Show HN: sdees – serverless decentralized editing of encrypted stuff - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/schollz/sdees <comment><USER2> Friend of mine is working on Cryptpad [1] which is encrypted collaborative web editor. There are multiple connection modes, most common websockets relay server but he is also working on WebRTC transport.

Everything is modular so you can create encrypted applications as you see fit by changing transport, storage, crypto and frontend.See for example [3].

In case of using a relay server the content is encrypted so the server doesn't know what the content is.

The source is open on AGPL license.

\---

[1]: [https://beta.cryptpad.fr](https://beta.cryptpad.fr)

[2]: [https://github.com/xwiki-labs/cryptpad/](https://github.com/xwiki- labs/cryptpad/)

[3]: [https://beta.cryptpad.fr/poll/#173f2db91c58169a22a005ebb85c2...](https://beta.cryptpad.fr/poll/#173f2db91c58169a22a005ebb85c2377SLzcS+YkTZUkoXYpftGVvzVC)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for sharing this. I had an old hackathon project that seemed cool but didn't really have a good application (essentially, end-to-end encrypted Socket.IO implemented on top of Keybase filesystem: [https://github.com/lgessler/kbrpc](https://github.com/lgessler/kbrpc)). Maybe I'll try to get it to work with Cryptpad.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How is this serverless when there is a server called remote in the example?

Am I the only one around here? [http://i3.kym- cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/010/856/4fc...](http://i3.kym- cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/010/856/4fcdf2e118613355b500ba5d.jpg)

<comment><USER5> As much as it pains me to say it, that ship sailed around the time AWS Lambda was announced. "Serverless" now means "a server you don't need to think about".

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Almost buzzword compliant, just missing the "written in Go".

<comment><USER6> I thought it's Lisp week?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Amusing to see a comment mention 14 work factor and the code is 12 rounds.

Code and comments get out of sync so quickly.

Out of interest, why the static salt in addition to bcrypt?

<comment><USER8> Not the author but if I had to take a guess I'd say they might have been trying to pepper the hash: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_(cryptography)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_\(cryptography\)).

It's not particularly useful here since if someone got access to your remote encrypted file and knew it was made with sdees, the pepper is public. However if the value was configurable by the user then it could provide an extra layer of protection against someone brute forcing the hash and getting your password.

A better approach would be to not store a hash of the password at all. The author uses it to check that the user supplied the correct password when attempting decryption - instead you can decrypt the file using whatever password the user provides (getting either correct or garbage output back), and check for a magic value in the output.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I will do that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why not use GPG directly? I get the wish to not add more binary dependencies, but the recent couple of issues with Go's math and crypto libraries doesn't fill me with confidence. Not to mention that there's no real benefit to adding your own wrappers around the crypto primitives when GPG already exists.

<comment><AUTHOR> Initially I did. However, I tend to use lots of Windows computers, so I really wanted something where I didn't have to install Cygwin+GPG+rsync each time.

The Windows release also bundles vim into the binary so you don't even have to have vim installed if you're using Windows!

<comment><USER10> And as a Windows user I thank you.

<comment><USER11> I had the same need, so I created a zero-install, client-side encrypted, browser-based editor using SJCL+CodeMirror in Vim mode: [https://github.com/srpeck/encryptedgist](https://github.com/srpeck/encryptedgist)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > "The remote computer is used only for file storage and does not require any > server-side code."

And thats serverless?

<comment><USER7> You're wondering what serverless means while I'm trying to work how how a central file-store is "decentralized".

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> (In .vimrc) set cryptmethod=blowfish2

vim -x scp://.../...

<comment><USER14> I was excited for a moment. Then found out neovim doesn't support -x. And this is why: [https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/694](https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/694) (tldr; vim encryption is unsecure and thus removed from neovim for the time being). Would have been nice, though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> In emacs, one could use TRAMP and EasyPG Assistant:

        C-x C-f /rsync:user@host:/path/to/file

One could of course also configure stuff such that one could type quite a bit less.

</comment><comment><USER16> This is cool. I have been planning encrypting my personal data, but didn't realize the process of timestamping was this difficult.

Glad I found the solution with the problem.

</comment><comment><USER17> Nice. Slightly disappointed that the file being edited in the demo wasn't called "nuts" ([https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schollz/sdees/master/brand...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schollz/sdees/master/branding/help2.gif))

</comment><comment><USER18> i was expecting something using IPFS :D

<comment><USER19> Yes, or something like syncthing

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Please stop using the term serverless, it may be decentralised but it is not serverless, so if you mean decentralised please use that term instead.

</comment><comment><USER21> How is this "serverless"? Quite clearly I have to configure a remote...</comment>


Ask HN: Did you know Real Genius is on Netflix? - <AUTHOR> If it's been there more than a day, the suggestions algorithm is garbage. <comment><USER2> I did not know that, so thanks for the heads-up. That is totally worth watching again!</comment>


Boeing unveils its brand new 777X airplane - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/boeing-777x-what-you-need-to-know/ <comment><USER2> There's a tradeoff between passengers and fuel - the quoted range with a standard passenger load is not the maximum range.

E.g. the 777-8 has a range of 16,090 km (8690 nmi) with 365 passengers, but the business jet variant (BBJ 777-8) has a range of 21,570 km (11,645 nmi).

We are so close to airliners that can fly non-stop between any two major cities on Earth. Not sure I'd want to do 20+ hour flights, but amazing that we will be able to soon.

</comment><comment><USER3> > A second, no-less-impressive but smaller model will follow. The 777-8 <..> > Covering 8,700 nautical miles, <..>, the plane is Boeing's challenger to the > Airbus A350ULR's crown as the world's longest-range airplane.

IIRC A350ULR can get you all the way from Auckland to Istanbul, Warsaw or even Copenhagen. 777-8's 8700nm gets you to Moscow at most - none of the European flight hubs (that I know of).

</comment><comment><USER4> Does it run on Ada?</comment>


Leaving a local optima takes every ounce of our resolve - <AUTHOR> http://www.victusspiritus.com/2009/11/04/leaving-a-local-optima-takes-every-ounce-of-our-resolve/ <comment><USER3> Warning - rant ahead. However, I believe I'm making a valid point. Feel free to down-mod me if you believe this is of no value, but if you think I'm wrong, I would appreciate hearing your point of view.

Open rant:

The singular is "optimum" - "optima" is plural.

I know this sounds like I'm just being a grammar nazi, but perceptions matter. If someone comes to your web site and their first impression is noise, disorganisation, garish colors, etc., then they will go away, and quickly, and find your competitors, even if they aren't as good.

When you work with people, some of them will wince every time you write "your" when you mean "you are", or "loose" when you mean "lose", or use "optima" as if it's singular.

A while ago (I've spent 10 minutes searching - can't find it - <USER2> appreciated) someone submitted the article about Joshua Bell playing at a train station - and, in essence, no one listened. The "frame" was all wrong.

If your writing is littered with errors, a large number of people won't listen to you, even if what you say is of great value.

This is especially harsh if you're writing in a second, or even third, language, but the point remains. Please, when writing for publication, take the time to proof-read and correct, and get someone else to read with a critical eye.

It's worth it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I did indeed mix the plural/singular. Really appreciate the feedback (certainly this well thought out and reasoned comment).

My grammar can be atrocious at times. I am getting a little better with time. But with daily blogging, I generally am not as careful (proof read only once when I can make the time for it).

I don't want to scare off people with potentially incredible feedback with poor grammar. This will force me to improve if nothing else.

Post corrected! That will teach me to try blogging at 4am from bed so that I could drop my fiancé off at work by 6:20, and still get to work by 7. Trying to get out by 2:30 so I can meet back up with my better half and catch up with Fred Wilson at his Donor's Choose gathering in Manhattan later.

<comment><USER3> I know what it's like to be busy, I know what it's like to be rushed, and to produce thoughts while you have them, but without the time to mull over and polish them. I appreciate the post, it's resonating with my life at the moment, and I wanted it not to turn people off before they read it.

Kudos for responding.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: In my situation, how good would it to work on oDesk? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a pretty good frontend developer with almost 8 years of experience although most of it was as a freelance.
Right now I'm working at a web agency making  US$10000/year (a bit below the market locally but it'd be hard to find another job in the area from what I've seen due to my lack of a CS degree).
The late hours and unrealistic deadlines are starting to wear on me, specially considering most of what I make disappears after a couple of months because it's basically advertising. I wouldn't mind working late if my work had even a bit of meaning.
I'd love to work remotely but I haven't had much luck sending resumes (maybe because I don't live in the US or my portfolio is lacking due to the vanishing nature of my work). My major weakness is that I haven't used Backbone and Angular which are very prominent in most frontend job postings around here and other sites. I really want to learn how to use them but I don't have time due to the aforementioned agency job.
I have read a bit about oDesk and while most people have bad experiences I feel that maybe it would be the best way to escape the agency grind. But maybe I would be sacrificing my job security (I need to pay rent after all) for nothing.
I feel lost and a bit disheartened and I'd really appreciate any advice you may have. <comment><USER2> > US$10000/year

Where you from? That seems VERY low, even for Asia. Have you any portfolio? When you say frontend, do you mean CSS/HTML or photoshop/graphics? Are you familiar with Grid systems / bootstrap / foundation / responsive design?

