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why i do my resume in latex
| latex needs a modern successor.yes, the output looks \bf{gorgeous}. but the underlying toolchain and language are past their expiration date. by far.tasks as simple as "let's add an image here" or "let's move this to the left a little" frequently turn into hour-long journeys deep down into the guts of a 30 year old codebase.there is no reason why a modern tool couldn't use the same algorithms to create equally beautiful output. we're not writing raw postscript to talk to our printers anymore either.\end{rant} | if you're ever planning on sending your cv to a recruiter, don't use latex. recruiters (reputation for being upgraded estate agents and scum of the earth aside) will want to remove any contact details from your cv to ensure that their client doesn't attempt to contact you except through them. this is why they'll push for word document versions.you might think, "oh, well i'll just find a recruiter that won't do this" but depending on your chosen profession this may be harder than you think.you might think, "ok, well i'll just create a pdf version without contact details on it" but that's not enough, because some recruiters actually don't put people forward because they sent pdfs, while telling them that they're putting them forward - the reason being that you're at the back of the queue not because of ability but because you're 'difficult' or they're not able to stick the recruiters logo on or easily paste into their template.now if none of this is an issue for you, feel free to go ahead and submit a latex generated pdf. sadly, word is the lingua franca of recruitment. i've had two guys interview with me independently of a recruiter for positions after said recruiter told them they'd put them forward when they didn't - in both cases the used a latex cv.finally, formatting is relevant only to a point - if you've got experience in your field then that trumps any formatting. i've hired guys who use comic sans in their cv because they were bloody brilliant, not because they were funny. |
why i do my resume in latex
| if you're ever planning on sending your cv to a recruiter, don't use latex. recruiters (reputation for being upgraded estate agents and scum of the earth aside) will want to remove any contact details from your cv to ensure that their client doesn't attempt to contact you except through them. this is why they'll push for word document versions.you might think, "oh, well i'll just find a recruiter that won't do this" but depending on your chosen profession this may be harder than you think.you might think, "ok, well i'll just create a pdf version without contact details on it" but that's not enough, because some recruiters actually don't put people forward because they sent pdfs, while telling them that they're putting them forward - the reason being that you're at the back of the queue not because of ability but because you're 'difficult' or they're not able to stick the recruiters logo on or easily paste into their template.now if none of this is an issue for you, feel free to go ahead and submit a latex generated pdf. sadly, word is the lingua franca of recruitment. i've had two guys interview with me independently of a recruiter for positions after said recruiter told them they'd put them forward when they didn't - in both cases the used a latex cv.finally, formatting is relevant only to a point - if you've got experience in your field then that trumps any formatting. i've hired guys who use comic sans in their cv because they were bloody brilliant, not because they were funny. | nice to see that others do it too! the real problem i have seen with resumes in pdf format is that most companies (actually mostly agencies) tend to ask for .doc files. in fact a lot of their online application process requires .doc files.i have a very simple solution - avoid applying there! often people who tend to write their resumes in latex would find most of these jobs less than acceptable anyways.when exceptions are required i extract a text version of the resume latex2 rtf/txt/html (or combination) tend to work ok. the rtf and text can easily be saved as .doc. of course thing are never going to be as pretty as the pdf (but then again these job applications are rarely priorities)here is a sample derived from my resume:
<link> |
why i do my resume in latex
| nice to see that others do it too! the real problem i have seen with resumes in pdf format is that most companies (actually mostly agencies) tend to ask for .doc files. in fact a lot of their online application process requires .doc files.i have a very simple solution - avoid applying there! often people who tend to write their resumes in latex would find most of these jobs less than acceptable anyways.when exceptions are required i extract a text version of the resume latex2 rtf/txt/html (or combination) tend to work ok. the rtf and text can easily be saved as .doc. of course thing are never going to be as pretty as the pdf (but then again these job applications are rarely priorities)here is a sample derived from my resume:
<link> | i use ascii. everyone can read it, i can paste it into emails, and i waste no time fiddling around with formatting on a document that will just be scanned for a few keywords and discarded. |
why i do my resume in latex
| i use ascii. everyone can read it, i can paste it into emails, and i waste no time fiddling around with formatting on a document that will just be scanned for a few keywords and discarded. | what i'd like to know is why not just do up the resumé in html and style with css? i'm not a web designer by any means, but getting a simple style up and running is no big stretch (especially if you're capable of latex markup).to be fair, i still don't have a resumé in html (i'd use markdown), but i haven't needed to update mine in a while. next time i do, i'm going html with a print stylesheet. |
wwdc keynote wifi woes may have been due to iphone 4 drivers
| umm. no.i was there. unless my iphone 3g, macbook pro, and ipad all have mysterious pre-release drivers as well, it most certainly was not a driver problem causing the wifi mess. it was unreliable throughout the week.people who were there last year claimed that the wifi worked quite well. that was before the mifi became popular, though. (and the crowd size was about the same as this year so apple clearly knew what to prepare for.)in a crowd of over 5,000 people there were at times over 500 hundred wifi networks! there should have only been one - the official wwdc network. | so the failure in a demo of a prerelease hardware device with pre-release drivers having a problem to connect to wifi in a room in which there are around 500 access points and who knows how many connected wifi nodes warrants this much of analysis and an article of this length?wifi does fail here and then. that's just a fact. even more so if you factor in pre-release devices.on a different note, in china a sack of rice just fell over. |
wwdc keynote wifi woes may have been due to iphone 4 drivers
| so the failure in a demo of a prerelease hardware device with pre-release drivers having a problem to connect to wifi in a room in which there are around 500 access points and who knows how many connected wifi nodes warrants this much of analysis and an article of this length?wifi does fail here and then. that's just a fact. even more so if you factor in pre-release devices.on a different note, in china a sack of rice just fell over. | tl;drios 4 may or may not have a driver problem that only effects it in highly congested networks. |
wwdc keynote wifi woes may have been due to iphone 4 drivers
| tl;drios 4 may or may not have a driver problem that only effects it in highly congested networks. | click bait article. but what i find interesting about the whole affair is apple didn't plan for it to happen. guarantee there'll never be another demo done over wifi. if they need wireless, i bet they'll setup some very short-range signal in another frequency. or would that be illegal? |
wwdc keynote wifi woes may have been due to iphone 4 drivers
| click bait article. but what i find interesting about the whole affair is apple didn't plan for it to happen. guarantee there'll never be another demo done over wifi. if they need wireless, i bet they'll setup some very short-range signal in another frequency. or would that be illegal? | there's something wrong when journalists have to bring their own mifis to cover the event. apple should be providing ethernet - it's more reliable and doesn't cause any interference. |
can you crack a code?
| "to learn more about the types of ciphers and codes that terrorists, spies, and criminals use to conceal their communications, see ..." made me laugh. remember kids, only bad guys use encryption. | from the javascript:var bugriddencrashpronepieceofjunk=
(navigator.useragent.indexof('msie 5')!==-1
88 navigator.useragent.indexof('mac')!==-1)i don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment, but i don't think fbi should disparage microsoft and apple with their variable names. |
can you crack a code?
| from the javascript:var bugriddencrashpronepieceofjunk=
(navigator.useragent.indexof('msie 5')!==-1
88 navigator.useragent.indexof('mac')!==-1)i don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment, but i don't think fbi should disparage microsoft and apple with their variable names. | i much prefer what ibm is doing with their ponder this challenges (<link>
only problem is that i'm not smart enough to answer all of them :-) |
can you crack a code?
| i much prefer what ibm is doing with their ponder this challenges (<link>
only problem is that i'm not smart enough to answer all of them :-) | "be...sure...to drink your ovaltine?" |
can you crack a code?
| "be...sure...to drink your ovaltine?" | if you have zero experience in cryptography, how would you go about learning the necessary to crack this? |
iphone 4-digit passcodes more secure when containing only 3 unique digits
| pro tip: turn off the "simple password" option, then enter a new password that consists of only numbers. the password prompt will then still be the nice 10-digit keypad rather than the full keyboard, but the passcode can be any length. | i'm not sure why this is an issue at all. the same surface you use to enter your password you also use to interact with the device. so unless your interaction consists solely of unlocking the phone, then putting it away again, the screen is going to be absolutely covered with fingerprints and smudges and smears and there won't be any way to tell which ones are from the password and which are from actual usage.i just took a look at my own iphone, and it bears this out. on the bottom half of the screen, there are a series of fingerprints and a giant smudge. if you were to try and guess my password from the clear prints, you'd end up pressing the wrong digits entirely. |
iphone 4-digit passcodes more secure when containing only 3 unique digits
| i'm not sure why this is an issue at all. the same surface you use to enter your password you also use to interact with the device. so unless your interaction consists solely of unlocking the phone, then putting it away again, the screen is going to be absolutely covered with fingerprints and smudges and smears and there won't be any way to tell which ones are from the password and which are from actual usage.i just took a look at my own iphone, and it bears this out. on the bottom half of the screen, there are a series of fingerprints and a giant smudge. if you were to try and guess my password from the clear prints, you'd end up pressing the wrong digits entirely. | hn title is not the original title, and it is incorrect. this is not "3-digit passwords", rather "4-digit passwords containing only three unique digits".assuming it will get changed at some point making me look foolish, hn title at time of posting is "3-digit iphone password is more secure than 4-digits". original title from the source is "game theory and probability of iphone passwords". |
iphone 4-digit passcodes more secure when containing only 3 unique digits
| hn title is not the original title, and it is incorrect. this is not "3-digit passwords", rather "4-digit passwords containing only three unique digits".assuming it will get changed at some point making me look foolish, hn title at time of posting is "3-digit iphone password is more secure than 4-digits". original title from the source is "game theory and probability of iphone passwords". | back in the nineties, while visiting a research facility on an airforce base, i saw a solution to the fingerprint problem. the electronic keypad simply randomized the positions of the digits before each login attempt. not very convenient considering that you cant't use your muscle memory, but pretty much hack-resistant. |
iphone 4-digit passcodes more secure when containing only 3 unique digits
| back in the nineties, while visiting a research facility on an airforce base, i saw a solution to the fingerprint problem. the electronic keypad simply randomized the positions of the digits before each login attempt. not very convenient considering that you cant't use your muscle memory, but pretty much hack-resistant. | of course, if the fingerprints are really such an easy way to see which four digits are commonly pressed, perhaps the best option would be to use only three unique digits, and then pick another digit that you always tap just after unlocking the phone. obviously the digits disappear, but say your code was 1123, just hit where the 6 was (just below the 3) as soon as it's unlocked. then to anyone trying to guess from fingerprints, they would be trying to guess combinations of 1, 2, 3 and 6.if they were to then guess that only 3 of the 4 digits were used, with one being repeated, the possibilities are vastly increased by not knowing which digit is repeated or which digit is not actually used. off the top of my head i think it would be 36x4 (36 being the number of combinations using 3 unique digits, multiplied by four for each digit that could be un-used), meaning 144.if you were to do the same trick, so after entering your 4-digit code containing 3 unique digits, you then hit two different fake digits (same two every time you unlock)... you would have 36x9 combinations, totally 324.to take this to its (il)logical conclusion, you could fake-press all the digits that you're not using, but at that point you're clearly going too far and should consider just wiping off fingerprints instead.then again, is there really a real life use for any of this logic at all? i think not. 36 combinations rather than 24? hell, even 324 instead of 24. is it interesting to calculate, sure. is it worth caring about when actually creating your passcode, not really, ultimately it will cause a minor annoyance to anyone who wants to guess the code, as they will take a little longer to get there.that said, it's only not worth caring about in terms of the number of combinations. if you use only 3 unique digits, yet always tap the same fourth decoy-digit, while the combinations may only go from 24 to 144, there is a chance that the theif/whoever would fail to guess the plan, and therefore not think to try more than the 24 combinations. |
why do people still say name at domain.com?
i can't remember the last time i saw someone list their email address on a blog or home page as name@domain.com.<p>are spam bots still fooled by name at domain.com?<p>or is it for some other reason?<p>and gmail seems to be so good at filtering out spam anyway, what's the point of hiding? | i've listed my email address as nat@nat.org on my web page for years and gmail only lets in a few spam a day. i tweet it regularly too, and i'm not drowning in spam. i don't think there's any point in continuing to do this. from my perspective, spam is a problem google solved for me. | because they don't know how to do this:0a href="javascript:location='mailto:\u006a\u006f\u006c\u0061\u006e\u0040\u0067\u006f\u0072\u006d\u0073\u0062\u0079\u002e\u0063\u006f\u006d';void%200"2email me0/a2 |
why do people still say name at domain.com?
i can't remember the last time i saw someone list their email address on a blog or home page as name@domain.com.<p>are spam bots still fooled by name at domain.com?<p>or is it for some other reason?<p>and gmail seems to be so good at filtering out spam anyway, what's the point of hiding? | because they don't know how to do this:0a href="javascript:location='mailto:\u006a\u006f\u006c\u0061\u006e\u0040\u0067\u006f\u0072\u006d\u0073\u0062\u0079\u002e\u0063\u006f\u006d';void%200"2email me0/a2 | i get a good deal of spam from any unfiltered accounts i post as name@domain.com. in fact the only nigerian scams i ever received came from doing that.
