Network Performance Issues in multiple locations - <AUTHOR> https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/? <comment><USER2> Telia had problems hitting many service providers. Not a Cloudflare problem per se. Plenty of non-Cloudflare stuff affected like Reddit, AWS, Fastly, ...

Check out the dip in requests to Reddit: [http://www.redditstatus.com/](http://www.redditstatus.com/)

<comment><USER3> Did Reddit stop using Cloudflare?

<comment><USER4> They switched from Cloudflare to Fastly a few months back.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Obligatory comment that I (and others) make every single time: can we _please_ for <insert diety name>'s sake stop centralizing everything? We are literally throwing away all the benefits of a mostly-decentralized internet for the sake convenience.

<comment><USER6> Do you have a viable alternative to protecting small websites from DDOS attacks?

<comment><USER7> You have to realize that DDoS mitigaters are in a position to not stop attacks. They get paid more money when attacks happen; so any company whose sole purpose is mitigation, has a major conflict of interest. A small site can easily be hosted on AWS, which has their own protection which is transparent. Any other cloud provider should offer it transparently anyway.

I absolutely hate people who claim Cloudflare is their only solution for mitigation/protection, because it simply isn't true, and Cloudfare does some rather shady stuff.

<comment><USER8> I feel like saying DDoS mitigators are in a position to not stop attacks is akin to saying car insurance companies are in a position to not stop car accidents. I think the value prop is the quality of the service WHEN the attacks happen, and when they aren't happening it is effectively an insurance- like business. However if I get DDoS'd and my mitigator does nothing, one would think they would eventually be overtaken by a more competent competitor.

<comment><USER7> Your analogy is accurate, but... If you don't have a mitigator, they have incentive to force you on one; if you are already on it, their incentive is throttling, or otherwise 'attacking' (loosely defined) your source.

With car insurance, the insurance company has incentive to mitigate their risk, (they don't want to shell out more than they need to,) charging more if you are higher risk. They don't want to take more risk than they have to. Key point, they evaluate risk on a case by case basis.

DDoS mitigators however, they already have invested in the risk by getting the hardware to handle the bandwidth. They don't care if you are attacked or not. Nothing then stops them from playing dirty. This kind of stuff frequently happened with Minecraft servers (what feels like) ages ago. Mitigating services would go out and attack servers, and competitors to get customers to switch to them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Idea: let's proxy half the internet through a private, proprietary service! We can get people to give us valid SSL certificates for their sites, too, and let's fuck up Tor while we're at it. We can totally handle it, right? Oh, and we need to pay for it somehow, so let's go the venture capital approach and just pretend we won't eventually hit a growth cap and ruin our company Twitter-style when we get there.

The crazy thing is _people actually bought it_.

<comment><USER10> I love a good pitchfork and torch session as much as the next rabble-rouser, but let's remember Cloudflare got popular because they _solved*_ a hard problem: how to deal with a DDOS, as a small or medium size website. Cloudflare's essentially a for-profit insurance pool for bandwidth. No individual site has enough bandwidth to handle a DDOS, nor can afford it, but pooled together, many sites can afford a service that can handle individual DDOS attacks. Even if you want to solve the problem without a profit-motive, you still end up with a solution that is going to look very similar to Cloudflare.

<comment><USER9> >solved

"worked around" is more appropriate, and introduced _huge_ problems with their workaround.

The correct solution is to punish ISPs that permit this behavior to continue unchecked. We need offense, not defense. Any ISP that doesn't detect and kill DDoS participants needs to be severely throttled by other ISPs. Organizations like the FCC should be tackling this and levying fines against US-based ISPs for non-compliance and lobbying for foreign policies that punish foreign ISPs.

<comment><USER11> It's really hard to know what constitutes DDOS traffic at times. Suppose a Netflix show got really popular, do you cut it off. Let's make an exception for Netflix. What if a new competitor blahflix got popular quickly, Does its traffic get blocked?

Oh wait now blahflix needs to pay $$$ to get special privileges. Shit gets hairy real quick.

Suppose DDOS happens from iot devices. One of this is an important medical device that got hacked. Do you auto shut it down and block it's traffic. What about the life critical device under same IP through NAT that is secure also getting blocked?

ISPs should remain dumb pipes. You really don't want to give comcast more power.

<comment><USER12> "One of this is an important medical device that got hacked"

If someone puts "an important medical device" on a network directly accessible from the internet, or on the same network as other IOT crap devices, they should be banned from ever working with computers.

<comment><USER13> Elon Musk is working on direct brain interfaces with computers. Soon, they'll be able to hack your brain!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> pingdom also reports "something is wrong on the internet" [https://status.pingdom.com/](https://status.pingdom.com/)

<comment><USER15> Bright yellow on white background?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Anyone have more concrete information on where the routing issues are and/or who's affected?

<comment><USER17> Lot of routing in Europe is done through Telia.

<comment><USER18> It looks like Telia is apparently the issue.

Our CDN's are having problems all over the place. No indications of what shit the bed, but this is more then Cloudflare

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Why is this on the front page? It seems like whatever happened had nothing to do with cloudflare. Can a mod remove this, as a status page is not news?

<comment><USER20> I'm inclined to agree, but if it's being voted up it's "news". It's as much news as "Github Down" when the submitted link times out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I like to think of Cloudflare like insurance. Any single website may need it rarely if ever, but if it happens to you, you have little to no recourse that doesn't involve large sums of money.

Instead, you pay Cloudflare a regular, small amount of money† to reduce the risk of having to pay a large sum of money in case you're targeted. This sounds almost exactly like insurance to me.

† Sometimes the marginal cost is actually $0!

</comment><comment><USER22> More general question, as similar situation has happened multiple times where we are not sure:

1) did we break our client server

2) did our internet provider die

3) did the service die

What are recommended ways of finding out fast and reliably in these cases where the fault is.

<comment><USER23> Some of my experience and solution to those issues

1) UptimeRobot [0] - use to monitor various client websites. The free plan checks every 5 minutes, which should be enough. Notifications can be sent to email, slack, sms and many others. If you think there may be a problem only from some locations make a fast check with [1]. If you suspect DNS issues [2] or [3].

2) Again use UptimeRobot for monitoring device publicly accessible from your network. Moreover, if you are in control of your office network, using pfSense [4] notifications when a network gateway goes down works well (still, that works only if you have 2 or more ISPs). Or use a dedicated monitoring device/service like Zabbix.

3) Using to Twitter to Slack notification, subscribe for updates from both services that you use and major services responsible for Internet backbone. An example is, that using GitLab, comes with multiple time when the service dies (even that they are improving) - seeing the message in Slack that something is WIP currently by all team members (in a dedicated channel), helps to skip unnecessary debugging [5] :)

Not affiliate with any of the service. Still - met the UptimeRobot guys some ago - they are a small startup based in Malta, are very cool and have very stable service :)

[0] [https://uptimerobot.com/](https://uptimerobot.com/)

[1] [http://www.super-ping.com/](http://www.super-ping.com/)

[2] [https://www.whatsmydns.net/](https://www.whatsmydns.net/)

[3] [https://dnschecker.org/](https://dnschecker.org/)

[4] [https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Gateway_Settings#Gateway_S...](https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Gateway_Settings#Gateway_Settings)

[5] [https://twitter.com/gitlabstatus](https://twitter.com/gitlabstatus)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> They said they were scheduling some dashboard maintainence for today. Perhaps this had some unforseen side effect?

<comment><USER2> This was not a Cloudflare-specific problem (see my comment above). Maintenance was yesterday not today and was completed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> the title made me think of cloudflare watch ([http://www.crimeflare.com/](http://www.crimeflare.com/))</comment>


Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein: Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D Minor - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZX_XCYokQo <comment><AUTHOR> I'm submitting this because it's a great example of educational content on TV - people who know what they're doing and who are given the freedom to talk about it and demonstrate it direct to camera.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bernstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bernstein)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Gould](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Gould)</comment>


Steve Jobs Inspired by 9-Year-Old's iPad Story - <AUTHOR> http://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/29/steve-jobs-inspired-by-9-year-olds-ipad-story/ <comment><USER2> What a ridiculously over-exaggerated title. An iPad helps a girl with albanism to read and Steve responds with a charactaristically short email saying thanks and can I share this with leaders at Apple. There is nothing wrong with his response or desire to share this with others who are likely directly involved with the design and production of iPads, iOS, etc., but it is a far cry from showing any inspiration.