<comment><USER3> Maybe he meant 100k/year? That would be below market in the US for a web dev with 8 years experience. Lack of degree is pretty meaningless if you can actually code. I'd happily hire him full time for a full year just helping with games and fun web projects of my own for $10k/year, lol. On eLance I end up paying more like $5k a month for an active project for a single developer.

<comment><AUTHOR> I wish it was 100k. :) But no, just 10k/y.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> IME odesk/elance rates are half what you can get in person...and some of those in person jobs just amount to meeting the client once a week

<comment><AUTHOR> That's discouraging but thanks for posting.

EDIT: I was thinking, maybe it's not worth it at your income level but maybe for mine it wouldn't be so bad? Maybe I'm grabbing at straws.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to get out of a startup cleanly to start a startup? - <AUTHOR>

Wow, this will be hard to sum up, but bear with me: I currently have 45% ownership of an unincorporated canadian startup. The business is as follows:
We started a web hosting company that resells shared hosting. Our costs are simply server rental fees, advertising and support agents who reply to emails. We've been profitable since day 1 and make a respectable living (roughly 100k per year profits to split between the two of us)
Last summer, we bought out another hosting company that doubled our income and our profit at a really good price. (paid roughly 60k)
On the side, we have a third website where we get client contracts sporadically to provide us extra income.
I want to get out of this and start my own startup, hopefully with the help of YC. I haven't been working there anymore for the past 2 months except to tie up my current projects.
How do you go about valuating such a venture? My partner tells me that the best way to estimate a hosting company's value is to look at the income without expenses over one year.
For the dev company, my partner says that since none of it is recurring income, it has no value above and beyond the accounts receivable for current projects.
I've been working on this for 2.5 years and I feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick if I get nothing but 70k for my half, given that we bought that second company who was the same size as ours initially at 60k and it was way undervalued. If I accept this offer, I'll definitely have money to sustain me at least for a year while I work on my startup. Should I strive for more or just take what I can get? Am I being greedy? <comment><USER3> There's no ironclad rule of valuation, but a normal way to go about this would be to set the whole company valuation at N x forward revenue, where N is a function of how much value is locked up in the company due to its youth and lack of sales, marketing, and distribution.

Two benchmarks:

A solid services company sells for 1.5-2x forward revenue; a services company making $5MM a year might be valued at around $10MM.

A solid product company with a really bright future might sell for 5x revenue; a product company making $5MM might be valued at $25MM.

You're definitely more towards the "services" side of this spectrum: you're an IT services company (with a productized IT service) in a totally commoditized market segment.

You don't have a "right to liquidity". Your partner is within her rights to give you no money, allow you to maintain an equity stake in the company should it ever be sold, hire someone to take your place, and pay them out of the operating budget for the company.

You also don't usually value a stake in (what is now) a 2 person company at 50%; a more typical structure would reserve a large chunk of the company ownership for employees, rather than diluting and restructuring with every hire.

So, if you have 40% margins --- ie, you're more efficient than Rackspace --- you're aiming to gross ~400k in the next 12 months. Do the math, then discount _heavily_ because nobody is actually buying you, and your partner is taking all the risk.

For the business you're talking about, less the value you brought to the table (presumably 50% of all the work), 70k sounds like a great deal.

</comment><comment><USER4> Talk to the experts in the field -- that is, experts in the field of web hosting, not experts in the field of startups. I'm sure people over at webhostingtalk.com will have a much better idea of what your company is worth than anyone here.

<comment><USER5> Maybe try to see what a a comparable hosting company costs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> why don't you use your ownership income to hire someone to replace you? that way, you won't have to sell your stake at a price you don't like, someone can still be doing the necessary work you won't be doing, and you'll still have a passive income stream.

just my uninformed $0.02.

<comment><USER7> He'd still have to be active on the board, and make sure his partner doesn't run the business into the ground.. e.g. by hiring someone to do his job, and go live of his passive income stream :)

<comment><USER6> while true it wouldn't be a clean break, he'll still have a lot less responsibilities with free time to work on the new project

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Trying to get as much money as you possibly can fits the definition of greed, but that really doesn't matter. You want to get as much money as you can without feeling guilty.

There are different ways to determine the worth of a hosting company. One way is to look at revenues + growth in revenues + number of customers - risks. Another way is to look at the amount of money you'll get if you were to sell, minus the effort needed to sell.

Hosting companies are worth very little when you sell them. You experienced this yourself when you bought a competitor for 60k. So by comparing the revenues + health of that company with the merged company, and you'll get a reasonable valuation. I've seen hosting companies get sold for less than $30 per customer, so the number you'll get at is going to disappoint.

If your hosting company is still growing quickly you have to make an estimate of the value of the company in a couple of years, and your total contribution to that. Since hosting companies that grow too quickly always destroy themselves growth is bad indicator of value.

The bottom line - hosting companies don't create much value and the little value they have is decimated when sold. You don't have any IP to speak of, and it's a high-maintenance environment (unless you outsource everything, but the hosting companies I know still had to deal with all difficult issues themselves). Your partner also has to find somebody else to take your place (I assume), which can cost up to a year's salary easily. All in all, your partner isn't getting a great deal here either.

As the saying goes - if both parties are unhappy the deal is fair. And that's what it looks like from here.

Postscript:

\- once you leave, your partner cannot leave anymore. He can't just walk away with 70k. He might not want to leave, but knowing that leaving isn't really an option can be depressing.

\- most hosting companies go kaput within the first 5 or so years. I haven't looked at the data since I left the scene, but chances are your company will be gone in 3 years. You didn't mention any problems in the OP, so I take it's all sunshine now. However, if you're leaving (partially) because of burn-out (boredom) then burn-out is probably not far behind for your partner. In that case, you'll get 45% of 150k, and he'll end up with 100% of nothing + a total burn out.

\- if the person your partner hires to replace you doesn't work out - <USER2> above. Big risk for him there too.

\- in his position, how would you feel about your partner leaving and having to pay him 70k? Would you gladly give him 110k (or whatever amount you had in mind)?

</comment><comment><USER7> I read somewhere that a reasonable measure it to consider the invenstment. If you were to buy your share, you'd have to put $X down to get a return of 45%*profit(not salaries)/year. Calculate backwards to get the interest rate on various down payments, and see what makes sense.

Considering that the 100k is profit and not your salaries, the share's profit is $45.000:

$100.000 = 45% interest rate .. a little too nice!

$1.000.000 = 4.5% interest, keep your money in the bank

$300.000 = 15% interest - pretty sweet spot.

Back-of-the-envelope, I'm niether an accountant or an auditor.

<comment><USER3> I want your bank. Where do I sign up for a 4.5+% account?

<comment><USER7> It's 6.25%, actually.

<http://www.danskebank.dk/Dansketoprente>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I would try to sell 60-70% of my share and use the remaining bit to outsource the work in maintaining the work I was doing, then sit on the $1-2k coming in every month as a safety net to pay the bills and give me the full purchasing price to invest in my start up (though I'd advise investing much less to keep your start up honest)

</comment><comment><USER10> 1) Agree on ownership (you own 45%?)

2) Your partner needs to start taking a salary - negotiate the amount.

3) Pay partner's salary directly from the profit, and then split the remaninder according to equity.

What's complicating matters is that you are splitting the company profit and avoiding salaries.

</comment><comment><USER11> Hello Edb,

I agree with noodle's comment(s) below. Your best bet is to hire someone to replace you and retain your stake in the company. The cost of an employee will definitely reduce your annual income, but then you won't have to worry about being cheated out of your share of the company's value.

</comment><comment><USER12> You should consider having your business audited and valued - a valuation could be as high as 4-5 x EBIT. In terms one partner acquiring the interests of another, a (significant) discount would normally be applied.

</comment><comment><USER13> If he's offering $70K for 45% ($1555 per 1%), would he accept $86K from you for his 55% (a smidge more per share)?

That's one way partnerships can deal with a situation where one or the other partner wants out or to go solo: have a put-up-or-shut-up binding bidding process, where whoever offers more per share gets to -- and indeed has to -- buy the other out. (The payment could be in installments out of future revenues.) Sometimes this is written into operating/partnership agreements from the get-go.

Even granting that you would prefer to be in another business, if you owned it 100% for another $86K, could you then sell the whole thing free and clear for more than $156K? (If not, it's hard to argue your 45% share is already worth more than $70K.)

Or, could you hire staff and become a four-hour-workweek owner collecting an acceptable return on your >$156K investment?

That's the analysis that counts in tiny, closely-held businesses. There's no liquid market in their ownership and their value is often tightly bound with the owner/managers.

</comment><comment><USER14> Don't leave. What if your startup does not work-out, what's your backup plan?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm still young and cost of living here can be 15k/year. I can afford to take the risk right now.

<comment><USER14> Well, take the risk if you wish, but why don't you just invest money in hiring people to make the product for you? Divide your time in half between both jobs, with a clear agreement with your partner that you will only spend half the time.

I just don't think that if you are a single person trying to work alone on an app that is aimed at the YC demographic that you will produce anything spectacular. When you work with other people, you'll tend to have more diverse opinions. And you will learn to juggle your responsibilites in a way that will train you for running a real business.

