On Counting (2017) - <AUTHOR> http://www.doxsey.net/blog/on-counting <comment><USER2> Sharding a simple bash script across multiple nodes is one of the original (and still one of the most common) uses of Pachyderm.

We actually have a tutorial based on it: [https://github.com/pachyderm/pachyderm/blob/master/doc/examp...](https://github.com/pachyderm/pachyderm/blob/master/doc/examples/fruit_stand/README.md)

(disclosure: I work at Pachyderm. [https://pachyderm.io/](https://pachyderm.io/))

<comment><USER3> Or the bland and boring version: bucket sort and xargs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It would have been cool to see a discussion about algorithmic solutions, rather than solutions based on tools like MySQL.

There are three basic approaches: sort and remove duplicates (the original bash script); insert all items into a set (e.g. hash table) that only keeps unique copies, and count its size; or probabilistic solutions like Count-Min- Sketch or HyperLogLog. But the problem with the latter is that they are approximate, which doesn't sound ideal when billing customers.

The problem with both of the first two approaches is that they require all items to be stored in memory at the same time. As long as that's true, either the sort or hashtable approach will work fine. But once you run out of RAM on a single machine, it's going to slow way way down as it swaps to and from disk constantly.

To me, the natural solution is to just split the dataset alphabetically into, say, 10 or 100 equal-size jobs, and run these either sequentially or in parallel on 10 or 100 machines. So for example if the unique IDs are random strings of digits, then everything starting with 00 is in the first job, everything starting with 01 is in the second, up to 99. For each job, apply either the sort or the set approach; shouldn't matter much.

(edit) For example, here's sequential pseudocode; the second step is embarrassingly parallel.

        # split the records
        for each record in records_list:
            prefix := record[0:2]
            write record to file "records"+prefix

        # count
        total = 0
        for each records_prefix_file:
            initialize hash_table
            for each record in this records_prefix_file:
                insert record into hash_table, ignoring if already present
            total += size of hash_table

(second edit) I'm a theorist, not a practicioner, so I'm ignoring many practical issues about where to store and back up the data, etc.

<comment><USER5> So you're proposing distributed radix tree?

<comment><USER4> You can think of it that way, but much simpler. Only one layer really.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > The oddly named wc is a command used to count things.

It's named after _w_ ord _c_ ount.

<comment><USER7> Still oddly named. Why isn't it called count or cnt?

<comment><USER8> wc shares an environment with grep, awk, sed and vi; wc is NOT oddly named.

<comment><USER9> For those interested in the etymology of these:

grep is from the ed command (which itself is short for editor, the original Unix text editor) g/re/p, which Globally searches for a Regular Expression and Prints it.

sed is Stream EDitor.

vi is VIsual editor, which is so named because it's like ed but shows you what you're editing.

Not sure where the name awk comes from.

All of these tools are closely related to the venerable ed(1) command.

<comment><USER10> Awk is named after its authors at Bell Labs: Aho, Williams, and Kernighan.

<comment><USER11> Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan.

<comment><USER10> You are so right, thank you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Is there a fast way to detect duplicates when you first generate the records? If so, could just keep a continuously updated counter for each client, incrementing it every time you add a record, and decrementing on duplicates to avoid double counting.

<comment><USER13> Agreed.

The analysis and proposed solutions all seem to ignore the one important aspect of this data: time.

Why would you wait until the end of the month to count the recorded activities on the first of the month? And, what happens to failed activities that are repeated on the first of the next month? Are customers double-billed? If I'm interpreting the scenario correctly, a large network outage on April 30th would see a large number of duplicate charges as they are re-applied in May.

Counting during the send process makes much more sense. Duplicates can be handled in-line, and even detected over month boundaries. If its not "worth it" in terms of engineering time, then I'd be concerned about the leadership; the author indicates 'this was the only way we made money'

<comment><AUTHOR> Billing was by month. This was a business decision.

It makes sense too. Billing requires a lot of man hours to pull off. Invoices, auditing, excel spreadsheets, etc. It's a people problem not an engineering problem.

I'm not sure of the disconnect here, but de-duplication is not trivial. If you do it every day nothing is easier than if you do it every month.

Doing it for all time is completely infeasible.

There was not a database of every piece of social media data sent out the door. That's what you would need to make sure not to record the entry again. All we had were flat files in s3.

Big flat files. It took hours to download and merge them all.

