It's easier and faster to pirate an e-book, than it is to buy it
572 by leoff | 464 comments on Hacker News.
The end of the year is coming, and I have some funds left from my company learning budget. I wanted to give it back to some of the authors that still help me in my developer journey, by buying some of their work online and hopefully contributing to their income, but the following happened: 1. I went to Amazon, since I have a kindle and didn't want to buy physical books. Amazon doesn't have a shopping card for kindle books, so I started buying them one by one. My company uses Spendesk for managing funds, so for each of the purchase I created a new virtual card and bought them. After a few minutes my Amazon account is blocked for suspicious activity, and ALL my kindle library is wiped, and the funds are returned to my company. 2. Not wanting to give up, I go to a different online store, Thalia, to buy the books again. After buying them, I download the files, which are in an .acsm format, and can only be opened on the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) software. Once opened, an .epub file is downloaded, and even though I can't transfer the files to my kindle on ADE, I download Calibre to transfer them. Once I try opening them on Calibre, I get an error message saying the files are protected by DRM. Funnily enough, it's possible to remove this DRM protection, but it's also not something completely legal, and makes me question why did I decide to legally buy the e-books in the first place. After spending hours trying to buy e-books, having my Amazon account blocked, and downloading files that can't be transferred to my Kindle, the only conclusion I come to, is that I'm never buying e-books again.
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New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Tell HN: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
530 by graderjs | 109 comments on Hacker News.
Hope your 2023’s great. I’m sorry for all of you that were laid off or affected by the virus or lockdowns. Next year will be better! Keep the faith!
530 by graderjs | 109 comments on Hacker News.
Hope your 2023’s great. I’m sorry for all of you that were laid off or affected by the virus or lockdowns. Next year will be better! Keep the faith!
New best story on Hacker News: I am done. I give up
I am done. I give up
737 by wakana | 450 comments on Hacker News.
I'm writing this post because I'm done. I can't do this anymore. After three failed attempts at building a successful startup and spending time institutionalized, I'm giving up on my entrepreneurship dreams. I tried everything - building an audience, making sure my product actually solved a problem, getting paying customers, and writing high-quality content and contributing to the community. But no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to get anywhere. My efforts were fruitless and I'm tired of trying. I barely had 20 followers, my substack and product blogs didn't get any signups, and while I did get a few upvotes (8) on Product Hunt once, I never had a paid customer. It was as if the world was against me and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make any progress. I remember trying to interact and hype up my fellow indiehackers on Twitter, regularly engaging with their content, but no one ever paid any attention to me or followed me back. It was like I didn't even exist in the world of entrepreneurship. And even when I did get some attention, it was short-lived and never led to anything substantial. But it's not just the lack of success that's getting me down. It's also the constant stream of digital nomad influencers on Twitter who sell extremely distorted, rosy, and often times false dreams to indie entrepreneurs like myself. They make it seem like building a successful startup is easy and anyone can do it with the right mindset and a few key tips. But the reality is that it's not that simple. It's fucking hard and it takes more than just a positive attitude to make it. I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. There are so many other indie entrepreneurs out there who are struggling and feeling like they'll never make it. If you're one of them, I want you to know that you're not alone. It's okay to feel defeated and to want to give up. But please don't give up. Keep pushing forward and don't let the failures define you. There's always a chance for success, no matter how small it may seem. But for me, I can't take it anymore. I've hit rock bottom and I have nothing left to give. To all the indie hackers, hacker news, and Reddit readers out there, please don't be fooled by the false promises of digital nomad influencers. Building a startup is hard work and it takes time. It's not as easy as they make it seem and it's not for everyone. Don't let your dreams consume you like they did for me, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PROTECT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH AT ALL COST! Don't make the same mistakes I did and realize that entrepreneurship may not be the path for you. It's okay to admit defeat and move on to something else.
737 by wakana | 450 comments on Hacker News.
I'm writing this post because I'm done. I can't do this anymore. After three failed attempts at building a successful startup and spending time institutionalized, I'm giving up on my entrepreneurship dreams. I tried everything - building an audience, making sure my product actually solved a problem, getting paying customers, and writing high-quality content and contributing to the community. But no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to get anywhere. My efforts were fruitless and I'm tired of trying. I barely had 20 followers, my substack and product blogs didn't get any signups, and while I did get a few upvotes (8) on Product Hunt once, I never had a paid customer. It was as if the world was against me and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make any progress. I remember trying to interact and hype up my fellow indiehackers on Twitter, regularly engaging with their content, but no one ever paid any attention to me or followed me back. It was like I didn't even exist in the world of entrepreneurship. And even when I did get some attention, it was short-lived and never led to anything substantial. But it's not just the lack of success that's getting me down. It's also the constant stream of digital nomad influencers on Twitter who sell extremely distorted, rosy, and often times false dreams to indie entrepreneurs like myself. They make it seem like building a successful startup is easy and anyone can do it with the right mindset and a few key tips. But the reality is that it's not that simple. It's fucking hard and it takes more than just a positive attitude to make it. I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. There are so many other indie entrepreneurs out there who are struggling and feeling like they'll never make it. If you're one of them, I want you to know that you're not alone. It's okay to feel defeated and to want to give up. But please don't give up. Keep pushing forward and don't let the failures define you. There's always a chance for success, no matter how small it may seem. But for me, I can't take it anymore. I've hit rock bottom and I have nothing left to give. To all the indie hackers, hacker news, and Reddit readers out there, please don't be fooled by the false promises of digital nomad influencers. Building a startup is hard work and it takes time. It's not as easy as they make it seem and it's not for everyone. Don't let your dreams consume you like they did for me, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PROTECT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH AT ALL COST! Don't make the same mistakes I did and realize that entrepreneurship may not be the path for you. It's okay to admit defeat and move on to something else.
