Hacker News Reader

workhere-ioon Python with Braces

Huh? Lack of braces is one of the things I like about Python. Additionally, on many non-English keyboards braces are somewhat hard to write (e.g., on a Danish Mac keyboard it's a three-letter combo: Alt + shift + 8). Not having to write braces is nice.

One of the examples on the page says "indentation doesn't matter". But the thing is, it does matter - even if there are braces. Correct indentation means that your code is more readable. Python (the normal version without braces) enforces correct indentation, which is brilliant.

workhere-ioon Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

it's more about the education that most Indians receive.

He was educated in the US. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Nadella: "Nadella earned an MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business."

workhere-ioon Why we love Mozilla Persona

OpenID was far, far worse from a usability perspective.

workhere-ioon Why we love Mozilla Persona

Shameless plug: I've made some code examples of how to integrate Persona with your site: https://github.com/workhere-io/personaexamples. The examples are for Python (Flask) and PHP.

workhere-ioon To www or not to www?

Google might categorize it as duplicate content. So you should always pick a main URL and redirect from the other version to the main URL.

workhere-ioon Creating a Geospatial database on Amazon RDS

Overall, I found the whole setup pretty painless, definitely simpler than setting up a local Postgres database on my Mac

Have you tried http://postgresapp.com/ ? Doesn't get much easier than that.

Btw., depending on your geo needs it might sometimes be simpler to use earthdistance instead of PostGIS:

https://gist.github.com/norman/1535879

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/earthdistance.html

workhere-ioon We are not normal people

I've only tried ones in Denmark. Here are a couple of examples (in Danish):

http://www.hairtools.dk/ http://www.bapoon.dk/Information/for-frisoerer.htm http://hairbydahl.bestilling.nu/?locale=en

workhere-ioon We are not normal people

That's the point: If the barber has a lot of younger customers, the reason that most of the bookings happen on the phone or via text message is that the barber doesn't have a good website set up with a decent booking system that the customers could use instead of the phone.

What OP could have told the barber is this: "We'll put up a system that enables your customers to schedule a time automatically - that way you'll only have to schedule times manually in the 20% of cases or so when a customer prefers to call rather than use the website".

It's not rocket science - plenty of barbers have such a system.

workhere-ioon We are not normal people

If I have to walk over to the computer, I’ve already wasted too much time.

Wouldn't the point of scheduling software be that, unlike his current phone solution, he doesn't have to do something when a customer schedules a time? Ideally he'd enter his work hours and holidays into the scheduling system, and customers could schedule a time without interrupting his workflow. Then he'd only need to look at his iPad once in a while to see who the next customer is.

Other than that, I think the article makes an important point.

workhere-ioon Ask HN: What will you pay for?

Email (IMAP plus a Gmail-like web interface that is better than RoundCube). Preferably hosted somewhere safe(r) than the US.

workhere-ioon Ask HN: Help. I need to go away from here

Come to Denmark. We need more programmers, and as a EU citizen you have the right to work here. Everyone speaks English here. http://www.it-jobbank.dk//?lang=en

workhere-ioon Pick a random profile on Facebook

Do you have more details?

workhere-ioon Pick a random profile on Facebook

Why?

workhere-ioon Ask HN: Should I switch from PHP to NodeJS?

Unless you have a job offer that specifically requires you to use Node.js, it's not really a question of "switching" - it's more a question of adding Node.js to the list of frameworks you know.

As far as jobs go, outside of Silicon Valley it seems that there is still a huge market for PHP programmers, and those Drupal/Joomla/Magento/WordPress sites aren't going away any time soon.