Once we had a database (Cassandra) it was updated continually (by a kafka consumer) and we could query it in a few minutes.

<comment><USER13> Fair enough... but somehow your system knew of failed attempts and the need to retry, correct? I'm sure I'm trivializing a rather complicated workflow, but if there's a way to detect failed attempts, there should be a way to remove them from the billing. (perhaps a separate S3 file that can be used to reduce the number of charged attempts, or split the ones you have into 'success' and 'fail' versions?)

Oh, and Cassandra is great... used it for years. Just beware of over-sized results. I've seen run-away queries crash the instance(s) running the query; ugly stuff.

Glad you found a solution that works!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This person writes quiet well. Few articles draw me in and keep me there until the end. His use of language and story telling really flows and it also made me reminisce of when I used to be passionate about programming myself. Great writing.

<comment><USER15> I thought the same thing. Probably because he writes the way he speaks. Or I would like the secret of it.

<comment><USER14> Right. I never felt like it 'drawn on and on' like some do. It threw the technical details in while still keeping you reading. I'm curious now about his book on learning Go. If it reads the same way it would probably be worth a read.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> If you're into fast cardinality estimation (HyperLogLog) and item counting (Count-min sketch, Bloom filters, hash tables), check out Bounter:

[https://github.com/RaRe-Technologies/bounter/](https://github.com/RaRe- Technologies/bounter/)

(Pythonic interface on top of highly optimized algorithms, faster than dict but using limited memory, MIT license)

</comment><comment><USER17> Reminds me quite a bit of [https://adamdrake.com/command-line-tools-can- be-235x-faster-...](https://adamdrake.com/command-line-tools-can- be-235x-faster-than-your-hadoop-cluster.html)

… in which, though, the author at least parallelises the counting.

<comment><USER18> Bash 5.0? Parallel execution

<comment><USER19> Counting unique occurences isn't easy if you are given data the way it was described in the article and you have a requirement for exact count.

But there are things you can do to help if you are willing to redesign it a bit.

You could partition the data up front, as it is being written. Then you could send partitions to be processed in parallel (and you still could do this with the shell command!)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> AWS Athena is pretty good at tackling this problem, or PrestoDB running on EMR.

As long as your S3 data is reasonably partitioned, and you don't have millions of small files, it does a reasonable job -even on count(distinct)

It even support approx_distinct for hyperloglog estimation too

</comment><comment><USER21> Rather than first building up a huge pile of logs and then counting them, move the count to the location that generates the logs or the location that stores them. Easily done, no need for algorithms or special case solutions, just a simple set and count. Added bonus, the "task" is axiomatically done when the month ends no difficulties or special considerations needed there.

</comment><comment><USER22> It's worth mentioning that counting machines are way older than computers and the Census used to be done with "dumb" punched car munchers.

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

</comment><comment><USER23> Why not count daily and incrementally? No reason to wait for the last day and then have to meet a deadline, do most of the processing in advance and only need to do a small amount of work each day to update.

<comment><AUTHOR> What if you receive the same tweet 3 days later? It should only be counted once.

<comment><USER23> You dedup against the old data. Easier than deduping a month's worth all at once, since the old data is sorted.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry what I'm getting at is you can't do this problem incrementally. You can't calculate the count on day 1 and add it to the count on day 2. The count of each day is intertwined with all the others.

But yes I suppose if at the end of each day you deduped that days records against the rest of the month you could then add them all together.

Unfortunately day 30 would still be just as bad as doing the whole month, since removing duplicates is as expensive as counting uniques.

<comment><USER23> >removing duplicates is as expensive as counting uniques.

I don't think so. You do all kinds of things (unzip, sort, uniq, plus apparently 1-2 passes through the whole data). If you did it daily, you only need to dedup day 30 vs a sorted version of the rest of the month, which takes around a 30th of the time, and you don't need to unzip/sort/uniq 29/30ths worth of data. I don't know your exact structure but I don't see why most of the computation can't be done earlier.

Think of it this way: on day 30 with the script described in the post, for the first $X amount of time you're reading the beginning of the files and don't touch any day 30 data until later in those 16 hours. So there's definitely some kind of processing that could be done prior to day 30.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> aws S3 Select might be a good fit.

[https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/s3-glacier-s...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/s3-glacier- select-sql-reference-select.html)</comment>


Piknik – Copy and paste anything over the network - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jedisct1/piknik <comment><USER2> Better not have KeePass open while this is open. Accidental leaks are just too risky that way.