name[at]domain.com is an easy way to prevent some of that for someone (e.g. a non-technical person doing a blog) without the javascript obfuscation code handy, or else without the know-how to use it. |
why do people still say name at domain.com?
i can't remember the last time i saw someone list their email address on a blog or home page as name@domain.com.<p>are spam bots still fooled by name at domain.com?<p>or is it for some other reason?<p>and gmail seems to be so good at filtering out spam anyway, what's the point of hiding? | i get a good deal of spam from any unfiltered accounts i post as name@domain.com. in fact the only nigerian scams i ever received came from doing that.
name[at]domain.com is an easy way to prevent some of that for someone (e.g. a non-technical person doing a blog) without the javascript obfuscation code handy, or else without the know-how to use it. | in plain text i use name @t domain d0t com
while on my blog and websites i use a simple js script:
0script type="text/javascript"2
0!--
// protected email script by joe maller
// javascripts available at <link>
// this script is free to use and distribute
// but please credit me and/or link to my siteemaile='domain.com'
emaile=('name' + '@' + emaile)
document.write('or 0a href="mailto:' + emaile + '"2email me0/a2.')//--2
0/script20noscript2
0em2email address protected by javascript.0br2
please enable javascript to contact me.0/em2
0/noscript2 |
why do people still say name at domain.com?
i can't remember the last time i saw someone list their email address on a blog or home page as name@domain.com.<p>are spam bots still fooled by name at domain.com?<p>or is it for some other reason?<p>and gmail seems to be so good at filtering out spam anyway, what's the point of hiding? | in plain text i use name @t domain d0t com
while on my blog and websites i use a simple js script:
0script type="text/javascript"2
0!--
// protected email script by joe maller
// javascripts available at <link>
// this script is free to use and distribute
// but please credit me and/or link to my siteemaile='domain.com'
emaile=('name' + '@' + emaile)
document.write('or 0a href="mailto:' + emaile + '"2email me0/a2.')//--2
0/script20noscript2
0em2email address protected by javascript.0br2
please enable javascript to contact me.0/em2
0/noscript2 | not everyone uses gmail... |
why do you care what view source looks like?
| javascript is an assembly language.uh, no. not at all. not even close. this is a ridiculous premise, and can't possibly be taken as a supporting argument for anything.also - has the author not heard of compression? especially since google uses that as a site metric for rankings?there is no need to "tighten up"* a page if the output is going to be compressed before transmission to the client.* this assumes sane markup | yet another thing that hanselman and i disagree on.the problem is not html/js minification. everyone agrees that's a good thing, even though it effectively breaks "view source".no, the problem i have is that he uses this to defend webforms and the viewstate. google has its own "webforms" in the form of gwt, but that doesn't make webforms any more ok. the problem with webforms was that it was too far of an abstraction from the underlying html and javascript underneath that developers spent more time working around webforms than with it. that hurts the developer. the garbage that webforms produces is not the same thing as minified html and javascript, especially since the viewstate can bog down each request with extra data if you're not careful. post backs aren't free in asp.net using webforms and the viewstate. regular html is not hard to develop for or debug, but webforms makes it difficult enough to require a debugger. with regular html, you can develop with plain text and publish minified text so "view source" isn't broken during development. |
why do you care what view source looks like?
| yet another thing that hanselman and i disagree on.the problem is not html/js minification. everyone agrees that's a good thing, even though it effectively breaks "view source".no, the problem i have is that he uses this to defend webforms and the viewstate. google has its own "webforms" in the form of gwt, but that doesn't make webforms any more ok. the problem with webforms was that it was too far of an abstraction from the underlying html and javascript underneath that developers spent more time working around webforms than with it. that hurts the developer. the garbage that webforms produces is not the same thing as minified html and javascript, especially since the viewstate can bog down each request with extra data if you're not careful. post backs aren't free in asp.net using webforms and the viewstate. regular html is not hard to develop for or debug, but webforms makes it difficult enough to require a debugger. with regular html, you can develop with plain text and publish minified text so "view source" isn't broken during development. | i've never used gwt but there are three things that i spend a lot of time dealing with in my day job:1. webforms controls mess with the markup that is output, this used to be a real nightmare in v1 with tables being inserted everywhere. it's better now but you still don't _know_ what ids you're going to get and there are still issues like the gridview doesn't output thead rows in the table unless you set certain properties explicitly. all this makes using asp.net with third party css and javascript tools hard because they often rely on markup being defined a particular way2. viewstate is on by default and posted back to the server every time the page posts back. most people have slower updoad speeds ti download speeds, so this causes real issues. the whole design of webforms assumes that every control will be setup once on initial page load and then rebuilt from viewstate each time after that, whereas usually each postback only requires some of the page state to be posted back and a few controls to be rebuilt. some sort of viewstate group would be useful to tell the page "if the user clicks that button, then these fields are needed at the server end and these other controls will be rebuilt. this would be virtually impossible to retro-fit into webforms though.3. updatepanels are a performance nightmare and still post back the entire page, usually they are only needed to update 2 or 3 of the controls on the page and a page method would be far more efficient, but updatepanels are just so darn convenient (especially given point 1) that they get over used.some abstractions are really nice and i totally don't care what happens beneath them, but webforms is not one of them. markup matters, ids matter, upload bandwith matters. webforms abstracted the stuff i care about and made bad some bad assumptions too. |
why do you care what view source looks like?
| i've never used gwt but there are three things that i spend a lot of time dealing with in my day job:1. webforms controls mess with the markup that is output, this used to be a real nightmare in v1 with tables being inserted everywhere. it's better now but you still don't _know_ what ids you're going to get and there are still issues like the gridview doesn't output thead rows in the table unless you set certain properties explicitly. all this makes using asp.net with third party css and javascript tools hard because they often rely on markup being defined a particular way2. viewstate is on by default and posted back to the server every time the page posts back. most people have slower updoad speeds ti download speeds, so this causes real issues. the whole design of webforms assumes that every control will be setup once on initial page load and then rebuilt from viewstate each time after that, whereas usually each postback only requires some of the page state to be posted back and a few controls to be rebuilt. some sort of viewstate group would be useful to tell the page "if the user clicks that button, then these fields are needed at the server end and these other controls will be rebuilt. this would be virtually impossible to retro-fit into webforms though.3. updatepanels are a performance nightmare and still post back the entire page, usually they are only needed to update 2 or 3 of the controls on the page and a page method would be far more efficient, but updatepanels are just so darn convenient (especially given point 1) that they get over used.some abstractions are really nice and i totally don't care what happens beneath them, but webforms is not one of them. markup matters, ids matter, upload bandwith matters. webforms abstracted the stuff i care about and made bad some bad assumptions too. | when i was learning web dev i cared since it's a useful way to learn.now it's not that i care what my view source looks like, it's that i care what my source looks like. if big sites want an extra compile step before publishing that minimizes/compresses/optimizes/assemblies my nice-looking source, i don't really care. (and if your stuff is actually under an open source license i hope it's readable somewhere.) i just happen to not do that so my default non-caring state is a less-work state, my view source looks the same as my source (at least once a template is done populating).i don't buy the "js is the assembly of the web" line. if that's true, js is a crap language for being an assembly. have w3c make a standard for a language that would be a better assembly than js and have js compile to that. (perhaps after the current set of browser wars dies down and a clear winner of a js engine can be determined.) |
why do you care what view source looks like?
| when i was learning web dev i cared since it's a useful way to learn.now it's not that i care what my view source looks like, it's that i care what my source looks like. if big sites want an extra compile step before publishing that minimizes/compresses/optimizes/assemblies my nice-looking source, i don't really care. (and if your stuff is actually under an open source license i hope it's readable somewhere.) i just happen to not do that so my default non-caring state is a less-work state, my view source looks the same as my source (at least once a template is done populating).i don't buy the "js is the assembly of the web" line. if that's true, js is a crap language for being an assembly. have w3c make a standard for a language that would be a better assembly than js and have js compile to that. (perhaps after the current set of browser wars dies down and a clear winner of a js engine can be determined.) | the "end result" approach with a diminished focus on clean markup doesn't make sense. the "end result" is not going to be the same for every user - for starters, people use different clients, and not everyone is sighted.of course, this is also based on the premise that code is bad because it's not human readable when it reaches the browser. maybe i'm getting hung up on the details when it seems like the article was written only to defend the use of webforms. |
progressive enhancement is faster
| progressive enhancement is a luxury, and not everyone can afford it. it vastly increases your test surfaces, and requires multiple designs for every page/feature.if i'm trying to get a product out and i can reach 99% of my audience by assuming they have js enabled, then i'm going to do that. i'm not going to spend 2x as long (at least) to reach that extra 1%. | websites differ in their basic nature, and one size does not fit all. roughly speaking, websites that are document-like (primarily consumption-oriented) should probably be progressively enhanced; websites that are tool-like probably should not (interaction oriented, like gmail, analytics apps, other saas). websites that fall in the middle will have to carefully consider the user experience benefits and the available technical/operational resources.the upside is that progressive enhancement can refer to a spectrum of techniques. deliver only above-the-fold content as html, inline your css/js, inline the initial json data, omit <form> post support, etc. two templating systems do not need to be supported. it's a straightforward technical problem to apply js templates server-side (and i'm speaking as a boring old .net developer--nustache and edge.js come to mind).btw, another benefit of progressive enhancement can be seo. |
progressive enhancement is faster
| websites differ in their basic nature, and one size does not fit all. roughly speaking, websites that are document-like (primarily consumption-oriented) should probably be progressively enhanced; websites that are tool-like probably should not (interaction oriented, like gmail, analytics apps, other saas). websites that fall in the middle will have to carefully consider the user experience benefits and the available technical/operational resources.the upside is that progressive enhancement can refer to a spectrum of techniques. deliver only above-the-fold content as html, inline your css/js, inline the initial json data, omit <form> post support, etc. two templating systems do not need to be supported. it's a straightforward technical problem to apply js templates server-side (and i'm speaking as a boring old .net developer--nustache and edge.js come to mind).btw, another benefit of progressive enhancement can be seo. | it seems like the author is confusing progressive enhancement with progressive rendering.either way, to say that the dale piece "conclusively" shows progressive enhancement to be "a futile act" is, in the op's word, "misrepresenting.""exceptional" or not, the key is to recognize when you're dealing with one of those cases -- sites which, like wikipedia, could be great on web 1.0 browsers. in those cases, your focus is likely to be more on the content and its structure. in the "progressive enhancement est mort" view, you'll have to spend more time on engineering. |
progressive enhancement is faster
| it seems like the author is confusing progressive enhancement with progressive rendering.either way, to say that the dale piece "conclusively" shows progressive enhancement to be "a futile act" is, in the op's word, "misrepresenting.""exceptional" or not, the key is to recognize when you're dealing with one of those cases -- sites which, like wikipedia, could be great on web 1.0 browsers. in those cases, your focus is likely to be more on the content and its structure. in the "progressive enhancement est mort" view, you'll have to spend more time on engineering. | the thing that always bugged me about rendering things in the client was...1) supporting 2 templating systems (server & client)
2) no graceful degradation (or "progressive enhancement" depending on your opinion) (i.e. being able to get a page's content with a simple wget)in any case, since it hasn't been mentioned in this discussion, i'd like to direct people's attention to pjax (<link>'ve found this to be a nice, simple solution to have pages work identically with and without javascript. the initial page load is rendered by the server and the html of the subsequent sections of the page are rendered on the server but loaded via ajax and updated with one jquery .html() call. the app urls and the ajax urls are the same but they return the page's full contents (<html>...</html>) when requested regularly and the page's partial contents (<div id="#content">...</div>) when requested asynchronously.check it out if you haven't. |
progressive enhancement is faster
| the thing that always bugged me about rendering things in the client was...1) supporting 2 templating systems (server & client)
2) no graceful degradation (or "progressive enhancement" depending on your opinion) (i.e. being able to get a page's content with a simple wget)in any case, since it hasn't been mentioned in this discussion, i'd like to direct people's attention to pjax (<link>'ve found this to be a nice, simple solution to have pages work identically with and without javascript. the initial page load is rendered by the server and the html of the subsequent sections of the page are rendered on the server but loaded via ajax and updated with one jquery .html() call. the app urls and the ajax urls are the same but they return the page's full contents (<html>...</html>) when requested regularly and the page's partial contents (<div id="#content">...</div>) when requested asynchronously.check it out if you haven't. | 1. i don't want to dabble with templating on a server. it's annoying, and separates two layers that i don't want separated.2. it needs to work offline, and for me to support that, i would have to double up on work, and maintaining two levels of templating.3. no framework has made this easy, in fact new frameworks seem hell bent on making it even harder. see <link> telling us to "do that." is not going to make it happen. it has to be easier, and clearly it is not: otherwise more developers would be doing it. i want someone to convince me, but i have yet to see a post going in depth on the technical implementation of such a solution (- that adheres to the 3 points mentioned above).5. document-oriented sites (blogs, wikis, maybe even forums) should never have been implemented with only js in mind anyway. |
ask hn: java & sql advice
i've inherited this large chunk of java code. for half a year now slowly it's been getting cleaner but there is still one major stumbling block.<p>the issue is 'select' calls to the (sql) database.<p>these are all implemented as endless chunks of copy and paste data that do nothing but move fields from queries into class members. it's butt ugly and i want to get rid of it.<p>a nice sample:<p><pre><code> map0integer,questionnaire2 questionnaires = new hashmap0integer,questionnaire2();
connection connection = null;
preparedstatement statement = null;
resultset rs = null;
try {
connection = dbstore.getreadconnection();
string sql = "select questionnaire_id,order_id,label from questionnaires order by order_id";
