself doing sysadmin. "Everything is tech" these days, I don't believe it's tech that's making you unhappy, there is something deeper and if you don't figure it out, you most likely will find yourself more disappointed down the line. Best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> Focus on the following:

1\. Physical health:

run, lift, sleep, eat right. Without it; we can't do anything

2\. Financial health:

It's "easy money" in tech; hoard as much as you can. Invest wisely. Unfortunately we lived in a C.R.E.A.M. world. "100k in bank" Those are rookie number...

3\. Mental/spiritual health:

Like many have said: What are you passion about beside tech? what draw you to tech in the first place? a sense of purpose Read, join meet up, MOOC, focus on the first principal and fundamental(this alleviate chasing tech fad)

IMHO those are the 3 foundations that allow us the freedom to "grab life by the horn".

38 years old dinosaur

</comment><comment><USER4> Me, i just happen across an education gig in Chile a couple years ago, and have been doing education gigs (hardware prototyping and general science) a few times a year in South America and Europe since then.

Doesn't pay much, but having all the time to yourself for work instead of being distracted by "work"/job is worth it.

I'm a programmer by education and first hobby, and over 10 years in the industry i found that i just can't work on a project i don't appreciate. For me programming is an art, and on a job that art is constrained, so i would inevitably burn out in a year or two.

Why do you want to stop working in tech?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the reply. As to why- there are a bunch of reasons. It's so obviously slanted towards the young, and I'm getting older. I work at a place that anyone on HN would recognize, it's supposed to be one of the "good" places. And it is, generally, but I occupy a shitty position there and am tired of fighting for a basic decent work environment. I receive positive feedback all the time and try hard to be easy to work with, but I'm tired of all the last-minute shit, tight deadlines, lack of rigor, and mounting tech debt. I'm tired of dropping everything because a 25-year-old billionaire asked me to tweak some tiny thing. It's just insane. (And like I said, this is supposed to be one of the good places!)

I am mostly just wanting to hear about what others have done, or what options there are, or what resources there are for same. I'm not looking for a slower- paced version of my same career, I just want to try something else.

<comment><USER5> If I were you, I'd just start my own company. This will make you independent from people, tasks and positions that you describe as unwanted. You will still be able to apply all you previous experience and skills, but decide how technical your business is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> When I am unhappy, I often feel stuck, and have a hard time imagining how to solve the problems that are making me unhappy. They start to seem insoluble. Instead of thinking about how to move away from a bad situation, it has been more productive to think about what it is I actually want. Once I have a clear picture in mind of where I would rather be, all my everyday problem-solving skills kick in and I start advancing toward that goal.

</comment><comment><USER7> > what resources I can use to figure out my next steps.

Check out Designing Your Life, a book by Stanford professors. Here's a podcast interview with the authors, to give you a flavor of what it's about > [http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design- th...](http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design-theory-to- build-a-better-life)

Also, NY Times review > [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design- thinking-s...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking- stanford-silicon-valley.html?_r=0)

</comment><comment><USER8> I would suggest start doing things that you think make you happy. Even for 5 mins.

Keep a note of your time and happiness level. Over time you'll figure out things that make you happy at the current stage of your life.

That is honestly step-1 but the single biggest step in finding what you are looking for.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'd love to do something else (maybe even for say 5 years, just go get my appetite for tech back), but almost everything outside tech is overcrowded and pays way less, which means working way more years before reaching retirement.

</comment><comment><USER10> What do you want to do? What are your dreams?</comment>


Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/11/15625320/ubuntu-suse-linux-fedora-windows-store-microsoft-build-2017 <comment><USER2> While I can see this is an excellent strategy for the Windows platform, and will probably make developers on Windows more productive, I for one will never give up natively installed linux distributions for development.

It may be childish, but I resent Windows for every anti-privacy, anti- competitive move they make, despite how much it is within their rights and fitting with their corporate goals. Trying to put linux in windows and pretend that they've been on the side of developers who push F/OSS this whole time is a hard pill to swallow.

I recoil at the possibility that some developer 5 years from now might ask me "Why bother installing your own linux distribution? You can just get Windows Go 15 and run Arch/Ubuntu/SUSE from inside there. Don't forget to disable the ads and tracking that come standard".

<comment><USER3> On the other hand, we could be entering a phase where an open source developer might say "Why bother porting to Windows? Just target Arch/Ubuntu/SUSE."

<comment><USER2> tl/dr: Simply put, the cross platform distribution problem is solved (in way more ways than one), but I think the combination electron/nw.js + cross- platform-from-the-get-go languages will win, instead of other options like QT. I think it might be a waste of time to target a distribution and hope it gets ported reasonably to Windows, clouding your codebase in the process.

While possibly a highly unpopular opinion, this is where I think solutions like Electron/Node Webkit fit perfectly.I think this is actually kind of already solved (just not with the tools that everyone may want). We shouldn't be even aiming for any particular distribution to begin with, at the expense of a larger executable and less-than-native UI performance, you get write once ship just-about-everywhere when you use tools like electron/node webkit.

Developers often hate web programming, but it's just about the only easy to pick up, and relatively consistent tool for the job of platforms that "just work" (pretty much) everywhere right now. It even seems like the best way to do it going forward, given that:

\- Browser companies will work hard towards making browsers faster and efficient, because it's in their best interest (which is the best kind of guarantee).

\- Cross-platform minded languages like Go or Rust will become more popular for those who want to get away from using JS at all, and JS could basically become an RPC layer for the "real" application

\- Once WASM really takes to the mainstream, languages will just compile it to it. WASM already has LLVM support, so there's a bunch of languages for free already.

So soon, JS won't even be the sticking point in why people dislike distributing cross-platform apps with Electron/NodeJS, then we'll focus on things like executable size and memory usage, and solutions will pop up for those things too.

