skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Only a small percentage of the population lives in extreme poverty today, yes.

But even a smaller percentage deals with significant issues due to climate change, today. The changes thus far have been excessively inflated, and may be net-positive so far.

You're right about the worst case scenario, GHG emissions could in theory lead to Earth becoming like Venus or somewhere in between the two where the atmosphere is bad enough to cause the end of humanity. But this is extremely unlikely and might not even be possible with the sum of our economically accessible fossil fuel reserves.

In reality, it seems there is still a threat of huge increase in poverty due to some WW3 type event, or a superbug global plague, or something like that.

I think it's unfair to weigh climate change above poverty at the moment, even for the overall prosperity of the human race.

In fact, I think climate change will end up being much worse for the rest of life on Earth than humanity. We have the advantage of being able to plan and react in advance, so we will probably be fine for a long time to come, but most plants and animals might go extinct.
No, bridges (usually, but it depends on countries/national regulations and on the nature of the structure) have an overall design factor of safety between 1.2 and 1.8, in some cases 2, but the actual presumed loads are already increased (i.e. the calculation loads are more than what will actually happen) and there are some "implicit" safety factors in the use of materials, so that the overall "real" factor of safety usually is between 2 and 3.

The highest required factor of safety in engineering is AFAIK 5 and is used for things like lifts, cablecars and similar.
> This year, it's going to be around 370,000€ (and since I live in Germany, my income is in the top 0,5% or so).

Is your business focused on the German market or the US market? Or is it multi-lingual / international? What percentage of time is spent answering support requests?

> The subscription model helps you to stay afloat. People will pay for a product they use every day (and thus, derive value from every day).

Have you experimented with different pricing models? Is Duolingo / Tinder model (1 month / 6 months / 12 months) the best choice for B2C subscriptions without Spotify / Netflix-like licensing costs?
I created PartsBox (https://partsbox.io/) and I'm quite happy running it. It's a tool for companies building electronics (also available for free for hobbyists/makers). The business was (and is) a "freedom project" for me: I wanted to be independent of everyone, so no investors, no partners, and no employees. So far it has worked out pretty well.

The nice thing about running a business in a niche is that you get to interact with nice people. My customers are engineers, I practically never get those mythical "toxic customers".

The bad thing about running a solo-founder business is the stress and anxiety. These are difficult to deal with.
I run a series of events for people who run agencies. (By agency, I mean creative, marketing, or technology agencies.)

Events are a good business to get into as a solo founder. You can book a venue, and you don't have to pay until a few weeks before the event. If you haven't sold any tickets you can just cancel the venue and walk away.

I started Agency Hackers in 2017 and I'm almost ready to quit my job and focus on it full time.

It took me two years to figure out that instead of selling individual tickets to events, I should offer a "membership" option where people can subscribe and just come to every event.

Since I started offering membership last month I've signed up 30 agencies – for a MRR of £4,500. Once I hit 50 I will quit my job.

To market the events, I don't run adverts or have much of a social presence. The only way I promote the events is via cold email - and an opt-in email list to customers. The cold email platform I use (Reply.io) did a case study on me if you're curious: [https://reply.io/case-study/agency-hackers/]
> Calculus is science if it is used to discover laws of physics

So a shower is science if the warm water inspires someone to come up with a new theory? That is a terrible place to draw the boundary; it opens up a can of semantic worms about what 'using' means. Major scientific results that are most easily expressed using calculus can be derived using processes other than calculus.

> The problem with the data first approach you are advocating for is that it almost never results in a good explanation

Science doesn't provide good explanations at the best of times. I'll willingly bet not 1 engineer in 100 can explain gravity. We just know if we measure mass we get predictive estimates of velocity. That isn't an explanation; that is reliable magic. In fact there have been a couple of centuries where even the scientists were basically just plotting data and curve fitting.
This is true, still I am, as a, so to say, customer, just making a choice which works better, that was my point.

