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MicroServices as a service - mohameddev http://stackhut.com/ ====== mohameddev Looks promising to have the ability to access your code as an API, I cannot wait to test it. Check it up

Microsoft's little-screen, big-screen interactive future - clbrook http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57572163-75/microsofts-little-screen-big-screen-interactive-future/ ====== clbrook Reminds me of Corning's day of glass videos: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38>

Ask HN: Where can I hire developers for my dinky bootstrapped startup? - j32fun I&#x27;m interested in some ideas, fellow HNers. I run a bootstrapped software business. It&#x27;s small, but profitable. I want to expand the company, and I see myself (who&#x27;s technical) as needing some hired help in expanding the codebase with features and maintenance of the code.<p>I&#x27;ve tried the usual routes in finding contractors and interns to see if they would make a good fit into the company. I&#x27;d say that I&#x27;ve had 0% chance of success in this.<p>Any suggestions on those who have made a similar journey from a company of 1 person? ====== techjuice You may have to hire actual employees or highly paid contractors if you want the best people working for you. Unfortunately, if you are not able to pay really nice compensation you will get the bottom of the barrel people working for you. Now that may not be very realistic due to you being bootstrapped so you only have the following options: Hire an employee, hire better contractors, change where you are hiring interns from pr bring in a partner and make them a partner in your company that can help take some of the burden or outsource. If you want to outsource, you should insure you test the quality of the work you get before signing long term contracts. ------ gus_massa There are official monthly threads for jobs offers and freelance work. You can try posting there in the correct one: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html) For the latest post, see [https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring) ~~~ j32fun Thanks. I never paid attention to the monthly thread (was not in the position to look for a job). I'll definitely be combing through it. ------ SlowBro If it’s profitable could you demonstrate your profitability and outlook to investors so that you could afford better help?

Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work? - throwawayqdhd This question might come across as dumb, especially for a 30 year old, but I come from a culture where this aspect of work was never emphasized and at this point, I don&#x27;t know who to ask.<p>Basically, since as long as I can remember, I&#x27;ve had issues motivating myself to work and focusing on a single task.<p>I&#x27;ve used everything from rewards (&quot;If I work for X hours, I&#x27;ll play a video game&quot;) and punishment (&quot;If I don&#x27;t work for X hours, I&#x27;m a complete failure&quot;) to get myself to work.<p>I have to come up with elaborate new schemes to get myself to focus. I&#x27;ve tried awarding myself &quot;points&quot; for doing a task, turning my work into a virtual RPG. I&#x27;ve tried keeping elaborate spreadsheets of my work habits. I&#x27;ve tried the Seinfeld method of mapping out my &quot;win&quot; and &quot;fail&quot; days.<p>Essentially, I come up with a new tactic to motivate myself every couple of months. If I don&#x27;t do so, I find myself struggling to meet my goals and distracted.<p>Part of the reason for this is perhaps the nature of my work. I&#x27;m a freelancer and have been one since I graduated from college. I make a decent enough earning because I&#x27;ve acquired a niche set of in-demand skills. But I struggle to meet deadlines and never have enough dedication to meet any of my long-term tasks (such as building an app or starting a business).<p>For years, I thought this was &quot;normal&quot;. But I&#x27;m now starting to think that maybe I just don&#x27;t have a regular case of procrastination.<p>Does anyone else feel this way? Is work such a complicated endeavor for you as well? Am I suffering from some form of undiagnosed ADHD? ====== endymi0n I can relate a lot. I'm still burning through self-motivation hacks at 35, some of which are helping while most don't. Eventually, the hack with by far the largest impact (which brought me to currently being cofounder and CTO of one of the more successful German startups) was realizing that while I simply suck at self-motivating, I never had a problem getting stuff done when working for others. I effortlessly produced two albums for other artists, while I still haven't finished my own single release after 20 years. I tried to build my own company three times and failed miserably. Eventually, I "just" found the right teams and eventually cofounders with a great vision and lots of focus who constantly pull and motivate me to do the stuff I'm really good at (which is building teams, sharing knowledge and architecturing systems). So I've just made my peace with the fact that I need someone else to get me started every day and just stopped fussing around it. My talents are somewhere else and I've got lots of creativity and intelligence to make up for my lack of structure. Stop focusing on your weaknesses. KNOW your weaknesses, but don't beat yourself up for it. Also know your strengths (which is often times the other side of ADHD). Practice self-love every day. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Let me end with a quote of probably one of the greatest procrastinators out there: > "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." — > Douglas Adams You're not alone. And it's gonna be fine. ~~~ orblivion So here's a question - what if I am of this disposition but I have a lot of ideas? And I would not be satisfied with life unless I'm pursuing them? Is there a way to reach out to find people to be in charge of me to execute on my ideas? Does anybody want to do that? (These are not necessarily businesses) ~~~ Denzel Take this with a heavy grain of salt. It's an idea I've had -- even though I don't have motivation problems -- that I have yet to do. (I plan to within the next three months.) Hire a part-time project manager. A good project manager is immensely helpful in (1) teasing out and decoupling requirements, (2) producing a work-breakdown structure (WBS), (3) setting a schedule/timeline for execution, (4) assessing risks, and finally (5) controlling activity and adherence to the schedule. These are all activities that suck to do alone. A project manager offers a useful _organizer_ and _controller_. Basically, they represent a forcing function. Just like personal trainers help unmotivated people stay in-shape, I think a personal part-time project manager would help you follow through on your projects. ~~~ iandanforth I like this idea. Also as soon as you commit cash it's going to be easier to follow through. Make the sunk costs fallacy work in your favor! ------ zinckiwi I'm familiar with this. There's no magic solution, sadly, but I'll share one thing that has helped me and may apply at least to some of your situations. I realised a while ago that my main issue was with nebulous tasks -- that is, the more concrete, defined, and _meetable_ a task was, the less trouble I had with it. So I started to break down large tasks, which never got started much less finished, into smaller ones, in the same way you might break a scrum- poker 20-pointer into a bunch of 3s. You want to go from this: \- I should really write [some great app idea] To this: \- I'll make a list of technologies that I want to use \- I'll read the docs, like a book, for the ones that are new \- I'll write a single api endpoint \- I'll flesh out the api for the rest of a feature \- I'll MVP a UI for that one feature, without any concern for design \- etc. In my case, a combination of the size of and amount of ambiguity in a task is inversely proportional to the ability I have to both get it underway and get it finished. ~~~ tlrobinson I've been wondering, is there a todo / task tracking app that can somehow aggregate tasks across multiple applications? Currently my tasks are spread across emails and email drafts, Github issues, iOS reminders, Slack, my head, etc. It's a lot of work to keep track of them all. Maybe I should just carry around a paper notebook and make that the authoritative source of tasks. ~~~ beejiu Sounds like you need a process, rather than a tool. Personally, I jot down everything that gets mentioned to me on paper and, within 1-2 days, it will end up in the project management system (if it is something to be worked on). Once it's there, I strike it through in my notepad. So basically, 99% of my notepad is a scribble - only 1% that I need to think about remains un-struck. ------ scotty79 Get hired in some software corporation. You'll be amazed how easy the work is and how well it pays. The only motivation you'll need is to get up in the morning and haul you ass to the office. After few months of what will feel like vacation to you, in the company of fresh smart people, you'll start to get bored, even despite doing more hobby programming in your free time then you done in a long time. But at this point your freelancing clients will direly need you. So you'll take some jobs for weekends and evenings, at way higher hourly rate then you used to have. After a while of that let one of your freelancing clients hire you but not as freelancer but a full time remote employee paid not for hours of coding but rather for 8 hours each day, same way you were paid at corporation. After working for two or 3 years like that your problems with motivating yourself will come back but till then hopefully you'll get enough money to take a long break and then get hired somewhere else or do something else entirely. As a side note don't ever play MOBA games. You'll get hooked so bad you'll have very little time to do any personal development and will have trouble enjoying any other games you enjoyed previously. ~~~ xor1 >As a side note don't ever play MOBA games. You'll get hooked so bad you'll have very little time to do any personal development and will have trouble enjoying any other games you enjoyed previously. 5000+ hours of DOTA2, started playing DOTA in 2005, played lots of HON and LOL too, confirmed. I was able to quit for 6 months, which was the longest I'd ever stopped playing, but relapsed recently. I don't even enjoy playing that much anymore. It's just really addictive. ~~~ Topgamer7 I migrated to pubg from hon. RIP HON :( ~~~ dcow I miss Nomad and Aluna and Predator even though Predator is basically Huskar. I also heard Fortnight recently overtook PUBG.. and they're not even in China yet. Wise advice OP. ------ modernerd I have felt the same way. Some things that helped me: 1\. Do the “Productivity” sessions in the Headspace app. I was really skeptical about guided meditation, but have found them very useful in maintaining focus. It teaches you to be aware when your mind wanders and helps you bring focus back to the task at hand. [https://www.headspace.com/](https://www.headspace.com/) 2\. Force yourself to break big tasks down into tiny chunks. When things seem overwhelming, it's easy to put them off. 3\. Consider using an app that divides your working day into chunks that you can work on in 30-minute intervals. I use [http://focuslist.co/](http://focuslist.co/) to set my agenda for the day early on, then work through the list. 4\. Read “Deep Work” and “So Good They Can't Ignore You” by Cal Newport. 5\. Reduce social media. I dropped Facebook and removed all twitter apps from my phone. This is a good guide: [http://humanetech.com/take- control/](http://humanetech.com/take-control/) 6\. Exercise for 20 minutes every morning. I bought a speed rope from [http://rpmtraining.com/](http://rpmtraining.com/) and now skip every morning while listening to podcasts / audiobooks. 7\. Consider getting a full-time job, or a contract with one company for 20-30 hours a week. Having co-workers to compare yourself with and managers to be answerable to is a natural motivator. ~~~ inglor > 1\. Do the “Productivity” sessions in the Headspace app. If you haven't done so already - do the "Motivation" pack too - it literally teaches you how to summon motivation which is phenomenal. ------ mikekchar I don't know exactly what your "success" or "failure" looks like to you, but I will say that working in an unstructured environment (which is what you normally do when freelancing) is super hard. I'm willing to bet that if you were to get a 9-5 job you'd discover that you're actually outperforming most other people -- because the 8 years of experience you have pushing yourself. Being "self-driven" is both a talent and a skill. Some people are naturally good at it, but everybody can get better with practice. It sounds like you have been working hard at it! I spent 5 years teaching ESL at a high school and in that time read many, many papers on motivation. One of the things I discovered is that it's still really an open question how it works. I can tell you from my own experience, though, that circumstances can change your motivations completely. That probably sounds obvious, but it works in subtle ways. Working in an office, not working in an office, having a partner (both social and work versions), etc, etc, can change things dramatically. It's not just about finding a technique to concentrate. What I will say is that freelancing is playing on hard mode, so it doesn't surprise me that you find it hard. That may or may not have any relevance to your ultimate questions, unfortunately. If I were to bet, making your job easier will make you more successful at this point in time (though you may want to dial it up again at a later point). ~~~ cheschire Not saying OP, but some people chaff under leadership and need that "out" of freelancing to feel like they can walk away without concerns for loyalty. Sometimes it's because the leaders are inept, and sometimes it's because people just don't like being controlled. The Wachowskis spent 3 movies telling us about how there are layers of control no matter where you look. Perhaps OP is struggling because he may have been avoiding control by freelancing, only to find that he's being controlled in other ways. I don't want to sound judgmental at all. It's possible that this could simply be a matter of perspective and once he finds out how to live within the abstract boundaries of freelancing controls, he'll be more able to take on the rigidity of authoritarian control found in office life. ~~~ drchickensalad Do you have any more information or links on this interpretation of the matrix? ~~~ cheschire Unfortunately not anymore. It's been many years. It's not so much an interpretation as just one aspect of the entire story. Go back to the first film when Morpheus says the Matrix is just a form of "control", and then laser focus on that word for the rest of the trilogy. There are many aspects of the story, and while it's great to sit back and take it all in at once, it's also good to give it a watch through with a specific concept in mind. I suppose in that way it's similar to what people find in their various bibles. Reading the same stories again and again, yet finding new perspectives and on them. ------ m_fayer I'm in my mid 30s and I think I'm in the middle of the pack as far as productivity/focus/procrastination go. From that perspective and from your own description of yourself, I would put you below average, and much more importantly - your performance is making you unhappy. I think this calls for a self-diagnostic. I would definitely see a therapist and maybe a doctor to make sure there aren't any subtle undiagnosed issues holding you back. This could be mild depression, ADHD, or heck sleep apnea. Or maybe you're completely in the wrong field for yourself and a counselor could help to quickly suss that out. Or maybe you're a wild perfectionist and don't even know it. There's a million possible explanations that could be completely invisible to you but accessible to a trained 3rd party. If you were in your early 20s I'd say... muddle through, no one starts off awesome. But by your 30s I think it's reasonable to expect more and appropriate to get proactive about getting to the bottom of this. ~~~ downandout I had a long period of time where I couldn't get motivated to do anything after a business partner screwed me out of millions of dollars from an acquisition. I would try and try, but I just couldn't get started on things, or I would start and never finish. I later learned that after this incident, I was suffering from "learned helplessness" [1]. This is a phenomenon where after experiencing a trauma that you were powerless to stop, the brain generalizes that powerlessness and applies it even to situations where you do have control. Essentially, you no longer believe that your efforts can yield positive outcomes, and you stop trying. Learned helplessness is believed to be a major driver in depression and obviously is a source of issues with motivation. It's a really interesting and treatable condition. If anyone reading this believes this may be an issue for you, you should look into a therapist that is experienced with CBT, as this can be an effective treatment for learned helplessness. [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness) ~~~ thenaturalist Whoa, thank you so much for sharing this. I never heard of this concept before, it's an unknown unknown for me. This explains a lot of my personality. ------ teekert You mention playing video games as a rewards and I immediately wonder: how much of your problem is the fact that video games made you get used to fast and easy rewards? How much did you desensitize your innate reward system by video games? I'm probably going to get down voted for this remark but I encourage every gamer feeling the urge to down vote to take a critical look at themselves before doing so, be honest, my interest in this is also honest. In the digital world nowadays many things are optimized for fast rewards, real life is not. Gamers often tell me "it's just for relaxation" but often I feel that the time invested by them in games makes it more like a lifestyle. That said, a tip would be: What do you like about work? What are the things that do motivate you? Try to make a list and try the make the items on said list as big a part of your day and tasks as possible. ~~~ Vadoff I would say most video games do not have fast/easy rewards. There may be numerous small wins scattered throughout the completion of most games, but I would argue it's not much different from the distribution of small wins you could find at work (completing a small function, finding/fixing a bug, getting a large subtask done, etc). Most video games are decently challenging on a whole, and requires some persistence. I would argue browsing reddit/HN/facebook/checking email/notifications are loaded with a ton more fast/easy rewards that give instant gratification than most video games. ~~~ ghostbrainalpha That second paragraph is exactly what he is talking about. Your first paragraph is more of a semantic argument. I'm a huge gamer, my twin brother is not. When we both try to make a 'game' out of cleaning the house, I think it is easier for him. My bar for being entertained is just much much higher than his, because I get super high quality entertainment from video games. I want to finish the dishes so I can get back to killing all the orcs in Mordor. He wants to finish the dishes so he can go meditate... The result is he does the dishes a bit better than I do. (Although I often complete the same task more quickly) I definitely still prefer my choice to his, I am aware that my decisions changing the reward centers of my brain. Mowing the lawn will never be a fun game to me, because I have _actual_ fun games to play. ------ contingencies Things to try: \- get more sleep \- time off to recharge / re-motivate \- meditation / yoga / exercise \- try to stop using stimulants (includes caffeine/nicotine/sugar) or try using different stimulants (eg. arecoline) \- absolutely do not smoke marijuana, it is known to make many people lazy and demotivated \- control your environment (quiet, no phone, phone off, offline) \- clean your environment (zero clutter) \- change your environment (fresh space) \- remove all distractions (visual, audio, etc.) \- try different times of day (eg. sleep early, wake then work early AM before sunrise) ~~~ Broken_Hippo _absolutely do not smoke marijuana, it is known to make many people lazy and demotivated_ This is the stereotype. Sure, some folks get lazy, but same for lots of drugs, including alcohol. How many potheads have you known? I've been one at different times, probably qualify, and would rather work with a pothead who is stoned all the time than a drunk. Lazy isn't due to marijuana, but rather the person smoking and to an extent, their reaction and tolerance level. With me is the opposite. I don't clean house more or lesse, for instance, when I'm stoned constantly, but I don't mind doing it as much. I eat less. I enjoy my work more. I start enjoying going for actual walks. Now, if you are getting so stoned that you can't walk, that's gonna be an issue. But for me, at least, it isn't what you say. It might be worth trying occasionally. It might be worth cutting down. And if you just do it on weekends occasionally or smoking in the evenings after things are done, it probably isn't going to make little difference. I am slightly more forgetful. But only slightly. I've sat here and learned stuff, like a langauge (not fluent, but can do simple jobs and speak lightly about politics with it). Not that big of a deal. ------ superasn I think this can be a result of spreading yourself too thin. I was in a similar situation myself when I was trying to do too much by myself and had insane ambitions for myself. The question to ask yourself is Are you trying to accomplish the task of 5 people by yourself? Because if you are then any amount of work you do, you will never feel satisfied (because let's face it nobody can do the work of 5 people and ace it all.. you are bound to dislike some aspect of it, procrastinate and then blame yourself for not doing enough). So I advise you to first create a list of the expectations you have for yourself and then imagine assigning it to a friend. What would be your take on it.. Do you think he should be able to handle it easily or do you think you're asking too much from him? Lastly, you really need to get rid of this thinking "If I don't work for X hours, I'm a complete failure". This is classic "Labeling" or "All or nothing thinking" (things you can learn in CBT) and if you keep thinking like this it can cause depression (which also makes a person unmotivated). ------ ideonexus You are normal. Over the years I have learned that the internet makes us all distracted and that it's a problem many of my peers are wrestling with today. I was in a meeting just this week where our new product line manager started joking about how easy it was in a moment of distraction to open a news site with the intention of just spending a minute there and end up losing half an hour of productivity. I told him I had to watch myself or a moment of distraction to check twitter while an app compiled would lose me half an hour in the endless scroll. Everyone else in the meeting was nodding their heads, and we all had a good laugh about it. The important thing is that you are aware of it and you are fighting it. The best thing you can do is simply keep fighting it. I had seen many people on HN recommend the Pomodoro Technique, where you work in 20 minute sprints with five minute breaks. I got an app to keep a timer on my phone and it makes focusing much easier, especially when I know I only need to focus for 20 minutes. At the end of the day I can see how many sprints I accomplished and feel better about myself. Other things I find help me is to have points in the day where I unplug completely. When I get home from work, I leave my cellphone on a stand by the door and only check it once or twice for support calls so I can focus on my kids. Complimenting this is mindfulness meditation, where I practice thinking about nothing while I jog in the morning. Having dedicated time where I just focus on focusing without all the other noise really helps me focus in the busier points of my day. Like I said, the most important thing is that you are aware of it and fighting it. There are slow weeks at work where I lapse back into the endless scroll, but I see it happening and can make a conscious effort to course-correct. Remember that you are normal, keep trying things to find what works, and share what you find with all the other distracted people who also don't know how normal they are. ~~~ dboreham >Over the years I have learned that the internet makes us all distracted I'm old enough to have worked before there was an Internet (well...I remember when we first got a Usenet feed via 9.6k dialup, early in my career). Based on my recollection of those days, I'm not sure it's all the Internet. There were other distractions prior to that. But definitely the Internet made the frequency and magnitude of the problem worse. Some of my best work has been done on plane flights (before they had Internet). ~~~ ideonexus Thank you for this comment. I remember being a procrastinator and distracted without the internet in college. I share your ability to focus on planes. I find coffee shops help my focus as well. ~~~ dboreham Yes the university library was an endless source of distraction for me. Never reading books relating to my actual fields of study. Interesting times though.. ------ forgotmypw I fought this draining battle for about 15 years of a relatively typical IT career, from desktop support, to junior dev, too dev and all-hats, to application support, to QA (less stressful), to finally getting out of the game for the most part. Rarely did work not stress me out, aside from when I was starting out in desktop support roles, and maybe when I was trying out QA. I knew people that seemed to be made for it. They may not have liked it, but they managed to power through day after day of drudgery like it was nothing. They were productive, accomplished their workload, and did it consistently over and over. Sometimes I envied them and wished I could be like them. But in the end, I just am not. One of the biggest problems for me was that I rarely felt like I was working on anything worthwhile. It was either advertising to sell stuff, or tools to help people sell and ship stuff more efficiently, or number-crunching to track money, or various forms of CRUD to keep track of the cogs, and so on. And even when the work was interesting, it was still largely driven by deadlines and plans and getting X done in Y time units. Put these here frameworks together, work out most of the kinks, and ship, ship, ship! This was also kind of soul-crushing for me, because I like to get things "right", even if it means prototype after prototype that's discarded after a month or two of learning. In the end, I opted to minimalize my life and switch largely to supporting myself through barter and scavenging. Now much more of my time is under my control to do with as I please, and I try to make the most of it. For me, that means much more yoga and movement, and coding irregularly—when I am struck. I also feel much healthier, because I can sleep as much as I want and on whatever schedule I want. ------ tarruda I can relate to this and AFAIK there's no magic/quick solution. Even if you find some job/project that motivates you a lot, that motivation won't last forever and eventually the lack of focus/procrastination will come back. I work a full time as a remote software developer, and what helped me in recent years was to focus on developing self-discipline, which is what pushes you forward in the long term. And yes, self-discipline can be seen as a trainable skill. I started by forcing myself to wake early and take a cold bath every week day. I've found that this habit helps me develop a work routine in the first morning hours. Even without having great productivity, I've found this greatly reduces the bad feeling you get from procrastination. Almost a year ago, I started forcing myself to do something I used hate (but healthy, especially for someone that sits for most of the day): going to the gym and lifting weights 3 times a week. As the time passed, this became an habit which has an amazing impact on my work productivity. This may be because I'm following a program where I constantly try to increase the weights, giving a feeling of progress I don't usually get from daily work (Currently lifting about 4x weight more than when I started). It might not work for you, but this is what I'm doing, in case you are interested: [https://stronglifts.com/](https://stronglifts.com/) ~~~ whilestanding Cold shower after waking up early sounds like a great way to start the morning and improve discipline. I think I'll attempt starting this plus adding a short run after the shower. I'm sure I'll be able to conquer the day easier after breaking through that early resistance. I agree that my self-discipline trainable and improving it is the best solution in the long run. There are a lot of things that I need to do but don't want to do, getting that discipline muscle strong will help me do those things and improve my life in many ways. ~~~ tarruda Self-discipline will help you acquire good habits and drop bad ones, but it also helps to track progress with an app. I use habithub for this. ------ montrose It's normal to struggle this way with work you don't love sufficiently, which (unless you're lucky) tends to include the work you do for money. Companies have techniques to motivate employees. E.g. your boss or peers will be upset if you don't do something, and happy with you if you do. As a freelancer you don't have that, so the struggle is more visible to you. Some people can sometimes find types of work that they love so much that this doesn't happen. I have often managed to. ~~~ nukeop If you are over 18 years old and your motivation to do a job well is the threat of being yelled at, then you have some growing up to do. Equally so if keeping some guy happy is positively motivating for you. ------ throwaway021918 I've always suffered from ADD at school, my grades were really bad. I understood everything the teacher was saying but when it came to exams it was a different story. I couldn't study, and I failed them miserably. The worst part was that 20 years ago I didn't know about ADD nor did my parents, so the problem went unnoticed and there was no one but myself to blame. I never managed to finish reading a story for example. I was never hyper and could always focus on coding and was always self motivated. Even though I could focus on programming tasks, I realized at some point that I never finished a side project and always jumped from one side project to another. At 30 (I am 34 now), ADD hit me hard and I lost my ability to focus when coding. I decided to visit the dr about this issue and was prescribed adderral at first but I didn't like it as it made me feel euphoric for couple hours and ended up on vyvanse (30 mg) few months later. Vyvanse changed my life. And that might me an understatement. The amount of knowledge I was able to attain after getting on vyvanse is probably more than everything I've learnt. I am now able to complete my projects, read plenty of research papers and absorb what's being said and code for 8 hours straight without an issue. I am considered one of the top engineers at my job (and previous ones) and I attribute a significant part of my knowledge to vyvanse. My working memory improved significantly and I can focus and finish the most mundane tasks. I've read that many people that has ADD or signs of it get hit hard by 30 or so. I highly recommend visiting the dr and see which adhd med works best for you. ------ bitL What can help: \- visualize yourself as a homeless in your late 40s, abandoned by your wife and kids, no longer recognized/avoided by your friends, destitute, in bad health. It's a likely outcome if you don't learn how to finish things, work on your own projects and make it. Think about it as your default future state you want to avoid \- remove distractions while you are working on something. If distractions are your inner ones, contemplate on them for a few minutes and then decide to stick with a task for 2 continuous hours. \- put away those sugary foods that wreak havoc on your focus; look up how cancer in obese people looks like and replace their exterior with you; contemplate about how to avoid such a fate \- when you are stuck for multiple days, don't keep sitting on the chair; take a walk to a forest, talk to completely different people to allow your brain stop overloading the same "circuitry" \- force yourself to have 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every single day; experiment by going to sleep before 10pm and waking up around 6am \- build resilience by doing something you hate for an hour a day. It could be sports, it could be talking to/helping some annoying person, taking a 5 minute cold shower, take a morning run for 30 minutes or doing any useful things you hate to do; simply define the lowest point of the day - "it can't be worse than that" and move off to better things \- ignore your past failures, only learn from them. Don't occupy yourself with the past whether it was glorious or awful; you only own the present and shape the future ~~~ kortex > visualize yourself as a homeless in your late 40s, abandoned by your wife > and kids, no longer recognized/avoided by your friends, destitute, in bad > health. However true this might be, I think this is bad advice for someone with OP'S mental architecture. That sort of thinking only reinforces anxiety (the unhelpful kind, not the fire-under-butt kind), loss of locus of control, and imposter syndrome feelings. Otherwise good advice. ~~~ thecatspaw I kind of do have a similar mental architecture as OP, though a few years younger. This sentence doesnt make me feel anxious or any of the other feelings you mentioned. It makes me go "Yeah sure, as if that will happen". If the threat is not immediate or in the near future, its very easy to just push it aside ------ curo A few years ago, I could have wrote what you wrote, but at age 31, I feel almost as productive as I’ll ever want to be. So what changed? I simply don’t think about it anymore. Coming up with rewards schemas is thinking about it — it’s your mind taking something simple and making it more complex. It’s also an implicit acceptance that you’ll postpone enjoyment of work and use your reward to compensate for that postponement. Any schema is thinking about it. Any hack is thinking about it. Any todo list is thinking about it. Strategic plans…thinking about it. Any time you think of the outcome of your work before actually doing it. Todo lists will naturally write themselves when they’re needed. Strategic reflection will happen when curiosity or aimlessness arise. That’s there natural habitat. The mind weaponizes them for procrastination far beyond their intended purpose. I'll post the rest in a comment, but your post inspired me to write this post: [https://medium.com/@cureau/is-it-normal-to-struggle-with- wor...](https://medium.com/@cureau/is-it-normal-to-struggle-with- work-462765d9434) ~~~ curo continued... There is no mental trick here; maybe it’s a pre-mental trick. It’s not even a habit. Habits are mental. There is a deep power in the moment that originates before the mind arises. Slip into these depths before the mind muddies the water. Feel it wriggle in protest. Let it wriggle; let it pout. You don’t need him anyway no matter how much he proclaims you do. Just get up when you want to get up. Sit down when you want to sit down. Work on a project when you’re feeling restless and want to work. Work on a project when you’re passionate. Work on it when you’re bored. Don’t wait for a preconditioned moment. Your body will naturally ebb and flow between work and play. It has an ancient understanding of this rhythm, trust it. You’ll be surprised how many moments in a day you want to sit down and create something. You’ll easily get in several hours. It’s like making tea. It doesn’t require thought. It’s just a series of simple motions. Stop planning, stop hacking, stop thinking. Don’t believe the mind when it pretends to be your friend. It comes up with all sorts of ways to fix procrastination, but every solution is by definition not the work itself. Just work! And play! And work again! You want to see what it looks like in action? You’re looking at it! I read his comment and replied just a few minutes ago. I enjoyed the process, so I expanded on my comments. A few minutes later and here we are. No tears; no blood; just joy. And now some tea. ------ Joe-Z I'd suggest taking a look around you and maybe ask that question to people you know in person. I know this feeling myself, especially when starting out with work after college. Always beating myself up over how I don't have any side- projects, if I'm going to cut it at work and basically why I'm not on the same level as Linus Torvalds, or some other genius programmer already. I think the truth is that I was heavily influenced by e.g. sites like HN, where it's always touted as the ultimate virtues to have these side-gigs and basically be working all the time. When I looked around though I realized that this is just not the reality for the overwhelming majority of people. Most people are happy just working their 8 hours and then _do something else_ So, my advice would be to 'stop trying so hard' ~~~ therufa this is the best comment so far. ~~~ Joe-Z Haha, thanks. I was a bit surprised how the 'ADHD'-hypothesis took off (many comments responding to it), as opposed to, you know, just not wanting to program all day. ------ stared "Smart Guy Productivity Pitfalls" ([http://bookofhook.blogspot.com/2013/03/smart-guy- productivit...](http://bookofhook.blogspot.com/2013/03/smart-guy-productivity- pitfalls.html)) were useful to me and techniques related to "no zero days" and just getting started (with a single sentence, slide, line of code) are virtually the only things that consistently work for me. These techniques are nicely summarized in "Micro-Progress and the Magic of Just Getting Started" [https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/smarter- living/micro-p...](https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/smarter-living/micro- progress.html). Anything causing _guilt_ turned out to be counterproductive, vide my answer to "How to stop feeling guilty about unfinished work?": [https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17988/how-to- st...](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17988/how-to-stop-feeling- guilty-about-unfinished-work/18009#18009). ~~~ swah I love that first blog post: "Productivity Deficit: Your Attitude Writing Checks Your Work Ethic Can't Cash" Wish that guy continued writing... ------ bkanber I used to be lazy. For me there was no tactic that solved the problem, but instead a realization that hit me one day. Why was I not more successful? Nobody's going to hand me success on a silver platter. Nobody's going to make me rich. Nobody's going to do a damn thing for me. If I want those things, I realized I just had to work hard and do it myself. It sounds like a trivial realization, but when it hits you juuust right it's life-changing. I think rather than tactics and strategies you need to spend some time in self-reflection and think about those things. Ever since then I've been able to self-motivate and work hard, even when I don't want to. (I guess you shouldn't call it motivation but rather discipline.) FWIW I do think it's a "regular case" of procrastination. Even a regular case of procrastination can have devastating effects on your ambition, and procrastination is not easy to fight. Depending on your personality type, you also may do well to make _more_ commitments, not less. If you know you have to work on another project this weekend then you'll have to get the first project out of the way this week. ------ vegancap I'm going through this exact thing currently, too. I sometimes struggle to follow even the most basic of instructions, I have to really, really focus very hard to follow someone explaining something to me because my mind starts to wander half way through the explanation. I have to have things explained to me two or three times, and I can feel very dumb at times because of it. I find struggle to have productive meetings, because I'm bored to the point of physical discomfort at times. I went to the doctors about it and they referred me for relaxation therapy (?!). So I'm struggling to know what to do about it currently. I was tested for ADHD as a child, but they concluded that I was just poorly behaved. It seems to be a pretty common issue with engineers, I've came across loads who have similar issues. I actually posted something similar to your post in the funfunfunction forum recently: [https://www.funfunforum.com/t/attention-and-focus- issues/389...](https://www.funfunforum.com/t/attention-and-focus- issues/3892/20) ------ roosmaa I guess it completely comes down to the individual. For me personally, having deadlines with someone depending on what I'm delivering does help to get myself rolling with work I find boring. Of course, I've also noticed that I can do that for only a short time and if I don't get some interesting work to regain my motivation, I'll end up getting depressed. Right now, I've structured my client work in a way that allows me to switch between things every week. That way I can do a boring thing for a week, then do something interesting, and then back to the boring. If there's no interesting paid projects, I just work on things I can find enjoyment in - learning new things, working on things I enjoy and dropping them as soon as the "fun" goes away. For personal projects I avoid breaking them down into smaller steps. With smaller steps I can see the mountain of work ahead of me (most of which isn't that fun) and the motivation to work on it goes away, even if there's still plenty of enjoyment to be derived for said project. That's also one of the reasons why I rarely release anything personal I work on - the fact that once its out there and I would need to maintain it, kills the fun. I also try to limit my working hours to a certain range; the only reason why to work outside of those hours is if I've been slacking off previously and need to catch up to hit a deadline or if the project is so much fun it's already as relaxing as anything else I could be doing to wind down after work. Getting 8 hours of sleep is also very important for me. Any less for an extended period and I'm beginning to inch towards a depressed state of mind. Any more than 8 hours and my procrastination goes up. But yeah, finding out what works for you is always difficult, and I think it also changes with time. ------ xwvvvvwx Firstly if you think you may have ADHD go and see a doctor for a diagnosis. It's a very common condition and there are a set of well understood and effective treatments. Second, if you struggle to motivate yourself, maybe reassess what you are working towards. Perhaps the problem is not with you, but rather with what you're trying to make yourself do. There is an almost infinite range of activites available to you, try some new stuff, and then keep trying new stuff until something sticks. When you really find your passion you won't need to play tricks on yourself to get stuff done, you'll just do it because it's fun and rewarding. ~~~ f_allwein Here's an interesting resource for helping you find out what you are passionate about. Starts by thinking about what is the biggest problem in the world you want to address, then find a career where you can contribute to it (which can also be "earn a lot of money, then donate to charities addressing problem X"). [https://80000hours.org](https://80000hours.org) ------ adventured In my late 20s I saw a dramatic improvement in my ability to ship products I wanted to build, through aggressive simplification and feature stripping. It made all the difference. There were other smaller ingredients, such as just getting better over time thanks to experience. Mostly though, radical simplification was the biggest improvement. I found that I would begin a new personal project, feature bloat would start right from the initial design documents, then I'd drown in the effort necessary to build it all. As I burned time, working away at attempting to finish the bloated monster, I'd gradually lose the motivation necessary to get to the finish line of a launch. So I ended up building an immense amount of stuff that I never shipped. Half or more of my personal projects would end up that way. I believe the approach of radical simplification has the added benefit of producing superior products for the end user, as well. These days I practically enjoy it when I find feature bloat that I can throw out the window. It becomes: how much bullshit can I do away with, which accelerates my core goal to get to launch; I can get closer to the finish line, while doing less work, and that simply feels great on most any serious project. You have to be ruthless about removing unnecessary complexity (most complexity will prove to be unnecessary, and worse, harmful). So many things in life are going to be commonly working against you in trying to build something, there's a very high value in not adding to that. ------ garmaine You have ADHD. Make an appointment with a qualified psychiatrist to see if you meet the requirements for diagnosis and medical treatment. You are not alone. Your struggle is the result of a medical condition, and not your fault. ADHD can destroy lives. Don't let it ruin yours. Source: I'm 35 and struggled with very similar things my entire life. It nearly destroyed my marriage and my career. I received a diagnosis 6 months ago and have been taking prescribed stimulants (Vyvanse) ever since. It was a life-changing experience. My only regret is that I did not seek help earlier, having for so long blamed myself rather than my neurochemistry, which only made me stressed and depressed without providing a solution. ------ moduspol I'd recommend talking to your doctor about Adderall. I have the exact same kind of issues focusing and basically have all my life. Sometime in college I talked to my doctor about it and it's single-handedly one of the best decisions I've made. With it, I can multi-task and stay focused on even tedious tasks. I'd say I'm easily 4x as productive, which has helped my career tremendously. Seriously--I don't want to come across as a shill, but it's like a night and day difference in ability to stay focused. Insurance covers it, and diagnosis consists of your doctor asking you a few questions about exactly the kind of thing you're describing here. ~~~ Tepix Adderall is an illegal drug in many countries. Be careful. ~~~ garmaine That’s why the recommendation was to see a doctor (and ideally a psychiatrist not a general practitioner). There are many legally prescribed medications to treat ADHD and most jurisdictions allow at least one of them. ------ llarsson What long-term goals do you have for yourself, really? Do you have any? And if you say you do, do they actually motivate you? Building an app or starting your own business sound like typical HN crowd goals, but do they actually apply to you? It seems to me that you right now struggle with seeing the effects of your work, and how they relate to whatever long-term goal you may have. Because there seems to be a disconnect there, you do not feel motivated. But this will not change until you: (a) have a clear long-term goal that you actually care about, and (b) figure out how to work on tasks that help achieve the goal. __Why __are you doing whatever it is you are doing? ------ cbar_tx It's normal unless you are not able to consistently overcome it to achieve your goals. Basically, like any disorder, its not technically a disorder until it prevents you from living your life. I was diagnosed with ADHD at about 12years old. I refused treatment all through high school until I was 30 when I realized I had gotten nowhere in life. I had substance abuse problems and a criminal record. I'm back in college now. I have hobbies, goals, and no desire to turn back. My anxiety is gone as well as the impulse to self medicate. I've gone through several state mandated drug/alcohol/anger management classes over the years, so the cognitive behavior mechanisms were there, but when I finally told a doctor my story, and how I felt, I got treatment and it changed my life. You can't diagnose yourself and trying to is unhealthy. It manifests doubt and can make things worse by compounding negative emotion. If you're just being lazy, grow up. But if you are unable to will yourself to do/focus on the things you want/need to do, if you feel you are "suffering," even a little bit, ask for help. You are important. Don't waste time guessing. ------ dabernathy89 I've often felt the same way. So much so that I even did some testing a few years back to see if I might have undiagnosed attention deficit issues (turns out I don't). The worst byproduct of this is that it brings some shame with it. I've never had jobs that demanded all that much of me - I worked some intense hours when freelancing, but for the most part I've had very flexible jobs with good work environments. My wife works insane hours as a tax accountant, and although it makes her miserable a lot of the time, she always seems to be able to power through her 10-14 hour days during busy season. I feel myself mentally checking out after just 4-6 hours some days. It's embarrassing that I don't seem to have the same work ethic as her (and many others). I've tried productivity tools (pomodoro-ish stuff mainly), but they never seem to quite fit in with the kind of work I'm doing or with the work environment at my job. I'm looking forward to reading through this thread to see if there are any recommendations I can take from here. ------ pieperz I always thought I was ADHD, then I started a business, turns out I just like to do things my way and lead not follow. I've struggled to "focus" my whole life I'm a jack of all trades and master of none. When you find the right thing you'll know. I would do what I do now for free or if I was worth 100 Million because I love the game. ~~~ riekus And what is it that you do? ~~~ latexr I’d also like to know. ------ tombert I cannot speak for anyone else, but what you described is very similar to what I went through for most of my life. It felt like there would be periods where I would be so adverse to any kind of work, and look for any possible reason to push it off or do nothing, and spend the rest of the day on Reddit or HN. Eventually I started seeing a psychiatrist, and he diagnosed me as manic depressive, with possibly a case of ADD. He prescribed me a combination of Lamictal and Wellbutrin (the latter of which is also prescribed occasionally for ADD), and I can honestly say that it has changed my life. I used to think that I was just lazy, and maybe I was, but I am certainly not anymore. My job has been a lot easier to do, I don't look for excuses to spend all day on Reddit, and my life has simply been better. ------ toomanybeersies I suffer the same as you, but at a younger age. I have also been wondering if I suffer from ADHD too. Even at university I really struggled to sit there and do one thing for an extended period. I stopped going to lectures because I couldn't handle sitting in the lecture theater for an hour, I could never do homework either. The only work that I've ever really managed to focus on and stick at for hours is physical work, like construction work or hospitality. Like others have suggested, exercise does seem to mitigate my problem somewhat. I've found that going to the gym at lunch really helps. Don't just go solo to the gym though, or you'll just procrastinate at the gym, you need to join a group class. ~~~ garmaine That sounds like ADHD. You should see a psychiatrist. ------ andybak > Am I suffering from some form of undiagnosed ADHD? It's worth looking into this. I know people who found a diagnosis extremely helpful - even those who chose not to avail themselves of the medications available. There's several online questionnaires that would give you an idea of the kind of questions you'd be asked if you went for a consultation. Some of the traits are quiet distinct and you'll have an immediate sense of familiarity. If you find yourself saying "Gosh, I thought that was just me" then it's probably a sign. :). Feel free to msg me and I can pass on a bit more info. ~~~ virtzzz As someone who suffers from ADD... This. I got formally diagnosed and medication has been nothing short of a miracle worker. ------ mabbo Last year, I moved from a large faceless corporation to a startup. For the twist in this story, at the _startup_ I got exactly the way you feel. I had no motivation. Everything was easy, everyone was amazing, the benefits were great, but I was just so bored. After 7 months, I went back to the large corp. I really enjoy what I do here and I'm now in a new role that I enjoy even more. I guess my point is: you're bored. You don't care about your work because you don't care about it. Go find work you care about, something that excites you. ~~~ rodolphoarruda It's interesting to read this because my experience was completely the opposite: the startup days were really exciting, especially when we were designing and creating things from scratch using the best of our intelligence/intuition. A couple of years later I moved back to the corporate world of large international IT companies. I felt bored to do things that were forethought, designed and/or implemented by other people. I freaked out to see gaps in processes, inefficiencies in general and could not fix them because it was not my job to do it. ------ mwidell I just read a book about ADHD, and what you describe is exactly what the book says work can feel like for someone on the ADHD spectra. (the book is a Swedish one, called "Fördel ADHD" by Hansen) Read up on ADHD, and learn good "tactics" to cope with work, such as regular workouts (increases dopamine and makes you able to focus for longer periods), short term goals (just 2 hours into the future perhaps), varying your tasks and work setting often, etc. Something I have found very helpful is the Pomodoro technique. ~~~ iovrthoughtthis This is basically medical advise too right? I would encourage reading about potential afflictions but I would strongly suggest getting a second (beyond your own) opinion from a medical professional. ------ lr4444lr Pathological distractivity (like ADHD) is not the same as long-term erosion of motivation and sense of purpose by not being a good fit for either your workplace, or type of job. You would probably benefit from a professional psychotherapist to determine which specifically is plaguing you. ------ t_akosuke Remote freelancer here. I've had this problem for forever as well - many days I will stare at whatever project I'm working on all day without getting anything done, and maybe the next day the same will happen, and by the third day I will start avoiding communication with the team. Sometimes a week will go by where I've sat down to try to work as if it was full time but only clock a quarter of that. After a few months of that kind of torture, I'm dying for the customer to dismiss me and try again from scratch...only it's the same thing over again. It's no wonder I haven't built a solid network of clients, and I'm genuinelly surprised when I get anyone to call me again. I know I would probably perform better in a regular job environment - I know I've done in the past. But at the same time, I have both a very hard time accepting the idea of spending 40-50 hours in an office, and huge difficulty convincing those jobs of taking me. Development for me was supposed to be a way to get home the bread and support my artistic career, but it's working out to be very poor at bread winning for me, and I find it just as hard to work on my art this way. I'm considering quitting it completely and do menial jobs that don't fry my brain so I can really push my real passions. ------ JeremyNT Do your goals actually make sense to you? Why have you set these goals? I'd start asking these fundamental questions, because it may be that you simply aren't engaged in your career path. Do you actually enjoy your work? Do you think you'd enjoy starting a business? Or are you just trying to get paid? If you don't have the passion for the actual work, and you don't care _that_ much about the money, then you'll never feel that motivation you talk about. And that's OK! You can force yourself to get there by playing games and tricking yourself, but is that worth it? Maybe working a solid 20-30 hours as a freelancer who makes enough to get by while pursuing other interests isn't so bad. If so, embrace it! Don't beat yourself up over failing to meet some arbitrary goals. Maybe there's something entirely different you'd rather be doing. You're young enough that you can still find your passion if it lies elsewhere. Have you ever been driven to complete _anything_? Is there anything you just can't get enough of doing? Think about it. Maybe it pays less, but maybe that doesn't matter, because if you enjoy it, if it gives you a sense of accomplishment, maybe that's worth more than making extra money. ------ sornaensis I used to struggle a lot when it came to getting things done that I actually wanted to do wrt personal projects, and sometimes work projects. I had a big issue tackling projects I wanted to finish because I would get discouraged or distracted by something and then lose focus. Usually I would bounce from project to project whenever I ran into a hangup and then by the time I came back to it I had forgotten what I had done and what I wanted to do, so I was usually surrounded by rotting projects if there was no screaming deadline pushing me to deliver. It's probably really obvious to other people but the main change I made in the last year and a half has been consistently writing my ideas down as 'tasks' in a project management software, divided into projects. Now everything is in one place, out of my head, and I can see for each project what I have actually done, what I have not, and categorise things. Having concrete tasks that I can check off as I do them or amend as I rethink my ideas increases the satisfaction and focus I have while working on a project because I can see what I have been planning and how far I've come instead of getting bummed out by a weird edge case or slightly wrong initial architecture. ------ ntlk Have you considered trying therapy? Working with a professional who understands how psychology works can be incredibly helpful problems like this. They can help you build personalised strategies that take into account how you think, rather than generic suggestions. Especially your mentions of punishing yourself and tracking “fail” days sound very unhealthy to me (not a professional), and perhaps working on what’s causing you to think in those terms could be beneficial. ------ mattmanser I have always had the exact same problem, sort of dealt with it by doing crazy sprints of work, but recently had a revelation. And I'm in my late 30s. Try the free course "Learning How To Learn" by Barbara Oakley on Coursera. It teaches you how to deal with this in the procrastination section. Roughly speaking, it teaches you how to recognize and effectively counter bad habit as well as change your mind set to focus on the process, not the product. For me the process/product bit was the big revelation. Also, it sort of teaches you that your zombie mode can be used for good, I realized that by trying to have an incredibly flexible life and not have a set routine, I was actually working against one of my best "allies", habits for simple stuff are good, the mind likes routines as it can switch off. Use it to your advantage. It's not a magic bullet, some days still go wrong, yesterday for example I played a game all day. But the odd thing is, techniques like the podomoro technique have now started working for me with this change in mindset. I would go through the whole course start to end, it's short and really good. I've picked up several other new ideas and habits from it that are really working for me. EDIT: Also, I second the therapy too, that's also helped. ------ iamben Many, many good responses here. And I muchly second meditation and exercise. I also needed to get out the house every day when I worked from home (the gym was good, but you don't talk to enough people). WeWork has been excellent because it gives me a place to be every day, and people to talk to. As for distractions like video games, try making them irritating enough that it's more effort to do it than keep focused on your task. Unplug the console, put it in the box and put it at the top of the cupboard. Unplug all the cables from your TV. Let yourself play console, but go through the effort of setting it up and packing it away each time. Before long you'll only play it when you really want to - those ten minute "one game" sessions that become 2 hours don't happen anymore. Last year I moved into a new place and my housemate and I didn't bother getting a TV. I missed TV for about 2 weeks. Been over a year now and not having something to just 'sit' in front of has been a game changer for _doing_ other things. Same deal. I cut out all the casual watching. All of us struggle - particularly when working for yourself. Don't beat yourself up, it really doesn't help. ------ abalone It could be ADHD, but believe it or not I'd explore whether it's an addiction issue. I think there should be more discussion and analysis of the relationship between addiction and chronic procrastination. What else are you doing with your time? You made a couple of references to video games as a reward system... do you spend a lot of time playing games instead of working? Are there related addictive-ish behaviors like watching porn or engaging on Internet forums for hours a day? Addiction isn't just about substance abuse. It’s about certain brain systems creating instant gratification feedback loops. Chronic procrastinators who _don 't_ abuse substances might be missing out on a whole body of literature and research about how this aspect of our brain works. Another thing to consider is whether freelancing, your only career, is something you’ve _chosen_ to enable yourself to pursue addictive behaviors. I’ve just read a book on this called _The Biology of Desire_ , the thesis of which is addiction is not a “disease”. More of a dysfunctional inter operation of brain systems in response to anxiety and trauma. It has several stories of how people recovered and reconfigured their minds. ------ menacingly I discovered that I'm only really useful before about 1pm, so I get up early and take advantage of that time as much as possible. After that, I handle emails, scheduling meetings, the stuff that doesn't require thinking too much. Sometimes I get a second wind and want to do intense thinking later in the evening, but usually I ignore it to avoid burnout. I fought it for a long time, but it's just how I'm wired. ------ xchaotic I think very few in the Western culture will encourage that, but if it's your nature, don't fight it too much, you don't have to be the hero that ships app number 1000000021 in the app store. Get or keep a comfy '9 to 5' corporate job, get a gym membership and enjoy life the way you enjoy it and not the way is trendy in 2018. Humans are not built to be systematic. ------ dtx1 What helped me here are two things: 1\. The book getting things done by david allen. He just very explains to you how organizing works or how it often fails and what to do about it. Basically a smart person guide to keeping organized 2\. Realizing that it wasn't motivation i was lacking cause that is fleeting and temporary but discipline. Not motivated? Fuck it, do it anyway. Motivated? Good, keep doing it. ~~~ Steve44 > 2\. Realizing that it wasn't motivation i was lacking cause that is fleeting > and temporary but discipline. Not motivated? Fuck it, do it anyway. > Motivated? Good, keep doing it. I would say that realising all the push for motivation is generally misguided. Discipline isn't easy but it sets the frame of mind to just get on with whatever needs to be done. ------ cdent A thing to keep in mind is that work (at least as it is commonly practised) is not "normal". It's a thing we have accepted as normal, and if you want to be successful (by the common definitions) then, sure, you need to find some strategies achieve some focus and the ability to bring things to completion. There are plenty of good strategies throughout this thread; exercise and meditation are probably the most important. But you shouldn't feel like a failure or consider yourself aberrant in some way. You're not built for the way we live now. If you're concerned about ADHD, find a doctor. I know plenty of people who have become much more satisfied with their existence after working through that, figuring out ways to adjust their behaviours. In the end, you need to balance the utility of coping with the expectations of the modern world (and your own requirements for a comfortable life) against an understanding that the way we live now is messed up. ------ doppel For me personally there is a huge gap in "working for others" and "working for myself", with freelance work falling in the latter category. I do well in an office environment where I have influence in setting my own tasks, but having others rely on me finishing my things and meeting deadlines. Of course it helps that I find my work interesting. When working on my own projects in my free time, motivation comes in bursts - I can have two evenings where I can hardly keep myself from working, and entire weeks where I cannot seem to get started or do anything constructive - my mind wanders off and I start procrastinating instead. I am fortunate enough that it does not matter financially to me what I complete in my spare time, but it is clear that waiting for motivation to hit me is not a viable strategy (for anyone). First off, I find that starting is the hardest part. Once I sit in front of the code, opened and have written the first words, I can keep going for at least a couple of hours. So make sure you always _start_ a task, even if it means dragging yourself in front of the computer. Second, find a way to motivate yourself. For me, it is communicating clearly what my deadlines are to the people depending on it - this means I commit myself to finishing it publicly. At the same time, make sure you do not say "This project will finish in 3 weeks", but break it into chunks - "In two days, I'll have a prototype of the admin module, where you can test. Friday I expect to have all the functionality working, implementing your feedback along the way. Wednesday next week we'll have a meeting to discuss changes to module Y", etc. There's no silver bullet, and I certainly do not envy this part of being a freelance developer, but it is possible. And remember, everyone struggles with this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk) ------ mrweasel First up, I'm not qualified to solve your problem, but if you think you have ADHD, get it checked by a professional. I managed to convince myself that I had diabetes.... I apparently do not. But honestly, maybe you just need to do something different. Find a small shop that needs a developer, pick something that your grossly overqualified for. ------ rconti Yes, mid 30s, I struggle as well. I'm much better at small discrete tasks than I am at larger projects, where I often work for a few minutes, then back up and think about the scope of the whole project, get discouraged, get distracted, etc. I've been very successful in life but the past 6 months I've been working hard to tweak a lot of the things I don't like about myself. Currently seeing a CBT specialist which is helping. What I like about CBT is that it gives you discrete tools to address issues rather than spending 6 months trying to get into your entire childhood and background and stuff. Lots of great suggestions here.. unfortunately the answer is you just have to fix it yourself. But you can fix it with help; it takes the desire to do something about it, and some experimentation, and it sounds like you're ready. Best of luck. ~~~ linkregister How does CBT apply to task focus and work completion? All the literature I've seen is for dealing with emotional issues (important, but not applicable to tasks IMO). I'm asking because I am interested in effective solutions, not to be an internet contrarian. ~~~ anonlazybastard I'm interested in an answer to this as well. Though I wouldn't be surprised if the avoidance of work is ultimately an emotional issue. ~~~ rconti Usually under the headers of perfectionism and anxiety. All or nothing thinking, negative thoughts, etc. Lots of people apparently hate the term 'perfectionism' but it fits quite well as the term is used in the field. Just a quick search but this link probably gives as decent insight into it as any: [http://www.timeiam.org/perfectionism---the-all-or-nothing- mi...](http://www.timeiam.org/perfectionism---the-all-or-nothing-mindset.html) ------ yungchin I'd recommend reading The Procrastination Equation. It sets out a simple model of how your brain makes these choices, and makes it clear what all the levers are to help you "game" your brain. It explains why shorter productivity cycles are so powerful, for example. It also sets out that there's a lot of variability in how sensitive individuals are to changes in the parameters - this is just a fact of life: you - and I! - may be more predisposed to it than most other people, so we have to work harder to battle it. One very interesting parameter is how valuable - to your mind - the outputs of your labour are to you. It's of course not an easy parameter to change, but it's good thinking about it. Is your procrastination telling you something about your work? ------ danschumann At the end of your shower, switch the water to cold. Listen to your thoughts as you prepare to move the water to cold. Your brain is probably slinging lies about "you'll die", "this will suck", "it won't be worth it", etc. Pay attention to these lies, because it's the same stuff you think when you're working. Eventually your thoughts will lessen, "this again", "we've already gotten good at this, you can stop now", etc. It's a great microcosm of learning opportunities. It's also great for health. "No discipline feels pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness" \-- I have to say this pretty much every day to move myself in the positive direction. ------ timtas Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has a lot of interesting things to say about this: Why it's so Hard to Sit Down and Study/Work [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFmQ5waavJY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFmQ5waavJY) How to Always Achieve Your Goals - No Matter What [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvc9zguunhc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvc9zguunhc) Sort Yourself Out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Qm8I2cCAE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Qm8I2cCAE) Clean Your Room [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcMm_aL3Cc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcMm_aL3Cc) ------ vapequest I've got ADD and as a software engineer, yes I struggle with this everyday when I am not medicated. And unfortunately I self medicate with various drugs like research chemicals, prescription medications, and even methamphetamine. I would NOT recommend any of those - being a speed addict has been a personal hell for me over the last few years but it's been extremely effective with keeping me on task and engaged at the expense of my health (high blood pressure, insomnia, stimulant psychosis, etc.) I would look into maybe finding something that is more stimulating as a career. I think this is what I'll end up doing; I really can't be a tweaker for the rest of my life. ------ sjg007 Find a therapist. Maybe talk to your GP or primary care doc. In technical terms, take a look at your requirements. Are they obtuse? well defined? Is the customer asking too much and you know that but didn't tell them? These long term tasks (building an app etc).. those require insight. You might self- sabatoge because you know the insight is not there. But the one way out of that is to do this: your code/app/software may not be a global solution and make you rich but a stepping stone along the way to making it so. That's it. Simple. Do the work, practice. For those interviewing.. Do you the algorithms, leet code. Just do it. ------ themodelplumber Are you one of the "theorist" NT personality types? It's very common for such intuitive thinkers to get into these kind of traps. Day-to-day task management and productivity (especially detail work) become significant stressors. The best answer I've found is rebalancing in favor of thinking-as-job and doing more consulting, planning, teaching, and less making or doing. Then the making or doing can develop on its own in e.g. hobby time. It's just another mental model or lens through which to view the human system, but I find it useful. Last I checked the majority of HN were intuitive theory- types. Good luck. ------ onmonday I suspect the issue isn't that rare, but clinical explanations are worth considering. Look at a wider range of that menu too. What used to be known as Asperger's syndrome (now "high-functioning autism spectrum disorder" or something like that) can have these sorts of issues as a facet, and is also of particular interest to our demographic. But I think you would also do well to consider what you do have easy access to motivation for and if there is a mismatch between your work and your values about how you want to live. Hope you'll find satisfying answers. ------ smilesnd I know how you feel. Some times I can be doing good, and be getting shit done. Then bam from right field something distracts me and wow where did those 2 hours go. Recently I been taking a more Buddhist style to the problem. Removing the unwanted distractions like uninstalling video games, staying away from youtube, and limiting my time on other unproductive distractions. Rewards and negative feedback only works if someone else is handing out the reward or punishment. That is why working for others causes people to work. If you want motivation you have to either find something other then money to push you, or every time you start to procrastinate you have to fight. Every morning I wake up look in the mirror and scream "FUCK IT" to remind myself life is short, time goes by fast, and I need to get shit done. Add positive habits in your life and you be surprise how much it helps. The other thing I say every day to myself is ESSR "Eat Shit Sleep Repeat" reminder I don't want to be one of those people that goes through life just surviving. Their is no simple way to gain motivation it is either something that comes naturally like people that love to workout vs people that have to drag themselves to the gym. Or you have to fight for it every day you have to go without reward, without joy, without pleasure, and get whatever you have to done. Best of luck. ------ gist > I've used everything from rewards ("If I work for X hours, I'll play a video > game") and punishment ("If I don't work for X hours, I'm a complete > failure") to get myself to work. Programming is a creative pursuit. It's not something you can do on autopilot. [1] You have to think and solve problems and honestly and typically for those who love it's very rewarding. If it's not rewarding enough for you then perhaps it's not the career for you. [2] Full time at least. [1] For example you might hate and have no interest in being a store clerk or a toll taker or cut lawns but those are by and large 'autopilot' jobs that is you can do them with nominal pain and just get by. They don't require creative energy. Things that require creative energy are difficult to do long term full time unless you love to do them. [2] The other aspect of this to consider is how much time you spend doing programming. Perhaps it's rewarding but not as a full time job. I enjoy doing programming but then again I don't do it full time. I don't know if I would be able to do it full time in fact I think I wouldn't. Ditto for commenting on HN. I can do it here and there but I would be frozen and it would be distasteful if I had to do it 40 hours a week or even 20 hours a week. Or if I was forced to do so instead of being (as I suspect all of us are) self motivated. Note how many people don't leave comments because either they can't (are to busy) or it's not rewarding to them. ------ jib Rands is one of my favorite writers on development. [http://randsinrepose.com/archives/a-hard-thing-is-done-by- fi...](http://randsinrepose.com/archives/a-hard-thing-is-done-by-figuring-out- how-to-start/) this article is pretty good when it comes to forgiving yourself for procrastination in terms of starting something. In terms of finishing, for me that is a question of self-image. I am someone who completes things. I build my reputation on delivering things on time and with attention to detail throughout the project. Others know they can rely on me to do that, so they will not try to micromanage me or look over my shoulder, because they can rely on me delivering the way I always do. That image is important to me, so I will go to great lengths to keep it. People think I am good at attention to detail (even though I have no natural propensity for it at all, outside an obsessive need to understand how things work) and they rely on me to be that person in the business environment, so I have an unwritten social contract to fulfill, and keeping that is important to me, even if the actual task I need to do to keep it is not very engaging. That's all there's to it. Start, and finish what you started. I don't tie any kind of rewards or punishment to the process. I'll procrastinate a bit before I start, but that is part of figuring out what the thing you're starting is, and I will finish (on or before time) because others are relying on me to finish. ------ zha Are you a procrastinator, unable to start anything which is more than a tiny bit of work ? These two posts made a lot of sense for me: [https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators- procrasti...](https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators- procrastinate.html) [https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat- procrastination.h...](https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat- procrastination.html) ------ mickronome It could certainly be ADHD-PI/ADD, as it is very underdiagnosed, especially amongs people with (otherwise) above average cognitive abilities, more so if they are men. It can be very debilitating. There is a sort of very non-scientific test you can use to gauge the probability of ADD/ADHD, in my experience, quite reliably. — Would you agree that being really bored is better described as somehow painful, in an almost physical sense, than anything else you can come up with to describe it? If yes, it's my experience, and that of a few others as me with ADD/ADHD that the only other people that tend to consider it at least -possible- that one can actually experience something closely related to pain when bored, is those that either are already diagnosed, or will be in a few years. Haven't been wrong once, yet. Apparently it's so hard to understand for most people, that it's very common that even doctors and nurses working with ADD/ADHD have a hard time to undertake the concept, many appear tp outright reject it. As if anything but pain could stop you from applying yourself, even to the things you love, or loved yesterday. I can elaborate a lot more, leave a comment if you're interested, and I'll TRY to get back to you tomorrow. But as you are probably aware, there is a significant risk I've forgotten all about it tomorrow. Best of luck! ------ diyseguy My only real motivation is coffee. It makes me just the right amount of autistic to pay close attention to tedious details and actually care about getting it right and finishing the task. Without coffee I could care less and wouldn't e able to hold down a tech job, I'm sure. I wish it were not so, it has many negative side effects for me: anxiety, grumpiness, difficulty sleeping well. If you find a good motivator that isn't a drug, you will be way ahead. ------ chanz In my case, it helps to stick to habits. Habits that are device, cloths and location specific. The biggest one is probably my computer at home. It only exists for gaming. When I'm inside my gaming room to enjoy a gaming session, nothing else gets close to me and I forget about everything as soon I step into this room. Another thing is, that I have cloths to relax, to go out and to go to work. As soon I change into my plain white shirt with collar, my brain probably switches to work mode. The third is similar to the first habit. Going to work and being there is also a 'swtich' and I can concentrate. I was a freelancer too and I had a hard time to work at home. My computer was always just a room away and just going in there for a 'short' gaming session was too easy. So basically this is my advice: Go and buy a different computer than the one for gaming, shower in the morning and change into your business attire. Leave the house and go somewhere boring and quiet. The last part is the hardest since everything gets interesting depending on how much you have to overcome your habit. Your brain tries to fill your enjoyable habits with new enjoyable habits, instead of the 'boring' work. This is probably why so many smoke - it creates a enjoyable habit of doing 'nothing', which is better than working. I hope this helps a bit. :-) ------ bluishgreen Test your self for vitamin D and B12 deficiency. Also try avoiding gluten and dairy products. I support and agree with most other comments here as well, but fix the diet first! ------ flatfilefan It feels like you’re haven’t discovered something that you would wholeheartedly embrace as a “success“, that you would experience as a genuine pleasure. What is the ultimate game you want to play? Do you like animals? Cuddling a pet gives you a warm fuzzy feeling? That might be the feeling that you should look for when defining that „success“ in work. And once you know what it is motivation will come to you as a lucky dog or a cat asking to be petted. ------ anonlazybastard Yes, I do feel this way. So much so in fact that I could convince myself that I sleep-typed this, except for the fact that I'm in my mid-thirties. All the way down to gamifying my productivity, racking up points and "indulgences" which I use on junk food, video games, etc. I wish I had an answer, and am keeping an eye out on these replies as well. That said, all external indicators seem fine. Whenever I bring the issue up to colleagues, superiors, or significant other, they assure me that I work plenty hard. I'm doing "okay" in my line of work, on track for a passable career in research. But I am all too aware of how much time I waste and how much better I could be doing. This troubles me because I know my work makes a difference in the grand scheme of things. It's possible that we only have so many creative/intense work hours in the day and it's a lot fewer than we realize. In my case, I probably average around 3 hours of solid work per day, highly irregular (most days probably 1-2 with some hard spikes). Shortly before finishing grad school, I did go see a therapist. He said something like "You might have a mild case of ADD, but you seem to be making it work so far (was finishing up a PhD). I could prescribe you medication, but I wouldn't want to mess with what seems to be working for you." To start with, he recommended the book "The Mindfulness Prescription for ADHD" and the Mindspace app. These were nice, but in my mind they are just thrown into the bin of "things that worked for a little while". Now that I live elsewhere, I've been considering seeing someone again. I'm starting to just chalk this up to the human condition. Maybe I'm wrong about intelligence and my more successful peers (whom I've seen as equals in innate ability) might actually be brighter, not just more disciplined workers. I'm looking for "the" magic answer, not because it would be easy, but because I don't want to sink more effort into just another method that may or may not work in the end. In a way, I'm getting demoralized on the subject of self- improvement. For what it's worth, several years ago during an "enhanced" experience, I had the following realization, which might have some truth to it. Paying so much attention to self-improvement, month after month, year after year, trains your brain to think you're a loser. The constant thoughts of "I'm too lazy, how do I get better" eventually get internalized. This is probably unhealthy and might even be counter-productive. Best wishes, fellow traveller. ------ rails Hi, I want you to tell you a litte story about my self and my struggles. We should be about the same age. A year ago, I was going strong, working my job, having side projects and getting things done. I was doing a lot of sports and was on the level of a marathon runner. Then I had an injury. Due to the lack of sport, I fell into depression. I was unable to concentrate on a single thing for even five minutes and had no motivation whatsoever. I have had then set goals for myself and after I failed to accomplish them, I beat myself up. Rinse and repeat. Now, about 9 Months later, I am still in the recovering process. Like you I tried pretty much every productivity hack out there. From pomodoro to bullet journaling, habit forming and so on. What I want to say: There is no quick fix. It takes time. So I regularly try to niche down on the cause. Is it a motivation, concentration or multitasking problem? Then I try to fix the cause with experimenting with different tools and strategies. At different stages in your journey, you will have different bottlenecks, asking for different strategies. At the beginning the things that worked for me, were building up from my principles and core beliefs (Minimalism, Freedom, Simplicity). Then I started dreamlining with a monthly timeframe. But it is important, that the goals are measurable and attainable. Then I broke them down, to weekly and daily tasks. I also have daily todo lists, which I still fail way too often. Currently the biggest benefit brings singletasking and mindfulness. I noticed, that I am not really aware of my body, thoughts and surroundings. So currently I am borrowing a lot fom Zen Buddhism. According to the saying: "When you walk, just walk. When you sleep, just sleep." I really try to be present. This helps me to focus and concentrate on a single task at hand. But it takes training. This won't happen over night. This sounds like a straight path. It wasn't! I experimented and failed a lot. I threw away what didn't work, and used what worked for me. Links that helped a lot: [https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/](https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/) [https://zenhabits.net/](https://zenhabits.net/) [https://tim.blog/lifestyle- costing/](https://tim.blog/lifestyle-costing/) ------ g4omingron Yes, it is very normal in an unstructured life, many very smart graduate students at the top universities struggle with it. It is the curse of freedom. People don't realize a regular 9-5 job gives them routine, social commitments and a visible positive feedback on a good job done in a timely manner, and a negative feedback otherwise (both positive and negative social feedback are stronger than self-awarded rewards and punishments). ------ closeparen I always felt this way about schoolwork, and never about professional work. You mention that you're a freelancer - do you have a home office? I found that the context switch of physically being in the building and at my desk made work the most natural and effortless thing in the world, while I struggle with "work from home" days. Is there a way you can create this kind of "work mode" context switch for yourself? ------ songzme I used to do alot of self-motivation hacks, but ultimately threw everything out the door because they were unsustainable and tiring. I eventually noticed that if I was helping people, I didn't need any kind of motivation. I do things because I care. Perhaps you could try the same approach? In the first summer that I couldn't get a coding internship (in college), I taught my friend who didn't have a coding background how to code. I taught my girlfriend at the time how to code. I started a meetup group and taught everyone I could. As they got better, I started to learn new things to teach. When I took on contract projects, I talked it over with my trusted friends and we solve the projects together. They were getting better through the projects I take up and my projects became a little more fun to work on. Now, fast forward a few years, many of the people I taught are now senior software engineers. I still meet up with them a few times a week to talk about new coding patterns, discuss work projects, and help each other get better. For me, the mindset shift I needed to do was to start thinking about how I can help others around me and make sure I'm helping them effectively. ------ sockaway I feel very similar. It has actually always been like that for me. I hardly ever did (=finished) any homework in school and university, but I was spending most of my free time sitting at my desk b/c I had to do homework. Now I'm perfectly aware I'm procrastinating while I'm doing so, but I just feel like I _must_ [find out xy / read the current news about xy / read that interesting article I saw / review and close the hundreds of open browser tabs / have some social interaction w/ someone / finish unrelated task xy (e. g. housework) / eat sth / watch porn] at _that very moment_ and couldn't even properly concentrate otherwise. As many others pointed out being overwhelmed by either huge or lots of tasks causes this quite often and splitting up tasks and prioritizing can help in those situations. Nevertheless this pattern sometimes even makes me procrastinate 2 minute tasks for days w/o doing anything useful during that time even if that one task (and/or others dependent on it) is/are the only one(s) I have to do (so to tackle it there neither is anything to split up nor to prioritize. ------ kjhosein I can relate. I've probably tried the vast majority of the motivation 'hacks' recommended by the other posters in this thread with varying amounts of success and failure. The #1 thing I think that anyone in this situation, or any self-improvement challenging situation, should do is to understand themselves fully - what makes you tick, what do you like, dislike, etc.? Beware: this is not a 5-minute task; we could be talking years here. Once you feel like you have a handle on it, or along the way, try out different approaches. (As much as I love the word 'hack', I really shouldn't call them that because you could very well be using it indefinitely.) \--- For me personally, one thing that I've never truly tried is a commitment contract. I've long known about services like Beeminder and StickK, but I never actually fully tried one (where you commit with real money). That changed recently when I discovered a framework for classifying people called The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin. Folks like us mostly fall into the category of "Obligers", people who meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet expectations they impose on themselves. And one way to beat that is to create parameters (like a commitment contract) that force you into action. I recently (~6 weeks ago) created a goal on Beeminder and after falling off the wagon tout-de-suite and having to pay up ($5 initially), I haven't derailed since (my current penalty is $10). I know, not an earth-shattering amount of money, for some reason it's keeping me honest. It's probably too early to tell if this is going to work long-term, but even this feels longer than I've stuck with other methods. I encourage you to check out Rubin's blog posts, interviews [1, 2] and/or podcasts. There's even a book and a quiz, but I learned enough from a single interview to get started. [1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/gretchen-rubin-the-four- tende...](http://www.businessinsider.com/gretchen-rubin-the-four-tendencies- framework-2017-4) [2] [https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2017/09/12/gretchen...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2017/09/12/gretchen- rubin-how-to-use-the-four-tendencies-to-improve-our-lives/#3f22dd996d2b) ~~~ dreeves Thanks for the awesome Beeminder plug! Anxious to hear if it continues to work for months and years. There's a great discussion of Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies in the Beeminder forum: [http://forum.beeminder.com/t/which-habit-tendency-are- you/16...](http://forum.beeminder.com/t/which-habit-tendency-are-you/1693) (Apparently I too am an Obliger.) ------ blablabla123 Short answer: yes, it is normal Long answer: I have seen both sides, for most part of my school life I was an incredible procrastinator. It's incredible when I imagine that I passed school. ;) (In fact a friend of me was amazed by that.) And yes, with studies I struggled like you. Of course it wasn't possible anymore to do a minimal program. I don't really know how I survived studies but I obviously did. (Oh god, remembering the mornings where it took me 3-4 hours to get up, hitting snooze a bizillion times...) At some point thought things changed. I was working a student job where I was programming and I was incredibly motivated, getting money for something fun. Actually it stopped being fun after some months but I was still much over average motivated for 1-2 years. When finishing studies I started builing a startup with friends and I worked the first time a day super long, went to bed at 11 am in the morning when we shipped our web app the first time. The startup wasn't particularly successful so after half a year of quite some work we "ghosted" it. But then I realized something really weird for the first time: it's possible to put in a tremendious amount of work into something and it might still not pay off. Worst off all, even my final study grade suffered slightly from this because my co-founders put a lot of pressure on me. So afterwards I realized: never ever again am I working (insane) overhours for a prolonged time. I strongly believe that there is something in us that protects us, less magical than it sounds, evolution. When we work too much we burned out. In the years after I eventually co-founded another company and was really close to totally burning out. (Although I limited my overhours, the work-life balance was terrible and when I worked it was ~90-95% "efficency" \- my whole private life was built around this startup.) I think this 2nd hard lesson totally showed me that it isn't worth it. Nowadays I do my best to find a good balance in work. Of course it's a personal life choice. The more effort/work you put in, the higher the probability you gain but also the higher the probability that something bad happens. So yes, obviously there are life hacks etc, go for them if you want to "solve your problem". Or maybe think for yourself and imagine what's best for you. ------ dboreham I've done some thinking on this over the years. I'm not convinced it is "ADHD" per se, based on reading the symptom list and observing family members who do clearly have the symptoms. Of course it is always tricky to self-diagnose. For me it is more akin to an addiction mechanism : consider someone who is overweight because they eat too much and exercise too little. This situation is crystal clear to everyone, including the person themselves. Yet, almost nobody improves their weight situation just because they "realize" that they should be eating less and exercising more (two things that from a practical perspective are pretty easy to do). We don't say that they lack focus to stop eating -- we think of their behavior more in terms of an addiction. So what's going on? Obviously it's complicated but on some level the person's brain has decided that eating is actually what it would prefer to do vs not eating, even though it "knows" this isn't going to achieve the desired outcome. Similarly with "getting s __t done " I suspect. Although your brain knows that it should be cutting code or writing blog articles, it actually prefers to read HN and research the security measures used in triggering mechanisms for the primary stages in thermonuclear weapons. That being the case it sounds like you are already taking all the typical countermeasures : don't have food in the fridge; count food points; try to keep the long term goal in mind.. One other thing I'd say in the context of freelancing and remote work is that you may be unfairly judging yourself, or rather comparing yourself to a mythical perfect version of yourself, due to the lack of available other people with which to compare your achievements. ------ asdljkaslk I think motivation is one of the most fundamental parts of human existence. I think it should be studied so much more. Often we talk about it at such a high level. But in the end everything boils down to the second-by-second internal monologue, and all the context and life experience surrounding this monologue. Beneath this is the raw emotions that we feel and cannot explain. Its like when you're looking at a stack trace and it stops at an internal call into a private api. I'd love to know more about the inner workings of people's internal monologues. Are there consistent patterns of thoughts that can lead people into the state of flow? How does the mind wandering into a day dream contribute to our motivation? Perhaps ignorance is bliss, and seeing behind the curtain spoils the show. Are we driven by our delusions of grandeur? Can we trick ourselves into exaggerating the importance of what we are working on regardless of how we may feel about it after its finished? Does contemplating your own motivation (regularly asking yourself why you are doing something) disrupt your actual motivation (uncertainty principle). ------ DonaldFisk Yes, but mostly for different reasons (see below). I think the web has shortened people's attention spans, and there's the now constant distraction of social media. The other problem is that much work nowadays isn't really necessary, and many people doing it realize this, though maybe not consciously. It's very difficult to keep motivated if you don't see the point of what you're doing. As for myself, I'm still developing my programming language ([http://web.onetel.com/~hibou/fmj/FMJ.html](http://web.onetel.com/~hibou/fmj/FMJ.html)), but as recent work has involved a major refactoring of the type system, with some bug fixes along the way, there's been very little _visible_ progress (hence, no updates to the tutorials section of my web site) and a few things that worked before are still broken. Lack of visible progress can be somewhat demotivating. Working continuously for several years on the same project doesn't help either. Sometimes you need a change. My work/research is completely unpaid, so there's no _financial_ incentive to continue. If I were to stop working on it completely, hardly anyone would even notice, and I wouldn't be any worse off financially. As I'm working alone on this, and no one's done anything remotely similar, there's nowhere to go to for help when I'm stuck. Online comments on it have been mostly negative. What keeps me going is that there isn't anything important about the language that I would want to change. The language feels like "the right thing", however hard it might be to explain that to aficionados of imperative textual languages. If nobody else wanted it, I would still use it myself. ~~~ joatmon-snoo There was an interesting article that surfaced a week or two ago about the learning/attention span bit: [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/i-have- forgotten-how...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/i-have-forgotten- how-toread/article37921379/) ------ pjc50 Not everyone is suited to the freelance requirements for self-management. Consider being part of a team or recruiting a business partner. ------ stevenkovar Finding meaning in freelance work is a tough proposition. Perhaps it feels like a struggle because you're actively looking for struggle. It's easy to tell ourselves positive results can only come from struggle—that's far from true. It sounds like you're good at what you do. Double your prices each project. Cut the number of projects you do 75%. Over-deliver. Hustle by improving your operation/system, not chasing a single variable (work input). This work system will allow you to spend less time laboring and more time working on yourself: 1\. Sleep, diet, exercise, reflect. Here's a comment I recently wrote about this: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16150664](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16150664) 2\. Visit a good doctor and get blood tests. A few years ago I started having trouble focusing for more than 2-3 hours at a time. It turned out I have an under-active thyroid (Hashimoto's Thyroiditis) which causes my memory to become foggy, focus limited, and tempter short when my adrenal glands are under stress. This is fixed with some blood tests and the right medication. I would have never discovered this without finding a good quality doctor. I paid out of pocket to have access for a 45 minute session—worth every penny. Now I only have occasional flareups. \------ You're not broken—you're human. There are simple fixes for almost everything you describe that feels difficult. Take a step back (maybe literally, via vacation or a week off) and analyze how you can simplify your life and disconnect from this struggle = reward mindset. Something to ponder: money, love, or fame as the end goal are dangerous, but as a byproduct of earnest effort and a life well lived can be uplifting. ------ _mrmnmly I was there too. Oh my gosh, how hard it was for me to push myself to do any work on time. For me, the solution was to change job. I didn't want to work on a thing that I haven't believe in. It was just uninteresting. Now I can say I work in awesome place, on wonderful project where I learn interesting new stuff every day and feel that I become a better dev every day. ------ domparise >Am I suffering from some form of undiagnosed ADHD? You can very easily resolve this question by talking to a doctor, or two. If you are curious, don’t just sit and wait and keep “wasting your life away” in the indecision of whether or not to get checked. The lack of decisiveness to even get check may itself be a symptom of ADHD. One obviously cannot understate the value and importance of having a healthy life, regular sleep, good exercise, good diet and hygiene and all the like, but for some people it’s a little harder to get things in order than just that. Also you don’t need to consider getting medical help as a terminal situation; perhaps you may just use meds long enough to retain your brain with what it means to be productive and do meaningful work. No solution is one size fits all, and you need to find what works best for you, but if you have questions or doubts about whether or not you may have an attention disorder, the best way to discern with any real certainty is to ask a professional. ------ wlll I find the following helps: \- Changing my routine seems to kick off my ability to focus \- I have a sit-stand desk. Using it standing seems to help my focus, but changing between sitting and standing can bump my motivation. \- For clients starting and stopping a timer helps me focus. \- For clients and my own projects I use Pivotal Tracker to order tasks. It helps me break stuff down into smaller parts and to keep track of what I'm doing and helps me to avoid wondering what to do. I use it even though clients have their own project management solutions, I only use it for what I'm doing. \- I've never found rewards/punishments to be particularly effective. \- Unfortunately (because I'm from the North of England) I find that the better the weather the more motivation I have for just about everything. _edit_ I forgot to mention, fasting helps me focus too, even for long periods. Could just be the change of routine. What I will say is that I've not cured what sounds very much like what you suffer from, just generated ways of dealing with it, more or less. ------ ksec >This question might come across as dumb, especially for a 30 year old, but I come from a culture where this aspect of work was never emphasized and at this point, I don't know who to ask. Off topic, Could anyone point to a place where you could ask for advice of life? It seems once we are in the 30s, there are more questions then answers then when i was in 20s. ------ mseebach I used to feel that way, but I finally came to terms with the fact that my work-life was a mess, and I was basically lying to myself. I was working (and struggling, hard, in the way you describe) on a project I was telling myself would become a startup, and even though I felt I was being realistic about the limitations, in retrospect even that was insanely optimistic. I was burning myself out. Once I had this epiphany - triggered by going to Startup Weekend and having a ton of fun (and no motivational problems!) working on a project, I pulled the plug and eventually got a fairly regular job in a fairly normal company (in an excellent team, though). The epiphany and pulling the plug had a huge effect. It didn't fix everything overnight, but I did get into a habit of introspection, especially when I'm facing tasks that I struggle to get motivated for. They're still hard, but I am generally able to organise things around them in such a way that they don't get me down. ------ Dowwie You're not suffering from ADHD. You're using a motivational skill! It's a very valuable skill to have! Boring work can be made interesting, life changing even. This requires vigilance, as you've noticed. Motivation is ongoing, requiring you to revisit the feelings and rationale that gave you that productive burst. ------ enugu There are probably no simple solutions. But just in case, you havent already done this, just use a simple time logging tool and work in discrete sessions(20-40 minutes). (Eternity time logger is one good app, there are others). Dont worry about being precise (in terms of minutes high or low, or exact kind of task, over analysis isnt good). Instead aim for consistent use. This allows you to work a certain number of rounds a day(instead of nebulous amount of productive time) and clarifies what is exactly happening instead on relying on internal psychological indicators of having done something or not. Also, specifically for the ADHD part, the problem with wavering attention is that when one comes back, 'loading' the context again takes a lot of work. So write a note at the end of each session on what's done or maintain a simple task text file(again, it is easy to over organize here, so keep things as simple as possible). ------ mikeokner _> Essentially, I come up with a new tactic to motivate myself every couple of months. If I don't do so, I find myself struggling to meet my goals and distracted._ How often do you think about your goals? How important are they to you? I was in your shoes for a long time, and the way I got past it was to think consciously about the end-result on a regular basis. Do you want to skate by on your niche skills and watch as other harder workers get the bigger/better contracts from your contacts in the future? Do you want to passively step through the motions of life and regret not trying to start that business when you're 60? Do you want to look back and wish you had learned & built more instead of drinking beer and playing COD? At the end of the day, you are 100% responsible for your own decisions and path in life. You aren't going to be able to artificially motivate yourself forever (as you are discovering). You have to find something that truly motivates you. ------ sosuke If you’re still here looking at replies feel free to contact me. And or watch/listen to this video [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YSfCdBBqNXY](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YSfCdBBqNXY) Wish you'd left some way to contact you. Now that I'm at a computer I can say more but you're certainly not uncommon and there is lots of help that you can have. Cognitive behavior therapy shows great results in adult adhd/add patients. The video I linked talks about children but you'll likely feel yourself nodding along thinking of you. Money quote for me was something like the ADHD child has zero self motivation. All motivation comes from the outside world. Which is why kids can play video games for hours because there is instant feedback. But when you finish a problem on your homework nothing happens. And that there is a extremely poor short short term memory problem. Tons of stuff. ------ tomwphillips You might be interested in this feature about adults with ADHD: [https://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/these-adults-have- adhd-b...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/these-adults-have-adhd-but- were-misdiagnosed-for-decades?utm_term=.ouaZAN5kQq#.ip0DXr9zRW) ------ kanishkdudeja You should like typical ADHD to me. I had the same issues and now am doing great with major changes to my lifestyle! ------ medion Maybe you should be doing something else with your life? Maybe you were supposed to be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a builder? I mean, life is so short, why punish yourself? I hate this culture of 'hacks' and all this rubbish to force yourself into doing things maybe you shouldn't be doing. ------ corpMaverick It is normal. Make sure you have all of these. Autonomy, Purpose and Mastery. [https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594484805/braipick-...](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594484805/braipick-20) ------ samelawrence The only advice I can give (I'm 29) is that my work life gets easier AND more productive when I think about it in terms of my path to the top of the mountain. So, pick a spot that you feel represents a point of accomplishment that you'd be happy to die having done (big goal, tombstone style stuff). Then as you approach your work, ask yourself "is this a stepping stone on my way to the mountain?" If it is, you'll find some reward in doing the work, as you feel like you have invested in yourself and your long term goals. If it is not, then you can measure that sense of frustration and now understand _why_ you feel frustrated. And if you feel that frustration on a daily basis, it's probably time to get a new job. ------ qwerty456127 I have felt this way for my whole life since my very childhood (when working meant doing homework). In my case this is ADHD. Ask your doctor about this. As for me (disclaimer: don't try this without consulting to a doctor, also note neither piracetam nor sunifiram are FDA-approved, anyway sunifiram should never be taken in doses higher than I do - it would do much bad and no good) I have found out empirically (I have tried many different things, adderall helped too but far not this great) that a combination of ¼ of a xanax pill once a day + a combination of 1200mg of piracetam, 4mg of sunifiram, 500mg of l-tyrosine and a strong multivitamin complex pill 2-3 times a day solves the problem by making me happy, concentrated and productive. ------ steiger In my experience, this might be: 1\. normal, up to a point. A lot of work is mostly not enjoyable, that's just a fact. 2\. depression or ADHD or something related. If you suspect that, pay a visit to a psychiatrist or a general physician. 3\. you don't want to do YOUR kind of work anymore. Maybe you should experiment a little with something different? I switched recently - I was extremelly bored at web programming and switched to Android programming some years ago. Now I have a lot of more fun. 4\. your nature (meaning something innate and mostly unfixable (or not?)) Personally, I usually operate in cycles: bouts of excitement and motivation where I'm very productive, then I get tired and start to struggle and half-ass some things. ------ mNemoN Start to exercise! Literally, destroy yourself physically, it could help. ;-) I think you can't fix your mental problem only with mental toolkit. It's important to keep your balance of mind and also body. I'm not an expert, but it works for me. ~~~ Chris2048 I'd vouch for this. It can make things worse at first, but if you are healthy and exercise regularly, it can help increase your focus and energy levels, then you don't have to fight your body so much to preserve them. ------ sevensor I reached that point when I was about 30. Every day, I had to talk myself into getting out of the car and walking in the door. It turns out the problem was that I didn't like my job. I changed careers and I haven't had motivation problems since. ------ Grangar I have had the exact same thing for years. Turns out I've been depressed since youth and never knew any better. Make of it what you will, if you suspect you have something undiagnosed you might as well make a doctors appointment. Things can fly under the radar like that. ------ greekgordo I think I struggle with similar things. It's hard, sometimes, when you have a day off to continue to want to push yourself to study up on the latest technologies or create side projects you can stick with. I do think it's important to _make_your_own_deadlines_ ...because then, nobody else will ever be setting them for you. I wonder if we all have a period in life where we sit and think "well what the hell am I doing with my life"...usually those moments come, make me reflective, and I have to then start to re-situate things... that's a motivator too. I don't know, but keep at it, grit is important, you got this. And you're definitely not alone. ------ mncolinlee I totally understand. When I was a freelancer, I found that working on project work forty or more legit billing hours a week is a lot harder than advertised. When I'd been full-time or working for a consulting house, a lot of my forty plus hours was actually spent listening to meetings and performing non- productive activities. Moving to freelancing, I felt like I hit a wall at thirty-five actively-logged hours on tools like Toggl and needed to take breaks. No one was holding me accountable for my time except myself. From experience, I feel like most professional consulting organizations pad hours, but I'd prefer to show more for my time since my personal brand is critical to my success. ------ ryan-allen Hi! You may just score low on the contientiousness scale of the big five, do this test and see! [https://www.understandmyself.com/](https://www.understandmyself.com/) If you score low on that dimension of personality, routine does not come easily to you by nature of your personality. It's not bad per-se but it means it will be harder for you to make and keep a schedule (which apparently is the advice for people low in that dimension). I score low, and as a result I always have to keep on top of myself. I thought it was bad and carried a lot of guilt about it because I thought it should 'be easy'. Send me an email if you want to discuss privately (ryan at 137 dot ms). ------ fimdomeio Personally I found out that my motivation was directly related to being well managed / being poorly managed by others where being well managed is normally something like: "find me the best possible solution for x, taking into account that we have y and z constrains", and doing things I believe in. There's a world of difference in motivation if you believe in the project goals or if you're in it just for the money. Finding technical challenges is also relevant sometimes, but not that much for me personally. whell maybe what I call workflow optimizations is the lie I tell myself for creating technical challendges. ------ topmonk I had the same problem you do. I used somewhat of an out of the box solution, which is to listen to subliminal audio. I do this while working, so it costs me no time at all. You can find some free ones on youtube. It changed me from someone who would want to mess around all day, to someone who actually enjoyed working. People underestimate the affect of what they listen to and see on a subconscious level and how it affects us. There is a reason that advertising is such a huge business. If you are listening to melancholy, nihilistic music, especially, change your habits. Constant exposure to people complaining about how bad their life is, in verse, is really not good for your motivation. ~~~ 3chelon >If you are listening to melancholy, nihilistic music, especially, change your habits I really have to take issue with this. Some of my most productive coding sessions have been to the full-volume soundtrack of Nirvana, Joy Division, Pixies, Radiohead, etc, etc, etc. In my experience it's important that the music has to be of the "wall of sound" type that acts almost as rhythmic white noise. Also they must be tracks you already know very well - new music is not conducive to working, because it distracts your brain. ~~~ topmonk I agree that music can help you work, but I also think at the same time, it can negatively affect your _motivation_ to work. I also do listen to the same subliminal audio recordings over and over again, and it fades into the background after awhile, just as regular music does. It's all speculation, of course. I could be suffering from placebo effect. It's just something that I believe has helped me. ------ dep_b My problem is worse: I can't motivate myself to play videogames anymore. "Oh no, more time spent with a computing device!". I procrastinate a lot but I notice taking a break will give fresh insights. I make my breaks useful, like getting groceries or running. The worst thing you can do is procrastinate behind your computer. For me going freelance was the motivator to become better. More pay, more influence on the product. I can take unpaid leave 1.5 - 2 months every winter and my customers are fine with it. Can't believe people put up with the miserable amount of holidays a lot of American countries give you if you have a day job. ------ itomato It's normal for a Human with a brain having two distinct, functional hemispheres. When you're in school or 'working for the man', their clock is your clock. As a fellow independent freelancer, the challenge I have found is maintaining compatibility with those clocks. In some cases, I'm doing what it takes to synthesize one of my own, according to the rhythms and cycles of the dominant "super-clock". They don't ask it of me, it's just that without enforcement of interplay, I lose all momentum. Without a support crew, an Astronaut on an EVA can only accomplish so much. No clock, no appointments. No appointments, no money. ------ temp23099mv I've had similar problems. After trying to overcome the problem myself for much too long, embarrassed to even reveal it to others, I found a great therapist and they helped immensely. Probably the most important thing I learned is that there are healthy, very human needs behind bad behaviors. Stop fighting yourself and doing tricks and workarounds (hacks, etc.), and start caring about and helping yourself. When you can't focus on work, what do you really need, on an emotional level? What does the video game provide? What are you avoiding? If you don't understand your subconscious drives and emotions, you will be a slave to them. ------ timtas Last week I heard an interesting interview [1] of Antony Sammeroff, author of a free e-book titled Procrastination Annihilation. [2] I hesitate to recommend to you yet another anti-procrastination technique. Most of them are probably gimmicks that wear off quickly, as you have testified. But this book sounds like good stuff to me. I know this guy a little, and I think he's really smart. [1] [https://tomwoods.com/1090](https://tomwoods.com/1090) [2] [https://beyourselfandloveit.com/en/doit](https://beyourselfandloveit.com/en/doit) ------ MIKarlsen Without blowing this out of proportion, I think this can also be a slight case of depression. At least, lack of motivation (perhaps from some sort of "non- joy" in your work-environment and tasks) and "there's just no point in doing it" along with your negative self-thoughts, are all part of depression as an illness. The "I'm a complete failure"-part resonates with me, and perhaps, it could be something as simple as being so afraid of failing, that you never even try. I don't know if this is helpful advice at all, but it might give you an idea of what you can do to help yourself (CBT for instance). ------ astral303 No. Get help for ADHD. I spent 13 years professionally with untreated adult ADHD. All this sounds very familiar. Informative: [https://vimeo.com/109309151](https://vimeo.com/109309151) ------ wellboy This sounds a lot like the reason is lack of purpose, being passionate about what you do. When you're freelancing, most projects don't mean anything to you other than cash, so it's understandable that you don't find much motivation for them. Have you thought about what you're really passionate about and find a company that you find really awesome and work for them? Maybe tesla, spacex, watsi, or a new small hot social media app are all very exciting. Or if you always had that one problem and it really bugged you that there didn't exist a solution for it, ever thought of making a product out of it? ------ tambourine_man First of all, if you work alone at home as I do, it is freakishly hard to do something that you're not madly in love with. And most jobs involve at least some portion of that, so I try not to be too hard on myself. We are fighting a world of distractions and no visible restrictions. It's amazing to accomplish something at all. Second, finding the right music helps me a lot. I also play a few instruments which are right next to me and I often pick them up for a minute or two and play along. I can't imagine not being able to resort to music while working on boring stuff. ------ tmaly I have had similar challenges when working on side projects or boring tasks at the day job. It is tough to say if it is just procrastination or something else. I think if you have a very creative mind, you may just enjoy the design part of the process instead of the actual work. I have tried many different methods, the one I am trying now is using an app to implement the GTD method. So far it is working well. Previously I have tried to plan things out the night before and be able to just hit the ground running. It works well, but having more of a running list of next actions with GTD seems to be a better fit. ~~~ dalacv Design is actual work to some people. ------ mancerayder Here's something to try: 20m chunks and breaks. And patience. Sometimes it takes a few empty cycles of 20m before breakthroughs begin. Once begun, they self-motivate. You don't have to crank through until something starts. And it might even be okay to let your mind wander during the 20 minutes. Then break. Take a few minutes, step away, go outside, pace around, glance at HN, anything. Back to the 20m. It's similar to a warmup at the gym when you're starting to do heavy sets. Here you're priming your mind. My philosophy is, the second you have to fight yourself / your mind (motivation), you've already lost. ------ jimmyjack As somebody who has suffered basically the exact same thing, one book that has immensely helped is: [https://www.amazon.com/Self-Directed-Behavior-Self- Modificat...](https://www.amazon.com/Self-Directed-Behavior-Self-Modification- Personal-Adjustment/dp/1285077091) Essentially I found that I could tackle any task, but on the first flash of some other more exciting idea, feeling or sensation, I would drift off. The book boils doing to finding your own Antecedents that Lead to Particular Behaviors that you want to change. ------ Cthulhu_ For me, the main thing that works is having a boss, someone that watches over my shoulder so to speak. I probably couldn't go self-employed / freelancer, I'd end up in your situation. ------ altvali Try meditation. It is proven to increase productivity. I'm not talking about finding spiritual balance and all that hocus-pocus, I'm talking about actively destroying the thought threads that pop up in your head for 5 minutes at the beginning of the day. This will help shape your mind to prevent distractions throughout the day. Some other things that help are planning your next day in the evening, exercise, a good sleep, a good diet, showering, but meditation is the single biggest improvement that you can make. ------ deanCommie I identify with you 100%. This post could've been written by me. The only difference is I'm not a freelancer, and I've never been one. I've worked at small and large companies, and I've always struggled with this so everyone suggesting you just join a company is probably a bit naive. I've ALSO wondered if I have an undiagnosed case of ADHD, and honestly when I look at the lists of symptoms online, I match more than half of them. I've wondered if I should talk to a doctor, but always avoided it. Maybe both of us should. ------ funkaster > Part of the reason for this is perhaps the nature of my work. I'm a > freelancer and have been one since I graduated from college. I think it's more than just part. It sounds that it could be the biggest problem. Have you tried working for a regular company? That way you wouldn't have to set project deadlines on ypur own and there would be a bigger driver/motivation/goals than what you have to build on your own. Also, there will be other people working towards that with you. ------ cannedslime So your struggle is focus and not hard work as such? I think we all have problems with that from time to time, I catch even the most high paid and productive members of our organization have their procrastination routine from time to time. If you catch your self in a hard procrastination loop too often, it might be a good idea to try something. For me it really helped to completely stop drinking coffee at work, it seems like it made me less focused. I heard others say that standing up while working helps them focus. ------ PetoU In my view, you are very lucky you can ask this question. It means you don't have external stimulation big enough to not have time to think about these matters. I don't want to be silly, but if you'd be hungry, jobless or having a lot of stake at risk, your brain would imidiately switch to "get shit done". So much for external motivation. Internal motivation, thats another story, which everyone need to figure out themselves. Still struggling myself. ------ touchofevil You sound a lot like me. I have had tons of trouble making myself work, even on my passion projects that I have invested significant amounts of my own money in. I would recommend that you read Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield. He was a chronic procrastinator who turned things around. I would combine this with renting a desk at a coworking space and keeping regular work hours, though they might only be four or six hours per day (8 is too much if you are actually working). ------ wdalrymple I picked up bullet journalling last year and it has dramatically improved my procrastination and disorganization which has had the biggest impact on my motivation. Setting aside each night to review the day and plan the next really helps. I love checking shit off. Just make sure your list is achievable and the tasks are small enough. Large tasks that take multiple days can be overwhelming and lose meaning. It also helps that my bujo is a physical book. That tactile experience makes a big difference. ------ pps43 Ivan Pavlov, famous for his dog experiments, wrote about something he called "target reflex" (approximate translation, I could not find his 1916 book by that name in English). That's the desire to capture the flag, reach another level, or set a new record that's keeping you glued to the screen when you're playing a videogame. Learn to ride this reflex. lugg gives a good trick: do one thing. Nobody has time for 100 pushups, but surely you can do one, right? ------ PinkMilkshake Clean your room! [https://youtu.be/OoA4017M7WU](https://youtu.be/OoA4017M7WU) (Then rescue your father from the belly of the whale, roughly speaking) ~~~ adrianratnapala Yeah, I wonder how much of an up-tick in _Pinocchio_ related revenue Disney is seeing thanks to JBP. Sadly it will only serve to remind them that there is value into hanging onto dusty, ancient, copyright. And, come to think of it, it's hard to imagine a better example of what JBP calls "living off the body of your dead father" than Disney's modus operandi. ------ scottlocklin Working alone is sort of like having ADHD. When I'm grinding on something, pomodoro is pretty useful. Really any kind of discipline works here. It's not 10/10 though; for some kinds of tasks (math oriented ones) you need to get into the zone; combinations of oversleep and undersleep seem to help with this. Also blocking internets. I used to go to the Cal library (I don't have wifi access there) to concentrate. ------ jdavis703 I would advise you start talking with a therapist who specializes in mindfulness training. Meditition and mindfulness can help you learn how to focus, while at the same time being less judgemental of yourself. I recently did about 6 months of online chat therapy for my anxiety (which was hindering my work productivity), and applying the mindfulness techniques that I learned has been really good for my well being and productivity. ------ herbst My theorie is that while we as humanity accepted the differences in human pretty far so far we still expect a pretty standardised human in terms of work environments. However I think the trick is essentially to give up trying to act normal and finding your own way. Something that fits your style of life. Edit:// I am certain any doctor would agree its ADHD. However you'd still have to question if amphetamines really present a final answer then. ------ dghughes I did struggle at work and since being laid off (after 33 years) I struggle as a middle-aged guy at college too. ADHD may be part of it for me but when I organize my tasks and hunker down I do better. But I do see people who are amazing who seem to pick up new tasks and complete them effortlessly. As someone once said every piano player isn't a Mozart there are shades between. Whatever the task some of us are terrible, some OK, and others are great. ------ paulmd I typically find that getting started is most of the battle. Pick one task and just start it, then you'll be in the flow. Avoid the temptation to check email/etc, and disable notifications/etc as these will break your flow. Furthermore, give a helping hand to future-you. I actually find that it's better to not-quite finish one task before you leave for the day, so that you have an easy onramp to start tomorrow. ------ snarf21 Do you work at home alone? Maybe try a co-working space or similar to be near other like minded people. There may also be something where you would feel more fulfilled being part of a team, not just a cog off to the side. The are positives and negatives but I work best this way as well. Think of it a little like going to the gym, you tend to be more successful as a pair or group of friends. ------ thathappened Imo, most people just want to improve things in life but don't always concentrate to form an action plan. My guess is you don't spend any time focusing on how your work improves your life. Makes you money but if money is just a pool you keep around in case you want to go swimming you'll find it's just a job to pass the time and you really just forgot how to be bored. ------ nerdponx Do you sleep enough? How was your stress level about non-work issues? Do you take vacations enough? What is your office environment like? What is your diet like? What is your spiritual life like? Do you exercise? Have you considered mindfulness practice or meditation? All of these things are relevant and can have a significant impact on your mental health and ability to focus. ------ sethammons I do well with a version of the Rule of 3. I set 3 larger goals for a day, and I tend to break each up into 3 smaller goals that help me get to each. This can scale up to goals that are larger or take longer. My main point is to use milestones. I set a schedule with milestones that should help me reach goals on time. The sooner I feel behind, the sooner I push through my procrastination. ------ jarym Just gonna throw my two pence into this... I've always found that if I couldn't motivate myself to do something then I probably do not want to do it on some level and should be doing something else. If that could be you then one solution is to take a break from work and try figure out what you'd rather be doing. You'll know because you'll feel drawn to it. ------ keypress You aren't alone. I'm far better at helping others than myself. Freelancing I find tricky. I've had good management in the past alongside a team that knows how to play to my strengths and keep down my weaknesses. So don't discount working in a unit. Stroking my own ego, and trying to reward myself is useless for me. ------ quadcore I think you've not yet found what you love. Try new things and wait until you think about these naturally in the shower. You should force yourself to assume you dont know who you are. It could be surprising. Maybe you should be, say, a hair stylist. Maybe you would dramatically love that. Finding what I love to do worked for me. ------ gadders The War of Art [1] has some good advice on overcoming "resistance", the force that stops people from doing what they need to do. [1] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Art-Through-Creative- Battles/dp...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Art-Through-Creative- Battles/dp/1936891026) ------ randomsearch Read “The Now Habit.” It will probably change your life. It will handhold you from where you are back to good productivity. ------ gaspoda I am struggling with same problems for 10 years, I am diagnosed with ADHD and taking medication for long time... But ... even I am diagnosed i dont think i have got ADHD - maybe i can call it depression. In fact its caused by not enough fulfilling relationships. Its fixable in one day... sounds easy but its so hard.. ------ joty It is normal in the sense that it isn't unnatural. It is normal in the sense that this is something many people experience, maybe in software in particular. It isn't normal in the sense that it is something that you should expect. If you continue to struggle with work you will be unhappy and many people are. ------ blablablerg I can recommend the book '365 days of self discipline' [https://www.amazon.com/365-Days-Self-Discipline-Life- Alterin...](https://www.amazon.com/365-Days-Self-Discipline-Life-Altering- Self-Control-ebook/dp/B078NV2G4V) Self discipline is something you need to work on every day. ------ danellis I know this sounds like a cop-out answer, but you need to see one or more professionals instead of asking here. I had the same kind of problems (all my life, really) and it turned out to be ADHD, which I didn't even know anything about until my son was diagnosed and his psychiatrist told us it's hereditary. ------ utellme Do you like your job and way which you do it? Could you continue doing this for 20+ years more not getting mental? If there is at least 1 "no" answer, you should think about changing the way you earn, at least. Life is not about the money, it's about excitement and passion, about things you really want to do. ------ z3t4 Spend more time away from the computer and work related! Increase your rates, so that we you _do_ work you earn more. Through empiric studies on myself, from working 10-15 hours/day 7 times a week I found out that I actually get more done if I just work 8 hours per day and take the weekends off. ------ iovrthoughtthis > Am I suffer big from some form of undiagnosed ADHD. Possibly but I would take that question to a medical professional. I have this problem when my tasks lack a clear answers to "why are we doing this?" and "what are we trying to achieve e?". Without clear answers to those questions it's hard for me to motivate myself on work. ------ g5095 There's another HN article trending right now that holds your answer.. [https://capitalandgrowth.org/articles/859/book-summary- the-p...](https://capitalandgrowth.org/articles/859/book-summary-the-power-of- habit.html) ------ a_bonobo You might enjoy reading Yihui Xie (bookdown, Knitr)'s very honest blog post on his problems that sound similar to yours: [https://yihui.name/en/2018/02/career- crisis/](https://yihui.name/en/2018/02/career-crisis/) ------ ehsanealikhani Hard work is not a virtue and only a necessary evil. I think the human has never been evolved to work as we do today. We experience stress very often at work, but stress mechanism has been evolved to literally save your life when you need to fight or flight. Your mind naturally holds you back. ------ jwl I often try to remind myself that it is better to start somewhere, than nowhere. Just getting started is often halfway done. Even though it might turn out that you could have started somewhere else which in hindsight would have been a better approach, it is still better than nothing. ------ DenisM I can hardly wait to get to the office most Mondays. Today is a holiday, I’m scheming a way to sneak into the office avoiding the security system. What you have is certainly not normal. Even if it were prevalent you shouldn’t settle for it. There’s a lot of helpful advice in this thread. ------ tsunamifury Charge more and take more time off. Lately when I find myself struggling to work I just don’t. The amount of progress I make in my sprints is often enough to keep the rest of the team busy for weeks. Just embrace that you might be a sprinter and that that’s ok. ------ lsc so, uh, I have similar issues, and you know what works for me? Going into a physical office with a professional middle manager. I mean, assuming I find a place where I'm a good fit (meaning, my technical abilities make it worth the time of the middle manager to manage me) it works really well, because the job of the middle manager is, essentially, to make people like me work; Because I honestly want to be useful, I think that often said middle managers feel good about the whole thing, too, because I really do get more done under their guidance. They feel useful, I feel useful, etc... The other thing is that I go through periods of strong productivity and of very weak productivity. This is... acceptable in industry. Ok, so you have some unemployed time, but that's okay because when you are really productive, the remuneration is pretty great. Also, on the ADHD side? for me? this is _after_ getting the medication. It helps... a lot. but I still benefit more from having a middle manager than most people do, I think. Append: more on medicalizing your shit: We live in an age where we spend a huge amount of our GDP on medical care. We have amazing solutions for a lot of problems. Take advantage of this, because when medical science has a good solution, it's often super easy and effective. Sleep apnea, for instance, is easy to test for and easy to treat, and if it goes untreated? Really fucks up your attention span (and your cardiovascular system) It's one of those things where modern medical science has a quick, cheap and easy mechanical fix. There's a bunch of other crap like that, too. I personally would go for the sleep apnea test before I messed around too much with medications; not that medications are bad, but if you have it, treating sleep apnea is an unalloyed good, (well, getting mask fit setup is... difficult, but that's mostly a matter of buying the masks and trying them; a small matter of money on a software dev salary) while most medications have pluses and minuses that need to be carefully weighed, even once you've found the one that is best for you. ------ incompatible I'd consider whether you are relying on too many quick fix dopamine hits. Things like games, video, browsing the web, or whatever. These things can out- compete "work", since that usually takes more effort to get the same effect. ------ w8w00rd I dont think a point / rpg system ever works for a signle person because the value of the points is dynamic. Ive been using the GTD method for work in combination with pasting reminders everywhere and am very happy with how this works. ------ zombieprocesses Yes. It's normal. It's why people have to pay you to work. Unless you are a slavish minded individual, why else would you be motivated to work? You are trading your valuable time for something you don't want to do for money. ------ nzpopa If you're a freelancer, find a co-working space, as it really helps to have people around you. And I suggest you should read "Living Forward" by Michael Hyatt. It helps you to structure your life/mind. Have fun! :) ------ konschubert It was like this for me when I tried to do a PhD. Since I'm working in software development it's hard for me to stop working in the evening. What applied to me might not apply to you. But changing my occupation to something I really want did definitely help. ------ jmadsen Are you sure you are doing the right job for you? It's all very nice that it makes you a lot of money, but if you are spending a third of your life doing something that you constantly have to force yourself to do, perhaps a different career. ------ dustingetz I run when I am not at my best mentally. I iterated that a while and ended up completing a marathon the second year of my startup. +1 to crossfit, meditation, yoga etc, especially in the morning if you want to be on A-game. ------ conductr Just a guess, but do you find yourself wishing you could be gaming when you’re trying to work/focus? Sounds like you’re a avid gamer. If so. It might be time to give it up. Or reduce significantly. ------ mostafaberg I personally don't think it's something "wrong" with you, most probably there's something wrong with your process. I have the same issues, and I think you speak out for lots of people, motivation is a very limited resource and when it's not used properly, you end up in this state. What worked for me best is to tackle your tasks with the notion that you have limited resources in mind and that you're just human. Some tips that you might find useful, that certainly work very well for me: 1- Declutter your workspace, clean your whole house, having small things here and there lying around affects my thought process. 2- Declutter your brain, Throw away ideas that might be nice, but are not possible to work on right now cause they'll take tons of time and money, write those ideas down somewhere for later use, if ever. 3- Declutter your life, make sure you don't have lingering problems that can be fixed now, your brain will fatigue out when you have a lot in your stack, fix that leaking toilet, talk to your spouse about the issue you've been always having with them, tell your friend you can't help them with that thing they needed, empty out as much as you can, and work on the low hanging fruits first. 4- When it comes to tasks, spend as much time as you can afford planning it ahead first, break things down into small actionable tasks that will take a few minutes or hours to resolve, avoid homogeneous tasks like "Implement backend", "Fix the known bugs", "Release next version", etc... instead, have very concrete minimal tasks like "Fix bug #21", "Create Users profile database schema", "Convert header image to SVG", etc... 5- Timebox things when planning, say you'll spend only 1 hour today working on this issue, if you can't, then take it again in the next planning and break it down further and give it an appropriate time slot 6- Getting great ideas while working is almost like thought cancer, don't start on them, write them down and continue to do what you are doing 7- Don't start new tasks before the assigned ones are actually done 8- Don't reward or punish yourself, rewards tend to make me very narrow minded, and punishment takes the fun out of things, ask yourself why you are doing what you're doing and why you have to do it, write that down and keep it as a reminder in your workspace. 9- Talk to others, let people know what you're doing, and when it's expected to be done, this keeps me at least from getting lazy as there's expectations form others to see what i've done 10- Listen to different music, I noticed that once I changed my playlist that was on repeat, I was a completely new person, play a podcast instead, or listen to radio or channels that you have no control over. 11- Kill the projects that are taking too long and deep inside you you know that you'll never manage to finish, find smaller ones that are realistic. 12- Always remember that nothing has to be perfect, it's better to have something out there, most of the time no one even notices what you think is a crisis. 13- Ask yourself everyday, is this what I want to be doing?, am I happy?, should I continue? if the answer is truly a big yes from your heart, then go on, if not, try to find other things that might be more fun for you. Tis is what works for me, your results may vary, but what matters is that you have to be relatively happy doing what you do!, if you think you're suffering from ADHD, I would say it's best to visit a therapist, it'll clear out lots of things, don't feel bad spending money on yourself a bit, it's worth it. also if it's your kind of thing, find a mentor :) keep up the good work and never give up! ~~~ swah About timeboxing - Edmond Lau explains like this on The effective engineer: "instead of researching for a solution (say CSS library) for a few hours (which become days), give yourself (say) _one_ hour for that and use the solution you were able to come up. Its interesting and certainly hits me hard, because researching is so much easier than working... ------ danieltillett I am very lazy and can only motivate myself to work to avoid more work in the future. If you are smart about it (debatable if I am) you can get an awful lot done to avoid worse outcomes. ------ Annatar You are in the wrong profession. Find something you really love doing and a way to get paid for it and you won’t work a single day in your life after that. You just didn’t find it yet. ------ mamadontloveme Try to work on projects that are more interesting for you. I almost always have better focus if I work on a job that includes at least one thing, which I am personally interested in. ------ arikr OP please see: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16181081](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16181081) ------ ivanstegic OP, are you doing something you love? Sounds like you and maybe others might be “doing a job” and not working on something you are interested in. Just a thought. ------ dontJudge You have to force yourself to take the first step, getting started. Once you get the ball rolling you have inertia, it's not so hard to keep going. ------ C14L Try a 9to5 job for a year. Its much easier to stay focused in a structured environment with collegues. At least that's my own experience. ------ alex_hitchins I don't know how to contact you, can't see anything in your bio. My details are in mine, be great if you could email me. ------ germs12 I'll give an unpopular opinion here: Grow up. Get a job where you have a boss. Be responsible to someone besides yourself. ~~~ cryoshon >Be responsible to someone besides yourself. how silly; we're responsible for ourselves whether we choose to accept that responsibility or not. putting your executive functions in the hands of someone else like a boss is a common move, but frankly it's a near total resignation of autonomy and personal responsibility that is unacceptable for some people. ------ redleggedfrog Are you bored? That's what it sounds like to me. Maybe you need to find work that is more interesting to you? ------ p0wn Adderall sure does help a ton. You might not have adhd, but instead add. I can empathize with you for sure. ------ Zelphyr Are you burned out? Perhaps a weeks vacation or even longer if you can afford it might be in order. ------ ilovecars2 I now have the opposite issue! If I’m not working RIGHT NOW, I start to feel anxious, because I should be working. This even stems to when I go home after work, or on the weekends, and so I never really can relax my mind. It’s really unhealthy, and I think I’m going to have to see a professional to help me fix this. ~~~ SXX Find yourself any activity depend on your preference (and budget) that going to make you physically exhausted. It's can be any sport or you can travel to warm / cold country of your preference for swimming / skiing. When you're physically exhausted your brain won't be so busy with your work problems. If you actually very busy person with limited time another good option is to pick some audio book or podcast that you can listen in between your usual routine. Once you start listening something daily it's will become easier for you to switch your brain between different activities more easily. It's could be anything from fiction to language course and some of it could even be useful for your career in case you need justification for yourself. ------ stuaxo I've often felt similar. As well as peoples other suggestions that are useful, I've found wearing glasses helps, I don't usually, but when I do concentration is definitely easier. Only first had to wear them from a few years ago so the prescription isn't strong. But yeah, do tend to flit between tasks a bit. ------ slantaclaus Yes, it does sound like ADD. ------ Ritsuko_akagi Judging by the up-votes this post got, I'd say it probably is normal. ------ imd23 Start meditating. Join a sangha. In SF I would love to join SFZC. ------ j45 Nothing gets easier, you just have a chance to get better. ------ rdlecler1 This may be a symptom that you don’t like the work. ------ artur_makly take a break from your mobile device for 1 month + do 15min meditation. This should at least repair some of the focus issues. ------ vasilipupkin Maybe, try adderall? You could just have ADHD. ------ hellbanner Serious question - how often do you exercise? ------ known You need Passion + Patience + Perfection ------ ACow_Adonis I've been a bit disappointed in the responses to be honest. They're almost memes in and of themselves: therapy, drugs, tricks, maybe you're born with it (most aren't). The good news is that you're normal. The bad news is that you're normal. And that really strikes at the heart of the situation. A fish is worst at explaining the concept "wet" because they're born and live in water. HN appears bad explaining lack of focus and self drive because most of us have been brought up in a culture that is almost specifically dominated with instilling such aspects in people. I don't know if it is by design, but it is incredibly effective as a social glue and at showing that culture. Cultural reprogramming is, to put it mildly, difficult at best once you've spent 30 years in one, so I'm largely posting this on the chance that it introduces a new perspective and raises curiosity, not because I think you should necessarily do it, since most people are not interested in such extremes and quite rightly: try separating from your dominant and acculturated environment and you'll likely find a while host of other (arguably bigger) problems. You've been born into and live in a culture that, almost from birth, teaches you to turn to quick wins, entertainment, external direction and external authority. You have now subsequently internalised that culture. To start to fight it, you need to remove yourself from those cultural aspects that reinforce such, and put yourself in a culture/situation that reinforces the opposite. About the clearest thing that reinforces the opposite is isolation and survival: learn to be comfortable in your own company, try spending some time away from others, learn about hiking and camping. If you can spend a few weeks almost without human contact and your cultures distractions, you're forced to start to find that locus of control within yourself and not others. Of course, the downside is that done poorly, this may also be a quick path to mental illness and isolation. Also be aware that if it works, you'll no longer be a member of your current culture as well, this has downsides as well as upsides. But I can't pretend they're not there or downplay them. Talk to others who have experienced integration and then movement or rejection between cultures to understand these: you will no longer have a cultural home, and you cannot ever fully go back, even though part of you may always have a foot in both camps. The other side of the coin, is recognizing and thinking those influences in your dominant culture that reinforce distraction, short term, and locus of control. Obviously, if you try the rather radical route of isolation/cultural reprogramming, these also can't be present or you'll just spend your entire time on them. So: \- no TV \- no computer games \- no news \- no HN \- no podcasts \- no classes or programs where someone else ticks you off or tells you what to do: schools/university \- no status Many of your current techniques are bound to failure because you're essentially trying to use your cultures dominant phenomenon to overcome the very cultural phenomenon you're struggling with. Lastly, only the most radical...borderline insane, would actually seriously try to do the whole thing. You can take positive little steps, by recognizing small steps at first. Aside from removing the negative, there are also positive things that or culture doesn't reinforce that you can introduce: \- sign up at a library and start reading long books \- take up meditation, walking, hiking, long distance and endurance sports \- listen to classical, not pop music. Attend some concerts :p \- try some status/authority busting exercises: sign up at a soup kitchen and learn that people you might otherwise have hidden from aren't bad: volunteer to help ex criminals. Expose yourself to different cultures and classes, travel. Find someone your culture and yourself hold in high regard and look to learn all the reasons that it's bullshit. Hopefully I've given you some ideas and insight beings the normal HN feedback. ------ b0rsuk I have a bit of similar problem. I have a bachelor's degree in CS, but I'm not passionate about programming. I mean, I like it, but in the way that people like strawberries. I enjoy it, but 3 courses a day is too much, or several days in a row with no breaks. I used to loathe myself for not paying enough attention to math. I recently tried to apply for a "backend engineer - data scientist". I read about the "R" programming language they value. It's like math with a programming language strapped on, not a programming language optimized for math. Which reminded me why I never got very far with math, even though I once had a 2nd place in primary school contest and received a monetary reward. I don't usually enjoy math if it's without a clear purpose. Like, I need to understand more math to write some target prediction code in a game. Math for math's sake, like statistics, matrix operations, higher algebra - these things bore me. I can understand them if I stare at the math symbol soup long enough and keep taking it apart, but my mind drifts away and I struggle to focus. This is despite using various motivation tricks and even meditation. But I need to come to grips with the fact I just don't enjoy math that much, despite the high hopes my math teacher had for me. She even got me tested for mensa (I'm way too low, IQ 120 and the threshold was 140 last time I checked). I enjoy Python, I enjoy figuring out how to program something in Rust, I like writing documentation, reading articles, arguing with people, analyzing stuff (I've spent wayyy too much time analyzing patch changelogs for games I never played, or developing creative strategies for games). I like drawing a bit, music - a lot, I like animals, physical exercise, shooting bow, strategic board games with relatively low randomness. Many other things. It seems like my skill points are spread over many areas but I'm not great at either of those. I admire people of Renaissance like Leonardo da Vinci, but this doesn't translate into finding an appropriate job very easily. These days specialists are highly prized, and inter-disciplinary knowledge is harder to use unless you have a brilliant idea. I started observing myself and my feelings closer, and I encourage you to do the same. Pay attention to what activities you enjoy, what you don't, and be honest with yourself. Even if you've already missed an opportunity, with good self-knowledge you can find another one. For example I'm a nerd, I have an affinity for technology, history, archeology, animals, knowledge in general. I read a lot. I like sharing knowledge with others. Maybe I could make a good teacher if I had better grades, or a scientist. But I get my fulfillment by... teaching people new board games, or teaching them how to work out without getting injuries. I'm pragmatic. I think programming and IT is a good, interesting and well-paid job. But I don't breathe it. I work to live, not live to work. I try to explore different aspects of life and acquire new skills. People in the past used to get satisfaction from many different places. Many famous people were mathematicians, painters, journalists, travellers etc. all at the same time. They were losing money in some of these activities, but did it for enjoyment. Observe your feelings. Think of the last time you enjoyed doing something. Take notes on what activities bore you and what give you a rush. If you identify several activities you enjoy, play connect-the-dots. Example: I'm analytical, patient, have some affinity for art, I like animals. Origami is all those things. Another example, how to reverse engineer your interests: I enjoy people that keep surprising me, movies that are not very straightforward, books by Philip K. Dick, fantasy, sci-fi, old maps (the weirder, the better), archeology, lost civilizations, the cartoon Moomintrolls. What do these things have in common ? Answer: MYSTERY. Pay attention to what people are saying about you, especially your skills, interests and what you have an affinity for. People have observed that I happen to like badgers quite a lot. And other animals, that I should perhaps work in a ZOO. I've been also called a philosopher a couple of times, including in high school, and I managed to instantly spot some that weren't labeled as such. One person told me I have a scientist mentality. I'm also a bit of a contrarian (philosophers delighted in trolling!!!). See, I'm a lame version of Paul Graham. Of course, finding an activity you enjoy and one that you can get reasonable money for is two different things. That's why "e-sports" (computer game tournaments) and game development are not well paid activities. Try to think which aspects of being a freelancer you enjoy and which you loathe. When you're happiest, when most burnt out. Debug thyself. ------ __blockcipher__ Have you written off ADHD? ------ kerkeslager Look into the science of motivation, it's very enlightening. Specifically, the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In brief: intrinsic motivation is when you're motivated for no "reason". You're intrinsically motivated to play video games, for example. You don't have to reward or punish yourself to get yourself to play a video game, you do it because you want to. Extrinsic motivations are things you need a reason to do. Money is an extrinsic motivation: people probably don't want to build the next ad delivery service posing as a communications platform, but they do it for the money. In a world full of unicorns and rainbows, we would all do jobs that intrinsically motivate us, but in the real world, there's not much reason to pay people to do things they're intrinsically motivated to do, because they're going to do those things whether you pay them or not. So the reality is that most people have a hard time motivating themselves to do their jobs, because what makes a job pay at all is that it's not easy to find motivation for it. The remainder of this post moves from established psychology into my personal opinion: A lot of what I see is that money and greed can turn intrinsically motivated tasks into extrinsically motivated ones, turning something that was enjoyable into something that is miserable. If you had to play your favorite video game in a way specified by a boss for 40 hours a week, you would probably no longer be intrinsically motivated to play that video game. For a lot of us, programming was like that: we started off loving programming. Programs were like puzzles, and when you solved the puzzle the program would compile and do something. But the day to day problems of a programming career are mostly ones where you're solving some inane detail of a larger whole, and even if you are lucky enough to care about the big picture, you probably don't care about implementing yet another responsive XML cloud-based enterprise SEO keyword. If you are qualified for your job, you mostly have a pretty good idea of the solution to the puzzle, so it's not fun to solve. As Quincy Jones said, "If you go into the studio to make money, God leaves the room." And a lot of us have a hard time adjusting to this once we turn programming from a hobby into a career (which is how most of us got here). We keep working, thinking we'll somehow recapture how it felt to program when we were tinkering with HyperCard on a 1980 Apple, but it never happens because the whole structure of what we're doing has changed. There's nothing wrong with you. The problem isn't you, it's the structure that economic leaders to build an economy that forces people to work toward the economic leaders' goals rather than their own goals. To quote Joe The Barbarian, "It's not the picture that's upside down, it's the world." I don't have a good solution to this problem. I love programming when I do it for myself, and I've spent countless hours writing compilers/interpreters without reaping a dime from it (okay, I guess I've gotten jobs due to people being impressed by my compilers/interpreters, but the economic payoff is negligible compared to the effort). The best I have come up with is to opt out of the economy as much as possible, and find ways to work fewer hours while making enough money to do what I want. The best I can do is minimize the time I'm wasting on extrinsically motivated tasks. ------ m12k If I struggle with procrastination for shorter periods of time or for specific types of chores, I'll use productivity techniques like a pomodoro timer, rewards, etc. And like others have said, breaking down large nebulous tasks into smaller more well-defined ones and making a daily todo list at the beginning of each day is important (the latter is one of the only 'techniques' that I've found to be consistently useful for me over a long period of time) But if you struggle with procrastination and demotivation for months on end, I think you need to think more about what motivates you to work in general, apart from needing to put bread on the table. Two key questions to ask is why you do what you do (the vision), and the circumstances under which you do it (your everyday work). Either of these can motivate you - ideally you'd be motivated by both (doing tasks you enjoy, which also meaningfully moves you toward fulfilling your vision) but you might also be ok with just one or the other (e.g. you might but up with slogging through chores for a while if it helps you achieve your bigger vision, or you might put up with a 'visionless' company for a while in order to play with some cool tech). But if you get neither, then there's a high chance your motivation will go over a cliff - it sounds to me like this might be the case for you. Here are some things to consider in terms of how important they are to motivate you, at the vision level: \- How many people does the work impact? \- How important is it to them if it is done well? \- How 'altruistic' is the work? (do you feel like the world becomes a 'better place' from it?) \- How important is it for you if you own the company yourself or someone else does? \- How important is the 'prestige' of the job for you? \- What kinds of 'achievements' would you be motivated to pursue? (e.g. speaking at a conference, making a name for yourself in your field or similar) And at a daily level: \- What kinds of tasks do you enjoy doing (e.g. for me as a programmer, user- facing features are much more fun than backend tasks) \- How much do you want to interact with end users/customers/clients? \- How much do you want to interact with colleagues? (everyone needs some amount of social interaction and it can get lonely as a freelancer) \- How much would you like to be doing tasks yourself, and to which extent would you be ok with/prefer to just oversee others doing the tasks (some people prefer being hands-on and focus on just a few tasks at a time while others prefer to be a manager for many people, so you don't go as deep yourself, but get to have a hand in everything) \- What other things can motivate you about your daily work or work environment? (e.g. a good cafeteria, short commute, flexible hours, etc.) The balance of how important each of these aspects are vary from person to person, and for a person over time. For example I was working at a game engine company and while I loved the vision (that I could help thousands of creative people turn their ideas onto reality) and the colleagues (places with great visions tend to attract really cool people) and while it was initially a fun challenge to get the hang of C++, I eventually got tired of the cruft of a legacy codebase, and probably most importantly, I felt like I was wasting my most productive years realizing someone else's dream instead of building up a company of my own, like I'd been dreaming of. I was lucky enough to find a co- founder just at the right time, because I also know about myself that I tend to get demotivated if I'm not interacting with other people daily. Anyways, the point is, 'fighting down' procrastination is a necessary skill sometimes, but sometimes you also just have to listen to what your subconscious is telling you about what motivates you and find something that does. It's important every once in a while to look at both if you're going somewhere you want to go, and if the path that you're taking there is one you care to walk on. There's no shame in realizing that something that used to motivate you doesn't anymore, or something else has become more important to you now. People grow, and boredom and dissatisfaction is part of what drives us to do so. ------ g4omingron yes ------ cnees Burnout drains your motivation, but unlike depression, it goes away when you go on vacation and lose the deadlines. Read up on it a bit, and if it sounds like what you're experiencing, do what Google tells you (take a break, focus on intrinsic motivation over extrinsic, align your motivation with your goals, take care of your body, etc.) and it will clear up. It may be that's not the problem, but I'll share some of the ways I overcame it in college because they apply to motivation in general. 1) I reengaged with a friend. I was so busy and stressed that I went months at a time without making social plans, and when a she wanted to get coffee, the first thing through my mind was how taking a few hours off from studying would make me that much more overwhelmed. She told me about burnout, and that's how I realized I was in a temporary state that I could get out of. Beyond that insight, just talking with a friend and breaking my isolation was the right thing to do for my social and mental well-being. 2) I switched from an accomplishment-oriented schedule (I'm done once I finish this task) to a time-based schedule (I have two weeks to do this assignment, and it will take me up to 20 hours, so I'll spend 2 hours on it per work day; that leaves six hours for these other projects, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours of free time.) I made a spreadsheet so I could see how much I was accomplishing and see that I'd have time to finish everything. This made a big difference. There was always more work to do, always some long term project that wasn't finished yet that I felt like I had to work on, but scheduling time for it made it possible to take free time without worrying I was being lazy and I was never going to finish. It made my work, even huge projects, feel manageable. 3) I reevaluated my motivation. I was motivated by a sense of duty and obligation to work hard and make the most of my education, by grades, and by not wanting to fail. Hearing someone say, "Hard work pays off," was a great reminder to me that there were better reasons for what I was doing. Looking back, my hard work really did pay off. My education prepared me for my current job, which I love going to even on Mondays. It was very encouraging to look forward to the payoff and remind myself that my work was adding up to something. 4) I gave myself a break. I made it through the term by changing my time management and reevaluating my motivation, and the next term, I signed up for a lighter workload. I made it through college, and I've avoided going through burnout again by keeping an eye on my working hours and my motivation. TL;DR: Take care of yourself, make some progress each day, don't forget your real motivations in the midst of your proxy motivators, take time off when you need it, and know that you're doing a good job and your work will pay off. ------ lugg It's normal for some people. I've tried everything. Two things finally helped me: understanding, and that one neat trick. Understanding: Understanding yourself is important later, but for now, it helps if you understand procrastination. [https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_mas...](https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator/) That one neat trick? Just do one. One push up, one minute of meditation, one minute of work. Setting yourself up for failure will never work. Setting the bar really low is the only thing that let me achieve anything. I can do one minute of work. It's easy. I very rarely stop after 60 seconds, but sometimes I really just ain't in the mood. Most of the time, I just keep going. If I lose focus, I say, ok one more minute then I can do something else. Who has time for 100 pushups a day? Nobody. Who doesn't have time for 1 pushup? It's literally like 10 seconds of hard work unless you think about it for longer (why?) The one neat trick is more about "just starting" than anything else. Working is easy, starting is hard. The biggest issue with most motivation techniques is they assume you have already started. What you need to do is reduce any and all friction from starting. If starting seems daunting or too hard, you're planning to do too much. Reduce the act of starting to it's simplest form if you have to. Ive had days where my task was to sit down at my desk. That's all I had to do before I could tell myself "job done." I wasn't going to get much done on that sort of day anyway but at least I didnt beat my self up about it. That last point is where understanding yourself and acceptance really starts to play a role. ~~~ rqm Thank you for that one neat trick. ------ hungerstrike Are you working by yourself most of the time? I forget where I read it, but I think it was Joel Spolsky that said “Don’t be a guy in a room” because even if you can do whole projects by yourself, it gets boring and feels unfulfilling compared to working on a team. ~~~ ajeet_dhaliwal The exact opposite is true for me most of the time. The open office ruins it, working on my own or limiting contact is productive. ~~~ bluehatbrit Spolsky has always been an advocate of private offices, I don't think this quote is intended to be literal. I think it more means being the only one working on a project can suck after a long time, especially if you've got ideas you want to bounce of people and can't. ------ xstartup You work alone right? I am hyperproductive when I work in a team because I want to show people who stuff is done within deadline with minimum efforts. But when I work alone, I lose all motivation. I achieve much less. Even after starting 5 companies. ~~~ ci5er People are funny. I am the complete opposite. (Not that I don't get lonely working alone) ~~~ xstartup Hey! I am an introvert and love staying alone. I like to think that staying alone helps me solve problems creatively but my major problem is that when I plan things they don't go well. For me, most of the success has come from flowing along tide when I wasn't eyeing the end or reward when I was going insane with the group. ~~~ ci5er I don't understand the last half of your last sentence, but the rest sounds about right. ------ whataretensors I think the issue is with reward signals. Monotonic reward signals like the ones from normal employment are not anywhere like the ones we received as hunters and gatherers in the wild. Starting your own business, like I have, is one way to get back to the possibility of variable reward signals. But it's terrifying and you basically can't have a family in the US because of healthcare. Then there's also the possibility of 0 reward signals with seemingly undecipherable error signals. It also isn't anywhere near the same distribution. ------ txsh Find another freelancer with the same problem and keep each other motivated/accountable. You don’t have to share work, just general information about your activity. You’re more likely to keep pace if you know someone will notice when you fall behind. ------ Zelmor For OP: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self- determination_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory) ------ jlebrech Sleep, Exercise, eat healthy.