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Has anyone here turned around their life in their 40s?
Ask HN: Has anyone here turned around their life in their 40s?
720 by Deutscher | 440 comments on Hacker News.
I know the best of my life is behind me, but I need help salvaging what's left of it. I've been meaning to ask for help for a couple of years now, but only now got around to it after being scared by my first real suicidal ideation a few nights ago. HN is probably not a suitable platform for this, but /r/advice seems to be not very active and I can't post on /adv/ due to some IP range ban. There are no mental health facilities in the small town where I live. I let my professional network decay and die, and there is literally nowhere else I can get any kind of useful, actionable advice. I'm a 43-years-old single guy, NEET for the past decade. I got my Master's in the US in the late 2000s and was gainfully employed there for a few years (NOT in my field of education; long story) until I had to return to my home country to take care of my ailing father. He passed on within a year of my return, leaving my family with a financial mess, and his death took a lot out of me. I still obviously miss him, but in wallowing in depression and self-pity, I let the prime of my life pass me by. As I stand, I have no current skills related to either my education (MEng) or my previous work experience (BI Reporting/Analytics). I don't have ideas/skills/network for entrepreneurship. I had all the desires of a regular guy: a wife, kids, a house, meaningful work, etc. I mean I still do, but I guess I'm too late for the first few. Every night I promise myself to do/be better tomorrow and somehow get myself to sleep. I was once looked up to, now I'm a pity case and an example case of how not to throw one's life away. With every passing day, I am becoming more bitter, angry and disillusioned. I don't want to live like this anymore, but I don't know how to even _start_ thinking of ways to get myself out of this hole. Ideally, I would prefer to go back to the US; not only for the dollars (they're nice), but also because I actually was happy there. I'd do all the things that I didn't do enough of because I was focused on saving money and because I thought that there would always be time for them when I was more stable/settled. The good: No diseases AFAIK, no vices at all other than severe procrastination and a masterful ability to lie to myself. I have ~US$25k-equivalent in salary savings from a decade ago. Sorry if the above text is rambling and not very cohesive. I've probably also skipped over some useful information I should have provided. Please do ask. I'll take some time reflecting on your replies and then respond. Thank you.
720 by Deutscher | 440 comments on Hacker News.
I know the best of my life is behind me, but I need help salvaging what's left of it. I've been meaning to ask for help for a couple of years now, but only now got around to it after being scared by my first real suicidal ideation a few nights ago. HN is probably not a suitable platform for this, but /r/advice seems to be not very active and I can't post on /adv/ due to some IP range ban. There are no mental health facilities in the small town where I live. I let my professional network decay and die, and there is literally nowhere else I can get any kind of useful, actionable advice. I'm a 43-years-old single guy, NEET for the past decade. I got my Master's in the US in the late 2000s and was gainfully employed there for a few years (NOT in my field of education; long story) until I had to return to my home country to take care of my ailing father. He passed on within a year of my return, leaving my family with a financial mess, and his death took a lot out of me. I still obviously miss him, but in wallowing in depression and self-pity, I let the prime of my life pass me by. As I stand, I have no current skills related to either my education (MEng) or my previous work experience (BI Reporting/Analytics). I don't have ideas/skills/network for entrepreneurship. I had all the desires of a regular guy: a wife, kids, a house, meaningful work, etc. I mean I still do, but I guess I'm too late for the first few. Every night I promise myself to do/be better tomorrow and somehow get myself to sleep. I was once looked up to, now I'm a pity case and an example case of how not to throw one's life away. With every passing day, I am becoming more bitter, angry and disillusioned. I don't want to live like this anymore, but I don't know how to even _start_ thinking of ways to get myself out of this hole. Ideally, I would prefer to go back to the US; not only for the dollars (they're nice), but also because I actually was happy there. I'd do all the things that I didn't do enough of because I was focused on saving money and because I thought that there would always be time for them when I was more stable/settled. The good: No diseases AFAIK, no vices at all other than severe procrastination and a masterful ability to lie to myself. I have ~US$25k-equivalent in salary savings from a decade ago. Sorry if the above text is rambling and not very cohesive. I've probably also skipped over some useful information I should have provided. Please do ask. I'll take some time reflecting on your replies and then respond. Thank you.
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
Ask HN: Anyone tired of everything being a subscription now?
602 by CM30 | 420 comments on Hacker News.
Not newspapers or media services (though those can be annoying too), but products in general? It feels like it's getting harder and harder to just buy something in the tech world, especially when it comes to running programs on my home computer. Want a password manager? It's a SaaS now. Note taking app? SaaS. Image editor or office suite? SaaS (thanks Adobe...) This is especially annoying given I generally refuse to rent anything in life, and will go out of my way to buy something upfront simply so there's no risk of losing it if finances get worse in future (or the wrong billionaire buys the company). Yet it seems like it's getting harder to do so, especially when open source products don't exist for that domain. So yeah, why is that? And is anyone else tired of the constant barrage of subscriptions for things that should be one off purchases?
602 by CM30 | 420 comments on Hacker News.
Not newspapers or media services (though those can be annoying too), but products in general? It feels like it's getting harder and harder to just buy something in the tech world, especially when it comes to running programs on my home computer. Want a password manager? It's a SaaS now. Note taking app? SaaS. Image editor or office suite? SaaS (thanks Adobe...) This is especially annoying given I generally refuse to rent anything in life, and will go out of my way to buy something upfront simply so there's no risk of losing it if finances get worse in future (or the wrong billionaire buys the company). Yet it seems like it's getting harder to do so, especially when open source products don't exist for that domain. So yeah, why is that? And is anyone else tired of the constant barrage of subscriptions for things that should be one off purchases?
