jkeisling/hacker-news-corpus-2007-2022 huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Traditional Book vs Web Publication
Hello HN!

I'm a fellow tech founder; before this company, I was a professional tea taster and am still an expert in Chinese tea specially and high-end tea generally.

Using my situation as an example, I'm curious about the prevailing views on publishing a traditional print book (via a publishing house - not self-publishing) versus publishing a "book" using subscriber based online publishing tools (for example: ghost.org, WordPress + subscriber management, or Substack).

In general, it seems that a traditional book is:

-) seen as more prestigious - to be a "published author"

-) has editorial support and licensing support for things like artworks and other references

While, for online publishing tools:

-) Web layout has a lot of flexibility over print - color photos, tables, footnotes are all better on the web(?)

-) In theory, by building a subscriber base and publishing over time, a writer could make more money

-) an author could use comments to interact with readers and answer questions

My book is:

1) very niche - advanced techniques in the praxis of Chinese Tea Ceremony

2) must be read in order - its a book that builds on prior information from previous chapters

3) potentially serializable - I plan to write more than one, in a continuous series

My current thoughts are:

-) The prestige is nice, but a steady income from readers is superior - if anyone will subscribe

-) Substack is a poor fit because of its focus on email

-) The traditional publication industry is dying (and was not terribly likely to have high support for super niche topics anyway) and its better to be on the forefront of what's next (the internet!)

*The question*: What would you do in either the general case or my specific case?

@dang long time reader and very-hesitant poster on HN; if this violates any rules, I apologize and would be happy to delete it.
Ask HN: How to get an idea funded?
Okay, so I've been trying to take my start-up from it's earliest possible stage to getting ready for Angel Investment.

With a low budget, what would be the key things to show investors about my start-up? Ex. Powerpoint, etc.

My start-up is based off of an application on the iPhone, so providing a demo of my start-up would be a demo of the application, me having no experience in programming applications, it would cost me a lot to get a demo done, so are there any other choices?

Are there any mentors that would be willing to help me out?
About Section Blank
Since yesterday, the profile about section is blank.
DDOS without a botnet
http://d0z.me/
Techcrunch story here: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/21/d0z/
Should I be needing an IDE to code in C++?
I personally prefer emacs but compared to Xcode and other IDEs, I see it lacking in features.
A JSON event-based convention for WebSockets
http://blog.new-bamboo.co.uk/2010/2/10/json-event-based-convention-websockets
HTML5 WebSockets give you a persistent connection between server and browser which you can use to send text data back and forth. Here we explore an event-centric message format on top of WebSockets to ease the development of Javascript Real Time Applications.
Ocean turbines: the Gulf stream could solve the energy crisis
http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/15944/ocean-turbines-the-gulf-stream-could-solve-the-energy-crisis/
An interesting fact from the Bureau of Ocean Energy management claims that if you utilised just 1/1000th of the energy potential available in the Atlantic Gulf Stream, you could supply Florida with 35% of its electricity. So, if you apply the same logic across the world’s oceans, technically, there is the potential possibility to supply the entire world with electricity.
Show HN: Tools and code to make MicroPython development faster and more fun
https://projects.om-office.de/frans/esp32_mpy_robooter
Because I love bringing small devices to life and I also love Python I was very excited when MicroPython started to be conveniently available for platforms like the ESP32. But it's still quite cumbersome and error prone to get your code on a device and make it run. And then you have to worry about wearing out the
flash memory by continuously copying over new versions of your code.
This is why I came up with "esp32_mpy_robooter" which I now use among a couple of private projects, e.g. for the Watchy ([1]) and the M5StickC ([2]).

Rather than copying over modified Python files to the device over and over again it (the toolset) creates a RAM disk on the device and _fetches_ the source files
via WiFi, which means you don't have to reboot the device and you can even stay in the REPL!
Non-modified files are taken care of using file checksums and the server on your development machine (providing the actual source files) even pre-compiles them to byte code which makes them smaller and load faster.