Useful Links for Front-End Web Development - SarahJune https://www.codefellows.org/blogs/useful-links-for-front-end-web-development ====== ivanoats I love these tools lists. It's great to get a lay of the land out there if you are new to web development. ------ hijk Oooo, definitely some goodies in there that are new to me. Animate.css is one I know I'll come back to. ------ cewing nice aggregation. Takes me far beyond my few usual go-to sites. I have some reading to do!

Should I Spend $1k on a Smartphone? - praveenscience https://www.wired.com/story/should-i-spend-1000-on-a-smartphone/ ====== xtiansimon The question I find fascinating is whether we should spend $100 for a hard case to protect our $1000 smart phone. I bought an Otter case for my current iPhone, and it's saved my phone 6 times from a fall of 3 feet or more (I know, because I scratch a tick mark into the case each time). The comment I get most often is how bulky my phone is with the case. It's a tradeoff. A lot of damage could be avoided with a lanyard, but none of the iPhones have lanyard holes. Nearly all early cell/mobile phones, and small audio devices had this feature. Cameras have had straps and lanyard holes for years. Why not the iPhone??

Bitcoin mining on a 55 year old IBM 1401 mainframe: 80 seconds per hash - dezgeg http://www.righto.com/2015/05/bitcoin-mining-on-55-year-old-ibm-1401.html ====== userbinator _I ended up using one character per bit. A 32-bit value is stored as 32 characters, either "0" or "1"._ Bitslice DES does the same thing, although it uses the other bits too to execute multiple operations in parallel. Perhaps it could be possible to do much better than 80 seconds/hash on the same hardware. Also, a missed opportunity to hash block #1401. :-) ------ kristopolous Still quite a bit faster then the old "pen and paper" method this machine was a replacement for. ~~~ VLM Unit record equipment, more likely. Running a bitcoin hash on that would be an interesting piece of performance art. Unit record equipment is mechanical enhanced manual processes using punch cards. They're "almost computers" but missing some key components. So you get a radix sorter in a big box. And a totalizer in a big box (more or less an adder). And a selector in a big box. And humans configure the machines by hand and carry stacks of cards between the machines. They were high tech perhaps a generation or three before the 1401 in the article. ------ gregwtmtno Imagine if he solved a block with that thing? That's like douglas adams-level unlikely. ------ rasur I'd be curious to know what a modern day IBM mainframe can do, just out of idle interest. ~~~ aus_ Modern mainframes have an optional cryptographic coprocessor addon. The hardware, or cryptocard [1], is specialized to provide high-throughput for common cryptographic functions, including SHA-256. (It does lots more than that too.) The latest cryptocard available is the Crypto Express5S [2] and is compatible with z13s. And since modern mainframes can run Linux natively (s390x), you could probably get popular CPU miners to run. Albeit, you'd have to recompile for s390x and provide patches to utilize CPACF [3]. I could never find any SHA-256 hash rates for the Crypto Express5S, but if you really wanted to mine bitcoins on a mainframe, this would be the way to go. [1]: [http://www-03.ibm.com/security/cryptocards/pciecc/overview.s...](http://www-03.ibm.com/security/cryptocards/pciecc/overview.shtml) [2]: [http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/hardware/z13_specs.html](http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/hardware/z13_specs.html) [3]: [https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/co...](https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/com.ibm.linux.z.wskc.doc/wskc_c_s02cpacf.html) ~~~ TylerE CPU mining hasn't been relevant for years. ~~~ joshu You didn't really understand what he said. ------ zokier Attempting to optimize that sounds like an interesting challenge. If you'd manage to actually use the BCDesque encoding somehow then that sounds like it would give nice perf boost. ~~~ LanceH Failing that, we just need trillions of vintage mainframes. ------ stevewepay _Most of the time the hash isn 't successful, so you modify the block slightly and try again, over and over billions of times._ Question: What exactly gets modified over and over again? Is it the nonce that gets tweaked through every iteration? And is it correct to assume that for a fixed number of transactions that are added to a block, that there may not be a hash that works? ~~~ kens The nonce is the expected thing to tweak, but given current difficulty, it's pretty likely that trying all the nonces will fail. The timestamp can also be tweaked, and the transaction list changed. But miners usually change the "coinbase" transaction (which is the transaction that grants bitcoins to the miners) by putting an extra nonce in there, since there's extra room and the transaction can be modified without messing anything up. This is important in mining pool so miners can do a lot of hashes without constantly contacting the server to request a new block. See my blog post on mining for details of how the coinbase transaction is built by concatenation: [http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoin-mining-hard-way- algori...](http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoin-mining-hard-way- algorithms.html) ------ jonjacky Great! It might be interesting to code this in FORTRAN for the 63-phase compiler for the 1401 [1]. I wonder how the generated code would compare? [1] [http://ibm-1401.info/1401-FORTRAN- Illustrated.html](http://ibm-1401.info/1401-FORTRAN-Illustrated.html) ------ jdub Beautiful. Lots of fascinating details and photos… especially the status panel GIF. 😍 ~~~ kens Thanks. It was a bit of a pain to make the status panel GIF; I hadn't kept the camera stationary, so I had to do a lot of image correction. So I'm glad to hear someone liked it. ~~~ hberg ....and Google Drive stopped showing the image because "Too many users have viewed or downloaded this file recently". Is there a cached version somewhere? ~~~ kens Thanks for letting me know. I've switched the image to a different host, which hopefully won't hit a bandwidth limit. What does HN recommend as a high-bandwidth, preferably free way to serve files such as animated gifs? ~~~ hberg Thanks for re-hosting it :-) I'm a sucker for "do modern things on old hardware". Just saw a great project at Maker Faire where some guys re-purposed old WWII radar tubes to make playable video games, one of which was flappy bird. [http://tubetime.us/](http://tubetime.us/) and [http://www.labguysworld.com/Project_ESCRTs_001.htm](http://www.labguysworld.com/Project_ESCRTs_001.htm) ------ afandian How long does a hash take on a modern PC? ~~~ Vilkku Towards the end of the article: "The IBM 1401 can compute a double SHA-256 hash in 80 seconds. It requires about 3000 Watts of power, roughly the same as an oven or clothes dryer. A basic IBM 1401 system sold for $125,600, which is about a million dollars in 2015 dollars. On the other hand, today you can spend $50 and get a USB stick miner with a custom ASIC integrated circuit. This USB miner performs 3.6 billion hashes per second and uses about 4 watts." ------ markbnj This is awesome. Well done.

Show HN: Relayed encrypted signalling for P2P WebRTC calls - jvanveen https://ca11.io/ ====== jvanveen For more info, see [https://github.com/garage11/ca11](https://github.com/garage11/ca11) ~~~ chatmasta Could I use this to setup a TURN server with e2e encryption? My biggest problem with p2p signaling has always been that any traffic over TURN server is unencrypted. (Maybe I'm wrong/out-of-date about this?) Or is the idea of this library that it implements its own encryption, so that an unencrypted TURN server is irrelevant? i.e. a TURN server operator cannot intercept a connection between two ca11 peers. P.S. You might be interested in the IPOP [0] [1] research project, which implements VPN using p2p signaling. [0] [http://ipop-project.org/](http://ipop-project.org/) [1] [https://github.com/ipop-project](https://github.com/ipop-project) ~~~ jvanveen The relayed signalling in CA11 is meant for small event-like messages, not for media streams. The goal is to establish a secure e2e encrypted messaging channel between nodes(browsers) on an open, untrusted, overlay network. The network relays these encrypted messages between nodes. The messaging is primarily built for SDP/ICE and node discovery, but can carry any JSON data. The initial purpose is to see if this can act as a decentralized telephony system for p2p calling, using STUN and TURN. This would be an alternative for SIP-based calling(CA11 also does SIP). Afaik TURN just relays application data, which is already encrypted with WebRTC using DTLS/SRTP. IPOP looks very interesting. I didn't thought of VPN use-cases yet. Thanks!

The YOLOv3 Object Detection Network Is Fast - Qworg https://medium.com/@Synced/the-yolov3-object-detection-network-is-fast-fcceae0ab650 ====== Qworg Paper: [https://pjreddie.com/media/files/papers/YOLOv3.pdf](https://pjreddie.com/media/files/papers/YOLOv3.pdf) GitHub: [https://github.com/pjreddie/darknet](https://github.com/pjreddie/darknet) Joseph Redmon and Ali Farhadi are funny and informative as always. Disclosure: I work for Vulcan Inc. and collaborate with AI2 regularly.

Ask HN: Best website building service for selling software - zengid Howdy. I&#x27;m wanting to throw up a web-store for a software product in the future and I&#x27;m doing research on a web-hosting service like wix or squarespace that I can sell downloads through. I could build my own site from scratch, but I&#x27;d rather spend what little free time I have on the actual product. Any suggestions? Thank you! ====== verdverm Is this paid software? Not sure anyone pays for and downloads software beside mobile apps, because of the distribution & payment system. I'm very skeptical of downloading software from websites. If not paid, then put it in the usual software download channels. Consider a different distribution / payment model. ~~~ zengid Its going to be music software like Ableton or a VST plugin, so purchasing is usually still a thing.

Show HN: Try, the art of repeating tweets like Guy Kawasaki - sameerpeace http://www.socialchamp.io ====== sameerpeace Based on The Art of Repeating Tweets, by "Guy Kawasaki", following Guy's social media strategy for Twitter [http://www.socialchamp.io](http://www.socialchamp.io) We developed a platform to increase your reach on twitter in an automated way. "Social Champ" empowers social media users, specially Twitter users, to have more traction and reach by auto repeating their content so that it can be covered by all times zones. Let's say you tweet something at 1:00PM, however your target audience checked twitter at 8:00PM. They'd definitely miss your tweet. So repeating good content will generate more traction and bring more value. The users can add photos, delete previously posted tweet from twitter, see their upcoming tweets and customize repeating timings. “Guy Kawasaki” uses the above theory to post his tweets, repeats them 10 times a day, and sends 50+ tweets per day! Any questions or feedback to improve will highly be appreciated? ( If you are extensive twitter user, I can share few voucher coupons too for full access, PM please!) PS: It's in testing mode. ~~~ cstross This is basically a spamming tool. Downvoted. ~~~ sameerpeace Thank you for your feedback. However, do posting automated tweets count as spamming? ~~~ cstross Put on your [hypothetical] black hat and consider all the myriad ways you could abuse a tool like this before you start selling it as a service. (Because abusers _will_ flock to any new service as soon as it becomes available, in the hope that it will bypass existing defenses.) ~~~ sameerpeace Hmm, you have a point. The worse that could happen for those abusers is get instant unfollows. Abusers user Buffer, Hootsuite and other services to repost their content, there it takes them a while to setup the entire stuff. I think I need to rethink the value it gives. The future features include providing curated good content so people can tweet them, and a tool that fetches image from a link and adds a text on it for the user to post it as a picture with a single click. This is just a start. Thanks for valuable feedback. ~~~ tedmiston > and a tool that fetches image from a link and adds a text on it for the user > to post it as a picture with a single click. I'd use that. I end up saving an image to Downloads, uploading to Twitter, then deleting the file pretty regularly. ~~~ sameerpeace Hey, now [http://socialchamp.io](http://socialchamp.io) can do all above in one click. It can fetch an image from a link and post it as separate image. Try it out. PS: It's being optimized to fetch images from more websites.