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Developer abused “sign in with GitHub” and users are being punished
Ask HN: Developer abused “sign in with GitHub” and users are being punished
581 by 2Gkashmiri | 313 comments on Hacker News.
The offending website "nopecha.com", which unfortunately i found about a week ago on HN itself appeared to be another captcha service but one that was offering "1 Sec" solve speed for text captchas. i was interested and by the looks of it, a lot of people. their webisite only had "sign in with google" so i didnt bother. The day before i check the website out of boredom and saw "sign in with github". i logged in, clicked through a bunch of pages because its the same drill everytime. i found out that i had "automatically starred their repos". by the looks of it, around 500 "stars", the last i saw. suddenly i am unable to log in to my github and the page just says "account suspended." contacted their support and the last response i got from them was "your ban should stay as you engaged in improper behavior of stars farming" or some other BS. Here is my problem. I am not a part of nopecha. I just used their website once using "sign in with github" button. That is the extent of my involvement. How can github allow the developer to use "sign in with" button to create a situation that they could LATER consider abusive but then go ahead and ban all the victims also? i did not voluntarily want to join their abusive practice, i just wanted a log into the website. (There was no explicit mention of the stars farming practice on the website) Why is github allowing the developer to abuse their Oath in the first place? If this is going to be a norm going forward, i do not see any hope of "sign in with" buttons for any service because then you could be banned from one service and suddenly everything connected to your account is also banned. I honestly expect the "sign in with x" button to provide a frictionless access to a website, thats it. how could the developer abuse that process and the website, instead of acting on the developer alone, are causing trouble to unsuspecting victims? edit: to add a bit more context, here is the first reply i got from github on my support request "Your account has restrictions imposed because it appears to have been used for the purpose of artificially inflating the popularity of GitHub accounts or repositories. This activity isn't in keeping with our Terms of Service. We'll need to leave the restrictions in place." I knowingly or unknowingly accepted to allow the app to access my stars action or whatever. i did not engage in this practice myself, their automated system did. i even had "forkhub" android app and i did see "stars" and i remember unstarring 4/5 of their repos myself so its not like i did not try to undo their actions. the problem here is. 1. if github is allowing developers to include their permissions alongwith the SSO workflow 2. github is allowing apps write action to stars from the users accounts which can be legitimate or not. 3. user is not responsible for automated actions taken without their consent or even if consent was there, user is not aware of the "actual scope" meaning app could say "you allow us stars access" but not "you allow us stars access with the knowledge that such permission can be a banable offense, you are warned" 4. unless the user is a sockpuppet account created for the sole purpose (by checking age/activity of user), is it reasonable to throw the banhammer so quickly on everyone involved? 5. why did github not ban the original dev, stop the users from starring for a "cooling period" or "undid their stars" ? why was a ban necessary?
581 by 2Gkashmiri | 313 comments on Hacker News.
The offending website "nopecha.com", which unfortunately i found about a week ago on HN itself appeared to be another captcha service but one that was offering "1 Sec" solve speed for text captchas. i was interested and by the looks of it, a lot of people. their webisite only had "sign in with google" so i didnt bother. The day before i check the website out of boredom and saw "sign in with github". i logged in, clicked through a bunch of pages because its the same drill everytime. i found out that i had "automatically starred their repos". by the looks of it, around 500 "stars", the last i saw. suddenly i am unable to log in to my github and the page just says "account suspended." contacted their support and the last response i got from them was "your ban should stay as you engaged in improper behavior of stars farming" or some other BS. Here is my problem. I am not a part of nopecha. I just used their website once using "sign in with github" button. That is the extent of my involvement. How can github allow the developer to use "sign in with" button to create a situation that they could LATER consider abusive but then go ahead and ban all the victims also? i did not voluntarily want to join their abusive practice, i just wanted a log into the website. (There was no explicit mention of the stars farming practice on the website) Why is github allowing the developer to abuse their Oath in the first place? If this is going to be a norm going forward, i do not see any hope of "sign in with" buttons for any service because then you could be banned from one service and suddenly everything connected to your account is also banned. I honestly expect the "sign in with x" button to provide a frictionless access to a website, thats it. how could the developer abuse that process and the website, instead of acting on the developer alone, are causing trouble to unsuspecting victims? edit: to add a bit more context, here is the first reply i got from github on my support request "Your account has restrictions imposed because it appears to have been used for the purpose of artificially inflating the popularity of GitHub accounts or repositories. This activity isn't in keeping with our Terms of Service. We'll need to leave the restrictions in place." I knowingly or unknowingly accepted to allow the app to access my stars action or whatever. i did not engage in this practice myself, their automated system did. i even had "forkhub" android app and i did see "stars" and i remember unstarring 4/5 of their repos myself so its not like i did not try to undo their actions. the problem here is. 1. if github is allowing developers to include their permissions alongwith the SSO workflow 2. github is allowing apps write action to stars from the users accounts which can be legitimate or not. 3. user is not responsible for automated actions taken without their consent or even if consent was there, user is not aware of the "actual scope" meaning app could say "you allow us stars access" but not "you allow us stars access with the knowledge that such permission can be a banable offense, you are warned" 4. unless the user is a sockpuppet account created for the sole purpose (by checking age/activity of user), is it reasonable to throw the banhammer so quickly on everyone involved? 5. why did github not ban the original dev, stop the users from starring for a "cooling period" or "undid their stars" ? why was a ban necessary?
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Trading cards made with e-ink displays
Show HN: Trading cards made with e-ink displays
551 by jonahss | 187 comments on Hacker News.