The project is far from ready and still needs a developer heart to like it but since I currently use it for me alone it can only grow to a lovable gem by making me feel someone else is valuing the effort - this is why I'm here :)

[1]: https://watchy.sqfmi.com/

[2]: https://docs.m5stack.com/en/core/m5stickc_plus

[3]: https://projects.om-office.de/frans/watchy.py

[4]: https://projects.om-office.de/frans/m5stickc_multitool

[5]: https://projects.om-office.de/frans/m5paper_multitool

[6]: https://projects.om-office.de/frans/esp32_mpy_audiokit
Top 16 Lies of Lawyers
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/09/the-top-ten-six.html
Guy Kawasaki lists the top sixteen lies lawyers will tell entrepreneurs.
Show HN: Clammer – share and discuss article excerpts with friends
https://clammer.io
Clammer is a social platform for sharing and discussing excerpts from online written content. It's like Twitter but every post and thread stems from the facts, quotes, and insights you collect online, all tied back to the source. In fact, you can have a whole conversation without ever writing a single word.

I made this because I was tired of rehashing vague opinions, the real juicy conversations are in the details. Would love to know if this resonates with anyone; any and all feedback is hugely appreciated.

Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-4uMcNiGk
Tell HN Students: DC Startup Scramble
http://www.startupscramble.com
StartUp Scramble DC University Challenge: January 29th-31st, 2010<p>SAVE THE DATE! Ashoka’s Youth Venture and Young Impact, in partnership with a consortium of sponsors, announce the StartUp Scramble DC University Challenge taking place January 29-31st, 2010!<p>The StartUp Scramble™ DC University Challenge will bring 100+ entrepreneurial-minded college students from DC universities together in a weekend-long event to build and launch sustainable ventures that address social issues affecting local communities.<p>From Friday to Sunday evening—54 hours—teams of students organize to pitch, plan, and work tirelessly to launch socially-conscious businesses and organizations. Participants deep-dive into an accelerated process of venture development over the course of an intense, two-day facilitated start-up experience. High-profile guest mentors, speakers, and panel members visit throughout the weekend, giving participating students the opportunity to network with potential investors, service providers, and employers.<p>Youth Venture and Young Impact are inviting aspiring social entrepreneurs from over seven leading universities across the DC-Maryland-Virginia area to participate in the StartUp Scramble™:<p><pre><code> 1. American University
2. Catholic University
3. George Mason University
4. Georgetown University
5. Howard University
6. The George Washington University
7. University of the DC
8. University of Maryland
</code></pre>
Students will return to their campuses equipped with the platform, tools, knowledge, network, and motivation to sustain the momentum around advocacy and action that they began in the weekend Scramble.<p>The StartUp Scramble™ DC University Challenge concludes Sunday evening with teams pitching their ventures to a panel of expert judges. Winning teams will receive mentorship, up to $1,000 in seed funding, entry into a global network of Ashoka “changemakers,” and the possibility of one year of incubation services from Ashoka and its partners. Youth Venture will continue to work with the winning young social entrepreneurs intensively in the coming year to support their ventures, connecting the venture teams to StartUp Scramble™ sponsors for additional mentoring and engagement.
Ask HN: Lack of Philly Jobs?
Anyone else notice a dearth of HN jobs in the Philly area? I saw zero in April and only 2 in March. Is it really that dead in the area?
What is Your definition of successful web mail?
I'm reading a lot of opinions about Facebook's rumored "Gmail killer". I'm curious about the specific characteristics of any web mail that HNers would consider valuable? I am NOT referring to the solution of setting up your own domain mail server and linking it to browser interface or mobile client. I can think of two: (1) Easy download/backup: API for fast batch import/export, zip files via browser, etc. (something beyond IMAP). I would be willing to pay extra for this service; (2) Providing reasonable assurance that data associated with my account or with individual emails do not persist after the account or the emails are deleted. I admit the second characteristic is theoretically impossible without complete control and audit of the hardware. I hope someone can propose a novel transparent process (such as data being stored in escrow or audited by certified third party or something). What specific characteristics would you look for?
World's Roundest Object
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMByI4s-D-Y?hd=1
The world's roundest object helps solve the longest running problem in measurement -- how to define the kilogram.
A kilogram isn't what it used to be. Literally. The original name for it was the 'grave', proposed in 1793 but it fell victim to the French Revolution like its creator, Lavoisier. So begins the tale of the most unusual SI unit. The kilogram is the only base unit with a prefix in its name, and the only one still defined by a physical artifact, the international prototype kilogram or IPK.