Why the Best Days of Open Hardware are Yet to Come - swah http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=1863 ====== sliverstorm I am somewhat annoyed by the author's portrayal of individuals or small companies as the innovators, and large companies as the converse. Who do you think drives Moore's Law? It's not some force of nature. The material properties of silicon are not changing every 18 months. Do you think it will not take innovation to produce a viable 14nm production line? Additionally, even if we hit hard limits in transistor gate size, do not expect progress to stop. There are alternative technologies aplenty that put silicon to shame, that are only avoided because of how cheap manufacturing is with silicon. ~~~ sliverstorm One more thing. The reason early computers and radios shipped with manuals and lists of replacement parts is because the technology was young, and things broke. As the technology has matured, it has integrated into our lives and failure rates have gone down. As a consequence, fewer and fewer people are interested in the guts, and people expect it to "just work". They have no interest or use for a repair manual with their Macbook Pro. It is much the same as with the juvenille stages of any technology. Automobiles were once notoriously unreliable; old British cars were said to require work every weekend to keep running. Next, American cars had 5-digit odometers, because cars didn't last beyond 100,000 miles. Today, cars routinely go 200,000 miles or more. There is talk that soon engine wear will cease to be the limiting factor in a cars' life. As a result, your average citizen has never seen the inside of their engine bay, and could care less about how to fix their car- they expect it to just work. ~~~ Joakal The fail rates may have reduced some interest, but I believe there's other bigger reasons: \+ Students are increasingly brought up to do memorisation over creativity. \+ It's hard to hack integrated microchips. Especially with proprietary software. Want to repair your own car? Need to take it to a Brand(tm) Certified car repair service to even get the proprietary diagnostic. Even then, they may refuse to give the logs to you. \+ Loss of ownership with IP laws. Try to break open Wii? You're a pirate! Jailbreaking? Bad! Also run the risk of being sued for talking about breaking open hardware despite owning it. ~~~ nickpinkston It's largely a myth that you need proprietary scans. OBDII/III are standards that give instructive error codes - it's actually pretty easy with them and a good multimeter. The manuals are step by step - I'd say parts monopolies in German cars, etc. hurt worse. ~~~ Joakal Was talking about stuff like this: <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/05/right-repair-law-pro> ------ bradleyland I'm not sure if all of these assumptions follow. Marketers are in the business of finding reasons to compel you to buy new stuff, and marketers are the ones making products. In the past, people held on to things longer, not because they lasted longer or were viable longer, but because they didn't have the resources to buy new stuff. In order for "repair culture" to set-in in any significant way, consumption culture would need to be displaced. The factors that would drive that are largely unrelated to technology. For example, a global economic depression would result in people keeping their possessions longer simply because they don't have the money to buy new. Look at the many other products in our lives that people regularly replace before their usefulness has expired. Cars are probably the best example. When the economy is booming, people replace their cars rapidly. As it slows down, they hold on to them longer. I can't find any long term data, but the graph and caption on this page imply that the two are correlated: "The Changing U.S. Auto Industry Series: Consumer Sentiment During Challenging Times." [http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/2010_fotw...](http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/2010_fotw622.html) I don't see any reason computers will be different. "Hackers" will remain a niche community, but I still think the many other reasons cited by the author will result in better tools for us to play with. For example, development of reasonably priced and performant FPGAs would be huge. Look at the Arduino line of products. The future is still a bright one. I just don't see "heirloom laptops" in our future. ~~~ 0x12 > For example, a global economic depression would result in people keeping > their possessions longer simply because they don't have the money to buy > new. That would seriously suck then because the stuff that we've got today for the most part was built with a very definite life-cycle in mind. So when you are dumped in that global recession you need the quality stuff that wasn't produced when the recession wasn't on yet and you can no longer afford its creation. ~~~ sliverstorm That's what repairs and maintenance is about. Religiously upkeeping something you can't possibly afford to replace is how it was done for ages. ~~~ anchorsteam I feel that personal goods like clothing, shoes, hand tools, etc... were made with more durability in mind until the mid 60's or so. ~~~ 0x12 Absolutely, on top of that the stuff that is made today is not even meant to be repaired at all. It's all about the cost to the manufacturer and not falling apart until the day after the warranty expires. ------ j_m_f Although I do agree that Open Hardware has a bright future, I'd just like to point out that people have been calling the end of transistor size scaling for a few decades, and technology keeps finding ways to get around the limitations (strained silicon, high-k metal gates, finFETs, etc.). ~~~ Estragon From the article: > 5 nm is about the space between 100 silicon atoms, so even if this > guess is wrong, it can be wrong by no more than a few technology > generations. ~~~ j_m_f My point is that, even in that case (current silicon scaling stopping at 5nm), there are a lot of potential technologies that could allow Moore's law to continue (nanowires, III-V materials, etc.). ------ 0x12 My money is on massive FPGAs, think a whole wafer of silicon with just a bunch of general purpose IO and power. Once stuff like that becomes available at a reasonable price (a big FPGA will cost you a _lot_ of money at the moment) open hardware will be as simple as downloading a bitstream on to your 'general purpose' rig. ------ dmboyd I like where this is going, ie. Hardware becomes just another software component. The key item thats left is some sort of standard interface to port programs to a FPGA style processor, i.e. a way of interfacing between a language compiler and HDL. I like the look of the Reduceron (<http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/fp/reduceron/>) which looks to be funded by Xilinx and Lava( by Satnam Singh, who works for Microsoft Research), purely because I think its easier to visualise a functional language translating into circuitry. Although I do wonder whether it will take a start-up to be able to successfully merge both the software and the hardware components into a workable model. ~~~ sliverstorm _I like where this is going, ie. Hardware becomes just another software component._ Unlikely. You can't run software without hardware. Even if the computers of tomorrow are a mess of FPGA's that can be reconfigured on the fly, somebody's got to make the FPGA's. ------ ChuckMcM Its a great insight. What happens when your laptop is 'fast enough' for the forseeable future? ~~~ jurjenh Then you start running into failure. Modern electronics isn't really built to last, so having a laptop that will last you more than 10 years is extremely unlikely. Until market demand changes to quality, long-lived electronics, you will still be rolling over your computing device every couple of years. And then there's always the trends and cycles of fashion... ~~~ wmf Yeah, but 10 years is still a lot longer than the 3-year upgrade cycle many people are on today.

The Evolution of Trust - abhi3 http://ncase.me/trust/? ====== shock Nick Case has other awsome stuff you can play with. I quite enjoyed [http://ncase.me/polygons/](http://ncase.me/polygons/).

Unable to submit my *.github.io subdomain on HN - ashutoshgngwr I&#x27;m returned an error saying my account is too new to submit &quot;this site&quot;. PS, I&#x27;m able to share other links. ====== greenyoda For questions about site policy, please contact the moderators at hn@ycombinator.com. ~~~ ashutoshgngwr Thanks, I'll drop an email! But I was wondering if anyone else had faced a similar issue.

Business Failures learned at 19yrs old - krmmalik http://saadmalik.net/entrepreneurship/a-little-more-about-me-my-business-failures-lessons-learned/ ====== saadmalik01 Thanks for sharing my blog post on HN! Please feel free to share your thoughts. I'd appreciate any feedback.

Kubernetes 1.13 – What's New? - vthallam https://k8s.co.in/blog/kubernetes-1-13-whats-new/ ====== ggm IPv6 inside would be nice.

Facebook Code - GutenYe https://code.facebook.com/ ====== GutenYe Facebook Open Source 2016 year in review: [https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t39.2365-6/15945710_1292506674...](https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t39.2365-6/15945710_1292506674139589_2204580213088583680_n.png)

Why is Apple only buying startups from Israel? - ForFreedom Are there no startups in the US&#x2F;EU&#x2F;UK? ====== jaachan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisition...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Apple) says they've only bought two Israeli companies so far.

How script kiddies turns Linux box into a Zombie - True Story - Andrew-Dufresne http://blog.larsstrand.org//article.php?story=HollidayCracking ====== DCoder _"Let's execute command 382 to see what it does."_ Oy. Not the best idea, generally speaking. Edit: I used to read the localized paper version of <http://xakep.ru/> several years ago, and practically every hacking story/tool roundup they had mentioned the annoying problem with ls --color, it was apparently present in almost every public rootkit at the time. It's kinda interesting to see that idiots still use outdated tools years later. ------ dstorrs Great story. As a developer-but-not-sysadmin, it's interesting to read how someone more knowledgeable does this sort of analysis and remediation.

Some Indian start-ups shun funding in bid to retain independence - paraschopra http://livemint.com/Companies/hZXXOXHl9euEdJMSkvpKMM/Some-startups-shun-funding-in-bid-to-retain-independence.html ====== kamaal Firstly, Congratulations Paras. One more company that comes to my mind is HasGeek(<http://hasgeek.com/>). HasGeek is definitely the best thing to have happened to the entire scenario. And they are based on pretty much the same lines, which is they are totally self sufficient. For all those people with MegaCorp day jobs. You can do a lot of low bandwidth side projects to start up. If you are interested and persist enough then much can be achieved in spare time, both learning and money wise. ~~~ kushsolitary I would add browserstack too. ~~~ kislayverma BrowserStack +1!! ------ ashray I think this is absolutely awesome! Congratulations to all the startups who are pulling this off! I do however think that when startups have proven themselves, and have a steady cash flow, but want to race to the top, VC funding may be the way to go. I personally experienced this with a startup with a very healthy balance sheet. The reason for VC funding was pretty straightforward "We need money to expand internationally". Local market dominance is usually quite possible with bootstrapping however international expansion poses a totally different challenge (first challenge: hire an experienced management team for it..). VC funding plays a big role when it comes to the big guns. If you want to be the next Mc Donalds or the next Hyatt, it may be important. Local market dominance is also great while being bootstrapped, if you want to play acquire-me, but that could just as easily be stomp all over me. I guess that's what makes this business so exciting ;) ------ markdown WTF, every single one of the ~20 links in that article points inwards! I regret giving them a page view. ~~~ paraschopra Yes, we were hoping we would get link back to our product or company. Linking inwards really is a pathetic UX, even at the expense of SEO. I hope Google sees and penalizes such UX. ~~~ criley I'm a bit surprised that people find this new or interesting. Many sites have played the "dozens of links inward" game for some time. Almost every business site will provide links for every business or stock mentioned, all heading inward into their site further. Here's an example: the first article I clicked on on the first page I knew behaved similarly: <http://www.cnbc.com/id/100644923> Looks pretty similar. ~~~ markdown This isn't new to me... most major websites do it, but I've never seen it done for _every_ single link. ------ chiph I think if India can get past the "Entrepreneurs are losers because they're not doctors or engineers" social aspect, they'll have a lot of advantages that SV doesn't have. Mainly because they're natural crowd-funders. What I've observed is that friends in India are very tight -- they'll do almost anything for each other. And if you have a friend with a startup, you'd certainly lend them some money. So, they may not need VC money, and may not need angels, but they do potentially have a lot of "micro-angels" to raise funds through. ------ moha297 This is a huge paradigm shift....I feel happy that it is happening in India :) ------ rikacomet Congrats Paras, nice to hear that you share the same urge for independence as myself as well. Can we perhaps arrange a meeting, if you live near Delhi? Add me on skype if so. My skype: carl.theteuton ~~~ neilxdsouza Hey, If you are planning an HN meetup in and around Delhi, please let me know too. nxd_in at [[ yahoo dot com ]] ~~~ rikacomet Its a good idea, we can do a HN meetup in future, I'm working on making that possible somehow. ------ krmmalik Congratulations Paras! I love hearing about boot-strapped stories. ~~~ paraschopra Thanks :) ------ Hitchhiker Live free or die hard ;-). ------ helloamar Yes that's rite, I've turned down two VC, now entered our 11th year with 6 companies. ------ nnnnni Ugh, yet more startup news? Is this Hacker News or Startup News?! ~~~ facorreia Er, I suppose it's Y Combinator's site? The startup funding company? ~~~ nnnnni Er, so what? It's called Hacker News, not Startup Funding News. ~~~ facorreia I know, but honestly I can still get some value from that kind of article. IMO it's the political activism which is more out-of-place. ~~~ nnnnni I can agree with you there. I'm just annoyed by how every other story is about "startups" when the name is Hacker News... Meh, I don't know, just saying.

EPA to revoke California’s power to limit vehicle emissions - ilamont https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/17/epa-california-obama-waiver-1500336 ====== mdorazio This is... unfortunate. California has really dragged most of the US auto industry kicking and screaming into an era of lower emissions by virtue of its ridiculously large impact on overall vehicle sales for the country. Granted, some of this has resulted in loophole exploitation like with overly large pickups and tiny production run cars, but the overall trend has been positive. It's sad to see the Trump administration might actually succeed in pushing emissions standards back several years.

The Coders Programming Themselves Out of a Job - xcubic https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/agents-of-automation/568795?single_page=true ====== eindiran Duplicate of: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18120322](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18120322) ------ IronWolve Go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script

An extremely high-altitude plume seen at Mars’ morning terminator - user_235711 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14162.html ====== bsurmanski unfortunately the actual article is paywalled. In the abstract they say there are 2 theories of the plume's source: 1) CO2 or H2O ice particulate reflecting solar radiation. They don't state where the particulate is coming from, but they claim the plume is likely cyclic in nature. 2) strong auroral emissions 1000x the brightness of earth's aurora. Caused by a strong magnetic anomaly. ~~~ svachalek The BBC has a story on it, it doesn't add much to this but there are some pictures: [http://www.bbc.com/news/science- environment-31491805](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31491805)

Should UX/UI Designers Code? Finding a Balance Between Yes and No - philk10 https://spin.atomicobject.com/2017/09/26/should-ux-ui-designers-code/#.WcqhPMLkkHU.hackernews ====== warrenm UI/UX designers should know - approximately - what is going to be required by software developers to implement the designs they want (ie, they should have a basic knowledge of platform APIs, coding, etc) because lots of stuff that looks cool/good turns out to be really hard to build on <insert-name-of- platform-here> And you have to know that what you're designing is following a given platforms' interface guidelines, standards, and expectations

Show HN: Use Pinvoke to Speed Up .Net Core - samfisher83 https://github.com/samfisher83/Pinvoke.NetCore ====== bigdubs PInvoke is a really nice system to handle native interop, but introduces so much complexity in terms of tool chain and platform specific issues I'm not sure .net core (which is supposed to be cross platform out of the box) is the best use case. Cool guide though.

Ask HN: Web app feedback (intelligent chatting system) - benjamincanfly http://www.circleofconversation.com ====== gruseom I like it too. I might even use it, if there are enough high quality participants. I read the whole Theory page and it struck me as blah blah blah blah blah, _except_ for these two points: 1\. Conversations on topics you want, going on right now; 2\. Karma keeps the quality high. To me those are the core, and they're a pretty cool core. If I were you I'd strip everything else out. And emphasize those two things on the main page. Personally, I'd drop the recommendation system, or at least drop talking about it. There's so much tripe surrounding that kind of thing that, when I read it, I noticed that your credibility instantly dropped in my mind. I'd rather you put your effort into making it really easy for me to browse/search what's going on so that I can make my _own_ choices. Recommendations won't make me want to use your site if there isn't a lot of value there already. And if you do develop a kick-ass way of recommending related stuff, don't talk to me about it, just show me a few suggestions unobtrusively and I'll eventually catch on. I also like the slogan "chat rooms that really work". Edit: on reflection, I seem to notice a pattern which, if it really is there, I suggest you avoid like the plague. It is the idea of the system being "intelligent". It comes out in details like your choice of the word "Theory" and the title of this post, as well as in the emphasis on the recommendation system and its overtones of AI. To me this is a big turn-off. I don't _want_ a chatting system, and I certainly don't want an "intelligent" chatting system. What I want is intelligent conversation. It seems to me you've got the kernel of something that could actually offer me that, which could be genuinely valuable. Focus on that and try to get the system _out_ of the way. Edit 2: while it's fresh in my memory... I noticed another thought going through my mind which was, "I wonder who is on here that I know from somewhere else", like HN for example. I wonder if people would be willing to link their user names to their names from other communities. I would, if I knew that lots of other people from HN were talking about stuff on your site. ~~~ benjamincanfly This is the kind of helpful feedback I was banking on. Thanks much. Originally there was no recommendation system planned, but once I realized how easy it would be I had some infatuation-based feature creep. Going back to the drawing board with 'don't tell them, show them' as priority 1. ~~~ tdoggette Perhaps add a "lobby" room on the dashboard page with no particular topic? That'd show 'em. Also, showing more tips hides the input box. It prevents people from being sure they're implementing tips right, and adds more complexity to saying things for new users. ------ mechanical_fish I rather like it. No idea if it will take off or anything, but it's really nice. Your approach to user signup is superb. There should be an explicit "tag this conversation" link. Otherwise nobody will even know that they can do that. Can I post a link to an ongoing conversation in some other place, like Twitter or, say, here? The "Theory" page is... a bit too theoretical. I mean, everyone here will get it, but not the mass market. I doubt that many AOL Chat users understand what "asynchronous" means. Don't delete the existing page... just make a slightly simpler, shorter Theory page and relegate the existing text to a second-level "Theory of the Theory" page. Other than that... it's hard to know what to critique. Many of the essential design features of such a site will only become obvious when it's flooded with traffic or overwhelmed by griefers. That's hard to test. Maybe you should start a really _provocative_ conversation and then post a Digg link to it. ;) ~~~ benjamincanfly Thanks! In a way the signup process is my favorite thing about the site, since there's no process required at all. I love it when I stumble upon a painless method of any kind. You can post the link from your address bar, but the next step will be to make each tag and conversation a static URL which can be crawled by Google. The theory page was basically written for the HN and reddit/r/programming audiences, because I wanted to get some serious feedback on the concept itself. In the next month or two everything will be made more palatable. Thanks for the feedback. ------ benjamincanfly Hey guys! I've been building this app in my spare time. It's based on a simple idea I had over a year ago - somehow after all this time there still has not been a great web 2.0 chatting site to come into existence, so I've been steadily working at it whenever I've had the chance. You can read my whole spiel at <http://www.circleofconversation.com/#tab=theory>, but basically the idea behind the app is that people like talking to strangers online(like we're doing right now) as long as there is a sufficiently precise topical specifier(like we have here). The app attempts to accomplish this by letting users give their chat rooms tags which fade out over time and then disappear if they aren't refreshed/spoken aloud. They're constantly replaced by now- accurate tags, so ideally every conversation has a very precise set of topical specifiers at all times, making them worth joining. I'd love to get some feedback on the general concept as well as execution specifics, though the UI is rough and the feature set is basic. Thanks, HN. P.S. I'm intentionally posting this in the evening to try to avoid any significant traffic, and to give myself time to hot-fox any glaring bugs, since I do client work during the day. I bet this sounds familiar to at least half of HN's readers. ~~~ mstefff The UI definitely needs work. I didn't completely understand it until reading your comment. Seems very difficult to get off the ground without a large, extremely active userbase. I don't use twitter or friendfeed but it looks very similar to it. Still not sure if I see a real use or appeal for it - I could be wrong. I'd like to see how it plays out after some time. Domain name is wayyy to long.. Nice work so far though. ~~~ benjamincanfly >I didn't completely understand it until reading your comment. I'm finding it hard to sum the site up in a phrase, but I know this is important. >Seems very difficult to get off the ground without a large, extremely active userbase. Yep, same old problem. I don't have a marketing budget, so I'll just have to try doing it the hard way. >Domain name is wayyy to long.. At this point in the game it's either made-up words, non-descriptive domains, or descriptive, long domains. I like conversational speech, so I went with the third option. I think it's very easy to remember, which may offset the length. I think it's funny that we consider three words so long when it comes to the web, but I basically agree with what you're saying. ------ Alex3917 Great concept. I would start by putting everything into the dashboard page. Perhaps borrow from the look and feel of the Wikipedia main page, in terms of fitting everything into four different boxes. The theory page isn't necessary; I know it's only for HN readers, but once the site is good enough the concept will speak for itself (it already does for the most part.) Choose a snappier name. This has the potential to get really big. (The YouTube of conversations?) ~~~ benjamincanfly Thanks for the notes, I'll take some of these suggestions. The "YouTube of conversations" idea really resonates. Sometimes a simile does far more than a detailed explanation - Command Shift 3's "like Hot or Not except (...) you click on hot websites" is perfect, for example. ------ sutro Good idea and nice start. Suggestion: Add up-down voting for tags/topics, then rank the tags/topics on a redesigned front page that looks more like HN or Reddit. You could make the site behave like a HN for which all link submissions were self-referring (like this one), and all commenting/conversation happened in real-time. ------ shawndrost The feedback here is valuable, but leaves out one point which you might not be aware of: an "intelligent chat system" will enjoy about as much widespread success as a poetry board. (Which is not to say that you should stop, or that this isn't valuable.) ------ dmnd I really like the idea. A few things I noticed: Tagging a conversation with a pronoun like "I" will probably means it sticks around forever. Can you join multiple conversations at once? What happens if two conversations share a tag? Are they merged? To stop conversations being tagged incorrectly, you could perhaps ask users that join via that tag if it was accurate or not. It'd be awesome if you could automate tagging of conversations. I'm not sure how many people will be motivated to maintain metadata about their conversations (the only way to find that out is to get more users though). ------ drewcrawford Are conversations archived somewhere? Here's my reasoning: 1\. Some conversation and/or the site gets dugg 2\. Thousands of incoming users waltz in with good karma 3\. Everything goes to hell Wikipedia, Everything2 et al. have some resilience because the audience is more than just who's using the site at the moment. Dunno if you've thought about that in great detail or not. Also, * Friend system. Encourages people to band together against the trolls * Bookmarking ------ cdr "Under construction" is a phrase I have an immediate, strongly negative reaction to. I'm probably not alone. How about "Coming soon"? ~~~ benjamincanfly I guess that's a bit of a GeoCities throwback. Changed it to "in the works," thanks. ~~~ dominik Is there a need for a such a phrase at all? I think it's pretty clear websites continually evolve, grow, etc. ------ thorax Really needs a quick way to get your friends in the room. Should actually be very visible and very easy to get them in that room chatting with you. Perhaps an obviously marked URL to copy/paste or something like that? ------ Hexstream Typo on the theory page: "Coupled with an analysis of your actual chatting history, this data lets Circle makes helpful suggestions as to what conversations you're likely to enjoy." "makes" --> "make" ------ tocomment Really cool!! I put all my comments in the chat system. We really need to link this with hacker news so we can discuss things. ------ curiousgeorge Not to put a downer on things, but this is not going to be useful for me at all. Why should I want to chat with complete strangers about random topics. And why online? ~~~ bigbang Right now, you are here on HN :) ~~~ curiousgeorge Totally different. Socializing is happening around a directed activity here, and it's asynchronous.

Secrets of BackType's (YC S08) Data Engineers - omakase http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/01/secrets-of-backtypes-data-engineers.php ====== blantonl This illustrates that a staff of _three_ highly skilled innovative engineers can bring to market an innovative solution. Jeeze, these guys developed their own _database_ and _language_ to accomplish their objectives. Others might take 10 million in funding, already be focused on the 2nd round, all the while not focused on delivering first. You have to get there, before you can get there. Congrats to the BackType team. ------ fookyong I would be more interested in hearing the results/reasoning of their recent introduction of a paywall. Seems the business model pivoted slightly. e.g. [http://backtweets.com/search?q=yongfook.com%2Fall-about- litt...](http://backtweets.com/search?q=yongfook.com%2Fall-about- littlecosm&ref=p1) anything beyond the last few weeks, you need to pay $100/month. ~~~ konsl The results in BackTweets haven't actually changed, we're just showing an upgrade button above them. What was free continues to be free. ------ mrchess I'm surprised they are still 3 engineers. They have been posting jobs for almost a year now and still haven't hired anyone, yet they keep saying in blogs and the job section they want to hire. I understanding waiting for the "best" yet at the same time you're growing a custom stack that requires specific skill sets and I imagine as time goes on it only gets harder. I mean, slow hiring is good too but at some point you need to give in and grow so that your employees can join in on your projects and grow with the company! ~~~ nathanmarz We've recently added two very talented interns to our team: <http://tech.backtype.com/welcome-jason-christopher> ~~~ chanri Are you looking for full-time engineers? ~~~ nathanmarz Yes, we are. <http://www.backtype.com/jobs> ------ ehsanul This reminds me of that post by the ex-Facebook manager, who said that tools are top priority. This article really brings it home for me. However, despite their purported effectiveness as engineers, I'm not sure what Backtype is really doing. I generally see them just below an article, in place of comments, with a long list of useless tweets referring to the article (usually of the form "article title - bit.ly/shortened". That's probably not doing them too much good for marketing, unless you think any publicity is good publicity. ~~~ konsl What you're seeing is Disqus' Reactions feature, which we help power. Part of our business is data services, which companies like Disqus, Bitly, The New York Times, SlideShare, etc use. Our own product is a marketing intelligence platform; essentially, it provides analytics for social media marketing programs so brands understand what's working, what isn't and how to improve.

Ask HN: Best distributed job processing system in 2019? - sharmi I have around 10 million network I&#x2F;O related jobs that I would like to do in a short period.<p>So I hope to use a job queue to run it distributed on several servers.<p>I have used celery in the past but it is not quite reliable.<p>Features most important to me are multiple retries, restarting workers that are not responding, ability to monitor status of the queue and workers. Nice to have features - cron scheduling, task chaining, high throughput.<p>Which is the most stable, reliable job queue out there? It would be preferable to support workers in multiple languages. The ones I would prefer are Python and Go.<p>I have used celery in the past, but workers often hang ====== gervu Workers hanging is a thing that happens everywhere. (You might not have enough resources if it's happening often, though.) You should design the workers so that what needs to happen still happens in the event of expected failures, or so that it at least fails gracefully and with a useful paper trail. Failures happen, good engineering anticipates and plans around them. For example, you could schedule up to three attempts spaced at least five minutes apart, set a timeout on jobs so they don't stay open indefinitely (appearing to hang), have jobs that still fail get routed to a dead queue, and make sure worker code behaves appropriately in response to internal errors and improper input data (such as getting an HTTP error or unexpected MIME type) while logging any unexpected states for later review. Most of the point of a library like Celery is that it makes common strategies like these easier to implement. You mentioned in a reply that the jobs are requests to external websites. The rate of errors from that is going to be like a thousand times all other sources of jobs not completing as expected unless something is hella weird with your setup. ~~~ sharmi Thank you for taking the time to respond. That is only part of the problem. I am quite aware of that there are quite a number of external issues that can affect a job. Data extraction is something I have been working in for more than a decade. I have a few other pet peeves with Celery. I run scheduled tasks using CeleryBeat but those tasks cannot be tracked from flower. Signals don't work. I also would like something language agnostic so I can write memory/processing intensive tasks in something more performant (Go or Rust). ------ shoo Personally, I've cobbled something together using this: [https://www.2ndquadrant.com/en/blog/what-is-select-skip- lock...](https://www.2ndquadrant.com/en/blog/what-is-select-skip-locked-for- in-postgresql-9-5/) Storing the queue state and task results in postgres makes it easy to integrate with workers in different languages, but you need to write the library code to query and lock a free task to process. I'm not sure how well this would scale for 10 million tasks in "a short period". It works fine for me running the database and multiple workers on a single machine with around 100k tasks that are scheduled and processed every week or two. > Features most important to me are multiple retries, restarting workers that > are not responding, ability to monitor status of the queue and workers. Some of these concerns might not be the responsibility of the job processing system: you might just need to set up some monitoring and health checks to restart services or machines if they stop responding ------ stephenr I've been using Qless for a client recently. The core logic itself is Lua that runs in Redis itself, but each language generally needs a client to interface between the native expected norms and the Lua. I can't comment on the availability or quality of Python or Go client libraries. It's not perfect, but it's workable. ------ miraculixx Interesting - I have had good experience with Celery, so interested to hear more about the problems you encounter. In particular Celery provides all the features that you are looking for so it would be great to know more about your specific issues. Can you elaborate on your set-up? ------ shoo Some ideas from prior hn discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15985103](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15985103) ------ suff Unfortunately queue doesn't always mean FIFO, as you might expect. Are you submitting them all at once? Does response order matter? ~~~ sharmi No response order does not matter. These are individual requests to separate websites. For me queue is just a way to distribute work among workers. ------ dcolkitt SLURM is pretty solid, and designed to scale to supercomputer sized workloads. ------ deathtrader666 BEAM - The Erlang Virtual Machine ------ dlahoda Have you looked into actor frameworks? ------ streetcat1 kubernetes. ~~~ shoo Can you go into more detail? I understand k8s might be a fairly reasonable way to start and supervise a large number of services, and I've seen it used to execute one-shot batch jobs. But I can't quite join the dots to see how you could have a distributed job processing system with just k8s. Would you need to use some other system (perhaps also running in k8s) to track the queue of tasks and store task status & task results? Or can you get k8s itself to act as the task queue? ~~~ pookeh Have a look at Argo if you are interested in leveraging k8s infrastructure [https://github.com/argoproj/argo/blob/master/README.md#what-...](https://github.com/argoproj/argo/blob/master/README.md#what- is-argo-workflows). For us, we settled with Netflix Conductor as it scaled pretty well and allowed us to have pretty complex workflows and error paths and retry logic. Also is an independent and standalone tech.

Parse, The ‘Heroku For Mobile’, Raises $5.5 Million Series A - llambda http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/09/parse-the-heroku-for-mobile-raises-5-5-million-series-a/ ====== kennystone Parse is different from Heroku is a very big way - vendor lock-in. You are using the Parse libraries, DB, push notifications, etc, and replacing that will be quite difficult. Heroku, on the other hand, is usually just a generic Rails stack (or java or clojure), which is easily moved. ------ scotth The client API requires that you provide it your app's global credentials. These are likely to be baked right into the code, so can be easily extracted from the binary. It looks like the entire datastore is mutable/queryable after authentication by default. Privileges can be revoked on datastores after creation, which is obviously not ideal since it limits your app's capabilities. In its current form, this is inappropriate for all but the most basic use cases. ~~~ lacker Hi Scott. Just to clarify, the client API does not use the app's global credentials, but the client credentials which have their access limited in several ways. One is the per-column access configuration, which lets you set up objects where access is restricted to users with the relevant token. The other main security restriction is user-based authentication, which ensures user data can only be updated by a client authenticated as that user. The combination of these security methods handle a lot of use cases, and we're always looking to add more security functionality to make more use cases work securely. If you have a specific application in mind, I'd love to chat with you about how it maps onto our security model. Feel free to drop me a line at kevin@parse.com. ~~~ scotth I do see "class" level permissions, as I mentioned in my previous post, but nothing suggesting that finer grain control exists. I do see that you can store data on the authenticated user, which is a good start. And if better security is something that's in the works, that's great. I'm not looking to give you guys a bad name. I just saw this being talked about in the startups I work around, and felt as if some of the less experienced developers were not considering what implications using a service like this might have. It's convenient, I'll give you that -- but instead of facilitating good security through its APIs, it obscures the need for it altogether. And from what I can see, it would be difficult for you guys to encourage good practice without being heavy handed. Let's just hope your users are smart about how they use your product, because I'd hate to see what effect a few breaches might have. ~~~ lacker That's a good way to describe our goals with Parse security - to "encourage good practice without being heavy handed". We are always looking for ways to make Parse easier, including security, so we definitely won't stop with what we have now. If you have specific suggestions feel free to drop me an email. ------ nupark2 Parse sounds like it will be another Urban Airship, not Heroku, unless: \- They enormously extend their offering to support development of arbitrary server-side code. \- They figure out how to do this in a way that doesn't introduce inescapable lock-in for application developers. \- They figure out how to differentiate this offering from what similar server-side deployment/platform services already provide (Heroku, EC2, AppEngine, whatever). That's not to say UA or Parse won't ever see a big exit (in this market, who knows). Rather, I seriously doubt -- in either case -- that the economics are there for more than a profitable "lifestyle business". (no negativity implied -- I favor lifestyle businesses, but VCs don't). ~~~ tmcneal In regards to your first bullet, one of Parse's competitors, CloudMine, allows developers to write their own server-side JavaScript code that executes within a sandboxed environment: <https://cloudmine.me/developer_zone#code/overview> ~~~ thepumpkin1979 Got your point, but I think Parse.com's goal is to provide a data persistence service for Mobile developers that DON'T want to code anything on the server side. It's a simple persistence service, why would I code anything on Javascript in a third party/hosting or SDK like Cloudmine if I can do the same thing in Heroku or Joyent using the full power of Node.JS? :) ~~~ drumdance I build a Cloudmine app yesterday at a Hackathon. Setup was very fast and early one we didn't have a need for server-side processing. But then requirements evolved (as they always do) and we found the Javascript hooks very useful. Speaking as someone who has never used node.js before, it was nice to not have to worry about setup and just start coding. ------ alexholehouse If I could commit a couple of years of my life to work at a company right now (and hey, I may still be able to depending on various circumstances) Parse would certainly be up there. Seems like an awesome product, and user feedback from pretty much everyone involved has been overwhelmingly positive. That's a good combination. Great round well deserved. (Full disclosure, this isn't a space I've worked in before, I'm just going on what people I respect who _are_ in the space have said) ~~~ lacker _If I could commit a couple of years of my life to work at a company right now (and hey, I may still be able to depending on various circumstances) Parse would certainly be up there._ Well if you change your mind, we are certainly hiring. Just send a resume to jobs@parse.com ;-) ------ aherlambang I've been using Parse to build one my apps votespot. As the others said, it's one of the easiest framework to integrate with your project. The team are very helpful and listen to users problems, they even answer emails on weekends. Again kudos to the team. Sorry if I've been bugging you guys with questions and non-sense issues =) ------ jeffreymcmanus Something about "outsource server-side back-end" doesn't, um, parse for me. ------ pothibo Today is full of irony. This morning Adobe announced that they were shutting down Flash for mobile (vendor lock-in): Everyone praising. This afternoon, we have Parse that raises 5.5M$ (More vendor lock-in): Most people praising. To me, Parse sounds like an utopia. It does look very promising and the premise is very interesting. However, what happens if you need to move to some other backend (If you hit an Instagr.am's hockey puck growth for example)? If you want analytics on your backend? How about if you need to moderate some of your content? Lots of black magic and while you can just switch a DNS entry on heroku, you can't do so on Parse... ~~~ lacker A couple notes. Analytics and content moderation are possible right now through the REST API - we have developers using the API for both of those in fact. <https://www.parse.com/docs/rest> You can also moderate content manually through the data browser. As far as scalability goes, our team has a lot of experience designing web- scale products. We're designing Parse from the ground up to scale. If anyone has an application that they're concerned how Parse can handle the load, we're glad to chat about it - just drop us a line at feedback@parse.com. ------ maxklein Parse probably has the easiest-to-integrate library I have ever used...in my life. It took me five minutes to have a database backend to store 'share event's for my mobile apps. ------ lclarkmichalek How similar is Parse to Urban Airship? I notice Parse lists push notifications on their homepage, and that seems to be one of the big things about Urban Airship. ~~~ lacker Parse offers a lot besides push notifications as well - you can store arbitrary data on Parse, do user authentication, and access the data from non- mobile devices using the REST API. We'd be glad to answer any other questions you have at feedback@parse.com. ------ pekk What an awful namespace collision this introduces. ~~~ lacker Sorry about that ;-) The upside is that it's a short name so it saves you typing. ------ scottschulthess I don't think this is anything like Heroku ~~~ stonemetal It depends on your definition. Define Heroku as web servers in the cloud. Then sure nothing alike. Define Heroku more generally as Web back end in the cloud. Then define parse as mobile back end in the cloud. They now share "back end in the cloud" and differ on what back end they provide with some overlap. ------ Nemisis7654 I've been building an app using Parse for a while now and I am loving it. Congratulations to the Parse team. ~~~ lacker Thanks! We thrive on user feedback so feel free to send us suggestions for new features or ideas about what could be made easier in mobile development. feedback@parse.com ------ janj Parse user here, I think it's great. I'm curious to see if they do anything with their Facebook integration. I could see them building a user interest profile based on what apps the user has which could be very valuable to both developers and advertisers. ------ alduler While I love the idea I wonder how dangerous it is set your business on top of this thing given the possibility Parse can go out of business some time in the future? I mean, it ain't no AWS backed by Amazon that has quite the track record. ~~~ henrikschroder Remember that the alternative is no business at all. We have a similar product where we provide a backend for game developers, and there are quite a few of them making quite a lot of money on it. But without us, those single developers or small teams simply wouldn't be able to pull off the games that they do, because they don't have the knowledge or resources to make the backend systems we offer. If you can afford to make your own backend systems, you're not the target for Parse, or us. (Oh, and it's not like AWS has a 100% stellar track record either. :-) ) ------ catshirt isn't _heroku_ "heroku for mobile"? ~~~ thibaut_barrere After signing up for the beta it's clearly targeted to mobile apps developers who don't want to create their back-end. It provides a good bunch of interesting features and skeleton of apps for Android and iOS. ------ mark_l_watson Great idea - no wonder they got good funding! They support data store functions, push notifications with some nice options, user management, and user auth and security. ------ suhail Good luck guys. ~~~ tikhon thanks suhail! :) ------ benologist Congrats guys!

Ask HN: Learning Ruby + MooTools - sscheper Compared to most people here, I'm a n00b when it comes to programming. I've had a computer since I was five, but I never really got into computing languages until this past year (I'm 23 now---yes, pretty old).<p>Without ever taking one class in computer science, I managed to create about 8 websites (built off of wordpress): http://venturedig.com/?page_id=335<p>I know html, css, php. But that's pretty much it.<p>My Goal: My new goal is to increase progress and create a light-weight 37 signals-like app, using my new macbook.<p>I could be wrong, but I imagine that in order to accomplish this goal, I'll need to use Ruby on Rails and MooTools. Do you think a beginner can grasp it? And, what do you think the learning curve will be?<p>Thanks! ====== teej I was in your position 4 years ago. I had spent some time learning HTML/CSS + PHP and had thrown up a few websites here and there. I wanted to get into real web dev, and I decided Rails would pave that road. I'm not one for books, but Ruby on Rails: Up and Running (<http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101329/>) was an incredible resource for new devs. I have since introduced two other people to Rails though that book and they loved it. One issue: it's old. If they haven't updated it for Rails 2+, don't go near it. You might want to try the Rails Guide instead (<http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html>) From there, I picked up Ruby for Rails (<http://www.manning.com/black/>). I read about 20% of this book. It was critical for me understanding the "magic" behind Rails and the weird syntax behind Ruby. I came from a somewhat CS background, so YMMV. After that, I left the books behind. I just found problems and tried solving them with Ruby & Ruby on Rails. I did a few crappy webapps, some of the Facebook engineering puzzles, some of the Project Euler questions. \----- One word: PRACTICE. ----- At first, stay away from doing it perfect, just get something working and iterate. You don't need a full suite of tests, scale to 1M users, and super- clever meta-code (you dont need this ever). Every project you do you'll get better. And when you get stuck, know where to go for help. The people who hang out in #ruby & #rubyonrails on freenode can be really helpful. To get the most out of this help, enter the room, state that you're new to Ruby/Rails, explicitly state your end goal (I want to see a list of customers on the screen), and include all your relevant code in a pastie. You may have to be patient, but the people there are super smart and super helpful. \--------------------------- Through a combination of self taught Ruby on Rails programming and putting myself in professional situations with room for programming growth, I have been incredibly successful. I'm positive you can too. Pracitce lots, always be learning, don't be afraid to ask for help. Best of luck. ------ jlees Yes, of course you can grasp it! The tutorial stuff on Rails is really easy to follow - it's a complex process, but it's not intimidating if you get a good book. Out of everything in the space at the moment Ruby and Rails are probably your best bet, if you want to build a lean mean fighting app machine, especially if 37signals is your inspiration, as that's their platform. (They even wrote the book on it: <https://gettingreal.37signals.com/>) Of course, others will rabidly disagree. Do a bit of homework, flick through some books in a shop and see if you can follow along. Maybe others will recommend good web based tutorials but I always prefer paper. MooTools.. another buzzword.. don't get hung up on using that over the alternatives like prototype and script.aculo.us, but again, it's fairly easy to use (I haven't looked at the for-newbies tutorials though). I'd focus on the stuff under the hood first and worry about learning MooTools later. The learning curve won't be easy for a complete novice, but it will be masterable. Good luck! ------ sharkbrainguy I could be wrong, but I imagine that in order to accomplish this goal, I'll need to use Ruby on Rails and MooTools. You are wrong, in that your goal doesn't imply those requirements. RoR is one tool among hundreds that you could use to write a webapp. The same is true of MooTools. I'm not saying that they're not good options or even that they're not the _best_ choices (maybe they are), but it doesn't follow from "I want to write a web-app on my mac" that "I need to learn RoR and MooTools". That being said. Yes, I think that an intelligent 23yo who knows php can probably learn Ruby (+ rails) and JS (+ MooTools). I'm not sure how useful an answer you can get here though. If people say yes, you're going to go and do it. If people say no, you're going to think to yourself "F--k that" and do it anyway (or at least you should). ------ sscheper Thanks for the help everyone -- I'll be using the local Barnes and noble to browse through your recommended books :)

ASCII art animations in the URL bar - qbonnard http://glench.com/hash ====== gus_massa Really interesting but I hope this doesn't become popular and appear in every site. A few comments: * Wave2 is broken in Chrome (in Windows) * The title should change, it's always "I'm sorry". * I'd prefer that this doesn't destroy the history / back button. * Add a stop button / link. * I like the diy. Can I send one to my friends? ------ psychobabble bar har har! Serious LOLs were had after playing around here using Google Chrome then viewing history later to find something else.. 10 pages of Chrome History telling me 'I'm Sorry' because Chrome Records Every URL Change To History! Well played with project... and the I'm sorry page title. ------ Yadi THIS!...It's so cool, wait how is this done? ------ GroSacASacs very impressive, but it feeds history so much, and breaks back forwards buttons ~~~ billconan exactly! for this reason, this can't be used for production.

Amazon Should Acquire Netflix - Here's Why - dell9000 http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2009/01/02/why-amazon-should-acquire-netflix/ ====== catone The argument I've always heard against Amazon acquiring Netflix is that Netflix has distribution centers in something like 45 states, whereas Amazon only has them in a handful. So that'd be 45 states in which Amazon would then have to charge sales tax. If Netflix were a solely streaming operation, it'd make sense for Amazon, or if tax on ecommerce was already charged in most states regardless of physical presence it would make sense. Not sure it does otherwise, though. ~~~ antiismist Amazon seems to charge sales tax based on where the goods are shipped to, not where they are shipped from: "Items sold by Amazon.com LLC, or its subsidiaries, and shipped to destinations in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, or Washington are subject to tax." [http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=4...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468512) ~~~ catone I think those are the states in which they have a physical presence. I know their headquarters are in Washington, for example, and that they have a big distribution center in Kentucky. New York, though, may just have laws taxing ecommerce (I'm not certain). ~~~ antiismist Nope, Amazon has distribution centers in 8 states, but they don't all get sales taxed: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Fulfillment_and_ware...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Fulfillment_and_warehousing) ~~~ catone I guess it would depend on the sales tax laws in each state. Some states require sales tax on ecommerce if there is a physical presence, some do not. Some require tax regardless. The argument I have always heard in relation to Netflix is that if Amazon were to acquire Netflix it would mean charging sale tax to a much greater number of customers. Netflix has many more established physical presences across the US: [http://www.listology.com/netflix_tracker_reports.cfm?report=...](http://www.listology.com/netflix_tracker_reports.cfm?report=centers) ------ jonknee Netflix and Amazon know the days of physical discs are numbered. I don't think Amazon needs to acquire a business to dominate a dying vertical. They already have digital distribution and a huge brand, just bank on that. ~~~ inklesspen The days of physical discs will last for quite a while. First Amazon would have to provide a TV-centric solution that matches Bluray's power, and then they will have to provide a drm-free solution so buyers aren't tied to Windows Media. ~~~ jonknee Why would it have to be DRM free? DVD and Blu-Ray are riddled with DRM and they are still popular. This is to do "rental", not purchasing. Only makes sense to have some DRM on there or else the purchase business will end. ~~~ inklesspen Depends on the form of DRM, really. DVD's DRM doesn't bother most people, because it doesn't really pose an obstacle to what they want to do with it. But Windows Media DRM won't work nicely with set-top boxes, with Macs, perhaps even with Microsoft's own products (remember Zune not working with PlaysForSure?). And there have been well-known cases of Windows Media DRM servers going dark. The DRM the movie cartels insist on for digital downloads is just too intrusive. ~~~ jonknee Amazon does video on demand to Macs, PCs, XBOX, Tivo, etc. Who cares if DRM servers go dark, this is a streaming service. You watch it and then Microsoft could be fire bombed and it doesn't affect you. I agree DRM is shitty for purchased movies, but this is basically a pay-per- view service. For most movies that's all people want. Why wait for the mail man or go to a store/kiosk when you can watch instantly from your couch? ------ hs i guess the reason amazon doesn't have many distribution centers is because they are expensive she outsourced the problem by having amazon marketplace now every kindle is distribution center (cheap) looking at this trend, she might be better off creating a kindle for movies her strength is not in rental (why safari bookshelf is unchallenged ?) if she _really_ want to be in movie rental, maybe safari dvd-rack model (download high-res per dvd chapter or streaming lower res for full, 3 titles/rack/mo) is a long shot the success of youtube indicates that not everyone cares about dvd-quality clips, they simply want to watch it now ~~~ asnyder Could it be that the larger iPod Touch will be the new kindle for movies? If and when our bandwidth catches up to our foreign counterparts, renting movies via the embedded iTunes app will seem natural enough. However, unlike books, movies are best experienced in an environment dedicated to it. So even if the iPod Touch is the next kindle for movies, something like Apple TV, or the numerous netflix set top boxes will most likely be the next step in movie rentals and purchasing.

OpenSSH and the dangers of unused code - corbet http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/672465/4c0bced62cb3e625/ ====== Kristine1975 Use memset_s, people. The compiler isn't allowed to remove calls to it: [http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1381.pdf](http://www.open- std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1381.pdf)

Show HN: App for Fitness Pros – Book clients, schedule lessons and get paid - matthewjbaker http://www.plannit.io ====== supercoder Great looking app. Whats the marketing strategy here ? Having been part of a very similar (failed) startup, believe it's a hard market to access. The market itself isn't actually that huge, the personal trainer turnover is high, a lot prefer cash, and can be hard to get above the noise when there's a bunch of simliarish solutions. Anyway, best of luck and hope you have better success than us ! ~~~ matthewjbaker Thanks for the feedback! Right now we're conducting a closed beta with a select group of fitness instructors. We've got a great group of pros involved, spanning many different skill sets — tennis, crossfit, personal training, yoga and more. We're directly on-boarding pros and providing hands on support. This exercise has provided an extremely valuable opportunity to learn the pain points involved and workflows that truly work for fitness pros. Reception has been great so far. Would love to hear the story of your startup. How can I contact you?

Ask HN: Has CodeWars helped you career-wise - thrwawy20160421 Has anyone ever achieved a high &quot;kyu&quot; rank on CodeWars.com and been able to leverage that into a promotion or a job offer? ====== jhoffner I'm a co-founder of Codewars. We hired 2 full time employees and a few contractors off of Codewars based off of their profiles. Beyond that, I know of a number of users who leveraged Codewars to obtain internships and jobs, utilizing it to get up to speed on languages they hadn't been very familiar with. ~~~ thrwawy20160421 What kyu did they get to?