statement = connection.preparestatement(sql);
rs = statement.executequery();
while (rs.next()){
questionnaire questionnaire = new questionnaire(rs.getint(1), rs.getint(2), rs.getstring(3));
questionnaires.put(questionnaire.getquestionnaireid(), questionnaire);
}
} catch (sqlexception e) {
logger.error(e.tostring(), e);
} finally {
dbstore.closeall(connection, statement, rs);
}
return questionnaires;
</code></pre>
(yes, i know, it's pretty ugly).<p>so, i came up with a solution, which essentially does the mapping of database fields to class members based on the field names as returned by the database during the query.<p>you pass it a class and it figures out the rest.<p>that works.<p>but it has another problem. because the classes that are being stored in the sql database and the class that takes care of the storing and retrieving of the data are not in the same package or derived from each other i'd have to make all the fields that i wish to store in all the classes 'public'.<p>is there an elegant way around this ?<p>how do others do this kind of stuff ?<p>i can't believe that this is the way it is really done, so if any of you has any clue or pointer then please help me out before i throw my monitor out of the window... | reflection (which you'll be using anyway) can access private fields. see class.getdeclaredfields.check out jpa or hibernate 8 hibernate annotations for the 'standard' way to do this.i would just use jpa/hibernate, rather than writing your own mini-orm. but you could equally borrow the jpa annotations and use them for your mini-orm, and then adopt hibernate when you're ready. | hibernate is a fairly popular way of dealing with or mapping in java:<link>, you'll end up trading off code cleanliness with xml configuration files, but i believe there are tools out there that help with the generation and maintenance of those files.i feel that i may have missed some of what you're looking for though, so if hibernate is the wrong solution for you let me know and maybe i can help you get nearer to a workable solution. |
ask hn: java & sql advice
i've inherited this large chunk of java code. for half a year now slowly it's been getting cleaner but there is still one major stumbling block.<p>the issue is 'select' calls to the (sql) database.<p>these are all implemented as endless chunks of copy and paste data that do nothing but move fields from queries into class members. it's butt ugly and i want to get rid of it.<p>a nice sample:<p><pre><code> map0integer,questionnaire2 questionnaires = new hashmap0integer,questionnaire2();
connection connection = null;
preparedstatement statement = null;
resultset rs = null;
try {
connection = dbstore.getreadconnection();
string sql = "select questionnaire_id,order_id,label from questionnaires order by order_id";
statement = connection.preparestatement(sql);
rs = statement.executequery();
while (rs.next()){
questionnaire questionnaire = new questionnaire(rs.getint(1), rs.getint(2), rs.getstring(3));
questionnaires.put(questionnaire.getquestionnaireid(), questionnaire);
}
} catch (sqlexception e) {
logger.error(e.tostring(), e);
} finally {
dbstore.closeall(connection, statement, rs);
}
return questionnaires;
</code></pre>
(yes, i know, it's pretty ugly).<p>so, i came up with a solution, which essentially does the mapping of database fields to class members based on the field names as returned by the database during the query.<p>you pass it a class and it figures out the rest.<p>that works.<p>but it has another problem. because the classes that are being stored in the sql database and the class that takes care of the storing and retrieving of the data are not in the same package or derived from each other i'd have to make all the fields that i wish to store in all the classes 'public'.<p>is there an elegant way around this ?<p>how do others do this kind of stuff ?<p>i can't believe that this is the way it is really done, so if any of you has any clue or pointer then please help me out before i throw my monitor out of the window... | hibernate is a fairly popular way of dealing with or mapping in java:<link>, you'll end up trading off code cleanliness with xml configuration files, but i believe there are tools out there that help with the generation and maintenance of those files.i feel that i may have missed some of what you're looking for though, so if hibernate is the wrong solution for you let me know and maybe i can help you get nearer to a workable solution. | i've had success using spring's jdbctemplate <link> and their various rowmappers <link> |
ask hn: java & sql advice
i've inherited this large chunk of java code. for half a year now slowly it's been getting cleaner but there is still one major stumbling block.<p>the issue is 'select' calls to the (sql) database.<p>these are all implemented as endless chunks of copy and paste data that do nothing but move fields from queries into class members. it's butt ugly and i want to get rid of it.<p>a nice sample:<p><pre><code> map0integer,questionnaire2 questionnaires = new hashmap0integer,questionnaire2();
connection connection = null;
preparedstatement statement = null;
resultset rs = null;
try {
connection = dbstore.getreadconnection();
string sql = "select questionnaire_id,order_id,label from questionnaires order by order_id";
statement = connection.preparestatement(sql);
rs = statement.executequery();
while (rs.next()){
questionnaire questionnaire = new questionnaire(rs.getint(1), rs.getint(2), rs.getstring(3));
questionnaires.put(questionnaire.getquestionnaireid(), questionnaire);
}
} catch (sqlexception e) {
logger.error(e.tostring(), e);
} finally {
dbstore.closeall(connection, statement, rs);
}
return questionnaires;
</code></pre>
(yes, i know, it's pretty ugly).<p>so, i came up with a solution, which essentially does the mapping of database fields to class members based on the field names as returned by the database during the query.<p>you pass it a class and it figures out the rest.<p>that works.<p>but it has another problem. because the classes that are being stored in the sql database and the class that takes care of the storing and retrieving of the data are not in the same package or derived from each other i'd have to make all the fields that i wish to store in all the classes 'public'.<p>is there an elegant way around this ?<p>how do others do this kind of stuff ?<p>i can't believe that this is the way it is really done, so if any of you has any clue or pointer then please help me out before i throw my monitor out of the window... | i've had success using spring's jdbctemplate <link> and their various rowmappers <link> | check out ibatis - it might be the solution you are looking for. |
ask hn: java & sql advice
i've inherited this large chunk of java code. for half a year now slowly it's been getting cleaner but there is still one major stumbling block.<p>the issue is 'select' calls to the (sql) database.<p>these are all implemented as endless chunks of copy and paste data that do nothing but move fields from queries into class members. it's butt ugly and i want to get rid of it.<p>a nice sample:<p><pre><code> map0integer,questionnaire2 questionnaires = new hashmap0integer,questionnaire2();
connection connection = null;
preparedstatement statement = null;
resultset rs = null;
try {
connection = dbstore.getreadconnection();
string sql = "select questionnaire_id,order_id,label from questionnaires order by order_id";
statement = connection.preparestatement(sql);
rs = statement.executequery();
while (rs.next()){
questionnaire questionnaire = new questionnaire(rs.getint(1), rs.getint(2), rs.getstring(3));
questionnaires.put(questionnaire.getquestionnaireid(), questionnaire);
}
} catch (sqlexception e) {
logger.error(e.tostring(), e);
} finally {
dbstore.closeall(connection, statement, rs);
}
return questionnaires;
</code></pre>
(yes, i know, it's pretty ugly).<p>so, i came up with a solution, which essentially does the mapping of database fields to class members based on the field names as returned by the database during the query.<p>you pass it a class and it figures out the rest.<p>that works.<p>but it has another problem. because the classes that are being stored in the sql database and the class that takes care of the storing and retrieving of the data are not in the same package or derived from each other i'd have to make all the fields that i wish to store in all the classes 'public'.<p>is there an elegant way around this ?<p>how do others do this kind of stuff ?<p>i can't believe that this is the way it is really done, so if any of you has any clue or pointer then please help me out before i throw my monitor out of the window... | check out ibatis - it might be the solution you are looking for. | pivo, thanks, i did get to read it. |
the thrill of a new technology: couchdb
| no, graph databases will rule the world. couch only supports trees, which is annoying if you want to have relationships between "documents".also, couch's implementation of map/reduce arbitrarily limits the kinds of queries you can run.if you actually want to ditch your relational database, take a look at things like kiokudb, elephant, allegrocache, and so on. they may not have exciting web 2.0 screencasts, but the technology is much better. (i am biased towards kiokudb, since i helped write it, but it has been very easy to use kiokudb instead of a relational database; there has been significantly less code in our apps, tests have been much easier to write, and i don't think we've lost any runtime speed either. i really need to write a long blog post about this, but i haven't had time.)it is good that the world is gradually working their way up to object/graph databases, though. last week it was "omg key value stores solve every problem", this week it is "document databases will rule the world", so hopefully the blogosphere is only a few weeks away from enlightenment ;) | with high expectations i clicked a heading entitled "document based dbs will rule the world" but found someone lifecasting "hello world" on couchdb. |
the thrill of a new technology: couchdb
| with high expectations i clicked a heading entitled "document based dbs will rule the world" but found someone lifecasting "hello world" on couchdb. | i have run into serious issues with the document based approach. imagine a domain where you have several different types of documents. you still end up doing joins. in the example the author gives, doing a query to get you all of the unique tags can be slow. or, if they are dates, trying to get a max(date) can be tricky. the biggest problem though, is document size. for a complex domain, there are big tradeoffs between keeping the entire graph in the document, which is slow to read, or creating a variety of document types, which brings you back to joining.a hybrid approach can give you a little of both. for most of the kind of applications i build, i use relational databases, but i dump a denormalized view of the data into lucene for searching and such and use a caching layer for most reads. this way i get some document type performance on many operations, but still have the normalization and simple transactions of a relational model. |
the thrill of a new technology: couchdb
| i have run into serious issues with the document based approach. imagine a domain where you have several different types of documents. you still end up doing joins. in the example the author gives, doing a query to get you all of the unique tags can be slow. or, if they are dates, trying to get a max(date) can be tricky. the biggest problem though, is document size. for a complex domain, there are big tradeoffs between keeping the entire graph in the document, which is slow to read, or creating a variety of document types, which brings you back to joining.a hybrid approach can give you a little of both. for most of the kind of applications i build, i use relational databases, but i dump a denormalized view of the data into lucene for searching and such and use a caching layer for most reads. this way i get some document type performance on many operations, but still have the normalization and simple transactions of a relational model. | a document based db is not like a flat file. they do index for fast retrieval.it is just that the indexes are added based on what queries are made. you can be explicit about what indexes you want maintaned, but it is often good-enough to just perform a query and have the db figure out how to index to make that query faster.it's pretty much dynamic-typing vs static-typing for databases (plus the document-entries instead of row-column-entries). |
the thrill of a new technology: couchdb
| a document based db is not like a flat file. they do index for fast retrieval.it is just that the indexes are added based on what queries are made. you can be explicit about what indexes you want maintaned, but it is often good-enough to just perform a query and have the db figure out how to index to make that query faster.it's pretty much dynamic-typing vs static-typing for databases (plus the document-entries instead of row-column-entries). | hm, flat files will rule the world? no more messy sql, just iterate over the file's entries with a for loop - even java programmers can understand that.sorry, but i am not convinced yet. |
mark zuckerberg's most valuable friend
| mark zuckerberg's most valuable friend is/was sean parker. thanks to sean, mark retained control of the board, and thus was able to avoid the utter disaster of a $1b sale to yahoo.sean got to see what happens when shortsighted vcs get control before (at napster and then plaxo); he's smart enough to not get screwed the same way thrice. | as a response to the movie, they know it would be a good time to put a human face in front of the press. hence, they're pushing her forward rather than zuckerberg. and the nyt slurped it up.i wonder how long the back-and-forth over how the story was to be structured took.[edit: i'm not saying zuckerberg is not human, just that he's overexposed in the media at the moment, and they need to connect facebook to something else.] |
mark zuckerberg's most valuable friend
| as a response to the movie, they know it would be a good time to put a human face in front of the press. hence, they're pushing her forward rather than zuckerberg. and the nyt slurped it up.i wonder how long the back-and-forth over how the story was to be structured took.[edit: i'm not saying zuckerberg is not human, just that he's overexposed in the media at the moment, and they need to connect facebook to something else.] | oh jesus, can't we all stop gawking at facebook bullshit? no one can figure out what facebook is, but if you haven't succumbed to it, you're intimidated by it. it's worth billions of dollars and for what? the pure evil of having everyone's marketing data?in the mindset of rodney king, can't we all just move on? can't we all just get past not being zuckerberg? can't we all get back to being hackers who do things because they make our minds happy? |
mark zuckerberg's most valuable friend
| oh jesus, can't we all stop gawking at facebook bullshit? no one can figure out what facebook is, but if you haven't succumbed to it, you're intimidated by it. it's worth billions of dollars and for what? the pure evil of having everyone's marketing data?in the mindset of rodney king, can't we all just move on? can't we all just get past not being zuckerberg? can't we all get back to being hackers who do things because they make our minds happy? | i think a great deal of facebook's recent, and coming, success is not just that sheryl sandberg was brought on, but when she was brought on. they allude to the rapid growth that facebook has seen lately, but mark zuckerberg may not have been able to effectively handle that growth without her. she joined on at the crucially perfect time, which is a credit to both of them. |
mark zuckerberg's most valuable friend
| i think a great deal of facebook's recent, and coming, success is not just that sheryl sandberg was brought on, but when she was brought on. they allude to the rapid growth that facebook has seen lately, but mark zuckerberg may not have been able to effectively handle that growth without her. she joined on at the crucially perfect time, which is a credit to both of them. | here's a cached version of the article for those of us without a nytimes account. <link> |
augmented android code snippets in stackoverflow
| seems pretty useful! i've found this chrome extension indispensable for android development:<link> | wow amazing! i need this for all other languages, if only for the mapping of code -> online api. |
augmented android code snippets in stackoverflow
| wow amazing! i need this for all other languages, if only for the mapping of code -> online api. | this is excellent! thanks for this, it complements (replaces even) very nicely my usual means of learning a new api call - that is 'read relevant so post; look up each main function call on developer docs; hunt down further clearer 'real world' examples".also if you are doing android development in general (anyone) i can't recommend the android-query (<link> library enough; it's saved lots of time and makes a lot of common tasks much easier. |
augmented android code snippets in stackoverflow
| this is excellent! thanks for this, it complements (replaces even) very nicely my usual means of learning a new api call - that is 'read relevant so post; look up each main function call on developer docs; hunt down further clearer 'real world' examples".also if you are doing android development in general (anyone) i can't recommend the android-query (<link> library enough; it's saved lots of time and makes a lot of common tasks much easier. | will be useful come our android version. thanks! |
augmented android code snippets in stackoverflow
| will be useful come our android version. thanks! | looks useful. thanks! |
startup studios – are they a thing?