<comment><USER3> It doesn't interact with the system clipboard.

<comment><USER4> Unless I'm missing a subtlety here, the docs indicate it does. [https://keepass.info/features.html#lnkclipboard](https://keepass.info/features.html#lnkclipboard) (at least in Windows)

<comment><USER5> I think sneak means Piknik doesn't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not the same thing at all, but the title of the post somehow reminded me of the synergy app for mouse and keyboard sharing.

Google 'synergy app'.

Update: Noticed just after commenting, that user falcolas had also mentioned Synergy here in this thread:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16177216](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16177216)

Others too, just noticed.

</comment><comment><USER7> Similar tools:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14263881](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14263881)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14649727](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14649727)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16216156](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16216156)

</comment><comment><USER8> Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I've been looking for something like this for ages. I use QubesOS, and copy + paste between HVM(Windows) and paravirtual domains(Linux) just did not work with Windows 10. I previously used a little webserver on a separate VM on my virtual network where I had to go with a browser to copy and paste stuff in a shared chat window. And files were even worse.

That solution was not as secure as I'd like and necessitates network connectivity between machine where I want to share data. Piknik is still not secure in that sense, but it is much more seamless and can be installed as a drop-in replacement since the environment is so similar to my current solution!

<comment><USER9> Have you tried Synergy? Mostly just works, from my experience.

Not to mention, with the Linux subshell, you have the potential to automate a SSH tunnel or tar | nc.

Just some thoughts about non-3rd party solutions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Same, but different: [https://github.com/warner/magic- wormhole](https://github.com/warner/magic-wormhole)

Great to copy from any host to another, just by sharing a short secret.

<comment><USER11> Seconded, and I love magic wormhole. This article's title would be more descriptive as "Network-based shared clipboard"

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> On iOS/MacOS you can just use the Apple Notes app to share text betweenn your phone and mac, it's updated in Real-time (instantaneous!)

</comment><comment><USER13> It's nice that this is open-source, but if it involves an intermediate server anyway, PushBullet also does a great job, and on various platforms: [https://www.pushbullet.com/](https://www.pushbullet.com/) (No affiliation)

<comment><USER14> Can you host your own PushBullet server?

<comment><USER15> No you cannot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I used to love [https://symless.com/synergy](https://symless.com/synergy) which includes this feature (if I recall correctly) Pretty useful at times.

</comment><comment><USER17> If you just need to quickly share a file from command line, you can use [https://transfer.sh](https://transfer.sh), I find it quite useful sometimes.

</comment><comment><USER18> mobile app would be great! [https://github.com/jedisct1/piknik/issues/3](https://github.com/jedisct1/piknik/issues/3)

</comment><comment><USER19> "Installation" \- Game over.

Relevant: [https://xkcd.com/949](https://xkcd.com/949)

<comment><USER20> Misread that for a moment as "just drone it over to your house" and pictured a DJI Mavic with a thumb drive taped to it.

<comment><USER21> "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a drone covered in micro SD cards hurtling across the city."

Relevant: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I love such generalized titles. My mathematically modified brain automatically searches for an example when you cannot copy something, then the whole statement is not true. My dog agrees, he cannot be copied over the network :)

<comment><USER23> Pedantically, the state of any material object is just information and should be transferable over a network?

<comment><USER24> No.."Chaos theory has taught us" that it would take an infinite amount of information to precisely-enough specify 'state'.

<comment><USER23> Doesn't this depend on the universe being not entirely discrete? If the universe is entirely discrete, then it should be possible to represent the exact state of it?

In any case, I don't think it follows that an infinite amount of information is necessary to describe e.g. a dog to the extent to which it could be transferred and there being no functional difference to the copy, even though the exact state is not represented.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Very useful!

Also nice that I see this posted soon after CloudFlare Access[0] was launched; which can add good security for Piknik's use case.

[0] [https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cloudflare- access/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cloudflare-access/)</comment>


Surface Noise - <AUTHOR> https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/04/21/surface-noise/ <comment><USER2> This brought to mind the NwAvGuy discussion (mysteriously awesome no- derivative amp) nearly three years ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7451062](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7451062)

 _To be fair, his style was highly argumentative. He left no room for subjectivity or talking about subjectivity in_ anything _. Which leaves out a fair portion about what audio really is to the human brain, whether or not you perfect its reproduction mathematically._

</comment><comment><USER3> If you want to hear the noise that the artist intended, you need a distribution medium that doesn't screw it up. Only digital methods have a chance of doing that.