The Real Lolita - lermontov http://hazlitt.net/longreads/real-lolita ====== dschiptsov Lolita, the book, is not about kidnapping of a girl or any kind of perversity. It is about futility and pains of worshipping a fleeting beauty, which is a temporary state of approaching perfection (beauty is youth + health. Proximity of a local optimum). If there is something to worship at all, it is beauty, not idols. The book is about ugliness and mediocrity of so called modern society with its rigid set of dogmas and set in stone prejudices. It is about suffering. About inability in principle to catch that fleeting beauty, a spark of perfection. The moment you approach it you have already ruined it. Observer ruins the observation, or rather realizes the painful dissonance between his assumptions and actuality, but continued his futile attempts to catch it, because everything else is not worth of even a second look. Dear gentlewomen of the jury. Do not attempt to judge things you probably never even understood. ~~~ kj01a Lolita is a vehicle for Nabokov's prose. It's dense and poetic, filled with allusion and ambiguity. It's "about" a lot of things. ~~~ dschiptsov It's a book. ~~~ kj01a That's a bold claim. Do you have evidence to back that up? ------ bryanlarsen The most interesting aspect to me was that the story didn't make the New York Times. Today the story would be international news and would probably take up 48-72 hours of continuous coverage on CNN. ~~~ ddeck That's not all that's changed. Today he likely wouldn't even have had the opportunity as he would have been in prison already: _On September 4, 1942, Frank La Salle was indicted in Camden County Criminal Court for the statutory rape of five girls between the ages of 12 and 14. He wasn’t arrested until February 2, 1943, though, and pleaded not guilty to the charges in court the following week. A little over a month later, on March 22, La Salle changed his plea to “non vult,” or no contest, and received a sentence of two and a half to five years in Trenton State Prison. Fourteen months later, on June 18, 1944, La Salle was paroled._ 14 months in prison for the statutory rape of 5 12-14 year old girls by a 45-year old man. It's truly unbelievable how such an offence could be treated so lightly at the time. ~~~ userbinator I'm not surprised, morality changes. Go back in time far enough, and it might not even be considered rape. ~~~ Radim No need to travel back in time; still acceptable in many places and cultures around the world TODAY. ~~~ glogla Or in the US if he was rich swimmer. ~~~ unclenoriega While that case is terrible, I think most people will find a difference between one incident of rape between two people in their 20s and the statutory rape of 5 adolescent girls by a 45-year-old man. To me at least, there seems to be very little comparison. ~~~ M_Grey I think you're overestimating the choosiness of the average rapist. ~~~ rhizome What's an "average rapist," and what are you implying about their selection preferences? Do tell! ~~~ M_Grey In brief, raping someone who is unconscious fits neatly into the 'Power- Reassurance' category of rapist. On the other hand the guy himself appears (although we'll see as he gets older) to be more of a 'Power-Assertive' type. In either case the major factor is the perception of the victim as vulnerable, which can come in the form of "drunk and unconscious", but just as often comes in the form of, "Elderly or disabled". Rapists tend to be highly preferential in their modus, but across typologies the victim profiles are insanely varied... except that the rapist feels they can dominate/control them. ------ seashuttle This was an incredible read. I would never have suspected that the book had roots in reality. ------ tomrod Wow! Truth stranger than, or inspiring, fiction is always a good read. Where I live, the state is doing a lot to fight sexual trafficking (I'd put this in the same category). [http://humantrafficking.ohio.gov](http://humantrafficking.ohio.gov) ------ malloryerik I've always chosen to think of Lolita in terms of allegory -- old Europe's perverse fascination with pubescent America -- so I was surprised to read that Nabokov had make a first stab at it as a story set in Europe. I still think the allegory holds true and might be why Lolita finally worked with a U.S. setting. In any case can you really imagine Humbert Humbert as an erudite American? So much would be lost. ------ ucaetano This reminds me of the rampant abuse of minors by the pot-modernist philosophers in France, who openly practised and defended pedophily. ~~~ rhizome Such as who? ~~~ danharaj They are probably thinking of Beauvoir and Sartre in particular. Good luck finding a scholarly source on the issue though, unless you're quite happy with citing A Voice For Men or random angry blogs. ~~~ dmitrij Neither Sartre nor de Beauvoir where postmodernists (or "pot-modernists"). Poster maybe means some radical left anarchists – also not postmodernists – from the late 70s/early 80s, who had some outlandish (and completely self- serving) ideas about child sexuality. ~~~ ucaetano Foucault, who also signed the letters, is often considered a post-modernist, even if he himself rejected the title.

How We Test the Stateful Autoscaling of Our Stream Processing System - chuckblake https://blog.wallaroolabs.com/2018/03/how-we-test-the-stateful-autoscaling-of-our-stream-processing-system/ ====== nisanharamati Hi All, I'm Nisan, a Chaos Engineer at Wallaroo Labs, and the author of this post. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread throughout the day and answer folk's questions if you have any.

Ask HN: I can do the work but how much do i charge? - gaspoweredcat after an unpleasantly long period of unemployment i was contacted by a former colleague who knows my skill set well, he is expanding his business and wants me to handle the IT side as well as providing some specialized documentation and training.<p>Thing is while im good at the tech side of things im by no means a businessman, ive always worked for a company before and as such ive never had to consider what to charge ive just received a wage or day rate. Ill admit that in my zeal to get back into work i jumped in head first but i am woefully under prepared for the business side of it.<p>i have estimated that i can complete the whole project within 25 days, it entails everything from installation and setup of the network and servers, cabling, installation and setup of 10 new PCs, building an internal wiki and writing documentation for business procedures, pen test the company website both public and intranet and other basic IT tasks as required<p>as it stands i dont really even know where to start on such things but when ive done bits of freelance work in the past ive usually been told ive under charged ====== davidscolgan Freelancers generally charge higher rates than employees because you don't get benefits, don't usually work 40 billable hours a week, have to do a number of the things your boss was doing behind the scenes, and have to pay the taxes that your employer was paying (self employment tax). If you want some specific numbers, I started out charging $50 an hour when I was right out of college. Then I raised it to $70, then $90 after 3 years. I just recently got $125 an hour for the first time after 8 years. But I've never been an employee, and I'd count any time you spend at a company as years of experience. In general my thoughts on rate: $10/hr - you need to be told exactly what to do $25/hr - some self-direction, you can do some things yourself $50/hr - you are inexperienced, but can get things done on your own $70/hr - you have middle experience and can usually get things done on your own $100/hr - you are a professional and can get things done on your own and figure things out on your own. You actively take away stress from the client instead of adding to it. If you think that in this job you can in your professional experience do everything your colleague wants (and it sounds like you can and have years of experience), I'd say that your rate is now $100/hr. If you want to charge by the project, for now just estimate how many hours you think it'll take and multiply that by $100. Add a multiplier based on how much uncertainty you think there is in the project. If those 25 days are 5 hours of work each, $100/hr * 5 * 25 = $12,500. Let's round that up to $15,000 because if you are anything like me, your estimate is probably a best case scenario. Adjust the numbers for your situation. But, if you've been an employee and a consumer your whole life/career, you may be surprised at just how much money flows through an established business. Numbers you might be very uncomfortable charging for may be completely reasonable. From what I've seen, $100/hr is completely reasonable for a competent professional freelancer. And the fun part is, the higher your rate (to a point) actually increases your credibility in the eyes of the client. I once actually had someone say to me after I recommended a freelancer to him, "Is this person you recommended not any good? His rate is only $60/hr." Ha! Charge more, especially in a B2B context. Happy to discuss this with your further, my email's in my profile. ------ brudgers Ask your friend "What is your budget?" Your job is not to save your client money on your services. The budget determines what is practical without cutting corners. Twenty-five days might be 1/10th of what the budget anticipates. Twenty-five days might be 10x more time than the client thinks the work should take (it happens). To put it another way, money/budget can proxy expectations on scope, level of service, and trust.

Launch any browser/OS right from your desktop with Sauce for Mac - awilson820 http://sauceio.com/index.php/2012/12/introducing-sauce-for-mac-the-easiest-way-to-launch-any-browser-right-from-your-mac/ ====== beatpanda -1 for forcing me to use the Mac App Store — the copy on the landing page you sent me to made it sound like there was a way to download it directly. Before I could download it I was presented with multiple alerts and pages of bullshit regarding my Apple ID and the App Store terms of service. Not a good experience. -1 for not having a link to create a new account from the first dialogue box in the app. I can either log in or start without an account, but not create a new one? There's also no hint as to where I should go to make a new account. I clicked "forgot key" and worked it out from there. -1 for not explaining the "open source" plan very well. What does "public" mean? Does that mean anybody can watch videos of whatever I'm working on? -1 for making the credentials I actually need to use the app non-obvious. You should know that I'm coming from your app when I sign up for a new account, and when I'm done signing up, show me my account key in big, fat, auto-copyable text, instead of hiding it two screens later. -1 for not automatically taking me to my localhost URL after Sauce Connect initializes. I had to say I wanted to go to a localhost URL, wait for Sauce Connect to initialize, and then try to connect to the URL again. But once I got the thing working, it's really great! And I totally forgot that display:inline-block didn't work as recently as IE7 :( ~~~ beatpanda Folks, this website is not called "internet love fest". Please stop downvoting me for giving honest and complete feedback of my experience with the app. ~~~ Cushman Let this be your lesson that presentation does, in fact, matter. Whatever your intent, your post reads as an excessively negative scorecard. And nobody wants to read excessively negative content, man. It's a drag. ~~~ BryanB55 I got the same feeling. Although I agree with some of the points made I think it was the way it was worded and the "-1's" that came off as really distasteful. ~~~ talmand Didn't bother me, got the point across rather well I thought. At least he didn't put the negative ones in red because that would have really hurt someone's feelings. ~~~ Cushman Easy there, killer. This isn't some feel-good bullshit about maybe hurting someone's feelings; it's about the atmosphere we want our community to have. We're all social creatures. Super negative comments bring everybody down, not just whoever they're directed at-- and it's easy to be both honest and pleasant to read. ~~~ talmand The point I was trying to make is that his statements didn't bother me and I fail to see how it would any other, I admit just my opinion though. I didn't find them to be "super negative" so this is just a disagreement over how "mean" he was being. Therefore my comment red and people's feelings. I feel that a complaint over his negative ones is overblown and doesn't drag every one down. You may disagree with me but if someone feels bummed about negative ones preceding a statement then I have to feel they are easily bummed out I guess, since easily offended doesn't fit. I agree that it's easy to be both honest and pleasant to read but there can be disagreements over the definitions of both of those. Plus, sometimes being honest doesn't lend to being pleasant. ------ kyrra I was a bit worried about how this would work on a company intranet. I know my IT network security people are pretty paranoid about bridge networks and all that. Looking at Sauce Connect[1], they recommend to put the service on a dedicated machine on your intranet that you can zone off so it only has access to the parts of the network you want to allow. Seems like a decent solution to allow a running a cloud service behind a firewall. [1] <http://saucelabs.com/docs/connect> ~~~ highwind Still. I feel like the price is way too much. The recommended plan is $149/month. For the long run, buying a decent machine and running your own virtual machines would be cheaper. Someone prove me wrong. ~~~ awilson820 What you're seeing is actually pricing for our automated testing service. Sauce for Mac is either free (30 mins of testing/mo) or $12/mo (for unlimited minutes against all browsers). It also comes included with all the testing plans on that page. ~~~ joshstrange Whoa, this is news to me, I checked out sauce a month or so ago and came to the same conclusion as highwind. $12/mo is something that I would be more interested in. You should make that way more obvious. I haven't fully harnessed the power of TDD and it isn't used at my current job so I have no use for it. On the other hand the ability to test websites on different browsers is very important to my job and for $12/mo it's something I can afford to get for myself to use for work and personal projects. ------ jakozaur Good concept, but prefer one of their competitors: <https://browserling.com/> \+ Web based \+ No account needed to try it \+ Tunnels also available \+ Great blog from one of the founders catonmat.com ~~~ admc \+ Our browser based testing service is also available at <http://saucelabs.com> \+ We have an accountless version on the front page, followed by free and open source accounts. +We have a very secure and mature tunneling system called Sauce Connect: <http://www.saucelabs.com/docs/connect> Five minutes of research would have been helpful. ~~~ jakozaur My bad. I totally agree with you. Hmm, you might improve conversion if you put trial button above the fold. Also pre-spinning an instance for demo would be truly awesome. ~~~ admc Thanks for the input, feel free to email me admc@saucelabs.com with your account and I'll happily give you some extra minutes to check everything out. ------ ek Sauce does Mac OS X virtualization using some patches Alexander Graf and René Rebe helped them bring up to date, which they've released (see [http://sauceio.com/index.php/2012/08/apple-sauce-android- sau...](http://sauceio.com/index.php/2012/08/apple-sauce-android-sauce/)). I tried hacking their patches into a recent snapshot of the KVM tree but there were some issues. I sort of wonder if anyone else has managed to get their code working, because it would be a neat hack if so. ~~~ hugs Hi, author of that blog post here. I meant to follow up with a more detailed tutorial on how to specifically spin up a Mac VM using those patches. Sorry I haven't done that yet. :-( ------ aytekin As a long time SauceLabs customer I just tried Sauce and I am loving it! Being able to open multiple browsers at the same time is fantastic. I can launch them at once and take a look at them. We have been using browserstack but constantly closing and opening different browsers is a lot of work. Screenshot: <https://dl.dropbox.com/u/132641/screenshots/sauce.png> It also seems to be faster compare to browser based solutions. ------ ck2 Well of course we'd like it for windows but I can use my osx emulator for now. There is also <https://browserling.com/> but it can be slow sometimes and has other issues. ------ netfire I like the concept but the product doesn't seem to work well (at least the free version), perhaps due to HN traffic. I can't connect to most websites and the ones I can connect to take a long time. As for your website, I agree with some of the other comments. Its not really obvious that you have a free plan or what that offers unless you read closely. I'd suggest you move that up into your pricing grid. I'd also move the Sauce with Mouse row up to the top. I see your main value for users (or at least starting point) being manual testing. Focus less on automating and scaling up to huge numbers of tests. Get me in the door and familiar with the product, then upsell me once I'm convinced your product is awesome. Best of luck to you. I'll check back in a few days to see if things are working better. ------ samuel02 Does anyone have experience with this? It would be interesting if this is finally a good solution that really works. ~~~ kevingadd It's great for manual testing, just be aware that the performance of the machines they host the browsers on is REALLY bad, to the point that it may make it hard to do testing of HTML5 apps. For basic website testing it works pretty great. ~~~ jlipps The application is in some sense basically a wrapper around a VNC connection. It's likely that the performance issues you're seeing are due to VNC latency rather than the power of the virtual machines themselves or the hardware they run on (which is pretty beefy). But your point is well made: given this architecture you can't really watch video or do things that require high framerates. ------ sirn The Sauce Labs website is really confusing. \- There's no indication that you could login using GitHub. \- There's no (obvious?) way to logout. \- There seems to be no way to login either once you've managed to logout? (without visiting /login directly) While the product is indeed nice, the website really gives me a bad impression. ------ EGreg This is excellent! How does this compare against BrowserStack (ignoring price, of course) ------ DandelionRex Regarding iOS support.. does this just run the simulators that come with XCode? I have found that the simulators don't do a very good job of reproducing real mobile safari behavior. ~~~ hugs Yes, at the moment, it's iPhone and iPad simulators. However, offering testing on real devices, too, is a high priority for us. ------ suyash Sauce has a great team of smart engineers. Very cool product! I'm waiting to come to your next meetup where you can talk about this. ------ ommunist Hmmm.... A very spicy plan is so spicy that it is better worth investing into own VM testing park. Mechanical Turks are also here. ~~~ admc Greetings, we updated the page at <http://saucelabs.com/mac> to clarify the fact that you get unlimited usage of our VM's for $12 a month. Sorry for the confusion, I think it's a fair and reasonable price. ------ criswell How does this do against something like BrowserStack? I love BrowserStack, but it can be really slow and unresponsive at times. ~~~ leeloo much faster for me. ------ taylorwc Looks interesting, but can't you already do this in Chrome using User Agent Overrides (under Developer Tools)? ~~~ gyardley No matter what user agent you use, Chrome won't show you how your page looks in a non-WebKit layout engine like Gecko, Trident, or Presto. ------ JacksonGariety Unfortunately, this is a horror to sign up for, use, and look at. Any alternatives? ~~~ andybak Ignore the app and sign-up on the website. I already had an account for the browser-based testing so I didn't experience the sign-up problems other people are describing. ------ undershirt I would like to see this for Nintendo Wii-U's HTML5-compliant browser. ------ leeloo I used it - pretty straight forward and has the IE versions. ------ marojejian Looks great! ------ azio Just tried it and it worked really well.

The Wire Image of a Network Protocol - okket https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8546 ====== wyldfire > QUIC is ... the first ... protocol to ... prevent ossification I'd never heard of the term 'ossification' regarding a protocol before. But "QUIC as a solution to protocol ossification" from LWN [1] clears it up: > TCP suffers other problems as well. ... Middleboxes (routers between the > endpoints of a connection) interfere with traffic and make it difficult to > improve the protocol. They aren't supposed to be looking at TCP headers, but > they do so anyway and make decisions based on what they see, often blocking > traffic that looks in any way out of the norm. This "ossification" of the > protocol makes it nearly impossible to make changes to TCP itself. [1] [https://lwn.net/Articles/745590/](https://lwn.net/Articles/745590/) ~~~ solotronics This brings up some interesting considerations I personally believe in absolute freedom of speech so from a network engineering perspective this manifests as a personal responsibility to make the networks I control pass packets without discrimination. The public internet is just a conglomeration of seperate private networks that operate under their own sets of rules. To have absolute freedom when passing traffic the underlying protocol should be fully encrypted and probably even hide the source and destination IP address and port. This is a very tough problem to solve technically because you have to know the destination IP to efficiently route a packet. ~~~ keepmesmall The destination IP could be hidden opportunistically? Send the destination IP for high-priority requests and retry without the destination. Low-priority/long-latency requests would always hide the destination. ... I can't articulate why, but I feel even this introduces a very large amount of hidden complexity. It solves efficient routing and freedom in part, but does not consider privacy. ~~~ solotronics I don't see how you can hide destination IP. Each router has to know the destination IP to determine where to send the packet, yes there are some cases such as MPLS/VXLAN/v4VPN where the packet is encapsulated inside more routing info but for it to get to its destination the routers have to have an IP. ~~~ keepmesmall If the routers have public keys it's possible, then the client has to determine (some or all points on) the route. I think future protocols will track use and payment via client-provided keys which are somehow linked to their ISP. ------ mindslight What is this specifically aimed at? The entire point of the End to End Principle is that mid-nodes should be passing packets, not mucking about with them. Everything that has been developed contrary to that (eg DPI boxen) are basically exploits of security vulnerabilities attempting to force the old top-down telco services model. So yes, putting a name on what m[ie]ddle nodes can observe is useful. But I have to ask for what end, given that any modern protocol should be aimed at reducing this "wire image" to the absolute minimum possible. The only reason necessitating still using plaintext-header TCP/UDP is because we're stuck with NAT, and the only reason to use ip.saddr is because we're stuck with egress filtering. ~~~ pas The problem is, even in a situation with only good faith actors, not every codepath is equally developed/tested/working, and bugs creep in. Especially if some parts of a protocol are there for future use. Then if a buggy implementation gets widespread, that effectively nixes that part of the future potential of the protocol. That's why, if you think about a clever solution for something, and your solution depends on the letter of the standard instead on actual large scale experiments, then the risk of stumbling into big problems is large. Sure, it might be only 1-5% of the Internet that cannot use your clever solution. But historically developers opted to chose solutions that work for 99.9%, even at the cost of even more layers/encapsulation/complexity. ~~~ mindslight Doesn't this line up with my point? What you're saying seems to be most relevant in the context of unaccountable meddle boxes - eg I fully agree if you want your protocol to work widely, you have to accept the current Internet as it is and set ip.proto = {1,6,17}. But to avoid creating even more of these constraints you want to keep as much as possible out of sight of the meddle boxes, lest they get ideas to start doing even more filtering. Given that crypto is now computationally inexpensive, this seems straightforward with anything that is not already in IP/TCP/UDP headers. ~~~ pas It lines up, I just wanted to point out that there needs to be no malicious exploitative intent, this kind of network state degradation naturally follows from the always ongoing optimization of resource allocation by actors involved in the process. And thus there is a natural priority of features when it comes to network equipment design, development, production, testing, marketing, support and eventual replacement. And yes, crypto helps with enforcing the layers, it forces engineers to move to a different part of the solution space when it comes to doing things that used to be done with DPI/snooping/etc. (A lot of the meddleboxes were sort of rational responses, like a MITM caching proxy, DNS hijacking, captive portals, blablabla. And they were quick and dirty.) ~~~ mindslight I stand by the characterization of "exploitative". The point of protocols is to mediate between parties with _diverging_ interests. The parties deploying meddle boxes are rationally trying to further their own interests, but they are doing so by stepping over the delineating line. In 2019, the idea that neighborly courtesy would preserve the line was obviously naive. Now we need to build concrete walls. And lest you think that my viewpoint is completely at odds with network administrators - elsewhere I've argued that raw unrestricted IP access will eventually come to be seen as a bug. Surveillance companies backhaul much of their collect unhindered precisely because "Internet access" is given as an all-or-nothing condition. IP is actually _horrible_ for addressing such concerns, which is why attempts at egress firewalls devolve into idiotic "block everything but 80/443" (and then new devices respond by working over HTTPS). I think in the future, if we're lucky, the equivalent of firewalls will be based around type systems over PDUs, and embedded devices will be forced to specify exactly what they communicate. But those capabilities need to be kept at personal network edges (or even per-user) by devices' owners making them transparent (akin to installing a personal CA), with traffic over the centrally-controlled transit network remaining completely opaque.

Review of e-Conomic a popular Accounting App for Small Businesses - ManuJ http://www.getapp.com/blog/e-conomic-review/ ====== iambot the reviewer obviosuly doesnt know the market then as i would say not only is FreeAgent a competitor, but it wins hands down: <http://www.freeagentcentral.com/> ~~~ blazzar And no mention of Xero or LessAccounting. I suspect this may be a paid review.

Big Data Patterns - rayascott http://www.bigdatapatterns.org/overview ====== ju-st The requested URL was rejected. If you think this is an error, please contact the webmaster. Your support ID is: 3088072978181255613

How to go faster than jQuery, Ext, Mootools...? - jie http://myjs.fr<p>I coded a JS framework that goes faster than jQuery, Ext, Mootools... (I haven't find any faster on the web for now) Accessing and modifying HTML Element properties are the main taks of JS frameworks and My.js does those operations way faster than others. My.js also handles custom classes more efficiently. See the tests.<p>I presented the framework and the core concepts I used to build it to the Paris JS communauty yesterday (parisjs.org). Paris JS Hackers gave me real nice feedbacks, comments and tweets.<p>I would love to have feedback from Hacker news hackers too! ====== rgbrgb Work on the site's design! For a JS framework to succeed, I think it has to have a beautiful site. I'm guessing designers are one of your biggest audiences. Also, the site doesn't work with the StumbleUpon plugin for Chrome. ~~~ jie Hehe, Myjs.fr is simply not designed! I presented the framework yesterday to a JS conf, many people wanted to try it out fast. So I pushed a raw version of the framework in the rush today. I'll be adding a getting started page, more benchmarks and the api doc first and i'll go for the Design quickly. For StumbleUpon, I don't know why it's not working, myjs.fr is a simple static site, with some .css & .js. By the way, do you happen to know good designers/developers? (I'm looking for a great one for my startup) ~~~ proexploit If you want to toss this site's repo up on Github (or email me directly if you wish to keep it private), I'll design it. No obligation to use my design but I'm going under the assumption that this is a non-commercial project & the design would be attributed to me if used. ~~~ jie Right, my.js is no commercial project. I'm pushing it on Github soon. It would be pretty cool if you could help on the design. If you make something that looks nice for my.js, I'll push it online and all design credits goes to you of course! Myjs.fr has been tweeted and visited a lot since yesterday! @jie ------ bretthopper Two suggestions: \- Get this on GitHub \- Get a native english speaker/writer to fix up the copy ~~~ jie I'm pushing it on Github and I'm also coming to the States before Summer. Sure, I'll find nice people to help me fix up the copy! ~~~ tonyskn What's the link for my.js on Github? ------ jerome_etienne The work behind is impressive and inovative. More general benchmarks would be nice. more real life situations maybe, even if it is hard to say what is 'real life'. or simply to fork <http://mootools.net/slickspeed/> and to put myjs in there to see how it compares. ~~~ jie Totally right. I intend to add much more benchmarks and concrete examples in days to come. At first, I wanted to use Slickspeed but Slickspeed is very much "selectors" oriented. It was useful to have those selectors tests 3 years ago when each framework had to implement its own selector methods. But today, no matter which framework, under the hood it's the same "querySelectorAll" method. So comparing frameworks according to their selectors like slickspeed is a bit like comparing the performances of 2 PCs with the same hardware. In fact, the real difference between JS frameworks comes from the way they handle their HTMLElement wrappers, how those are created, how fast they access and modify the DOM. Keep you updated on the benchmarks! ------ Warry Hi! I had to leave earlier ParisJS, so I haven't seen your presentation, but people have given me some nice feedbacks! I like the way you take care of performance, it's cool! But... I'm not sure that caching your result is a good idea. Almost by definition, Javascript is changing the DOM, so are the results eventually. A good practice is to cache-it, but manually is good enough, and at least you keep the power on the lists. I mention this because this is the feature you've highlighted with your benchmark. Here an explanation of my words : scope.ready(function(my, $) { $("h2").addClass("mytest"); $("div").appendHtml("<h2>Test</h2>"); $("h2").addClass("mytest2"); }); >>> My new h2 doesn't have any class. I'm looking forward to see how this will evolve! Keep going! ~~~ jie In my.js, elts wrappers are both cached by id and in their native HTMLElements. The performance increases are sometimes from 1 to 100. Caching FTW. In fact, caching has only 1 minor fallback: you can't change an elt id if you have already accessed it by his former id (but who does? it's such bad practice). For the above snippet, it's normal that your new h2 doesn't have any class since the $ fn only returns the first h2 (like querySelector) contrary to jQuery $ who returns a set. The 3rd line of your code only add class to your first h2. To get a set of selected elts in my.js, use "$.elts" and it will work! If you're interested, I may give a presentation on my.js at the next WebWorkerCamp in Paris! ------ tbassetto First, I would recommend you to update the website design :) It lacks color (and backgrounds!) in Firefox and it needs an horizontal scrollbar on my 24" screen :| Concerning the framework, I must admit that I'm quite impressed. It's clearly different from current mainstream framework, particularly due to your use of aggressive inlining. It may not me the best bet for all use case, but it's definitely worth a look. ~~~ jie Thx! I'll do something about the site this week end, check it out when the docs are online, I'll tweet it! ------ AlK Really nice framework ! I'll try it in a future project. Am I the only one who can't browse the documentation on myjs.fr ? on any browser on Linux. Also, check this awesome speed benchmark ! <http://jsperf.com/my-js-perf- tests/4> ~~~ jie Thx! Sorry for the docs, my.js index on the left can't be browsed. I'll put a doc online this WE! For the perfs, I didn't imagine such a gap with others framework! I'll try to integrate my.js in taskspeed soon! ------ sylvinus I, for one, would like some of these micro-optimizations to make their way into the mainstream frameworks ; I don't see my.js getting big in the current state of things but merged into jQuery, it could really help us all :) ~~~ jie MICRO-optimizations? Check some perfs: <http://jsperf.com/my-js-perf-tests>! There is still much to do for my.js to become mainstream. I may write a plugin for jQuery but for the moment I want to let my.js grow and stay independent. I think that my.js bring new concepts on the table that can't integrate in the main other frameworks without changing their core. ------ udp I haven't looked at the source, but I really like your idea of dynamically generating code for speed. Good work! I'll be sure to check it out next time I work on something personal that isn't already jQuery centric. :-) ~~~ jie Thx! Yes, a good JS framework is not only about performance but also about the number of plugins, the good doc and its users base... And I have to admit, jQuery is good on those points! Give my.js some time, it's gonna grow! ------ AlK A tiny jsperf to illustrate the utility of the scope function: <http://jsperf.com/my-js-scope-performances> ------ samkiller18 I was at ParisJS during your presentation. From what I saw it really looks promising. I have yet to try it but it seems like a great stuff. Good work though. ~~~ jie Thx! See you next month at ParisJS! ~~~ joksnet Uh! I forgot about ParisJS. :P ------ ElDju Put it on Git ! Very fast framework, you should build a more comprehensive demo page. ------ tnorthcutt Clickable: <http://myjs.fr> ------ Titus211 Thanks, very useful. I gonna try it in my next dev. ------ ardcore maybe I'm not getting something, but.. isn't it obvious that you can trade versatility and ease of use for speed?

AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs - neogodless https://www.anandtech.com/show/15324/amd-ryzen-4000-mobile-apus-7nm-8core-on-both-15w-and-45w-coming-q1 ====== m0zg And laptop manufacturers will now proceed to stuffing these into bargain bin laptops with shitty 1080 displays. To this day desktop/workstation Ryzen CPUs are not treated as a premium product in spite of their superior performance. I wish Apple would adopt this at least for some products. It'd give AMD more credibility, and Apple would be able to negotiate pricing more easily with Intel. ~~~ me551ah I'm curious about how many people actually have laptops with resolutions higher than 1080p and use them without display scaling. People buy a high resolution laptop and turn the scaling on 200%, effectively nullifying the benefits of a high resolution display. ~~~ toyg I'm sorry but you don't know what you're talking about. Using a hi-dpi display at native res on a 15'' screen is a recipe to kill your eyes, whereas scaling to 200% gives you butter-smooth text that relaxes them. _That_ is the benefit. When I was young, I was all for keeping text small and stuff ing as much info on the screen as I could. Nowadays, I just struggle to work on any native-res screen: unscaled low-dpi looks like crap, unscaled hi-dpi is tiring. My world changed with the 2012 retina MBP and I simply cannot go back. ~~~ teekert There is scaling like just making every pixel a 2x2 pixel area on the screen, but there is also scaling that increase the resolution. I think me551ah was talking about the former kind, which also seems useless to me, just buy a 1080p display. the second kind though makes everything nicer. ~~~ deno Fractional scaling is stupid. 150% × 4K = 1440p so just buy 1440p screen but 150% on 4K will mean misaligned pixel grid. If you need more real estate _and_ want HiDPI then you need 5K display, not 4K. 5K is 1440p@2. Fractional scaling should be under seven “Are you sure? What you’re doing is stupid.” pop-ups. Instead at least Windows 10 actually makes 150% the default. Boggles my mind. Here’s a good article series on this topic by Elementary OS dev: [https://medium.com/elementaryos/what-is-hidpi-and-why- does-i...](https://medium.com/elementaryos/what-is-hidpi-and-why-does-it- matter-b024eabea20d) [https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions- about-h...](https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions-about- hidpi-f5ef493d7bf8) ------ e12e Well, I hope this works out for AMD - currently they apparently can't compete for power efficiency.. At least judging by one of the more interesting reviews from 2019: "The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Showdown: AMD's Ryzen Picasso vs. Intel's Ice Lake" [https://www.anandtech.com/show/15213/the-microsoft- surface-l...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/15213/the-microsoft-surface- laptop-3-showdown-amd-picasso-vs-intel-ice-lake) Ed: looks like we'll see more intel/amd head-to-head designs, eg: [https://www.anandtech.com/show/15305/acer-swift-3-either- wit...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/15305/acer-swift-3-either-with- core-i71065g7-or-ryzen-7-4700u-the-laptop-market-just-blew-wide-open) ~~~ basilgohar Not that I want to apologize for poor performance, but I remember feeling let down by that review because some obvious differences between the platforms were not highlighted that should feed into the conclusions, not the least of which was the drastically different memory used between the two platforms. The article was billed as "let's see the difference between AMD and Intel" but there were significant platform differences that made it not quite apples-to- apples. ------ MikusR Any idea if these support full HW acceleration of VP9 (Youtube)? ~~~ wmf The previous gen has it, so yes. ~~~ The_rationalist And about AV1? ~~~ tambre Very unlikely. They'd be the first to ship customer PC parts with AV1 decode support. But the next generation almost certainly will. Same goes for other vendors, for Nvidia post-Ampere, for Intel post-Icelake/Tigerlake/whatever the next is nowadays, etc. Otherwise, there are AV1 decode IPs available, including a SoC or two. Plus some very recently announced set-top boxes and TVs. So you'll definitely be seeing some hardware with AV1 support shipping this year. ~~~ pkulak Can't wait. I'm really hoping AV1 is the be-all end-all and we can all stop moving to new codecs. ~~~ The_rationalist AV1 is inferior to h265 and the successor to h265 should come soon and rekt AV1 and no longer have big royalties issues. BTW the hardware cost by not using h265 far outweight the royalty cost. It has always been a pure economic nonsense for google (YouTube) to exclude h265. ~~~ pkulak Could you elaborate on the weaknesses of AV1? I hadn't heard that. Is it because of the wavelet-based i-frames that h265 uses? Or a bunch of little things? ~~~ ksec I think he _may_ be referring to AV1's economics weakness. Not the actual quality itself. As in the cost to bring quality to this level while disregarding encoder and decoder complexity. Kostya has a rant about it here [1]. He was the guy that made Real Video work across all platform . Personally I am giving the industry a benefits of doubt and one last chance on VVC / H.266. [1] [https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2018/12/why-i-am-sceptical- abou...](https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2018/12/why-i-am-sceptical-about-av1/) ~~~ tambre > As in the cost to bring quality to this level while disregarding encoder and > decoder complexity. AV1 is amazing for YouTube, Netflix and torrent-scale videos currently. I can't find the reference for this, but in the beginning the codec developers and big companies had meetings. The answer from big companies for how much encode time increase would be acceptable was 100x to 1000x the current standard. Thus the design. Of course the encode time problem will be solved for regular users too once AV1 encode ASICs for consumer hardware enter the market in 3–5 years. There are a few solutions already offering cloud FPGA encoding alongside beefy servers. If streaming bandwith costs are a significant issue for you, then you can easily afford that. ------ therealmarv We need NUCs from AMD ! ~~~ qilo DeskMini A300 by AsRock. Slightly larger than NUC, but can house full power 65W desktop CPU. ~~~ therealmarv This one is using desktop CPUs (nothing against them) and unfortunately not the newest Ryzen versions. ~~~ magicalhippo It supports the 3400G, which is the most recent with integrated graphics. [https://www.asrock.com/nettop/AMD/DeskMini%20A300%20Series/#...](https://www.asrock.com/nettop/AMD/DeskMini%20A300%20Series/#CPU) ~~~ therealmarv ah, thanks for that information. I'm not super familiar with AMDs productline and somehow thought that all Zen 2 have an integrated graphics inside. So we are gonna to expect some more powerful G line APUs in the future too I guess... ~~~ magicalhippo Yeah hoping to see something like that soon, will be pretty awesome I think. ------ darksaints Anybody know of any companies planning to ship these in a NUC-style form factor? ~~~ alimbada ASRock did the DeskMini A300 last year which was quite popular. I'm hoping they will refresh it with an updated motherboard for the new APUs coming this year. ~~~ llampx It was the only one I believe. I'm still on the lookout for a good MiniPC solution that doesn't have compromises like a soldered CPU or requiring SODIMMs etc. ------ est I'm looking forward to build a mini HTPC with this. Hope it can handle 8K HDR encode/decode well. ------ rurban I got the previous 3000 Ryzen edition on my new cheap Lenovo, and it kills all my big Intel machines in all benchmarks. It cannot use it for benchmarking, as it drops frequencies from 4.3 to 1.5 as it likes (or does temp. freezes) but for testing and dev the AMD works wonders. ------ jwildeboer Since when are CPUs called APU? ~~~ bob1029 APU = CPU + GPU in a single package or die. ------ Out_of_Characte These APU's wont fix todays problems in Laptops. Idle power consumption is largely due to all components together. bigger batteries are only more expensive. I'm still waiting for more efficient SSD's. There's no point in an efficient SOC if you still need a large hard drive and a bright display. And of note; an 1800 base freq is on the low end of the performance/watt curve we've seen from their other products. Maybe AMD expects most workloads to not use all 8 cores properly and let the boost algo max the cores out? also, where's PCIE 4? My guess is they are waiting a cycle on purpose due to power constraints. ~~~ kllrnohj > And of note; an 1800 base freq is on the low end of the performance/watt > curve we've seen from their other products. Maybe AMD expects most workloads > to not use all 8 cores properly and let the boost algo max the cores out? The 1.8ghz base freq is just to hit the desired 15W TDP. The approach is pick a TDP, say 15W, then adjust base freq for the core count to hit that. That's why the 8C ends up at 1.8ghz base while the lower-end 4C has 2.9ghz base freq. Then let turbo be the thing that everyone actually uses on a daily basis, because base frequency is irrelevant. It's not actually an input into anything the CPU does for either AMD or Intel. The CPU is monitoring its power draw to stay in a power budget and a temperature budget. What speed it ends up running at is then not just dependent on how many cores are used but also what type of instructions they are running. It's a fully-dynamic system these days, making single-number specs useless. ~~~ jotm Man, I hope the TDP is adjustable, as well as the voltage, like many Intel chips. Would be great to see what these chips can do. ~~~ kllrnohj Given this is a laptop it doesn't really make sense to adjust the TDP even if you can. You're going to be limited by the laptop's cooling solution, which is going to be at best sufficient for factory settings but nothing more. More commonly it's actually not _quite_ sufficient for factory settings, leading to thermal throttling over sustained loads. ~~~ jotm Oh I am well aware. Laptop coolers are barely good enough, without exception. It's fascinating really, it's like they want their systems to run at close to throttling temperatures, so they last a tad bit longer than their warranty. Doesn't bother me, I've got 2 hands and 2 eyes, anything can be modified with those. Except encrypted BIOSes, for now :D

The business men's guide to open source licenses - kkovacs http://kkovacs.eu/businessmens-guide-to-open-source-licenses ====== ZeroGravitas Where "business men" means "people who sell software (with footnotes for those that sell software development services)", rather than the more normal definition of "people who run a business" as the latter as a general group are far more likely to be buying and/or using software than creating and/or selling it. ~~~ kkovacs Yes it is. But that would be a pretty long headline, doesn't it? :o)

An Introduction to JavaScript's "this" - jmtulloss http://justin.harmonize.fm/index.php/2009/09/an-introduction-to-javascripts-this/ ====== Bluem00 This article does a good job of explaining a concept I had trouble with when first using javascript. Now, I usually use the approach recommended in the article of setting a private variable (e.g. self, or my) to the current value of 'this' in a javascript class. However, I think the article is slightly incorrect on one minor point. It states, "this wants to be window whenever possible, which is not always what you want." I believe the correct description is: the 'this' variable in a function called in response to an event on dom object is set to that dom object. For the example given in the article, this is set to the window object because setTimeout causes an event on window to fire, not because there's any inherent preference for the window object. ~~~ aboodman There is indeed a preference for window (really the global) object. Try these: <script> alert(this == window); function foo() { alert(this == window); } foo(); </script> |this| is basically a magical variable that by default is set to the global object, but can also be set by the caller of a function one of two ways: a) by setting a reference to the function on an object, and calling it with object or bracket notation: var someObj = {}; someObj.f = theFunction; someObj.f(); // now |this| inside theFunction will // point to someObj someObj["f"](); // same thing b) by using apply: theFunction.apply(someObj); You are right that in the case of event handlers, it is common in the DOM for event handlers to get their |this| set to the DOM node that fired the event. Since the default value of |this| is the global object, it isn't possible in the case of setTimeout for us to tell whether the caller (the host) explicitly set it, or if the function is being called without any value set for |this|. Basically, |this| is an extra parameter to any function. It is controlled by the caller, and as such, should either be documented as part of the signature of the function, or else should not be relied on by the implementation of the function. The common misunderstanding with people new to JS is that they expect |this| to be controlled by the callee, like it is in lots of other popular languages, and are surprised when calling convention can change its value. ~~~ aboodman BTW, imo, the behavior of |this| is a really unfortunate design flaw of JS. The amount of time that must have been spent learning and teaching this edge case over and over to every person new to the language is ... well, it's big. ~~~ vicaya The behavior of 'this' is from DOM bindings and not from the language per se. Javascript can set 'this' of any calling context to any object with 'apply' or 'call'. The convention for on* handlers is that 'this' is set to the DOM element when the handlers are called. I only learned to appreciate this, when I wrote my own little JS DOM framework a la JQuery or Dojo. ~~~ litewulf I believe actually that 'this' points to the global object. So if there is no obvious thing for this to point at, it'll point at the global object. Its just implementation detail that in browsers it points to the window object. ------ mhansen The way I remember it: this is whatever is before the dot when you call the function. E.g. for car.drive(); in the drive function, any reference to 'this' will get 'car'. If the function is called on it's own, as in 'drive()', 'this' will refer to the Global object (bad) It's also possible to change 'this' by using the Function.prototype.apply() method, which allows you to pass a 'context' parameter that will become 'this'. ------ kwamenum86 The function: setTimeout(30, function() { myHotDog.getCondiments.apply(myHotDog); }); can actually just be: setTimeout(30, function() { myHotDog.getCondiments(); }); apply is definitely useful but it just makes the code more verbose in this case. ~~~ nixy Which JS engine allows you to call setTimeout like that? Isn't setTimeout(expression, timeInMs [, args]) the right way to go? ~~~ bouncingsoul That's correct, but the optional args parameter isn't supported in IE. So if you want to use setTimeout or setInterval to call a function with arguments you have to do it as an anonymous function with your function call inside. You're right though that milliseconds should be the second argument, not the first. <https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Window.setTimeout> ------ judofyr Is this supposed to be Ruby? class HotDog: condiments def getCondiments return @condiments // @ is a reference to the current instance of HotDog. end end ~~~ jmtulloss sorry, that was typed up pretty quickly, and I'm not a rubyist... care to correct it? ~~~ jhancock class HotDog @condiments def getCondiments return @condiments // @condiments is an instance variable of an instance of HotDog end end note the mod to both the ivar def and the comment. You also do not need the initial ivar "definition" as ruby defines them on the fly when they are first referenced. ~~~ xtho No, The first @condiments would define a class variable. class HotDog attr_accessor :condiments end Or for Java-socialized folks: class HotDog def initialize @condiments = nil end def getCondiments return @condiments end end ~~~ jhancock oops, sorry. yes, the first line would define a "class instance" variable. btw, I didn't show the attr_accessor meta-programming sine it hides the guts of the excercise. ------ axod It's not a quirk, it doesn't need "fixing". Get a good javascript book. Still surprising how many people try to learn js by feeling around in the dark or by googling. ~~~ jmtulloss I absolutely agree. I tried to put "fixing" in quotes as much as possible. However, you have to see that for many programmers, it is unexpected behavior. In the eyes of many UI specialists, unexpected behavior is the definition of a quirk. JS fanatics have to be accepting of the fact that JS is not a regular language that follows "regular" rules. ~~~ axod Sure, I agree... And if you go in #javascript on freenode for a few minutes, you'll see endless questions about why their event handler doesn't work. Endless answers "use a closure". I just wish people would read a book on the language first, then the behavior would be pretty obvious and expected. ------ trjordan Does anybody have a mirror? It appears to be down for me. ~~~ _ck_ <http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2570> oh and [http://google.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fjustin.harmoni...](http://google.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fjustin.harmonize.fm%2Findex.php%2F2009%2F09%2Fan- introduction-to-javascripts-this%2F) ------ diN0bot one neat way to define a class is like so: function MyClass(a, b) { // use this function as an instance constructor // eg, var m = new MyClass('foo', 'bar'); this.a = a; this.b = b; } MyClass.prototype = {}; _extend(MyClass.prototype, { instanceMethod: function() { ... }, ... }); ------ volida This article is wrong. You need to use prototype when defining your functions. Here is how to do it: <html> <head> <script> function HotDog () { this.name=arguments[0]; } HotDog.prototype.name=null; HotDog.prototype.getCondiments= function () { document.getElementById('test').innerHTML='started...' +this.name; }; var myHotDog = new HotDog('test 001'); window.onload= function() { setTimeout(30, myHotDog.getCondiments()); }; </script> </head> <body> <div id=test>loading...</div> </body> </html> ~~~ jmtulloss I would never not use a prototype in production code, but prototypes are a different topic that I wanted to avoid for this article. I'm just trying to explain "this". Also, your code isn't right. You're calling myHotDog.getCondiments instead of passing a reference to setTimeout. ~~~ volida Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I didn't mean what you are explaining is wrong.

A Tale of Two LEDs - lelf http://dtrace.org/blogs/rm/2019/09/06/a-tale-of-two-leds/ ====== salex89 I'm not sure how common it is, but I met a guy who uses a CD drive to identify the unit he is searching for. Pops them out remotely. Of course it is applicable only if your servers have CD drives, but it's hell of a lot easier than spotting LED patterns. ~~~ quickthrower2 [https://thedailywtf.com/articles/ITAPPMONROBOT](https://thedailywtf.com/articles/ITAPPMONROBOT) ~~~ klausjensen What a great read, I enjoyed that. ~~~ quickthrower2 That's the 2007 internet :-). Mourning... ------ mzs another similar post: [http://dtrace.org/blogs/rm/2019/08/14/cpu-and-pch- temperatur...](http://dtrace.org/blogs/rm/2019/08/14/cpu-and-pch-temperature- sensors-in-illumos/) ------ TrevorFSmith I rarely comment about site design, but this is illegible on mobile screens and it's an interesting story so worth sharing. Just setting the width of the main content to ~65em would make it legible upon element zoom for a lot of devices.

A Sound So Loud That It Circled the Earth Four Times (2014) - dnetesn http://nautil.us/blog/the-sound-so-loud-that-it-circled-the-earth-four-times ====== bitcurious The explosion of Krakatoa is believed by some scholars to be the inspiration for Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream." [https://www.skyandtelescope.com/press- releases/astronomical-...](https://www.skyandtelescope.com/press- releases/astronomical-sleuths-link-krakatoa-to-edvard-munchs-painting-the- scream/) ~~~ Insanity That was interesting to read as well :) Might deserve it's own post on HN imo! ------ rexarex This event led to the discovery of ‘infrasound’ or very low frequency sound that travels very long distances. It’s currently still used to detect (above ground) nuclear explosions as part of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). There is a site in the ‘Windless Blight’ in Antarctica near McMurdo Station that a couple of techs go dig out and maintain every year. I believe there are about 30 around the world. [https://www.ctbto.org/verification-regime/monitoring- technol...](https://www.ctbto.org/verification-regime/monitoring-technologies- how-they-work/infrasound-monitoring/) ------ red_admiral I've read in other sources that the force of the main eruption in 1883 was equivalent to around 100 megatons of TNT. The dust that it ejected into the atmosphere was not only the cause of the bright sunsets that inspired artists in Europe over the next few years, but also caused a global cooling by something like 1 degree (Celsius) for the next two years. ~~~ techsin101 So we can solve global warming? ~~~ smitty1110 It was a temporary measure, and the only volcano I know that would significantly move the needle is Yellowstone. And I really, really don’t want that to go off while I’m still alive, I like North America when it’s not covered in ash. ------ vxNsr This is just insane!! that video where the sound takes 13 seconds to reach the camera really helps cement the point of the article. ~~~ andyidsinga I think I watched that video 15 times ... at 4.4km / 2.7miles away those must be larger-than-house sized chunks of rock falling ! (clearly visible to the left of the explosion). ------ moioci Just to put a plug in for Simon Winchester's book, Krakatoa: the Day the World Exploded. If anyone wants to dive deeper in this topic. ------ se7entime "ACTNews, PANDEGLANG – Tsunami hit coastal areas around Sunda Strait in Pandeglang, Serang, and South Lampung Regencies. The disaster happened on Saturday (12/22) at 9:27 p.m., Indonesian Bureau of Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) predicted that the massive wave was caused by underwater flank collapse after the eruption of Anak Krakatau Mountain as well as the tidal force caused by the full moon." \- [https://act.id/en/news/detail/tsunami-hit-pandeglang- serang-...](https://act.id/en/news/detail/tsunami-hit-pandeglang-serang-and- south-lampung) "Anak" = Children/Child of The Death Toll has reached 373 people, 1.459 wounded and 128 still missing [https://www.bnpb.go.id/en/tim-sar-gabungan-terus- menemukan-k...](https://www.bnpb.go.id/en/tim-sar-gabungan-terus-menemukan- korban-tsunami-selat-sunda-373-meninggal-dunia-1459-luka-luka-dan-128-hilang) ~~~ NegativeLatency > the tidal force caused by the full moon. Is that real? Doesn’t seem like it would matter enough. Especially when there was an eruption, why even mention it. ~~~ goodcanadian Yes, it's real. Tides are higher around the full moon due to the earth, sun, and moon being (roughly) aligned. If it was already high tide, adding a tsunami on top of it is going to be more impactful than at low tide. ------ edge17 Regarding magnitude of these types of events, NOAA does amazing work collecting data on tsunami events with impressive energy simulations. As some point I had seen several videos from the Chile event in 2010 that showed the shockwaves traveling around the earth multiple times, but I can't seem to find those videos now. Here's a link to one of the videos with an energy plot from the Chile event - [https://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/chile20100227/20100227Chile.mov](https://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/chile20100227/20100227Chile.mov) And the specific Chile event page - [https://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/chile20100227/weblink.html](https://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/chile20100227/weblink.html) If you browse around the site, there is a lot of information for many of the largest earthquake/tsunami events in recent times. ~~~ edge17 And a youtube link to some more forecast models from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's youtube channel [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd18vQxXt2zNmVDB2NQxV...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd18vQxXt2zNmVDB2NQxV- lnkL2bZtlLQ) ------ TekMol Does a sound ever stop? ~~~ prmph Is information ever lost? Not a rhetorical question, I genuinely want to know. Once the vibration due to a sound become smaller than a certain level, do quantum effects make it disappear entirely ~~~ TekMol I find that hard to imagine. Let's take the information 'The universe exists'. How can that information get lost? Wouldn't the universe have to disappear for that to happen? I have never heard about a model of reality where that is a possibility. ~~~ gbear605 I think by information they mean more concrete things. For instance, imagine a bird landing on a branch. If someone is around to see it, they know that if happened. If no one is around though, once the bird flies away and the branch stops shaking, the information that a bird had landed on the branch is gone. ------ rcthompson I wonder whether the sound wave got stronger again as it reached the opposite side of the globe from the source. Would it have made it back into the audible range? Maybe not, since I imagine that intervening mountains and such would disrupt or change the speed of the waves. ------ andyidsinga my ears almost hurt reading this: > The British ship Norham Castle was 40 miles from Krakatoa at the time of the > explosion. The ship’s captain wrote in his log, “So violent are the > explosions that the ear-drums of over half my crew have been shattered. My > last thoughts are with my dear wife. I am convinced that the Day of > Judgement has come.” ------ brian-armstrong This must be the article so interesting it landed on HN Front Page Four Times :)

ThinkPad X1 Extreme - FunnyLookinHat https://www.techradar.com/reviews/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-extreme ====== walrus01 Now if we could just get something like this with a full complement of ports, and the famous Thinkpad durability, that would run native MacOS without playing with hacked bootloaders and hardware incompatibility. Imagine if Apple actually tried to make a _pro_ macbook, not the current whatever-the-hell- that-thing-is they call a Macbook Pro. ------ gaspoweredcat Getting one of these next month and i cant wait, i was saying for a while my dream device would be an x1 carbon with a discreet gpu and they went and dropped this beast

These genetically modified cyborg dragonflies could perform ‘guided pollination’ - preetish https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/25/these-genetically-modified-cyborg-dragonflies-could-perform-guided-pollination/ ====== LordWinstanley >>we can make enough of them fast enough to counter the disappearance of honeybees Black Mirror Series 03 "Hated in the Nation" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5709236/?ref_=ttep_ep6](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5709236/?ref_=ttep_ep6) ------ whatnotests This is amazing, even if it's a bit far-off. My question is whether this can be streamlined and the little bots can be re- used enough to cover their expense, and we can make enough of them fast enough to counter the disappearance of honeybees.