If you are just sitting at home alone working on your idea for one year, it's an entire year out of the 60 you got gone.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Simple HTML pitch decks for your startup - <AUTHOR> http://getapitchdeck.com/ <comment><USER2> The top navigation menu is horrible, it's transparent and the grey text gets lost in the underlying graphics. It's distractive and feels broken.

<http://imgur.com/hMxRewr>

<comment><USER3> yea. i agree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Cool product! I've actually been working on a similar project for my website <http://www.Pitchenvy.com> . It's a gallery of startup pitch decks (the best ones that are public).

It's really important to have a pitch deck that attracts the attention of your audience and concisely delivers all your points. I'm glad that more founders are focusing on this. However, the pitch deck _should not_ be your main concern in regards to your pitch. Don't forget that 50% of the pitch is the presentation itself. You need to build rapport & engage the audience. The best pitches are the ones where the audience feels like they are a part of a genuinely interesting conversation...without needing to speak a word! I know that alot of founders are not great public speakers, but with the right amount of practice anyone can deliver the perfect pitch.

</comment><comment><USER5> Where's the print stylesheet?

Many times a plain PDF printed out on a stack of dead trees is still the best way to pitch. Unfortunately it's a PITA to build good-looking PDF decks in standard presentation tools... would be awesome to just edit some HTML and generate the PDF from that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Just replied to your email but for everyone else:

This was a side project and we really just focusing on the web side of things -- this is great to host on your own URL and send to investors/interested parties/share with people/add to your angel.co profile, etc.

We never really considered the print aspect but could be something to add in the future if people like the product enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> What's to stop people visiting the demo page and copying the markup, stylesheets and JS?

I guess $10 is less valuable than your time of 1hr writing the equivalent but I'm also sure you'd have to invest time to customize the deck anyhow to make it original and there is tons of open source HTML slide deck alternatives already to start from, like Bespoke <http://markdalgleish.com/projects/bespoke.js/>

</comment><comment><USER7> Have you considered creating a platform such as <http://gust.com/en/> with your design features and the possibility to share links for start-ups? Its free for start-ups (and they can share url links with their contacts) but once you have enough pitches, investors pay to browse through the platform and identify/contact projects relevant to their investments strategies.

</comment><comment><USER8> Was this the inspiration for your app? <http://piccsy.com/investors/>

<comment><USER9> Wow... this piccsy website is utterly fabulous...

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I love the progress bar along the top (Forces you to keep it short, and stops everyone wondering when it ends).

But when you're on the last slide, the bar isn't fully colored. I know it's a tiny thing, but it's strangely annoying seeing a progress bar you can't fill!

Nice work though.

</comment><comment><USER11> This[0] happens on Chrome, Windows 7. I really like the idea but the CSS seems a little janky, maybe it's limited to Win+Chrome.

[0] <http://i.imgur.com/dHLNlCb.png>

</comment><comment><USER12> I think there was a Wedding-related startup who released their similar pitchdeck awhile ago. Anyone remember what it was?

<comment><USER13> You're thinking of DressRush (now renamed to Tailored). Their initial pitch website has succumbed to link rot. You can see the deck here: <http://www.slideshare.net/razinmustafiz/dressrush-pitch-deck>

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I like it. Better than a prezi or a ppt.

</comment><comment><USER15> Nice idea! I'd love to see a follow-up post on how well it did and what you did to promote such a product.

</comment><comment><USER16> if you really need a html deck, just roll your own with <http://lab.hakim.se/reveal-js/>

</comment><comment><USER17> Do you have any examples of actual products?

<comment><AUTHOR> We have a startup who used it and raised funding with it. I would have to get permission to share their pitch deck first.

<comment><USER18> Is this <http://evr.st/investors> an example??? The layout looks very similar...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The best pitch deck is simply telling the investor you didn't make a pitch deck because you were busy making a real product.

<comment><USER20> Um. No. That works for GitHub, Facebook and Pinterest (and God knows I'd kill to be in their shoes) but for the rest of us this advice doesn't quite work out.

Any investor will also want to understand the overall market, trends, pain points, customer case studies if any, competitors, product roadmap, etc. Don't want to do this type of work on your pitch _and_ don't have the kind of explosive growth the companies above had? Good luck.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> A simple question: Why?

"necessity is the mother of invention " -Plato.

Why use this as appose to traditional powerpoint?

<comment><AUTHOR> Traditional powerpoint has become bulky and outplayed (especially if you are emailing a large powerpoint attachment).

Its 2013...there is no need to be using powerpoint especially when you can put this deck on its own URL and share it much faster than an attachment.

<comment><USER22> I'm a programmer and prefer using HTML5 based presentation libraries, but for the average user creating a powerpoint and emailing it is simpler and easier than this sort of thing.</comment></comment></comment>


Crosswalk API - Factual - <AUTHOR> http://blog.factual.com/crosswalk-api

<comment><USER2> Looks like a lot of good LBS partners are on board with this.</comment>


Dozens of teenagers are now tweeting bomb jokes to American Airlines - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/04/14/dozens-of-teenagers-are-now-tweeting-bomb-jokes-to-american-airlines/ <comment><USER2> If an airline can't differentiate between a teenager goofing around and a credible threat, then that's the airline's fault. A girl posting nonsense on twitter getting arrested just shows that "the system" is inhuman and it just chews people up and spits them out. I won't be surprised at all if this girl gets a long prison sentence and her life gets ruined. Nor will I be surprised when legions of pundits come out of the woodwork exclaiming it wasn't punishment enough, and all the copycats should be treated the same way.

The thing is, if you think for 30 seconds about the problem of defending infrastructure from crazy people, your best bet is to lurk where crazy people congregate, and keep a finger on the pulse of the ones who are poised to "do something". How often do these people actually make a threat? Don't they normally just execute the attack? Of course, even this is imperfect, and the best response is to _rebuild_ when something gets blown up. Hurricanes happen, earthquakes happen, _crazy people who hate you happen_ , and in every case your best "revenge" is to just outproduce entropy.

Overreaction to human threat is a symptom of a much deeper illness, and one that plays directly into the hands of real terrorists. The lives and treasure lost on 9/11 was trivial to the number of lives and treasure we've spent trying to prevent the unpreventable. We could have built the Twin Towers 10,000 times over for the money we've spent on war and the TSA and the NSA. It's fucking stupid, and I'm tired of it.

<comment> FLUX-YOU >If an airline can't differentiate between a teenager goofing around and a credible threat, then that's the airline's fault.

I don't really want the airline making that assessment because they don't have the people/experience/knowledge/training/ability to accurately assess that threat. I would rather them make the time-wasting call to the FBI and have the FBI on record and clear it. The situation is dumb, but sometimes you have to follow procedure for dumb situations. It's easier to cover your ass than change our litigious and terrorism-fearing society, so while I agree that it shouldn't be necessary, it unfortunately is.

That said, AA's twitter response was dumb and they'd be dumber if 'respond publicly to any threats' was the status-quo.

<comment><USER3> > I don't really want the airline making that assessment because they don't > have the people/experience/knowledge/training/ability to accurately assess > that threat.

Is it really that hard of an assessment to make? Is the threat from a Twitter account? Yes? Okay, is there any reason to think the Twitter account is controlled by someone with the intention or ability to carry out an attack? No? Okay then.

<comment><USER4> It's far easier to miss than hit, and it gets really grey. Look at any of the mass shooters in recent history. Some of them look a bit dysfunctional, but harmless. Others, not so. Would you REALLY have been able to differentiate shooters from harmless, outcast, social misfits?

It's easy to criticize, that's all I'm saying. Let's accept that this is a difficult situation to be put in, and I think notifying the FBI was the right thing. Whether or not the FBI has what it takes to make the right call, who knows. But AA does not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That's a really long-winded way of saying "Get your twitters off my lawn!"

It's a shame, though, because surely there's a deeper story here? Why are people doing this? Are they all teenagers? Do they know each other? How wide- spread is it? How are the airlines handling it?

In other words, it would be nice if the Post did some reporting instead of the "grumpy columnist" bit.

<comment><USER6> It started with this

[http://www.businessinsider.com/twitterer-hints-of- terrorist-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/twitterer-hints-of-terrorist- attack-2014-4)

<comment><USER7> Tweeting intensifies...

[http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/us-airways-just- tweete...](http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/us-airways-just-tweeted-out- one-of-the-most-graphic-things-y)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I suppose this is just a nerd annoyance, but the false quip about forwarding her IP address to the FBI rubbed me the wrong way. After reporting the threat to the FBI, Twitter could then give the FBI that info. But AA never had that information, and whoever sent that tweet probably just used it as a scare tactic. Saying you have someone's IP address has become this bogeyman threat that more often than not is meaningless.

I know that's not really that pertinent to the whole story, but dammit is it annoying. Promulgates ignorance.

</comment><comment><USER9> Is there something wrong with me that I am not even remotely outraged by this?

<comment><USER10> Not at all, and in fact it _heartens me_ to see this. The young haven't yet been socially worn down into worrying about being punished for things that should not be crimes. Mass protesting by kids is one of the few ways we might be able to roll back the ridiculous draconian punishments for victimless "crimes".