I made a thing! In 2014, I was holding a stack of iPhones and thought to myself: "Hey, if I had each phone display a playing card, I could click a button and they'd shuffle themselves" I pared that idea all the way down to this: trading cards made of e-ink displays. Right now, each card costs me about $20 each, but with only a bit more scale, I think I can get that down to $10. In doing this project, I learned how to design electronics and circuit boards. I learned Rust and wrote my first driver, I upped my CAD skills, 3D printed, and did my first resin casting. I generated the images on the cards using stable-diffusion. HN always seems to appreciate new uses for e-ink. Thought I'd share :)
551 by jonahss | 187 comments on Hacker News.
I made a thing! In 2014, I was holding a stack of iPhones and thought to myself: "Hey, if I had each phone display a playing card, I could click a button and they'd shuffle themselves" I pared that idea all the way down to this: trading cards made of e-ink displays. Right now, each card costs me about $20 each, but with only a bit more scale, I think I can get that down to $10. In doing this project, I learned how to design electronics and circuit boards. I learned Rust and wrote my first driver, I upped my CAD skills, 3D printed, and did my first resin casting. I generated the images on the cards using stable-diffusion. HN always seems to appreciate new uses for e-ink. Thought I'd share :)
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
Show HN: Using stylometry to find HN users with alternate accounts
623 by costco | 506 comments on Hacker News.
Author here. This site lets you put in a username and get the users with the most similar writing style to that user. It confirmed several users who I suspected were alts and after informally asking around has identified abandoned accounts of people I know from many years ago. I made this site mostly to show how easy this is and how it can erode online privacy. If some guy with a little bit of Python, and $8 to rent a decent dedicated server for a day can make this, imagine what a company with millions of dollars and a couple dozen PhD linguists could do. Here's Paul Graham: https://ift.tt/po5s3qI Here are some frequent HN commenters: (EDIT: Removed due to privacy concerns)
623 by costco | 506 comments on Hacker News.
Author here. This site lets you put in a username and get the users with the most similar writing style to that user. It confirmed several users who I suspected were alts and after informally asking around has identified abandoned accounts of people I know from many years ago. I made this site mostly to show how easy this is and how it can erode online privacy. If some guy with a little bit of Python, and $8 to rent a decent dedicated server for a day can make this, imagine what a company with millions of dollars and a couple dozen PhD linguists could do. Here's Paul Graham: https://ift.tt/po5s3qI Here are some frequent HN commenters: (EDIT: Removed due to privacy concerns)
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Azure has run out of compute – anyone else affected?
Ask HN: Azure has run out of compute – anyone else affected?
553 by janober | 307 comments on Hacker News.
Last week we at n8n ran into problems getting a new database from Azure. After contacting support, it turns out that we can’t add instances to our k8s cluster either. Azure has told they'll have more capacity in April 2023(!) — but we’ll have to stop accepting new users in ~35 days if we don't get any more. These problems seem only in the German region, but setting up in a new region would be complicated for us. We never thought our startup would be threatened by the unreliability of a company like Microsoft, or that they wouldn’t proactively inform us about this. Is anyone else experiencing these problems?
553 by janober | 307 comments on Hacker News.
Last week we at n8n ran into problems getting a new database from Azure. After contacting support, it turns out that we can’t add instances to our k8s cluster either. Azure has told they'll have more capacity in April 2023(!) — but we’ll have to stop accepting new users in ~35 days if we don't get any more. These problems seem only in the German region, but setting up in a new region would be complicated for us. We never thought our startup would be threatened by the unreliability of a company like Microsoft, or that they wouldn’t proactively inform us about this. Is anyone else experiencing these problems?
New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: Happy Thanksgiving
Tell HN: Happy Thanksgiving
587 by mr_o47 | 103 comments on Hacker News.
I’m really thankful for this anazing platform and the knowledge i have gained through HN.
587 by mr_o47 | 103 comments on Hacker News.
I’m really thankful for this anazing platform and the knowledge i have gained through HN.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I made a pretty relaxing puzzle game
Show HN: I made a pretty relaxing puzzle game
519 by trizoza | 149 comments on Hacker News.
I had the concept in my head for some time and firstly just prototyped it using only HTML & CSS. Sent it to a few friends and they liked it so I made it into its own website and added few 'competitive' features like click counter and share button.
519 by trizoza | 149 comments on Hacker News.
I had the concept in my head for some time and firstly just prototyped it using only HTML & CSS. Sent it to a few friends and they liked it so I made it into its own website and added few 'competitive' features like click counter and share button.
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?
542 by cpeth | 474 comments on Hacker News.
No form of transport requires less energy than telecommuting. Why aren't there Zoom/MS Teams/Slack bill-boards on 101 and 880? Where is everyone's outrage at needlessly requiring people to move themselves into offices and the congestsion, waste, and environmental damage it causes?
542 by cpeth | 474 comments on Hacker News.
No form of transport requires less energy than telecommuting. Why aren't there Zoom/MS Teams/Slack bill-boards on 101 and 880? Where is everyone's outrage at needlessly requiring people to move themselves into offices and the congestsion, waste, and environmental damage it causes?
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: A color picker for named web colors
Show HN: A color picker for named web colors
521 by arantius | 123 comments on Hacker News.
I had this idea kicking around in my head for quite a while. Took an evening to make this, and a short morning to polish it a bit. So here it is!
521 by arantius | 123 comments on Hacker News.
I had this idea kicking around in my head for quite a while. Took an evening to make this, and a short morning to polish it a bit. So here it is!
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?
Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?
462 by curious16 | 323 comments on Hacker News.
Sometimes it takes a book or a course (or explanation from a mentor) for a topic to finally click for you that you were struggling with for a long time. For me, it was Stanford's EE261 course that made Fourier Transform click for me. Here is the link: https://ift.tt/XpDPbZH Similarly for deep learning it was fast.ai courses. For programming it was How to Design Programs at www.htdp.org. Your topic of choice may be anything, not necessarily CS.