<tl/dr goes here>

<comment><USER4> > While possibly a highly unpopular opinion, this is where I think solutions > like Electron/Node Webkit fit perfectly.

Well ...: [https://twitter.com/jacobrossi/status/851992646151278592](https://twitter.com/jacobrossi/status/851992646151278592)

<comment><USER2> Nothing is secure. That post is basically spreading FUD as far as I'm concerned. There isn't even a point of comparison to any other distribution platform/native toolkit.

I also trust browser vendors to focus on keeping stripped-down versions of their core products secure more than I just joe/jane schmoe the app developer that just learned how to use QT/Swing/whatever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) isn't virtualized, as the article states.

[https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2016/04/22/windows- subs...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2016/04/22/windows-subsystem- for-linux-overview/)

It's aim is to run Linux binaries natively. The degree of it's usefulness, issues and filesystem interoperability was discussed before so won't get into that.

<comment><USER6> So it's sorta like a reverse WINE?

<comment><USER5> Sort of? Exactly! Windows Is Not an Emulator!

<comment><USER7> Awesome! Can't wait to install linux on WINE

<comment><USER8> Wine does work in WSL, so you can install WSL on your Windows box, then use WINE to run a Windows app on the Linux instance on your Windows box.

<comment><USER9> Are people doing this to play Win9x-era games? I find Wine does a better job being compatible with old Win32 applications than Windows does.

<comment><USER10> Don't most win9x games also run on DOS? because in that case dosbox is a great solution. I might be misremembering DOS/9x compatibility though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I like Windows, I like Linux, I like this news.

<comment><USER11> We don't take kindly to folks like you 'round here. Please pick a side immediately.

<comment><USER7> A large french fries with mayo please

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Guess the only reason to have VMWare on my windows machine is going away soon.

Hope there are some reduction in computational overhead.

<comment><USER13> I'm guessing they talked with VMWare before doing this? I wonder what implications/benefits this has for VMWare, since their (limited) Player has been free for a while now.

Then again, according to Wikipedia, maybe they were already planning for this?

> VMware Workstation versions 12.0.0, 12.0.1, and 12.1.0 were released at > intervals of about two months in 2015.[61] In January 2016 the entire > development team behind VMware Workstation and Fusion was disbanded and all > US developers were immediately fired.[8][9][10][12] The future of these > products remained vague; the company said that development would continue. > On April 24, 2016, maintenance release 12.1.1 was released. VMware announced > the release on 8 September 2016 of Workstation 12.5 and Fusion 8.5 as a free > upgrade supporting Windows 10 Anniversary edition and Windows Server > 2016.[13]

<comment><USER14> There are other reasons to want to use a VM, like guest isolation and multiple environments. I like to run unknown software in a VM first.

<comment><USER15> VMWare is great for setting up a test networking environment too. Workstation's virtual interface setup is nice and allowed me to test a host of operating systems, a custom router to test firewall rules, 802.1x security and a RADIUS server. All in a simple virtual environment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Genuine question: Why not just virtualbox/vmware it up with an ISO ? That's how I've been doing for years and it works just fine.

<comment><USER17> It's a different approach. WSL is more like CoLinux back in the day, in that Windows and Linux kernels run alongside each other. Even a bit better integrated because processes across both worlds can run each other, and see and talk to each other.

No one is taking away your VM, don't worry.

<comment><USER18> WSL doesn't run a Linux kernel – a Windows Subsystem just provides a different API to the underlying Windows kernel, in this case the API Linux applications expect. So arguably, it's even further from a VM than CoLinux.

<comment><USER16> Do you know if they already have proper X support? Or is it just a matter of compiling X.org and running it yourself?

<comment><USER18> I haven't followed this, but last I've seen a while ago was that you could run an X-server for Windows and then have Linux applications talk to that (and the normal environment didn't have dbus and things like that)

<comment><USER19> Indeed. For years now, I've been running MobaXTerm - which is a toolset, including a proprietary X server for Windows. Quite convenient.

(Full disclosure: no relation to product, user only)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For me, the big news is being able to install the distros on your non-system drive, as well as being able to run multiple distros at the same time. Pretty cool.

</comment><comment><USER20> Is-it docker compatible?

<comment><USER21> Dockerd relies on kernel features like cgroups and namespaces so I doubt the docker daemon can run inside WSL. There is a docker daemon for windows that I believes uses hyperv as container runtime. You could probably run docker cli inside wsl if you could expose the socket on the host to it (guessing)

<comment><USER22> Docker on windows seems to be a little bit complex.

There's Docker for windows which allows for linux docker containers to be run on windows, using Hyper-V.

Then there's Windows Container Services which allows for Windows Docker containers. Those can either be run on the host kernel or they can be isolated in a Hyper-V layer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Embrace...Extend...

</comment><comment><USER24> Are we submitting this story every day?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14317482](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14317482)

<comment><USER25> Yes, we are.

Parent's link is btw much better and straight from the horse's mouth, more details and doesn't confuse WSL with virtualization.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> The installation process for the WSL still blows - and I say that as somebody who really likes this feature.

I tried doing it today on my laptop:

1.) Open up the Programs and Features control panel.

2.) Go to Turn Windows Features on or off

3.) Select the Windows Subsystem for Linux option and hit OK. Installs, prompts for reboot.

4.) Try to launch C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe. Console window flashes momentarily and disappears.

5.) Open CMD window and run bash.exe. See a message that says "In order to use this feature you must have Developer Mode enabled."

6.) Faff around trying to find where the developer mode switch is hidden, in the newer Settings app. Enable that. Wait five-ten minutes as it does... things. Reboot again.