</comment><comment><USER3> Good thing the parents of this vision-impaired 9-year-old did not buy her a _Chromebook_ because (uniquely among browsers of my experience) when you make the type big, Chrome does not "reflow" the text to fit in the window, but rather makes you scroll horizontally back and forth for every line of text.

<comment><USER4> Odd. I just tested on Chrome/OSX (with ⌘+ and ⌘-) and the text seems to reflow fine here. Is that a ChromeOS-specific bug?

And actually, reflow is nonexistent on Safari/iOS, which is one of my biggest gripes with it.

<comment><USER3> My testing was done on OS X too.

Display resolution: 1024 x 768 -- still the most common resolution according to some browser-string stats discussed here a couple of months ago _and_ the resolution of the iPad, the device being discussed in the OP.

Web page: <http://lesswrong.com/lw/6dm/>

Since Chrome might have remembered a text-size preference from a previous visit to the site, execute ⌘0 ("Reset"). Execute ⌘+ twice. Notice that the text runs past the right end of the window.

(Sorry to hear that Safari on iOS also does not reflow text. Safari 5 on OS X does.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm hoping that in the near future, all textbooks can be replaced with these tablets so that kids won't have to break their backs carrying around 5+ textbooks in their backpacks from class to class

<comment><USER6> There's a company currently in beta called Kno (website: <http://www.kno.com/>) that is working on a textbook app!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Nice, but to get a bit more "meta", this also confirms the "Top 100 leaders" group within Apple, presumably this is "Apple University".</comment>


Git for Idiots (and Java developers) - <AUTHOR> http://trak3r.blogspot.com/2008/04/git-for-idiots-and-java-developers.html <comment><USER2> This tutorial really covers just the bare minimum. I would have liked to see a mention of git diff for seeing changes. Since they didn't include it I'll list some examples here

git diff master..branchname # see changes between a branch and master

git diff origin..master # show changes that are in your local repository but not in the source

git diff # show modified files that are not part of a commit, ie. before running git add

git diff --cached # changes about to be comitted

There are many other things you can do with git diff but these scenarios are the most common for me.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not sure who is upmodding this. I haven't heard of Git until today, but it (unsurprisingly) took me only five seconds to find the following link,

[http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.htm...](http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.html)

...which seems apropos and shithead-free.

</comment><comment><USER4> If anyone wants to try out Github.com, this is the way to do it. The example works perfectly and definitely great to start out. I've played around with github a few times and this is definitely the best tutorial I've seen.

</comment><comment><USER5> You can also not branch if you work on one thing at a time. Commit locally then merge with the central repository.

</comment><comment><USER6> Idiots and Java developers made me lol. I kid, I kid.</comment>


Can we do better than R-squared? - <AUTHOR> http://tomhopper.me/2014/05/16/can-we-do-better-than-r-squared/

<comment><USER2> The biggest problem: People hide between such quantities as R-squared and p-Value. While they are just indicators on how the model fits the data, people turn them into a monolithical, undoubtable truth. That is why studies are being published with 7 participants,

<comment><USER3> I would even go further. The biggest problem isn't just using p values and R^2. I think the biggest problem is that a lot of people didn't learn statistics properly.

Properly is a vague term. So what do I mean? Instead of obsessing with tons of techniques going back to the basic and actually learn how to do design studies, work with data, learn statistical reasoning and critical thinking.

I took quite a few courses in statistics because I liked it. But a lot other people – especially those that apply statistics – maybe take one or two courses in stats and then do research / studies. The results can be pretty terrible. In conclusion, more fundamentals and less icing on the cake.

<comment><USER2> While I agree with the premise that most people do not know enough statistics, there are several underlying problems to that.

When I was first encountered to statistical topics as an undergrad, the lecturer himself was not confident of the matter and taught a very bare subset that consisted of linear fitting, error propagation, means and standard deviation. Even back then I had the feeling that the equations provided were insufficient and contained a lot of things that were not motivated or explained.

Nowadays I can see why I was not introduced to statistics and probabilities back then as I was introduced to algebra, analysis and quantum mechanics. The field of statistics is complex, full of contradicting best-practices and analytically challenging. Let alone Bayes-vs.-Frequentist, etc. In a way I doubt that all researchers working with Poisson-distributed data once in their life as scientists can work through the details Poissonian statistics analytically.

Maybe an illustrative introduction would be more beneficial. I imagine people could perform statistical experiments before working with real data and experience first hand how misleading a small data subset can be for example, or how fundamentally data plots can change their face. Maybe then people would stop being overenthusiastic about their N=20 experiments.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> AIC? BIC? The article mentions adjusted R^2, which would still be an improvement over plain R^2 if you have a number of predictors in your model.

</comment><comment><USER5> And the mistake is here :

> Minitab calculates predicted R-squared by systematically removing each > observation from the data set, estimating the regression equation, and > determining how well the model predicts the removed observation. Like > adjusted R-squared, predicted R-squared can be negative and it is always > lower than R-squared.

(linked from the article, and better explained than anywhere in the article).

The mistake is in what is compared against what. Ideally a model would be independent from the data entirely. This is what you get if you correctly derive a model from first principles, and then verify that observed data points agree. The independence is perfect and it is valid to compare the two data sets. Any agreement builds confidence that the model is correct.

However that's not what's being done here. The "model" is a linear combination of the data set. So you're calculating the model generated from n data points with the model generated from n-1 data points, for each point. So you're effectively comparing the data against itself (which is also what R-squared is doing of course).

The correct way to go about this is to randomly divide your dataset in 2 pieces, ideally both should have a decent size. The second part you give to your colleague, with strict instructions to shoot you if you even ask to see that data. You build your model with your data points, and then ask your colleague to compare it with his data, and report only if they're close or not, NOT the values. If your fit is not close to his fit ("too much" \- some fuziness here), you're overfitting.

The key difference here is the random part. The "adjusted predictive R squared" does not create independence between the compared data sets. This means it can't work correctly.

I realize this is the typical mathematician argument. I'm claiming here that there exists a way to make R squared and predictive R squared both be way too high, without giving any method to do so. But this is obviously wrong nonetheless.

<comment><USER6> > I realize this is the typical mathematician argument.

Interestingly, a mathematician's argument on this exact method was actually given in 1977, in "An Asymptotic Equivalence of Choice of Model by Cross- Validation and Akaike's Criterion". [1]

What Stone showed was that (modulo technicalities) performing this procedure - leave one out cross validation, the procedure you claim "cannot work correctly" \- was asymptotically equivalent to minimising the AIC [2] of the model. So we have an asymptotic guarantee (for whatever that's worth) on the behaviour of this procedure.

[1]: [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2984877](http://www.jstor.org/stable/2984877)

[2]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akaike_information_criterion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akaike_information_criterion)</comment></comment>


A lesson in wireless engineering from the Raspberry Pi - <AUTHOR> http://www.embedded-computing.com/iot/a-lesson-in-wireless-engineering-from-the-raspberry-pi <comment><USER2> One thing the article entirely neglects to mention is that the well engineered design came, via licensing, from an antenna specialist company called "Proant"

[http://www.proant.se/en/news/2017/03/01/raspberry-pi- zero-w-...](http://www.proant.se/en/news/2017/03/01/raspberry-pi-zero-w- nbi16.htm)

<comment><USER3> There's a huge number of people involved in the design of the rpi. The antenna is a great example of a subsystem designed by a separate team; another is the new PMIC for the 3B+[1].

[1]: [https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/pi-power-supply- chip/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/pi-power-supply-chip/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would really like to have access to an antenna chamber like that one :-). Lately I've been building/programming/characterizing SDRs and that generally also includes antenna. I realized I had forgotten most of what I had learned in school about electrodynamics so I've been refreshing all of those neurons as well.