462 by curious16 | 323 comments on Hacker News.
Sometimes it takes a book or a course (or explanation from a mentor) for a topic to finally click for you that you were struggling with for a long time. For me, it was Stanford's EE261 course that made Fourier Transform click for me. Here is the link: https://ift.tt/XpDPbZH Similarly for deep learning it was fast.ai courses. For programming it was How to Design Programs at www.htdp.org. Your topic of choice may be anything, not necessarily CS.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Wa-tunnel – HTTP Tunneling through Whatsapp
Show HN: Wa-tunnel – HTTP Tunneling through Whatsapp
441 by aleixrodriala | 123 comments on Hacker News.
Side project tunneling a TCP port through WhatsApp, can be useful on airplanes or any WiFi/carrier that has unlimited social network data limits. Appreciate feedback :)
441 by aleixrodriala | 123 comments on Hacker News.
Side project tunneling a TCP port through WhatsApp, can be useful on airplanes or any WiFi/carrier that has unlimited social network data limits. Appreciate feedback :)
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I built my own PM tool after trying Trello, Asana, ClickUp, etc.
Show HN: I built my own PM tool after trying Trello, Asana, ClickUp, etc.
504 by tonypham | 353 comments on Hacker News.
Hey HN, Over the past two years, I've been building Upbase, an all-in-one PM tool. I've tried so many project management tools over the years (Trello, Asana, ClickUp, Teamwork, Wrike, Monday, etc.) but they've all fallen short. Most of them are overly complicated and painful to use. Some others, like Trello, are too limited for my needs. Most importantly, most of these tools tend to be focused on team collaboration and completely ignore personal productivity. They are useful for organizing my work, but not great at helping me stay focused to get things done. That's why I decided to build Upbase. I try to make it clean and simple, without all the bells and whistles. Apart from team collaboration, I added many personal productivity features, including Weekly/Daily planner, Time blocking, Pomodoro Timer, Daily Journal, etc. so I don't need another to-do list app. Now I can use Upbase to collaborate with my team AND manage your personal stuff at the same time, without all the bloat. If these resonate with you, then give Upbase a try. It has a Free Forever plan though. Let me know if you have any feedback or questions!
504 by tonypham | 353 comments on Hacker News.
Hey HN, Over the past two years, I've been building Upbase, an all-in-one PM tool. I've tried so many project management tools over the years (Trello, Asana, ClickUp, Teamwork, Wrike, Monday, etc.) but they've all fallen short. Most of them are overly complicated and painful to use. Some others, like Trello, are too limited for my needs. Most importantly, most of these tools tend to be focused on team collaboration and completely ignore personal productivity. They are useful for organizing my work, but not great at helping me stay focused to get things done. That's why I decided to build Upbase. I try to make it clean and simple, without all the bells and whistles. Apart from team collaboration, I added many personal productivity features, including Weekly/Daily planner, Time blocking, Pomodoro Timer, Daily Journal, etc. so I don't need another to-do list app. Now I can use Upbase to collaborate with my team AND manage your personal stuff at the same time, without all the bloat. If these resonate with you, then give Upbase a try. It has a Free Forever plan though. Let me know if you have any feedback or questions!
New best story on Hacker News: Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang
Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang
782 by gavagai691 | 231 comments on Hacker News.
Yitang Zhang, the mathematician behind the 2013 breakthrough on bounded gaps in primes, posted to the arxiv today a result which (if correct) comes close to proving the nonexistence of Landau--Siegel zeros: https://ift.tt/tYPhXAw . To give a sense of the scale of this claim: If correct, Zhang's work is the most significant progress towards the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis in a century. Moreover, I think this result would not only be a more significant advance than Zhang's previous breakthrough, but also constitute a larger leap for number theory than Wiles' 1994 proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (which was, in my opinion, the greatest single achievement by an individual mathematician in the 20th century). Some discussion / explanation of Siegel zeros and Zhang's claim can be found here: https://ift.tt/mlDXh1r... https://ift.tt/hkQWDbc... An account of Zhang's remarkable story (and his previous breakthrough) can be found here. Famously, prior to his breakthrough, he worked at Subway and lived in his car: https://ift.tt/WgdLpQc
782 by gavagai691 | 231 comments on Hacker News.
Yitang Zhang, the mathematician behind the 2013 breakthrough on bounded gaps in primes, posted to the arxiv today a result which (if correct) comes close to proving the nonexistence of Landau--Siegel zeros: https://ift.tt/tYPhXAw . To give a sense of the scale of this claim: If correct, Zhang's work is the most significant progress towards the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis in a century. Moreover, I think this result would not only be a more significant advance than Zhang's previous breakthrough, but also constitute a larger leap for number theory than Wiles' 1994 proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (which was, in my opinion, the greatest single achievement by an individual mathematician in the 20th century). Some discussion / explanation of Siegel zeros and Zhang's claim can be found here: https://ift.tt/mlDXh1r... https://ift.tt/hkQWDbc... An account of Zhang's remarkable story (and his previous breakthrough) can be found here. Famously, prior to his breakthrough, he worked at Subway and lived in his car: https://ift.tt/WgdLpQc
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment
Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment
606 by mckirk | 310 comments on Hacker News.
Hello stranger. It has occurred to me that one of the crucial elements of the early internet was the feeling that there was somebody out there, _somewhere_ on the globe, that was actually responding to that particular thing you were putting out there. It was a special feeling, because it was a sense of connection. Just being online and being part of the few select communities that existed back then was a commitment, and I believe that's in part what made it feel special. With all the world gaining access to the internet, I think we've gained a lot, but lost this sense of wonder: Since online interactions have now become commonplace to the point of para-social meaninglessness, any single post or message doesn't really feel all that _real_. HN is still the closest thing I know to that primordial kind of internet, and so I'm putting this post out there. It might get buried instantly, or it might survive, and on the off chance that it does: I encourage you to comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment, however niche it might be. It might let you find some likeminded people and maybe recapture a bit of the best aspects of the internet in those early days. In any case, I sincerely wish you a great day, from one surprisingly-real-but-currently-text-based being to another :)
606 by mckirk | 310 comments on Hacker News.