7.) Try to run bash again, and again console window flashes in and out of existence in a millisecond. Run it again from a CMD window. Type "y" to accept license terms. More things download from the Windows Store(?). Create a linux account.

8.) Finally have bash working on Windows, albeit in the terrible, terrible default console shell. Go look up how to setup ConEmu...

This really should be streamlined a little bit, right?

<comment><USER27> Hate to be that guy, but you missed Step 0: Read The Fine Installation Instructions.

Also, the default console shell has gotten a ton of improvements.</comment></comment>


Raspberry Pi launched by balloon broadcasts images from 40km high - <AUTHOR> http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1620

<comment><USER2> How does one actually transmit the images from that high up? I can't imagine you get cell signal up there.

<comment><USER3> Here more details: <http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=592>

Really interesting!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How is this any different than any other embedded Linux device? Legitimately curious. The thing that sticks out about the RPi to me is the GPU. I suppose it has GPIO but doesn't every other hobby device like this sport them?</comment>


Verizon plans to start offering home broadband over 5G network in late 2018 - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/verizon-to-sell-home-broadband-over-wireless-network-1512037801 <comment><USER2> What are the data caps?

<comment><USER3> 2GB with $15/GB overage fee.</comment></comment>


The rise of dunking and the three-point shot - <AUTHOR> http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/yin-yang-basketball/ <comment><USER2> Anyone watch the game last night? The Cavs attempted 45 three pointers ([http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400954513](http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400954513)). For reference, the most 3s ever attempted in an NBA game is 61 ([http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/let-it-fly-rockets-set- nba...](http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/let-it-fly-rockets-set-nba-record- for-made-attempted-3-pointers/)). Both were set this season. We are living in an absolutely insane time for basketball. Expect both records will be eclipsed next year.

<comment><USER3> yes, it was an amazing game! the cavs finally showed up. the warriors are so good (at 3's and dunks and everything else) that it took that level of super- human effort by the cavs to win. they had over 80 points by half and 100 halfway through the 3rd quarter. the warriors had an average game (for them), scoring 116 (!).

<comment><USER4> To be clear, this is what happens when your commissioner lets one of the league's top 3 superstars join an already 73 win historic team, even after that superstar took the 73 win team to 7 games in the conference finals right before. It's the most "piled on" team in NBA history, not even by a little.

Last year had 2 of the best series I've ever seen in the NBA (the WCF and the finals), this year there's nothing particularly exciting watching the Warriors play, it was all inevitable, and it just feels a little dirty.

It also feels even more dirty that the commissioner pretends like there is parity in the league, and even the officiating last night where they re- assigned technical fouls to prevent having to throw out a Golden State star (never, ever seen something like that, and as Jeff Van Gundy said right in the broadcast, "This is an absolutely terrible look for the NBA").

Just voicing another sentiment.

<comment><USER3> i hear you. the playoffs weren't very exciting this year. but on the other hand, look at how the cavs (finally) rose to the challenge last night, and in the process raised the bar for every other team. these are the best people on earth at throwing orange balls through orange rings and they're only getting better! =)

<comment><USER4> > the playoffs weren't very exciting this year.

You do understand why, right?

Your solution is "The other teams will improve!" and you're citing the Cav's improbable record setting game as evidence?

Sorry, but it takes a certain willful ignorance, or looking the other way, to defend the state of the NBA.

<comment><USER5> Or maybe you just enjoy seeing historic excellence at an athletic event. It's not clear to me what heinous crime the Warriors or the league have committed by allowing a team to exist that is really good. I'm not a big sports fan, but I thought the point was to be as good as you can at that sport. It would be one thing if there were behind the scenes inequalities unrelated to the athletic event itself, like one team spending way more money that everyone else, but as far as I can tell that's not the case here.

<comment><USER6> Go watch the Olympic Men's basketball team or the All-Star Game if you want "historic excellence"..

Having a team like this in the regular season is a joke and only serves the most base basketball fans.

<comment><USER5> I definitely don't understand that. I would consider Olympic Men's basketball more of a joke, since everyone knows that professional basketball in the USA is far and away a bigger deal than in other countries. It's completely stacked from a financial perspective, whereas (AFAIK) that's not the case with the Warriors.

<comment><USER6> So teams can only be stacked financially and not talent-wise?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's only in the past 10 years or so that teams have _really_ started utilizing the 3. Arguably the most sought-after NBA player these days is the 3-and-D (i.e. a player that can shoot accurate 3-poitners and also play defense).

Previous to that, the main school of thought was that driving to the basket was better, as there was a much higher chance of a favorable outcome (draw a foul, or make a basket). The school of thought now is that the expected value of attempting a 3 is higher (even though the odds of scoring are lower).

<comment><USER8> its not even that. Its that teams score the 2 point shot, average around 80-110 points a game. a team comprised of 3 point shooters can max out at 120-130. The spread is much larger. So even though you have a more consistent team hitting 2's that could win games, they won't beat a 3 point shooting team unless they shoot cold.

<comment><USER7> This is my point; a 60% chance of making a 2 is equal in value to a 40% chance of making a 3, averaged over the 80+ shots you will take in a game. The top teams in the NBA are closer to 40% from beyond the arc then they are to 60% within it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's more of a show biz now. Its own ability of having one master player for a certain type can both benefit and cause damage to its business. Because master players of a certain type is not easy to find and once there comes one, the expectation for the same type would be pushed higher after the player left. Or customers would leave. So if there is a master player now, do business around him/her. After that, change the game and expect another master player in another type. More fans pay to see their hero in his/her prime.

<comment> aaron-lebo It's not that new. There was a team in the 1980s called Showtime with some very masterful players. Free agency rules in the 90s actually made it easier for dominant players to switch teams. See Shaq.