<comment><USER11> 19 here. on the contrary, i would say our generation, unlike yours, does not give law enforcement or the gov't the benefit of the doubt as you describe, because we have had a precedent of hostile gov't and law enforcement our entire life. we weren't here for Eisenhower, JFK, Carter, or even Clinton. we became politically aware during the Bush era. we are extremely aware of the possible consequences of our actions and have no expectation that we will be treated fairly by authority figures.

<comment><USER10> Well sure, (the general) you might intellectually know. But that doesn't mean you prudently avoid possible life-altering consequences. It's not the generation's views, but the fact that you're younger and have a sense of invincibility. I've never much trusted "authority", but there's no way I would ever join in this tweet-fest. Because after being through various confrontations myself, I have found it more pleasant to generally avoid them - even when everything ends up all right in the end.

<comment><USER12> Over here in post-everything Europe, young people today unfortunately don't have much to rebel against. It might not be good for teenagers if our society drifts towards a situation where rebellious actions are either shrugged off by everybody or, alternatively, will be used to ruin your life.

There needs to be a middle ground for the kids to explore.

<comment><USER10> I agree about the need for non-binary punishment, but it's nothing new to "this" generation. Computer cracking laws have been around for decades with the same life-altering draconian penalties. My point is the only way these things are going to actually change is for masses of people to play chicken with the establishment, and see if they're really willing to destroy so many people's lives rather than just a few isolated cases.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is it possible that "taking all bomb threats deadly serious" is actually a poor policy? Arguments against: 1) base rate of airplane-related terrorism is very low 2) base rate of airplane-related terrorism that is preceded by a "credible threat" is much lower 3) can destroy lives of people who should know better (poor Sarah)

Perhaps these teens are engaging in a bit of civil disobedience to protest the current state of affairs. (It seems that Sarah was not, but others may be responding to her plight.)

[edit: formatting]

<comment><USER14> But if, in a very unlikely case, something actually happens then no one wants to be pointed out as the person who said 'lol idiots'.

>>> 3) can destroy lives of people who should know better

Yes. But on other hand, everyone in the right mind knows that joking about bombs and air planes is not funny for some certain institutions. So if they are smart enough to make jokes like that, they will totally find more ways to destroy or severely damage their lives.

In Vilnius (Lithuania) airport, near the check in tables, there is a warning saying that you can't joke about bombs. Because every year or two there are some geniuses who are 'joking' that they have a bomb once they board a plane.

<comment><USER15> I feel no one really cares about the possibility of a bomb being on a plane.

Everyone fears the negative PR that will destroy them if they make a mistake - they are just covering their asses, not thinking about human lives. And that fear is what drives every "security policy" since 9/11\. Who cares if those policies are useless? We placed them there, we are safe!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> If teens keep sending fake tweets like this, how will the airlines be able to spot all of the real terrorists tweeting about the bombs they're about to detonate?

<comment><USER17> Not sure if you're being ironic. I don't think terrorists usually announce incoming bomb attacks before they happen.

<comment><USER18> I'm calling it: TOD, 12:20 AM PDT

REUTERS - In the small hours of the morning Irony coughed up a lung and died. It had been on life-support for nearly a decade when a seemingly innocent ...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'm more upset on how blatantly racist the initial and other tweets seem.

</comment><comment><USER20> Why do they need to arrest the girl? Certainly if they show up to her house they can tell she's not a terrorist.

<comment><USER21> The most charitable interpretation would be that they wanted to scare the shit out of her and make sure it doesn't happen again.

It also sends a message to other stupid teenagers: if you make a bomb threat at an airline, there will be a SWAT team at your door.

<comment><USER22> > It also sends a message to other stupid teenagers: if you make a bomb threat > at an airline, there will be a SWAT team at your door.

Does the same apply to threats made against trains and buses?

There was a huge explosion at a bus station in Abuja on Monday, more than 70 killed. But that barely made the news in the 'West'; yet I am sure that if it had been on an aeroplane it would have been the leading story.

<comment><USER21> 1\. People only pay attention to something if it's rare or unusual. Hijackings and bombings are rare in some parts of the world but not others.

2\. It is nearly impossible to hijack a train and make it slam into a skyscraper, because trains have little control over where they go. Planes on the other hand can be directed at virtually any target. Therefore it is rational to pay more attention to aircraft hijackings.

I'm not trying to defend the stark contrast between paranoia and apathy that you mentioned. Unfortunately, it's just a consequence of how human attention spans work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I want to think this is some sort of protest over the treatment of the girl, but I actually think it's just some more kids wanting their 15 minutes of fame.

I hope the girl doesn't get in a lot of trouble. All they needed to do was to get someone to talk to her and tell her it was a really dumb idea.

</comment><comment><USER24> Having a sense of humor is one thing; having some common sense shouldn't be another. I don't have any issues with someone being jovial but I expect it done in a responsible way. Perhaps I am just old.

</comment><comment><USER25> 14-year olds making stupid jokes on the Internet now results in international arrests.

After her initial tweet, the 14-year old apparently spent several hours on Twitter begging AA for "forgiveness", but the FBI ruined her life all the same.

> _"I'm so sorry I'm scared now. I was joking and it was my friend not me, > take her IP address not mine."_

> _"I'm just a fangirl pls I don't have evil thoughts and plus I'm a white > girl "_

> _" I was kidding pls don't I'm just a girl pls."_

Apparently the FBI was even more scared of her than she was of the FBI, judging from the measures it took.

<comment><USER8> >Apparently the FBI was even more scared of her than she was of the FBI, judging from the measures it took

And what extraordinary measures did they take? Picking up the phone and calling someone in the Netherlands? From what I've heard the girl practically turned herself in. I doubt anyone at the FBI spent more than a couple hours on this case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> The funny thing is, I was flying United and even though apparently you're not allowed to say the word "bomb" on a plane, they are happy to show a movie that glorifies terrorists ("The Company You Keep") as inflight entertainment.

It seems like violent metaphors or even threats of violence, are only tolerated when they come from the far left.

<comment><USER10> I know that it is a nice easy way to get _an_ answer, but the problem has nothing to do with "the left" specifically. You're going to have to move past those media-fueled simplistic demonizations of the "other" side if you ever want to stop being part of the problem.

<comment><USER26> I can't know what problem I'm part of until you're more specific.

The problem I see is that inconsistent enforcement of both laws and social norms, allow one side of politics to be more expressive than the other. Compare "if the rich don't start dealing with the problem of inequality, violence is sure to follow", with "if politicians don't start dealing with the problem of non-White immigration, violence is sure to follow".

<comment><USER10> The larger problem I'm referring to is the division and conquering of the entirety of political debate, by deflecting anger away from the actual responsible parties and towards the people making up the "other" half.

Each group _is_ organized in a different manner, causing the speech-asymmetry you describe - you are correct that the phrases are essentially describing similar things yet are perceived unequally. But to focus on this one specific mechanism is to miss the larger picture of how the people who identify with each side are goaded into using up their energy attacking each other while giving a pass to those in power responsible for the conditions.

Your original comment is an illustration of self-defeating groupthink occurring on your side. By misdiagnosing the situation as an instance of political speech asymmetry rather than exploring the specific inconsistency itself (say, leading back to the utter arbitrariness with which one can find oneself being seriously hassled when even just near an airport), you shoehorned the problem as if it is the sole doing of the "other" group, and left it at that. Clearly this resolves nothing.

<comment><USER26> You claim that the concepts of left and right are not useful because both sides are in fact being manipulated into fighting each other, rather than the true "responsible parties". Who exactly do you think these "responsible parties" are?

<comment><USER10> In this case, both the airlines and law enforcement for sustaining an environment where anything called a "threat" is treated as a drop-everything excuse to hassle anybody possibly involved, all without having to compensate the victims of false positives. Their behavior arises out of a cover-your-ass mentality, but that doesn't mean they should escape blame.

This is where the corruption begins, and the inconsistency you point out illustrates it. The airlines are able to show any movie because they set the status quo, not because of the movies' political affiliations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Jail them. Every last one of the punks.

</comment><comment><USER28> I don't think that idiot kids should be encouraged to communicate threats. Not in America, anyway. Why? We also have a crazy gun culture. That sort of thing can get you killed. Besides the fact that it's very disrespectful.

</comment><comment><USER29> Every one of these young people should receive a visit from the FBI. This behavior is not okay.</comment>


Reverse-engineering precision op amps from a 1969 analog computer - <AUTHOR> https://www.righto.com/2019/09/reverse-engineering-precision-op-amps.html <comment><USER2> Recently I became interested in DiY audio gear and I spent a lot of spare time on Rod Elliott's ESP audio pages. One project is [https://sound- au.com/project07.htm](https://sound-au.com/project07.htm), a discrete op amp project. It's been awhile since uni days so I bought a bunch of pnp and npn bjt transistors from digikey and spent a few days at my bench tinkering with the circuit. different gains, miller caps to set stability and bandwidth, how input and output impedance affect gains, etc. Very satisfying seeing your little mess of transistors come to life and amplify a signal as designed.

