Hacker News Reader

TravisLSon Secure Persistent Login With Very Little SSL

the password is hashed with sha1 so that the database does not need to store the actual password

This recommended approach is not good security practice for password storage. If the database is compromised, your passwords are vulnerable to rainbow table attacks. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_table

TravisLSon IPhone-like password fields

This is a cool idea, but actually using it is incredibly jarring. I think it works on the iphone because your typing speed is so much slower. I found myself confused and second-guessing my typing a lot more using this with a keyboard.

TravisLSon Why I do Time Tracking

Why I don't do Time Tracking: I find many creative tasks require a lot of distraction time in order for my brain to process what I'm doing. Many times, it helps to "be productive" for an hour, then go use twitter for 20 minutes. When you come back, the solution is magically there.

Then again, maybe you could track "productive zoning out time" as one of your categories.

TravisLSon HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

My main issue with this solution is that it takes the decision out of the user's hands. Granted, in some cases it is potentially beneficial to unmask the password, but I would not want a site to assume that I'm okay with this approach. Imagine if you have to type in a password presenting in front of a crowd of 100 people. Do you feel secure with this solution?

Whatever solution you implement, it's important to give the user explicit control to override the mask.

TravisLSon How high school students start thinking about code

Thanks for the flashback. I wonder how many HN members got started on their TI-83. I remember even the most remedial users figuring out how to store enough data to cheat in pre-calc. IMO, the language is less relevant, it just takes a project.

TravisLSon How To Take Ritalin Correctly

The conclusion of this article is the most illuminating part. In case you didn't get there...

As a public service announcement, don't worry too much about grades. This is America, not Germany, where success is determined by the solidity of your goal and the amount you are willing to work. I know you don't believe it now, but it's true. Go have a drink.

TravisLSon Open source software only comes in one edition: awesome.

This post does a very effective job of highlighting rule #1 of market segmentation: every customer should be almost immediately sure which segment they fit in.

For example: is this computer for business or personal use? do you need the "super-duper full-lenth CGI movie" version, the "regular everyday use" version, or the "i only browse the internet" version? You just can't push it much further than that.

Vista failed miserably on this front, which surely accounted for more than a trivial decline in upgrade sales.

TravisLSon Terrible Password Security Advice From Jakob Nielsen

I wholeheartedly agree with this solution with the additional possibility that you cookie the user's choice. Solutions like firefox plugins are fine for you and me, but not for the remedial computer users who mistype their passwords in the first place. On my sites, the vast majority of customer service calls/emails are people who can't log in, simply because they can't figure out how to type in their passwords correctly (we don't even have a attempts limit - they can try as many times as they like).

TravisLSon Median # of tweets = 1

As mentioned in the article, this is really no surprise. Even more than other social networks, Twitter is a publishing platform - and it's only really interesting if you actually have something to say.

This certainly shouldn't be read as "Twitter's days are numbered", since so many people (even if they only represent 10% of its users) have found real value it its offering.

TravisLSon Writing Software is Like ... Writing

The writing analogy was how I explained what I do to my girlfriend. It's a good way to describe to the general public what you do in a way that won't put them to sleep.

TravisLSon Dancing with Professors: the trouble with academic prose

Along the same lines (in case you haven't seen it):

The postmodern essay generator: http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/

And Alan Sokal's brilliant hoax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

TravisLSon Ebay Unacquires StumbleUpon

I'm not sure what eBay was planning on doing with StumbleUpon in the first place. Same with Skype - it's been three years seemingly without any real integration of the services.

I recall talk about a grand vision of users calling one-another to negotiate deals and terms, but it looks like eBay has never really pulled the trigger. Perhaps they're trying to stay in a league with Google and Amazon, who have shown significant versatility in their service offerings - but eBay has definitely fallen flat if that was their intention.

I wouldn't be surprised to see eBay spin off Skype eventually too in favor of a leaner organization.

TravisLSon Steve Yegge: Have you ever legalized marijuana?

If states can do it, so can the nation. Yeah it's HARD, but it's not that hard. Practically every piece of legislation is this much of a hassle. So call me a VP.

TravisLSon Designing to Sell

This is a good post, and presents a topic that is too often pushed to the wayside in web design.

One thing to consider is the path the user takes through your site. The examples in this post are all single-page examples, but often the AIDA process can be better achieved over a 2-3 page browsing experience, where the information is presented in an easy-to-understand sequence. Visitors don't necessarily read your pages top-to-bottom.

TravisLSon How did we geeks become experts on macroeconomics?

Looking at our present crisis in particular, there's certainly something to be said for taking a simplified approach based on core economic principles, logic, and intuition (all three of which this author seems to dismiss categorically). Yes macroeconomics is complicated, and yes we have created concepts in our financial systems that are beyond the understanding of everyone involved. But the basic fundamentals still apply and should still be discussed in the context of the more complex systems. The idea of long-term equilibrium doesn't disappear just because your financial system is convoluted.

The foundation of macroeconomics is the aggregation of microeconomics, which comes down to people making decisions with their money. And everyone can understand that - even programmers. If the public truly can't understand the financial system, then that's a tremendous problem in and of itself.

TravisLSon A Defense of libertarianism (and response to Zed, etc.)

Given this situation (two and only two competing states), libertarianism is probably less viable. In the real world, however, you have a greater number of players.

If Libland has positive economic relations with other states (as most free people seem to prefer), it would theoretically have alternative sources of food from those allies. In addition, unless Libland's government had irrationally incited Xia's actions (theoretically, an unlikely choice for a free society), other states would see this a flagrant attack on Libland and come to its aid.

The example is certainly viable for a case where one state (out of over 200 in the real world) has a monopoly on producing any essential good, or where Xia's military is more powerful than the combined strength of all potential opposing states. I don't think the example extends beyond those corner cases, however.