Hello stranger. It has occurred to me that one of the crucial elements of the early internet was the feeling that there was somebody out there, _somewhere_ on the globe, that was actually responding to that particular thing you were putting out there. It was a special feeling, because it was a sense of connection. Just being online and being part of the few select communities that existed back then was a commitment, and I believe that's in part what made it feel special. With all the world gaining access to the internet, I think we've gained a lot, but lost this sense of wonder: Since online interactions have now become commonplace to the point of para-social meaninglessness, any single post or message doesn't really feel all that _real_. HN is still the closest thing I know to that primordial kind of internet, and so I'm putting this post out there. It might get buried instantly, or it might survive, and on the off chance that it does: I encourage you to comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment, however niche it might be. It might let you find some likeminded people and maybe recapture a bit of the best aspects of the internet in those early days. In any case, I sincerely wish you a great day, from one surprisingly-real-but-currently-text-based being to another :)
New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: A hacker's life is in danger, your awareness may be life saving
Tell HN: A hacker's life is in danger, your awareness may be life saving
641 by michaeltimo | 62 comments on Hacker News.
It's been a month that Jadi (real name: Amir Emad Mirmirani), an Iranian geek, has been imprisoned in Iran's most notorious prison called Evin in Tehran. In Iran, he is one of the most famous people active in the field of programming and computer education. In his personal blog[0], he has been writing about technology and society for years. He has also a YouTube channel[1][2] to teach and encourage Iranians to programming and Linux, and a podcast[3] that has been explaining technology and science news along with his comments for several years. All this in a country with a dictatorial government where standing in the right place has a heavy price. His arrest occurred on October 5, a few days after the recent nationwide protests[4] began in Iran. Arrest at home with beating. The reason for this is not yet clear, but it is probably due to his efforts to increase awareness of the society about Iran's internet censorship system, and his positions against a company called ArvanCloud. Many claim this company help the government of Iran in implementing the internet censorship's system (something like Great Firewall of China). In Jadi's own words, this company has made it possible for the government to turn the Internet into an intranet at any moment and block people's access to international services. Something that happens in every demonstration in Iran including right now. The reason I am writing here is to raise awareness about him, which may lead to his release. All this may be nothing more than a false hope, but it is what I can do. From the news he covered in his podcast, it could be guessed that he is one of the regular readers of Hacker News. Perhaps hearing your support here will boost his morale behind bars in Evin. The prison which is also known as Evin University due to the number of educated political prisoners [5]. [0](Persian) https://jadi.net/ [1](Persian) https://www.youtube.com/jadimirmirani [2](English) https://www.youtube.com/geekingjadi [3](Persian) https://ift.tt/DUTbtz0 [4] https://ift.tt/warqZ6M [5] https://ift.tt/0bEQrDW
641 by michaeltimo | 62 comments on Hacker News.
It's been a month that Jadi (real name: Amir Emad Mirmirani), an Iranian geek, has been imprisoned in Iran's most notorious prison called Evin in Tehran. In Iran, he is one of the most famous people active in the field of programming and computer education. In his personal blog[0], he has been writing about technology and society for years. He has also a YouTube channel[1][2] to teach and encourage Iranians to programming and Linux, and a podcast[3] that has been explaining technology and science news along with his comments for several years. All this in a country with a dictatorial government where standing in the right place has a heavy price. His arrest occurred on October 5, a few days after the recent nationwide protests[4] began in Iran. Arrest at home with beating. The reason for this is not yet clear, but it is probably due to his efforts to increase awareness of the society about Iran's internet censorship system, and his positions against a company called ArvanCloud. Many claim this company help the government of Iran in implementing the internet censorship's system (something like Great Firewall of China). In Jadi's own words, this company has made it possible for the government to turn the Internet into an intranet at any moment and block people's access to international services. Something that happens in every demonstration in Iran including right now. The reason I am writing here is to raise awareness about him, which may lead to his release. All this may be nothing more than a false hope, but it is what I can do. From the news he covered in his podcast, it could be guessed that he is one of the regular readers of Hacker News. Perhaps hearing your support here will boost his morale behind bars in Evin. The prison which is also known as Evin University due to the number of educated political prisoners [5]. [0](Persian) https://jadi.net/ [1](Persian) https://www.youtube.com/jadimirmirani [2](English) https://www.youtube.com/geekingjadi [3](Persian) https://ift.tt/DUTbtz0 [4] https://ift.tt/warqZ6M [5] https://ift.tt/0bEQrDW
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: SadServers – Test your Linux troubleshooting skills
Show HN: SadServers – Test your Linux troubleshooting skills
579 by fduran | 128 comments on Hacker News.
Hello, I'm building SadServers.com, a SaaS where users can test their Linux troubleshooting skills on real Linux servers in a "Capture the Flag" fashion. I hope this is useful, to learn more about the project please see https://ift.tt/W9Awidp
579 by fduran | 128 comments on Hacker News.
Hello, I'm building SadServers.com, a SaaS where users can test their Linux troubleshooting skills on real Linux servers in a "Capture the Flag" fashion. I hope this is useful, to learn more about the project please see https://ift.tt/W9Awidp
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I 3D scanned the interior of the Great Pyramid at Giza
Show HN: I 3D scanned the interior of the Great Pyramid at Giza
765 by lukehollis | 143 comments on Hacker News.