One thing it taught me was how the different sub circuits come together to make a power or operational amplifier. Long tail pair aka differential amplifier, current mirrors, current sources, Vbe multiplier, class A stages, Class AB stages, etc. Another great article which builds on it is [https://sound-au.com/amp_design.htm](https://sound-au.com/amp_design.htm). This is where you get to see how these building blocks come together. This basic topology is present in most amps be they little op amp chips or big beefy audio power amps: input -> diff amp -> class A gain -> class AB buffer -> output.

Interesting to learn that there isn't much difference between a little TL071 and my Rod Elliott P3A.

<comment><USER3> We'll never have the luxury of laser-trimmed resistor or matched transistor, an integrated opamp usually outperforms discrete designs, at least for low- power applications. But yeah, it's much fun to build an integrated component from scratch and see how it works.

BTW, NwAvGuy, the audio guru who have vanished, has some interesting criticisms on the dismissal of opamp in the audiophile community. [https://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/op-amps-myths- facts.htm...](https://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/op-amps-myths-facts.html)

<comment><USER4> For laser trimmed resistors, there's always hand sorting resistors. Even today, that's how I've seen it done in commercial op-amp characterization. Tests like CMRR (Common mode rejection ratio) require precisely matched input resistances or the result is thrown off by mismatches.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I played with a large EIA analog computer at my first job, modeling a few simple equations and building an oscillator. They had bought it many years before to model guidance equations for missiles. Maybe one would be useful today for trying out guidance algorithms for quadcopters? In some cases an analog circuit can do the same things as a digital circuit and use less power. Insect sized flying machines might benefit from analog guidance circuits also.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wonder how easy and cheap it would be to build a comparable analog computer using modern ICs. I also wonder if analog computers could make a comeback. Training a neural net seems very much like an analog computation to me...

<comment><USER7> If you want an accurate analog computer, you'd still be paying a pile of money for precision components. (0.01% resistors cost about $10 on Mouser.) And even with modern ICs, you're not getting a Moore's Law scaleup on your op amps. Plus, the interconnect doesn't scale nicely.

That said, there are claims that analog computers will make a comeback: [https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/not-your- father...](https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/not-your-fathers- analog-computer)

<comment><USER8> A good neural net simulator would work just fine with imperfect components.

<comment><USER9> This is basically what a brain is, right?

<comment><USER10> Far less than you might think. For example the wide range of neurochemicals would be largely unnecessary if that was the case.

It's like how a city contains many buildings, but it also contains roads etc.

<comment><USER11> Different neurotransmitters provide different types (speed, response function) of activation.

<comment><USER10> The same neuron may release different neurotransmitters based on stimulus, but it's not universal.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10818/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10818/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Nice read! I keep wanting to learn more about the hardware to build something myself. Only simulations so far. Analog computers are absolutely fascinating. I feel like there is a lot of lost lore in that field.

</comment><comment><USER13> This reminded me of the TI acquisition of Burr-Brown, analogous to Oracle buying Sun. Rip.

Some early tilt rotor aircraft used analog computers for stability control.

<comment><USER2> Interesting comparison. What exactly did TI do to BB which warrants such a ghastly comparison?

I know BB well thanks to tinkering with their isolation amplifiers for an old data acquisition project. also familiar with them due to working on equipment from the 70's/80's with the really old BB 3451 monoblock isolation amplifiers.

<comment><USER13> TI is antagonistic to all but the largest customers. Trying to get access to manuals, instruction sets, etc was a pain in the 90s. Devkits commonly cost >$500, even for the smallest of parts.

There is a big memory hole, at least in the people I interact with about the personalities around the various semiconductor companies. Nerdy (Maxim,XMOS) dorky (Green Arrays) serious (ST) irreverent (Fairchild), sloppy and fun (Microchip). Companies like TI are in it for the money, others have a passion for engineering and solving civilization's problems.</comment></comment></comment>


Reddit removes atheism subreddit from front page; Redditors go insane - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/9efxf/an_explanation_of_why_the_atheism_reddit_does_not/

<comment><USER2> Correction...atheism redditors go insane. The fact is r/atheism specifically is full of obnoxious hateful people with which the general reddit community disagrees on many things.

</comment><comment> onreact-com Reddit is an obnoxious site full of hateful people thus I don't care whether it goes down the drain or not. Also they've been censoring all kinds of content for a while so this case is no surprise whatsoever.

<comment><AUTHOR> You sound like an obnoxious hateful person yourself there. ;-)

I like Reddit quite a lot. Some of the subreddits are great. This is actually the first censorship case I've heard outside the Sears one, which was minor. They block spammers. That's about it.

<comment> onreact-com Subreddits are moderated randomly by single users so anything not fitting gets deleted. Some users get invisible there which means that their submissions don't get shown to others while they receive no message that they have been blocked.

Some posts of mine have been submitted or popular on Reddit and each and every time they have been downvoted like crazy (for the topic I write about) and I have been flamed both in my comments as well as in the Reddit comments. I have never asked to be submitted nor di it myself there so the people made it on their own accord.

Also the bounce rates from there are awful, along 96 - 98% which actually mean that they just look at your page and downvote/flame without even reading.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: When is it time to leave? - <AUTHOR> When do you know when to leave a startup (Assuming you are not a founder)?<p>If the money in the bank is out and the product doesn't have much traction, sure, that's a clear answer. But what about when the company and the product are in between crushing it and being crushed. What experience or insight does anyone have? Thanks! <comment><USER2> It all depends on what you want.

Working at a startup is usually more difficult, stressful, and for less pay. Even if the company is wildly successful, your stock options (if you have any) will most likely be worthless in the end (I've been there).

<comment><USER3> If the company is wildly successful, the stock options should be quite valuable! From my vantage point, the stock can be life changing for many employees. These days, you can even get liquidity before the company exits from platforms like ESO Fund, Forge Global, Sharespost, etc.

Disclaimer: I work at the ESO Fund</comment></comment>


My Startup Was Failing Because I Was Solving a Problem That No One Would Pay For - <AUTHOR> https://startupsanonymous.com/story/my-startup-was-failing-because-i-was-solving-a-big-problem-that-no-one-would-pay-for/ <comment><USER2> When I talk to people thinking of working on their startup or small business I often tell them to take two days to concentrate on exactly how they will make money and to write down the reasons why they will not make money.

Often people don't actually know the details of how companies make money on the internet. With out being too negative you are a better friend or acquaintance if you say to people that their idea and enthusiasm is good but it is unlikely to make money and could cost the would be entrepreneur lots of money. But again say it nicely not in an all knowing prick way!

</comment><comment><USER3> Serious question: if your potential customers don't feel that your solution isn't worth paying for, how great of a "problem" do they really have?

I have an excellent solution to extract cats who have become wedged into fishbowls. Haven't made a dime on it yet.

Whose fault is it if I go deep into debt trying to sell it?</comment>


FPGAs Ride HP's Moonshot - <AUTHOR> http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326707&_mc=RSS_EET_EDT

<comment> TD-Linux >The company claims the 45W board delivers 100 times the performance of an x86 server while using one percent of its power.

This is the most ridiculous claim I have seen yet for FPGAs.

I've used FPGAs for a long time, and IMO they don't make sense at all for compute. They are for when you need ASIC like features but can't afford spinning one. Reconfiguration time is often several seconds. They burn 10x the power of an equivalent ASIC.

Some FPGAs support partial reconfiguration now, so you can do some interesting things with changing the logic at runtime. But it's still slow, and all of your logic has to be prepared ahead of time - "compilation" times for most FPGA tools are into the hours.

<comment><USER2> "Its secret sauce is its Carte compiler that automatically turns users' C-level code into FPGA-readable firmware, eliminating the need for often complex Verilog-level FPGA programming tools. The FPGA also lets users quickly change code as workloads shift."</comment></comment>


Neural Networks Demystified - <AUTHOR> http://lumiverse.io/series/neural-networks-demystified <comment><USER2> I am very interested in this subject but I was unable to finish watching these videos. The background music is incredibly distracting. I have a name for that kind of music, I call it Silicon Valley Music because it is the kind of music used in a lot of startup product videos. The narrator voice style is also pretty much the same that is used in those. I wanted to like these videos but I did not feel that they had any value what so ever. With all of these kinds of videos, I feel like the producers want the audience to feel bliss or learning but that they never actually deliver on that so instead it seems insincere and underhanded.

<comment><USER3> I'm confused by your comment. You seem to be saying two different things:

1) The music and choice of narrator is getting in the way of the (presumably valuable) content.

2) The content itself, regardless of the choice of narrator or whether or not there's music behind it, is not useful.

If it's the latter then why complain about the former?

<comment><USER4> People feel discomfort while listening to these videos because they feel like they are being persuaded by a weak young man to believe things he himself does not believe. This is caused by:

1\. High pitch voice. Either it is modulated or not, the voice informs us that a person we are listening to is low social status, therefore subconsciously we assign lesser significance to anything he says.

2\. Infomercial-like intonation. Guy may be professional narrator, and his intonation is like you would find in advertisements where someone tries to sell you something really worthless. So people again subconsciously tend to "categorize" this kind of information as unwanted and are used to filtering it out. The effect is strengthened by the choice of music.

3\. The narrator clearly has no understanding (or gives that impression) about the subject he is told to talk about. This is subconsciously felt by people through his intonation and the way to put emphasis on random words, and that also translates to two things: again reminds us of infomercials (meaningless talking to occupy time) and malicious persuasion - he wants me to believe in something he does not believe (actually does not understand).