What has happened is that players are basically bred from youth basketball leagues and they're healthier for longer, so you've got a number of skilled and freak athletes that can swing games. But those athletes have voluntarily chosen to form these superteams which are also a reflection of youth basketball culture.

<comment><USER9> The master player in one type I was talking about is someone like MJ. He pushed the expectation so high in both quantity (from data's point of view) and quality (all those master level moves only rooted from unreal fundamentals). There is basically zero chance to have someone better than him in the short and mid run. And the league had to change how the game is played to create space to expect another master player in another type. In this process, before the true master player emerges and matures, there is also some time for the fans to speculate who will be the master in each generation of players till that final one arrives. In short, better versions of a certain type of heroes keep coming and attracting more fans and pushing the expectation higher. It somewhat resets the product and let the new dynamics evolve so that it keeps the cashflow flow in strongly and can last for quite some time.

Of course, just my observation.

edit: added the product and dynamics analogy and corrected grammar.

<comment> aaron-lebo Good points. My dad is a Bulls fan. I remember watching MJ but don't remember appreciating just how dominant he was.

It seems like today we've got a number of players who while not as well- rounded are dominant in the same ways. You've obviously got Lebron, Curry is a better shooter, Westbrook is a triple double machine, KD has size + offense, etc. The ceiling for skill seems very high now.

I wonder if we're gonna see some insanely athletic 7 footer which brings the game back towards the basket any time soon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The three-point shot is nice, but they need to introduce the 4-point-shot that's made from behind the 1/2 court line.

Or the 5-point shot that goes in after bouncing off an opposing player.

Also, more replay reviews to catch flagrant floppers.

<comment><USER11> I originally thought of this as one could imagine "let's add a 64-point shot: for off the floor, off the scoreboard, off the bankboard... no rim", but then I found the remake and there was something more relevant and possibly interesting at play.

\</comment></comment><comment>----

McDonald's Commercial, Original, 1993: Michael Jordan & Larry Bird

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oACRt- Qp-s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oACRt-Qp-s)

"No dunking!" – Larry Bird @ 0m14s

The premise of the commercial is "nothing but net".

\</comment><comment>----

McDonald's Commercial, Remake, 2010: LeBron James & Dwight Howard

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmrTDZy3f2M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmrTDZy3f2M)

"No jump shots." – Dwight Howard @ 0m22s

The entire commercial became "nothing but dunking".

</comment><comment><USER12> Besides computers, basketball was the other pillar of my young life. At 12yo I was 6'3" and was playing basketball approx 7 hours a day at the local recreation center mostly to get away from my verbally abusive parents.

By 14yo, I was playing, as a freshmen in high school, on the varsity team with the second highest scoring and rebounding averages on the team. My basketball career ended suddenly with a ACL knee injury the first practice of my senior year.

My quite tenuous claim-to-fame is I once scored, in high school, 32 points against 6'11" Will Perdue, whom eventually won a world title with the Chicago Bulls.[0]

Modern basketball analytics have discovered that there are only 2 good shots...a 3-pointer and a dunk. If you do the math, the added extra point for a "three" and the very high-percentage outcome of 2 points for a dunk make them the ideal scoring mechanisms.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Perdue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Perdue)

</comment><comment><USER13> The biggest problem with the NBA these days is that so few players come into the league with solid fundamentals and skills. The rookie age limit that has spawned the whole era of one-and-done college players who bail after March for the draft is in some ways worse than when high schoolers could get drafted. Most of those guys are poorly served by the current system. Either they are ready at 18 (like LeBron or Kevin Garnet were), or they really need two or three or four years in a good college system to hone their game, get experience, and work in the weight room. Just look at how sad rookie of the year awards have been in the last few years.

</comment><comment><USER14> > _" And now the game is more inclusive than it ever has been."_

This is a laughable claim. The average NBA player is at the 99.9th percentile in height. You can count using your fingers the number of NBA players who are 5'9 or shorter. Such extreme height disparities do not exist in other popular sports such as soccer. Perhaps the 3-pointer rule helped in some way, but it's ridiculous to pretend that professional basketball today is "inclusive".

<comment><USER15> The reason for this is of course defence. A short person can elevate quickly to block a shot but then they have to wait while gravity brings them back down. In the mean time they're helpless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The NBA needs a longer, wider court. Players aren't just bigger than they were 30-50 years ago, they are also longer. Bigger courts would provide more open space for passing and fast breaks.

<comment><USER17> I wouldn't be surprised to see them add a 4 point shot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> tldr; dunking became a thing, the three point shot eventually balanced it out.

Color me disappointed.

<comment><USER19> All the way through that article I was waiting for the point of it and then it ended. What it's doing on the front page mystifies me.

<comment><USER9> I skimmed through it three times to try to understand what it tries to say and find the answer for the title. But I still feel lost. I was thinking my English reading was too poor (not my native language).</comment></comment></comment>


How one wearable for women is bringing self defense tools into the modern age - <AUTHOR> http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-one-wearable-for-women-is-bringing-self-defense-tools-into-the-modern-age/ <comment><USER2> _> She looked at him angrily, and wondered why she should be doing that. It's all about giving women something else to buy, another way to protect themselves._

I wish I could look at _her_ angrily. Her solution, after being angry with the cop about "giving women something else to buy, another way to protect themselves" was to create something for women to buy so they have another way to protect themselves. The hypocrisy is astounding.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I can see that and I wish it wasn't phrased in that way. That overall idea isn't to give women something else to buy. It's to change societal views by educating young boys and girls about consent, respect, healthy relationships which have been proven to increase empathy and decrease aggression. The wearable is a piece of that - and we think it's a much better solution to pepper spray and other devices which are focused on hurting someone. This tries to buy time, get help from family and friends (which are more likely to be close to you) and call the authorities to quickly get help. We believe that we're not successful until there's no longer a need for these type of products. Thank you for your comment, Nadya.