If you value getting it dirty with your fingerprints and dust and accidents, get it on vinyl.

These are different values, and only you can say which way is right for you. Your values can change over time, too.

</comment><comment><USER4> Great article.

I had a progression to digital music and then back through analog... and back again.

First it was the Squeezebox Classic [1] - from a really remarkable startup. A hardware startup in 2000, with an open source software platform (SlimServer). For the price the DAC setup they had was remarkable. Really ahead of it's time.

Then I added the Benchmark DAC1 [2] to that, with a Cambridge Audio amplifier (solid-state, naturally). I was a major digital music nerd -- Hours spent using EAC [3] to extract CD. Hours spent finding (and downloading) unnecessarily high-detail 24bit 196khz FLACs.

Then, I fell in love with a tube amp I encountered online . The first re- release Macintosh MC275 [4]. So I bought that and removed the digital amp. There was plenty not to like. It took time to warm up, usually 10-15 minutes for the sound to really settle. Plus when you had to replace the tubes, you were shelling out big money. But the sound was warm and genuine. The amp bought personality, while not imposing on the music.

Still I was constantly having arguments with ardent analog friends, particularly given I had this warm, organic tube amp combined with a cold, digital setup. So I eventually gave vinyl a try. Definitely a less practical (and expensive) move, but I had the same warm experience. So I started switching to vinyl for any music I really treasured.

The move to analog also _changed_ the music I treasured.

Unlike digital, analog listening was an experience. I'd get home in the evening, then immediately flick through the vinyl by hand. Choose an album, put it on. You didn't skip around. I got to enjoy full album experiences. It really turned into something of a ritual, a performance.

It changed the artists I enjoyed in ways I couldn't have expected. I loved putting on a Neil Young album and hearing the scratching of the guitar strings. Having a piece of jazz suddenly feel in the room with you.

The tracks I used to love standalone I came to find insubstantial -- and vice versa.

As I started traveling for work Spotify started to become more prominent. Beyond the portability the discoverability and sharing were amazing. I had playlist with friends, people I was dating long-distance. Discover Weekly turned up things I'd never have encountered otherwise. So suddenly all my music is on my phone, streamed, through earbuds.

In the end this drove me to getting a Sonos setup. Spotify was a big reason for this. However, the killer feature for me was the synchronized multi-room playing. This was originally for streaming and podcasts - but, inevitably I'm now listening to most of my music there too.

So this article really struck home. So much of what we do is the experience and context we wrap around it. It's really easy to focus on the quality or technicalities of the sound - but for me the difference between analog and digital goes so far beyond that.

All that said, I'll probably head off after this comment and put on a piece of dusty vinyl.

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_play...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_\(network_music_player\))

2\. [https://benchmarkmedia.com/products/benchmark- dac1-digital-t...](https://benchmarkmedia.com/products/benchmark-dac1-digital- to-analog-converter)

3\. [http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/](http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/)

4\. [http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/us/Products/pages/ProductDetails...](http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/us/Products/pages/ProductDetails.aspx?CatId=amplifiers&ProductId=MC275B)

<comment><USER5> >I had this warm, organic tube amp combined with a cold, digital setup.

What do you mean with warm and cold? You can use a digital equaliser and other plugins to make your digital setup sound however you want.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm always perplexed at self-described music lovers who seem to spend far more time fetishizing the medium over the content.

<comment> jim-jim-jim The medium does so much to shape that content though. When discussing songs we love, I'm not sure if it's fruitful to divorce some ideal form of "music" from its medium, any more than it makes sense to describe a guitarist's work in the form of pure music theory. It's usually not the notes in abstract that draw us to a piece, but rather its color and character. Understanding the medium and its associated recording techniques is valuable in a timbral critique of the work.

It's also impossible to explore the history of influential artists like Conlon Nancarrow, Pierre Schaeffer, or the Beatles without understanding the impact that media like piano rolls, mangnetic tape, and multitracking played in their creative processes.