The simplest solvers for Antennas do a great job on dipoles or other simple structures, and less well on antennae like the one on the Pi. I found it humorous that a well used tool was called 'Microwave office'[1].

I tried to do some genetic antenna design using a plotter, some conductive ink, and a simple S meter but it is really difficult to reliably connect the plotted antenna to the test fixture.

What I have learned, which matches the author, is that there is a lot of subtlety in antenna design that is not obvious by the traces they use on FR-4 or other substrates. That rabbit hole goes pretty far down.

[1] [http://www.awrcorp.com/products/ni-awr-design- environment/mi...](http://www.awrcorp.com/products/ni-awr-design- environment/microwave-office)

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm far more impressed by Raspberry Pi Zero W than by the original or even the latest Raspberry Pi. I'm using one as a streaming server for a security camera, and also a web server, and its working beyond my expectations.

<comment><USER6> It's nice, but I think you can't easily buy the chips. So still no good for product design.

<comment><USER7> You can buy it as a module, but this really isn't the Pi's intended target market.

I've seen several commercial products that are just Pi-in-a-box, for small runs it's fine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What is it with buying an RPi zero?

It has been out for a few years now but is never in stock anywhere for the advertised price of $5 ,it's sometimes available bundled with loads of crap you dont need for 10x this price, also you cant buy a qty of more than one anywhere.

If they've stuffed up the pricing and trying to reduce their exposure I am pretty sure a lot of people would be happy paying $10 instead.

I'm pretty sure there are more Tesla Model 3's being produced than Raspberry Pi Zeros :-)

<comment><USER9> Its definitely a loss leader with very limited availability, but thankfully it did spur a wave of sub-$10 single board computers, most of which are on par with much more powerful Raspis.

[http://linuxgizmos.com/worlds-smallest-quad-core-sbc- starts-...](http://linuxgizmos.com/worlds-smallest-quad-core-sbc-starts- at-8-dollars/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's interesting to understand the frequency dependency on antenna size by studying the Friis equation. There are three cases:

Small rx, small tx: low frequencies are better (lower loss).

Small rx, parabolic dish tx (or reversed): frequency does not matter.

Parabolic tx and rx: higher is better.

Small here means something like resonant dipole, so the antenna has to be physically bigger the lower the frequency.

For the case of a parabolic dish, we hold the diameter constant vs. frequency.

Anyway for phones lower bands are better as long as the antenna fits.

<comment><USER10> Aren't the higher frequency bands wider so data rates are higher?

<comment><USER11> Yeah, it's a really fun set of tradeoffs to play with. You're correct to a first approximation. Channel bandwidth is is easier to come by at higher frequencies (a 20MHz wide channel at 150MHz would be a giant swath of the band, but a 20MHz channel at 5GHz is very small relative to the centre frequency).

But... then you start encountering higher path loss. To make up for that, you need to increase transmitter power (whether by increasing actual power, or by using higher gain antennas, etc) or by adding redundancy to the data stream (e.g. FEC). The added redundancy chips away at your bit rate, but corrects errors.

In practice, whether you get a better net transfer speed on a narrow lower- frequency band or a wider higher-frequency band is going to depend on a lot of factors. Sometimes it pans out, sometimes not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Without comparison to other typical PCB and/or ceramic antennas, it is pretty difficult to judge from the article how good the RPiW antenna truly is.

</comment><comment><USER13> Quite good performance from that antenna for it's size and cost yes. I wonder what tools they used to design it?

<comment><USER3> According to [1] (which has more info on the antenna design), the resonant cavity antenna was designed by a company called Proant [2]. I remember reading the the antenna is the same on the Pi 3 and Zero W. There are a few options for PCB antenna design software out there, but I had never seen this type of PCB antenna before the Zero W. Not sure what software they use, or whether it's off the shelf or proprietary. Any antenna designers out there?

[1]: [https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/pi-zero-w-wireless- antenna...](https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/pi-zero-w-wireless-antenna- design/)

[2]: [http://mob.proant.se/en/home.htm](http://mob.proant.se/en/home.htm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Typically you'd use a ceramic antenna on a product like this. What is the difference in radiated efficiency between this antenna and a ceramic one? I'm guessing there are other design considerations though, such as cost and circuit board area consumed.

</comment><comment><USER15> The ceramic chip antenna manufacturers are in a panic!

</comment><comment><USER16> Someone needs to come up with a better unit for antenna efficiency. Which non- expert can understand how much -3.5dB and -1.25dB differ?

<comment><USER17> A non-expert doesn't care about antenna gain - he just wants his wireless connection to work (or his radio signal to be clear). When he starts researching antenna gains he delves into the hobbyist scene. I know that hobbyists are not experts but understanding how dB work is simple enough after you understand the practical rules:

1\. A difference of 3 in dB means times 2, a difference of 10 means times 10.

2\. Because dB are in logarithmic scale adding dB multiplies the effect.

3\. Negative numbers work the same but with loss instead of gain.

Thus a 3 dB gain antenna will double your signal strength while a 9 dB antenna will make it (9=3+3+3) 8 times stronger (8=2x2x2). Another example: 23 dB is a 200 times gain (23=10+10+3).

<comment><USER18> >1\. A difference of 3 in dB means times 2, a difference of 10 means times 10.

How can this be right? Aren't you kind of fudging it a little?

Here's my train of thought:

First I was thinking "What the hell is going on with your math? There's no clear factor to turn base 2 into base 10 what the hell. How can what you say be true? How does this work?"

My next thought (based on your incorrect statement) was, oh, they didn't choose base 2: they chose every _3_ to be another factor of 2 - so let's see why that works, why +10 is the same as * 10 if every +3 is * 2. Well, you can get to 10 by going 3 + 3 + 3 + 1 and you can also get 10 by going 2 * 2 * 2 * (1.25) = 10.

Okay, so if every +3 converts to * 2 then why exactly does the last term, +1 convert to * 1.25?

I thought, and thought about it. I couldn't make it work, based on your rules. So I checked. And the answer is it doesn't: 2^(1/3) isn't 1.25 as we would expect, it's 1.2599. That might seem "close enough" but I think it's not exactly how you say and your statements are misleading.

Thus 23 dB isn't 200 times stronger as you state (23 = 10 + 10 + 3), it's only _approximately_ 200 times stronger. 200x stronger is 23.0103 dB, and 23 dB is 199.52 times stronger. [1]

While it's useful, and the error is pretty small, it doesn't help for those of us used to thinking in terms of bitfields or something that converts quite exactly.

It's definitely a very useful mental estimation trick though!

[1] which I checked with an online calculator here - [https://www.rapidtables.com/electric/decibel.html](https://www.rapidtables.com/electric/decibel.html) (first I entered a level of 200 and clicked the top "convert" button, then I entered a dB of 23 and clicked the second "convert" button)

<comment><USER17> Well these are practical rules that are more or less used by people working with dBs. These people are usually don't think in term of bitfields - when you have a 43 dB gain antenna you don't care if it amplifies 20 000 times or 19 952 :) Also it's a nice way to show-off to people that do not know this rule!

In any case, I never said that you get 100% accurate results; if you want accuracy then you should use your calculator (or your logarithmic ruler); but why use a calculator when you roughly want to understand how much a 15 dB gain would be?

Finally, there's a nice way to find out how much 1 dB is with the mentioned rule: Notice that 1 = 10-3-3-3 thus it's 10/2/2/2 = 1.25 so 1 dB is approximately 1.25 gain as you said :)

<comment><USER18> Thanks for the followup! This was all quite instructive.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Last week I took a break from any work and I slept much better - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN.
I'm a college student and I spend a great deal of time programming.
Last week, when I took a break from any work I slept much better than usually.
I think this could be the reason why I sleep bad:
When there's a problem I can't stop thinking about it.
It's not just programming problems, because I try to make some money from my own projects, and that makes me be sort of obsessive about it.
What should I do to sleep better?
Any ideas please? <comment><USER2> How many hours do you work? The problem is when I'm working- i work way past 8 hours sometimes and though you don't feel it, the stress drives you nuts.