| this is getting ridiculous. we're having full on conversations about what to name our already buzzword saturated offices. this studio is doing the same thing i've seen incubators do which is the same thing smart companies have always done. provide good places for people to work hard.it will never matter what you call the office as the terms are arbitrary. find a place to work and then just work hard. call it the immaculate teakettle house if you like, just make money while you do it. what is in a name, an office by any other name is still where i code. | hmmm... i've never heard the term "startup studio" before, and this post didn't really define it before diving into the nuances of it.(i.e. i feel like i started reading about horsepower and power-to-weight ratio before being told i was reading about a car.)... does anyone else know what a "startup studio" is? |
startup studios – are they a thing?
| hmmm... i've never heard the term "startup studio" before, and this post didn't really define it before diving into the nuances of it.(i.e. i feel like i started reading about horsepower and power-to-weight ratio before being told i was reading about a car.)... does anyone else know what a "startup studio" is? | well they are certainly a thing when you can point out examples of them aren't they.perhaps this structure works best in cultures that have difficulty accepting failure. moving on to another project when one isn't working out is easier than admitting defeat after the failure of a whole company. it's the same obviously but psychologically it's easier for us.generally i have this sneaking intuition that the success of the multiple project approach depends on the size of the market and the type of consumers. it's fairly well accepted that it's harder to start rocket-ship type startups in the uk than it is in the us. perhaps we are better suited to this approach?either way, i like the idea and it seems to be the business version of what more product-focused engineers do in their spare time. i am personally aiming to create a project a year at this point and would like to make them additive too if i can.this, to me, is companies operating as people. |
startup studios – are they a thing?
| well they are certainly a thing when you can point out examples of them aren't they.perhaps this structure works best in cultures that have difficulty accepting failure. moving on to another project when one isn't working out is easier than admitting defeat after the failure of a whole company. it's the same obviously but psychologically it's easier for us.generally i have this sneaking intuition that the success of the multiple project approach depends on the size of the market and the type of consumers. it's fairly well accepted that it's harder to start rocket-ship type startups in the uk than it is in the us. perhaps we are better suited to this approach?either way, i like the idea and it seems to be the business version of what more product-focused engineers do in their spare time. i am personally aiming to create a project a year at this point and would like to make them additive too if i can.this, to me, is companies operating as people. | the melrose center in orlando has an interesting model. they provide tons of infrastructure and space for all kinds of creative and technical work: video, audio, electronics, 3d printing, along with workstations loaded with all kinds of software:
<link> for free for county residents :) <link> in orlando - <link> |
startup studios – are they a thing?
| the melrose center in orlando has an interesting model. they provide tons of infrastructure and space for all kinds of creative and technical work: video, audio, electronics, 3d printing, along with workstations loaded with all kinds of software:
<link> for free for county residents :) <link> in orlando - <link> | i didn't know there was a term for it, but i've been running a "startup studio" (<link> for the last two years. our terms are a bit different - we take only take a minority share and don't (currently) work on the marketing side of things, but the concept is the same - building software for early-stage entrepreneurs to validate their idea & market. |
asus pq321q ultrahd review: living with a 31.5-inch 4k display
| somehow, we grew content with 1080p television. i'm not sure why, the ($20-80k) 4k televisions that i've seen are substantially more impressive than the 1080p counterparts, even at 12 feet away.resolution really stalled out on the larger screens, until people realized how nice 'retina' is on the screens that they keep 1 foot away from their face. smartphones are finally starting to hit resolutions that match the upper limits of the human eye, and people are finally starting to want that on larger screens.i imagine that once monitors have started to max out the human eye, there's going to be a much larger push for higher resolution tvs. i'm still surprised that tv resolution stalled out for so long, but i think that 4k tv will be the future (eventually). the eye is good enough to see that many pixels. | i can only hope that the new mac pro is unleashed along with a similarly pixel-rich screen. |
asus pq321q ultrahd review: living with a 31.5-inch 4k display
| i can only hope that the new mac pro is unleashed along with a similarly pixel-rich screen. | people with more money than me: kindly buy lots of these so that further generations are developed and costs come down asap.i am sick of having to choose between screen estate and ppi. give me my unicorn. |
asus pq321q ultrahd review: living with a 31.5-inch 4k display
| people with more money than me: kindly buy lots of these so that further generations are developed and costs come down asap.i am sick of having to choose between screen estate and ppi. give me my unicorn. | sounds great, i also like retina, but lackings of current hdmi standard are equally discouraging as a 3d session with samsung monitor against samsung glasses nowadays. at least until the make it work out of the box, and compatible.btw is there any indication that next hdmi standard will be able to standardize both 4k _and_ 3d, while keeping performance above 60fps? |
asus pq321q ultrahd review: living with a 31.5-inch 4k display
| sounds great, i also like retina, but lackings of current hdmi standard are equally discouraging as a 3d session with samsung monitor against samsung glasses nowadays. at least until the make it work out of the box, and compatible.btw is there any indication that next hdmi standard will be able to standardize both 4k _and_ 3d, while keeping performance above 60fps? | if you really want to use that resolution fully, then you need a much bigger screen to take advantage of it, otherwise everything will be too small.if you want to benefit from the "retina" type of sharpness, then windows should really show it at an effective 1080p resolution, and windows sucks at doing that. it only enlarges some icons, and that's about it. |
hardening your web server's ssl ciphers
| i think this ciphersuite is actually better than what you have (and qualys seems to think so, too):sslciphersuite ecdhe-rsa-aes128-sha256:aes128-gcm-sha256:rc4:high:!md5:!anull:!edhalso, i couldn't get your disabling of ssl compression to work (on gentoo linux), either by pasting the export line into /etc/conf.d/apache2 (at the end) or /etc/init.d/apache2 (at the top). | take a look at applebaum's duraconf. it has configs for many ssl/tls services:<link> |
hardening your web server's ssl ciphers
| take a look at applebaum's duraconf. it has configs for many ssl/tls services:<link> | don't know if i agree re rc4; beast is an issue with cbc, not aes.
aes-gcm should be ok, if not superior to the ancient rc4. |
hardening your web server's ssl ciphers
| don't know if i agree re rc4; beast is an issue with cbc, not aes.
aes-gcm should be ok, if not superior to the ancient rc4. | anyone else having trouble getting "export openssl_no_default_zlib=1" to work on apache 2.2.22, centos 5.9?i have tried it in /etc/sysconfig/httpd and /etc/init.d/httpd (in start) and ssl tools still report that compression is on. |
hardening your web server's ssl ciphers
| anyone else having trouble getting "export openssl_no_default_zlib=1" to work on apache 2.2.22, centos 5.9?i have tried it in /etc/sysconfig/httpd and /etc/init.d/httpd (in start) and ssl tools still report that compression is on. | how does ssl compression work together with apache's ordinary zlib support?is it redundant when you're already deflating text/html pages? looking at a page fetched from my server, apache respondents with content-encoding: gzip. |
ask hn: ideas on how to change the culture at a big corporate bank
hi guys,<p>i work for a large bank and work in the technology part of that bank. i am trying to put a presentation together with the aim of trying to highlight ways of changing the culture within the technology part of the bank.<p>currently i work in a sterile, dreary office. we have to wear suits. we are bogged down by process and the people i work with have ideas, good ideas, but have not got the time or inclination to do anything with those ideas.<p>i want to change this. i know that is an almost impossible task but i have read various articles across the web on why people enjoy working where they do and how they promote a culture that promotes collaboration, idea generation, a culture that is non corporate.<p>do any of you work for corporate companies and witnessed a changing culture? do any of you work for non corporates and are able to explain why you enjoy working where you do?<p>in my mind there is no reason why just because i work for a bank that the technology part of the bank can't operate a similiar culture to web startups and leading tech companies like google, apple etc.<p>any help you can give would be great!<p>thanks in advance.. | read <link>, <link>, and anything else you get your hands on about strategy. seriously, the things that are holding you back are corporate, office and national politics. these aren't insurmountable obstacles, just impressions of them. it's a bank for goodness sake, it's not meant to be interesting.suits and a sterile office are not the problem. they are the symptom; and more than that, they are the signal and the filter for the type of people that work there (so i can see you having just as much problem getting your comrades-in-arms to agree to "collaboration, idea generation and non-corporatism" as your managers.)(i've written this assuming you're not a manager. if you are, great, it'll be easier to do either of these options and you can probably shave a couple of years of the timeline!)the best advice i can think of (other than give up, obviously) is to first prove technical competence, in the form a high-level executive understands (i saved us x million dollars on y different occasions) and then get them to support you in setting up a team (which you will lead and will almost certainly need to recruit from outside to fill — quick, who's the first person you phone?) that will do the projects you want to do (quick, what can you do that might add a billion the bank's bottom line?) and provide the political cover to do what you want. it'll take 5-10 years, it's risky and it requires political skill.an alternative tactic would be to think of the best technical practice that your office doesn't use that you could introduce via your co-workers, without threatening your manager, and start trying to do that. it's low key but if its an effective practice you could see payoffs quicker than the above plan. it won't get rid of the suits on its own though.anyway, good luck! i just really hope you weren't thinking of standing up and saying "i wish we had more foosball, fewer suits and daily pushes to our online banking app (which we are gonna rewrite in ruby)."(edit to add: the "how to manage geeks" current on the front page is also quite good, but doesn't really help you. <link> i also recommend: <link> <link> <link> | i once thought like this however things changed once i realized at least a few interesting insights (read: not rules!). and this is strictly my opinion, which the op has asked for.* not only must change absolutely come from the top, but so must the attitude. this may require getting new management, takes __money__, and time, and full support from your board. i really want to point to this one article by fc [1] but it's half link bait. none the less this list has characteristics (most of them, not all) of desired change (when you read it, remove 'social'). sometimes, you may need to get rid of board members. the ones that say "if it ain't broke why fix it?" (because you found out it was never fixed in the first place, or it's broke cause customers don't exist anymore).* attitude must be filtered down from the top to the lowest of ranks. this takes time, and may require getting rid of dead weight _just like silicon valley companies_. [2][3]* moving fast means just that. a large amount of people grew up with 'process', love to feel important, is all they know, and firmly believe there is nothing better. (wish i could site some psychology papers on this with related research in 'process engineering'/'re-engineering' but i don't follow the field anymore and can't remember off the top of my head any...). even for getting rid of people there is a huge, long process. microsoft is also seen as not moving fast enough [4] (well, in comparison to some banks and health insurance corps ms moves at light speed).* get rid of people rather than 're-education'. sometimes your teams need to be reborn and you _can't_ teach everyone to be at the same level and expect them to have new enthusiasm. especially so when you have a huge honking boat of people at your big corp. people are different, and most likely they were hired for different reasons from when you 'started change'. many older people (40+) at big corps today surprisingly don't have degrees (which doesn't matter) nor want to learn anything new (what really matters). if they can't get excited over new tools (read: programming languages, platforms) how they heck will you get them excited with what your going to build (you need passionate people, impossible to have 100% on board with your passion. it's like finding co-founders for a startup).* applications and process are entrenched deep so that big corp must rely on them. this is really fear. fear of change! see my first point, and if fear still exists keep firing.* once you eliminate dead wood, got rid of fear, have board approval, have great teams, you'll need to engrain in to the new culture some form of 'iterative process'. customers are always moving targets and you should always be ready - to move and catch new ones. well, unless your a monopoly (in which case it doesn't matter and any change means less profit on the ceos quarterly).* last bit of insight, sometimes you just can't change people. you can only assemble people, so assemble the ones you need.[1] <link>[2] <link>[3] <link>[4] <link> |
ask hn: ideas on how to change the culture at a big corporate bank