<comment><USER7> I agree. I only really enjoy the cassette tape copy of one of my favorite albums. The bass has a certain character that Spotify or any other digital format can't seem to (or doesn't want to) reproduce.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: I'm looking for the self-proclaimed "last private web hosting" site - <AUTHOR> I'm looking for the self-proclaimed "last private web hosting" site, that requires no name. You could send them $1 USD in the mail with a desired account & password & they would set it up for you.<p>I think void was in the title. Anyone know? <comment><USER2> You are probably thinking of this article: [http://www.dailydot.com/society/anonymous-website- challenge-...](http://www.dailydot.com/society/anonymous-website-challenge- voidnull-real-name/) which links to [http://voidnull.sdf.org](http://voidnull.sdf.org).

</comment><comment><USER3> You may be thinking of Silence is Defeat: [http://silenceisdefeat.com/](http://silenceisdefeat.com/)

"public access unix systems for free speech, established 2000"

They offer free shell accounts with 50MB storage space, HTTP access ([http://silenceisdefeat.net/~username](http://silenceisdefeat.net/~username)), SSH access, email, etc. Very cool place.

</comment><comment> white-flame Host a .onion or .i2p site.

You'll need a 24/7 box somewhere, but it could even be behind a residential NAT with only outbound connections (at reduced performance than having a public port). You can easily & transparently move it from one physical place to another; your hash identifies it, not the physical routing location.

<comment><USER4> If I wanted to set something up like that, just for fun/experimentation, is there a tutorial on how to go about it?

<comment> white-flame I'm more familiar with I2P than Tor.

I2P includes a webserver, to host the local configuration & status page. You can also host your own public site right from there, by dropping files in the right place. Click "Website" from your console page and it'll tell you what you need to do. The URL will be <some hash>.i2p, but you can register with one of the name servers to give it a more human-friendly <name>.i2p redirect, similar to DNS->IP address.

From quick googling, it doesn't look like Tor includes a webserver, just TCP tunneling that you can set up to talk to an independent local webserver install: [https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-hidden- service.html.en](https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-hidden-service.html.en)

Note the same is possible in I2P if you want to use your own webserver.

<comment><USER4> Well, on first principles, what I would expect to do would be:

       >brew install tor-server
       >mkdir mysite && cd mysite
       >echo "Hello secret friends!" > index.html
       >tor-server
       Access your site at http://<hash>.tor

<comment> white-flame That is effectively the I2P process.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Are you talking about [https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/](https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/) ?

<comment><USER6> NFS requires that you provide a name. They might cut you some slack if you can prove you live in North Korea.

<comment><USER7> They do have an exception though [1]

"If you live outside the United States and can demonstrate that the site you wish to host would put you at significant, legitimate risk of retaliation from a government with a documented track record of reprisal against people who speak out against it, we may be able to help. Anonymous hosting is serious business; it can be one component of a coordinated plan to protect you and your family from torture and murder. It's absolutely not an option you can use to dodge lawsuits or unpopularity arising from hosted material.

If you feel you need this level of protection, please contact us, taking appropriate privacy precautions with respect to your correspondence. Be sure to explain where you live, what you want to host, and why you feel hosting the material anonymously is the only way to guarantee your safety. Be very specific; you will need to explain your situation in enough detail so we can make an informed decision. We may, in our sole discretion, decide to waive the contact information requirement in exchange for periodic reviews of your site content by NearlyFreeSpeech.NET personnel to verify that your usage of the service is consistent with your claims. Please be aware that even if we approve your request, paying anonymously is extremely difficult.

We regret we are not able to provide anonymous hosting to residents of the United States under any circumstances."

[1] [https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq#Anonymous](https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq#Anonymous)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Not sure if it's what you're looking for but: [http://sdf.org/?join](http://sdf.org/?join)

<comment><USER9> I've been a member of the SDF for years. If you're interested in Internet 1.0 and "just want some space" so to speak, it's great.

<comment><USER8> Totally agree.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> [http://voidnull.sdf.org/](http://voidnull.sdf.org/)

<comment><USER11> "It appears that the voidnull account has been disabled on Hacker News."

I think they ban tor, or new-account tor users (which completely defeats the purpose of using tor in the first place).

<comment><USER12> I created my account and log in through Tor and don't experience any problems. I don't think I ever logged in outside of Tor, but I don't consider it to be a security requirement and am not sensitive about it, so it's possible there are exception (in particular it's that I misremember creating the account through Tor).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> These guys don't store payment details and allow cash-in-the-mail. I used them for a domain name once. [http://mediaon.com/About- Us.php#Payment](http://mediaon.com/About-Us.php#Payment)

</comment><comment><USER14> Everything you mentioned fits to [https://uberspace.de](https://uberspace.de), except the grand proclamation.