<comment><USER3> This product is exactly the kind of thing I want when I'm walking around in the city at night. I actually own a plethora of personal safety devices-- 3 kinds of mini mace, and a keychain shaped like a cat with pointy ears. I still don't feel totally comfortable. A device that can make bright flashes of light and loud noises would be invaluable, PLUS alerting my friends/fiance where I am.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Definitely buying this once it comes out for the ladies in my life.</comment>


Show HN: Subscription Payments with Bitcoin, Arf - <AUTHOR> Over the past months we had the idea to build a subscription payment gateway for everyone who is looking for adoption of BTC to their daily lives. So we are developing a technology over Bitcoin which allows merchants to get subscription / recurring payments. And for users, payments validated instantly, private keys remain private and user pays zero transaction fees.
What do you think, guys?
https://www.arf.one/
Thanks! <comment><USER2> I'm still not sure how it works. Bitcoin is a push-only protocol, how are you pulling BTC from a private wallet every month?

<comment><AUTHOR> The mobile app sends monthly notifications to subscribers and, if she chooses to continue her subscription, she can do it by signing the transaction on her multisig wallet provided in the app with a single button click.</comment></comment>


Fast-charging Li-ion batteries from 0% to 80% in 10 minutes - <AUTHOR> https://www.chemistryviews.org/details/news/11194594/Extreme_Fast_Charging_of_Lithium-Ion_Batteries.html <comment><USER2> >"Xiao-Guang Yang and colleagues, Pennsylvania State University, USA, have found that an asymmetric modulation of temperature prevents lithium build-up even at high charging rates.

 _If the lithium-ion batteries are heated quickly and briefly to around 60 °C during charging, even at 400 kW of charging power, lithium does not deposit on the surface of the anode._

This allows to fill up enough electricity in ten minutes to travel 320 to 480 km in the car."

This is fascinating, not just from a fast charging perspective (though the discovery is truly awesome in this area!), but also from an electrochemistry perspective as well!

In other words, let's say we have an electrochemical process which moves metal from solution or cathode to the anode (or the reverse)... well, perhaps, if all of the components are quickly pre-heated to a certain temperature, perhaps that no longer happens! Or perhaps you get other reactions!

In other words, perhaps there are other electrochemical processes / reactions possible -- if the constitutent parts (cathode, electrolyte, anode) are pre- heated (or pre-cooled!) to various temperatures...

(Also, it seems logical to assume that pressure, that is, perhaps, high pressures -- might influence electrochemical reaction results as well, as is well known in other areas in chemistry...)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Full paper: [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2019.09.021](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2019.09.021)</comment>


How Reddit was created: 'I wanted to make the world suck less'  - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/28/the-inside-story-on-how-reddit-was-created-i-wanted-to-make-the-world-suck-less/

<comment><USER2> So, I'm a bit confused. How is Reddit considered a success story by it's founders? Wasn't it sold off really early to Conde Nast? Didn't it only start to blast off into success-o-sphere like right after Digg started dying? Wasn't Conde Nast not providing resources to the team which, forced them to ask for _donations_ (reddit gold) from the community to build more servers/hire? I mean, it all sounds like a big barrel of luck that it even survived.

<comment><USER3> It was sold quite early, but for a double digit million dollar pay out. For a while, it was the biggest YC exit. It has been spun back out into an independent subsidiary, which Alexis is involved in again in an executive role (Steve could have been, too, I'm sure, but he's working on Hipmunk).

What do you consider success for fresh out of college 20-somethings, if having a few million bucks in the bank, and having built one of the biggest sites on the Internet, isn't success?

<comment><USER2> I guess I was saying that a lot of things happened that were indicators that the site may have not been what it is today. I don't know how much money they have in their bank accounts but I'll bet all mine it's not millions from the reddit sale. I just get annoyed by the hype of a vision and someone be responsible for something that can't really be explained. If it really was that for them, as jay-z put it, they could create another one.

<comment><USER3> That would be a foolish bet. The value of the acquisition is known to have been in the low double digit millions. Probably 12-15. There were two founders, plus a third member of the team at the time of acquisition, and very little dilution from investment...the math is pretty easy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder how much those fake users really did towards pushing reddit to it's growth spurt.

<comment><USER5> They spent their time populating the site by hand because ultimately they knew that's how their users would do it.

The accounts they used weren't fake, they were just the two guys building a site with a lot of test accounts.

<comment><USER6> >The accounts they used weren't fake

Uh, yeah, they were. They intentionally created _false_ accounts of people with different names to give the impression that a lot of people were already submitting content to the site.

<comment><USER3> Unlike all those novelty accounts on reddit. Or, for that matter, unlike your username here, "kami8845", if that is your _real_ name rather than a _false_ name.

The accounts were real enough. They were people (Steve and Alexis) posting interesting stories to their own site. They just happened to give the illusion of lots of people doing it...which is kinda mandatory for a new site, if you want to kickstart it.

<comment><USER7> Do you not find that misleading to the other users on the site? People come along expecting links chosen by the wisdom of the crowds and end up just getting things two guys find interesting?

<comment><USER3> I was a reddit user back when they were populating it themselves. I was not offended to learn later, after meeting them, that they'd made up accounts to populate the site.

I enjoyed the really high quality links they posted; that was the only "contract" I felt like I had with reddit at that point. There was no discussion in the beginning, so the links were all there was, and they were high quality (i.e. I enjoyed reading the linked stories). Faking a community would be much harder, so it's lucky they didn't have to. By the time comments were a part of the experience at reddit, there were enough actual users to make it happen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What are we supposed to learn from this?