But the problem with this definition has long been apparent. The IPK doesn't seem to maintain its mass compared to 40 similar cylinders minted at the same time. The goal is therefore to eliminate the kilogram's dependence on a physical object. Two main approaches are being considered to achieve this end: the Avogadro Project and the Watt Balance.

The Avogadro project aims to redefine Avogadro's constant (currently defined by the kilogram -- the number of atoms in 12 g of carbon-12) and reverse the relationship so that the kilogram is precisely specified by Avogadro's constant. This method required creating the most perfect sphere on Earth. It is made out of a single crystal of silicon 28 atoms. By carefully measuring the diameter, the volume can be precisely specified. Since the atom spacing of silicon is well known, the number of atoms in a sphere can be accurately calculated. This allows for a very precise determination of Avogadro's constant.

Special thanks to Katie Green, Dr. David Farrant, the CSIRO, and the National Measurment Institute for their help. Thanks also to Nessy Hill for filming and reviewing earlier drafts of this video.

Music by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com) Decision, Danse Macabre, Scissors
Reputation On Stackoverflow (Graph)
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/629ce435b8.jpg
We all 'know' that most of the work on a user-generated site is done by a small number of users but it is rare to get a clear picture of it. Stackoverflow has a great reputational system and easy to parse user profile user pages so I knocked up a simple scatter plot of reputation versus ranking. Any more data on user participation in community sites?
Ask HN: Best practices for a scalable community moderation system?
I am building a TikTok like video sharing site and am looking for technical guidelines and best practices for building a community moderation system to serve the first 0 to 100k users. Without admins or trusted moderators.

E.g. when a video is flagged x times within y views, automatically provide it to select users for review. If z% of those confirm the flag, automatically delete the video and punish the uploader. Etc.

Any tips or resources detailing how to build out such a system?
As Java Slips, C Is Number One Again
http://www.developer.com/daily_news/article.php/397458/As-Java-Slips-C-Is-Number-One-Again.htm
C may be an old programming language, but it's back at number one on the TIOBE Index as more and more developers turn their backs on Java.
Tell HN: Ant Design is not on GitHub anymore
Both repository[0] and documentation website[1] are not found.

They seem to be using Gitee as their new home[2]

[0] https://github.com/ant-design/ant-design
[1] https://ant.design/
[2] https://gitee.com/ant-design/ant-design
How to use oDesk contractors for system administration tasks
http://blog.brendel.com/2011/08/tips-on-using-odesk-contractors-as.html
How can you use contractors for system administration tasks, without having to hand them root passwords to your servers? The better solution is to let them work on the automation (scripting) of system administration tasks instead, the article explains.
Show HN: Script and Live Code Ableton Live in Scheme Lisp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0sKBA-Pv2c
Scheme for Max is a free and open-source extension to Max/MSP that enables you to script and live-code Max and Ableton Live using s7 Scheme Lisp. You can use s4m for live-coding, building sequencers, generative music, scripting the Live API, making control surfaces, and lots more! In the video I demonstrate the example Ableton Live devices included in Scheme for Max 0.4

Get Scheme for Max from GitHub https://github.com/iainctduncan/scheme-for-max

Find out more on the forum: https://schemeformax.discourse.group/
Dealing with the Office Psycho
http://angryaussie.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/dealing-with-the-office-psycho/
While most people here are trying to escape the office, this article is interesting, in particular for the reference: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/96/open_boss.html

This other article is longer and talks about how CEOs of companies should be screened for psychopaths.