I'd put in a cap of 50 hours a week MAX, and make sure I spend time relaxing (doesn't mean watching tv at home) with friends or meeting new people. You need to step away from the computer for a decent break. I switched over to this schedule and found out that my sleeps were MUCH better. Turns out the reason was overworking.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've read and found from personal experience that you sleep much better if you avoid doing anything in front of a screen for an hour or two before going to bed.

<comment><USER4> This is what works for me too, and also making sure whatever room I sleep in is pitch black (very hard with all the friggin' LEDs todays electronics like to have and not shut off when you "turn them off").

OP: Before you did this experiment, were you staring a screen right before hitting the hay?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also:

It's not that I sleep bad normally (when I work.)

It's just when I didn't work, my sleep was _awesome_. And I want that.</comment>


Outside Zynga HQ - <AUTHOR> http://instagram.com/p/ROexEBh14k/ <comment><USER2> Is that an employee trying to sell? Or a dealer trying to get employees to buy? Because that would be an ingeniously evil strategy, had it been timed close to IPO.

</comment><comment><USER3> A "fuck you car" should have "fuck you money" to back it up.

</comment><comment><USER4> Cool photo. I love the Zynga logo reflected in the windshield.</comment>


Fedora 16 Released - <AUTHOR> http://fedoraproject.org/

<comment><USER2> [http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en- US/Fedora/16/html/Release_N...](http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en- US/Fedora/16/html/Release_Notes/sect-Dedication.html)

Dedicated to Dennis Ritchie. Nice.

</comment><comment><USER3> There's a submission of the release notes at <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3211027></comment>


What was the matter with PDF? - <AUTHOR> http://timpromptu.com/2012/12/29/what-was-the-matter-with-pdf/

<comment><USER3> PDFs are fantastic, and are still wonderful today. OP's problem isn't solved by PDFs, just like it isn't solved by XML or MP3 or ZIP formats.

Simply put, PDF is a format designed to allow me to give you a document where you can be sure (with certain well defined exceptions that I can work around anyway) that you see what I intended you to see. That works brilliantly if I want you to see a letter-sized 3-color document, or an A5 booklet, or a funky 3" x 9" flyer, or whatever other size I want.

This doesn't work with e-book readers, because my e-book reader isn't A4 or 8" x 6" or whatever other format the book is in. Epub, mobi, LRF etc. give the e-book reader the ability to format the text (if it's pure text, and not, as OP complains, pre-formatted with assumptions the e-book reader can't match) for the screen or for my options wrt. zooming and font size.

I say all of this as both an avid PDF user (I write lots of documentation), and an avid e-book user. You use the right tool for the job. If you're complaining about PDFs on your e-book reader, you're doing it wrong.

<comment><USER4> >Simply put, PDF is a format designed to allow me to give you a document where you can be sure (with certain well defined exceptions that I can work around anyway) that you see what I intended you to see.

Well put. When I buy technical books, I always look for a PDF format. I want a copy of the book that is the same as the printed one and that's exactly the reason why I like PDF. Plus, things like diagrams and graphs are in vector graphics, and not raster as they are in EPUB/MOBI.

I've made the mistake of buying a couple of technical EPUB eBooks that contained graphs, and in all cases it was a complete abomination. The publishers seem to want to produce the smallest files they can, so what used to be vector graphics, become highly compressed and low resolution raster images. Trying to zoom in on a graph on your tablet gives you a resized blurry image.

I don't like this trend where some technical ebook publishers offer a PDF version of the book in addition to an EPUB, and the PDF ends up being a mere conversion from the EPUB version, having all the cons I mentioned above. This happened to me on InformIT when I bought "The Mythical Man-Month", and they ended up giving me a refund.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not a single sympathizer with the OP?

Kindle books have truly terrible formatting and editing in general. Some are riddled with what look like OCR errors; in others, blockquotes and italicized regions start and end in the wrong places. Images are in awkward places. Sometimes just paging left and then paging right causes the page boundary to move.

The main reason, I've heard, is that even if the Kindle format and reader app are reasonable (and I can't vouch for them), it's on publishers to put their books in the right format. They have no idea how to do this, so they outsource it. Some publishers probably don't care about or dislike the Kindle platform.

I find it really, really sad and bizarre to read books with so many errors. Maybe you haven't come across a really bad one yet, but since it varies by publisher (and I'm talking about big, mainstream publishers), just wait, you will.

<comment><USER6> > _Some publishers probably don't care about or dislike the Kindle platform._

This is the real source of the problem. Publishers have every reason to suspect that Amazon will eat their profits and would be stupid to help Amazon accomplish its goal.

<comment><USER7> Except that a badly-formatted Kindle book reflects more poorly on the publisher than it does on Amazon, since Amazon doesn't create the content. If a publisher really doesn't want to encourage the e-book industry, isn't it much easier for them to not publish an e-book at all?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Full PDF support is a security nightmare[1], and PDF supports so much more than a simple reading program should need, which results in it being bloated, buggy, and drastically increases the surface area for attacks.

1\. <http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=pdf>

<comment><USER9> Yes but there's no requirement that any particular PDF reader implement all the extra crap.

<comment><USER8> True, but there's no delineation provided in the PDF files so as to ascertain which files require which features (via file extension or whatever), and so it might be impossible to tell if your particular reader supports all of the features provided by the PDF file. The better readers will tell you that some features of the current document aren't supported, while others simply won't render correctly at all, or worse, will just crash the application.

You also end up with users trying to open some dynamic form PDF with scripting and whatnot enabled, and of course your portable device balks because it doesn't support it, so now it gets kicked back to the device MFG because the PDF reader is "broken".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've attempted to read technical PDFs on my Kindle. You either need a magnifying glass (if you try to do it a page at a time) or spend the whole time scrolling. Maybe scrolling isn't a big deal on a Kindle Touch, but it's not fun on a standard Kindle.

I don't think this is a question of formats; I think it's a question of "How do we show legible code samples on a 7" screen?".

<comment><USER11> Switch the screen to landscape mode and do fit-to-width. This way, a typical PDF will only need 3 "next page" pressess per page, without you having to scroll sideways.

<comment><USER12> This is how I have read a number of books now. It's still frustrating, but it's better than nothing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> PDF and ebooks (MOBI, EPUB) optimize for different things.

PDF is for layout -- it is actually more of a graphic format than a text format. Contiguous text may be scattered around in the internal data representation, so long as the location of each character on the page is expressed. This is good for tables, formulas, and other items requiring precise layout.

EBooks are for a smooth reading experience, including wrapping. This will naturally disrupt layout.

I think that with some technical effort, it is possible to build an eBook that flows -- while still allowing precise layout where needed.

</comment><comment><USER14> > _What was the matter with PDF?_

In a word, reflow.

<comment><USER15> Actually that's sort of the problem. Reflow can fucking destroy technical texts.

<comment><USER16> Epub apparently supports fixed-layout content (or so says wikipedia). I don't know if I've ever seen it done (although I haven't read many technical epubs).

<comment><USER17> Fixed-layout is supported via EPUB, but you need a reader that knows how to display the fixed-layout version. 99% of readers only display reflowable content.

What you really want to do is go with reflowable content that is formatted correctly (proper HTML/CSS), and if the content breaks across the page, changing the font size should help rectify.

(spoken from too many years of ebook + tech book experience)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I understand there are some formatting issues, but PDF's dont work well on smaller devices. In fact, I find they don't even work well on Laptops, since you need to scroll down each time to the bottom of a page. EBooks formats are better for both, they just require some formatting work before being published.

<comment><USER19> Perhaps this isn't a "smaller device", but I love PDFs on my iPad.

<comment><USER20> I want to second this. I use good reader on my iPad and absolutely love reading PDF on it. I was going to check out Readdle as well since that's been getting good reviews. The best part is that I have all my technical books categorized on my iPad which I always have with me so anytime I have a spare moment or wish I had "that" book with me, I now do!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Reading PDFs on my iPad results in pinching every single page to make the text somewhat readable. It is, frankly, exhausting.