This all adds up to our brain signaling something is wrong, therefore complaints. There is more to education than content.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hey, everyone! I'm the founder of lumiverse.io, it's pretty incredible to see our website on the front page of HN!

I want lumiverse to become an awesome community where people can discover and discuss great educational videos.

We've launched only recently, the site is still in active development, I'm improving it every day. If you have any feedback - please let me know =)

(Also feel free to contact me at email@example.com)

<comment><USER6> nice work, i am interested in this kind of information, but i am no big fan of the edutainment video format, i prefer text or a university lecture. some feedback about the first video:

\- why the music? should this be information or an awfully mixed guitar rap song with the worst flow ever? i can't stand the use of elevator music in these kind of videos and also regard this kind of video production as an act of disrespect towards music in general.

\- why not use more descriptive variable names, e.g. hours and score instead of x and y? the mystification of these kind of things comes partially from generalised abstraction and undescriptive variable names. since you already use a real world example, why not reflect it with the variable names?

\- less speed, more pauses in general do good for demystification of such a topic, the typical 10-second-attention-span youtube-edutainment-video-style might not really fit here

\- the drawings and the general flow are nice and well done

<comment><USER7> This website curates content, so you would have to go to the content creator with this sort of input ([http://www.welchlabs.com/](http://www.welchlabs.com/)).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Every beginner in Neural networks should probablystart with this and follow with Karpathy's [http://karpathy.github.io/neuralnets](http://karpathy.github.io/neuralnets) and may be later on [http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/](http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/)

<comment><USER9> Also [http://colah.github.com/](http://colah.github.com/)

<comment><USER8> I didn't see this, thanx!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> These are also available on Stephen Welch's youtube channel[1]. He uploaded the last one in this series Janaury 2015.

[1]: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiaHhY2iBX9hdHaRr6b7X...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiaHhY2iBX9hdHaRr6b7XevZtgZRa1PoU)

<comment><USER11> Per guidelines : [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

      Please submit the original source. If a post reports on
      something found on another site, submit the latter.

The youtube URL you cited would probably be a better source link.

<comment><USER12> Yes, it was misleading I thought all these videos were original content of that site; in fact, they are original content produced by Welch Labs: [http://www.welchlabs.com/](http://www.welchlabs.com/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> My initial feedback would be that the music is way too loud and that I really like that you used Python to show how to construct the bits and pieces.

</comment><comment><USER14> Nice, one suggestion, please ditch the music, its distracting and doesn't play well with speaker's voice.

</comment><comment><USER15> Why have neural networks become synonymous with backprop networks? Is it because those are the most successful? What happened to bidirectional associatve memory and Kohonen maps? Does anyone take the biological inspiration of neural networks seriously anymore?

<comment><USER16> people are mostly interested in what is successful and backprop/gradient descent (with certain specific architectures) is what has been dropping error rates on all sorts of tasks in recent years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is really great, but like a few other people, I found the music incredibly distracting. At first I thought I had left my Spotify on!

</comment><comment> V-2 At the risk of not sounding very clever, I have to admit it's way too fast for me

<comment><USER18> These (excellent) videos made me realize that picking up AI as a hobby (which I intended) would not be a good idea in my case. There are simply too many different domains of knowledge I would have to learn about to be able to finally do something slightly useful.

I neither have the time nor the brain to do this. Fascinating stuff, though.

<comment> V-2 My thoughts exactly. There's even too much of meta-knowledge here :) Without some solid background, it's not something you can casually pick up as a hobby. But yes, as a programmer (not dealing with anything AI-related - right now it's middle-of-the-road mobile apps) I am very impressed by what deep learning proves to be capable of

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Man the the second video gets steep, quickly.

<comment><USER20> That was my impression too. There should be a video to demystify that second video :)

<comment><USER21> Yes! Where can I turn to for this?

Is there a course that teaches me just the maths that I need to understand this?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Plan A: The material is difficult, so present it very slowly and carefully.

Plan B: To avoid boredom, present the material as quickly and densely as possible, with lots of constantly changing detail, with simultaneous visual, audio and even some light background music.

These videos are a bit like "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" meets "Khan Academy".

Some people will like them, and some won't. I like them.

</comment><comment><USER23> no one can ever claim there that is a shortage of tutorials with regard to neural nets (and deep learning)

<comment><USER24> Tutorials - sure. Actual rigorous analysis - not at all.

<comment><USER25> Well, this is pretty good [http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/](http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/)

Also these lecture notes [https://github.com/joanbruna/stat212b](https://github.com/joanbruna/stat212b)

<comment><USER24> No no, I mean the theoretical analysis of neural networks. It's true that some authors attempt to do that, in fact even famous researches attempt to do this. However their arguments and analysis often breakdown in the general case and what their papers boil down to is that neural networks are good at modeling functions that they are good at modeling.

In fact the state of the field of machine learning is essentially the state of mathematics before Cauchy and Weierstrass.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> To demystify NNs further we need to stop graphically representing spurious interactions. If you can perturb or remove a link win between any two neurons i & j, then that interaction is spurious and shouldn't be represented by in the graphical network representation. Doing this iteratively you can start to better appreciate that neural networks are computational circuits that use thereshold functions instead of logic gates.

<comment><USER27> To me 'demystifying' really means making simpler to understand. Yours sounds like technical pedantry, that while true (idk?) is meaningless to anyone who actual needs a neural net demystified.

<comment><USER26> Um, no. Show an electrical engineer the circuit diagram of an 8-bit added and they'll know the function right away. The function of the NN is similarly determined by the topological circuitry--in fact the function can often be preserved when you represent these networks as Boolean network, but all that's concealed when we don't remove spurious connections and it starts to feel like weird voodoo mathemagic. This is not an opinion, I've published on this and have seen scientist get confused because of it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> It's a great short introduction, really worth looking through the code examples that they have on github too - [https://github.com/stephencwelch/Neural-Networks- Demystified](https://github.com/stephencwelch/Neural-Networks-Demystified)

There is certainly no shortage of new tutorials bubbling up on neural nets. One of my favorites - [https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/nando.defreitas/machinelearni...](https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/nando.defreitas/machinelearning/)

</comment><comment><USER29> People who are finding a difficult time concentrating, an clone the git repo where it has ipython Jupyter notebooks.

Link to Installation of Anaconda(by Continuum): [https://www.continuum.io/downloads](https://www.continuum.io/downloads)

Link to the Git Repo: [https://github.com/stephencwelch/Neural-Networks- Demystified](https://github.com/stephencwelch/Neural-Networks-Demystified)

</comment><comment><USER30> In case the author of the videos is here, do you have plans to add some videos about Convolutional NNs and Recurrent NNs?

I know a lot of developers like myself that know about traditional NNs, but are not familiar with those two.

<comment><USER31> Not the author, but I wrote an article introducing conv nets you might find helpful: [http://colah.github.io/posts/2014-07-Conv-Nets- Modular/](http://colah.github.io/posts/2014-07-Conv-Nets-Modular/)

I also have an article on RNNs, although it's focused on explaining a special version, called an LSTM: [http://colah.github.io/posts/2015-08-Understanding- LSTMs/](http://colah.github.io/posts/2015-08-Understanding-LSTMs/)

If you have experience with functional programming, you might find this a nice way to think about Conv Nets/RNNs/etc: [http://colah.github.io/posts/2015-09-NN-Types- FP/](http://colah.github.io/posts/2015-09-NN-Types-FP/)

<comment><USER32> Thanks. Very nice articles.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I liked! Already done the first 3, the music didn't bothered me neither the voice (i'm not a native english at all.). As for the concept explain, it's true that some equation are a little bit out of reach for someone that has less mathematical background. But i understand the concept so far, which are well explained.

I'm not sure i would be able to just write (or decide) the equation for the neural network. On what criteria can you decide this will work better or not? What are your key to make a decision?

</comment><comment><USER34> get rid of the music and find someone to talk who uses less sibilance

</comment><comment><USER35> I saw some of the videos and i agree with the suggestions provided here but i really like the simple way of explaining and less mathematical more programmatic approach. It'd be awesome if you could make some neural networks with cuda or any other library like tensorflow or theano. Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER36> Cool. I have a word of advice, though. The term 'scalar product' when referring to the product of two vectors is a scalar, not a vector. In the back-propagation video you mis-spoke here.

Otherwise, good job.

</comment><comment><USER37> Great videos!

Does somebody know a source for a nice data analytics/machine learning taxonomy or something (grouped by the class of problems the different methods solve)..?

</comment><comment><USER38> This looks really interesting. Thanks! I'll save these to start watching later.

</comment><comment><USER39> Awesome video ! Crisp and to the point

</comment><comment><USER40> great content, most annoying music ever!

</comment><comment><USER41> Mathematical more programmatic approach.</comment>


Python 3.0 makes a big break - <AUTHOR> http://www.linux.com/feature/150399 <comment><USER2> Even though I'm a Python veteran, I see 3.0 as being a big boon for newcomers. Even though Python is pretty popular now, removing any barriers to adoption would only help it more, and one of the best ways to do this is to adopt non- programmers. The fixed design flaws make the language more "pure", which in the eyes of a beginner mean there are less gotchas that make no sense, such as 1/2 = 0. It's a 'very high level language' so it needs to start acting like one.