"And this summer, together with New York industrial psychologist Paul Babiak, Hare begins marketing the B-Scan, a personality test that companies can use to spot job candidates who may have an MBA but lack a conscience."

This paragraph struck me as interesting, since I was just reading about http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=113655 -- VCs from an engineer's point of view.
Show NH: CodeAvengers.com - learning to code just got MARVELous
http://codeavengers.com
My brothers and I have just released CodeAvengers.com the funnest and most effective way to learn Javascript online. Read some feedback from some initial users below and CHECK IT OUT. We would love your FEEDBACK!! Catch me at -> mike at codeavengers.com

"This is a MARVELous tutorial. I feel I am really learning JavaScript now."

"This is great - best way to spend a few hours in ages"

"I really liked the idea of coding to do something, be it moving a robot or creating part of an application, rather than coding just for the sake of coding. It's certainly a lot easier to learn by doing than learn in the abstract. Thanks for the great site!"
Useful Free Small Icons For Web Development Projects
http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/useful-free-small-icons-for-web-development-projects/
Small icons are a necessity for web development projects, due to the fact that they’re simple, efficient and they don’t overcrowd the design. Varying from sizes of 16x16px to 48x48px, they shouldn’t miss from your icons collection. Bookmark and consider them for your next projects cause they’re free to download.
Using data analytics to offer loans to new borrowers
http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/16/earnest-launches-customized-interest-rates-for-borrowers/
Using data analytics Earnest is able to offer one-, two-, and three-year loans to new borrowers who have short credit histories, large student loans, or are just entering the workforce. These non-traditional borrowers are often overlooked by financial services institutions.

Interest rates, says Earnest's CEO Louis Beryl, “should be about what people deserve to pay, not what they would be willing to pay.”
Ask HN: What Is Abstraction?
I've been thinking about the concept of abstraction both as it relates to computer science and as a general concept. My perspective so far is that abstraction is a method to strip away details and focus on the essential elements of a system. That's a little too much like the Wikipedia definition so let me expand a bit.

Humans have something called working memory which can be thought of as the number of ideas that someone can hold in mind simultaneously. Our working memory has limits, different for everyone (and it seems to diminish with age). By abstracting a system we can work with the essential relationships and features without getting caught up in details and exceeding our working memory capacity.

The danger with abstraction becomes eliminating too much and losing important details. The art of abstraction (I think it qualifies as an art) is thus to find the core process, relationship, features, etc that define something to be able to understand and work with it without making incorrect conclusions due to oversimplification. Correctly applying abstraction would arm you with a model and fundamental understanding of the system/process/object which allows you to work with it and draw accurate conclusions and predictions. It would also let you understand how a system broke down, where to intervene, or if something is truly a threat to the system.

So far I haven't provided any examples, but one that comes to mind is Amazon's flywheel business model and how lowering prices leads to more revenue (discussion here about 3/4 down if you're not familiar https://tim.blog/2019/02/20/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts-jim-collins-361/ or any number of articles that show up on Google).

I'm interested to get feedback. What do you think is correct? What am I forgetting? What are some dangers? How have you applied this concept in programming or other areas?

Cheers.
Legalize Corn
http://legalizecorn.com/
What if:

1) corn were the #1 cash crop in the U.S. (instead of #2), and
2) corn were illegal (instead of legal).

http://legalizecorn.com/2013-07-19-about.html
Show HN: Mercedes-Benz Group AG owns an IPv4 /8 subnet
https://ipinfo.io/AS31399
https://bgp.he.net/AS31399

From what I have researched, it doesn't look like they use it. There are not too many /8 subnets, "owned" only by one company, too. Softbank also has one.