hi guys,<p>i work for a large bank and work in the technology part of that bank. i am trying to put a presentation together with the aim of trying to highlight ways of changing the culture within the technology part of the bank.<p>currently i work in a sterile, dreary office. we have to wear suits. we are bogged down by process and the people i work with have ideas, good ideas, but have not got the time or inclination to do anything with those ideas.<p>i want to change this. i know that is an almost impossible task but i have read various articles across the web on why people enjoy working where they do and how they promote a culture that promotes collaboration, idea generation, a culture that is non corporate.<p>do any of you work for corporate companies and witnessed a changing culture? do any of you work for non corporates and are able to explain why you enjoy working where you do?<p>in my mind there is no reason why just because i work for a bank that the technology part of the bank can't operate a similiar culture to web startups and leading tech companies like google, apple etc.<p>any help you can give would be great!<p>thanks in advance.. | i once thought like this however things changed once i realized at least a few interesting insights (read: not rules!). and this is strictly my opinion, which the op has asked for.* not only must change absolutely come from the top, but so must the attitude. this may require getting new management, takes __money__, and time, and full support from your board. i really want to point to this one article by fc [1] but it's half link bait. none the less this list has characteristics (most of them, not all) of desired change (when you read it, remove 'social'). sometimes, you may need to get rid of board members. the ones that say "if it ain't broke why fix it?" (because you found out it was never fixed in the first place, or it's broke cause customers don't exist anymore).* attitude must be filtered down from the top to the lowest of ranks. this takes time, and may require getting rid of dead weight _just like silicon valley companies_. [2][3]* moving fast means just that. a large amount of people grew up with 'process', love to feel important, is all they know, and firmly believe there is nothing better. (wish i could site some psychology papers on this with related research in 'process engineering'/'re-engineering' but i don't follow the field anymore and can't remember off the top of my head any...). even for getting rid of people there is a huge, long process. microsoft is also seen as not moving fast enough [4] (well, in comparison to some banks and health insurance corps ms moves at light speed).* get rid of people rather than 're-education'. sometimes your teams need to be reborn and you _can't_ teach everyone to be at the same level and expect them to have new enthusiasm. especially so when you have a huge honking boat of people at your big corp. people are different, and most likely they were hired for different reasons from when you 'started change'. many older people (40+) at big corps today surprisingly don't have degrees (which doesn't matter) nor want to learn anything new (what really matters). if they can't get excited over new tools (read: programming languages, platforms) how they heck will you get them excited with what your going to build (you need passionate people, impossible to have 100% on board with your passion. it's like finding co-founders for a startup).* applications and process are entrenched deep so that big corp must rely on them. this is really fear. fear of change! see my first point, and if fear still exists keep firing.* once you eliminate dead wood, got rid of fear, have board approval, have great teams, you'll need to engrain in to the new culture some form of 'iterative process'. customers are always moving targets and you should always be ready - to move and catch new ones. well, unless your a monopoly (in which case it doesn't matter and any change means less profit on the ceos quarterly).* last bit of insight, sometimes you just can't change people. you can only assemble people, so assemble the ones you need.[1] <link>[2] <link>[3] <link>[4] <link> | in my mind there is no reason why just because i work for a bank that the technology part of the bank can't operate a similiar culture to web startups and leading tech companies like google, apple etc.the issue with working in financial services is corporate governance 8 compliance. every single detail in a bank is monitored 8 regulated to the point where there are unbelievably strict rules covering every element of the business. i appreciate culture can't be controlled by rules 8 regulations but it does tend to cripple creativity 8 freedom quite significantly.good luck. |
ask hn: ideas on how to change the culture at a big corporate bank
hi guys,<p>i work for a large bank and work in the technology part of that bank. i am trying to put a presentation together with the aim of trying to highlight ways of changing the culture within the technology part of the bank.<p>currently i work in a sterile, dreary office. we have to wear suits. we are bogged down by process and the people i work with have ideas, good ideas, but have not got the time or inclination to do anything with those ideas.<p>i want to change this. i know that is an almost impossible task but i have read various articles across the web on why people enjoy working where they do and how they promote a culture that promotes collaboration, idea generation, a culture that is non corporate.<p>do any of you work for corporate companies and witnessed a changing culture? do any of you work for non corporates and are able to explain why you enjoy working where you do?<p>in my mind there is no reason why just because i work for a bank that the technology part of the bank can't operate a similiar culture to web startups and leading tech companies like google, apple etc.<p>any help you can give would be great!<p>thanks in advance.. | in my mind there is no reason why just because i work for a bank that the technology part of the bank can't operate a similiar culture to web startups and leading tech companies like google, apple etc.the issue with working in financial services is corporate governance 8 compliance. every single detail in a bank is monitored 8 regulated to the point where there are unbelievably strict rules covering every element of the business. i appreciate culture can't be controlled by rules 8 regulations but it does tend to cripple creativity 8 freedom quite significantly.good luck. | i've been in your shoes. i used to work at banco itaú in brazil and spent 6 months trying to get them to let in apple or linux machines in a company with like 28,000 windows machines. i also got away with having large plants on my desk even though it was against the rules.how did i get away with even that much and was it worth it?to get a new technology introduced, i had to escalate my issue all the way to the ceo of the bank. this was only possible because i was not an it employee. i was one of the well paid financial analysts with a fair amount of clout in our area of the bank. i would not have been able to convince the bank of any change had i not worked for a profit center of the bank. as you are in it, you are part of a cost center (accept this as a fact of life). the only way you are going to make any changes in any reasonable time frame is if someone in a profit center champions your cause. cost center areas of the bank rarely will be able to raise their issue high enough to make any difference. banks make money hand over fist so as long as a cost center like it doesn't get in the way of making money, the top brass just won't care. they won't and no amount of believing that they will will make them think otherwise. banks are large rent-seeking institutions run by people who just want to make as much money as possible to retire early or keep up with the joneses. i promise you that few if any of these people will care about your plight. they certainly don't see suits and dull dreary offices as part of the problem. watch american psycho. many like the suits (because they are probably wearing armani and gucci suits and then spend their evenings in restaurants and bars where women notice that kind of thing). the fact that you are wearing suits will not be seen as problem for them. they may even wonder why you wouldn't want to wear a suit. i was the only financial analyst that didn't leave the bank for lunch without my suit jacket when it was 100 degrees outside and humid. they like the suits. they command power and respect.was it worth wasting my time on trying to change the culture at the bank? no. no. no. no. don't bother. you'll fight tooth and nail for a year for a tiny concession if you are lucky and you'll always wish things were better. well they can be better, but not in the bank. go elsewhere. go work with real engineers and tech people in a business where tech is a profit center. you will only ever be happy in a company where the job you do is part of a profit center.leave. trust me. leave.i've been out of the bank for 3 years now and after working at two tech companies in the meantime, i'm now building my own startup with some friends and learning so much more about tech and business than a lifetime of working at a bank would have taught me. if i had stayed at the bank, i probably would be making a half million to a million dollars per year with bonus by now. i'm currently near broke and bootstrapping and could not be happier. i can't afford vacations or nice cars, but i also don't work a shit job where those are the only things in my life that i have to look forward to.if you still decide to give it a shot, check out the links from robin_message's answer and the book fearless change, which is a pattern language book with culture change patterns to help you solve the problems you encounter. i wish i had had that book when i was trying to change things at the bank. |
ask hn: ideas on how to change the culture at a big corporate bank
hi guys,<p>i work for a large bank and work in the technology part of that bank. i am trying to put a presentation together with the aim of trying to highlight ways of changing the culture within the technology part of the bank.<p>currently i work in a sterile, dreary office. we have to wear suits. we are bogged down by process and the people i work with have ideas, good ideas, but have not got the time or inclination to do anything with those ideas.<p>i want to change this. i know that is an almost impossible task but i have read various articles across the web on why people enjoy working where they do and how they promote a culture that promotes collaboration, idea generation, a culture that is non corporate.<p>do any of you work for corporate companies and witnessed a changing culture? do any of you work for non corporates and are able to explain why you enjoy working where you do?<p>in my mind there is no reason why just because i work for a bank that the technology part of the bank can't operate a similiar culture to web startups and leading tech companies like google, apple etc.<p>any help you can give would be great!<p>thanks in advance.. | i've been in your shoes. i used to work at banco itaú in brazil and spent 6 months trying to get them to let in apple or linux machines in a company with like 28,000 windows machines. i also got away with having large plants on my desk even though it was against the rules.how did i get away with even that much and was it worth it?to get a new technology introduced, i had to escalate my issue all the way to the ceo of the bank. this was only possible because i was not an it employee. i was one of the well paid financial analysts with a fair amount of clout in our area of the bank. i would not have been able to convince the bank of any change had i not worked for a profit center of the bank. as you are in it, you are part of a cost center (accept this as a fact of life). the only way you are going to make any changes in any reasonable time frame is if someone in a profit center champions your cause. cost center areas of the bank rarely will be able to raise their issue high enough to make any difference. banks make money hand over fist so as long as a cost center like it doesn't get in the way of making money, the top brass just won't care. they won't and no amount of believing that they will will make them think otherwise. banks are large rent-seeking institutions run by people who just want to make as much money as possible to retire early or keep up with the joneses. i promise you that few if any of these people will care about your plight. they certainly don't see suits and dull dreary offices as part of the problem. watch american psycho. many like the suits (because they are probably wearing armani and gucci suits and then spend their evenings in restaurants and bars where women notice that kind of thing). the fact that you are wearing suits will not be seen as problem for them. they may even wonder why you wouldn't want to wear a suit. i was the only financial analyst that didn't leave the bank for lunch without my suit jacket when it was 100 degrees outside and humid. they like the suits. they command power and respect.was it worth wasting my time on trying to change the culture at the bank? no. no. no. no. don't bother. you'll fight tooth and nail for a year for a tiny concession if you are lucky and you'll always wish things were better. well they can be better, but not in the bank. go elsewhere. go work with real engineers and tech people in a business where tech is a profit center. you will only ever be happy in a company where the job you do is part of a profit center.leave. trust me. leave.i've been out of the bank for 3 years now and after working at two tech companies in the meantime, i'm now building my own startup with some friends and learning so much more about tech and business than a lifetime of working at a bank would have taught me. if i had stayed at the bank, i probably would be making a half million to a million dollars per year with bonus by now. i'm currently near broke and bootstrapping and could not be happier. i can't afford vacations or nice cars, but i also don't work a shit job where those are the only things in my life that i have to look forward to.if you still decide to give it a shot, check out the links from robin_message's answer and the book fearless change, which is a pattern language book with culture change patterns to help you solve the problems you encounter. i wish i had had that book when i was trying to change things at the bank. | believe it or not, zed shaw once gave a great talk on doing quality work in the stifling corporate culture of large financial institutions: <link>'s not directly related to reforming that corporate culture, but it'll probably give you some good tips if you decided that your particular ocean is taking too long to boil. |
diving deep into user behavior with google analytics, event tracking, and jquery
| good post... bravo for increasing awareness about ga's lesser-known features.why does this require asynchronous ga and jquery in the head?asynchronous ga seems like a best practice, but how would that affect the amount of event data you collect?jquery in the head would net you a negligible increase in data, and only for particularly heavy sites. no?i use event tracking across a few sites in varying configurations (sync/head, async/footer, etc.) and would think anyone using ga and jquery can benefit from this advice without changing their existing structure. | for this i find tools like lloogg.com invaluable (disclaimer: i'm the author of lloogg, but i'm currently not really running it as a business, at least for now, so i mean, lloogg or any other good real-time stat stuff).there is nothing as good as identifying patterns as the human brain, and a few minutes every day of actually seeing what users are doing on your site is very good. |
diving deep into user behavior with google analytics, event tracking, and jquery
| for this i find tools like lloogg.com invaluable (disclaimer: i'm the author of lloogg, but i'm currently not really running it as a business, at least for now, so i mean, lloogg or any other good real-time stat stuff).there is nothing as good as identifying patterns as the human brain, and a few minutes every day of actually seeing what users are doing on your site is very good. | we do this to the tune of a million events a day (not pageviews, actual ui interactions) and it works well, especially given the $0 price tag. what's lacking is event correlation of the kind that kissmetrics and others support: how many users who performed event x went on to perform event y. |
diving deep into user behavior with google analytics, event tracking, and jquery
| we do this to the tune of a million events a day (not pageviews, actual ui interactions) and it works well, especially given the $0 price tag. what's lacking is event correlation of the kind that kissmetrics and others support: how many users who performed event x went on to perform event y. | great post. i've been relying on heatmapping tools like crazy egg to answer some of those questions about where users are clicking. there are some definite limitations though; it seems like ga might fill those gaps nicely - for free. |
diving deep into user behavior with google analytics, event tracking, and jquery
| great post. i've been relying on heatmapping tools like crazy egg to answer some of those questions about where users are clicking. there are some definite limitations though; it seems like ga might fill those gaps nicely - for free. | how does this compare to something like mixpanel? |
show hn: datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
| there's another open-source tool named huginn[1] that does something like this. you write "agents" that perform a given task and then pass the resulting onto other agents that do things like run stats, send emails, etc.[1]: <link> | i got my first reporting job after writing a bot to scrape the sec for filings by major financial figures.data journalism is very sexy! unfortunately it's still very hard to find that story needle, and increasingly so when you open up the data aperture. |
show hn: datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