BTW have started a company in US also - can confirm that was also easy. But one needs to have a bank account in US, and US banks are not remote friendly, after opening an account too (I had an accident with account locking, lots of grey hair from nothing). I know Stripe Atlas makes this easier now.

Also my experience in UK proves it is not exactly a EU - much easier too. And GOV.UK is something extraordinary.
Firefox has always* respected the underline position/thickness in the font. This is why in an example like

data:text/html,<u style="font:99px times">Times</u> <u style="font:99px Arial">Arial

the Times and Arial elements get different underlines.

(Safari and Chrome don't do this, they ignore the font's properties and use an arbitrary underline of their own -- which differs between the two, Chrome's being somewhat thicker.)

* "Always" may not be strictly true, but it's certainly been a long time.
Haven't noticed #1 but I love the new share sheet feature. I often text with the same few people, sharing links, images and what not, and this thing has really sped up that flow. Also I think the risk of accidental sharing is mitigated somewhat by the fact that you're taken to the compose screen and actually have to press send – it doesn't happen right away and gives you an opportunity to back out. This I also find extremely useful since I often add comments to whatever I share.
Yep, that is the main reason why WSL exists.

And as gateway drug into Azure as well, most likely.

I never had any use for SUA during all these years doing Windows development.
I'm not sure this is true, at least not on net.

Do you have any scientific evidence showing a net global increase in extreme weather events in the last several decades?
Indeed:

https://2019.www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#FileSharing
What's next, "web fdisk" for repartitioning hard disks "natively" in the browser?

Or "Web SSH"?

What about "Web Bootloader"? Or "Web Intel Management Engine"?

This thing is a Web Turkey.
Funnily enough, I started using Airmail a few months ago, and just today I've started moving back to Mail.app which is, indeed, good enough. In the end I found Airmail a little heavy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In theory, in France, people from lower-class background would get government allowances while they are students, to help support them. And some school have apprenticeship system in place, where the student works part-time and is paid, including to attend school.
I wonder how it fits/doesn't fit into their WebThings initiative.

https://iot.mozilla.org/
Is there evidence that crash reports are being systematically analyzed? It seems more likely those are collected and reviewed as convenient for the highest priority fix investigations.
> You say it like it's a bad thing.

Actually the web is an OS: it has api for gui, for persistent data, for networking, for all kind of periphericals (gpu, gps, bluetooth) ... The problem you're raising (which i agree with) is that we already have an OS and we'd like to use that one.
And what do you expect the answer to that question to be? They just released a new major version and announced $5MM revenue in the same post.

Seriously, think for a second and tell me what you expect the answer to be.
I have so many questions, but let's start with a few ones:

Is this a web application or a smartphone one?

What did you have to learn, tech-wise, to be able to build it?

How long did it take you, from your first line of code until you released the first prototype?

How did you get your first user(s)?

How did you get the business idea (without details)? Was it a personal pain point, or did you work in that field before?

And congrats BTW, it looks like you did an amazing job.
Why Innovation in Law Matters – IE Law School
I agree 100% with you on this. I think the idea that talented people have a moral obligation to spend their time trying to solve humanity's problems or advance our consciousness and curiosity should be much more widespread. Look at where all the ivy league grads are going. It's kind of sad to see.
Have a look at all the ancient Linux routers everywhere. They have all kinds of nasty security issues up to RCE. Linux and open source doesn't solve anything by itself. It must be brought to the customer -- without interaction.

Security must be the default. Automatic updates, sane default configuration. And a user interface that supports security.
Because everyone outside US have heard of them.

US was the only market where Nokia had troubles selling their Symbian/J2ME phones for example.

Should I start digging market shares figures of feature phones before iPhone came to be?
>Same with "unsolicited popups". What are you using that does this?

Open Chrome.

"Try Microsoft Edge!"
I didn't know about it. It's great. I dunno you could try with some minor AdSense.