<comment><USER22> Try Goodreader. It has a ton of other useful features, but among them is the ability to crop.

Cropping is applied to all pages in the document, so once you use the handles to eliminate excessive margins, you've got nothing but the text. I find it indispensable, to the point where I prefer reading PDFs on the iPad to reading them anywhere else.

<comment><USER23> Another big endorsement for GoodReader.

GoodReader's UI is a bit of a mess, but that's just a reflection of how many truly useful features it has. And the systematic elimination of margins - including the ability to handle left and right pages differently - <USER2> technical manuals and papers actually readable.

Not having GoodReader was easily one of the worst problems I faced when I switched to Android - there's just nothing like it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is one of the bigger reasons I got my iPad (Retina). I can read most PDF textbooks/documents in full screen portrait without any zooming or scrolling with ridiculous text clarity. No other device I have allows for this nearly as comfortably.

</comment><comment><USER25> I've had some terrible Kindle experiences as well. Textbooks on learning Chinese here there was no way to zoom in on the tiny intricate characters. Textbooks on learning Chinese where the lines of Chinese had placed incorrectly. Whoever did the translation treated them as images basically, and image support on Kindle is very poor, and in that one book they placed the "images" under the wrong phrases making it completely wrong. Amusingly these are also the books that disabled themselves after I updated my phone too many times, saying I'd exhausted my licensed downloads. So they were simultaneously the worst content translation I ever encountered and the most useless licensing for a developer who changes and reflashes phones constantly. I imagine technical books are similar, with code being treated as badly as Chinese.

</comment><comment><USER26> A4 PDFs work fine on a Kindle DX. That's what it was designed for. Regular Kindles are for reading novels.

</comment><comment><USER27> PDFs can work really well on ebook readers.

However, most PDFs don't work at all well on ebook readers.

If you make a monochrome PDF with minimal margins, with a sensible font size, for a 6 or 7" screen, it will be attractive and readable on a that screen. It can - if you do it right - have better wrapping, widow/orphan control, and fonts than a normal ebook, too. I have an old Sony Reader PRS-505. The screen's the same as a Kindle, but the processor is slow, and paginating its native format takes ages. Nonetheless, it can display PDFs very rapidly. Before I got a Kindle, I used to convert books from text into small PDFs, with attractive embedded fonts, and read them on the Sony that way.

However, if you try to read an A4 PDF, with two columns and massive margins, on a 7" screen, you're going to have a bad time.

The downside to using PDF is that you lose the ability to reflow. But that's the upside too, at least if you have complex content that's not amenable to reflowing; many technical books fit into this category.

</comment><comment><USER28> Is this a Kindle-specific problem? I actually just bought the same book in epub format for my Nook Color and I don't have any complaints yet.

Not sure if I have a higher tolerance for bad formatting or if the Kindle version has some formatting issues.

</comment><comment><USER29> With all the PDF tech books I read on my Kindle, I either have to read through a microscope, scroll the screen from left to right continously or hold the Kindle landscape meaning the buttons are in the wrong place.

<comment><USER4> You know that old joke? A patient says to the doctor, "it hurts when I do this", and the doctor replies: "so don't do that". Your 6" Kindle was not meant for reading PDF books, so don't complain when you're using it not what it was made for (reading novels).

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I sympathize with the sentiments regarding tech books in Kindle format. I try to buy all my tech books at O'Reilly since they usually will have each title available in multiple formats (PDF included).

</comment><comment><USER31> So if we do not need a self contained file, is html5 the answer?

<comment><USER32> There is a fundamental problem with viewports of unknown size: you as author cannot ensure that the way you want to represent your information is also rendered that way. For a novel or other basically sequential text that doesn't matter, but for a technical document with complex representations, it might be problematic. Long or wide tables are a common example, if headers aren't repeated they fast become a meaningless bunch of symbols. A graph whereby you cannot see essential features as the legend, axis, all typical points (like extrema), or the pattern described by the whole, probably makes it troublesome to support your argument you try to make in your text. And don't get me started on unique and more complex diagrams and infographics.

Zooming in and out just doesn't cut it.

Of course, you could write a different text with different diagrams for different viewport sizes, but besides spending more time writing your documents, it also becomes a referencing hell.

<comment><USER31> Tell me what you think of 'The Future of the Book' by IDEO: <http://vimeo.com/15142335>

<comment><USER32> Don't get me wrong, I like information rich interactive documents. I just think it is an illusion to think that these documents fit different (sized) devices without (extensive) editing. And there is nothing wrong with that as long as we are aware of that. The problem I currently see is that textbook writers (I work in education) write a textbook the traditional way and then digitize it poorly without any regard for the nature of the devices it is used on nor of modern information processing capabilities.

Or, stated differently, think about how information is represented best on different devices (device groups).

<comment><USER31> Perhaps I am far too naive on this subject, but I would have thought that it would be quite easy to algorithmically work out how best to present information on each device using different aspect ratios, colour levels and resolutions as variables to change em or % css values of elements, or even conditional css layouts.

<comment><USER32> With respect to a pure technically translation from one device to the other, you're absolutely right. The problem is in interpretation/representation/communication of information/ideas/knowledge.

For example, I've built an interactive computer simulation connected to a graphing component to enable students to explore rate of change. On a computer screen the simulation and graph are thus positioned that there is a direct link between what happens in the graph and in the simulation. It doesn't fit on a smartphone. I can (automatically) change the setup to put the graph after (below) the simulation, but if the student cannot see the graph and the simulation simultaneously, they miss out on the support for learning the concept of change in the original configuration.

Another example, I taught a course on regular expressions and that included a unit on deterministic finite automatons. For non-trivial examples these automatons aren't comprehensible on small screens. Zoom and pan doesn't work to get a picture of the whole. On the other hand, I can think of a simulation of an automaton that would give a better picture on a small screen how a particular automaton works by using a simplified track representing the whole and focusing on a local state and input to see the effect of connections in the track. However, this would mean two different approaches to learning automatons that aren't necessarily compatible, especially in an introductory course. Students will have different questions and problems with the different representations. They will construct different ideas about automatons that might make communicating in class about automatons troublesome as students don't understand each other while talking about the same thing. But it goes further than that, these representation will need different introductions, different exercises, maybe even a different structured learning trajectory to build a similar understanding of automatons.

<comment><USER31> Perhaps we need to invent different ways of displaying information when a lack of space is a given.

For example, with your interactive simulation, could the entities change colour or shape to show rate of change?

With your automatons, I would have thought it wise to try to separate the different groups and then step through each group. Understanding each group in order for me would be the best way to learn it than nitpicking at different parts of the whole system.

<comment><USER32> Certainly, it is similarly to mobile versions of websites: build the best representation for the device and situation and be aware of the differences and potential effects of these differences. I think that smartphones do offer great opportunities in education, not as the main information gateway, but as an auxiliary tool for students and teachers to interact with the content, each other, and the learning environment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Design and looks aside, I can read a PDF on my laptop, desktop, phone, and e-reader, on any OS. Why the hell would I want to use a format that only works on one device?

<comment><USER34> >>>I can read a PDF on my laptop, desktop, phone, and e-reader

When MobiPocket (the basis for Kindle format) and ePub were specced, the world looked like this:

>>>I can read a PDF on my laptop, desktop

Expensive hardware with powerful CPUs. Kindle/ePub were designed for weak CPUs that could basically handle text (K/ePub -- tarted-up text files) well. Back then, these were PDAs.

It's only been really recently -- with iPad 4 -- that monster PDFs, such as those from Google Books (scans of original book/magazine pages), can be read without wanting to toss the hardware against the wall.

<comment><USER35> That's because Google Books made a decision to use a feature of PDF (JPEG2000 image compression) that is better suited for higher powered devices. They could just as easily chose JPEG or Flate if they wanted.

Don't blame the format - blame the publisher!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I feel like a god damned idiot, but what the fuck is a guy to do if he wants to read PDF files on an e-reader? They look like dogshit on Kindles. Thing is, I have a ton of them. Most of them somewhat obscure/can't be found in other formats.