</comment><comment><USER15> [http://sdf.org/](http://sdf.org/)

Apparently, you create a shell, and have this free:

USERS (free) 200MB disk quota / 5,000 files divided into 4 areas

mutt, pop3, imap, icq, twitter, bsflite (aim), local irc games, mud, lynx, gopher, TOPS-20 [http://yourlogin.sdf.org](http://yourlogin.sdf.org) (over 50 domains to choose from) traceroute, ping, whois, dig and more \- after account validation - inbound ssh, ftp and sftp connections elm, pine, alpine, mailx and rmail webmail interface bash, ksh, tcsh, rc and zsh ed, ex, vi, pico, nano and emacs shell, awk and sed based CGI USENET access (read/post), ClariNET access hundreds of shell/network utilities

They have 'paid' services also, which you can pay for in cash.

[http://sdf.org/?join](http://sdf.org/?join)

</comment><comment><USER16> what about [https://neocities.org/](https://neocities.org/) ?

</comment><comment><USER17> I built something that starts instances with Bitcoin, if that helps any: [https://www.stackmonkey.com/](https://www.stackmonkey.com/). You add ssh keys with a callback, so the site never sees who you are. The virtual appliances run on my HP Cloud account, so for now your instance would be there.

Will be adding container tech to it at some point.

<comment><USER18> That's not anonymous with the amount of google cruft on there. At least google will know that you instantiated something there and google is within the US so can be subpoenaed to reveal the details of whoever visited your site.

Note how the sdf page linked elsewhere in this thread is completely clean in that respect. They do have some other issues but at least they try to keep third parties out of the loop.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> How about nyx.net? They've been around a long, long, time

[http://www.nyx.net/](http://www.nyx.net/)

</comment><comment><USER20> [http://www.dhp.com/account.html](http://www.dhp.com/account.html)

<comment><USER21> Site looks terribly defunct. No announcements since 2012?

<comment><USER22> Looks really sketchy as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> There's [https://www.anonymousspeech.com](https://www.anonymousspeech.com), which I believe was used by the creator of bitcoin to register bitcoin.org

</comment><comment><USER24> There's also [http://tilde.club](http://tilde.club), although they haven't been accepting new registrations for a little while

</comment><comment><USER25> If you are looking for something along these lines, and fully free, check out [http://hashbang.sh](http://hashbang.sh)

</comment><comment><USER26> [http://www.autistici.org/en/index.html](http://www.autistici.org/en/index.html)

<comment><USER27> This is not what the user requested but it's definitively worth for the attention they put on privacy and activism. The tech collettive is totally autonomous. Here is the Manifesto [http://www.autistici.org/en/who/manifesto.html](http://www.autistici.org/en/who/manifesto.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> There is a small number of VPS providers that accept Bitcoin (and require no identifying information) - probably this is your best bet.

<comment><USER29> Here's a list of providers accepting BTC: [http://cryto.net/~joepie91/bitcoinvps.html](http://cryto.net/~joepie91/bitcoinvps.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> nearlyfreespeach.net

</comment><comment><USER31> Make it a GitHub Page for free.</comment>


The TeX Pestilence (Why TeX/LaTeX Sucks) - <AUTHOR> http://xahlee.info/cmaci/notation/TeX_pestilence.html <comment><USER2> I can understand why the author is angry at TeX, but I think it's mainly a misunderstanding. TeX is very low-level, it was designed that way and never pretended to be anything else. That's why people created macros around it, and LaTeX is the most successful of them.

I happen to have worked on many document generation systems in my career, I have written systems targetting odt, docx, postscript, and pdf, either from scratch (for odt and docx) or xsl/fo (ps), docbook (pdf) or TeX/LaTeX (pdf).

The most satisfying, easy-to-build, but not the easiest-to-understand, the one that gave the best result in terms of time-to-develop/quality/satisfaction was TeX/LaTeX. So sure, the math can suck in TeX, maybe, I don't know (didn't feel that way at uni when I was using it for that), but as a typesettings low-level language to target, it does a very good job.

Also I fail to see how TeX is an issue, or even how it prevents competition to happen, when all it takes is writing a better front-end language for it.

</comment><comment><USER3> > TeX is detrimental because it harbors ignorance of the structural content > embodied in most math notations in most math fields. What TeX does is > typesetting, as opposed to math expression encoding. In other words, what > TeX does is pretty-printing.