Hey HN, I 3d scanned the interior of the Great Pyramid / Khufu's pyramid for the Giza Project this summer and just finished the guided version to share. Would love feedback and/or problems you encounter. I used both a Leica BLK 360 and Matterport Pro 2 to do the scanning and the Matterport SDK for the web viewer. Matterport's web display with Three.js has been the most accessible to a wide audience in the past (previous iterations are in Unity and Unreal, but difficult to download over slower connections). I've been interviewing social studies teachers around the 6th grade level to create teaching materials as well, and these along with other monuments that I've scanned at Giza are up at https://giza.mused.org/ Cheers from Cairo--and thanks for any feedback.
765 by lukehollis | 143 comments on Hacker News.
Hey HN, I 3d scanned the interior of the Great Pyramid / Khufu's pyramid for the Giza Project this summer and just finished the guided version to share. Would love feedback and/or problems you encounter. I used both a Leica BLK 360 and Matterport Pro 2 to do the scanning and the Matterport SDK for the web viewer. Matterport's web display with Three.js has been the most accessible to a wide audience in the past (previous iterations are in Unity and Unreal, but difficult to download over slower connections). I've been interviewing social studies teachers around the 6th grade level to create teaching materials as well, and these along with other monuments that I've scanned at Giza are up at https://giza.mused.org/ Cheers from Cairo--and thanks for any feedback.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Restfox – Open source lightweight alternative to Postman
Show HN: Restfox – Open source lightweight alternative to Postman
479 by kermire | 139 comments on Hacker News.
Last time I posted this it didn't garner much interest. There have been lots of improvements and fixes since the last release. Quick list of features: - Workspaces - Tabs - Nested Folders - Lots of context menus - Response history - Plugins - Runs fully in the browser and runs offline if necessary - Chrome and Firefox extension to bypass CORS restrictions - Desktop builds for all platforms - GraphQL support - Import collections exported from Postman and Insomnia - Simple user friendly interface I built this because I love Insomnia but wanted a portable version that I could run in the browser. If you're tired of Postman's bloated interface and slow startup times, do give this a try.
479 by kermire | 139 comments on Hacker News.
Last time I posted this it didn't garner much interest. There have been lots of improvements and fixes since the last release. Quick list of features: - Workspaces - Tabs - Nested Folders - Lots of context menus - Response history - Plugins - Runs fully in the browser and runs offline if necessary - Chrome and Firefox extension to bypass CORS restrictions - Desktop builds for all platforms - GraphQL support - Import collections exported from Postman and Insomnia - Simple user friendly interface I built this because I love Insomnia but wanted a portable version that I could run in the browser. If you're tired of Postman's bloated interface and slow startup times, do give this a try.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: America – Road Trip Simulator
Show HN: America – Road Trip Simulator
541 by 0x389 | 157 comments on Hacker News.
APIs are a little like the open road—always waiting, full of opportunity, but hardly utilized. So here’s America, composed of several APIs that paint a vivid, real-time picture of a good old-fashioned road trip. Get local classifieds and photos. Tune into local radio stations. Talk wit other drivers. And more. Exploring the country by car was an invaluable experience for me during my time in the states. I’ve since moved to Barcelona, and find myself missing the territory. This is my attempt at recreating the magic.
541 by 0x389 | 157 comments on Hacker News.
APIs are a little like the open road—always waiting, full of opportunity, but hardly utilized. So here’s America, composed of several APIs that paint a vivid, real-time picture of a good old-fashioned road trip. Get local classifieds and photos. Tune into local radio stations. Talk wit other drivers. And more. Exploring the country by car was an invaluable experience for me during my time in the states. I’ve since moved to Barcelona, and find myself missing the territory. This is my attempt at recreating the magic.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app
Show HN: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app
578 by ericax | 300 comments on Hacker News.
Cofounder of Obsidian here. We're excited to announce Obsidian 1.0 is live! Obsidian 1.0 introduces two big changes: a UI overhaul and an new tabbed interface. We've put a lot of care into making the app more approachable and more accessible. We've also prioritized using more native OS features for menus, windows, and many details. We got our first private beta users from a comment under a HN thread about org-roam [1], and our waiting list was an innocent Google Form. Good times! Our initial launch on HN was over two years ago [2], when terms like "second brain" and "tools for thought" were still in their infancy. Since then, the landscape has continued to evolve and new ideas are sprouting in the space every day. Obsidian has always embraced its "hacker" nature and thrives off its community of tinkerers. We now have over 670 plugins that push the envelope of what's possible in the app. We want to continue to foster that same hacker spirit, but at the same time, we want to provide a polished product that can stand on its own. In the last several months, we've expanded the team and refocused ourselves on providing a product that's polished and easy to use. We have big plans to continue making Obsidian the best and most refined thought-processing app for decades to come. Obsidian 1.0 is just the start! Special credits go to Stephan Ango (@kepano) for the redesign and Liam Cain for tirelessly polishing this release. [1]: https://ift.tt/Vf1SGhi [2]: https://ift.tt/CdWGP3Z
578 by ericax | 300 comments on Hacker News.