A more detailed list can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assigned_/8_IPv4_addre...
Tips on new upcoming Core JQuery version
http://www.eventnook.com/video/v/423/State-of-jQuery-Part-I-jQuery-Core-by-Dave-Methvin
State of jQuery - Part I - jQuery Core by Dave Methvin
IxEdit – JavaScript-based Interaction Design Tool for the web
http://blogupstairs.com/tools/ixedit-javascript-based-interaction-design-tool-for-the-web-no-coding/
IxEdit is a JavaScript-based interaction design tool for the web. With IxEdit, designers can practice DOM-scripting without coding to change, add, move, or transform elements dynamically on your web pages.
Show HN: Thriftify - Thrift as a Service
http://thriftify.org
A little something me (@erans) and @rantav cooked up after an idea from @scode
Addicted to Learning? Hardcore MOOC Students Race to Pass Courses
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Professors-Can-Learn-From/139367/
Hundreds of people are spending 20 or 30 hours a week just taking free Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs. They're not looking for credit, just a challenge of learning. This Chronicle of Higher Ed story looks at whether these MOOC addicts think they're learning as much as they would in a traditional college course.
Postaljs-jquery: a jQuery wrapper for the in-memory message bus, postal.js
https://github.com/nicholascloud/postaljs-jquery
I wrote this small library after experimenting with postal.js, in order to make it a little easier (syntactic sugar) to wire up jQuery elements to postal.js. Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated!
The 3 Basic Tools of Systems Engineering
http://teddziuba.com/2010/12/the-3-basic-tools-of-systems-engineering.html
You can throw three things at problems: money, time, and code.

Do them in the right order
Fxor – fast one-time pad tool for GNU/Linux and some *BSD systems
fxor is an one-time pad tool with good performance, The tool can be used with any file, small or big, text or binary.

You can use fxor to encrypt your important files or just to play with OTP,
Then code was written carefully as supposed to do with any crypto tool.

fxor tested on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD and OpenBSD.

FAQ: https://github.com/abderraouf-adjal/fxor/blob/master/FAQ

Github: https://github.com/abderraouf-adjal/fxor

Home page: https://abderraouf-adjal.github.io/fxor

OTP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad
Do you have examples of super simple software that are intuitive for 5 yearolds?
I'm stuck on figuring out how to simplify the software product, and was wondering if the community knows of any good products to share for inspirations!

Currently we have a MVP to put together interview questions to prepare students/undergrads for their interviews. Would love to get some feedback on how to make it easier.

https://kinobits.kinobi.asia/questions/public
RAM instead HDD/SSD. 
http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk
I don't pursue any promotional purposes, but never heard about such drive before.
Ask HN: What do you think about business logic to code execution?
We've built an internal tool that allowed our business owners to create and edit the logic, that becomes executable, and no longer depends on engineering resources to modify.

Here is an example of what we use for business logic on selecting a driver for delivery from the pool (it is slightly simplified - it's essentially the set of basic operations, ifs, cycles, and set of input data, process variables, and output data).

Take a look here https://www.evernote.com/l/AA9s6U867f1GvLgIr3iOHrzJgrjkRxWe0nUB/image.png

We maintain this in the versioned diagram that can be pushed to Lambda + API gateway, and essentially the platform code relies on that endpoint to provide a response.

For the project we are using it for, it allows us to make adjustments to the process without depending on engineering; another use case is pricing -- override and experimentation.

Again, the engineering team thinks it is cool and wants to productize it. I would really appreciate any feedback or ideas.
I'm now a full-time freelancer and working alone really depresses me.
So, I am building a place where remote workers can connect with one another based on the similarity of their tasks. It's like a co-working space, but on your laptop. it's called tribes and here is what it does: https://tribes.landen.co/

But really, I am deeply passionate about this because working remotely really does take a huge toll on my mentality. It also shunts me away from true human enjoyable interactions...given that most of my contacts are work-related and only require professional talk. So, this is a place for people who do the same stuff and want to converse on whatever the hell they want, outside of a work setting.

I want to see if people here want something like this so I can continue developing the platform knowing people will actually use it. So, I just set up a waitlist on the website, we are currently at around 70 people on the waitlist. If you think this might be of any use to you, don't forget to add your email to the waitlist!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this, everyone!

P.S: cuz I didn't have time to actually code one, I made this landing page really quickly on some landing page builder (landen). To anyone who appreciates design, I know that this might seem low-effort but please understand.