I've also submitted Encycolorpedia to SaaSHub. You should verify it there https://www.saashub.com/encycolorpedia
If this is predicting electric bikes that can keep up with the current speed of the roads, I don't think it sounds meaningfully different from light motorcycles in terms of infrastructure. The vulnerability of the traveller sounds the same. But perhaps the lighter vehicle and environmental benefit will help it reach a critical mass where change will happen..

I think we're generally headed for slower roads in built up areas. It's the cheapest option. 15mph roads will probably be safe enough for cyclists and I personally believe stopping distances have got to come down a lot if we're ever going to let the robots drive cars in towns.
The world is badly designed. We can fix that. ;)
EEVblog (Dave) entered the chat

hope he makes a video about this development.
> And most importantly - most stable

I have to restart XCode at least once an hour to get all my breakpoints back and several times a day if it crashes for no apparent reason and boots up with the project missing, empty or missing files. Fortunately I don't do a lot of app development any more but some low level C libs don't compile themselves (no: not possible to do this in any other language).

Stable is not what I use to describe XCode. Bloated with "do it the apple way" yes but not stable.
Can I do coffee first?
Everyone here has made a bunch of great points about this hardware, and massive props to the creators, and to IBM for open-sourcing the CPU. In light of that, this comment might sound a bit "shallow Hal", but... looking at the Slimbook's "Eclipse" case... nothing about that screams "slim".
Bodies Found in Lorry Container
I find the fact that it s 2019 and accounting is still stuck on this parade of "quarterly" numbers baffling, especially for tech companies. And on top of this, investors will pretend they couldn't have known until the "sorcerers" release their "secret". It's like fukin middle earth .

The one (1) guy who runs nomad list all by himself, reports his earnings daily. Surely it can't be THAT hard

https://nomadlist.com/open
5t972530
2533
how did you find your first customers if you dont mind sharing that ?
Demonstrating Quantum Supremacy
IBM questions Google quantum computing claims
Number two is actually the thing that pushed me to switch from Android. Now it has followed me to iOS. These product managers are out of control. Why should it be mandatory? At least it’s not suggesting messenger contacts from other apps that I contacted literally once ever 3 years ago. (Yet)
For the period of 2008 to 2014 I built and ran an online webshop[1] selling Bath bombs and soaps - the product was specifically picked because in 2008 there wasn't that many online shops selling low cost bath products in the UK.

What I did differently was I wrote everything from scratch, built the product databases, designed the graphics, wrote the front and back ends etc. I did it mainly as a learning exercise.

It never made enough money for me to live on, but for someone with modest outgoings it could have replaced their income. Sales started to drop off as the site design started looking dated and due to no mobile device support. I was busy with my better paying day-job at the time, and had no impetus to fix the problems.

I'm about to do the same again, but this time using dropshipping for stock and delivery, and I also intend to blog my journey (mainly as a record of what I've done) as I create each element of it, once again as a learning exercise using more modern tools/platforms.

--

[1] http://www.jaruzel.com/files/fuzzybuttons-2012.jpg
I'd argue that only the last two questions are relevant.

- Both web and smartphone apps can create this kind of revenue.
- The tech stack is 99% irrelevant unless the end customer depends on it, which in 99% of the times, isn't the case.
This is just not a mature market. Also I suspect there are separate markets for locals and foreigners..

Just a business address can be easily 5x of what one has to pay in US or EU, and this is given Estonian govt really doesn't send you any letters there, in UK and US does.

BTW just learned company closure takes months and 400-1600 EUR, depending on whom you ask..
Maybe I'm an Apple fan boy, but the list of features WebKit mark as "Not considering" [0] are indeed features I can see become awful security / usability problems. Like WebUSB, that just can't end well...

[0]: https://webkit.org/status/#?status=not%20considering
Smaller engines are often less efficient, rarely have emissions control devices, and are more often two-stroke engines (which are much more visibly polluting and almost surely much more polluting in reality).