I might be talking nonsense here, but I swear there is a niche market for some kind of affordable (<$100) tablet specifically designed for PDFs.

<comment><USER34> >>>I might be talking nonsense here, but I swear there is a niche market for some kind of affordable (<$100) tablet specifically designed for PDFs.

What would differentiate the hardware from current tablets to make that price possible?

And then what kind of PDF do you mean? Something squirted from a word processing/page-layout file that permits reflow or a collection of image scans (see Google Books) that are static? It's not that easy.

<comment><USER36> Less memory. Less research. It only has one job to do, etc. No extra bullshit.

I know I'm being ridiculous. I'm just bummed that I can't read some of these really awesome books with the same leisure that I can a Kindle book or a physical book. First world problems, etc. I have to get over being phenomenologically appalled at the idea of reading a book in the same space I read message boards. There's a weird mental block there.

<comment><USER34> Less memory? I don't know about that. There are some Google Book PDF scans of early 20th-century magazines that are close to 1GB in size. It's been my experience that even a good tablet doesn't keep more than 3-5 of these scanned PDF pages all rendered and ready to read if you want to switch back and forth between a bunch of pages.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I don't know about any of the more modern Kindles (or equivalent) but my girl friend's Kindle can't handle PDFs very well either. She reads a lot of scientific journals, which seem to usually be written in columns, and the Kindle gives you the option of either seeing the left column and the left half of the right one, or just the right hand half of the right.

</comment><comment><USER38> This is the only reason I don't own an ebook reader yet. All the books I've read over the past few years are technical books. If I'm going to read rather tough material, I at least want the design/formatting to assist me in taking in the content.

Ebooks eliminate any typographical support (good) books can deliver.

</comment><comment><USER39> > I mean, who gives a shit about some nerds when you're moving bazillions of > copies of books that help teens or moms explore new facets of their > sexuality?

Can we have this conversation without resorting to highly gendered stereotypes for trivial-media-that-I'm-not-interested-in examples?

<comment><USER34> That wasn't stereotyping. He was making an allusion to Fifty Shades of Grey.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I'm really hoping Knuth doesn't discover how bad his books look in their Kindle editions, he's already had to fix this problem once... <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX#History>

</comment><comment><USER41> I like PDF's on my nexus 7.

</comment><comment><USER42> As a journalist who spent a large part of my career converting masses of PDFs (not the scanned kind, though of course those were also problematic) into parseable text, I'd say the problem was what seemed like a total black box of document composition. A simple tabular text PDF that was generated through some bespoke software package could result in a stupefying variety of text outputs, whether through third-party services like CometDocs or good ol' xpdf. At least with HTML documents, an XML element is an XML element.

Of course, HTML presents the same stupefying array of possibilities, except in the form of visual output...which is why I guess we needed PDF in the first place.</comment>


The Cookie Cutter Guide to Charting in the App Store - <AUTHOR> http://www.taptaptap.com/blog/the-cookie-cutter-guide-to-charting-in-the-app-store/

<comment><USER2> Aside from the preachy tone, practical advice on iPhone marketing - send out a sexy rich HTML email the morning after your app is released to your targeted mailing list that tastefully showcases your brand new iPhone app with the all- important 'Available on the iPhone App Store' badge.

Not explicitly mentioned in the linked article is that the more gorgeous and _non cookie-cutter_ your app's UI is, the better a chance it has of breaking through into the top charts. How else to differentiate your app from the standard UITableView/UITabBar drones out there? The best looking iPhone apps combine good looks with focused functionality.

Weightbot

<http://tapbots.com/weightbot/>

Note: I've bought the MacHeist bundle before and I did recall getting the Voices launch email blast (and GMail search confirms) so I assume it was sent to Tap Tap Tap's (600k strong?!) mailing list only.

<comment><AUTHOR> The TapTapTap email was sent out to MacHeist's email list. When purchasing a bundle, you can specify if you don't want to be part of the list, but by default, you are: <http://grab.by/1n8R>.

I've worked on some MacHeist developer relations projects before, and one of the benefits is the massive email list. Dan Grover, the developer of ShoveBox, participated in one of the bundles recently, and sums up his feelings in this comment: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=945891>.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What "groupware" solution for a startup? - <AUTHOR>

Hey everyone.
I'm curious what startups are using to manage their emails, calendars, files and the like. Basically, a typical groupware setup.
I've used Google Apps in the past, but I'm more in the business of self hosting my data these days. Post PRISM, and being a non American, you get the idea.
So, what does everyone use?
I'm leaning towards Kolab[0] or possibly Zimbra[1]. The former is interesting due to being fully FOSS rather than the not-really-open-source license of Zimbra, but the latter seems more polished. And $840 for a perpetual starter license isn't bad, if it works well that is.
My biggest thing is that it needs to be able to sync to a range of devices, from Android to iphone, to BlackBerry if needed.
Thoughts and opinions? What does your startup use?

  [0] http://kolab.org/
  [1] http://www.zimbra.com/
 <comment><USER2> The few people I know who aren't on Google Apps use Citadel [http://www.citadel.org/](http://www.citadel.org/). I've only heard good things, but can't attest to it myself.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah Citadel, I saw that pop up. I might fire it up in a VM and have a play,cheers!

<comment><USER2> Awesome. Can you report back how it works for you - I'm curious for similar reasons.. and the friends using it aren't exactly exacting.

<comment><AUTHOR> Will do mate, I'm going to fire them all up in a VM over the weekend and see what they're like. I'm most excited about Kolab to be honest :)

Send me an email so I've got yours: mines in my profile</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How to accept bitcoin donations on your website - <AUTHOR> http://blog.coinbase.com/post/41907755756/allowing-custom-donation-amounts

<comment><USER2> Hello HN community, I'm just curious about the rise of this new BitCoin currency. I'm currently developing an Saas product myself, so I'm actually torn between choosing various currency processors/vendors.

Can someone explain as to

1) Why and when one should use BitCoin?

2) What advantages does BitCoin have over traditional payment processors like PayPal/Stripe?

3) Is there any legal downside of using BitCoin? (For example, I read somewhere that Bitcoins are used for Money Laundering and the governments are actively monitoring anyone using BitCoins)

4) How much do you save (if at all) by going with BitCoin instead of someone popular like PayPal/Stripe?

Thanks!

<comment><USER3> Unless you've got a userbase that are significant users of bitcoin (which I'm guessing is unlikely for most SaaS) I wouldn't worry about supporting it. Wait until you have active demand from your userbase before adding another payment mechanism especially one which essentially gives you a huge amount of forex risk.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the clarification :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Well... I know I might sound a bit rude, but why use coinbase instead of just putting your Bitcoin address online?

<comment><USER5> Probably to reduce some friction from the process. They also don't charge a transaction fee(as noted in another comment), so i could see myself using this on my site.

Of course a much useful service would be something like flattr. IIRC, There was some talk about them starting to accept bitcoins but i haven't heard about that lately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> For those wondering to accept Bitcoin or not, the price of Bitcoin has been bullish the past few weeks.

[http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg90zig6-hourztgSzm...](http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg90zig6-hourztgSzm1g10zm2g25zvzps)

<comment><USER7> What does that have to do with accepting anonymous donations?

Presumably accepting donations in bitcoins can only be beneficial. Accepting payments may or may not be a different story.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I requested the adjustable donation feature yesterday, thanks! Here is an example of it in action: <https://chatsecure.org>

One thing I noticed is that very rarely the button image doesn't load and is replaced by a default Bootstrap navigation bar inside the button frame instead. Might be something to investigate.

</comment><comment><USER9> This could be really cool for this post from earlier today: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5141995>

</comment><comment><USER10> Very neat. Is there a demo site of this someplace, outside of the screenshots? Do coinbase still charge a fee?

<comment><AUTHOR> Demo: <https://coinbase.com/docs/merchant_tools/payment_buttons>

We charge 1% when you buy or sell bitcoin (by connecting any U.S. bank account). Sending BTC-to-BTC is free (we pay the minimal bitcoin fees on your behalf).