I'd also recommend Python, which many PHP programmers instantly like. Getting started with Flask (http://flask.pocoo.org/) should be fairly easy. Several big sites like Instagram and Pinterest are powered by Python.

workhere-ioon Why women aren't attracted to comedians: a new study

Sensationalist title. The article is about stand-up comedians, not funny guys in general.

workhere-ioon Python and Flask Are Powerful

The call to Stripe.charge.create is blocking, in the sense that the server can't start processing a new request while it's busy waiting for a response from stripe

Would this even be an issue if you're using e.g. Apache (multiple threads) with mod_wsgi?

workhere-ioon Python and Flask Are Powerful

An example that beginners would be likely to be inspired by. It wouldn't have been much harder to write a single line of

render_template('something.html')

and then write the HTML for the template in a separate code section.

workhere-ioon Python and Flask Are Powerful

Considering how easy templating is with Flask, I don't understand who someone would write HTML directly in the controller the way the author did. I agree that Flask is great, though.

workhere-ioon No more time limits on Spotify

I think the mid-tier features are mostly free now

What the mid-tier plan gave us was ad-free listening. It sucks that you know have to pay twice as much for that.

workhere-ioon No more time limits on Spotify

Same story with Netflix. Costs more here than in the US, but the content is waaay worse.

Use the US version of Netflix instead. Try https://unlocator.com (currently free because it's in beta - works like a charm) or http://unotelly.com/.

Here in Denmark it's completely legal to use the US Netflix. I don't know about Norwegian laws, though.

workhere-ioon Ask HN: Alternatives to DigitalOcean?

http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/servers/

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/

https://www.linode.com/

http://www.hetzner.de/en/

You mentioned that you wanted something reliable and with SSD for $5. I honestly think DigitalOcean is the only host with a decent reputation in that price range (and yet you frequently hear people complain about them). You might want to consider paying slightly more. $10 to $20 a month should do it.

workhere-ioon PSD to HTML is Dead

"X is dead" is dead. Just because you don't use X doesn't mean others don't use it.

A very large number of people who do web design for a living are much better at making their visions a reality using PhotoShop than HTML/CSS.

workhere-ioon Ask HN: Recommended domain name registrar

Gandi or Namecheap.

Namecheap is cheaper than Gandi when it comes to .com domains. However, Gandi's domains include IMAP/POP (1 GB) hosted in France, and they have more TLDs than Namecheap.

workhere-ioon Taking PHP Seriously

I'm unsure of PHP's future - if it'll be tied to Facebook

I don't think it'll be tied to Facebook at all. What the PHP community has is a huge ecosystem of programmers (good ones and bad ones), frameworks, libraries, etc. That bodes well for PHP's future.

workhere-ioon Ask HN: What's your preferred web application structure?

Should I use Python or PHP? (I'm leaning towards Python)

Use what you know best.

Should I use Django, Pyramid, Flask, or something else as the framework? (I'm leaning towards Django)

Use what you know best. I personally prefer Flask.

Should I buy hosting, use Google App engine, or get a dedicated server?

Google App Engine is rather pricey and has a lot of lock-in. Have you considered something like DigitalOcean or WebFaction?

How will I store data, how will users login (Open ID, or should I create a login service).

OpenID is pretty much dead if you ask me. Use Persona instead. Sample Persona log-in code for Flask and PHP: https://github.com/workhere-io/personaexamples

How will things scale if the app performs well?

Upgrade your VPS. Flask + PostgreSQL can take quite a couple of hits.

workhere-ioon Ask HN: Why use Python or similar?

But when I look at performance Python is not near C# or Java

For most websites out there it doesn't matter. Facebook ran on normal PHP (similar performance to Python) up until the point when they had 500 million users and were forced to make some changes.

Instagram and Pinterest are powered by Python. Unless your site is bigger than those, you'll be fine running Python.

And I can't seem the find features of C# in Python

Python has a huge ecosystem of libraries. Maybe you just don't know where to look?

workhere-ioon PHP 5.5.8 Released

Since anything PHP-related on HN is bound to spur the usual PHP hate, here's something that might confuse the haters: PHP is actually faster than Go in many cases (according to http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=data-r8&hw=i7...).

workhere-ioon Ask HN: Time to start using Python 3.x?

Flask supports Python 3, but a lot of its plugins don't, according to http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/python3/.

workhere-ioon Nothing Focuses The Mind Like The Ultimate Deadline: Death

Always being anxious about living life to the fullest can be stressful and thus counterproductive to the idea of living a happy life. I find that people are often happier when they aren't afraid to "waste time" doing simple things like sitting on a bench and talking to friends while life goes by.