I love Reddit, but I find their story depressing. Everyone has fun personal projects that they make, but a lucky few will have them become wildly popular without much planning for reasons they can't foresee. I don't feel like I can learn anything from that, and it makes me feel very unlucky and that fate is largely out of my control.

<comment><USER9> Did you watch the video? If you watch it through to the end, you see the determination, conviction and sincerity that these guys have, which would have put them ahead of anyone else trying to do something similar (eg, Digg, in the long run).

No one denies that luck plays a big part in how successful any given startup will turn out to be.

But everyone can do things to make their chances of success higher, and the magnitude of that success greater, through the way they conduct themselves and the decisions they make about what they do.

<comment><USER8> You're implying that projects that aren't successful lack determination, conviction, and sincerity. This is not the case at all.

<comment><USER9> I didn't imply any such thing; I said luck plays a big role.

Luck was a big factor in Reddit's early success. But luck wouldn't have helped them if they didn't have a good idea ans put in the work.

And luck, as they say, is something you can make, by spending enough time operating with determination, conviction and sincerity, and by learning enough about the world to pick projects that will have a higher chance of success.

But from your comments in this thread, you seem like a pretty cynical, defeatist person, which could be a pretty big handicap in your quest for success - if indeed that is something you really want.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Is Mark Zuckerberg Killing Silicon Valley? - <AUTHOR> https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/mark-zuckerberg-competition-silicon-valley <comment><USER2> Microsoft was pretty infamous for his behavior in the 90's. They'd send down some VP, pretend they'd be interesting in acquiring your company, and then suddenly stop responding to your emails.

2 months later, they'd release a product exactly like yours and dare you to sue them.</comment>


A Tender Hand in the Presence of Death - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/11/the-work-of-a-hospice-nurse <comment><USER2> The rotation I did through a hospice service when I was a fourth year medical student was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

Hospice staff are experts at effective pain-wrangling (pain in all its many manifestations), and, as they say, in helping people _live_ until they die.

I'm grateful for the teaching - from both clinicians and patients.

</comment><comment><USER3> I do wonder sometimes if it's a gift or a curse to know that your eventual death is coming soon. Death is such a weird concept that at least I personally feel I lack the hardware to fully comprehend or be at peace with (as of right now anyway).

<comment><USER4> I try to think of it as something that will feel like falling asleep. I don't dread sleeping, so I shouldn't dread dying either.

<comment><USER5> I'm not afraid of death, although I hope mine is delayed a long time for the sake of my family. I am, however, afraid of _dying_ , which is often a long and painful process.

<comment><USER4> Fair point. Everybody hopes they can go swiftly into the good night.

Isn't the fearsome part of dying just the pain and sickness though? Those things can exist as a chronic state that doesn't lead to death, so I'm not sure it's dying that one should be afraid of...

In some countries like Belgium, unbearable pain that doesn't lead to death is sufficient cause for an individual to be granted assisted suicide performed by medical professionals.

<comment><USER5> That's a good point, the two don't have to be linked. I always think of them together, I imagine because so I've seen so many people die slowly, and relatively few end up with horrible chronic afflictions that still let them survive for a long time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> In a world filled with fast money, quick soundbites, greedy startups and selfish individualism, it's heartening to read that people like Heather exist - quietly and patiently showing us what really matters.</comment>


Religious Believers Are Nicer Say Researchers - <AUTHOR> http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/gods-truth-believers-are-nicer-20110908-1jzrl.html <comment><USER2> It's easy to be nice when the world you live in is warm and fluffy.</comment>


The Entrepreneurial Pendulum (2006) - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.atlassian.com/rebelutionary/archives/000834.html

<comment><USER2> Interesting take on the pendulum. When I read this sentence

'The idea is that entrepreneur's mind is a pendulum that swings between two states - ? and ! - but most of the time they're at one of the two extremes.'

I assumed the ? was representing the whys and hows as in, why is something done like this? Why do we have have to do x? How would the world be better if??

And the ! was representative of the idea and vision. Which of course causes us to swing back to the 'hows' of accomplishment.</comment>


Lenovo Still Shipping Laptops with Superfish - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/two-weeks-on-superfish-debacle-still-causing-pain-for-some-lenovo-customers/ <comment><USER2> At least for someone technical, wouldn't it make sense when buying a laptop to also buy a full copy of the OS (Windows) and do a full reformat/install, as SOP?

When I bought the HP Pavilion sitting in front of me my first act was to wipe it and install Linux. I know, huge cost difference between that and installing a paid-for Windows.

I think vendors can, or maybe are required, to spot you the small cost of the installed OS if you aren't going to use it.</comment>


Collapsable Comment Threads - <AUTHOR> Reddit has them and it make comments sections tolerable.  Why doesn't this site use them?  It relegates the top comment and its hundreds of child comments to the top without sifting through any other comments. <comment><USER2> If that's something you would like then the HN Utility Suite plugin for Firefox, or Hacker News Collapse Comments plugin for Chrome will give you that. (I haven't tried either of those plugins for a while. They may be broken.)

<comment><AUTHOR> I would do this, however I mostly read this site at work. Also, plugins add additional stress to browser speed which as programmers, you'd think would be avoided at all costs.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Balanced Payments Client for Go - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/bnoguchi/balanced-go

<comment><USER2> Unsure why there is neither a link to what Balanced Payments is (I had to look it up: [https://www.balancedpayments.com/](https://www.balancedpayments.com/)) not a description of what it could be used for/examples.