We also released a nice API: <https://github.com/coinbase/coinbase-ruby>

<comment><USER11> So there's no fee when a customer buys something from a merchant with bitcoin using the coinbase API?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> awesome feature</comment>


N. Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16239693 <comment><USER2> I've lived in South Korea for two years and this is the most I've ever heard people talk about Kim Jong Il or North Korea. Even the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010 didn't generate this much talk. This is also the first time I've ever heard anyone tell a joke about North Korea. People are telling jokes in the street right now.

<comment><USER3> What's an example of the kind of jokes South Koreans tell about Kim?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _"died on Saturday of physical and mental over-work."_ His propaganda machine is still alive and well.

<comment><USER5> This is something of a trope. In Imperial China the death of an emperor was often ascribed to "積勞成疾", which literally translates to "illness from accumulated labor".

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is there an algorithmic reason this post isn't higher on the front page? It has more upvotes and is newer than everything but 1 or 2 things ahead of it. Here's a screenshot: [http://dl.dropbox.com/u/397675/Screen%20Shot%202011-12-18%20...](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/397675/Screen%20Shot%202011-12-18%20at%2011.43.04%20PM.png)

<comment><USER7> I bet it has many flags

<comment><USER8> That sounds likely to me. Part of the guidelines say "No current events", which probably led to people flagging it. I'd rather not comment on the story's appropriateness, but I'm pretty sure that's why.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Talk about good timing.

With the political climate of change in afrika and middle east, this might be a great reason for the goverment to tear itself apart as various factions try to take over 'in the name of the people'

We do live in exciting times

<comment><USER10> He's been grooming Kim Jong Un (his son) for quite a while now.

<comment><USER11> Kim Il Sung was his father.

Kim Jong Il's son Kim Jong Un is the annotated successor, though will be a puppet for a while, if he survives the next few days and weeks.

<comment><USER12> > _Kim Jong Il's son Kim Jong Un is the annotated successor_

I'm pretty sure you meant "anointed" there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is a big blow to <http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/>

<comment><USER14> <http://kimjongunlookingatthings.tumblr.com> is up and running though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Will be interesting to see if his son and chosen successor is able to retain power and persure a similar governing style. Seems like the perfect opportunity for change in North Korea.

</comment><comment><USER16> I wonder if his son's violent statements toward SK will turn into violent actions.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I think everyone will be watching closely to see where this goes.

This is a two-year-old article but it's pretty interesting to read: "North Korea After Kim Jong Il: Four Scenarios" [http://www.nps.edu/Academics/centers/ccc/publications/Online...](http://www.nps.edu/Academics/centers/ccc/publications/OnlineJournal/2009/Dec/vandermeerDec09.pdf)

<comment><USER11> A mixture of scenarios two and three have long been considered the most likely by many "informed" (a relative term for NK) observers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wonder if his son is prepared for the massive power play that will come from the military brass over the next few months.

<comment><USER11> Not likely. Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law was generally understood/guessed to be the one holding the reins of power in 2008 when Kim was ill then and will likely take firmer control again, even if its from behind the scenes, using Kim Jong Un as a figurehead for perhaps a decade. This is similar to what happened when Kim took over in 1994 after his father's death.

There isn't sufficient command & control capability or maneuverability for the NK military to take swift control of the country or perhaps even the capital, if the party apparatus (cadre, spies, police, informants) doesn't stand in its way.

<comment><USER17> I purposely chose "power play" over "coup d'etat" to allow for less sweeping changes. There will certainly be a push by the military for a greater share of power.

<comment><USER11> Looking at the released list of funeral mourners, this has already begun. A few surprises in the order, though it could be a ruse. Everything in NK is a ruse, tough to ever know anything for certain, even with 'educated' speculation. But its fun to try (if you are outside of NK). :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Saddam Hussein: dead at 69. Gaddafi: dead at 69. Kim Jong-Il: dead at 69.

How did Fidel Castro get out of this?

<comment><USER19> Climate in Cuba is way nicer than any of the other places.

<comment><USER20> Also, he's not an isolated international pariah whose own people want to kill him, just a thorn in the side of the US.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> How about a black banner, pg?

<comment><USER22> Some people have no sense of humour.

<comment><USER23> One for Vaclav Havel would have made sense though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> 2011 certainly is a disastrous year for Terrorists and Dictators around the world :)

</comment><comment><USER25> The surface will probably be quiet for a bit, while the internal political machine of the DPRK roils. There are certainly a lot of possibilities (both good or bad) that can happen depending on who actually takes over control. Even if the regime collapsed non-violently, the ensuing chaotic human crisis would still be immense. My belief is that it will continue largely unchanged for the short to mid term.

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm patiently waiting for the submissions about Angelina Jolie.

<comment><USER26> here it comes: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3368478>

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Another article that shows HN turned into a regular American newspaper.

<comment><USER15> Hardly, HN only covers world events with real global significance. I enjoy reading HN users takes on this kind of news as I find it interesting to discuss this kind of news but comments on mainstream news sites are terrible and I don't really have the time to invest in other sites with quality comments who cover this stuff in far higher volume.

<comment><USER26> Would you like to have a hacker community having smart conversations about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, too?

<comment><USER27> Why not, if there is something smart to discuss about them, something gratifying our intellectual curiosity[1]. I vaguely remember even pg referring to Lady Gaga as hacker in clothes space in (I think) Hackers&Painters (anyone have the reference? I can't seem to find it :/).

[1] - <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> After his death, Kim Il-sung was declared the country's Eternal President.

Could it be possible to take control of North Korea by getting a plant in there, killing Kim II Sung and his family and then using his power to work behind the signs and use the totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship to morph the country into a free capitalistic republic? Sounds like something the special forces could do in a few weeks, it just has to be a surprise so the military doesn't get a chance to respond.

Not doing anything seems cruel and unusual punishment. We may be born there in your next lives, wouldn't you want someone to do something about it?

<comment><USER29> > Sounds like something the special forces could do in a few weeks, it just > has to be a surprise so the military doesn't get a chance to respond.

Right, because surprising nutjobs with nukes is a great idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Thank god.

<comment><USER4> You'd think god would have done something sooner.

EDIT: This joke going over a few heads?

<comment><USER30> God doesn't exist: it's simply an interjection. One that expresses my gladness over the death of someone who is legitimately an evil person.

<comment><USER31> I see what you did there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> North Korean Authorities suspect Fair Play.

</comment><comment><USER31> Please can we have two HNs.</comment>


Bower Packages – search bower components instantly - <AUTHOR> http://fahad19.github.io/BowerPackages/#?q=web-components

<comment><USER2> Like it! Good deal faster than the other one here [http://sindresorhus.com/bower-components/](http://sindresorhus.com/bower- components/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Using the same URL for fetching list of packages though. The main reason of rebuilding it was because of sharing searched results with team members as URLs.</comment></comment>


Show HN: The webworkers driven UI framework: neo.mjs v1.2.0 release announcement - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@tobiasuhlig/the-webworkers-driven-ui-framework-neo-mjs-v1-2-0-release-announcement-a811ebe47252 <comment><USER2> I've been a huge fan of webworkers in theory, but I've hated implementing them. The (until recent) lack of module support was one problem, but just getting it all set up, talking to the main thread, etc—it was all so daunting. This looks promising, though!

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha, I know the feeling. Rich & I started with the workers implementation back in 2015. No console errors ;)

What was a huge help is the remotes API (remote method access).

example: [https://github.com/neomjs/neo/blob/dev/src/main/addon/Styles...](https://github.com/neomjs/neo/blob/dev/src/main/addon/Stylesheet.mjs#L25)

createStyleSheet() is defined inside this class which (optionally) runs inside the main thread and is exposed as a remote method to the App worker.

Now, when you are working inside the App worker scope, you can simply use it as a promise:

Neo.main.addons.Stylesheet.createStyleSheet(opts).then(data) { // do something }

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Quick heads up, just updated:

[https://github.com/neomjs/workspace](https://github.com/neomjs/workspace)

So, in case "npx neo-app" does not work in your env, you can just clone the workspace and go from there.