As deployed, they’re also often on vehicles that don’t get inspected and often don’t get maintained until they flat out don’t work.
Just for my understanding, as soon as someone buys a cut of a font and uses it in a web context, it is basically "out there" and could technically be downloaded by anyone visiting that website since there is no font DRM right?
Is this mainly targeted at people making fonts for print?
Putin Pulls Russia Out of Convention on War-Crime Probes
I launched a men’s skincare line about 3 months ago (https://www.mendskin.co) which isn’t “successful” yet, but it’s my first experience selling physical goods and I think these things take time.

It’s tough. There’s a reason a lot of companies spend $1MM from investors before launching a product, but I wanted to test the hypothesis that this need not be the case. “Beauty products” (for lack of a better term) definitely require heavy capital, and it’s becoming hard to do everything by myself. All the individual things that need to be done aren’t hard- it’s just that there’s so much to do in order to deliver successful physical products.

But I enjoy it.
Ask HN: How did you build up your personal knowledge base?
I'm looking for a good solution to build a personal knowledge Base. What are your experiences? Which Tool you are using? How long is it in use?
Dreaming bigger than bicycles would be helpful as well. Electrification, and having more than two wheels is a big step up in terms of practicality.

There’s a real sweet spot somewhere around where electrified pedal tricycles, electric three wheel mopeds, and small electric cars like the Renault Twizy, that has huge potential.

I cycle everywhere but I’m realistic about the issues with mass adoption. Bicycles are fundamentally unstable and they are too narrow to expect road discipline by cyclists to be an emergent property. There is also a very narrow band of weather conditions, especially as a function of how hilly it is, where most people can cycle without overheating.

Electrification is a game changer but there’s no two ways about it: these are now literally motorbikes, with all the same potential for antisocial behavior (pavement riding, traffic weaving, shortcuts through pedestrian only areas.) Not being quite so efficient with the amount of road space used might benefit cyclist behavior and force the authorities hand into providing first class infrastructure for non-car travel.

My personal solution is a bit of a hack: ride a cargo bike with a large front bucket. Keeps me slow and riding safely :)
Nice one. It's on SaaSHub, you should verify it https://www.saashub.com/page-flows.

Do you know who are your top competitors?
Sounds a lot like Windows development haha
Strangely beautiful, but also scary... makes you wonder what people will come up with once nuclear fusion makes electric energy even cheaper - I guess the amount of light pollution we have today will pale by comparison (no pun intended).
German market only. Going international is an option I considered, but it is a lot more complex than simply localizing the app. Since I make more money than I need and I don't want my job to become a different one (I still get to code a lot), I didn't do it yet.

> "Have you experimented with different pricing models?"

No, I kept the pricing model very simple. The price increased a bit throughout the years. I charge what feels fair.

There's a trial period and if you like the product, you pay for it. If not, then not. There is no freemium, I never give discounts, I don't sell ads or data or make money in any other way. It's a simple thing :)

Some people claim that it's easy to test prices. But this is not true.

If you serve a niche, people talk. If one person pays more than another for the same product (and signed up for the same version at a similar time), you'd lose trust.

The nice thing about making more money than you need is that it frees you from thinking about "making even more money". Yeah, I like making more money, because all of this could be over one day, but there is no need to stress myself about it.
Any investment can fail. You spent money to bet on the price going up and won. Someone else lost.

The markets aren't exclusively available to the rich. Anyone can buy and sell stocks.

Successful people get to live better than the poor. That is why we should do more to encourage more poor people to live better by contributing more.

The economy is not zero-sum.
Doom and Bloom: The Growing Millennial Obsession with Houseplants
what were your marketing strategies at the time ?
E2E encryption is kind of a fucky thing, some suggest it is fundamentally impossible for central web services and even mobile / desktop apps. Basically, if there is a third party involved in the code besides Alice and Bob, the two can never guarantee E2E encryption.