I'm normally very excited about this kind of stuff, but coming in without context and being greeted with a barebones README almost made me just close it.</comment>


Saddest Day: Macbook Pro Stolen While in San Francisco - <AUTHOR>

Sunday was the saddest day of my life. I'm a college student in Boston who went to the Bay Area during Thanksgiving to check it out. Everything was amazing until I went to Union Square and my rental car was broken into and the thief stole my backpack that contains my new 16GB Macbook Pro, iPad 2, various passports and etc. It's really sad because I lost around $3k worth of stuff with no hopes of getting it back.<p>My advice to future tourists: Never leave valuables in the car or trunk. <comment><USER2> It's actually good to hear that the saddest day of your life involves something gettings stolen. There will be much worse days. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's just stuff. It's sad, but don't let it get to you too much.

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess. The stolen stuff are some of my essential daily tools. I need my laptop for everyday usage and my passport is important for me to get home during winter break, which is in 2 weeks.

<comment><USER3> Depending on your home country, you should be able to get a temporary passport issued by your embassy here, which would allow you to travel home.

<comment><USER4> And while you're roughing it with a temporary passport and a cheap windows laptop, count your blessings:

I'd bet >10% of the readers here have had any of the following: Cancer or similar shitty disease or disability in self or family, lost >50.000$ in natural disaster, accident or financial turmoil and/or are in a permanent state of stress due to job, relationships, legal battles or similar.

Perspective!

<comment><USER5> Add a divorce to that, and you get over %50 probably! Divorces are far more financially and emotionally ruinous than this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sorry to hear this but you need to do a few things immediately if you haven't already:

1) Report your passport stolen to your nearest embassy. This is critical. Make sure this is done first

2) Report the theft to the local police and describe everything in detail as much as you can. Do it soon so that it is fresh in your mind

3) Keep an eye on sites like craigslist for sale of macbooks in the area. Yes this is pretty much a long shot but you never know. There are plenty of stupid thieves in this world and the thief might try and sell it right away.

4) Did you have any kind of tracker app on your ipad etc ? I think Apple has something right ? If yes, try and use it to locate your belongings. UPDATE: as ericcholis mentioned, you should always have an account with [https://www.icloud.com](https://www.icloud.com) and use "Find My iPhone" to track your MacBook and iPad

And yes, for all of us, PLEASE never leave anything in your car that can be seen easily. Even if you think the area is safe or who will bother stealing a backpack, think again. I always make it a point to either put things in the trunk of the car or glovebox if you must leave it in your car.

<comment><USER7> You _should_ be able to log into iCloud.com and manage/find your devices there.

<comment><AUTHOR> Being a dummy, I put off setting up iCloud because I was too busy with school work, thinking I would be able to set it up during break. Not anymore.

<comment><USER8> Jesus christ man, too busy to login to a fucking website and click a few buttons? We're talking like 5 minutes here. Could have saved you $3,000...

<comment><USER9> Downvoting because this comment, restating the obvious, adds nothing but kicking somebody when they're down.

<comment><USER8> No way, this is such a common sentiment among my friends and coworkers that it needed to be said. This guy was straight up lazy and he got caught with his pants down.

<comment><USER9> Words don't need to be said; words don't have needs. People sometimes could _benefit_ from hearing words. But if you're going to be a jerk about it, then people generally aren't going to listen. Ergo, no benefit.

In this case, though, I don't think stating the obvious was anything that the original poster needed to hear. You were responding to something where he already said that he was "a dummy" and will do it differently next time.

And I think your accusation of laziness is... unevidenced. He's a college sophomore at a selective school, he's studying half-way around the world from home, he has a number of neat projects on his blog, and decided to make a cross-country trip over Thanksgiving break. And in a follow-up to a theft, he took the time to post something to help other US visitors avoid thefts in the future. That doesn't look lazy to me.

<comment><USER10> There are two kinds of feedback. The one that makes people stronger, and the one that makes people weaker.

I believe it's so much more worthwhile to be supportive. When you have any kind of an adventage over others such as when you know something better, have move experience, have more money etc., you have these two options: either use your adventages to help, or to bring down.

To ridicule is not the best method of educating others either. And a person who feels strong doesn't have to show any sign of superiority, because with true strength comes security.

I wish the author of the original question will not find it too difficult to get back on track after loosing the bag. Good luck to you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Yeah, I have made that mistake in SF, although thankfully at a much smaller cost.

I had set the change from a parking garage on the passenger seat. At my next stop, Japantown, I parked at a meter and forgot about the few bucks sitting in plain view. I came back 20 minutes later to find the window smashed. Hundreds of dollars in repair costs and hours of my and other people's time. All for $2 or $3 in somebody's pocket. It gave me perspective on how desperate some people are.

Anyhow, I'm sorry that you experienced this in my city. The advice you give applies pretty much any where in the US (and in a number of other countries I've been in). If something is visible and looks valuable, 5 mm of glass is not much of a barrier.

Edited to add: Feel free to contact me (details in my profile) if you need a hand from a local with anything. E.g., I'm glad to go with you to file the police report.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a lot for the offer! Really appreciate it. But, I've already filed a report and I just got back to Boston.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Sorry to hear about your loss! Hopefully you'll be a public service announcement for others about the dangers of leaving anything -- _anything_ \-- visible in a car in San Francisco. If there's even the slightest doubt that the item has value, your car window will be smashed and the items stolen.

If it makes you feel any better, you're in good company: nearly everyone I know has been the victim of smash-and-grabs. At my last company, two of our employees had their laptops stolen from a parked car. I've even had windows bashed because someone wanted to open the glove compartment to see if there was anything inside!

Most recently, we discovered some crackhead _cutting through our front gate_ because he wanted access to some bikes that were visible. He would have had to cut through the gate, then another security door to get them, but that was no deterrent. It's one of the "charming" aspects of city life that makes you want to move to the suburbs.

As codegeek says, you should report your passport immediately. Your laptop has probably already been fenced for drug money, but you could _try_ to find it on craigslist, or down at the various stolen-property yardsales at 6th/7th and Market. That's a long shot, though.

