

Hacker Monthly Issue #5 - October 2010 - grep
http://hackermonthly.com/issue-5.html

======
mmphosis
[http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2010/08/18/why-free-plans-
dont-...](http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2010/08/18/why-free-plans-dont-work/)

<http://web.stonehill.edu/compsci/History_Math/math-read.htm>

[http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rich-programmer-
food...](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rich-programmer-food.html)

[http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven-
devel...](http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven-
development.html)

<http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/latex.html>

[http://encosia.com/2010/08/18/dont-let-jquerys-document-
read...](http://encosia.com/2010/08/18/dont-let-jquerys-document-ready-slow-
you-down/)

<http://symkat.com/35/ssh-tips-and-tricks-you-need/>

[http://pieratt.tumblr.com/post/977179815/in-praise-of-
quitti...](http://pieratt.tumblr.com/post/977179815/in-praise-of-quitting-
your-job)

[http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-hackers-why-
you-...](http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-hackers-why-you-dont-use-
garamond-on-the-web/)

[http://alexisohanian.com/keep-calm-carry-on-what-you-
didnt-k...](http://alexisohanian.com/keep-calm-carry-on-what-you-didnt-know-
about)

~~~
prabodh
CSS of visited links here reminds me that i miss half of the good
articles...Not sure if i am on higher side..

~~~
duck
The weekly newsletter I put out might help with that -
<http://www.hackernewsletter.com>

------
aresant
Our "Why Ugly Design Converts" was included in printing #2.

The publisher, Cheng, reached out to us - asked permission, and gave us the
opportunity to make edits.

I assume he does this with everybody, so there's certainly no exploitation of
the article writers .

Next, he went through our blog article and made it beautiful with more thought
and care than even we had.

I feel indebted to Cheng and his team, we've gotten several mentions from
other folks we work with about the article, and being included has been a
fantastic marketing tool to show to prospective clients.

Let me sum up:

a) I was left with the impression that Cheng's motivations are built from
passion, and his process is incredibly transparent.

b) I support the magazine to give other members of this community the
opportunity to be featured when they put together something that the community
finds compelling.

c) Maybe Cheng should give the top 100 stories in a given month the
opportunity to BUY slots in the magazine. The amount of work he did to make
our crummy blog writing look professional, and the fact that it's a brilliant
marketing tool would have easily been worth the price of admission. No
conflict because he's pulling from top voted stories anyways.

Thanks Cheng for the work you continue to do!

Edit: Our "Why Ugly Design Converts" article - <http://bit.ly/a2w9xO>

~~~
india
Sigh... Proper link: [http://conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2010/04/increase-your-
conve...](http://conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2010/04/increase-your-conversion-
rate-by-making-your-site-uglier/)

~~~
aresant
Out of curiosity why didn't you like the bit.ly link? I put in that format
purely for convenience, readability.

~~~
india
Because url shorteners break the web[1][2].

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening#Criticism_and_pr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening#Criticism_and_problems)

[2] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1536662>

------
roel_v
It makes me sad and fearful for the future of our industry when someone
charging the equivalent of a cup of coffee for something that has a multiple
of the value of said coffee is met with dozens of complaints about how it
should be free, plus people actively trying to sabotage his efforts (sorry to
mmphosis if the list of links wasn't meant in that way).

~~~
ryanwaggoner
It's just this audience; hackers who bill their clients $75 / hr will spend an
hour trying to avoid paying $3 for something online that they want, while
sitting in a coffee shop and drinking a latte and a muffin they just paid $8
for. It makes no sense.

~~~
someone_here
It's not the money that matters to a hacker, it's the accomplishment of
surpassing a tangible value that does.

~~~
roel_v
What does "surpassing a tangible value" mean?