Option 3 is to clone the neo.mjs repo, and use the create-app program.

</comment><comment><USER3> Have been following this budding framework for a bit now and finally got my first app up and running with a single command. I have to admit it was very simple to get going, now to dive into the docs and see what's under the hood!</comment>


'It's medieval': why some cows are still living most of their lives tied up - cirrus-clouds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/08/its-medieval-why-some-cows-are-still-living-most-of-their-lives-tied-up <comment><AUTHOR> that's horrifically barbaric.

also not sure why its on HN</comment>


The TED Conference - bra-ket http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2010/09/08/134-the-ted-conference/

<comment><AUTHOR> I like it when I recognize all informations of the person I'm discussing with is coming from a TED talk that I already watched. (In certain field)</comment>


Mars Rover Heads Uphill After Solving 'Doughnut' Riddle - <AUTHOR> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/m/news/news.php?release=2014-051

<comment><USER2> Article detailing the actions of engineers Jack Beverlin and Bill McClure:

[http://www.508pir.org/pdf_files/mcclure_nasa.pdf](http://www.508pir.org/pdf_files/mcclure_nasa.pdf)

<comment><USER3> And a non-PDF resource:

[http://www.universetoday.com/100177/the-mars-spacecraft- that...](http://www.universetoday.com/100177/the-mars-spacecraft-that-was- almost-destroyed/)

You know, that's the first story I've heard of the Atlas "balloon tank" being a problem. The tank skin was less than 0.5mm thick, and the whole thing was held up by internal pressure. 5 PSI minimum, all the time. They were quite strong if you didn't screw up--but something will always screw up eventually, I guess. Apparently at least one other launch vehicle was lost to under- pressurization, an Atlas-Agena, but it was during testing and only had a dummy payload.

New Atlas V (which isn't much related to the old Atlas) is self supporting, so this isn't a problem there. But the Centaur upper stage, which is widely used for planetary work and GEO insertion, is still a balloon tank, though I don't know of any mishaps with it.

The old Atlas was a weird bird in other ways, too. It had "1 and one half" stages, because they didn't know if you could start a rocket engine in space. It had two vernier engines that ran the whole time. And they invented WD-40 so they could slather the whole thing in anti-corrosive, even though it was stainless steel, because the skin was too thin to allow any hint of corrosion.

Closing the valves on a fueled and deflating Atlas indeed sounds like conspicuous bravery to me. The era of "steely-eyed missile men" indeed.

<comment><USER4> A nuclear warhead tipped Titan II ballistic missle blew up in its silo in 1980 after a maintenance crewman dropped a wrench and punctured the tank causing fuel to leak out.

The tank depressurised and the missile came close to collapsing because the tank could not support its weight. Eventually the fuel ignited and the whole stack went up. Fortunately the warhead didn't go off. The really chilling bit is that it easily could have.

The story is told in the book "Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety" by Eric Schlosser. This should be required reading for all engineers, a textbook on how complex systems can go wrong.

If the book does not scare the shit out of you regarding the apalling standards of nuclear warhead engineering then you may not have a pulse.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does this mean "scientist" Rhawn Joseph will drop his frivolous petition demanding NASA to investigate this as a biological organism [1,2]?

[1] [http://www.universetoday.com/108733/some-ideas-on-where- the-...](http://www.universetoday.com/108733/some-ideas-on-where-the-jelly- donut-rock-on-mars-came-from-and-no-its-not-a-mushroom/)

[2] [http://www.ibtimes.com/alien-life-lawsuit-rhawn-joseph- claim...](http://www.ibtimes.com/alien-life-lawsuit-rhawn-joseph-claims-nasa- involved-cover-over-mars-jelly-doughnut-rock-1550692)</comment>


Factorus--automated refactoring in Vim (no IDE necessary) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/apalmer1377/factorus <comment><AUTHOR> Hi all,

I work with Java a lot, and one of the major complaints I (and apparently many others) have with Vim is that it has no support for refactoring. To that end, I've written a plugin that allows for renaming arguments, methods, fields, and classes, as well as a function for automated method extraction. I'd like to expand the functionality to other languages and other refactoring tools, but my selection of test files is obviously limited. Try it out, and if you like it feel free to provide feedback on how you think it could be improved.

Cheers!</comment>


Ask HN: What should I do with this web app I built? - <AUTHOR>

For the past two years, while at a full time job, I spent my free time building List Central (http://listcentral.me). Essentially it is a social network for lists and list lovers.
My motivation in building LC was both a desire to improve my abilities as a web developer, and a to dream to build an application that people use, and hopefully brings in some money.
While I was building this, the economy fell apart and now it is obviously clear that advertising as a business model is undependable at best, but given what users are accustomed to getting for free now, I can't imagine charging for List Central.
I now find myself with this app that I think is pretty neat, and I find useful, but I'm not sure what to do with it. I would love to get it out there, and see people use and enjoy it, but I am hesitant to invest much effort and/or funds into promotion due to it's lack of a sound business model.
I ask you HN, what would you do with List Central if you were in my place? <comment><USER2> How much time does it take to manage? I can't imagine it's too demanding if the lists are user-generated. I say keep it...it could be that if the site gets a food sized following, you might be able to make a fair amount from advertising. I have a friend who runs a site with scraped news articles and a forum, and he's making $80K a year on ads alone. Of course it took 10 years to get to that point, but he didn't have to touch the site more than an hour or two each month.

<comment><AUTHOR> I would love it if LC could be a 80K/year site in 10 years!

I'm expecting there to be considerable effort involved in user acquisition, which is an area I'm not terribly experience with. If anyone has advice in this arena, I'm all ears!

<comment><USER3> The quickest way is to buy interested eyeballs (adwords or some other route). You can set you budget for the month and grow the budget as the user base and advertising revenue grows. But if you want to see astronomical growth, you have to have a compelling reason for people to refer you via word of mouth. As well posting to aggregators like this is not a bad way to get people to take a look. Just don't get too spammy with it and by all means don't violate other sites terms of use trying to get your name out there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://listcentral.me></comment>


Has Mozilla Lost Its Values? - <AUTHOR> http://www.iab.net/iablog/2013/07/has-mozilla-lost-its-values.html

<comment><USER2> Cry me a river.

> All-or-nothing proclamations

They are merely changing the default. Sites can always request users to enable it. How is it all or nothing?

> Third-party cookies are an essential part of the Internet content supply > chain

Citation needed.

> Mozilla's active, prominent promotion of Adblock Plus suggests a value > system hostile to advertising and the businesses and people dependent on it.

Active? Prominent? It really is the most popular add-on. Why do you expect mozilla to favor you against the express will of their users?

> Last July, for example, she said, "Whatever standard the W3C produces will > put a number of third parties out of business, but that is okay because that > will be a good day for privacy."

I see nothing wrong with that. Businesses don't have a right of survival. Users do have a right to privacy.

> Mozilla or the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, which appear to be > those of elitist organizations that hide under the shield of populism to > make value judgments about who is worthy of earning a living in the digital > age.

That's how you want them to look like. It's not about your right to make money. It's about users' default expectation of not being tracked.

I couldn't read the rest of the post considering such fundamental disagreements.

</comment><comment><USER3> > Third-party cookies are an essential part of the Internet content supply > chain

That's funny. Almost hilarious. I use AdBlock Plus all the time and have not noticed anything wrong with my content supply.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've been using an ad blocker for years. Sometimes when it has a false positive I have to disable it and refresh the page to see what went wrong. It is during these brief moments that I realize how much I would've hated the web if it wasn't for the ad blocker.

Distracting, bandwidth gobbling and CPU consuming ads. Not to mention annoying video ads on various sites (such as YouTube). Thank Jebus for AdMuncher!

Statistics for Ad Muncher v4.93.33707/4774 Adverts removed: 2,070,652 Bandwidth saved: 60,959 MB Counter started: March 26, 2010</comment>