One of the links in the story sums this up in a much better way than I could do in a comment: <http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/nde/papers/teachpy3.html>

<comment><USER3> Yeah, like there's thousands of people holding off using Python because print is a keyword and not a function.

<comment><USER4> The less inconsistencies in a programming language, the easier it is to teach.

<comment><USER3> I agree. If I was designing a programming language, then appending to the end of a file, appending to the end of a string, and writing to stdout would all look the same.

Actually, I am designing a programming language, and they look like this:

      fileHandle << data;
      aString << data;
      out << data;

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm interested to see how the distro's manage this. Ubuntu seems to always have the latest and greatest, but I can't see them upgrading to Py3k any time soon. There's just still too much that relies on 2.x.

GvR said that new stuff should be built on py3k, but I'm betting it will be quite some time before anyone develops anything of significance on it. At work, even though we're in the early stages of developing our product, we're still sticking with 2.5 for the foreseeable future.

I imagine the adoption rate for Py3k will be worse than PHP5.

<comment><USER6> The comparison to PHP5 is definitely interesting. PHP5 was released around 2004 with significant upgrades to the language with a high degree of backwards-compatibility and it still hasn't reached complete adoption. Only now with official support coming to an end and more web host support, will it become the standard.

The adoption of Python 3 will likely differ, since Python is not a standard feature of low-cost web hosts and has a wide range of uses outside of web development. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Py3k offers almost no immediate advantages compared to Python 2.x -> that slows down an adaptation rate -> long term advantages are eaten by a burden of supporting two incompatible language versions -> by the time Python 3.0 gains sufficient momentum it will be already obsolete.

The Zen of Python is violated: practicality is bitten by purity.

</comment><comment><USER4> Breaking compatibility is easier now than it will be in the future. In ESR's "The Art of Unix Programming," Stuart Feldman explains his decision to use tabs in make:

 _Why the tab in column 1? Yacc was new, Lex was brand new. I hadn't tried either, so I figured this would be a good excuse to learn. After getting myself snarled up with my first stab at Lex, I just did something simple with the pattern newline-tab. It worked, it stayed. And then a few weeks later I had a user population of about a dozen, most of them friends, and I didn't want to screw up my embedded base. The rest, sadly, is history._

Beware the argument that life will be harder tomorrow, or even for the next year. Sometimes that's better than living with your mistakes for 30 years.

</comment><comment><USER8> It seems bad but most of the changes can be taken care of using the 2to3 tool written GvR. The changes are really not that bad and quite a few of them are _very_ long overdue.

<comment><USER9> Which sizable codebase have you migrated using 2to3?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Indeed it will break every existing non-trivial Python program.

I hope someone big and important like Ubuntu or Red Hat does a fork for compatibility (they could call the fork "Real Python", and start version numbers at 4.0). Oh well, at least it gives me an incentive to learn Ruby.

<comment><USER10> I attended a Python3000 talk by Anthony Baxter last month (Anthony is the release manager for Python).

He mentioned that Python 2.x is will be supported for a very long time. They definitely expect to have 2.7 and may be even 2.8. They are also going to backport important features and security fixes from 3.x

Google has a very large codebase written in Python 2.x, it's in their interest to support the language for as long as needed.

<comment><USER11> I didn't get a chance to attend the OSCON talk by Anthony Baxter but I saved the link to the PDF.

[http://www.interlink.com.au/anthony/tech/talks/OSCON2008/por...](http://www.interlink.com.au/anthony/tech/talks/OSCON2008/porting3.pdf)

<comment><USER10> That's the talk, although I watched the SyPy version of it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google+ Notifications Chrome Extension - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pfphgaimeghgekhncbkfblhdhfaiaipf

<comment><USER2> In case these notifications and their related emails weren't able to distract you often enough.

<comment><USER3> I agree. I was hoping for an extension that does the opposite: document.getElementById("gbgs1").style.display = "none"

<comment><USER3> Actually... <https://github.com/cesarsalazar/NoNo>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm sure this feature will be bundled in with the next release of Chrome.

</comment><comment><USER5> I like this extension. I was hating having to click back to a Google page just to see if I had any new notifications. Now all of my problems are solved. Great job AntiMatter15!!

</comment><comment><USER6> This one is better! It has Desktop Notifications and Sound. <http://bit.ly/gPlusNotify>

</comment><comment><USER7> Very cool, but doesn't seem to work on some pages (I haven't found the common factor yet) - you get a blank white popup.

</comment><comment><USER8> OUTSTANDING early work in helping those of us who want broader ways to access Google+ Thanks, and Keep STRONG!

</comment><comment><USER9> Love it, could you make middle/shift click or some other way to bring up the + homepage in a new tab?

</comment><comment><USER10> Great idea, but it doesn't work with multiple account signin (it crashes Chrome).

</comment><comment><USER11> Facebook would do good releasing something similar.

</comment><comment><USER12> awesome, extension already for chrome!

</comment><comment><USER13> Antimatter15 style is great

</comment><comment><USER14> I was wondering about this myself</comment>


NASA's 1976 Graphics Standards Manual [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files//nasa_graphics_manual_nhb_1430-2_jan_1976.pdf <comment><USER2> This document, especially section 1.6: Incorrect Uses seems to inadvertently make a good case against the inflexible (and short-lived) "worm" logo. Or maybe that's just me.</comment>


Ask HN: Site selling my email address... anything I can do? - <AUTHOR>

Hi all, I registered a while back for corporate perks (http://www.corporateperks.com/), another site which claims to use collective bargaining based on what employer you work for. I removed my account shortly since I learned they didn't have anything for Ireland. Ever since, I am getting few advertisement emails from some third parties (US specific). Now, I have a strong reason to believe they sold my id to spammers, since there we only 2 websites who knew it (other being facebook). + I never shared my email to any forum etc... And from the nature spam emails (mainly sent to entice managers et al), I can be fairly sure that it www.corporateperks.com.<p>I am really annoyed by that, thanks to my spam-intolerantness. Is there anyway I can stop this, fight back? <comment><USER3> The same thing happened to me with emusic. Despite searching for a time I came up with no effective retribution, retaliation, or even limiting action.

That email address is now useless and permanently spam-binned. The only use I do have for it is as a honey-trap - any email similar to something sent to the emusic address is certainly spam.

But good luck - I hope you find something.

</comment><comment><USER4> While it probably won't help you now, a tip for the future: register with a 'throw-away' email address. I usually use firstname.lastname@example.com - <USER2> once I unsubscribe or delete my registration, I just mark everything coming to username+website@ as spam.

(gmail supports the + notation, as do quite a few others)

</comment><comment><USER5> plzz

</comment><comment><USER5> wew</comment>


Floating point arithmetics in 19 programming languages - <AUTHOR> http://itreallymatters.tumblr.com/

<comment><USER2> false & true as the results are how floating point is _supposed_ to work. It's exact for small enough integers and inexact for decimals that are not powers of 2. I don't see the problem here.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, not supposed to work like that if you think it in terms of "regular" mathematics and the problem is still (some|many) programmers don't know about this problem...</comment></comment>


Lens Tutorial – Introduction (part 1) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jakubarnold.cz/2014/07/14/lens-tutorial-introduction-part-1.html

<comment><USER2> It's really fun to write full imperative code using lenses and the State monad.

Though it's a shame that lens type signatures are quite complicated.</comment>


What If Everybody Didn't Have to Work to Get Paid? - <AUTHOR> http://www.citylab.com/work/2015/05/what-if-everybody-didnt-have-to-work-to-get-paid/393545/

<comment><USER2> $12,000/year per American adult who is not already on welfare or social security would cost about $2 Trillion per year.

To put that into perspective, Social Security cost $1.3 Trillion in 2013. The cost of all social welfare programs was $529 Billion. The GDP came in at around 17 Trillion.

The US could afford it if we really wanted to. So what I'd like to hear are the counter-arguments.

\- Is it inflationary? Prima facia, it has to be. But then it would also increase the flow of money and put more people to work in places that the $1,000 gets spent.

\- Is it fair? If every American receives it, regardless of their wealth, then I don't see how it would be unfair.

\- Is it realistic politically? It seems that the US was pretty close to something along these lines in the 60's[0] and Obama finally got universal health care through. Perhaps it is realistic enough to at least put a true, modern pilot program in place and convince ourselves one way or the other. It really seems better than the alternative: Status quo for the homeless and the poor.

A real value is that lower financial stress across the entire country would free parents to focus more on raising their kids. Many, many social problems subside when families do better.

So my question is, how can we construct a _valid_ experiment to convince ourselves one way or the other that this will benefit society overall, and provide enough value to actually do it?

[0] [http://www.remappingdebate.org/article/guaranteed- income%E2%...](http://www.remappingdebate.org/article/guaranteed- income%E2%80%99s-moment-sun)

<comment><USER3> _Is it fair? If every American receives it, regardless of their wealth, then I don 't see how it would be unfair._

It's unfair to those that would have to pay into such a scheme. I work really hard to earn the money you want to take from me.