</comment><comment><USER12> Sorry to hear about your loss. Hope your data was backed up somewhere you can get it, and that you had Apple's Find My device, or whatever they call it, set up.

Same advice in a better form: Never leave anything that looks like it might contain valuables in a visible place in a car. Trunk is usually fine, since nobody can tell what's in there, and thieves usually won't break into random cars in the hope that there might be something valuable in the trunk. On the other hand, a bag with nothing valuable in it on the seats is not fine, since the car may get broken into anyways, on the assumption that there's something worth stealing in there.

I've lived in an urban area for a while, and have seen this happen in several different ways...

</comment><comment><USER13> Living in Finland, I haven't always been thrilled about our extensive social welfare and the consequent high tax rates. This story reminds me that even though I don't benefit directly from social welfare, there are latent benefits on the societal level. Namely the ubiquitous sense of security, because the poor rarely have to resort to theft as the government gives them money to get by.

I don't really have to watch out for thieves. Of course they exist and you can never be too careful with these things. But occasionally having left valuables in view inside my car, or a bag at a cafe table while I visit the restroom, I've never had anything stolen. I'm not afraid to walk in the city at night.

A friend of mine was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight in SF, which came to me as a big surprise. I couldn't imagine that could even happen. Obviously I need to travel more to broaden my worldview...

<comment><USER14> I think you may be looking at one factor too exclusively - You're also comparing a rather homognious culture with the mixing pot of America.

While there's downsides as seen here ( where personal property is not held sacrosanct by all cultures ) there are upsides as well that may outweigh the costs. For example: Americans get exposed to many unique cultures in the course of their daily lives. One could argue that this is beneficial.

<comment><USER15> Which cultures don't respect personal property?

<comment><USER14> Speaking from personal experience - the white-trash/tweaker culture, and the intergenerational Section 8 culture.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've been paranoid living in SF with a car the last year and sucks to hear this happened to you. Just some advice for the future and to others that park around SF: I didn't realize until recently that my car has a "valet" button and what it actually does. Basically, its a button in the glove compartment and when you turn it on, the trunk can't be opened. So what you do is turn it on, and then lock your glove compartment with your key. Also make sure if you have back seats that open that they are locked as well. This way even if someone breaks into your car, they won't be able to access your trunk.

<comment><USER5> What model of car do you have?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Having suffered this a year or so ago I can feel your pain.

Question:

Why doesn't Apple log stolen serial numbers so that the second they show up (connect to iCloud, brought in for repair, or whatever), alarms, dogs, sharks with lasers, you know, the usual.

I feel like computers shouldn't be any more thieve-able than cell phones.

<comment><USER18> > I feel like computers shouldn't be any more thieve-able than cell phones.

Wait, what?

What country do you live in where phones aren't worth stealing?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Entire story of what happened:

I paid $10 for a parking space somewhere near Union Square thinking my car would be safe from towing and what not. I left my backpack in the trunk because it was too heavy (big mistake). Went back 3 hours later and the rear window was smashed and they got to the trunk from the reclining passenger seat. Filed a police report and they told me chances of me getting my stuff back is slim. Went to Apple Store and tried to get a discount for the second purchase but they only offered me the usual student discount. Called my credit card company but apparently I don't have any coverage for my purchase.

<comment><USER19> Sorry to hear this. I think it's very rare to have things stolen from the trunk, were you followed or watched when you first parked the car?

Most credit card companies have car rental insurance to cover the damage to the car.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> >My advice to future tourists: Never leave valuables in the car or trunk.

That's general advice for anyone who's ever been in a car.

Did you have travel insurance? I've never had to use it but this seems like something that would be covered.

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately I only have health insurance but not travel. I could've asked for an extra insurance for my rental car but being a poor student, I wanted to save money.

<comment><USER21> If you bought the macbook on a credit card, that will occasionally include insurance for theft, loss or damage. I knocked my new iPad off my desk a week after buying it and visa paid for a replacement with very little hassle.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> In my country (turkey) such thieves are quite common. In my whole life I 've had things stolen from my car for 3 times. The last one happened, even though there was nothing to steal from the car no backpack, anything. The thief stole the CD Deck! And yet another theft we had on our basement last year. The thief took my (about $60 worth) socket wrench set. I observe there's a certain pattern on thiefs actions and deeds: They seem to know if there's something worthy in any area and when they find one they steal without anyone seeing.

</comment><comment><USER23> Login to [https://www.icloud.com/](https://www.icloud.com/) and use "Find My iPhone" to track your MacBook and iPad. If the thieves are stupid enough, they'll turn the devices on at some point, giving you a good idea of where they are.

Do this as soon as possible, and check back constantly. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER24> 20+ years ago I had a thief break into my car in front of my apartment. When I called to report it, I (jokingly) asked the lady taking down the details if there was a fine or anything for shooting thieves. She got all exited about that. Here in New Hampshire gun ownership is pretty common and crime (perhaps coincidently?) is fairly rare.

</comment><comment><USER25> See Apple's Support Pages for Lost/Stolen devices: [http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT2526](http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT2526)

Do you have renter's insurance in Boston? If so, check your policy, it may cover theft.

</comment><comment><USER26> You prob park on the street. Next time pay and park inside a garage and hide your stuff in different locations! Theives know there are people around so they will grab whatever they see first!

</comment><comment><USER27> I dont have any spare laptops, but I could buy you a chromebook off CL or Amazon if that is helpful. I know its not much....

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a lot but I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable accepting as expensive as a laptop from someone I don't know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Was your stuff in the trunk or just in the back seat?

<comment><AUTHOR> Trunk.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Do you have home or renters insurance?

<comment><AUTHOR> I have neither.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Travel insurance?</comment>