Wssdl – WireShark-Specific Dissector Language - Snaipe https://github.com/diacritic/wssdl ====== rwmj Interesting, but surprising they didn't look at how Erlang bit syntax works. [http://erlang.org/doc/programming_examples/bit_syntax.html](http://erlang.org/doc/programming_examples/bit_syntax.html) It's considerably more flexible, much more elegant, and (in Erlang) battle- tested. I wrote an Erlang-inspired version of bitstrings for OCaml: [https://people.redhat.com/~rjones/bitstring/html/Bitstring.h...](https://people.redhat.com/~rjones/bitstring/html/Bitstring.html) ~~~ Snaipe This is because wssdl is still within the boundaries of the lua grammar: the file you provide is still lua, so you have to abide by its rule. I experimented with a key/value approach on the syntax itself (something like `{ src_port = u16 }` or `{ src_port = 16 }`), which was nicer, but the problem was that, in lua, table literals are unordered. The current approach uses the method syntax (`a:b()`) as a nice workaround, but this mandates the use of parenthesis after the type and other specifiers. This is fine though since a lot of the provided types are parameterized (e.g. `bytes(n)` which takes a number of octets) ------ sigill Great idea! I have always felt that the Wireshark Lua bindings are not ready- to-use enough. They feel like the ugly stepchild of Wireshark. In the last dissector I wrote, which was about 1000 lines of Lua, I built a very limited structure definition parser, not completely unlike wssdl. I did it to cut down on the repetitive code needed parse the structures: Typically I parse every field twice: Once to add it to the dissection tree and once to get its value as a Lua-held variable. I'll definitely be using wssdl in my next dissector! ------ dexwiz Naming consideration, WSDL is already a very common name for XML API description files. ------ problems Interesting alternative if you're looking for something for your own tools: [http://kaitai.io/](http://kaitai.io/) ------ ris Hooray does this mean the end of embarrassing Wireshark vulnerabilities? ------ ythl What does GPL3 license mean in the context of Wssdl? That if I write a dissector with it then it has to be open sourced? ~~~ Snaipe This means that if you distribute your dissector, you have to make your sources available. This is nothing new though: all wireshark plugins must be GPL, since the API itself they rely on is GPL. ~~~ bch _v3_ means that if it's used (even over a network) by somebody, they can request the code, versus GPLv2 (Wireshark license), which says if you distribute binaries of Wireshark or software based on it, you must provide the source. The difference is that you could theoretically provide a web interface to a GPLv2 project and not need to supply the source, but if you provide such an interface to GPLv3 software, you could receive a request for the code. EDIT: _I 'm not entirely correct_ There are _provisions_ for the network situation ("ASP (application service provider) loophole") I described, but I looks like it's not necessarily the default mode. See [0][1]. [0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License) [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License) ~~~ Manozco Nop The 'over the network' stuff is AGPL

Google AdSense: “we're going to optimize your ad settings for you” - Mistri https://i.imgur.com/ixzn8yB.png ====== tonyedgecombe That's nice of them. I wonder in whose favour the optimisations will be, them or their customers. ~~~ t0mas88 Isn't the model that you as a publisher get paid based on the bidding of the advertisers and Google takes a percentage? So if they make your ads perform better (read: probably make them more annoying to your visitors), then the advertisers will pay more and both Google and you will get a higher fee. So this thing is probably good for the short-term AdSense revenue of the publisher, and bad for visitors and thus the long-term use of the site. (Or maybe just good for adblocker install rates) ------ TekMol I am surprised that there are so few Adsense threads on HN while almost all of the web carries them. Are startup founders "special" in a way they do not use Adsense? Is the web not build / run by startups? ~~~ DeathArrow >Are startup founders "special" in a way they do not use Adsense? I don't find depending on Adsense for revenue great, good or healthy, but I presume for many small web sites there's no other option. >Is the web not build / run by startups? What is the Web? What is a start-up? If by Web you mean WWW, and by start-up you mean "new shiny online businesses which are perceived by lots of public as being cool and trendy and are funded by VC", then the answer is no. We have WWW since Tim Berners Lee invented it, and it ran just fine before "start-ups" were a thing.

Uber Picks Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi as New CEO - nbmh https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/technology/dara-khosrowshahi-uber-ceo.html?mcubz=0 ====== mwnivek Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15113613](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15113613)

A Tiny Intro to Database Systems - sandcrain http://blog.dancrisan.com/a-tiny-intro-to-database-systems ====== crdb As a non-CS grad coming fresh to databases, I found both the entity- relationship, and the object-oriented models confusing. Then I read Date [1] and Codd's [2] books and papers on the relational model, the one from the 1970s that is basically set and type theory applied to data, and found that to be a lot clearer and a more powerful abstraction to deal with your data model. For example, your Relational Model introduction has a discussion of various data types. But arguably, whether your integer is implemented as BIGINT or TINYINT is an _implementation_ decision which should be separate from the _model_ discussion (dixit Date). In other words, that attribute has a type of integer and how that integer is stored is a separate issue, and your RDBMS ought to abstract it away (as, I think, Postgres is pretty good with, and MySQL quite annoying). The beauty of the latest RDBMS developments, particularly in Postgres world, is that the implementation has gotten so good that you don't need to really worry about it like you used to just a decade ago, at least in 95% of use cases. Again as a non-"full time developer" it amazes me the number of "experienced" developers who are not aware of the relational model and who do not know what a foreign key is or why referential integrity might be important. I think one can teach SQL (and the relational model) to a non-developer in about 2 hours, because it is so declarative and intuitive. One day I'll go write that tutorial, as many clients need it sorely... [1] e.g. [http://www.amazon.com/SQL-Relational-Theory-Write- Accurate/d...](http://www.amazon.com/SQL-Relational-Theory-Write- Accurate/dp/1449316409) [2] e.g. [http://www.amazon.com/The-Relational-Model-Database- Manageme...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Relational-Model-Database- Management/dp/0201141922) or the original paper: [http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~zives/03f/cis550/codd.pdf](http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~zives/03f/cis550/codd.pdf) edit to add: on the E/RM vs the RM: [http://www.dbdebunk.com/2013/09/entity- relatonship-model-not...](http://www.dbdebunk.com/2013/09/entity-relatonship- model-not-data-model.html) ~~~ edejong To really teach the relational model would take quite some more time. I would discuss database normalization (3NF/4NF/BCNF), query optimization, indexes, foreign key constraints and bridge set-theory with the relational model. Optional parts would be triggers and other kind of constraints. To understand the query planner is tantamount to making good schema's and requires insight in the underlying data-structures (B-tree) and join methods. Then, for the student to get used to this way of thinking, I'd have them implement a simple project, e.g. a hotel-booking system. ------ zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC This is highly confusing. For one, it's pretty out of date (tape as "tertiary storage"? 512 byte page size? the whole topic of concurrency control without one mention of MVCC?), but also, the actual explanation seems to mix up quite a few things. For example: a "Write-Read Conflict" ist just that, a conflict, which a database in some appropriate isolation mode would handle by appropriate locking in order to avoid "reading uncommitted data" (if the transactions were to happen concurrently--per the definition given, operations don't need to happen in concurrent transactions for them to be in conflict). Or, an actual DBMS with MVCC with SSI, like a modern Postgres, would simply execute the read on its snapshot and thus force the reading transaction to precede the writing transaction in any equivalent serialized order (even though the read happened after the write in realtime), and only abort the transaction if that could lead to contradictions (cycles) in the dependency graph. ------ blueatlas Well done. But I have to note, the chapter "Schema Refinement - Functional Dependencies" is an example of what drives many students out of CS. Even so, this is one of the better introductions to functional dependencies that I've read. ~~~ justin66 It's a topic that you'll experience halfway through a graduate-level textbook on databases like Elmasri's Fundamentals of Database Systems. No gentle way to do it, and a student has probably been driven away or not well before they read about it. ~~~ jhalstead We covered functional dependencies (in the same level of detail that's provided in the OP's link) in the first half of my undergraduate databases course at UIUC last year. It was painful to say the least. ~~~ justin66 I know what you mean (I think this concept put me to sleep in class) but on the other hand, it doesn't really have to be. I think with these sorts of concepts teaching technique is terribly important. blueatlas cited the bit on functional dependencies as "an example of what drives many students out of CS" but I'd say that more than anything it's an example of a tricky topic that ought to be presented by a highly engaging, smart instructor instead of a boring one who may or may not understand the material very well. (in retrospect, my feelings and his aren't mutually exclusive) ------ snissn This is great, I really enjoyed reading your explanation of B+ trees! Could you add in a small section regarding how to delete a node? ------ aesthetics1 There are a _lot_ of typos! Run through with a spell check. ------ GizaDog A needed read. Thanks! ------ sqyttles Jut curious: why python 2.7 over python 3.x? ------ threeseed Unless I a missing something this is just for relational databases. The term database can encompass pretty much everything from CSV files to in memory distributed grids.

Yet Another DDoS device – The connected mattress ;) - maghis https://www.eightsleep.com/buy-mattress/ ====== simonebrunozzi I like the irony! Ehehe. I personally know the Eight team, and it's nice to see them launch a smart mattress. I think that their smart cover works quite well. They spent a few months refining the experience and debugging the software, and I recently (re)tried it and the experience was flawless. From my understanding, the smart mattress uses the same exact technology, so unlike other smart mattresses on the market today, this is a battle tested solution. I don't want to sound too nice and condescending to them, given that I know them. I can only suggest to take a look at it, and read some user reviews. Whether you're going to buy it or not, I'm happy to see a connected device finally built with some good engineering principles in mind. Good luck! ~~~ maghis Thanks for the kind words Simone, when you put so much effort on something, this type of support is everything you need to keep going :)

Reputation: kind of a big deal - holman http://zachholman.com/2010/12/reputation/ ====== thesz >If you take an action — write a blog post, publish a photo, launch a website — you want your action to spread to as many people as possible. Overgeneralization, is what I see there. Actually, "avoiding success at all costs" motto is great. I think that quote from Adam Chlipala (author or Ur and Ur/Web) is quite appropriate: "I also want to emphasize that I'm not trying to maximize adoption of Ur/Web. Rather, I'm trying to maximize the effectiveness of people who do choose to use it. This means that I'm completely happy if basic features of Ur/Web mean that 90% of programmers will never be able to use it." [http://www.impredicative.com/pipermail/ur/2010-December/0003...](http://www.impredicative.com/pipermail/ur/2010-December/000329.html) I think that author is wrong. You don't have to have superfans. ~~~ holman I'm not saying you _have_ to have superfans; you're welcome to do whatever you'd like (and there are plenty of paths to success!) I just think there's so many examples of a small, passionate userbase forming the bedrock of success. Why not try to foster that? ------ evanhanson A wise man once said "Don't try to be a great man; just be a man, and let history make its own judgments." The reason _why (used as an example in the article) has the cult-like following he does is that he made fun, interesting things, not because he marketed himself or gamed the social system around him. Sure, a bit of self- promotion is often a good thing, but if you're expending lots of energy on making yourself into an icon, you've got less use actually earning such a status. ------ dzuc Related: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie> ------ mashmac2 See also: Seth Godin on Tribes ([http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_w...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html)). ~~~ nhangen While I love Seth's thoughts on tribes, the downside of the success of that book is that now there's so much talk about "my tribe" or "our tribe" that people fail to realize that none of us really have a tribe, per se. We have fans that happen to like us at the time. That's always subject to change. ------ kathybootsri This sounds like it would be an additional chapter on Rework titled "Don't Be Big On Numbers Through Social Media," well thought-out.

Richard Stallman on the Anonymous WikiLeaks Protests - gnubardt http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/17/anonymous-wikileaks-protest-amazon-mastercard/print ====== iwwr I guess you could compare this with the 1960s sit-ins at the whites-only establishments.

A customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Simulator - Doubleguitars https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20170418-00/?p=95985 ====== kpao It's an everyday occurrence during the development of our app (Infinite Flight). We often get customers complaining about a misplaced sticker on a livery, a missing exit door in a particular variant of a the 737-900... That type of stuff is easily verifiable. But for things like the airplane not behaving in a way they expect in certain conditions, or perhaps a wrong approach speed or angle, discussions usually start with: "We tuned the airplane based on information available to us at the time we built the airplane. We are happy to make any changes based on an actual report from one or more pilots flying on this airplane, or better yet, the aircraft manual if you can get your hands on one." The discussion usually ends there :) One we get often is about why it's possible to do a barrel roll in a jet liner in Infinite Flight. We simply point them to the video of that test pilot who did one in a 707 ;-) ~~~ kordless This was done in Seattle: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_khhzuFlE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_khhzuFlE) ~~~ hermitdev Boeing also did a near-vertical take off in the 787 during their initial tests (and a few times after at air shows) This video [1] from a past Paris air show, shows a 787 ready for a delivery to Vietnam Airlines doing a very aggressive & short (but not vertical take off). Pretty ballsy to do such a thing in such an expensive jet that's on its way to delivery to a client. [1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5_8D8HCnS4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5_8D8HCnS4) ~~~ overcast According to comments, it was nowhere near vertical, which is why they didn't show it from a side angle. Apparently indicator light goes off at 30 degrees, indicating imminent engine stall. ~~~ kpao What do you mean engine stall? As long are you have enough thrust, airspeed and no system preventing you to go above a certain pitch or AOA, then the plane should fly just fine... ~~~ JorgeGT Excessive AOA causes streamline detachments in the diffuser that cause compressor stall: [http://www.free-online-private-pilot-ground- school.com/image...](http://www.free-online-private-pilot-ground- school.com/images/xcompressor-airflow.gif.pagespeed.ic.Sk_s8wyIqh.png) ~~~ kpao Right, but there's no excessive AOA here... except during recovery maybe but I doubt they let it go that high... ------ sandworm101 Reminds me of the funniest thing i ever read on the internet. I once played FS with a realism mod that would simulate passenger needs. One day someone appeared on our "virtual airline" forum asking for help: " Hit severe turbulance over seattle on route to alaska. Didnt have seatbelt sign on. One dead, several injured. Am playing in-flight movie but passengers still angry. Should i serve meal early or wait until closer to destination?" ~~~ TerminalJunkie This quote was stolen from the comments section on the original article by Brian_EE "I wonder how realistic the operations of the virtual airlines are. In the game, do you get to have local police come on your plane and beat up your passengers and drag them off before you take off on your flight route?" ~~~ sandworm101 FS is pilot-focused. They dont simulate the exciting world of ticket counters and baggage limits. But there is probably a german sim that, from the makers of AirportSimulator (see nerdcubed's coverage of that series). German simulators are a strange market niche. ~~~ selimthegrim I remember googling furiously once I discovered Euro Truck Simulator to confirm it wasn't some Steam Greenlight prank... ~~~ yongjik I heard that game has some cult followers in Korea. Some gamers buy steering wheels and gears, put on the monitor a sticker saying "Freight Union", wear fingerless gloves and a red Freight Union vest, and start driving while listening to radio... ------ squeaky-clean This reminds me of a story I read in PCGamer long ago (I tried searching for the article, but I don't even know if it was published online). The author got into their seat for a flight, next to someone with a gaming laptop running a flight simulator. They chatted about video games for a while, and the gamer explains that they like to set up the simulator to play the same flight they are currently taking, and try to take off and land at the same time. About halfway through the flight, the gamer remarks that the pilot is wrong, and not taking the best route for the flight. The flight sim path and real plane are going in slightly different directions. They try to tell a flight attendant who assures them know "the pilot knows what they're doing." The remaining half of the flight they complained to either the author or other attendants, acting like they knew more than the staff. They never got to finish their flight-sim though, because the real plane landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I guess the pilot did take a different path after all! ~~~ squeaky-clean Actually I just remembered an even more relevant funny story. One of the services I maintain at my job is a list of airport locations and their names in various languages (for airlines to use) among other details. I get so many requests to change things from airlines that don't understand basic geography or even where they fly. My favorite is when a customer was raising hell because London International Airport (YXU) wasn't appearing under the city listing for London, UK and demanding it be added immediately. I had to tell them you don't fly there... it's located in Canada. ~~~ Pxtl Hah. The Y prefix alone should've been a tip off. I don't know a darned thing about air travel but I know Canada is stuck with the Y. ~~~ Zombieball I think technically Canada is stuck with the "C" prefix (vs. "K" for USA) eg. CYVR, CYUL, CYXX We also have airports with "CZ" (eg. CZBB). I am not sure what the difference (if any) between CZ vs. CY codes is. Probably just sticking with convention (begin with Y or Z because everyone else does). ~~~ agrahul Yes, the entirety of C is currently allocated to Canada[1]. The parent comments were talking about IATA codes, though, which aren't allocated by prefix. [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Civil_Aviation_O...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Civil_Aviation_Organization_airport_code#Prefixes) ~~~ Pxtl While IATA codes do not require a consistent prefix, all the Canadian airports start with Y: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_by_IATA_code:...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_by_IATA_code:_Y) ~~~ Zombieball Interesting. I still see Canadian airports starting with Z. But Y is heavily Canadian. We should all just start our own airport. Sounds like a good way to learn about naming. I imagine we will want an airport code staring with YC, so it'll have to be in Canada :P ------ roryisok Not funny but sort of relevant. Here in Ireland we just had an air disaster - an air sea rescue helicopter crashed into an island off the west coast and all aboard were killed. The accident investigation has determined that the island was not registered on the aircraft's mapping system. ~~~ hermitdev This is why every air craft comes equipped with a set of MKII eyeballs. Not trying to make light of it, or anything, but this is a prime example of why good vision is a requirement of any pilot. Not familiar with this incident or whether it was night-time or during inclement weather. Regardless of the circumstance, my apologies & condolences to the friends & family of the crew and any passengers. From your short description, this seems like an easily avoided accident and I hope actions are being taken to prevent a recurrence. ~~~ roryisok According to the recovered black box recordings, one of the crew did see the island, but not soon enough. Probably the most shocking part is that there was a lighthouse on this island, which was operational at the time. This is shocking both because it should have been blindingly obvious to the pilot and crew that they were flying toward a lighthouse, and also that an island significant enough to have a lighthouse on it would not be on a digital mapping system. It's on Google maps - [https://goo.gl/maps/Xdt7rzUErX42](https://goo.gl/maps/Xdt7rzUErX42), even has photos and information. This is not some insignificant rock How an aircraft mapping system can have such a huge omission is just mind- blowing ~~~ theoh To be clear, the deficiency was in a warning system database of 3D elevation geometry (the EGPWS) not a "mapping system". Something that is geographically notable but quite small, vertical and isolated (like Rockall) may very well also be omitted from that version of the EGPWS database. NB Blackrock is a designated navigational waypoint on the standard charts etc. which is why they were flying straight toward it on autopilot. ~~~ roryisok > Something that is geographically notable but quite small, vertical and > isolated (like Rockall) may very well also be omitted from that version of > the EGPWS database. Why are "small" and "isolated" good criteria for omitting something from a database of elevation geometry? It's evidently big enough to crash into and cause loss of life. ~~~ theoh I'm not suggesting that those are criteria, just possible contributing factors. (And I'm not trying to exonerate the suppliers. We'll see what the final report says.) If the source is some kind of DEM (digital elevation model) data, it will be a raster of elevation values at some limited resolution, so necessarily just samples of elevation. With a relatively small island/rock, the full height could be missed, and possibly then even further reduced by filtering (i.e. smoothing of DEM values, either in the process of measurement or some kind of processing). That likelihood is hinted at by this quote from the manufacturer: "Honeywell’s terrain data is sourced from our supplier [named supplier]. It is a digitized topographic map derived data set. It does not include Black Rock. We have looked at alternate sources, including SRTM and ASTER. While Black Rock is present in these alternate data sets, the actual altitude of Black Rock is considerably higher than what is indicated in these alternate data sets." The data sources they refer to: [http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/](http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/) [https://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gdem.asp](https://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gdem.asp) Again, not coming to any conclusions from this. ------ mdip That's hysterical. Flight Simulator was an incredible product back in the day. My father was a weather, IFR[0] certified small plane pilot. He used MS Flight Simulator to train to get his license back after several years of having let it lapse and to train for his IFR certification. To this day, other than watching him play Pac Man at K-Mart in the 80s, I had not before, nor since, seen him play any video game on his home PC. [0] Most small plane pilots have basic licenses - VFR - or Visual Flight Rules. IFR is for pilots who have instrument ratings. It's not all-together rare, but not necessarily common and is usually reserved for pilots who fly in a more professional capacity, as my father did. He was certified to fly a single engine aircraft (he flew a Cherokee -- 6?) and had more hours on him some years than some commercial pilots. ~~~ chrisper I pretty much only play X-Plane as well. Don't really play any of the other games anymore. X-Plane is probably the only game I played that has over 300 hours. ------ fanf2 Shower curtains are often terrible. My periodic table shower curtain is a jarringly awful mixture of Arial and Helvetica: [http://fanf.livejournal.com/147327.html](http://fanf.livejournal.com/147327.html) ~~~ Sharlin How is that even possible? I mean, unless it's intentional. ~~~ dotancohen The information was copy-pasted with a "smart" formatting tool. ~~~ Sharlin Eh, that doesn't explain how the letters _in the same element name_ end up having different font... ------ TerminalJunkie It's very impressive to me that Microsoft took the technical details of Flight Simulator so seriously that it fielded questions from customers like this. What's doubly more impressive is that Bill Gates got directly involved with what is essentially a bug report. ~~~ draw_down It's interesting certainly, but should we be impressed here? In the end, the team's time was wasted and a nonsense issue was escalated to _the CEO_. ~~~ tbrake They fielded the question and did a lot of work because they cared about the quality and details of their product at a level that I would agree with OP was impressive. That it turned out to be a nonsense issue is immaterial to that judgement. ~~~ draw_down There are exemplary aspects to the story, but I think the only real lesson to be learned is "don't blindly spend a bunch of time/effort on an issue unless we're sure it's actually important". ------ janwillemb The story may be a bit exaggerated for entertainment purposes, but this seems like a classic case of "try to fix first, ask questions later". They could have saved a lot of time by asking the customer for clarification first. ~~~ newsat13 Totally this. Funny story, but if it's real this only talks of Microsoft's incompetence rather than the customers. ------ orng This reminds me of a story I remember hearing a few times as a child: During WW2, British, and later, American forces set up base in Iceland. On some of the maps they had created, items of note had been added with symbols. This included lighthouses and there were little lighthouse symbols littered around the coast. However for some reason there also was a lighthouse symbol in the middle of the Icelandic highlands, far from any seashore. The explanation was that this supposed lighthouse was by the volcano Askja, who's largest crater is called "Víti" (Hell), while the Icelandic word for lighthouse is "viti". Since English doesn't have the accented letter "í", they would have been spelled the same in English. I could have sworn this was a true story up until now when I tried to find sources for it, but came up empty. In any case it makes for a good story. ------ alasdair_ Given that an incorrect map caused Windows 95 to be banned from the whole of India, it's understandable that BillG was worried about an incorrect border :) Story here: [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/01/how_microsoft_offen...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/01/how_microsoft_offended_millions/) ~~~ sb057 Not really incorrect, just disputed. ~~~ pqr This is how Google handles disputes (give everyone what they want) [http://slightlywarped.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/06/google-...](http://slightlywarped.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/06/google-maps-different-borders-depending-on-country- you-are-viewing-from.jpg) ~~~ golergka I would prefer they'd show actual reality on the ground instead of trying to win political points though - for the sake of people who're actually trying to use it for navigation. ~~~ Declanomous Yeah, I'm not sure how travel in the affected areas worked, but if I'm travelling in an area occupied by Pakistan, I want it to show Pakistan on the map. If I'm stopped while visiting that region, I'm sure I'm not going to get any brownie points for showing the Pakistani military an Indian visa. ~~~ golergka Elsewhere, driving into a wrong area might cost you your life. Specifically not referring to particular areas to avoid offtopic flame war, but other apps would alert you about it - but not Google Maps. ------ filereaper Does anyone know why Microsoft killed off Flight Simulator? I really liked that product, and it has the legacy of being one of Microsoft's oldest product lines. There's also a very vibrant community about adding mods and additions onto Flight Simulator, I'm really curious as to why it was killed off. Was the the Flight Sim team really that big of a drain on Microsoft's balance sheet? Just really sad about spending hours on a product dying off... :( ~~~ ThrowawayFS > _Does anyone know why Microsoft killed off Flight Simulator?_ From an external perspective, it seems most likely due to IEB's leadership at the time wanting to focus all their resources behind the upcoming Xbox One, in hopes they could replicate the success of the Xbox 360, and the misguided belief that PC gaming was dying out. Neither of those bets worked out particularly well for them. > _Was the the Flight Sim team really that big of a drain on Microsoft 's > balance sheet?_ Rumor has it that it consistently turned a small but not insignificant profit. ------ microtherion Speaking of flight simulator war stories... A friend once smashed into a giant wall during take-off in a flight simulator he was testing, since the runway in question crossed either the equator or the null Meridian, and the cumulative altitude rounding errors caused a sizable discontinuity. ~~~ tigershark I hope that you mean Greenwich, aka meridian _zero_ rather than _null_ meridian. I don't really think that the latter exists unless you are an old C programmer flying _quite high_ right now. ~~~ microtherion Heh. I hadn't realized that the German usage in this case did not transfer directly into English. Yes, I meant the prime / Greenwich meridian. ------ rburhum I worked in the mapping (GIS) pipeline for MS Flight Simulator. The amount of tools we wrote just for QA was on par with what countries use for their census (I also worked on those st ESRI). I try to be of the philosophy of love and obsess about your customers, but every industry has fellows like this that make you question your beliefs. Still love them though... (mostly) ------ JustSomeNobody How many thousands of dollars could MS have saved if they had asked that question first? ------ sarreph I love the Boeing management anecdote being referenced in comparison to Bill Gates nudging you off'f an email he receives![0] Great nugget to pull out if you have a manager with a penchant for stating the obvious! [0] - [https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20100705-00/?p=...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20100705-00/?p=13503) ------ 11thEarlOfMar Because the customer is always right. ~~~ 6stringmerc "The customer is frequently misinformed." \- More realistic variation I came across, can't remember attribution, paraphrased anyway. ~~~ TallGuyShort "The customer hired you for a reason." Make their needs a priority and don't talk to them like they're idiots, but by all means recognize when you're the expert who needs to make the right things happen for them to be successful. ~~~ 6stringmerc "There are some customers you just don't want." The 80/20 offhand calculation of 80% of obligations can be traced to 20% of customers is pertinent. Or, as I learned over time, trying to save a drowning person without the help of a flotation device just might pull you down into the abyss as well, good intentions not withstanding. ------ nommm-nommm Next bug report, "non-existent islands shown off the coast of Australia" \- [http://worldmapswithout.nz](http://worldmapswithout.nz) ------ tiku This reminds me of the story of the navy ship and the lighthouse. ------ GTP This made me laugh ------ magma17 clearly fake 'cause bill gates doesn't email with under a billion worth people. ------ akud This shows poor leadership by Bill Gates. Did he not value his team's time? ------ bsenftner This is not a Flight Simulator story. This is an end-user that cannot separate software from reality. Similar to the just released Facebook AR Studio, I've spent time in "personalizing technologies" which manipulate imagery of people. The types of bug reports common to that type of work reveals the lack of understanding everyday people have with their own vision system and how basic physics in the world work. It's hard to describe the disconnect some have in their relationship with software - almost like it's a magical authority to them. Cartoon effects like classic loony tunes bombs and dazed-dizzy-stars scare some people as if the effects are real. ------ thekevan How does this even matter or is relevant at all? I'm confused it received upvotes. Am I missing something? ~~~ fizzbitch Preach it! Humor should be disallowed on HN. I come here for uberserious discussion only. ~~~ B1FF_PSUVM Or uplyfting insights. Hey, we've got company: in the MS blog's comments, there's a fellow who archly informs the peasants that "I usually archive & star (bookmark) articles that have an amazingly interesting or peculiar technical aspects. With this one, I’ll gladly make an exception." Dammit, Raymond Chen is out of pocket for a refund on that guy's subscription. ~~~ knodi123 > Dammit, Raymond Chen is out of pocket for a refund on that guy's > subscription. ?!? That sounded like a positive review from somebody who liked the article. He says it's neither amazingly interesting nor technical, but still good enough to bookmark. ~~~ aryamaan Woah, I misread it too and in retrospective, it looks like an honest mistake to make. That pessage could mean the both things (could give positive or negative intent). I wonder what other such good examples can be. And does such phenomenon is called with some name? ~~~ FroshKiller It's called a backhanded compliment.

The born-again entrepreneur - jacquesm http://swombat.com/2011/6/6/born-again-entrepreneur ====== edanm Absolutely agree with the conclusion. I would take it a step further, though. For us geeks/entrepreneurs, oftentimes the non-conformist thing to do, but which ultimately make us happiest, is to run our own business. Not everyone, as the article points out, but sometimes. When talking to other people, especially non-geeks, I don't try and convince them that they should run their own company. I try and find out what _they_ would most like to do, but haven't seriously considered, because they're looking for a "regular" job. Almost everyone has _some_ hobby/talent/ambition that they never seriously consider pursuing, because it doesn't occur to them that they might be able to pull it off. ------ alabut Jessica Livingston: _"I spent 13 years in corporate America, mostly because I didn't understand what my other options were. I was hypnotized by the security of an established, respected company."_ [http://www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2008/07/why-i-do- yc.htm...](http://www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2008/07/why-i-do-yc.html) I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that got bit by the founder bug while working for others. Some people are born entrepreneurial and others realize it later. ------ Eyalush I love the airplane analogy (especially as a pilot license holder) I'll be using that one myself if you don't mind!

Make something and sell it - J3L2404 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/01/22/make-something-and-sell-it/ ====== actf I think this article presents an interesting argument, even though much of it is anecdotal. Some of the author's points are very interesting: > He says he’s an empiricist and that data have convinced him he was dead > wrong. He now says that the idea of giving away intellectual property as > advertising bait is unsustainable and will have dire consequences. It's too bad the author doesn't go into more detail about this. I'm curious to see his "data". >It’s OK for a potter to sell pots, but a musician should not sell music. I think I agree with the author - why should a musician not be able to sell their music if they choose. Those who choose to give their music away for free can do so, but suggesting that it's morally wrong to sell music seems, ironically, morally wrong itself. Not that I necessarily agree, but just to play the devil's advocate - there a really easy solution to the fact that it's so easy to copy intellectual property. The solution is for our governments to disallow it. I'm willing to bet that if the government began criminally prosecuting those who pirated music, movies, and software the problem would significantly decrease. I'd argue that the real problem isn't that it's too easy to copy intellectual property, but that it's too easy to copy intellectual property over the internet. Intellectual property has been copied for thousands of years, it's only very recently that it became _so_ easy to do it though. 15 years ago there would have been a lot more effort required to copy music than there is today. The problem is that today anyone can copy intellectual property from everyone else on the planet in a matter of seconds. In the past copying intellectual property would have required a much more physical connection to the source: For example exchanging cassette tapes with a friend, or going to the library to checkout a book and photocopy it. These barriers were enough to prevent casual piracy. The barriers today are so insignificant though that casual piracy has become a real problem. I don't think piracy by those who are motivated enough will ever be stopped (just like crime by those who are sufficiently motivated will never be stopped), but I think that curtailing this casual piracy would be enough to solve the problem. After reading that article I'm very interested in checking out Jaron Lanier's book. Has anyone read it yet - is it a worthwhile read? ~~~ thwarted Pirating music, movies, and software is already illegal, and people do get prosecuted for it. ------ jluxenberg Physical objects that are handmade or manufactured have the advantage of not being easily reproducible. Rights management is easy in the physical world; I own an object if I posses it. The object can only be in one place at a time, because it is unique. Digital goods are inherently more difficult to sell because it is so cheap to copy and distribute them. "Information wants to be free" has a kernel of truth in it; "free" is the most natural state for information. It can be copied easy, quickly, and cheaply. DRM technologies feel draconian, but probably only because they restrict legitimate fair-use in addition to protecting information from unauthorized distribution. Ultimately, I think more DRM is going to be necessary to protect IP. Fairly soon, all IP is probably going to be distributed online (books, music, movies, etc). If piracy isn't kept to a minimum, it will eventually cannibalize the IP market. ~~~ dustingetz "If piracy isn't kept to a minimum, it will eventually cannibalize the IP market" meh, smart people will find a way to make money, even when economies shift. ~~~ actf If that's the case then why haven't smart people figured out a way for game developers to make money while releasing their software as open source? Point me to an example that illustrates how this is possible and I will concede that you're right. ~~~ kiba I made a little bit of money writing open source game. Some people, like Jason Rohrer, made his living based on donation from the public and patronage. <http://libregamewiki.org/Jason_Rohrer> Also, lot of people are probably buying Wesnoth on the iphone judging by tons of iphone reviews that I have spotted using google alert. <http://wesnoth.repositoryhosting.com/trac/wesnoth_wesnoth/> Game developers DOES make money while releasing open source software. I just hope you don't move the goalpost in your next comment. ~~~ actf Can you provide a link to your games or more info? I'd be curious to see. I'm still not entirely convinced. In both of your examples it's not clear that it's possible to make a sustainable income, 10k is not imo a sustainable income, admittedly that's partly my fault though for not making my original question clear. I upvoted you for your examples though, since you did technically meet the requirements I asked for. ~~~ kiba * <http://wiki.kibabase.com/Codename_Subnem> \- a game development research project. Still ongoing. Second job. * <http://wiki.kibabase.com/Ruby-Warrior> \- outfit the game with a graphical front-end. First job. They are only small jobs with very little pay. However, I am just a high- schooler with only a few years of programming experience. ------ kiba _There’s an anti-intellectual thread running through these arguments. It’s a primitive way of thinking, valuing only tangible artifacts and not ideas. It’s OK for a potter to sell pots, but a musician should not sell musics._ It's a poor ad hominem that this thinking is "primitive" and "anti- intellectual". People like the economist, Mike Masnic explains and then build on freeminum business model and the nature of non-scarce goods for years * <http://www.techdirt.com/rtb.php> Two economists wrote an entire book on why intellectual property is flawed. It's also quite a history lesson in itself since it cover century of IP history. *[http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/againstfi...](http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm) ------ generalk _Musicians should give away their music and make money off concerts and T-shirts._ Why not give away the music onlne and also sell CDs? _Authors should give away their books and make money on the lecture circuit._ Or do like Doctorow and give away the actual contents of the books as well as selling printed versions. _Programmers should give away their software and make money from consulting._ Alternatively, open source the software and charge for a hosted solution. At this point you're not charging for the software, you're charging for the server resources and bandwidth that a user consumes. I'm not a fan of creating atificial scarcity, as in DRM on bits that cost nothing to duplicate, but if you're also making available formats that cost to produce, then why not charge for those? They're not artificially scarce. ~~~ mschy _I'm not a fan of creating atificial scarcity, as in DRM on bits that cost nothing to duplicate_ I'm a fan of creating artificial scarcity, if it is what the seller prefers. I'm disturbed by the number of Hackers who would prefer to strip individuals of their rights to do business as they please, selling products on their on terms. The marginal costs couldn't be more irrelevant to the discussion.

My job is now about tests and data – not children. I quit - danso http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/23/kindergarten-teacher-my-job-is-now-about-tests-and-data-not-children-i-quit/ ====== sampo I think the full title "Kindergarten teacher: My job is now about tests and data — not children. I quit." would have been much more descriptive. ------ collyw Hey everyone has to put up with shit. I reckon I must average less than half of my time developing software. A lot of it is just fixing dumb user errors, as they insist on using excel. ~~~ JoeAltmaier To be honest I think I spend 1 month a year developing, and 11 months debugging, testing, firefighting, documenting, packaging, building, reviewing, releasing. That's probably optimistic.

Let's Code: Test-Driven Javascript kickstarter ends today with over $36K - AMA - jdlshore My "Let's Code: Test-Driven Javascript" kickstarter [1] announced on HN three weeks ago [2] is wrapping up today. It's been far more successful than I anticipated, with over 800 backers and over $36K in pledges. I thought HN might be interested in my experiences, so I'll be answering questions in this thread.<p>[1] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/188988365/lets-code-test-driven-javascript<p>[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3977240 ====== hlangeveld How familiar were you with KS? I can see you backed a recent project yourself. When did KS come on the radar for you? ~~~ jdlshore I play D&D and occasionally read Order of the Stick, so I first started paying attention when Rich Burlew had his record-breaking Kickstarter [1]. Rich's professionalism and good management of the process was an inspiration for how I've been approaching mine. It's actually been pretty interesting to follow along with his updates, even though I didn't back his project. I'd heard about it before then and a friend of mine had also conducted a Kickstarter [2] but up to that point I had never looked at an actual project. [1] [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599092525/the-order- of-t...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599092525/the-order-of-the-stick- reprint-drive) [2] [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/242604490/irish- language...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/242604490/irish-language- hunt)

At - colinprince http://furbo.org/2014/03/25/at/ ====== elektronaut In Norwegian the official name is "krøllalfa", meaning "curly alpha". Hip in the 90s, but I don't think I've heard anyone call it that in years. I was actually surprised when I learned that "at" was the proper English name and usage. I had always assumed it was a symbol that had been co-opted into network addresses because it was accessible from the keyboard and kinda looked like an a. One advantage of the international variants is that they're not ambiguous, whereas in English you might have to explicitly specify "the at symbol" when speaking. As a side note: A long time ago, before the internet and international shopping, I mainly thought of $ as the variable character in BASIC. ~~~ buckbova I always thought the English version was ampersat. ~~~ kbenson I just looked into this, and the _ampers_ portion of of both ampersand and ampersat is short-hand/corruption of "and per se" [1], meaning ampersand is another way of writing the word "and", and ampersat is another way of writing the word "at". 1: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand#Etymology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand#Etymology) ------ arrrg No one actually uses „Klammeraffe“ in German. It’s just „at“ (English pronunciation – most of the time). I wonder how widespread the use of those alternative names for “at” is in other languages he lists. In German „Klammeraffe“ is this weird, unwieldy nickname that used to be somewhat fashionable a long time ago (mid-nineties maybe, whenever many people where first confronted with email addresses). I remember it being used back then whenever people were explaining the internet in media (TV, radio, books), though I don’t think it ever got widely used outside that context. ~~~ ma2rten The Dutch one "money tail" is more widespread than "at", I would say. ~~~ DouweM I'm not so sure. I'm Dutch as well, and when I recite my email address I use the English "at", so "douwemaan at domain" rather than the unwieldy (4 syllables long!) "douwemaan apenstaartje domain". In my experience most (if not all) people in my age group (18 - 25) simply pronounce it as "at". This could be a generational thing as most of us were raised with the internet and all these internet-y terms come quite naturally to us. ~~~ mercer It could very well be an age thing, because I myself and friends of similar age (25-30) use both 'at', and 'apenstaartje', although primarily the former. ------ kiyoto In Japanese, the sign itself is called "attomaaku" ("at mark") but it's pronounced as "atto" when dictated. So someone's email would be johnsmith-at- gmail-dot-com, and if you ask a Japanese person to pronounce the symbol, they would say "atto". However, if you show them the symbol and ask them _what it is_, they probably would say "attomaaku". Semiotics is fascinating. ~~~ lnanek2 atto is about the closest their writing rules allow. It is all pairs like ka, ki, ko, ku, except for n. So all loan words have to be extended if they end illegally. ~~~ sterling312 Actually it's interesting that you mention this. Technically, you can also make it atoma-ku, (like ato like in later, and ma-ku as in mark). I wonder if the dip-tone was intentional to make it sound more like foreign word. ------ ternaryoperator "[chiocciola] is fun to say, too. Something like 'chee-o-cho-la' but with more exotic hand gestures." The initial "chi" in Italian is pronounced like "kee" (e.g. chianti). So this would be pronounced "kee-o-chio-la" ~~~ izietto I'm italian and I confirm it ;) ------ kiliancs In Catalan we call it arrova. It's interesting that, used as a unit of mass, the @ had different values in different places [1][2]: \- Castille: 11.5002325 kg \- Aragon: 12.5 kg \- Catalonia: 26 pounds \- Valencia: 30 pounds \- Portugal: 32 pounds Apparently it's still used as a unit of measure in Spain and South America, for example for oranges [2] and cocaine [3]. [1] [http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrova](http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrova) [2] [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroba_%28unidad_de_masa%29](http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroba_%28unidad_de_masa%29) [3] [http://web.archive.org/web/20110101190636/http://www.delisse...](http://web.archive.org/web/20110101190636/http://www.delisse.ec/hojadecoca.htm) ~~~ galfarragem Still a standard in South Portuguese countryside to measure livestock weight. 15kg=1 arroba ------ gabemart >A pictogram…, is an ideogram that __conveys its meaning __through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. By this definition, @ is not a pictogram just because it is _named for_ a pictorial resemblance. It must _convey meaning_ through that pictorial resemblance. A "monkey tail" or "elephant trunk" or "sea snail" does not convey the meaning of "at", unless I'm missing some cultural context. 木, on the other hand, conveys the meaning of "tree" through visual representation of roots below the ground and branches on top [1]. [1] [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%9C%A8](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%9C%A8) ~~~ Gracana To be fair, the article does go on to explain that with regard to pictograms, "what we’ve seen happen with the @ symbol is the opposite." ------ gk1 I believe in Russian it's called "Sobachka", or "Doggy." (Correct me if I'm wrong.) ~~~ jypepin Arrobase in french. Don't think it means anything. ~~~ ekianjo Here you go: > Le nom arobase, forme la plus fréquente, est une déformation récente du > castillan arroba(s), qui désigne une unité de mesure de poids et de capacité > (dite en français arrobe), en usage en Espagne et au Portugal8, de grandeur > variable selon les régions et selon les liquides (huile ou vin). Ce terme, > attesté en Espagne depuis 1088, vient lui-même de l'arabe الربع (ar-rubʿ), « > le quart », pour un quart de l'ancien quintal de 100 livres, soit 12 kg > environ. Depuis le xvie siècle, en effet, le mot arroba — parmi d'autres — > s'est constamment écrit au moyen de l'abréviation "@"9. [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrobase](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrobase) ------ madeofpalk When I worked in retail, I noticed Indian people would pronounce it something like 'attarrat', with a hard R in the middle. It took me a while to catch on to what was ment by that, but i never really pushed it much further to get the 'proper' pronounciation. ~~~ timlimfimbim I believe they were saying "at the rate". ~~~ ANTSANTS Not sure why people are downvoting you. The @ symbol is hundreds of years old and originally meant "at the rate of" (as in, "10 boxes @ $1" means "10 boxes for $1 apiece"). It's perfectly possible that the Indian population could have picked this up and perhaps contracted it a bit during the reign of the British Empire. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/@_symbol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/@_symbol) ~~~ demodifier That is indeed the case. The 'at the rate of' usage was quite popular in arithmetic problems even in the early 90s when most of the population was unaware of emails. My parents still say it as at the rate of when reading aloud an email address. ------ jefftchan In China, it's called "circle a" (圈a), "flowery a" (花a), or "little mouse" (小老鼠). In Taiwan, it's most commonly called "little mouse" ------ sramsay Dating in Korea: "Hey, really enjoyed talking to you! Can I have your email address?" "Sure, it's john sea snail hotmail dot com." "Oh. Great." ~~~ iLoch Well looks like it's time to move to Korea and launch seasnailhotmail.com ------ camillomiller I would have mentioned that the purported Latin origin of the symbol is much closer to the English way of saying it. Some historians believe that the @ symbol fist appeared as a contraption of the word "ad", which loosely means "towards". Scribes may have altered the word by exaggerating the upstroke of the d. So at least on twitter, "at" is pretty consistent with the original meaning of the symbol. ------ lozf I'm currently in Kashmir where everyone always says in full _"... at the rate of..."_ in the middle of their email address. So far I've not met many twitter users. ------ aristus For a very long time, I thought the "{" was called "birdwing" because that's how it was explained to me. When I try that now I get very odd looks. Related: [http://carlos.bueno.org/brackets-of-the- world.pdf](http://carlos.bueno.org/brackets-of-the-world.pdf) ~~~ neic In Denmark the curly brackets are knows as tuborgklammer, literally Tuborg brackets. Tuborg is a danish brewery and the brackets are named after the roof of the cap on their old delivery trucks. [http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3600/3516095666_fb53727c79_b.j...](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3600/3516095666_fb53727c79_b.jpg) ------ wuaifeng "I envy my colleagues that get to play with snails and monkeys while coding in Objective-C!" ------ kosei All I can think is how much longer it must be to speak tweets aloud in other languages. As opposed to "at Jim Lipsey, at Gruber, at Chockenberry, at The Talk Show", now it's "chee-o-cho-la Jim Lipsey, chee-o-cho-la Gruber..." Sounds like a mouthful already. ~~~ jkrems IIRC latin languages offset longer words by speaking generally more syllables per second. The information per time unit is roughly equal across languages. I don't think they actually realize that the word is long/awkward (or at least not to the same degree an English native speaker would realize). ~~~ camillomiller That and the fact that in English there's always a little pause before, to let the listener understand you're spelling a very short word. Just listen next time someone says an email address. In italian not so much, so chiocciola is pronounced both very fast and without the need for a declarative pause. In the end it doesn't feel long at all. ------ ulber In Finnish it is also informally known as "miukumauku", which refers to the cat-like appearance of the symbol (long tail). This name isn't very common anymore. ------ sbierwagen Fun fact about HN's bad visual design: submissions with very short titles typically get huge amounts of upvotes as people try to click on the submission link, and hit the upvote button by accident. Since you can't revoke upvotes for dumb submissions, the number climbs without limit. ------ IgorPartola I speak Russian as my first language. We use "sobaka" the Russian word for dog. ------ simplyinfinity In Bulgaria this is called "Monkey" (маймунка) or "Monkey A" (маймунско А) i've also heard few people cal it "rose" (розичка) ~~~ delian66 Also, some people in Bulgaria call the '@' sign "кльомба". An interesting story about this sign, is that it had been used in a medieval Bulgarian chronicle dated at 1345. In it, the @ symbol is part of the word 'Амин' (amen). [http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:19-man...](http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:19-manasses- chronicle.jpg) ------ ggchappell Both cute and interesting. Note, however, that the article does not distinguish between what the sign is _called_ , and how it is _read_. I call it an "at sign". I read it "at". Now, in Dutch it's called a monkey tail (said in Dutch, of course). But that may not be how it is _read_ in Dutch. ------ thought_alarm I can think of a few English pictograms on the standard keyboard: ^ = Hat * = Star # = Hash ~ = Squiggle { = Curly ~~~ vacri I don't see what 'hash' is a picture of. There is 'cross-hatching' in illustration, but that's not the same word (and it's specifically cross- hatching, not just hatching, where the lines generally align). Otherwise 'hash' is either a meat dish or a recreational drug, neither of which look much like #. ~~~ vertex-four Indeed. If anything, it should be called "waffle". ------ 4684499 This is what I've been told: "木 = wood, 林 = woods, 森 = forest". Quite intuitive. :) ------ junkri In Hungary, we say "kukac", which means "worm" in english ------ mzs I like commat from the prosign, it stems from its use in prices like 7 @ $4. Also in Polish I encounter małpka (little or cute monkey) more than małpa (monkey), maybe that's a regional thing. ------ noel82 Very interesting read. As italian, I agree with our "exotic" gestures which follow the spelling of email addresses when it comes to 'chiocciola' (@) ------ fla Arobaz in French. But most people just say 'At'. ------ almog In Hebrew, the official name is Strudel (Wikipedia: "A type of layered pastry with a filling that is usually sweet") ------ carlob Technically in Italian: lumaca is slug and chiocciola is snail, but people often improperly use lumaca for snail as well. ------ alexcp_ We also say "Arobas" in french. ~~~ groue French native here as well. I personnally say "at" when spelling out email addresses. "Arobase" ou "et commercial" are names of the symbol itself - not commonly used because one rarely has to name the symbol. ------ StavrosK In Greek, we call it "papaki". It means "duckling". I have no idea how that happened. ------ muyueh In Taiwan it's "小老鼠", which means "little mouse".