------
nopassrecover
It's funny - when they are printing a magazine I'm like wow great because I
feel they've added value but when they're charging for the digital PDF (and
it's a nothing charge let's face it) I feel like they are almost exploiting
other's creativity (who I assume has been donated with permission?).

~~~
aristus
I'm a bit torn about that, but I don't feel exploited. Permission was asked
and granted, and authors now know the deal. Design is _hard_. Curation and
editing are _hard_ work. I bought 5 copies of #1 for my mother but haven't
bought other issues.

I think the price of the paper form is too high, but the production values and
low run means he's barely clearing a profit on them. It all comes from ads.
That's his call, and, frankly, we are a pretty rich demographic. If Cheng Soon
can cross HM over from vanity press to a serious hacker journal, this will
become a very important magazine on the order of "Old Wired" and "Old DDJ".

~~~
todayiamme
I agree, but those $3 broke my heart. I am cash strapped down to $.50 and this
magazine was amongst the things I look forward to and in fact I used to make
people read it despite their too obvious protests. The sad part is that now it
can't work that way. I cannot refer them on due to their paywall (yes I know
it's online, but the PDF was really pretty and I loved passing it around in a
package to my friend) and that's just sad.

Moreover, it was neat convenient and made me loyal to them I can't find a
better branding exercise than that.

Sigh. I really wish that it didn't have to be this way, but perhaps they could
try an alternate model of revenue (after all they're hackers). I would love to
help these guys out in this regard.

~~~
todayyouareyou
Just bought you a copy and emailed it to you. Enjoy!

~~~
todayiamme
I don't know what to say right now.

I'm just touched.

------
chris_l
Not sure about the decision to charge for the pdf, considering that they're
reusing free content.

~~~
alextgordon
The free content is still on the internet, you're paying for the presentation
and the format.

From a business point of view, it may be good or bad. I wouldn't like to
guess.

On the one hand, they might sell more copies. Without a free PDF cannibalizing
sales, it will be much easier to convince people to buy something. On the
other hand, it will decrease their circulation, which will devalue their ads
and job listings.

~~~
wensing
Decreasing circulation doesn't necessarily devalue their ads or job listings.
Why do you think so?

~~~
random42
Well, for one, the 'reach' reduces drastically.

------
robryan
I did feel better about this project when the pdf was free, the idea being
that the hard copy sales (that was half the point right?) and the ads with
wider circulation paid for the pdf.

Its pretty much parallel to the problems face by newspapers online, put up a
pay wall and lose your readership plus your advertisers, or keep it free and
get by on much thinner margins than previously but at least be in business
still.

------
8ren
I was afraid there'd be no content for this month but industry news and gossip
- I was wrong. Good!

------
Robin_Message
Just wondering, how do they chose which comments go in this? How many comments
per issue, and are they related to the articles or just the best comments that
month? If so, how do they put them in context? I'm not $3-worth of curious,
but I would be interested...

~~~
bearwithclaws
We chose the best comments (voted by HNers) of the selected articles (also
voted by HNers). We then asked for permission to reprint the comment (yes,
even comments). If we did not hear from the author or got declined (seldom
happens), we moved to the 2nd best comment of that article.

------
sgt
Great.. definitely worth it. Makes these articles a lot more fun to read.

------
masmullin
I love reading these on my kindle DX. Thanks again Hacker Monthly! :)

------
mrduncan
Are the previous digital versions no longer going to be free once the next
version is released? The digital edition for September is still $3.

~~~
bearwithclaws
Only the first 3 issues are free.

------
ody
$3?! you're aving a giraffe!

~~~
srgseg
Lol that's cockney rhyming slang for those who are confused. Giraffe rhymes
with laugh.

~~~
bl4k
Classic cockney is rhyming but two-steps removed. ie.

* cocaine -> charlie -> bob marley -> bob

* telephone -> dog n' bone -> dog

* friend -> mate -> china plate -> china

see: "The construction involves replacing the common word with a phrase of two
or three words, and then in almost all cases, omitting the original rhyming
word, in a process called hemiteleia"

from: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang>

I have heard all three of those examples in common use (especially in South
Africa)

~~~
frou_dh
I like "bunse" from "bunsen burner" from "nice little earner", i.e. money.

But from googling just now, it seems it might not be a proper one.