| i got my first reporting job after writing a bot to scrape the sec for filings by major financial figures.data journalism is very sexy! unfortunately it's still very hard to find that story needle, and increasingly so when you open up the data aperture. | hello,nice job but why do you require postfix?!you should be using either sendmail/mailx or a custom user/password smtpd server (e.g. google's smtpd). |
show hn: datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
| hello,nice job but why do you require postfix?!you should be using either sendmail/mailx or a custom user/password smtpd server (e.g. google's smtpd). | it looks like a meta google alerts, but it's open source and hackable, which can be really handy. a documentation of how to write custom alerts would be useful, i guess.also, you should host a demo somewhere. |
show hn: datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
| it looks like a meta google alerts, but it's open source and hackable, which can be really handy. a documentation of how to write custom alerts would be useful, i guess.also, you should host a demo somewhere. | the install procedure is a bit complex, this should just be done with a "npm install -g ..".especially the install.sh only works on linux.otherwise very cool idea :-) |
giant pyramids and sphinxes discovered offcoast cuba
| interesting but the story seemed light on proof. digging a bit deeper - the whole thing seems to be contested.several experts have seen this & questioned it's validity:""that's too deep, i'd be surprised if it was human. you have to ask yourself, how did it get there? i've looked at a lot of sonar images in my life, and it can be sort of like looking at an ink blot -- people can sometimes see what they want to see. i'll just wait for a bit more data."addition reading for the curious:
[1]<link> | nothing here really adds up.1. the earliest pyramids in mesoamerica currently known are about half the age claimed in the bbc article. there are older pyramids in south america (specifically brazil), but still nothing as old as is claimed here.2. the linked page says this complex may have been submerged after the last ice-age, but that would actually double the age of the site!3. the depth of the site (reported on the bbc link) is 650 meters below current sea level, but only 183 meters on the wordpress link. however, at peak glaciation during the last ice age, sea levels were only about 130 meters lower than they are today. if we don't use the bbc article's numbers (could be a metric-imperial conversion error) that still leaves over 50 meters difference, which is rather a lot of subsidence given the geology of the region!4. the bbc article is over a decade old, but no new findings have been reported in that time. whether it's 650 or 183 meters deep, somebody would have sent a sub down for a better look by now if it actually existed.shenanigans! my guess is that this is the blogspam driven resurrection of an old hoax. |
giant pyramids and sphinxes discovered offcoast cuba
| nothing here really adds up.1. the earliest pyramids in mesoamerica currently known are about half the age claimed in the bbc article. there are older pyramids in south america (specifically brazil), but still nothing as old as is claimed here.2. the linked page says this complex may have been submerged after the last ice-age, but that would actually double the age of the site!3. the depth of the site (reported on the bbc link) is 650 meters below current sea level, but only 183 meters on the wordpress link. however, at peak glaciation during the last ice age, sea levels were only about 130 meters lower than they are today. if we don't use the bbc article's numbers (could be a metric-imperial conversion error) that still leaves over 50 meters difference, which is rather a lot of subsidence given the geology of the region!4. the bbc article is over a decade old, but no new findings have been reported in that time. whether it's 650 or 183 meters deep, somebody would have sent a sub down for a better look by now if it actually existed.shenanigans! my guess is that this is the blogspam driven resurrection of an old hoax. | this has been bullshit for nearly 12 years, now: <link> this crap off the front page, please. |
giant pyramids and sphinxes discovered offcoast cuba
| this has been bullshit for nearly 12 years, now: <link> this crap off the front page, please. | why is this on the front page? this nonsense isn't news.<link> |
giant pyramids and sphinxes discovered offcoast cuba
| why is this on the front page? this nonsense isn't news.<link> | where did the high resolution sonar images in the article come from?this discovery was pretty unconfirmed unless there is some new source i am missing in the article, besides photobucket. |
star trek cited by texas supreme court
| so, in case anyone is interested in what the actual ruling was about: a couple sued the company which purchased the husband's former employer for asbestos related mesothelioma. the texas legislature enacted a law which retroactively indemnified companies from being sued in such cases, most interestingly is that this couple's suit was the only one which was affected.the widow (the husband having passed) challenged this ruling as unconstitutional with regards to the texas constitution. the judgement handed down sides with her, though i don't think that a judgement has yet been made in the original case. | that's baloney. the police power flows from the individual's right to defend his own rights and to cooperate with others to do so.when the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, the few can volunteer to help out or the many can offer something to compensate the few for helping out.but the many don't have the right to sacrifice the few whenever they decide it will hurt the few less than it will hurt the many. if anything, the law is all about opposing mob rule.its interesting to note that in the following movie kirk explains that he went back to find spock because the needs of the few sometimes outweigh the needs of the many.all this really means is that an individual or a group can decide to help others when the value of the saved is clearly worth more to themselves than even a personal loss or even risk to one's own life. |
star trek cited by texas supreme court
| that's baloney. the police power flows from the individual's right to defend his own rights and to cooperate with others to do so.when the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, the few can volunteer to help out or the many can offer something to compensate the few for helping out.but the many don't have the right to sacrifice the few whenever they decide it will hurt the few less than it will hurt the many. if anything, the law is all about opposing mob rule.its interesting to note that in the following movie kirk explains that he went back to find spock because the needs of the few sometimes outweigh the needs of the many.all this really means is that an individual or a group can decide to help others when the value of the saved is clearly worth more to themselves than even a personal loss or even risk to one's own life. | "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."i always found the reverse, from star trek iii, more thought-provoking: the needs of the few, or the one, outweigh the needs of the many.while our government is ostensibly decided by the majority, our system also recognizes and guards the fundamental rights of the minority. |
star trek cited by texas supreme court
| "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."i always found the reverse, from star trek iii, more thought-provoking: the needs of the few, or the one, outweigh the needs of the many.while our government is ostensibly decided by the majority, our system also recognizes and guards the fundamental rights of the minority. | for details on the actual case:<link> sum-up: "law passed to retroactively protect one company from asbestos lawsuits deemed bullshit"yes indeed, my state's court system can occasionally get something right, and very occasionally a team red judge like willet will make cogent arguments and decisions actually based on concepts of limited government. |
star trek cited by texas supreme court
| for details on the actual case:<link> sum-up: "law passed to retroactively protect one company from asbestos lawsuits deemed bullshit"yes indeed, my state's court system can occasionally get something right, and very occasionally a team red judge like willet will make cogent arguments and decisions actually based on concepts of limited government. | the following news almost makes up for how often i hide my head in shame of the decisions of the texas courts.sigh. does everything have to have a political overtone?if your point is that the judge used star trek in order to decide issues of law, you are mistaken. if your point is that it is silly for the judge, in his opinion, to refer to popular literature and metaphors, you are also mistaken.in fact, looks to me from the above quote that the whole article is just an excuse to use what is a neat example of trek continuing to have an effect on the mythos of our age as a stick to beat on texans, probably because most of them don't see eye-to-eye with the author.perhaps that wasn't diplomatic enough for the author. but, to quote a famous fictional engineer: "ah, diplomacy; i adore diplomacy...diplomacy? the best diplomat i know of is a fully charged phaser bank!""sorry. i just don't like folks using trek to take swipes at political affiliation. there are some very good people in texas of all stripes. this could have been a much better trivia article if the author could have left out his little jabs. (and yes, i am assuming sarcasm in the above quote) |
indexing the andreessen horowitz portfolio companies
| if you are interested in aggregating their google page rank you can look at my code here: <link> using <link>, if you want to aggregate its related twitter, blogs, etc you can also look at <link> for a simple multithreaded crawler.related articles:- <link> <link> it helps! | 2andreessen horowitz has an impressive list of exited companies in 3 ipos (facebook, groupon, zynga) and 3 acquisition from high profile companies: nicira (acquired by vmware), instagram (acquired by facebook), and skype (acquired by microsoft). hi danielle, fyi fusion-io (under enterprise) has exited via ipo: <link> |
indexing the andreessen horowitz portfolio companies
| 2andreessen horowitz has an impressive list of exited companies in 3 ipos (facebook, groupon, zynga) and 3 acquisition from high profile companies: nicira (acquired by vmware), instagram (acquired by facebook), and skype (acquired by microsoft). hi danielle, fyi fusion-io (under enterprise) has exited via ipo: <link> | this is missing their seed stage investments |
indexing the andreessen horowitz portfolio companies
| this is missing their seed stage investments | i love this index series, danielle! does this have any link to what's next for refer.ly? :) |
indexing the andreessen horowitz portfolio companies
| i love this index series, danielle! does this have any link to what's next for refer.ly? :) | this ranking under-states mobile companies quite a bit. i'm not sure the best way to improve it, but i guarantee you that bump and any tinyco game has broader reach than app.net or viki. |
wayback machine gets a facelift, new features
| in case anyone doesn't remember the old design, here is a link: <link> | oh how i wish the wayback machine would ignore robots.txt... so many websites lost to history because some rookie webmaster put some misguided commands into the file without thinking about the consequences (eg. block all crawlers except google) |
wayback machine gets a facelift, new features
| oh how i wish the wayback machine would ignore robots.txt... so many websites lost to history because some rookie webmaster put some misguided commands into the file without thinking about the consequences (eg. block all crawlers except google) | glad to see they finally got an api, however i'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't return the oldest archived date for a site, only the newest. i often need to check how long ago a site was originally archived. the api would have been very helpful for that, but the closest they provide is an option to query whether or not it was archived on a specific date, which is nowhere near as helpful. |
wayback machine gets a facelift, new features
| glad to see they finally got an api, however i'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't return the oldest archived date for a site, only the newest. i often need to check how long ago a site was originally archived. the api would have been very helpful for that, but the closest they provide is an option to query whether or not it was archived on a specific date, which is nowhere near as helpful. | i love the wayback machine (and all of archive.org, really). i recently used it to reminisce about some old vrml-based chat communities that i frequented about 10 years ago. it had a record for every single of them. |
wayback machine gets a facelift, new features
| i love the wayback machine (and all of archive.org, really). i recently used it to reminisce about some old vrml-based chat communities that i frequented about 10 years ago. it had a record for every single of them. | i just launched a similar service called <link> that screenshots, emails, and archives a specified web site on a daily basis. my use case is to be able to look back at any one day and see what my site looks like, since archive.org doesn't refresh my page as often as i update it.disclaimer: i'm really not trying to over-market myself, but i figured readers of this thread might be interested in my project. happy to take down this post if it's read as too spammy. |
don’t take medical advice from the new york times magazine
| "we are a chemophobic culture." i take great issue with this statement. we are most decidedly not a chemophobic culture. people are more than willing to take medicines that are artificially synthesized and, as the author mentions, with good reason.i, for one, am not chemophobic. i personally know an individual who developed one of the first total-syntheses (i.e. "artificial" chemical synthesis) of a very important anti-cancer agent, taxol. the ts of taxol was exceedingly important, since a single dose required the sacrifice of an mature yew tree -- something that would have been entirely unfeasible for the millions of people that stood to benefit from the drug.but there are miraculous, mysterious things that we do not understand about natural products and the human body. take yerba maté, for example, a popular beverage in argentina and coffee. or wine and whiskey. what all these beverages have in common is that they rely on a principal chemical agent for their effect (methylxanthine or caffeine in the case of yerba maté and coffee; ethanol in the case of wine or your favorite alcohol). yet as the more sensitive among us have realized, each different concoction effects us differently -- even though the principal ingredient is the same (people report calming, yet stimulating effects from yerba maté as opposed to caffeine, etc.)!it turns out there is a very simple explanation for this. there are other constellations of chemicals in these concoctions which, in concert create an altogether particular and unique effect. this, i believe, is where "chemophobia" lies for some individuals (though again, i argue it is not widespread among the greater population). it lies in the fact that we are applying something very strong in a way that is not balanced or integrated. one very real mainstream example of this is how calcium is accompanied by vitamin d, as the latter enhances absorption of the the former. since vitamin d helps strengthen the effect of calcium, patients can take safer doses of calcium which have great physiological effect. another example is the fact that african american heart patients who take ace inhibitors (drugs that lower blood pressure) along with diuretics have much, much better clinical outcomes than taking ace inhibitors alone, which is the standard of treatment for most individuals.the hope, then, is that when taking something more "natural" as opposed to man-made is that that natural product will inherently contain a wider variety of compounds that taken together create a more potent, but gentle effect on the patient. now of course, these effects could be created by taking combinations of man-made products. but first these combinations need to be discovered, and we are certainly a long ways off from that. and it is not easy--different people are affected by different combinations and deciphering the key players out of a set of natural products is not easy. this will take many more years of careful, non-biased research. and there is indeed incredible bias against natural products among mainstream medical establishment, which is rather absurd given that so many of the drugs we take today come from natural sources! to me this is the real travesty, not "chemophobia."moreover, we need to embrace treatments that work, even if we can't explain them (provided that they are safe--more on this and ld50's in a moment). good scientists work with existing knowledge. great scientists love the perplexing, paradoxical, seemingly impossible phenomena that are not well characterized, which the fda (about the most mainstream medical organization on the planet) does not necessarily approve of, for which there are no established doses or ld50's. why is the author so insistent on the notion of ld50's when so many people have taken natural products for hundreds of years without ill-effect (that's a pretty amazing safety standard, in a way -- the fact that people without any scientific background have safely taken and studied natural products without modern science; namely by studying themselves; in india and china there were masters at this sort of art).sorry for such a long response. i hope someone appreciates these comments.edit: i just want to add one other thing. rofecoxib (better known as vioxx) has an established ld50. for mice it is 300mg/kg, for rabbits it is 3.2g/kg, and for rats it is 980mg/kg [2]. but you know what? vioxx exacerbated heart disease for at least thousands of people and should have been recalled years earlier than 2004[1]. an established ld50 does not mean a drug is safe.