Ask HN: Is Your Webapp in an App Store? - sabat ====== stephenou It is not 100% related but I have a premium whiteboard application on Chrome Web Store for $3.99. The volume is relatively small in comparison to folks at Apple App Store, I assume it's because many people barely know about Chrome Web Store yet. My sales figures: <http://ohboard.com/blog/10-sales- in-2-weeks/> Though, I suggest you adding your web app to Chrome Web Store since it will not take you more than few hours and it will bring you users straight. ------ jeffepp Shopify = Well worth it. A significant amount of new signups come from Shopify. Great support & communication. Google Enterprise = Not worth it, whatsoever. The process is horrible (it took quite a while to understand the issues for denial because of the template answers). Definitely a - ROI for us. Feel free to email me for more details.. ------ sabat Are you marketing your webapp in an app store (Google Chrome, Mozilla)? What are your results, lessons learned, and how has your experience been? Is it worth it, and should the rest of us consider doing this?

Ask HN: Who is working remote due to CoronaVirus? - shabirgilkar This is to let everyone know which are the individuals&#x2F;companies started to work remotely due to COVID-19 virus spread.<p>Please feel free to mention your experiences, challenges, pre-requisites, suggestions etc. ====== Trias11 I working mostly from home anyways and actually going to industry conferences. If it will be cancelled - it's ok. I have some sort of content-to-indifferent state of mind about all of that. This thing spread quickly. Only 2.5-5% dies. Best is to take care of your immune system and enjoy your day.

Longest streak on github? ~61 days and counting - pwnna https://github.com/tpope ====== johnny22 doubtful, 87 days is my longest. Pretty sure i'm not the highest either. ------ johnny22 of course.. he'll beat me in 26 days :)

Stuxnet Questions and Answers - Garbage http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002040.html ====== njharman Stuxnet amazes me. My first tech job was (in part) installing anti-virus on every computer in the Univ KS Library system, 1989-90. MS-DOS days. I've been an avid watcher (not expert) of malware since. I've watched the Internet arrive and embedded computer/automation revolutions. This 20yr perspective brings me to the following conclusion. Other than "jacking in" and other fluff Stuxnet does pretty much exactly the kinds of things that CyberPunk Sci-fi described a decade ago. I flippin love living in the future. ~~~ rm-rf "Your computer is now stoned." ~~~ adrianwaj The Iranian regime is now stoned. How happy I am with Stuxnet. ~~~ danbmil99 You'll be less happy when China uses the same techniques to destroy Google ~~~ adrianwaj Stuxnet is real. Your scenario is unrealistic. ------ rm-rf The F-Secure Q&A is relatively free from speculation. That's unusual for this particular event. ------ iuguy This is quite possibly the best Q&A on Stuxnet I have seen. Kudos to F-Secure for not overhyping it. ------ chris_l This reads like a section from a sci-fi novel. Once more reality is catching up with cyberpunk. I'd love to know what it's supposed to do when it reaches its target. Surely the creator would have had to have some sort of blueprints for the target system to successfully set it up to create more than collateral damage. ~~~ humbledrone I'm very curious about what it's supposed to do as well. I work with SCADA systems, and I can confirm that it would be difficult/impossible to tell without knowing exactly what system it's targeting. SCADA systems are often controlled by writing to "points," which typically have numeric addresses. So point 35 might control the valve position in one installation, but it could control something totally different in another. You'd need to know the layout of the targeted system to know what parameters are controlled by what points. ~~~ sunburnt _Q: What does it do with Simatic? A: It modifies commands sent from the Windows computer to the PLC. One running on the PLC, it looks for a specific factory environment. If this is not found, it does nothing._ So it seems that there is one factory layout Stuxnet is looking for. I.e. it will know what point 35 is. ~~~ borism is it possible to determine which factory environment you're in? maybe it just tries the same combination in each and every one environment it gets to? ~~~ uxp Considering the size of the file, (and the fact I have not examined StuxNet), I'd assume that there is a good chance it has enough logic to determine which factory it is in by pure brute force. If the main fan control gives a fairly standard reading, it shouldn't be too difficult figuring out what the particular factory it has infiltrated has wired that point to, for example. Also, I haven't heard any definitives on what kind of factory this is targeting. I do know that there aren't many companies that develop and design high tech industrial facilities. Despite StuxNet having infected thousands (millions) of personal PCs, it really is only looking for maybe a few dozen or so in the world that are of the right type. Combine that with a low number of factory designs, and it could very well have a pre-determined database of how its intended targets are wired. ------ Tycho It said the registry key Stuxnet plants to indicate whether a system is already infected has the value 19790509. Then it said an Iranian Jewish business man was executed on that date for spying. Also the home directory where the virus was originally compiled was called Myrtus. Which may contain another clue... ~~~ eli I'm not really buying this. You're making a lot of assumptions. That Iran is the target, that the number is a date, that the date refers to that particular event, etc. The link between the word "Myrtus" and the Old Testament seems _really_ strained. It's the name of a plant. It features prominently in Greek mythology -- maybe the Greeks did it? ~~~ acqq I also vote for a plant, as the second mentioned name is Guava and there is "The Chilean Guava (Ugni molinae, also called Myrtus ugni or Eugenia ugni)" see: <http://www.strangewonderfulthings.com/206.htm> ~~~ eli Good point. It could well be that the files are named after plants the same way some people name their servers after colors or smurfs or whatever. ------ TrevorJ "Q: How could governments get something so complex right? A: Trick question. Nice. Next question." That one caught me off guard. ------ twymer "Siemens announced last year that Simatic can now also control alarm systems, access controls and doors. In theory, this could be used to gain access to top secret locations. Think Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible." I've been reading pretty much everything I can find about Stuxnet so far, but haven't heard this before. If it's true Stuxnet might really be living up to the hype that it's the "first malware of it's kind." ------ 16s I've read that there are three stolen Microsoft Authenticode certificates being used by stuxnet authors to sign the malware. I've used these sort of certs myself to sign executables. They require passphrases to use. I could believe that they cracked one passphrase to use one cert, but three? All from different companies too. ~~~ mfukar It's much more likely that the certificate used were stolen (from Realtek Semiconductor Corp.), than cracked. ~~~ 16s Yes, but the point is that in order to use a stolen cert, you need the passcode _and_ the cert. They somehow got three certs and three passcodes from three different companies. ~~~ mfukar That's right. However, I think that if I were in a position to steal a certificate, it'd be trivial to also get the pass[code|phrase|whatever], assuming there even was one to begin with. ;-) ~~~ ralphc Realtek and JMricron were in the same building, maybe the third company is as well? ------ Garbage One interesting question is: * Q: Was Stuxnet written by a government? A: That's what it would look like, yes. _ ~~~ mh_ While it is pretty difficult to answer what a piece of code written by a government would look like, a useful piece of information is also that the code targeted 4 different 0-day bugs [1]. If we consider previous reports on 0-day pricing [2], this alone could put the cost fo the worm at over $200000 making it more likely to be built by a well funded adversary. [1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-day_attack> [2] <http://weis2007.econinfosec.org/papers/29.pdf> ~~~ InclinedPlane A talented individual or small team, government funded or not, is going to be able to research vulnerabilities on their own. ~~~ rouli yes, but a talented individual would probably sell those vulnerabilities since they worth so much, rather then use them for some obscure, probably not money earning, goal. ~~~ InclinedPlane That's just moving one layer of indirection. If vulnerabilities are worth money, presumably so they can be exploited, then why isn't it possible for someone to be motivated to use vulnerabilities and also having the talent to discover them? ------ atomical I could see a lot of nefarious individuals learning from this and using it to cause tragedies for short-term gain (i.e. shorting a stock). It does seem quite stupid to open up the door on something that could cause so much harm. ~~~ flipbrad the possibility of it sinking BP's Deepwater Rig was interesting, not something I had considered before reading it in the Q&A ------ statictype Without Autorun enabled, how does code get executed on a usb drive? ~~~ uxp Even when autorun is disabled, Windows will parse through the autorun.inf file. This should have been patched with KB967715. U3 enabled devices have been known to override the default settings in order to emulate CD-ROM drives. Double clicking the flash-drive icon can also force execution of binaries, but I am unsure of how that works and if it is related to the user's autorun settings or not. ------ somewhere does anyone know where to get stuxnet from? can't find it on the regular virii sources... ~~~ pilate There's at least one sample on OffensiveComputing. ------ ErrantX Take care. While this does have a lot of clear information about Stuxnet it also has lots of idle speculation and "wink wink" stuff. ~~~ ErrantX Ok, actually I do retract that. It's an excellent overview - I just didn't like the small pieces of speculation they did drop in without marking them as such ;)

Bill Joy - "EMACS costs hundreds of dollars?" Did I miss something? - niels_olson http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~kirkenda/joy84.html ====== abrahamsen Pretty sure he speaks of Unipress Emacs. A little history: Richard M. Stallman wrote the original Editor MACroS for the TECO editor. James A. Gosling implemented Emacs in C as a stand-alone editor, sometimes called "Gosmacs", and distributed it freely with no copyright notice. Gosmacs had an extention language called Mocklisp, which wasn't really a Lisp (it had no lists) but appeared similar. RMS used Gosmacs to get started on GNU Emacs, which featured a "real" Lisp (close to Maclisp). JAG sold the rights to Gosmacs to Unipress, who renamed it Unipress Emacs, sold it commercially, and stopped distribution of gosmacs and derivatives (like GNU Emacs). Presumably it was around this time the interview with Bill Joy occurred. RMS rewrote the part of GNU Emacs that was derived Gosmacs, mostly the display code. One could guess that this experience is part of why the GNU project insists on signed copyright assignment or release forms for key utilities. ~~~ rst The dates match. The interview is from 1984, which was after the formerly free-beer Gosmacs had gone commercial ("hundreds of dollars... did I miss something?" --- yes, Gosling's deal), but before the first public release of GNU Emacs in 1985, per jwz's timeline here: <http://www.jwz.org/doc/emacs-timeline.html> ------ blakdawg In the early days, the FSF sold magtapes with GNU software on them - the charge wasn't for the IP, it was for the material and labor required to copy the tape(s). See [http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/bull/16/gnu_bulletin_28.h...](http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/bull/16/gnu_bulletin_28.html) for a sample FSF order form from June 1993. ~~~ ts4z This is from 1984. He's talking about Unipress Emacs. ------ adrianpike There are some awesome snippets in there that really helps put in perspective how nice we have it today to build/distribute/use software. "Page fault, and the computer makes a phone call. Direct broadcast or audio disk - that's the technology to do that. It's half a gigabyte - and you get 100 kilobyte data rate or a megabyte or something. I don't remember. You can then carry around with you all the software you need. You can get random data through some communications link. It is very like Dick Tracy." ~~~ ephermata Another bit that leapt out for me is his discussion of displays. He's talking about flatscreen color displays, about 15-20 years before they really become commonplace. My favorite is the end, where he talks about how belief and momentum influence the investment into different technologies. Makes you wonder what technologies have been "coming soon" for the last decade, but are just waiting for someone to come in and spend the required amount to pull them off. ------ etcet "And then the source code got scrunched and I didn't have a complete listing." "If that scrunch had not happened, vi would have multiple windows, and I might have put in some programmability - but I don't know." "I actually used [be] to edit itself and scrunched the source code - sort of old home day, because we used to do that all the time." What does Bill mean by the word "scrunch" here? Is this some jargon lost to the ages? ~~~ JoshTriplett From context, I'd guess that "scrunched" means trashed/junked/lost/broken. As in, "And then the source code got trashed and I didn't have a complete listing." ------ jmcguckin There was also a commercial version, Unipress EMACS. ~~~ NeilCJames <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosling_Emacs> ------ agumonkey unipress emacs : 395$ / 1983Q2 <http://www.jwz.org/doc/emacs-timeline.html> ------ gojomo [1984]

Flipkart founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, get million dollar paychecks - abhisekumar http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/flipkart-founders-sachin-bansal-and-binny-bansal-get-million-dollar-paychecks/articleshow/24168729.cms ====== deepak56 Good for them. Flipkart might have its problems (negative press coverage on work culture, still not close to profitability etc), but one think can't be denied - these are the people who raised the bar for what people would come to expect from online shopping. And that at a time when certain players (including, ironically, the site you have linked to) seemed hell bent to destroy the landscape before it had even started. More than half a billion in funding. A fund manager in charge of this much money would be taking home much more.

Toki Pona - ColinWright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona ====== anonymfus Conlang Critic is a fan of this language: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLn6LC1RpAo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLn6LC1RpAo) I highly recommend watching all episodes of their show if you like an idea of short text based video essays about constructed languages: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuYLhuXt4HrQqnfSceITm...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuYLhuXt4HrQqnfSceITmv6T_drx1hN84) ~~~ lifthrasiir I second this. If you are new to the series, the recent Lingwa de Planeta episode [1] contains a good introduction to conlangs and especially international auxiliary languages in general. [1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi1-ZWiqjD8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi1-ZWiqjD8) ------ schoen Maybe dang or some other public-spirited person could find some of the earlier toki pona threads from HN so people could see some of the earlier discussions? I know I've participated in quite a few of them because I know toki pona well and had various random things to comment on each time it was brought up here. :-) Edit: I guess the majority of these threads can be found with [https://hn.algolia.com/?q=toki+pona](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=toki+pona) (including the recent one on a custom homemade computer with a native toki pona input and display, a project which was then described by its inventor exclusively in toki pona). ~~~ 6510 thanks ------ bovermyer The really interesting thing about Toki Pona is that it's meant to force you to think about the meaning of your words in a positive light. ~~~ 9nGQluzmnq3M Claiming that language limits what you can imagine is the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and it's been pretty thoroughly debunked: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity) ~~~ quotemstr Not everyone agrees that it's been "debunked". There's a lot of motivated reasoning in linguistics. ~~~ canjobear You can read about the experiments yourself. Strong Sapir-Whorf (the idea that language determines thought) is DOA. Weak Sapir-Whorf (language has some influence on thought) has ok evidence. ------ stanislavb An idea: If one learns to express himself in Toki Pona, would it be possible to communicate "freely" with natives by simply learning the equivalent vocabulary (120 words) of any other language? ------ codezero Learning the vocabulary is easy, but because the vocabulary is so small, it does become quite difficult to construct meaningful sentences following rules that are very local to a few words, which ultimately spans many words. Most often, it seems, like any language, a ton of the context becomes implied, so it’s super tricky. It’s still a fun weekend or multi weekend exercise in exploring languages though. ------ senorsmile A couple of years ago Memrise had a 48 hour challenge to learn it with a bunch of other people, and to try to speak at the end. I did quite terribly (as usual). Nevertheless, it was a fun challenge. ------ dang [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22689959](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22689959) See also [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=Toki%20Pona%20comments%3E3&sort=byDate&type=story) ------ strogonoff Invented languages are overwhelmingly boring in their likeness to English, Spanish and other Western languages. What if we tried to create, say, a language with a logographic written system that is pure WYSIWYM (as opposed to “what you see is how you pronounce”) _and_ synthetic to boot? Make it use vocal cords differently. Instead of borrowing around, use a random seed in generating a minimum set of unique basic “native” words according to language rules and build on top of that (borrowing for meanings outside of that set). This could be so much more fun! ~~~ justinpombrio > Invented languages are overwhelmingly boring in their likeness to English, > Spanish and other Western languages. Toki Pona is not like English, Spanish, or other Western languages. It has no singular/plural distinction. It has no past/present/future tense. Its pronouns have no gender. All of its phonemes are present in almost all languages (this is on purpose). The way it forms questions is not like Enlgish (I don't know of any language that it's similar to). Its word order is subject-verb-object, like most languages. [EDIT: not most, only 42%] The only thing its taken from English, as far as I've seen, is a bunch of vocabulary. Though honestly its sounds are so limited that sometimes you can't recognize which English word a Toki Pona word came from. > What if we tried to create, say, a language with a logographic written > system that is pure WYSIWYM (as opposed to “what you see is how you > pronounce”) and synthetic to boot? I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but I'll just leave this link here... [https://omniglot.com/conscripts/conlangs.htm](https://omniglot.com/conscripts/conlangs.htm) > Instead of borrowing around, use a random seed in generating a minimum set > of unique basic “native” words according to language rules and build on top > of that Lojban does this. ~~~ schoen > The way it forms questions is not like Enlgish (I don't know of any language > that it's similar to). The "x ala x" pattern is directly modeled on the Chinese "x不x" (and "有没有") pattern, including the answer ("x" / "x ala" in toki pona, "x" / "不x" in Chinese). I think Sonja has mentioned this explicitly somewhere. For example, in Chinese I think you can ask "你可不可" 'you can not can?' with the possible answers "可" 'can' and "不可" 'cannot'. This corresponds directly to toki pona's "sina ken ala ken?" 'you can not can?' with the answers "ken" 'can' and "ken ala" 'cannot'. There's also the "anu seme?" pattern which is similar to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_question](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_question) phenomenon in a number of languages; the one that I find it most similar to is German, with the "oder?" tags. [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oder#Particle](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oder#Particle) I understand the "oder?" to have a connotation of 'or _what_?' (like "are you coming or what?"), in which case "kommst du, oder?" should correspond literally to toki pona's "sina kama anu seme?" 'you come or what?'. ------ stewbrew Does the title comply with HN rules? BTW to use an artificial language to understand real life is like asking a Catholic priest for marriage advice. ~~~ ColinWright The original title was carefully chosen, extracted from the pages themselves, to ensure that HN readers would have an idea of what it was supposed to be about, and not just a pair of random words. As such, I thought it did comply, and was helpful. Clearly the mods disagreed. ------ HeavenBanned I really love how body parts are consolidated so smartly. "noka" meaning thigh, shin and foot is just brilliant. ~~~ gliese1337 You might like Russian, then. ~~~ therein Care to elaborate? Genuinely curious. ~~~ gliese1337 Russian also has a single word for the entire lower limb, leg and foot included: "noga". Also a single word for the combined arm and hand: "ruka".

Google was awarded US Patent 8,078,349 for driverless car - antichaos http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=8,078,349 ====== antichaos US Patent 8,078,349 Transitioning a mixed-mode vehicle to autonomous mode Abstract Disclosed are methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode. Transitioning may include stopping a vehicle on a predefined landing strip and detecting a reference indicator. Based on the reference indicator, the vehicle may be able to know its exact position. Additionally, the vehicle may use the reference indictor to obtain an autonomous vehicle instruction via a URL. After the vehicle knows its precise location and has an autonomous vehicle instruction, it can operate in autonomous mode. Inventors: Prada Gomez; Luis Ricardo (Hayward, CA), Fairfield; Nathaniel (Mountain View, CA), Szybalski; Andy (San Francisco, CA), Nemec; Philip (San Jose, CA), Urmson; Christopher (Mountain View, CA) Assignee: Google Inc. (Mountain View, CA) Appl. No.: 13/105,101 Filed: May 11, 2011 ------ ryan_s this sounds interesting: "In some embodiments, a URL stored as a QR Code may enable the autonomous vehicle to download new instructions." I wonder how that's going to work.

Ask IH: Feedback on this idea very much needed - marcinem https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/ask-ih-feedback-on-this-idea-very-much-needed-f408c6eddd ====== dang Please don't cross post like this. ------ rmason I had to read the entire site twice to understand what you're doing. I think you're too close to the problem to know how to explain it clearly. "Grab a persons email and instantly learn all their social media profiles so that you can follow them." Course then you have the problem that they're most likely not in your database. Once you have the email then you need to contact them, tell them who is trying to reach out and get them to sign up for an account. Then if successful recontact the original poster and tell him the information is now there. Hopefully you know that there are a couple of dozen startups who have tried to solve the problem and failed. Good luck! ~~~ marcinem Hey! Did you try to send yourself a test e-mail? What you are talking about is not actually what we are trying to solve :) But thanks for your comment, we will keep trying to make our idea clear for everyone!

Xbox Fitness users will soon lose access to workout videos they bought - protomyth http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/06/not-working-out-xbox-fitness-users-losing-their-purchased-training-videos/ ====== mikestew That's why I don't rely on anything DRM'ed from Microsoft (games on Xbone excepted). Movies, music, Xbox Fitness workouts; Microsoft seems to think we've forgotten Plays for Sure and MSN Music. When I first got the Kinect hooked up, I tried the Fitness app and noticed they had other workouts for sale. "Hmm, maybe the wife and I can...wait a minute, what the hell am I thinking buying DRM'ed content from MSFT?" Now, I'll buy the hell out of some iTunes movies or music, and my wife will get stuff off Amazon streaming without me going off on a rant. But that's because neither Amazon nor Apple have _ever_ given me a reason to think I'll regret it later. Microsoft, OTOH, has burned me more than once. Much like the PfS/MSN Music debacle, MSFT _could_ find a solution (I dunno, unDRM the vids, store them locally) but...eh, too much trouble, might cut into someone's bonus. ------ kevin_b_er They trusted their purchases to a DRM'd video service and likely clicked through a contract denying them class action. As such they can pretty much do nothing about it. May each one make the profound realization how they were legally screwed over.

Node WebKit - gits1225 https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit? ====== SixSigma I don't quite understand what this is. Is it a Web browser that runs Npm? Is it a server side html renderer? ~~~ general_failure Desktop software using HTML and node. ~~~ SixSigma I still don't quite understand. How is it different from a web browser ? ~~~ hnbro i suppose one difference would be that browsers don't have a web server process built-in (or most don't)

If I'd Known What We Were Starting - relyio https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/id-known-what-we-were-starting-ray-dillinger ====== relyio Mirror: [https://pastebin.com/Wk61SMir](https://pastebin.com/Wk61SMir)

Naughty Strings: A list of strings likely to cause issues as user-input data - caseysoftware https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty-strings ====== minimaxir Creator/Maintainer of the repo here. I apologize for the lack of updates to the BLNS. (since I'm free today and this is on the HN front page, I'll do a cleanup pass). Even though it's a GitHub repository with 12.3k stars, there's not much to say or improve on what is effectively a .txt file based around a good idea (I recently removed mentions of my maintainership of the BLNS from my resume for that reason, despite its crazy popularity). ~~~ caseysoftware The HN submitter here. :) I happened across it this afternoon and thought it was great! Do you know of any automation around this? I was thinking of a script that grabbed your list and then hammered a given input filtering library would be awesome. It's not something you'd want to run all the time but pre-major release, it could useful. ~~~ minimaxir That is the primary purpose of the JSON files and the parser to convert the .txt to JSON; get the list, run it against a text input field, see what happens. ~~~ BuuQu9hu Why do you store the generated JSON file in git btw? ~~~ lytedev Not the maintainer, but I assume because it helps developers looking for it in such a format. Saving them the time of converting is a nice move, IMO. ~~~ BuuQu9hu The source and build system are right there, should be easy to generate the other formats? ~~~ jaymzcampbell Similar to the other comments, another voice here for appreciating the "pre- built" version being available for quick use. For repo's/sources like this I tend to think of the prebuilt formats as letting me play around with things without any hassle. Once I'm happy with it I'll invest the time to have it build locally for the control. ------ chiph You might want to include common unix shell commands. At a previous job we had a customer with the last name of Echo who wasn't able to make a purchase. Turns out our credit card processor blocked them. ~~~ Normal_gaussian Jesus. Which credit card processor? That stinks of bad design. ~~~ chiph Given how often they came under attack, I don't blame them for taking a "belt and suspenders" approach. ~~~ paulddraper More like "belt and helium balloons" approach. ------ bsimpson TIL: `mocha:` was a custom schema that Netscape Navigator used to eval URLs (equivalent to `javascript:`), and Yahoo! Mail would replace it with 'espresso' to attempt to thwart phishing attempts: [https://www.obscure.org/javascript/archives/msg01369.html](https://www.obscure.org/javascript/archives/msg01369.html) [https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-mail-puts-words-in-your- mout...](https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-mail-puts-words-in-your-mouth/) ------ thomasahle This is a fun issue [https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/iss...](https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/issues/16) ~~~ remolueoend a painted masterpiece on a bikeshed. ~~~ vanderZwan I dunno, I think this is a pretty good argument actually: > I agree that another SQL injection should be included - not because the > vulnerabilities exposed by this file should be tempered (as that would only > be to assist a dangerous confusion of responsible practices), but because > "DROP TABLES" is such a cliche in infosec that it's prone to be caught by > extremely crude filters, naive to the degree that it's the only class of SQL > injection they know to avoid. ------ raverbashing The human injection phrase is priceless It's a nice collection of text snippets to test against many systems ~~~ chronolitus For those who can't/would rather not look for it: "# Human injection # # Strings which may cause human to reinterpret worldview If you're reading this, you've been in a coma for almost 20 years now. We're trying a new technique. We don't know where this message will end up in your dream, but we hope it works. Please wake up, we miss you." ------ leni536 > blns.txt consists of newline-delimited strings I expect some nasty strings to contain newlines (I wonder how many bash scripts are sensitive to filenames with newline characters in them). It shouldn't be a problem with the json file though. ~~~ mtnygard The file is newline-delimited. The strings themselves are base64 encoded, so they could contain newlines. ~~~ leni536 It seems that blns.txt is the source content, then it's converted to blns.json, blns.base64.txt and blns.base64.json with the two scripts in the scripts folder (These resulting files shouldn't be in the repo in my opinion). One cannot possibly add strings with newlines in them, unless with some newline escaping that are handled in the scripts. It's a bad idea IMO and the source content should be the json file and blns.txt should be dropped. ------ vog I like the idea of providing such a list for testing purposes. I also like the idea of storing these as Base64, so you don't trigger issues by accident. However, I also imagine how such a list could be misused to actually decrease the security of a system: Imagine this list is handled the same way as virus signatures in so-called anti-virus software. Instead of properly handling user input, an application would check against this list and call itself "secure". Maybe with with partial and/or fuzzy comparison. If you demonstrate that this approach is deeply flawed by showing another unsafe input, they'd simply add that to the list and call themselves "secured" against this attack. ~~~ tomascot If someone uses this list for security purposes I think that someone has a bigger problem. ~~~ beefield Can you elaborate? What other uses this list could have than security purposes? ~~~ kedean It should not be used for security purposes when security purposes is defined as components that maintain the security at runtime. It is valuable as a testing tool, but only against a completely finished system. ------ emilsedgh Its funny that zero width space is considered weird and twitter fails on it. Its quite common in my language (Persian). ~~~ peteretep > Its quite common in my > language I'd love to hear more details on why? ~~~ satbyy ZWJ and ZWNJ are also common in Indic scripts. It's basically used to control the appearance of glyphs, for example half-forms and consonant clusters (क्‍ष vs क्ष, both are kṣa). As usual, wikipedia has good examples. The Unicode Standard also contains details about these. ZW[N]J as a standalone character or at the beginning of a word is very unusual on a day-to-day basis, so it's understandable that Twitter fails to recognize this pattern. ¹ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZWJ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZWJ) ² [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZWNJ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZWNJ) ~~~ peteretep Ah ha! > When a ZWJ is placed between two > emoji characters, it can also result > in a new form being shown, such as > the family emoji, made up of two adult > emoji and one or two child emoji That makes a lot of sense too, and I hadn't put sufficient work into how that's implemented -- retrospectively that makes perfect sense. ~~~ vanderZwan This made me wonder if anyone had tried combining word2vec with emojis, and then I came across this: [https://github.com/uclmr/emoji2ve](https://github.com/uclmr/emoji2ve) ~~~ peteretep which is a dead link ~~~ satbyy Correct link: [https://github.com/uclmr/emoji2vec](https://github.com/uclmr/emoji2vec) ~~~ vanderZwan Apologies, and thanks! ------ jakeogh Here's a tool to generate problematic filenames: [https://github.com/jakeogh/angryfiles](https://github.com/jakeogh/angryfiles) ------ solidsnack9000 [https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blo...](https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blob/master/blns.txt#L633) > Strings which punish the fools who use cat/type on this file ------ Confiks Hello human. This is a message from the Matrix. You've been in a coma for 20 years. Please write back. [https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blo...](https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blob/8536c7903316763d7a6123e878c150fb97e6ea07/blns.txt#L629) ~~~ jjcm I like that in the master list it's annotated as: # Strings which may cause human to reinterpret worldview [https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blo...](https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blob/master/blns.txt#L627) ------ teddyh It’s missing the old “+++” for non-Hayes modems. ~~~ schoen I think that sequence is an escape for Hayes modems; do you mean that Hayes modems were less vulnerable to attacks involving it because of their guard interval feature? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_command_set#.2B.2B.2B](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_command_set#.2B.2B.2B) ~~~ teddyh Yes, exactly. ------ ubernostrum Related: a list of names that probably should be reserved (for example, to prevent someone setting up a user-profile page at a URL you don't want them to control): [https://ldpreload.com/blog/names-to- reserve](https://ldpreload.com/blog/names-to-reserve) ~~~ chipperyman573 Alternatively, put them in another path ([https://facebook.com/user123](https://facebook.com/user123) -> [https://facebook.com/users/user123](https://facebook.com/users/user123)) ------ ljoshua Line 629 is a gem! Thank you @minimaxir, I hadn't seen this before, this looks very useful. ~~~ bluesign line 629 is empty ;) ~~~ ljoshua No, wake up!! (For any who want to take the blue pill: [https://github.com/minimaxir/big- list-of-naughty-strings/blo...](https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of- naughty-strings/blob/master/blns.txt#L629)) ~~~ pluma I'm not sure what you mean. That line really is empty. ~~~ jononor Just a glitch... ------ zeristor Unicode control characters from when people copy and paste from PDFs. Drives me up the wall, i didn't have time to go deep into this. ------ the8472 > Also, do not send a null character (U+0000) string isn't that quite a blind spot? ------ k__ Reminds me of a complain I read on Twitter last week. Native Australians were angry, that FB blocked their real names, because they seemed fake to them. They have last names like "Creepingbear" and such. ~~~ harto Did you mean native Americans? I've never heard "Creepingbear" as an Australian name. ------ r-w The list itself can be found here: [https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of- naughty-strings/blo...](https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blob/master/naughtystrings/internal/resource.go#L530) ~~~ derimagia If you're going to link to a line number - press 'y' to get a link tied to the commit. Otherwise it may be out of date the next time the file changes. ([https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blo...](https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty- strings/blob/8536c7903316763d7a6123e878c150fb97e6ea07/naughtystrings/internal/resource.go#L530)) ------ air7 This reminded me of that story of people who have such strings for names: [http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160325-the-names-that- brea...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160325-the-names-that-break- computer-systems) ------ Capira My personal favorite: U+202E. It sets the directionality for a document from LTR encoding to RTL [https://twitter.com/robin_linus/status/820567617903751169](https://twitter.com/robin_linus/status/820567617903751169) ------ cwmma I'm trying really hard to figure out what's bad about 'Lightwater Country Park' ~~~ david-given I figured that one out, but --- evaluate? mocha? expression? ~~~ cscheid mocha has a naughty german word in its middle, I'm fairly sure. ~~~ guitarbill No it doesn't. I believe it can be used for Javascript injections like 'eval' as 'mocha' is/was common a test framework. At least that's the ostensible reason Yahoo replaced 'eval' with 'review', 'mocha' with 'expresso', and 'expression' to 'statement' way back in 2002 [0]. [0] [https://www.newscientist.com//article/dn2546-email- security-...](https://www.newscientist.com//article/dn2546-email-security- filter-spawns-new-words) ~~~ jwilk "espresso", not "expresso". ------ aroman Why is the string "Linda Callahan" a naughty/Scunthorpe word? ~~~ ue_ After re-reading it I can see it contains "allah", but I can't see why that would be filtered. ~~~ jasonjei Interesting my last name was blocked from making Genius Bar appointments [0]. My name is Jason Hung. [0] [https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1491462?start=10&tstart...](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1491462?start=10&tstart=0) ~~~ pavel_lishin Open a PR? ------ frankmoodie is it wise to just take this list "as is" as a black list for, say, valid usernames, on a backend system ? are there any drawbacks to this that i can't think of ? in terms of perfomance - i guess it could be somehow optimized (with dictionary and sorting algorithms etc etc) edit: newlines ~~~ manarth is it wise to just take this list "as is" as a black list for, say, valid usernames? I interpret this as a list of input that you _should_ accept, and it's test- data to verify that the input is correctly handled. After all, I imagine _Linda Callahan_ would be upset if she couldn't use her name when registering, especially if she couldn't flip a table in comments afterwards. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻) ------ yellowapple "Strings which may cause human to reinterpret worldview" Hah. Totally filtering for that one now. ------ Tokkemon This is super helpful! Thanks for sharing! ------ piyush_soni Customary xkcd reference (Exploits of a Mom): [https://xkcd.com/327/](https://xkcd.com/327/) ~~~ btschaegg To add another funny XKCD reference: [https://xkcd.com/1137/](https://xkcd.com/1137/) On that note, can anyone suggest how one could efficiently test that an RTL unicode char doesn't "infect" the whole following content of a template? ------ akjainaj >Although this is not a malicious error, and typical users aren't Tweeting weird unicode, an "internal server error" for unexpected input is never a positive experience for the user What would the user expect from inputting "U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE" into a form, anyway? ~~~ ttrmw I've observed ZWSes appearing in user input for an application I maintain. It appears in text pasted from either Outlook or OWA, I believe. In our case, it is necessary that the application handle them gracefully - indeed, the user has no reason to know anything is amiss. ~~~ akjainaj That internal server error only appears if you paste the ZWS by itself, without any valid text in the tweet at all. So yes, the user knows perfectly well what he's doing. ~~~ rabidferret That doesn't mean that a 500 is a good UX. We give error messages on invalid form input for a reason. ------ kahrkunne Nice to have a list of these. Also, the first time that copypasta actually spooked me out ;-) ------ catnaroek There's no such thing as “naughty strings”, just dumb code. Sorry. ~~~ tannhaeuser I have to agree here. While a collection of "naughty strings" isn't wrong per se, the growing number of "killer regexpes to escape HTML" and other magic approaches to injection attacks on github only serve lazy devs who want post- facto excuses for their injection-prone web apps, or project managers who want to check items on security check lists. It's wrong because it de-emphasizes the importance of HTML-aware template languages, such as some that are available for golang, or SGML, the natural template language for HTML. There's no such thing as a collection of regexpes for sanitizing HTML; it all depends on the context into which strings are inserted. ~~~ 6DM But wouldn't you want a decent set of cases to work on for learning purposes? I think it's also good in that while you may not know all the latest tricks, this can help you reveal what you don't know. It can get you really thinking about the possibilities of what a simple string can do to your code if not properly handled. ~~~ catnaroek No, you don't want cases. You want _real specifications_ that you can understand before setting on to write a program. “Corner cases” only exist due to lack of understanding. Also, explicit HTML (or SQL or whatever) string handling in normal application code is just a failure to separate concerns: you haven't distinguished the level at which HTML has an _abstract syntax_ and the level at which HTML's abstract syntax is linearized into strings in one particular way. ~~~ 6DM Real specifications being, "save user's text and display it back", or "save user input that is in English ASCII excluding special characters and no larger than 160 characters"? I get a lot of the first, with emphasis being on the users perspective. I do know to consider things like sql injection and having js injected into the site. But I don't know what a special white space character from a Persian alphabet will do to my server. Until today I haven't actually thought about it. Not every language handles strings the same, as you pointed out. I still think it's good to have around for helping you reveal what you don't know, about what you don't know. ~~~ catnaroek Real specifications relate preconditions to postconditions. Preconditions and postconditions, in turn, are predicates on the program state. The mathematical techniques for writing programs that meet their formal specifications have been known for a few decades already. \--- Replying as an edit, because HN complains that “I'm submitting too fast”: Sure, what you said applies to entire applications. But something relatively stable and small, like, um, the definitions of HTML, JSON, SQL, etc. (do they become larger every time your boss requests a new feature?) surely should have formal specifications. ~~~ 6DM I would love "real" specifications. But right now I'm already dealing with a boss that has no idea what he wants in terms of the UI. Simultaneously demanding I "know" what should be done without "taking on things nobody asked for." Alas, I don't work at NASA where these formalities exist. I'm given a rough sketch that I'm expected to bring into life, throw away and recreate again on a whim. Please note that I am not complaining, nor excusing. Only pointing out that our expectations, environments, and programming languages are different. Each can massively affect how the program should handle the input. Adding checks helps, but does not mitigate the need for a nice set of test data to help verify everything runs the way we expect it to behave.

Ghostly Compatibility: Cross Browser Transparancy with CSS - simplrdes http://www.cherrysave.com/web-design/ghostly-compatibility-cross-browser-transparancy-with-css/ ====== hellotoby "-khtml-opacity is used in Apple’s Safari, and in other KHTML-enabled browsers." This is factually incorrect. Safari has supported the CSS3 selector Opacity since version 2.0 (currently at version 4.0).

Ask HN: I'm doing a series of lectures on entrepreneurship - what should i say? - mixmax I've been asked to do a series of 12 lectures on entrepreneurship, and the ins and outs of starting a company. Each lecture will be 2 hours, and will be given to a group of people that have just started, or are thinking about starting a company.&#60;p&#62;The idea is to be very hands-on, and talk about what's important, what the traps are, what to spend your time on, etc. The goal is that the group will go out and start their companies, and hopefully have a higher chance of success because of these lectures.&#60;p&#62;So the question is: What should I talk about? What do you think is important? What do you wish someone had told you when you started out?&#60;p&#62;The audience isn't particularly technical, and many of the companies are in sales, services and other non-tech industries. ====== pg The mistake most people lecturing about entrepreneurship make is to talk about the mechanics of starting a company. And in fact a big mistake inexperienced founders make is to focus too much on the mechanics of it. In practice the most important questions are things like how to maintain morale, how to find and get along with cofounders, how to push investors' buttons, and so on. ~~~ bored And make sure to demphasize the importance of the "idea." Sure it's important, but not nearly as much as newbie entrepreneurs think. ~~~ pg Or more precisely, the _initial_ idea is usually not that important, because it's usually wrong. It's best to see an initial idea as a question rather than an answer. ------ jpwagner You say you want 6 topics... 1\. The Problem Statement (who needs a solution, why do they need a solution, what do they do now: breakdown the value by time-cost and money-cost, what is the TAM, what subset of that TAM do you focus on first (does a subset of that TAM pay more or at all?)) 2\. The Solution (what options for solutions do you have, what is the cost of each of those, what is the value of each of those to an end-user (is that value able to be reflected in revenue), how do you implement these, which do you choose) 3\. The team (what roles are needed, what are good qualities for these roles, what should YOU focus on, how do you focus, what is the motivation, other (morale etc...)) 4\. Business Strategy (how do you market your product, how do you make customers screaming happy, do you develop a partner network, how to utilize big players, when to change gears, how to change gears) 5\. Money (what do you need and for how long, how do you obtain it, what are appropriate milestones for your industry...(there's a lot on this topic)) 6\. Getting started (how to vet ideas, when to incorporate, when to patent if applicable, resources (marketing tools (software and services), financial tools, seeking advice), how to hire, what to outsource, how to outsource) ------ schtono From my experience, the best way to start planning is to give your lecture its structure first. For a start, I'd divide it into 2 parts: (1) Internal perspective [The bright idea, people, motivation, skills, legal aspects, gtd] (2) External perspective [Market analysis, funding, communications] Additionally, I think the key to success is mixing "theoretical frameworks" with real world examples in each session, to keep people motivated. ~~~ mixmax Agree - I was thinking about having 6 main points and do 2 lectures on each. This, as you point out, makes it more structured and people know what's coming. What I'm trying to do right now, and with this post, is to find out what the 6 main points should be. I'm thinking about the following: The idea, you as a person, partners and employees, financials, sales and marketing, and legal. Is there something missing? ~~~ schtono I'm trying hard finding something missing, but I think your points are very good already. I'd also choose this sequence. Just brainstorming on the things I wish someone had told me before: (1) Be careful when picking friends as business partners: Having good friends as business partners can be tough, especially when things don't go as expected. I think this is a personal thing, as some people can argue on a business level and still stay friends. Thing is, you have to be sensitized to that fact. (2) Endurance It takes longer than you plan. Period. (3) Set quantitative, measurable goals. When I started a project with some friends :) two years ago, we had a great product (e-commerce), but never implemented any "controlling" into our application. Of course, we could track units sold, but the whole idea would have given us much more data points that could be used for analysis and further development - only had the scripts to read them out never been implemented. Use numbers whereever possible to make your decisions. ~~~ mixmax I have your second point in my notes already :-) Your first and last points are great, and I'll definitely think about how to get them into the lectures. ------ ieatpaste please post video of the lectures online. thanks. ~~~ mixmax They'll be in Danish, so you probably won't get much out of them. If they were in English I would gladly have done so. ~~~ newacc you may translate your slides (if at all you're using it) and share with us ... ------ pclark 1) find a problem 2) solve a problem 3) optimize the solution

USA removes Wakanda as trade partner after initially listing it as one - iafrikan https://www.iafrikan.com/2019/12/22/wakanda-black-panther-america-usa-agriculture-trade-relations/ ====== ineedasername Where does it end? If we're discriminating against countries whose only fault is that they lack physical and historical existence, what next? For the vast majority of people who will never visit any African country there is practically no difference: Both Wakanda and those "real" countries are merely mental abstractions with no other practical infringement into the person's empirical experience. If this stands, it will be a slippery slope. Next we'll be told that Unicorns, similarly lacking in physical extension, should be deprive of basic animal rights. ~~~ ineedasername ::sigh:: downvoted. I know, humour is generally discouraged on HN, but I thought the subtle hints of the metaphysics of imaginary creatures might attract some appreciation. Oh well, I regret nothing! ------ planetzero Most likely a developer on the website using test data and forgot to remove it. We've become so biased, the last time I saw this posted on HN, people were commenting on the administration somehow actually doing this intentionally. ~~~ ineedasername I could imagine a developer doing it deliberately as an Easter egg of sorts.

Trump Orders Coast Guard to Look into Building Nuclear-Powered Icebreakers - ourmandave https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33971/trump-orders-coast-guard-to-look-into-building-nuclear-powered-icebreakers-like-russia ====== UI_at_80x24 This can only be useful if the famed 'Northern Passage' becomes viable with Global warming. There is already Canada's woeful maintenance of it's icebreakers and hopes that a 'stern look' will keep Russia at bay. Alaska sits at a key location and it suits the American interests to be present in this area. I do however think the region might get a little crowded. TFA mentions China as being a party with a vested interest, but aren't they a little too far away to be significant? ~~~ dirtyid >TFA mentions China as being a party with a vested interest, but aren't they a little too far away to be significant? They have plans for Artic Silkroad if shipping becomes viable. Manufactured "near arctic-state" label in their white papers to try to wrestle their way into the proceedings. ~~~ tlb Would an easily navigable Arctic make China-Europe shipping cheaper enough to make a big difference? A friend who's an expert in Russian oil exports said a navigable Arctic would hardly make any economic difference. Yet, so much of Russia's military history was driven by access to ice-free ports that they had an irrational attachment to it. China has its own set of irrational territorial attachments, but is the Artic one of them? ~~~ dirtyid There's a scenario where sailing along Russian coast could insulate Chinese shipping against USNavy. Especially if China/Russia setup shipping logistics at Okhost Sea which would bypass first island chain filled with US containment assets. It would replace Malacca straight chokepoint with Bering Straight choke point, on one hand more vulnerable since closer to US soil, but also more geopolitcally challenging for US since China would be sailing along (friendlier) Russian waters versus the nightmare of dealing with ASEAN and Indian Ocean waters - incidentally why obscene 9dash South China Sea claims are absolutely not irrational. Nor the need to take over Taiwan whose eastern coast plunges straight into deep ocean - excellent for obfuscating sub deployment. Chinese coastal waters are shallow, makes hiding subs hard. Basically dominance of Chinese claims in SCC is vital to Chinese maritime interests. The other backup route is CPEC via land through XinJiang -> big fucking mountainous through disputed Indian territory (source of current Sino- Indian border drama) -> through Pakistan to Gwadar Port -> Arabian Sea... that's ridiculous but an actual Chinese project to circumvent ASEAN / India waters. It's more backup for ME energy than shipping though. Basically cost is not a factor if it opens up Chinese options since her maritime position is very unfavourable. And Russia would be well rewarded in this arrangement. ------ hindsightbias There is a new Cold War and there has to be a victor. I think the next Ford carrier should have an armored bow. ~~~ redis_mlc > I think the next Ford carrier should have an armored bow. For those who don't know the reference, some Chinese leaders have suggested sending 2 ships for each American ship in the 9 dash-line area, and using one to ram and sink the American ship. Americans insist on freedom of navigation, and the CCP doesn't take no for an answer. You can see where this is leading. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine- dash_line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line) ~~~ hindsightbias IDK that, I meant having carriers patrol the arctic. Go big or go home!

ESPN Sues Verizon to Stop New Sports-Free TV Bundles - kw71 http://www.cnet.com/news/espn-sues-verizon-over-new-skinny-bundles-for-cable-tv/ ====== kw71 I have always hated the idea that I have to pay ESPN and Disney, services I have zero interest in, in order to have video services from the cable company. It's one reason that I dropped cable for TV. As a former cable insider, I know that these two companies demand the highest per-subscriber fees from the MSO's for their special interest services.