If you want to give away your own money, go right ahead. As for the rest, leave me alone! I'm neither your brother nor your keeper. I have my own life, my own hopes and dreams, hobbies and plans, and I don't want any part of your scam.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Although this idea i believe is great we are far from that. When we can automate most of the living standard and provide free stuff instead of money then we might be able to work for a small extra income to live out life the way we want it.

Meaning that when automation can create food for everyone, then it will be free. When we can create mass buildings with excellent living condition and be given to the people that want them.

Then you will be free to do whatever your heart desires.

But i believe that this is a long time into the future and our generation might never see this.

</comment><comment><USER5> I haven't read the article yet but I gather this is about Universal Basic Income.

Among my concerns is that most people require meaningful work for their lives to be meaningful. Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Player Piano" depicts a society in which only engineers and their managers have jobs, everyone else is provided everything they require except something to do.</comment>


Success Tips For New Entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/15/mitra-new-entrepreneurs-tech-enter-cx_sm_0116mitra.html?feed=rss_technology_enterprisetech

<comment><USER2> She is one of my favorite writers, someone who has actually been an entrepreneur, echoing a lot of what I have written recently about struggling entrepreneurs, especially the part about ... "How do you fund an early venture?" The answer is "You don't."</comment>


Four Books to Master JavaScript Engineering - <AUTHOR> http://dannygarcia.tumblr.com/post/75769524212/four-books-to-master-javascript-engineering

<comment><USER2> I would of course add "The good parts" by Crockford to the list.

But maybe that is just par for the language course, before one even starts to wants to master Engineering :)

JavaScript: The Good Parts - [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596517742/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596517742/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0596517742&linkCode=as2&tag=shadowcats-20)

Here's a few other good ones:

Functional JavaScript: Introducing Functional Programming with Underscore.js - [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449360726/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449360726/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1449360726&linkCode=as2&tag=shadowcats-20)

Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja - [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193398869X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193398869X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=193398869X&linkCode=as2&tag=shadowcats-20)

Javascript Allongé (free to read online) - [https://leanpub.com/javascript- allonge](https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge)

Javascript Spessore (free to read online, but currently work in progress) - [https://leanpub.com/javascript-spessore](https://leanpub.com/javascript- spessore)

Here's a good one about Angular, my favorite framework:

Mastering Web Application Development with AngularJS - [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1782161821/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1782161821/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1782161821&linkCode=as2&tag=shadowcats-20)

I would of course also recommend the Egghead videos for any Angular aficionados: [http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP6DbQBkn9ymGQh2qpk9Im...](http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP6DbQBkn9ymGQh2qpk9ImLHdSH5T7yw7)

PS. The Amazon links are affiliate links.

<comment><USER3> No one should do anything serious without having read Doug Crockford's _Javascript: the good parts_. There is a nice OO -language hiding in the closet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> 1\. Async JavaScript: Build More Responsive Apps with Less Code [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AKM4RVG/ref=kinw_myk_ro_...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AKM4RVG/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title)

Any serious JS dev needs to master async.

2\. Functional JavaScript: Introducing Functional Programming with Underscore.js [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D624AQO/ref=kinw_myk_ro_...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D624AQO/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title)

While the book uses Underscore, that's not its focus. A good understanding of functional programming and when it can be useful is a valuable skill.

<comment><USER5> I was just searching this morning for a good resource to read on functional programming in Javascript. I guess I was just lazily searching because that title is spot on. Thanks.

Any good functional reactive programming books?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Don't read _Design Patterns_ as a novice. It will hurt you.

Or, if you have to read it, please realize that everything does not need a factory, and you almost certainly don't want to have nested and indirect factories (I have three letters for you that should be terrifying: COM), and that not every piece of code you write needs to be from The Book of Patterns, and in fact if you _do_ find yourself leafing through TBoP in search of a pattern to use, you're going about things all wrong and your cow-orkers will hate you and string you up for Pattern Abuse and the _best_ thing that can happen is that you'll look at your code six months from now and say to yourself, "Ewwww, this crap has got to go."

<comment><USER7> Head First Design Patterns is good for novices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Mastering "engineering" in a language and maximizing your interview "performance" are loosely coupled at best.

Also, leave the affiliate links in. Those who care to remove them know how to change the affiliate code to benefit their favourite charity.

</comment><comment><USER9> CODE is a book I recommend to tons of people, such a great read, can't recommend it enough. From EE starters to CS to the curious observer, tons of great information delivered in an enjoyable way.

</comment><comment><USER10> Of the 4 books on Javascript 3 are not even on Javascript !

<comment><USER11> I guess that's why he is calling it js engineering?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It is not really a book but I find resources on mdn very helpful

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/learn/javascript](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/learn/javascript)

Besides tutorials on mdn they have included links to some of the best javascript resources on the internet and classified them according to the level of the individual. It was very helpful when I was starting out in javascript and I still go back time to time to refresh some concepts

</comment><comment><USER13> I can highly recommend "Professional JavaScript for Web Developers" by Nicholas C. Zakas. It's almost a thousand pages but I read it cover to cover.

It explains all aspects of JavaScript in a very clear and concise way and contains the best description of the prototype chain and inheritance in JS I've ever read.

</comment><comment><USER14> Eloquent JavaScript got me through the basics.

</comment><comment><USER15> Does anyone have any thoughts on recommendation No# 4 ("Algorithms (4th Edition) by Robert Sedgewick & Kevin Wayne") vs my personal favourite algorithms reference: CLRS[1].

I love CLRS but am always up for increasing my knowledge base when it comes to algorithms. Has anyone read both?

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Algorithms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Algorithms)

</comment><comment><USER16> Any recommendations for resources to improve one's Javascript code running on the back-end, for example node.js/V8 or vert.x/JVM.

Specifically: (i) how to leverage Javascript to write better networking code (e,g; cluster, websockets, etc), and (ii) for number crunching on the server- side, should the relevant code be written from scratch in functional Javascript, or is it better to fork a process that runs (say) Julia code?

</comment><comment><USER17> Im taking a free coursera course on Algorithms with Robert Sedgewick, much more better than the CS courses I took at a "good" CS school

</comment><comment><USER18> Surprised to see no mention of "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide" ([http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596805531.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596805531.do)). It's a big, heavy book but it's what really pushed me to a higher level of JS understanding.

</comment><comment><USER19> As we are plugging somebody else's books... I can throw in a book that a friend of mine is a co-author on "Ext JS in action version 2" which I heard has just materialized. Linky below:

[http://www.manning.com/garcia3/](http://www.manning.com/garcia3/)

</comment><comment><USER20> It's quite irritating to see how loosely the term "engineering" is applied nowadays. Please.

</comment><comment><USER21> "it can be daunting because the examples are written in Java." not sure why Java is a problem for teaching algorithms.

</comment><comment><USER22> "I've removed the referral from these Amazon links for your benefit."

Hmmm yeah, sure.

<comment><USER23> I see no problem if the guys has referrals on his website. Last time I checked webhosting was not exactly free. But you are free to not click on his Amazon links.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Should have left those affiliate links in ;)</comment>


People Who Read This Article Also Read... - <AUTHOR> http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/mar08/6019

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder how much shared accounts complicate recommendation engines like these. My wife and I both use the same account for netflix and for amazon purchases. I can't imagine that an outsider looking at our movies and purchases could make much sense of it.

</comment><comment><USER2> What other people read/buy/like alone is near useless data. Garbage in, garbage out.

I can't believe people are still trying to wave their hands and pretend they have some amazing algorithm to turn this data into half useful recommendations.

<comment><USER3> Well it works pretty well for Amazon.

And since I discovered lats.fm I have never listened music elsewhere, since their recommendations hit my (somewhat obscure) taste in music perfectly.

There's definitely data to be mined, and meaningful results to be extracted. The problem is that the people doing the algorithms are not good enough at what they do. Admittedly it is not an easy problem.

<comment><USER4> Indeed, it's the discovery problem that all of social media is trying to solve. The web it good at finding something you're looking for, not so great at finding stuff you would like if you knew it existed. Lots of bucks to the people that figure it out (last.fm'a acquisition is a good example of that)

<comment><USER3> Admittedly I haven't had much experience in this field, but it doesn't seem all that hard. What am I missing? Is it one of those "the devil is in the details" things?

<comment><USER4> Take books for example. I read lots of books, from all different genres (computer, fiction, history, economics, business, math, etc). How do I find books to read? If I look on Amazon, it suggests books similar to books I've already read, but that doesn't help me find books in different categories. Recommendations on Hacker News will give me a well rounded set of computer and entrepreneur-related books, but what else? I hear about books in other fields when they become popular enough to get press on NPR or IT Conversations or something (like The World Without Us) but mostly it's just random things mentioned here or there. I actually use an Amazon Wishlist to keep track of books I hear mentioned, because it might be a year or two before I read it.

As an example of how you can do an excellent job but miss most of the picture, try the Pandora music service. You choose a song you like and they make you a radio station full of songs with similar characteristics to the one you picked. I tried "Fade to Black" by Metallica and it played other metal and rock songs, but it had no idea I liked classical, Hawaiian, reggae, old school hip hop, or anything else.

I haven't encountered any recommendation service that was both accurate and broad. The best way to get recommendations I've found is to know and interact with different kinds of people (the kind who wouldn't know each other). That helps fill in the holes.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>