[1] <link>[2] <link> | from the article: "we are a chemophobic culture. chemical has become a synonym for something artificial, adulterated, hazardous, or toxic. chemicals are bad—for you, for your children, for the environment. but whatever chemophobics would like to think, there is no avoiding chemicals, no way to create chemical-free zones. absolutely everything is made of atoms and molecules; it’s all chemistry." this was striking to me, as i had seen an example just recently elsewhere in cyberspace of reasoning that "chemicals" are bad ingredients to have in a food, even though all foods are materials made up of, um, chemicals. i have seen similar comments earlier here on hacker news.matter is made up of atoms, and those atoms form various chemical elements or compounds or mixtures. we breath chemicals, we eat chemicals, we touch chemicals every day. just because some foodstuffs have listed ingredients, with names that are sometimes difficult to read out loud (i have no trouble with the names, but then again i grew up with a parent who majored in chemistry) doesn't mean that those foods are dangerous. whatever kind of food you think is perfectly safe surely contains some compounds with chemical names that are hard to spell or pronounce, but are nevertheless perfectly "natural," and usually not listed on an ingredients label. don't worry about it. |
don’t take medical advice from the new york times magazine
| from the article: "we are a chemophobic culture. chemical has become a synonym for something artificial, adulterated, hazardous, or toxic. chemicals are bad—for you, for your children, for the environment. but whatever chemophobics would like to think, there is no avoiding chemicals, no way to create chemical-free zones. absolutely everything is made of atoms and molecules; it’s all chemistry." this was striking to me, as i had seen an example just recently elsewhere in cyberspace of reasoning that "chemicals" are bad ingredients to have in a food, even though all foods are materials made up of, um, chemicals. i have seen similar comments earlier here on hacker news.matter is made up of atoms, and those atoms form various chemical elements or compounds or mixtures. we breath chemicals, we eat chemicals, we touch chemicals every day. just because some foodstuffs have listed ingredients, with names that are sometimes difficult to read out loud (i have no trouble with the names, but then again i grew up with a parent who majored in chemistry) doesn't mean that those foods are dangerous. whatever kind of food you think is perfectly safe surely contains some compounds with chemical names that are hard to spell or pronounce, but are nevertheless perfectly "natural," and usually not listed on an ingredients label. don't worry about it. | in the same breath you should also not assume any doctor is an impartial scientist.doctors are humans and are therefore also subject to being lazy, greedy, ignorant, etc.just because they seem to have more knowledge and use something of a scientific method doesn't mean they aren't locked into their ways, always giving the same kind of diagnosis for certain symptoms without questioning their limited knowledge.they also face pressure from insurance and government agencies to behave in certain manners.as many of us are coders, let me put it this way - have you ever looked up to another coder because they seemed to know so much more than you? then after some years you surpassed them in your knowledge and looked back on their code and realized it was a "bit cr*p" in parts?yeah well your doctor is like that too. if they aren't constantly learning and researching, they are set in their ways and being moved by forces that may not make the best decisions for your health. |
don’t take medical advice from the new york times magazine
| in the same breath you should also not assume any doctor is an impartial scientist.doctors are humans and are therefore also subject to being lazy, greedy, ignorant, etc.just because they seem to have more knowledge and use something of a scientific method doesn't mean they aren't locked into their ways, always giving the same kind of diagnosis for certain symptoms without questioning their limited knowledge.they also face pressure from insurance and government agencies to behave in certain manners.as many of us are coders, let me put it this way - have you ever looked up to another coder because they seemed to know so much more than you? then after some years you surpassed them in your knowledge and looked back on their code and realized it was a "bit cr*p" in parts?yeah well your doctor is like that too. if they aren't constantly learning and researching, they are set in their ways and being moved by forces that may not make the best decisions for your health. | so many people earnestly want to tell me how if i just drink the right cherry juice, or do acupuncture, i will magically be fixed. it is very annoying. rather than take someone's anecdotes and try them one after another it seems more sensible to look over the last 20 years or so of research papers and decide on treatment based on that.also, 6 weeks on methotrexate is not a very long trial. |
don’t take medical advice from the new york times magazine
| so many people earnestly want to tell me how if i just drink the right cherry juice, or do acupuncture, i will magically be fixed. it is very annoying. rather than take someone's anecdotes and try them one after another it seems more sensible to look over the last 20 years or so of research papers and decide on treatment based on that.also, 6 weeks on methotrexate is not a very long trial. | "another common chemical name for methotrexate is amethopterin, which comes from the roots meth, greek for wine, which i might stretch to spirits, and pterin, greek for feathers."except for it's ameth, which would mean lack of intoxication, a la 'amethyst'.in fact the whole article is complete bs as it doesn't even remotely align with the views the author presents in the original article -- nowhere does the author say that she is 'chemophobic', nor is this even hinted at beyond her saying that her husband has always been "more comfortable with pharmaceuticals, more trusting in general." and of course naturopathic medicine is going to seem like pure evil if you're willfully blinding yourself to the arguments in its favor and only seeing the (legitimate) weaknesses, as will anything else for that matter. |
postgres now the default database for mac os x server
| the site is timing out for me right now.still, whatever the reason for the switch (is oracle involved?), this seems like a good new default.i've found postgres capable, fast, and rock-solid. (at the point i switched from mysql, a few years ago, i'd be tempted to say that it had approximately none of those three going for it. i'll be happy to hear that mysql has improved meanwhile, though: is there any particular reason i might consider switching back?). | congrats to the postgres guys. even if this is for primarily licensing reasons, pgsql is a solid, powerful database that's easily more powerful than mysql, and is slowly making gains against oracle. it's underused, and lacking in name recognition, but hopefully this is the first step towards changing that. |
postgres now the default database for mac os x server
| congrats to the postgres guys. even if this is for primarily licensing reasons, pgsql is a solid, powerful database that's easily more powerful than mysql, and is slowly making gains against oracle. it's underused, and lacking in name recognition, but hopefully this is the first step towards changing that. | it will be interesting how a discussion (if there is one) on hacker news will differ from reddit. there the forty comments did fall in two categories:1. there is a server version?2. it is spelled os x without a slash. |
postgres now the default database for mac os x server
| it will be interesting how a discussion (if there is one) on hacker news will differ from reddit. there the forty comments did fall in two categories:1. there is a server version?2. it is spelled os x without a slash. | having upgraded to lion server on one of my boxes, i found that postgres was indeed running. or at least trying to run. it seems that the permissions weren't set properly on the conf file or data directories, so my log was filling up with "failure to start" messages as it tried to launch postgres every 10 seconds. even a "repair permissions" failed to solve the problem, and i had to manually go in and change some ownerships from the root user to _postgres.not sure if this is just my issue, but if you did upgrade to server, you might want to check your system's log file. |
postgres now the default database for mac os x server
| having upgraded to lion server on one of my boxes, i found that postgres was indeed running. or at least trying to run. it seems that the permissions weren't set properly on the conf file or data directories, so my log was filling up with "failure to start" messages as it tried to launch postgres every 10 seconds. even a "repair permissions" failed to solve the problem, and i had to manually go in and change some ownerships from the root user to _postgres.not sure if this is just my issue, but if you did upgrade to server, you might want to check your system's log file. | i take this as great news. postgres is my preferred sql database. i wish i could articulate better why i don't like mysql as much, but it just feels 'strange' in comparison. |
ask hn: how would you a/b test iphone apps?
patio11's a/bingo post got me thinking. how would you go about doing a/b testing for iphone apps?<p>the issue, obviously, is the app store submission/approval cycle which makes changes slow to reach users. (even without that, you probably wouldn't want to make users update their apps every day).<p>if the app is mainly web-based, it's pretty obvious, but what about native apps? | i know very little about iphone programming so forgive me if this is ludicrous but just thinking out loud...we had an app launch on launchly awhile back that was basically trying to be the iphone version of getsatisfaction or uservoice. you could plug in their code into your app and it would handle feedback and bug reports for you.maybe there's a market for something similar for a/b testing on iphones. if it's a tricky problem to solve, even better cause then people will pay you for it.initial thought w/out knowing anything about the security model is can you set up config files or even remote code on a server somewhere and then access it from your code on the iphone using an api key? if you can then you could maybe set up multiple config files on the server and have your code load different versions randomly and report back statistics...of course that brings up an interesting point. what would you be a/b testing in an iphone app? the user has to have already downloaded/installed your app. at that point there's really not any landing page or funnel to test like there is on a website. obviously you can still a/b test internals just to improve the app which will affect ratings which can affect downloads (conversions).anyways, just thinking out loud here. | if the screen which you want to a/b test is not the first screen, you can make background calls to your server and based on result decide which screen to show. write to user settings when you want to permanently disable it.note:i) reasoning behind not having it as first screen as it really slows the application launch.ii) you should make sure that if webservice call takes too long, just pick one default which is shown to user instead of waiting for resultiii) if you really want to do it for first screen, load and save the result in user settings for next launch while the application is running |
ask hn: how would you a/b test iphone apps?
patio11's a/bingo post got me thinking. how would you go about doing a/b testing for iphone apps?<p>the issue, obviously, is the app store submission/approval cycle which makes changes slow to reach users. (even without that, you probably wouldn't want to make users update their apps every day).<p>if the app is mainly web-based, it's pretty obvious, but what about native apps? | if the screen which you want to a/b test is not the first screen, you can make background calls to your server and based on result decide which screen to show. write to user settings when you want to permanently disable it.note:i) reasoning behind not having it as first screen as it really slows the application launch.ii) you should make sure that if webservice call takes too long, just pick one default which is shown to user instead of waiting for resultiii) if you really want to do it for first screen, load and save the result in user settings for next launch while the application is running | it's actually pretty simple to a/b test on app store apps:1. prepare two versions of each feature you want to test2. generate random integer on first launch3. save to nsuserdefaults4. present a/b based on the value of a particular bit in the random integer5. collect statistics and send back anonymously via nsurlconnectionquestion is probably better suited to stackoverflow |
ask hn: how would you a/b test iphone apps?
patio11's a/bingo post got me thinking. how would you go about doing a/b testing for iphone apps?<p>the issue, obviously, is the app store submission/approval cycle which makes changes slow to reach users. (even without that, you probably wouldn't want to make users update their apps every day).<p>if the app is mainly web-based, it's pretty obvious, but what about native apps? | it's actually pretty simple to a/b test on app store apps:1. prepare two versions of each feature you want to test2. generate random integer on first launch3. save to nsuserdefaults4. present a/b based on the value of a particular bit in the random integer5. collect statistics and send back anonymously via nsurlconnectionquestion is probably better suited to stackoverflow | guess:- do fake a/b testing for your appstore product page, toggle once a week and compare sales.- for the product itself, try usability testing face-to-face with potential users, using ad-hoc distribution. |
ask hn: how would you a/b test iphone apps?
patio11's a/bingo post got me thinking. how would you go about doing a/b testing for iphone apps?<p>the issue, obviously, is the app store submission/approval cycle which makes changes slow to reach users. (even without that, you probably wouldn't want to make users update their apps every day).<p>if the app is mainly web-based, it's pretty obvious, but what about native apps? | guess:- do fake a/b testing for your appstore product page, toggle once a week and compare sales.- for the product itself, try usability testing face-to-face with potential users, using ad-hoc distribution. | design an iphone app that's a cms pulling in data streams (xml) and displaying them to users. set the first queried data stream to be the a/b switch and all other data is pulled into the app dependent on the state of that switch. this is all assuming you're talking about testing within the app itself after it has been downloaded.