Cofounder of Obsidian here. We're excited to announce Obsidian 1.0 is live! Obsidian 1.0 introduces two big changes: a UI overhaul and an new tabbed interface. We've put a lot of care into making the app more approachable and more accessible. We've also prioritized using more native OS features for menus, windows, and many details. We got our first private beta users from a comment under a HN thread about org-roam [1], and our waiting list was an innocent Google Form. Good times! Our initial launch on HN was over two years ago [2], when terms like "second brain" and "tools for thought" were still in their infancy. Since then, the landscape has continued to evolve and new ideas are sprouting in the space every day. Obsidian has always embraced its "hacker" nature and thrives off its community of tinkerers. We now have over 670 plugins that push the envelope of what's possible in the app. We want to continue to foster that same hacker spirit, but at the same time, we want to provide a polished product that can stand on its own. In the last several months, we've expanded the team and refocused ourselves on providing a product that's polished and easy to use. We have big plans to continue making Obsidian the best and most refined thought-processing app for decades to come. Obsidian 1.0 is just the start! Special credits go to Stephan Ango (@kepano) for the redesign and Liam Cain for tirelessly polishing this release. [1]: https://ift.tt/Vf1SGhi [2]: https://ift.tt/CdWGP3Z
New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: A disabled 40-year-old person founded a startup and makes a living
Tell HN: A disabled 40-year-old person founded a startup and makes a living
704 by michaelcao | 132 comments on Hacker News.
I am Michael Cao. I am from Viet Nam. I suffered the polio disease and became disabled when i was one year old. When covid 19 pandemic hit the world. All people has suffered a lot. I and my friend, Canadian guy, decided to cofound 2HAC Studio because we thought that we need to do something to help people. We don't want to hire any employees to keep the cost at minimum (only spend 9.99$ per year for domain). I keep my job at American company in Viet Nam and my cofounder also still worked at a Bank of Canada. We spent our free time to implement and marketing our products We have been developing the Google workspace addons. Out technology stack are App Script, VueJS for addons. Hugo for our website. We hosted our website in Google Cloud. Paypal is our payment system. Tawk for customer support. All of them are free. At 2020, we had a pain point in Viet Nam because health official requires to do contact tracing when people went to events, churches, schools so we scratched our own itches and developed QR Code Attendance addon https://ift.tt/UqHjsn5... . After that, we provide our addon in G Suite marketplace and a lot of customers used our addon for contact tracing, for example take temperature, name, health status of attendees and give data to health official. Currently, we continue working on QR Code and barcode solutions. Our startup has survived and thrived during Covid-19 while a lot of startups have failed miserable. Our business model are both subscription and lifetime pricing. We have more than 5 million users for all our Google workspace addons. We make a decent living but we don’t want to risk to give up the main job. Financial recession is coming and a lot of pain is ahead. We highly recommend that most founders should keep the job and reduce spending as much as possible for a while during early stage of their startup. Also, I would like to encourage disabled people, older people to escape your comfort zone and make changes in the world. All of us could develop outstanding products with open source or very cheap tools. If you have any questions and feedback, please fell free to contact me and send me an email. Have a great day, everyone.
704 by michaelcao | 132 comments on Hacker News.
I am Michael Cao. I am from Viet Nam. I suffered the polio disease and became disabled when i was one year old. When covid 19 pandemic hit the world. All people has suffered a lot. I and my friend, Canadian guy, decided to cofound 2HAC Studio because we thought that we need to do something to help people. We don't want to hire any employees to keep the cost at minimum (only spend 9.99$ per year for domain). I keep my job at American company in Viet Nam and my cofounder also still worked at a Bank of Canada. We spent our free time to implement and marketing our products We have been developing the Google workspace addons. Out technology stack are App Script, VueJS for addons. Hugo for our website. We hosted our website in Google Cloud. Paypal is our payment system. Tawk for customer support. All of them are free. At 2020, we had a pain point in Viet Nam because health official requires to do contact tracing when people went to events, churches, schools so we scratched our own itches and developed QR Code Attendance addon https://ift.tt/UqHjsn5... . After that, we provide our addon in G Suite marketplace and a lot of customers used our addon for contact tracing, for example take temperature, name, health status of attendees and give data to health official. Currently, we continue working on QR Code and barcode solutions. Our startup has survived and thrived during Covid-19 while a lot of startups have failed miserable. Our business model are both subscription and lifetime pricing. We have more than 5 million users for all our Google workspace addons. We make a decent living but we don’t want to risk to give up the main job. Financial recession is coming and a lot of pain is ahead. We highly recommend that most founders should keep the job and reduce spending as much as possible for a while during early stage of their startup. Also, I would like to encourage disabled people, older people to escape your comfort zone and make changes in the world. All of us could develop outstanding products with open source or very cheap tools. If you have any questions and feedback, please fell free to contact me and send me an email. Have a great day, everyone.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Get conversational practice in over 20 languages by talking to an AI
Show HN: Get conversational practice in over 20 languages by talking to an AI
588 by Hadjimina | 280 comments on Hacker News.
Hi everyone, Let me introduce you to Quazel, where we want to enable people to talk their way to fluency. We have all tried various language learning apps and tools, however, one aspect of language learning current services are really bad at is conversational practice. You might get a chat-like interface, but in the end, the conversation partner will only respond with a predefined "if the users say X I say Y". With Quazel that's completely different. In completely dynamic and unscripted conversation you can talk about pretty much anything you want. For example, you can try ordering food at a restaurant and even hold a philosophical discussion with Socrates. Additionally, you can analyze the grammar of your responses or use hints to help you out when you get stuck. We want to change how languages are learned from a grammar-centric approach to a more natural, conversation-focused one.
588 by Hadjimina | 280 comments on Hacker News.
Hi everyone, Let me introduce you to Quazel, where we want to enable people to talk their way to fluency. We have all tried various language learning apps and tools, however, one aspect of language learning current services are really bad at is conversational practice. You might get a chat-like interface, but in the end, the conversation partner will only respond with a predefined "if the users say X I say Y". With Quazel that's completely different. In completely dynamic and unscripted conversation you can talk about pretty much anything you want. For example, you can try ordering food at a restaurant and even hold a philosophical discussion with Socrates. Additionally, you can analyze the grammar of your responses or use hints to help you out when you get stuck. We want to change how languages are learned from a grammar-centric approach to a more natural, conversation-focused one.
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