Web part is simple, as there are countless ways you can get malicious code delivered from what you think is the correct, safe, web server.

Same concept applies to app store / desktop program updates, but with a slightly slower and more difficult attack prospect.

Anyways, Telegram does seem to have the best encryption of any major service, and it's what we use at my company for almost all internal communications.
Joshua Browder’s DoNotPay Expands onto Web and Android, Widens Reach
Ask HN: HR startups doing interesting work?
I work in HR Tech and the market is dominated by big enterprise HR Enterprises like Oracle, SAP, Workday or ADP. I couldn't a centralized list of HR startups that are doing nice and interesting work.

I was inspired by this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21325138
> I'm a single developer with no employees. I work between 10-30 hours per week.

I'm curious -- how much time do you spend on marketing? How do your customers find your app?
Exponential population growth is hard to keep going indefinitely.
I share your sentiment. I volunteer for a charity that provides international disaster response. I was in Mozambique earlier this year, in the middle of a disaster zone, no power so no light pollution. Here's a short extract from a piece I wrote about the experience one night. I was sleeping on the concrete roof of the farmhouse that was centre of the aid distribution in the area...

-------------------------------------------

Cold. Wet. It is 0230. We've just been rained on. A light rain but it's cold and the mesh netting of the mosipod offers free passage to soak me inside. The days toll of many litres of water sits heavy within. Arise, down the steps, toilet. Back outside. Up the steps.

I look up.

The sight that greets me will stay with me forever. In the midst of disaster I see the dazzling, aching beauty of the heavens arc across the sky above. Not a single light shines on the land around me. The world is silent and utterly still save for my breath and the faint sense of life from my team mates sleeping around me.

From horizon to horizon the sky is vivid and alive with twinkle and sparkle and depth and clarity. Such light and colour as found only in the imagination is accented with an occasional shooting star. I don't know how long I stood there. I just have to stare at it all. I feel like I can reach up and touch the universe itself it's so clear above me.

I wasn't the only one. Someone else is standing out here to. In the starlight, I don't know who.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" and acknowledgement, is all we can exchange.

Somehow language just doesn't capture it. Words are just a dull tribute to the majesty the sky shared with us that night.

I lie down. Staring up at the scene above now muted by the mosquito mesh. I fall asleep to fireflies dancing above me.

--------------------------------------------

The experience, and others gained in that month I was there, will stay with me forever. There was something primal and ancient about seeing the sky I saw that night. I can truly understand our ancestors predisposition to create gods and tell the stories written in the heavens above them. It was an amazing experience.
I have been building https://www.flowboardpro.com - It is an artist management software for agencies. I went full-time on it in April of this year & have been working solo on it since. I have 3 agencies using it which is right now enough to pay off my bills. This month I'm wrapping up all the feature development to focus on the marketing side of it.
>>Maybe I'm spoiled with Linux, but I like that I can install the OS without worrying about a license. Windows does this, and I don't know if it's the financial burden I don't like, the mental overhead of keeping track of where my licenses are, or perhaps even just the idea that I don't really have full control of my software.

I don't recall the last time I had to worry about licencing. The licence gets bound to the particular hardware ID and it activates on its own, you don't even have to type in the licence code anywhere during installation. Very weird argument to use against Windows nowadays.
> This is the first time in history that game consoles have lasted this long without being cracked to enable piracy.

> In this talk, we will discuss how we achieved this for the Xbox One.

While Xbox' technical security measures are very interesting, I dare to say that most effective measure was allowing to install homebrew apps by end users[0]. The only use for cracking Xbox One would be to enable piracy and exploit creators are almost universally against that.

Also, PS4 has been jailbroken up to firmware 5.07 (patched in March 2018), and it is known that exploits for newer firmwares exist but are not (yet?) publicly available.

[0] https://github.com/wiired24/ProjectPegasus/blob/master/binaries/Installing APPX Packages.pdf