(i'm an sem/seo ux guy, so this is out of my league, but i think that makes sense.) |
ask hn: anyone leave a high paying job to work at a startup?
and on a similar note, is a chance at a big payout an important factor for anyone going the startup route (founder or employee)?<p>maybe it's just me, but it seems like it's just taboo to talk about money - everyone says do it because you love it, job descriptions talking about passion this and passion that. not that i disagree with those ideas, i don't - but how do you all look at the financial element?<p>i make a significant amount of money now (not bragging, just providing some context), so leaving it behind for a startup is a difficult decision. yes, it could be an awesome working environment, and yes, it could be a stepping stone to other opportunities. but given startup success rates and typical equity i would expect as a non-founder, it's a big time loser, at least purely financially.<p>anyone have similar experiences, whether they decided to go with startups or not? what was your thought process? alternatively, how much would you have to make to stick with a day job, assuming it was at least somewhat stimulating?<p>(throwaway account since i didn't want to go into my finances with my main account) | when i was in middle school, i left my usual clique of friends to be in the "abercrombie 8 fitch" clique. reasoning that being popular would expose me more to cooler people and prettier girls.when i was in high school going over college, i decided to go to a school based on its prestige over the school i fitted in. reasoning that a school with a better name would help me get a better job and impress people when i go to dinner parties.when i was in college, i decided to chase girls that i can't have and break off with girls who i clicked well with. reasoning that i should get what i can't have and that most people will judge me better with a good-looking girlfriend.when i'm working, i chose to work at a well-known wall st. company over a unknown startup. reasoning that the compensation and the cocktail impression factor would be better this way.like a trader, everyday people make choices. some people choose to play it safe their whole life, stay, work, marry 8 die in the same town that they were born in. some people take incredible unwarranted risks, like dedicating their lives to be a professional athlete/musician/actresses despite overwhelming evidences that they don't have the talent for it. some people take huge risk by letting themselves emotionally vulnerable when they fall in love. some people follow the most optimized investment plan, go to the right school/major, work at the right company, choose the right partner, put the right contribution into one's 401(k) plan, have the kids and then retire the right time and finally die the right way.but the market is simpler than life because in the end, everyone's measuring stick is the same, how much money you made/lost. but in something vague as life, everyone has different measuring stick; what's even more frustrating, your own measure stick is constantly changing; what i thought was important two years ago is completely trivial to me now and vice versa for what i thought was trivial.and there's no use in predicting what you think would be important to you in the future because you most probably end up being completely off; plus, it'll just leave you frustrated to forgo your present moment to work towards a future that you might discover that you won't want anyways. attribute that to any philosophy or psychology b.s you want (cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, existentialism), all i know is that it has happened and will happen again.the only certain i'm certain about is the present; i'm not talking about being hedonistic, but to take risks for the present and to leave the present moment without any regrets. kiss the girl, stay up late to finish coding 8 take the day off just to take a walk. | from my answer on quora (<link> bezos' regret minimization framework:"...it really was a decision that i had to make for myself, and the framework i found which made the decision incredibly easy was what i called -- which only a nerd would call -- a "regret minimization framework." so, i wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, "okay, now i'm looking back on my life. i want to have minimized the number of regrets i have." i knew that when i was 80 i was not going to regret having tried this. i was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the internet that i thought was going to be a really big deal. i knew that if i failed i wouldn't regret that, but i knew the one thing i might regret is not ever having tried. i knew that that would haunt me every day, and so, when i thought about it that way it was an incredibly easy decision. and, i think that's very good. if you can project yourself out to age 80 and sort of think, "what will i think at that time?" it gets you away from some of the daily pieces of confusion. you know, i left this wall street firm in the middle of the year. when you do that, you walk away from your annual bonus. that's the kind of thing that in the short-term can confuse you, but if you think about the long-term then you can really make good life decisions that you won't regret later."see:
<link> big payout is definitely a large factor in jumping ship if you're arrogant enough to believe that you can attain such a thing. if you just want to "work at a startup" without having much of an idea about which startup and no intention of starting one yourself, then frankly in my opinion, jumping ship isn't for you. if you're this concerned about your financial status today, at a company you don't drive the vision for you're going to find it harder to drum up the ambition and drive it takes to get through times where a huge financial payout is not as certain. |
ask hn: anyone leave a high paying job to work at a startup?
and on a similar note, is a chance at a big payout an important factor for anyone going the startup route (founder or employee)?<p>maybe it's just me, but it seems like it's just taboo to talk about money - everyone says do it because you love it, job descriptions talking about passion this and passion that. not that i disagree with those ideas, i don't - but how do you all look at the financial element?<p>i make a significant amount of money now (not bragging, just providing some context), so leaving it behind for a startup is a difficult decision. yes, it could be an awesome working environment, and yes, it could be a stepping stone to other opportunities. but given startup success rates and typical equity i would expect as a non-founder, it's a big time loser, at least purely financially.<p>anyone have similar experiences, whether they decided to go with startups or not? what was your thought process? alternatively, how much would you have to make to stick with a day job, assuming it was at least somewhat stimulating?<p>(throwaway account since i didn't want to go into my finances with my main account) | from my answer on quora (<link> bezos' regret minimization framework:"...it really was a decision that i had to make for myself, and the framework i found which made the decision incredibly easy was what i called -- which only a nerd would call -- a "regret minimization framework." so, i wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, "okay, now i'm looking back on my life. i want to have minimized the number of regrets i have." i knew that when i was 80 i was not going to regret having tried this. i was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the internet that i thought was going to be a really big deal. i knew that if i failed i wouldn't regret that, but i knew the one thing i might regret is not ever having tried. i knew that that would haunt me every day, and so, when i thought about it that way it was an incredibly easy decision. and, i think that's very good. if you can project yourself out to age 80 and sort of think, "what will i think at that time?" it gets you away from some of the daily pieces of confusion. you know, i left this wall street firm in the middle of the year. when you do that, you walk away from your annual bonus. that's the kind of thing that in the short-term can confuse you, but if you think about the long-term then you can really make good life decisions that you won't regret later."see:
<link> big payout is definitely a large factor in jumping ship if you're arrogant enough to believe that you can attain such a thing. if you just want to "work at a startup" without having much of an idea about which startup and no intention of starting one yourself, then frankly in my opinion, jumping ship isn't for you. if you're this concerned about your financial status today, at a company you don't drive the vision for you're going to find it harder to drum up the ambition and drive it takes to get through times where a huge financial payout is not as certain. | throwaway account:
when i left my job a few months ago, my total income from my employer to that point this year was over 400k. it includes payouts from my last startup i sold, but this would have continued for the next year or so had i stayed.since this is a financial article, i'll focus on financial stuff.its anecdotal but i think the average financial return for doing a startup is slightly better overall, and probably decently better if you are highly intelligent and skilled overall.if you are not highly intelligent and skilled overall its possible working at a company is a better deal.two questions to consider:q1: long term--what will open up more avenues of opportunity for me?in general i was not a very good corporate climber. some ppl are. some ppl aren't. i am not. i dress casually, speak colloquially and comparatively don't care too much about what other ppl think and don't like 9-5.given i already have startup success, it was easy for me to decide startups are financially more lucrative for me.why didn't i stay and wait for all my earnings to pay out?1. i got most of it already2. i'm not getting any younger3. i found a great team that i wanted to start a company with.4. the remaining cash would not change my life significantly.given all of that, i decided i'd rather leave.q2: having been in your position when i was a bit younger and first starting out (relatively high paying job...didn't love it but i wasn't going to shoot myself), i'd ask myself the "bezos/jobs question" : when you are 80 and on your deathbed, your life flashing before you in your last days, will you look back and regret the decision you took to jump ship and do a startup?imagine all sorts of realistic worst case scenarios....completely flops, you go bankrupt, waste 3 years of your life, gf leaves, mess up your health for a while...whatever is really bad but realistic.does the 80 yr old regret the decision of doing the startup? if so, then thats fine. don't do it. i think i would have balked if i had a mortgage, kids and no savings.however, in general people regret things they haven't done more than things that they did. |
ask hn: anyone leave a high paying job to work at a startup?
and on a similar note, is a chance at a big payout an important factor for anyone going the startup route (founder or employee)?<p>maybe it's just me, but it seems like it's just taboo to talk about money - everyone says do it because you love it, job descriptions talking about passion this and passion that. not that i disagree with those ideas, i don't - but how do you all look at the financial element?<p>i make a significant amount of money now (not bragging, just providing some context), so leaving it behind for a startup is a difficult decision. yes, it could be an awesome working environment, and yes, it could be a stepping stone to other opportunities. but given startup success rates and typical equity i would expect as a non-founder, it's a big time loser, at least purely financially.<p>anyone have similar experiences, whether they decided to go with startups or not? what was your thought process? alternatively, how much would you have to make to stick with a day job, assuming it was at least somewhat stimulating?<p>(throwaway account since i didn't want to go into my finances with my main account) | throwaway account:
when i left my job a few months ago, my total income from my employer to that point this year was over 400k. it includes payouts from my last startup i sold, but this would have continued for the next year or so had i stayed.since this is a financial article, i'll focus on financial stuff.its anecdotal but i think the average financial return for doing a startup is slightly better overall, and probably decently better if you are highly intelligent and skilled overall.if you are not highly intelligent and skilled overall its possible working at a company is a better deal.two questions to consider:q1: long term--what will open up more avenues of opportunity for me?in general i was not a very good corporate climber. some ppl are. some ppl aren't. i am not. i dress casually, speak colloquially and comparatively don't care too much about what other ppl think and don't like 9-5.given i already have startup success, it was easy for me to decide startups are financially more lucrative for me.why didn't i stay and wait for all my earnings to pay out?1. i got most of it already2. i'm not getting any younger3. i found a great team that i wanted to start a company with.4. the remaining cash would not change my life significantly.given all of that, i decided i'd rather leave.q2: having been in your position when i was a bit younger and first starting out (relatively high paying job...didn't love it but i wasn't going to shoot myself), i'd ask myself the "bezos/jobs question" : when you are 80 and on your deathbed, your life flashing before you in your last days, will you look back and regret the decision you took to jump ship and do a startup?imagine all sorts of realistic worst case scenarios....completely flops, you go bankrupt, waste 3 years of your life, gf leaves, mess up your health for a while...whatever is really bad but realistic.does the 80 yr old regret the decision of doing the startup? if so, then thats fine. don't do it. i think i would have balked if i had a mortgage, kids and no savings.however, in general people regret things they haven't done more than things that they did. | i left a high paying job two weeks ago mid-project to start a start-up. i did it because each day in that cube i cared less and less about money and more and more about freedom. i spent the better part of the past two years making my company over 7.6 million in just six months, and actually much more over the full two years.i needed to create and to be rewarded for my efforts fully. everyone i know was against it, wife, family, and friends. thought i was throwing away something they could only hope for. at the end of the day we live once i'd rather be poor and happy trying something i always wanted than stay in that cube always wondering.what prompted my move so abruptly was interviewing a guy for a senior position. we asked him what his ideal job would be, and he gave an answer of doing his own business. he excused it as a dream because he has kids, and that's when i realized everyone i worked with had the same reason for not just doing it. that's when it snapped in me.week later i put in my notice. no jobs no nets to fall back onto. i actually worked on my own project last week and it was heaven. i have a meeting for a three month contract next week to feed my funds to continue this dream. brother this has been the best two weeks of my life. |
ask hn: anyone leave a high paying job to work at a startup?
and on a similar note, is a chance at a big payout an important factor for anyone going the startup route (founder or employee)?<p>maybe it's just me, but it seems like it's just taboo to talk about money - everyone says do it because you love it, job descriptions talking about passion this and passion that. not that i disagree with those ideas, i don't - but how do you all look at the financial element?<p>i make a significant amount of money now (not bragging, just providing some context), so leaving it behind for a startup is a difficult decision. yes, it could be an awesome working environment, and yes, it could be a stepping stone to other opportunities. but given startup success rates and typical equity i would expect as a non-founder, it's a big time loser, at least purely financially.<p>anyone have similar experiences, whether they decided to go with startups or not? what was your thought process? alternatively, how much would you have to make to stick with a day job, assuming it was at least somewhat stimulating?<p>(throwaway account since i didn't want to go into my finances with my main account) | i left a high paying job two weeks ago mid-project to start a start-up. i did it because each day in that cube i cared less and less about money and more and more about freedom. i spent the better part of the past two years making my company over 7.6 million in just six months, and actually much more over the full two years.i needed to create and to be rewarded for my efforts fully. everyone i know was against it, wife, family, and friends. thought i was throwing away something they could only hope for. at the end of the day we live once i'd rather be poor and happy trying something i always wanted than stay in that cube always wondering.what prompted my move so abruptly was interviewing a guy for a senior position. we asked him what his ideal job would be, and he gave an answer of doing his own business. he excused it as a dream because he has kids, and that's when i realized everyone i worked with had the same reason for not just doing it. that's when it snapped in me.week later i put in my notice. no jobs no nets to fall back onto. i actually worked on my own project last week and it was heaven. i have a meeting for a three month contract next week to feed my funds to continue this dream. brother this has been the best two weeks of my life. | ok, the goal is independent wealth: a low risk passive income. the math for this is pretty simple.say you are a rock star making $100k/yr. after taxes, in ca, that's ~$60k/yr. if you are single and super-cheap (i.e. celibate), you can live acceptably on about 30k. thus, you build 30k/yr in capital.say you need $3k/mo bare minimum, pre-tax, to retire, and refuse to draw down on capital. at a 5% return you will need $720k. it will take 20+ years to get there, assuming you survive as a corporate cog for that long, which is unlikely, given competition from emerging markets.of course, if you ever get married and have a family, this won't work at all. and if wall st somehow takes 30% of your portfolio one year, you are in serious trouble.now, instead, say you quit working for the man, and build a service priced at $10/mo. you have the tech background already, and work hard to learn the necessary ops, marketing, sales, and other skills. you automate everything. you work from home (saving 1 hr/day commute), have excellent margin, no employees, etc. with a web app, to hit $3k/mo, you probably only need to average 400-500 paying customers.there are several billion people on the internet. you just need 500.sure, a business producing $3k/mo after expenses is not exactly equal to having $720k in liquid investments. it's much less liquid, requires more of your time, faces competition, etc. but it also has some advantages, such as the potential for very rapid growth.most importantly, it scales: you can build more than 1 app. so even though you'll probably fail a lot before success, you're probably still better off.i wish somebody told me this 10 years ago. |