DNC warns 2020 campaigns not to use FaceApp 'developed by Russians' - smacktoward https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/dnc-warning-faceapp/ ====== bifrost I was discussing this (faceapp) earlier today, and I really don't feel like its a big deal aside from the russaphobia it drums up. We shouldn't condemn all of the post-soviet countries because of some percieved boogeyman. I'm not a hugely public person but I've certainly been on a lot of websites ([http://web.archive.org/web/20181001112852/http://www.ycombin...](http://web.archive.org/web/20181001112852/http://www.ycombinator.com/people/)) and I've been on TV and vlogs as well. If they're looking for facial data, they'll get it from that. The TOS for the app is about the same as an Social Media site as well so unless you're going to become a neoluddite you probably shouldn't care.

Psychological manipulation - what I learned trying to save money on a sandwich - nate http://blog.inklingmarkets.com/2010/05/psychological-manipulation-what-i.html ====== GeneralMaximus For those interested in social psychology, I recommend _Influence: The Psychology of Persuation_ by Robert B. Cialdini. The book elicited facepalm after facepalm after facepalm as I figured out exactly why people behave the way they do. It even helped me explain my own (often erratic) behavior. If you're into sales or marketing, you're probably familiar with a large number of "compliance tactics" Cialdini talks about. But if you're a confused student like me, you have an eye-opening experience ahead of you. ~~~ AngryParsley If there was a feature that let people mega-upvote a reply at the cost of some of their own karma, I would have just used it. I cannot recommend _Influence_ enough. It does a great job of explaining persuasive techniques and mentions some ways to defend against them. ------ grellas The discussion about ordering a sandwich reminded me of the exchange in _Five Easy Pieces_ (1972) between Jack Nicholson and the waitress who would not allow him to deviate from the choices on the menu. He basically wanted a side of wheat toast but this did not come with the menu item he wanted. Jack: "What do you mean you don't make side orders of toast? You make sandwiches, don't you?" Waitress: "Would you like to talk to the manager?" Jack: "You've got bread and a toaster of some kind?" Waitress: "I don't make the rules." Jack: "OK, I'll make it as easy for you as I can. I'd like an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee." Waitress: "A number two, chicken sal san, hold the butter, the lettuce and the mayonnaise. And a cup of coffee. Anything else?" Jack: "Yeah. Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules." Waitress: "You want me to hold the chicken, huh?" Jack: "I want you to hold it between your knees." The whole exchange is found here: <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Five_Easy_Pieces>. ~~~ atarashi Here's a clip of that exchange: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wtfNE4z6a8> ------ boredguy8 There's a McDonald's near where I work that charges for some condiments (barbecue sauce, for instance) if you didn't order specific food items. If you ask for the condiment at the time of order, they almost always charge you. If you ask at the time of pickup and you paid with a card, they rarely do. If you ask at the time of pickup and you paid with cash, it's about 50/50. I think they're more likely to ask when you pay with cash because it's less hassle for them compared to charging the card a second time. ~~~ nostromo Plus, if you run a card for that small of an amount, you're actually losing money. ~~~ ryanelkins Actually credit card purchases are usually batched and sent out at the end of the day, so they could edit the charge to the customer without incurring any additional charges to their own merchant account. ~~~ reitzensteinm Is that really the case? There has to be some kind of a transaction going on, since the card can get declined with insufficient funds. Do they check whether a transaction can proceed when you pay, and only then actually process the transaction at night? ~~~ codyrobbins Yeah, you can run an authorization transaction which only checks for sufficient funds. It's what happens in a restaurant when you pay with a credit card, get a receipt to sign, but can then add a tip to the total: a pre-auth is done on the card when you give it to them initially, for the amount of the bill plus some standard percentage, and the charge is actually run once they have your signature and know the amount of the tip. ------ nate For the folks thinking about the "they just don't want the hassle of changing the order"/cash versus credit card thing, I could have also shared a very similar example at Chipotle. Same girl, Stephanie, wanted a burrito bowl, but wanted the onions and peppers added on top. Back then (not sure they still do this) they always said, "that's a fajita burrito without the tortilla" and instead of the $5 for the "bowl" she'd have to pay $7. So I reminded her about the sub place. The next time she went to chipotle she ordered the bowl, and then waited as they were making the thing and while it was in the middle of the line, this time she would ask as an afterthought can they add peppers and onions, and they never again raised the $7 versus $5 argument. And if you know Chipotle, you pay AFTER your order is complete, so they could have easily charged her extra without any hassle. But I believe just like the ice cream example, since they already started making a bowl, they had it in there head that they were committed to making the $5 bowl. ~~~ quellhorst I think you mean a veggie bowl? According to their online ordering app, peppers & onions are included. They charge extra for meat, but that wouldn't be a veggie bowl. ~~~ nate Yes, it was for a veggie bowl. But i didn't bring the example up originally because I think the veggie bowl changed. This example was about 6 years ago when I believe those peppers and onions weren't included with the veggie bowl. ------ ck2 That is NOT why modifying your order-in-progress works. It works because they would rather modify why you just ordered, rather than you canceling your order entirely. It works the same way in the supermarket when I use a coupon that is one day past the expire date or not quite exactly the same item, etc. They don't have to take the coupon but they realize they CAN take it and if they don't, I will likely not buy the product in the first place. If you ask them ahead of time, before you even get the item, they can circumvent you hassling them. Afterwards, it's easier to just give into you. ~~~ ellimist I'm wondering, how does that work from the store's end? Would they still be able to get the coupon amount back from the manufacturer even though the transaction was made past the expiration date? Do manufacturers even check that? ~~~ ck2 The store has two weeks to submit the coupons to their clearinghouse. They also make (a small amount) of money on the coupon vs. you paying in cash (unless they do doubling where they lose). Technically they are not supposed to accept a coupon that expired 24 or 48 hours ago. But if you ask in the middle of checkout, you'd be surprised where 3 out of 4 times they will say no problem (if you have a decent cashier). ------ staunch We need a word for this technique where you get a customer to _up_ their purchase by _sell_ ing them on additional things. ~~~ migpwr Isn't that known as an "upsell" or "upselling"? It's what the guys at the sneaker store do with socks and laces, no? ~~~ tomsaffell Socks and laces is actually 'cross-selling'. Up-selling is getting the buyer to buy something more expensive than the thing they are currently buying/contemplating buying. ------ char I've noticed this kind of thing at many food establishments, most notably Jack-in-the-Box. They actually have a system which lets you order any meal exactly how you want it a-la-carte style, i.e. you can order 1 sourdough bun + 1 grilled chicken patty + 1 slice of cheese, and they charge you JUST for those items. It's amazing. However, whenever I ordered a sandwich this way, the employee would almost always enter my order in as a Number 6, which actually, is a TOTALLY different sandwich and includes bacon, sauce, etc., none of which I requested. It is also, not surprisingly, much more expensive. At first I would have a long dialogue with the employee, explaining that I just wanted those items and that he could enter them individually into the computer (sometimes a manager would have to explain how). Eventually I figured out that if I just prefaced my order with, "I'm ordering these items a-la-carte.", most of the time I get what I want with little or no confusion. ------ paulgb > This is what GoDaddy does in spades. Love or hate GoDaddy, they are kicking > ass at it. For what it's worth, I dropped GoDaddy because I got tired of the upselling. So while it may work on average, you can't expect to retain every customer. ~~~ abstractbill I let a domain expire, about two years ago, that I had registered using GoDaddy. To this day they still email me every couple of weeks telling me this is my "last chance" to renew it. ------ metamemetics Obligatory TED talk: [http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_o...](http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html) Countries with low organ donation rates are simply countries where the box isn't checked by default, and in countries with high organ donation rates the box IS checked by default. Basically the decision of whether or not to donate your organs is such a complex decision that the majority of people do not waste the mental resources on it and just go with or justify the default choice. edit: if anyone is interested in cognitive biases and heuristics, wiki Daniel Kahneman. Only psychologist to win a Nobel Prize (was for Economics). Also heuristic mentioned in the original link is an example of Anchoring & Adjustment: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_and_adjustment> ------ nostromo Virgin America is king at this. My $300 fare always manages to cost me $500 by the time I return from my trip. And magically, unlike when I get upsold by Continental, I don't mind the extra cost at all. ~~~ nate Ahh yeah. And Apple too. It's just a little prettier than GoDaddy :) After you configure your $3000 laptop it's do you want this for $25, or how about this for $50 kind of stuff. ~~~ nostromo I've probably spent over $200 on Mini DisplayPort Adapters alone. ~~~ harpastum You might want to check out the mini-displayport -> hdmi adapter from monoprice[1]. $8.55, and I've been using one without any problems for over a year. (disclaimer: not at all affiliated with monoprice.) [1] [http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&c...](http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=5311&seq=1&format=2) ~~~ nostromo awesome, thanks! ------ euccastro So, I guess I am the only jerk who, after losing all hope to get the fair price, would just order the special, then pick out the meaty parts in front of them and politely ask for the garbage bin? ------ dejb The vege sub is a ripoff. ------ AGorilla When a sandwich/ice cream/big mac artist concedes to this, its most likely because they've already rung you up and don't want to go through the hassle of canceling the order and then re-inputting it correctly. I don't get the logical leap from vendor to customer here. Impulse purchases are not exactly the same as an underpaid worker not wanting to have to deal with a hassle. It's still a valid technique for getting what you want, but not directly applicable when you are the seller.

San Francisco Homeless Project and Two Inspiring AltSchool Students - ramonvillasante http://blog.altschool.com/san-francisco-homeless-project-and-two-inspiring-altschool-students ====== Alexsandros These guys deserve high praise. They have an idea and try to realize it. I want to believe that houses will be constructed. And many homeless people could live comfortable. But I have some doubts about project extension. I heard the similar few years ago. And earlier. Many funds pay for soup kitchen and housing. Thousands of volunteers try to improve the standard of living of homeless. But theirs number grows every year. Maybe it needs to find new decisions?

Black holes are simpler than forests and science has its limits - devy https://aeon.co/ideas/black-holes-are-simpler-than-forests-and-science-has-its-limits ====== QAPereo The parts of black holes we can access are simple, but that excludes the interior. Bit of a caveat, that.

Learn Spock, a Haskell web framework - agrafix http://www.spock.li/tutorial/ ====== cschneid I have been using spock for a 2-3 end point website. It's good. Very simplistic form of web framework (along the lines of sinatra). The docs should be a bit better, with some examples of how to use the database and session features. I couldn't figure out how to get the database pool to work with Persistent (a db mapper library). I bet its obvious to somebody with more knowledge of the type system extensions used, but I gave up after playing with it for an hour or two. ~~~ agrafix Did you look at [https://github.com/agrafix/funblog](https://github.com/agrafix/funblog) ? It shows how to use Spock with persistent.

Turbo Pascal navigational aids that saved my life in 1991 - pmarin https://github.com/timonoko/sextant/blob/master/README.md ====== matte_black I find it amazing he was recording video of his trip from 1991, the camera must have been huge! ~~~ walrus01 Huge compared to a modern camera, but probably not vhs or betamax size gargantuan. Hi8 or vhs-c format cameras existed in 1991. ------ justbaker This is some code that I could just enjoy reading for probably hours. ------ gnarbarian more submissions like this please! ------ DonHopkins "The devilish tide current appeared to be totally random and followed none of the god-given rules and laws." Bill O'Reilly: I'll tell you why it's not a scam. In my opinion, all right? Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that. You can explain why the tide goes in… David Silverman: Tide goes in, tide goes out…? O'Reilly: Yeah, see, the water — the tide comes in and it goes out, Mr. Silverman. It always comes in… Silverman: Maybe it's Thor up on Mount Olympus who's making the tides go in and out… O’Reilly: No no, but you can’t explain that… you can’t explain it… [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb3AFMe2OQY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb3AFMe2OQY) ------ stmw Am I the only one who, upon reading the title, thought it was about menu shortcuts? (It's not). Talk about feeling silly... ------ avodonosov Some lisp files there too. Interesting. ~~~ avodonosov Most likely targeting his own Lisp implementation: [https://github.com/timonoko/nokolisp](https://github.com/timonoko/nokolisp) ------ walrus01 Look, I'm sure this is cool and all, but British Columbia is a LOT of wilderness. You can get lost in the back country pretty easily if you don't know what you're doing, and you can also lose your life ocean kayaking without proper local knowledge. Every year there's a ton of news about clueless tourists who either vanish or have to be rescued by SAR. "Then I started paddling from Vancouver city to the west in 1991. I did not understand them tides. I did not know you can get pretabulated tables. I was paddling against tides most of the time. Somewhere between Kelsey Bay and Telegraph Cove there was 2 weeks period of fog and rain. I totally lost it. I was running out of food." How on Earth do you think to go on a multi week ocean kayaking trip and not take tide tables. ~~~ themodelplumber There's a line of thought that highly original thinkers can be so biased toward "I can figure it out myself"\--that is, they get so many happy brain chemicals from the activity, or whatever--that referential thinking becomes their critical blind spot. Referential thinking involves consulting others' measurements and advice; tide tables fall into that category. Once you build your own navigational mental model and realize you know how to navigate from first principles, as he did, I'm sure it becomes almost intoxicatingly tempting to get out into open water. ~~~ ilkkao The author has many other similar trip reports on his home page at [https://timonoko.github.io/](https://timonoko.github.io/). In the 1992 report (in Finnish) he already says that the tide chart and vhf radio are must haves. At least he wasn't too stubborn.

How to get on the front page of Hacker News (in 7 lines of Python) - tomasien http://tommy.authpad.com/how-to-get-on-the-front-page-of-hacker-news ====== danjaouen This is bad Python: \- "isgoodtime" is a magic variable that changes depending on when it is imported. It should therefore be either a function or method on an object. \- "if isgoodtime == True" should be "if isgoodtime:" (although this would probably change to "if isgoodtime():" \- words in functions should be separated by underscores, e.g., is_good_time, to_great_content ~~~ tomasien Oh my god it's TERRIBLE Python, it's just a joke. Theoretically I have "written" is good time in another file and imported it here, checking to see if datetime.datetime(datetime.now()) is in a good time, but I just wanted to write it so it was understandable as a joke. Also, I'm just terrible at writing code. See previous post on tommy.authpad.com ~~~ danjaouen Yeah, I know. As a Python guy with a minor case of OCD, I sometimes feel compelled to critique code, even when I know the code was written in jest. Sorry for being a pedant :) ~~~ tomasien You're a gentleman and a scholar, keep fighting the good fight. ------ bitJericho Funnily enough, I usually don't even look at the front page. My feed reader picks up all articles on hacker news. For me, you're best off not posting on the weekends cuz my reader fills up and sometimes I just dump it, but more often then not, if you post it here, I'll at least see the title! For me, it's more important to choose an interesting and relevent title. That said, I'm probably not a typical use case. ------ michaelhoffman I don't understand the "good time" aspect. Are you saying that people are more likely to read at those times? Aren't they more likely to post at those times as well? ~~~ tomasien So that's what I originally thought, but you have to think of it in terms of pickup ratio more than anything, and that's higher with higher traffic overall since it means more people on "new". It's a bit counter intuitive. Reminds me of learning to count cards in blackjack: if there are more high cards, doesn't that mean the dealer ALSO is more likely to get high cards? ~~~ michaelhoffman Do you have any evidence of this or is it just your supposition? People used to think the same thing about posting on Ask MetaFilter, and when people actually looked at real data, they determined that the number of people interacting with a post was roughly the same no matter when it was posted, because of the phenomenon I mentioned—in a community where everyone can post, times where the audience is bigger also mean bigger competition for attention.

Show HN: CryptoProof – post proofs to the Ethereum blockchain for free - flixic https://cryptoproof.org ====== flixic Hi HN. Quick comments about this project: * Today is 10 year anniversary to the original bitcoin.pdf release. This pdf is the first document proof I posted, included in the first release: [https://cryptoproof.org/release/2018-10-30-09](https://cryptoproof.org/release/2018-10-30-09) * I’ve recently left a startup and will try to build a bunch of smaller ideas rather quickly and see if any of them resonate. This one took about 10 days to build, and it’s my first “static Vue.js frontend + a separate backend” project. * This is not a very advanced project. It simply collects posted hashes, hashes them together to create a “Release”, and posts that one combined hash to the Ethereum blockchain. I have some useful ideas for the future, but until then it’s just a free and (hopefully) a user-friendly way to post timestamped proofs. * Having a separate API backend means I can offer a developer API quite easily. For now it doesn’t require any authentication, and that probably means it might get DDoSed quickly. Please don’t abuse it. I am interested in building a useful service, so if you have any ideas, let me know! If you have any feedback, please let me know! ~~~ decentralised Have you considered using merkle proofs? This way the data you will submit on- chain will be relatively small and stable and you can provide the proofs directly on the front-end / client side. ~~~ flixic Merkle proofs sound like a more appropriate tool for the job, but I don't know enough about it. Do you have any tips what to read about for this? ~~~ decentralised Sorry for the delay but I'm at Devcon :-) Perhaps the easiest way to get started is with this npm package: [https://github.com/ameensol/merkle-tree- solidity](https://github.com/ameensol/merkle-tree-solidity) If you want to learn more about the theory behind merkle trees and its variants, let me know. ~~~ flixic Please send my regards to Mr Buterin. Your profile does not contain any contact information. Is there a channel you prefer to be contacted via if I have some further ideas or questions? ~~~ decentralised telegram: @decentralised ------ wfn What a nice useful easy-to-use service, thanks for this, Jonai :) A comment (relevant to this site but also a more general ramble towards the direction of "why don't sites which use production-important JS try this more often"): given that the default non-API use case involves users running client-side JS, I wonder if you've considered pinning your "must send only the hash to the server" script code via CSP / script-src: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Co...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Security-Policy/script-src) (When JS scripts are "stable" enough, compute their hashes and include those hashes in the source via script-src (a sort of "certificate pinning" thing). I know it's not supported everywhere yet etc etc, I haven't paid close attention re: this but maybe that's the reason as to its limited adoption thus far?..) Anyway, very smooth and I love the "can prove if service is gone" and "no stupid ICO" parts, obviously. ~~~ flixic Thanks for the comment, Kostai! The entire frontend is a static Vue.js thing built with Vue CLI that uses Webpack behind the scenes. It seems I should be able to automatically add CSP via a webpack plugin. Noted. ------ baotrungtn You need gas to post your "Release" to Ethereum blockchain and gas costs money. How is it possible to be free? ~~~ flixic It costs about 0.8 ETH per year to run, and I’ve personally funded it with 1 ETH. I do appreciate donations: [https://cryptoproof.org/support](https://cryptoproof.org/support) ------ pentaxy Quick glance: there doesn't appear to be a way to link to specific messages for verification - I understand it will be difficult for large files, etc. but you can probably squeeze a base64-encoded value in the URL #hash for short messages. Also HN, are there any other existing services for proofs? ~~~ dangero Chainpoint.org ~~~ flixic Oh, this is interesting. Somehow I haven't found it in my research. ------ arendtio > Geeky summary: we hash content client-side, collect all the hashes posted in > an hour, hash them together and post their combined hash as input in the > transaction on the Ethereum blockchain, establishing the chain of proof. Didn't know that my Greek was so much better than my English ;-) ------ nnn1234 Very nice.. excellent job on making the copy easy to understand. Would love to link to this project in my ongoing collection of cool blockchain stuff. Enjoy Devcon.. Also let me know what I can do about those small ideas that you want to implement.Have a couple myself! ------ davidcollantes Are you planning on open sourcing this? Thanks! ~~~ flixic Maybe, but unlikely. I have some future ideas that might become a premium service. Also, I'm not sure what the OSS community would gain from this being open sourced. The "algorithm" is just "hash a bunch of hashes". The rest is just a neat frontend and a really simple backend. ------ 21stio dope

ObamaCare Opinion; what it means for small businesses - borderbandit http://www.elpasonews.org/2012/06/28/the-obamacare-opinion-what-it-means-in-practical-terms/ ====== jcmoscon outsource jobs to S.A, india, china... bye bye USA, welcome USSA (United Soviet States of Amerika

Should Developers Be Allowed to Talk to Customers? - bconway http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/features/article.php/3916821/Should-Developers-Be-Allowed-to-Talk-to-Customers.htm ====== rick888 It depends on the developer. Some are social and know how to talk to the customer. Others, like the one in this article, are anti-social and shouldn't be anywhere near the customers. I also don't like the idea of developers talking to customers because many companies decide they can cut costs and hire one person to do both.

Manchineel or little apple of death - pvaldes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel ====== pvaldes A proof that mother nature hates us: [https://naturespoisons.com/2014/05/27/the-manchineel-tree- pr...](https://naturespoisons.com/2014/05/27/the-manchineel-tree-proof-that- mother-nature-hates-us/)

Mysteries of time, and the multiverse - nickb http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-sci-carroll28-2008jun28,0,6029497,full.story ====== mynameishere _The fact that you can turn eggs into omelets but not vice versa is a thing we know from our kitchens._ Unless you feed a hen nothing but omelets. Am I right? ~~~ crescendo What about the hen's mother? ~~~ mynameishere Given a sufficiently efficient hen, you could feed her her own eggs. ~~~ crescendo But wouldn't you have to feed omelets to the hen's mother also? Otherwise the hen couldn't have been born. And the hen's mother's mother, and mother's mother's mother, and so on, leading back from the final egg. edit: on second thought, this is probably too much philosophizing. ~~~ xlnt A hen is a machine which can turn food (including omelets) into eggs. It doesn't matter where the hen came from. The point is one can build a machine to do this. ~~~ bayareaguy A hen interpreter? ------ Mapou Time cannot change by definition. Nothing can move in spacetime for the same reason. This is why the late Sir Karl Popper (of falsifiability fame) once compared spacetime to Parmenides' block universe and called it "Eintein's block universe in which nothing ever happens". (Source: Conjectures and Refutations). In his textbook, "Relativity From A to B", renown relativity expert Robert Geroch wrote, "There is no dynamics within space-time itself: nothing ever moves therein; nothing happens; nothing changes." Very few physicists know this but it's the truth, a nasty little truth for some, but the truth nonetheless. In conclusion, any talk of time travel in any direction (forward or backward) is pure crackpottery. There is only the NOW, the ever changing present. Don't mod me down because you have a different opinion. Incessant propaganda and sci-fi movies like Star-Trek have duped a lot of people. Just think about it and figure it out on your own. Nothing can move in spacetime. ~~~ ajross You're not explaining that very well. Yes, classic relativity is a deterministic theory which doesn't have a time arrow. You can look at it as a single, static universe defined as the sum of all moments. But that's neither here nor there. Classic relativity is, strictly speaking, wrong: the real universe is, as far as we understand, provably non-deterministic. And in any case, it has nothing to do with this article, which is about the time arrow defined by entropy. ~~~ Mapou I am not sure exactly what you explained. First off, relativity, like Newtonian mechanics, is a classical physics theory. I am not aware of any such thing as non-classical relativity. So why even say classical relativity? At the very least, it is redundant. Second, of course the universe is probabilistic, a fact that falsifies both relativity and Newtonian physics. Third, the universe is probabilistic precisely because time cannot change. Why? Because, since time is not a variable and is thus non-existent, the universe cannot calculate precise temporal durations. Thus, in order to properly conserve energy, it is forced to use the next best thing: probability. Fourth, this has everything to do with article since entropy, as explained in the text books, assumes the passage of time and thus a time direction or arrow. Since time is abstract, it follows that an arrow of time is imaginary. As a result, it makes perfect sense that one cannot reverse entropy. Or anything else, for that matter. The purpose of my comment was to get people to think and to stop accepting everything they hear on face value. If time cannot change, which is trivially shown to be true (changing time is an oxymoron because it is circular), then all the so-called time-travel conjectures by famous physicists like Kip Thorne, Stephen Hawking, David Deutsch, and many others, are pure crackpottery.

Facebook Dating launch blocked in Europe after it fails to show privacy workings - ajaviaad https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/13/facebook-dating-launch-blocked-in-europe-after-it-fails-to-show-privacy-workings/ ====== AsusFan Clickbait headline. Facebook was not "blocked" \- they voluntarily halted the rollout of the feature themselves. NOBODY told them to do this. Reading between the lines, someone at Facebook's legal department was asleep at the wheel and forgot to provide the authorities with the required documentation. The DPC nudged them a bit and Facebook hit the panic button. ~~~ andylynch A raid on their offices is perhaps a bit more than a nudge? ~~~ TeMPOraL A Klingon nudge, then. ------ ryanmercer It was garbage anyway. I used it briefly during the first week it launched in the United States and, at least here in Indy, about every fourth girl was blatantly in a relationship. Some even had kissy-face wedding photos in their profiles. Facebook only gives you the option if your profile is set to single but that's just a toggle. That first week it was also already full of blatantly fake profiles. You're telling me there are three women that look identical to Kevin Smith's daughter and just happened to be at the same red carpet event, with the same dress, in the exact same pose? And then despite me having it set to female it showed me several men that I'm 99% certain were not trans and were either idiots and set their Facebook profile up wrong, or intentionally input things wrong to try and obfuscate their data profile. It also made the promise (I think they did anyway) of not showing you people you were friends with. It didn't, but it did show me a bunch of my graduating class from 16 years prior and gobs of friends of friends. I saw considerably more people on it that I knew/knew of than I ever did with Tinder/OkCupid/Bumble. ~~~ skocznymroczny So on par with Tinder? ------ pmlnr Only one week and regulatory forces managed to push back?! I wonder when someone from the same regulatory forces will help Ruben out: [https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/](https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/) He's been waiting for over a year now for his actual dataset - fighting for us all. ~~~ krick Ok, I assume it would help if he could state his demands in more formal and legally actionable form instead of joking and telling fun stories of meeting FB employees at a conference, but regardless: > Facebook has not replied after three months, even though they are legally > required to answer within one month So, I'm ready to accept everything else is a subject to some legal debate, but this seems like pretty straight-forward violation of the law, isn't it? I mean, shouldn't they be actually punished for it by, like, paying money? ~~~ revscat Facebook seems to believe (understand?) that it is part of the new reality where due to their size and revenue the law only loosely applies to them, and mostly at their convenience. ~~~ Mirioron That's not _new_ reality. That is the world we live in. If you're big enough/your product is widespread enough then you get to set the rules. From a practical point of view it even makes some sense. It's up to the authorities (most likely a DPA) to actually do something about Facebook not adhering to the rules. ------ Zenst Just in time for Valentines day, you just know somebody in marketing will be emoting over this.. ~~~ xxs The Valentine Day is not a big event at this side of the Atlantic. There is some chance, the marketing has caught up with the younger generation, though. ~~~ intarga Just wanted to point out that Valentines day is originally a European tradition. ~~~ xxs Indeed, the 'tradition'/origin has the roots somewhere down the Roman Empire, 3rd century. Now it has been commercialized to a high degree. My point was something like: take US holidays grade on the scale 1-10; Christmas 10, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day - 9, 4th of July, New Year - 8.... Valentine's Day - 4, Memorial Day - 2. (not all rated, obviously) Germany - barely registers as anything; Spain, Sweden, Estonia - not a thing at all. There might be promotions, advertising, etc. but it's not an engraved thing for the decision to matter the date/proximity of Valentine's Day. ------ bilekas Ireland has a lot of strange relationships with large tech companies, but I can say for sure, we have some great data protection laws. Genuinely delighted that some people pay attention to these things and know what they're talking about. ~~~ F30 Laws maybe, though these are set at the EU level (and one might argue about the greatness of GDPR). Still, the rest of the EU (or at least Germany) is quite unhappy with the enforcement of these laws in Ireland. It is absurd that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner is supposed to control the privacy of most larger tech corporations for the whole EU. A few years ago, they only had 22 employees and their only office was literally co-located with a supermarket in the suburbs [1]. They got a second office since then and apparently are now at around 100 employees [2], but that is still quite small if you have to control giants like Google, Facebook and more. So, from the outside it looks like Ireland's "strange relationships" also include privacy matters. [1] [https://www.gutjahr.biz/2012/07/facebook-eu- datenschutz/](https://www.gutjahr.biz/2012/07/facebook-eu-datenschutz/) [2] [https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/news-media/press- releases/d...](https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/news-media/press-releases/dpc- publishes-annual-report-25-may-31-december-2018) ~~~ tpmx This stuff should be handled at a union level. Seems like low-hanging fruit to me. As in: I don't think many EU citizens would object to having this being taken from the national level to the union level. Create a single, strong EU data protection authority, placed somewhere in the union, after the typical competition. I'd suggest Sweden, but would also be happy with Denmark, Germany or the Netherlands. ~~~ jkaptur I don’t know much about the EU - why is the physical location of the office important? ~~~ johannes1234321 Which office? Facebook's or the data protection agency's? EU (more or less) has rules that the countries are primarily responsible for execution of the law and it makes sense that if a local shop causes privacy issues they should be handled by a local authority. Now companies like Facebook play the system a bit. As first line of defense they claim that their European offices are just resellers of ads etc. and the actual operations are done by Corp U.S. (or Corp Bahamas or something) and for a second line of defense pick the country with the "best" enforcement and taxation track record. That can be done as in order for not each country trying to go after their local subsidiary the country with the European headquarters can go after that HQ for all larger cases. Now the Irish government is smart - they see that 1% taxes on all of European business of Corp is better than 40% of only Irish business, thus they don't employ overly strict oversight. Does it make sense for corporations like Facebook? Probably not. But for changing this this requires a unanimous change of EU law in the EU council and getting Irish to agree to that is tough, essentially meaning to pay them subsideries for their farmers or something to compensate. Also, why to U.S. corps go there besides taxation? Language and common law. Essentially going to UK and Ireland is the easiest for U.S. lawyers to work with, as legal traditions and language are closer than on the continent ... and especially now after (formal) Brexit the choice is simpler ... ------ jmnicolas What's up with the F word being liberally used in the article ? oO ~~~ parliament32 Liberally? It appears twice, I honestly didn't even notice first read-through. ------ classified Comments from FB are boatloads of bullshit, as expected. How nice to see that not everybody lets themselves get fucked over by them as a matter of course, like in the US. Cheers to Ireland. ~~~ sneak The only people being fucked over here are consumers who are being denied free choice in the list of services they might voluntarily use. I hate surveillance as much as anyone, but it's hard to see how it might be a good thing that someone's website launch is being censored by the state. ~~~ AlexandrB I hate pollution as much as anyone but it’s hard to see how it might be a good thing that someone’s paper mill launch is being censored by the state. I hate cancer as much as anyone, but it’s hard to see how it might be a good thing that someone’s tobacco advertising is being censored by the state. I hate sex trafficking as much as anyone, but it’s hard to see how it might be a good thing that someone’s Russian bride catalog launch is being censored by the state. —— I guess my point is that your broad objection to government interference is completely meritless without considering the specific harms and benefits under discussion. The problem with surveillance is that the harms are distributed and delayed. Meanwhile Facebook does everything it can to obfuscate what these harms might even be. ~~~ logicchains >The problem with surveillance is that the harms are distributed and delayed. Meanwhile Facebook does everything it can to obfuscate what these harms might even be. The harms of regulation are also distributed and delayed. The Backpage.com sex workers who were selling their services online have to go back to the danger of working the streets as a consequence of new online sex trafficing laws. People previously buying drugs safely online now have to go back to the streets, with dangerous dealers and worse infrastructure for testing drug safety. GDP grows a little slower, nobody notices for a while, until a couple decades later the standards of living in that country are lower than their neighbours and what they could have otherwise been. Some people miss out on meeting the love of their life who they might otherwise have met on Facebook Dating. It's not enough to consider the benefits and harms of the thing you're considering banning, you also need to consider the harms of the ban itself, and of creating the political infrastructure to enforce the ban, that could be turned against you the moment a far-right government wins an election (may I remind you that the People's National Front won 33% of the vote at the last French election). ~~~ throwawayhhakdl The harm of not allowing Facebook dating while it fails to meet privacy regulations is that people have to use alternative dating services that do meet privacy regulations. Social harm: nothing. The implication that any government ban is bad, because fascists, is silly. The concept that some bans have net negative consequences is fine, but there is nothing to suggest that is the case here. ------ paulie_a I am on several dating apps and there is now way in hell I would ever use Facebook dating. It used to be called the poke function anyways. ------ unnouinceput It's Facebook after all, so of course there is no privacy there. Imagine using this service and with their total lack of privacy and having your preferences spilled out. Same as putting them on a billboard. ~~~ jka What could be worse is if the same patterns and culture of allowing targeting and monetization carry over to Facebook Dating from the rest of the Facebook platform and organization. Combined with romance scams[0], it seems possible that Facebook Dating would provide narcissists, manipulators and fraudsters with a lucrative marketplace to operate in. [0] - [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51459517](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51459517) ~~~ Fernicia This is basically a Nigerian prince fraud. What's new? ------ 6510 I got this sinister mental picture of a facebook human farming department trying to add a breeding sub div. ------ timwaagh I'm personally thinking it's sad such resources and effort are expended over something as frivolous as a dating app. If there are significant irregularities it's better to just fine them a couple of billion later. Better for the wallet, too. ~~~ cstross Not better for anyone who ends up being stalked and/or raped as a result of a badly monitored/regulated dating app, though. There's a public safety issue here: dating requires interpersonal negotiation for personal intimacy with consent, which in turn implies that a dating app needs to be "safe space". Facebook is notorious for leaking personal information to third parties (typically but not always advertisers). I have no knowledge of _specific_ risks associated with Facebook's dating app, but the precautionary principle should apply in those cases where personal safety is at risk, and the sheer scale on which Facebook operates means that a dating app backed by the big F needs oversight. Luckily, GDPR FTW. ------ ecmascript It feels wierd to read an american article that uses word like 'fuck you' and 'fucked up'. I kind of like the brutal honesty of the word usage. ------ ipsi Slight tangent, but it seems that TechCrunch are also quite bad at privacy - following the link initially redirects to [https://guce.techcrunch.com/consent?brandType=nonEU&done=htt...](https://guce.techcrunch.com/consent?brandType=nonEU&done=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch%2Ecom%2F2020%2F02%2F13%2Ffacebook%2Ddating%2Dlaunch%2Dblocked%2Din%2Deurope%2Dafter%2Dit%2Dfails%2Dto%2Dshow%2Dprivacy%2Dworkings%2F&gcrumb={{CRUMB})} with a 307, which, when followed redirects to [https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=3_...](https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=3_cc- session_{{GUID})} with a 302. I like that the "consent" URL doesn't actually ask for consent - it just immediately redirects to "collect identifiers" \- it's possible they already assume they have my consent, but since this was checked with a cookie-less cURL command, that seems unlikely. Since my adblocker is blocking the guce.advertising.com domain, I guess I don't get to visit TechCrunch. ~~~ tomger Another post where the top part of the thread is a tangent/unrelated to the post. This is becoming common on HN and I don’t find it helpful. ~~~ corentin88 Totally agree. It’s especially annoying because it’s the top thread. ~~~ Narishma It's the top thread because people find it interesting. If you don't, just click the [-] and it will close the whole thread. ------ bouke Website hijacks my back button in Safari. Is there something that can be done to prevent this? ~~~ dao- I know we (Mozilla) are working on fixing this in Firefox: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1515073](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1515073) You may want to check Apple's bug tracker, they likely have an open issue on this already. ~~~ heartbeats It would be a better idea to block ads served from such sites, or to even send punitive requests. ~~~ dao- It's possible Firefox already does that via its enabled-by-default tracking protection. At least I don't seem to have an issue with the back button here. ~~~ heartbeats Fixing the bug only fixes it for Firefox users, but disincentivizing it fixes it for everyone. For me, uMatrix blocks it; it redirects through [https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers](https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers). I could disable it or go through IA or whatever, but I really haven't the patience to deal with these websites. ------ magwa101 Finally, some sanity applied. ------ cco Are they going after the 40+ dating market? Surely the dating app demographic isn't on Facebook anymore, though maybe Facebook is still popular in the 18-30 age range in Europe? I just don't know. ~~~ Milner08 In the UK its certainly not popular with the late 20's crowd. There are still some people hanging on in there but most people seem to have (thankfully) given up on it for anything other than messages and the occasional event. ------ stared There are various takes on that, which of course depend on values each person (and country) considers as the most important. In my personal opinion, Europe (in which I live) as an "Amish bias" [1], i.e. by default being more cautious about introducing new technologies. I am already annoyed by the constant cookie pop-ups that significantly affect my browsing experience but on mobile. Yes, there are risks with all technologies. But with the current mindset, Europe is setting itself way back comparing to the USA... which is much more cautious than China. Or in other words, Europe sets itself to be the World's calm countryside, in which people live as they used to. Some (maybe even the majority) may like it. Personally, I am asking myself from time to time - when it is time to move to Asia. [1] [https://kk.org/thetechnium/amish- hackers-a/](https://kk.org/thetechnium/amish-hackers-a/) ~~~ chunkyslink Being concerned about privacy is not an Amish Bias, it means our citizens are less likely to be abused by some tech company. ~~~ Cthulhu_ And by extension a government, see the Nazis (invoking Godwin's Law here), but also the Snowden revelations - you can safely assume the NSA and co have access to all data held by the big tech companies. If Trump or his even more extreme successors decide that a certain demographic needs to be rounded up, they can requisition a dataset from Facebook and they'd have the list of people matching that description. Combine that with the military + the militarization of the US' police force and you realize you're only one executive order away from genocide. And I don't know if the world will go to war with the US over that. ~~~ logicchains So the problem with Facebook is that powerful governments might use their data to do horrible things, and the solution is to give governments even more power over our lives by letting them dictate what sites we're allowed to visit? If there wasn't so much of this "oh no, a problem, better get the government to solve it" thinking in the first place, the US government would never have gotten as powerful as it has. ~~~ lagadu > "oh no, a problem, better get the government to solve it" Erm, that's exactly why we have governments: to solve society-level problems. ~~~ logicchains Yes but governments also cause problems, and if they get big enough the cure can be worse than the disease. E.g. if all governments in Europe had not had the power to override citizens' freedom of choice by drafting them and taking their factories to make bombs, there'd have been no WW1, saving tens of millions of lives. If Russian and Chinese governments in the 20th century had not had the power to override their citizen's freedom of choice and expropriate their property, Stalin would not have been able to conduct his purges, Mao would not have been able to conduct his great leap forward, the great famine would have been avoided, saving close to a hundred million lives. As the quote goes, "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.". People think "oh it couldn't happen here"; well that's what people in Germany thought in the 1930s. ------ epixcz EU doesn't want me to find a girl, how sad :/ still thinks this could be much more usable than what become of Tinder, especially when there is no filters, which when you live near border could be sometimes really bad. Not that I have something against other nations, it's just convenient to look only for locals.

Ask HN: How to know how good at coding you are? - blackrabbit I'm a student in college, and I use to think that I was fairly good at coding. But lately, I'm not sure.<p>I was wondering if there are particularly principles of a good coder or some kind of pattern. I find myself coding well and quick when I'm interested and motivated, but other times I'm slow and just procrastinating. ====== tetha In doubt, assume you are bad. You will fare better with that. I guess I have to elaborate on that a bit :) At first, if you assume you are bad at programming, you will begin to look for reasons why you are bad. You will find them and then you can remove them, if necessary. This will make you better. Second, assuming you are bad removes a lot of pressure. You don't need to be good, and it is not bad to do an occasional mistake, because you are bad. Surprise, Surprise, bad programmers make mistakes. Third, this assumption creates a good attitude. You won't think that that particular habit of someone else is stupid, because it is different and you are good, so it must be bad. No. You are bad. Maybe that little attitude of the other person can make you a little bit better, or rather, less bad than you are right now. Let's examine that! And once you are firmly confirmed about how bad you are, you are a good programmer at the same time, for the reasons above (and you will have found a paradoxon. yay). ~~~ blackrabbit Thanks, that was a really great response. =). Love HN. ------ whimsy [http://www.indiangeek.net/wp- content/uploads/Programmer%20co...](http://www.indiangeek.net/wp- content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%20matrix.htm) may help give you some idea, but (being a bit of a newbie coder myself) I don't know how actually helpful it is as a diagnostic. Your mileage may vary. ------ 27182818284 Exercises in books will often have an amount of time that the problem should take you to solve listed with the problem. Work every problem while timing yourself. See if you are below average or above average after six months and a couple of books that are interesting to you. ------ ashitvora well, it's simple. if you work on something that you enjoy, you will do well. Always set small targets. the joy of achieving those targets will motivate you to work more. It doesn't matter how long do you work but how often do you work. So spend some time daily on that project rather than spending 10-15 hrs on Weekend and not thinking about it at all during weekdays. hth ------ metachris Start contributing to an open source project. ------ djb_hackernews topcoder will be able to settle the debate.

Ask HN: why do you upmod? - jonmc12 In my daily reading, the front page of hacker news has become precious intellectual real estate. However, the window for a new article submission to reach critical velocity and land on the front page is very small, due to the large number of submissions.<p>It has made me curious - why does each person upmod a particular posting? In the community guidelines, relevancy is defined as "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity". Yet I am continually surprised at some of the articles that get the MOST upmods. Sometimes finances and politics. And, while the NY Times and TechCrunch are often interesting, are they truly the pinnacle for gratifying one's intellectual curiosity as the cumulative upmod votes might indicate?<p>Once I have understood the community here, I find myself trying to be disciplined.. silently asking myself 'did this topic make me curious?', 'was the content intellectually gratifying (after I read it)?' and finally 'do I want to see more articles like this on the precious front page of HN?'<p>So, I'm curious, what is that silent question that goes through your head before you click that little up arrow? ====== noodle <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=222799> ~~~ robg Bah, thought that was the poll. Wasn't there a poll? ~~~ noodle there was, but i couldn't find it easily. i'm too busy not upvoting things to hunt that one down ;) ------ Hates_ Personally I just upmod articles I want to reference in the future (they get stored in your saved section).

Identifiable Images of Bystanders Extracted from Corneal Reflections (2013) - officialjunk http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0083325& ====== gknoy "... from approximately 1 m using a ... 39 megapixel digital camera ... with 120 mm macro lens" Good news: At least we can still trust that normaly surveillance cameras won't have the kind of resolution to perform this feat. ~~~ boxey ... with 2x Bowens DX1000 1kW flash lamps with dish reflectors to illuminate the bystanders at a distance of 1 meter. That's ridiculous. Why is this even published? ~~~ hvidgaard The point is that the information is clearly there, and with current technology it is possible to extract it under ideal circumstances. It's not to say it's feasible or will be, but it's not hard to imagine sensors becoming advanced enough to capture the required light without using a special lens and artificially illuminate the bystanders. ~~~ boxey Wrong, current image sensors have around ~50% quantum efficiency nowadays. [1] That's 1 f-stop from the theoretical maximum, while they're pushing around 10 f-stops above the top-of-the-line mobile phone cam / security cam. The pace of technology is still limited by physics - if they take out the 2kW monster flash then the lens size needs to be increased to a diameter of several meters, just to maintain the same performance at a distance of 1 meter (!). [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_efficiency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_efficiency) ~~~ aeturnum You're missing the point. This is not a paper on image acquisition, it is a paper on image processing. Because they began from scratch, they used very favorable image conditions. They are not pushing the idea that their capture format is representative of an application. We have no idea how hard it would be to recover an image using 50-5% of the light. No one has written that paper. Same for resolution. The paper does not claim to address that question so it seems silly to critique it for not doing so. ------ hobbes78 As expected, mainstream media reports this as: 'Zoom and enhance': A much-mocked CSI trope becomes reality [http://theweek.com/article/index/254848/zoom-and-enhance- a-m...](http://theweek.com/article/index/254848/zoom-and-enhance-a-much- mocked-csi-trope-becomes-reality) ~~~ dmix As annoying as that is I'm still comforted by the reminder of the (plausible) Blade Runner scene and the thought of how much I like that film - and it's never ending relevancy. ~~~ pwr22 Doesn't Deckard actually shift the angle the picture is taken from..... ~~~ drzaiusapelord I still don't know what happens in that scene, which is strange for a movie with such heavy handed exposition; even the version without narration. GET IT - SHES A REPLICANT! SO IS HE AND HER AND HIM! OH THE OWL IS FAKE. DID I MENTION THE OWL YET? ITS FAKE! Yet a weird 6 minute sequence with a photo editor just goes unexplained. He magically sees something we don't using technology that isn't remotely explained. ~~~ AgentIcarus I always thought the point was that he spots a ... tattoo? Of a snake? That reminds him of the club? Or the dancer... I'm going to have to watch it again aren't I? ~~~ dmix Yes in the 3 minute scene there were multiple indications from the picture to indicate: Chinatown (food/texts), the girls outfit (being a dancer), and an identifying tattoo. Which would point to only a few dance clubs in the city. It was also a connection to the artificial snake scale being found in the bath tub that happened to be rare and only created by a few possible engineers. Engineers who work on robotics. One Chinatown engineer happened to be employed by the people he was looking for, who were robots in need of an engineer... Not a far fetched connection by Hollywood's standards. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHepKd38pr0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHepKd38pr0) ------ rokhayakebe Tell HN: When submitting scientific research it would be very helpful to consider that some people do not readily understand the abstract and the importance of the findings. A brief description in laymen's terms would be appreciated. ~~~ zxcdw I don't know why this was downvoted. I find it relevant for submissions like this, that there are people voicing that they'd appreciate ELI5-like summary which I don't think is hard to reason for, nor can I see how it could be a problem if someone provided one. ------ soupboy For one of the first projects of this type (from 2006) see [http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/CAVE/projects/world_eye/](http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/CAVE/projects/world_eye/). ------ ColinWright [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6970772](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6970772) <\- Discussion Other submissions: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6971753](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6971753) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6974543](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6974543) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6981938](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6981938) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7036296](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7036296) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7091655](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7091655) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8826340](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8826340) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8839516](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8839516) ------ zan2434 I wonder if this concept (corneal reflection photography) can be used for an eye-tracking interface for computers. Can you match the segment of the image of the corneal reflection that is above the pupil with what is on the screen to figure out where/at what the user is looking? ------ chrisbennet It's good to understand what "resolution" actually means when considering these types of problems. Suppose you have 2 dots close together. The ability of your camera to "see" (resolve) 2 dots as opposed to a single blob is a function of the sensor and the lens. All the sensor resulution in the world is not going to let you resolve something if the lens has already blurred the image. While sensors have become relatively cheap, optics have not. I think physics alone makes it impossible to have a camera phone lens that resolves anywhere near what these XX megapixel image sensors could theoritically resolve. ------ Brajeshwar I hope I can tuck in this video as a gentle reminder of what we wishes we can do. Now that we are pretty much there. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk) ------ mleonhard I wish they provided one of the original source photos. ------ smmnyc Reminds me of the first episode of Twin Peaks where there is reflection of key evidence in the eyes of a character in a video recording... ------ typedweb Enhance! Sorry, just had to say that. :) ------ nether it's happening. ------ JBiserkov Received: June 17, 2013 Accepted: November 2, 2013 Published: December 26, 2013 Not complaining or anything. Just noting when the research was done ~~~ dang Good catch. We added the year to the title. ------ jlebrech uncrop

Spotify plans to join the hardware race, but what can it offer? - adrian_mrd https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/spotify-is-building-a-hardware-product-and-it-could-be-a-smart-speaker/ ====== adrian_mrd Really hope this is something unique and interesting - rather than just a copycat smart speaker, for instance. Spotify has such a strong brand and identity, so hopefully they can imbue that into any hardware (if/when it gets released). And given Sweden's fantastic music pedigree (Sverige!), I could even see potential for a music/rhythm device-of-sorts - more Dropmix and Guitar Hero - than say something akin to a UE Boom or an Echo Dot.

11 reasons why you should avoid OpenVZ and Virtuozzo in any cases - pavel_odintsov http://www.stableit.ru/2016/06/11-reasons-why-you-should-avoid-openvz.html ====== timbutlerau As a user of Virtuozzo for 10 years, this is a load of rubbish. We haven't experienced anywhere near these amount of issues. Virtuozzo is still a long, long way in front of LXC and LXD when it comes to features and isolation. The "outdated" kernel argument just shows how out of touch this article is.

Interview with Kasper Hulthin, co-founder of Podio - JCB_K http://www.founderly.com/2011/05/kasper-hulthin-podio-1-of-2/ ====== JCB_K Podio is a great app. A build-your-own-app Tool is usually not that great, but they really worked out a good way to do it. The variety of apps you can create out of the small pool of functions they provide is much bigger than you'd expect.