It's like being angry at HTML because it's not a programming language.

<comment><USER4> Yeah its a weird article ... the author accuses TeX of being a typesetting language, which is what TeX advertises itself as anyway.

<comment><USER5> Xah Lee has been on of the most outstanding trolls on the internet for decades.

Look at the panache involved in telling Donald Knuth that his baby is ugly!

In addition to writing highly useful articles on a range of subjects, Xah is a character that adds great flavor to the internet, and I'm grateful for his (often wildly obnoxious) rants.

It's good to have someone remind us to review assumptions from time to time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> TeX has one, and one only, significant problem. And that is its lack of a context-free grammar. You cannot parse it without executing it. That means you have no linting, translation, etc.

Does the author really lament that scientists do not use structured representations for publication? Did they ever try that in practice?

</comment><comment><USER7> That's quite a rant, but I fail to see much value in his arguments? TeX was never meant to parse Math the way Mathematica or other software is?

> Free software acts as a virus. Free systems have the potency to wipe out any > other protocol or design, including any superior ones (unless they are also > free). A example is the various Unix systems and protocols has done huge > irreversible damage to society.

The same unix systems on which the entire internet runs and he probably relies for his blog post?

</comment><comment><USER8> "Free software acts as a virus. Free systems have the potency to wipe out any other protocol or design, including any superior ones (unless they are also free). A example is the various Unix systems and protocols has done huge irreversible damage to society."

Wow that is a novel way to see things. Quite harsh.

</comment><comment><USER9> I feel that the author saying LaTeX is bad because it is (in particular) not based on a GUI/point-and-click system, and preferring Microsoft Equation Editor/Outline to it, reveals a big misunderstanding.

I also don't see how Mathematica's notation is any better; I view it as way worse.

<comment><USER10> > I feel that the author saying LaTeX is bad because it is (in particular) not > based on a GUI/point-and-click system, and preferring Microsoft Equation > Editor/Outline to it, reveals a big misunderstanding.

He does not prefer MEE.

Quoting the article:

> TeX, being a pretty-printing system, can be considered in the same class as > Microsoft Word Equation Editor. The difference lies only in their mode of > operation. Specifically, TeX is by compile and batch operation like a > typical computer language, and the Equation Editor is by using a mouse to > click menus and buttons with graphical user interface. The heart of both as > far as math notation is concerned, is doodling of a em space or en dash. All > math notation's semantic structure are lost.

I don't think asking for a graphical shell for TeX/LaTeX is unreasonable.

However, back when I was winding down my active LaTeX involvement in the late 90s, there were applications that enabled wysiwyg editing of LaTeX.

<comment><USER11> > I don't think asking for a graphical shell for TeX/LaTeX is unreasonable.

There is one: it's called LyX [0]! You take care of content and LyX will abstract away most, if not all, TeX stuff. I've used it in the past for quite extensive documents and it is quite frictionless. It is never going to be a word processor but I believe LyX strikes the middle ground quite well. This [1] looks quite "graphic-y" to my eyes

[0] [https://www.lyx.org/](https://www.lyx.org/)

[1] [https://www.lyx.org/images/about/aqua.png](https://www.lyx.org/images/about/aqua.png)

<comment><USER10> That was the one! Glad to hear it's still chugging along.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Want to try out Sproutcore? Have a read into TemplateView - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sproutcore.com/post/3594199971/introducing-sc-templateview-now-with-tutorial

<comment><USER2> Sorry but your apostrophe is stopping me parsing the sentence, Template View's what?

<comment><AUTHOR> Argh thanks. Just updated it.</comment></comment>


The Problem with Putting All the World's Code in GitHub (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/06/problem-putting-worlds-code-github/ <comment><USER2> I've seen this argument before. The problem is that it doesn't consider the nature of git—every clone is a backup copy of the entire repository. Even if github lost every single repo tomorrow, only a small percentage of projects would actually be lost forever.

This is also the reason that GitHub is fundamentally different from source forge. If GitHub were to turn evil tomorrow, everyone could just upload their project to gitlab or bitbucket and carry on.

<comment><USER3> Losing code wasn't really a risk with Sourceforge either. Submitting patches on mailing lists or controlling access to using SSH will always be workable. The benefit of Github is the directory and collaborative aspect.

It's much easier for people to contribute to projects now, and a lot of projects might not have grown as quickly without it. The central directory also makes it a lot easier for other people to find stuff which probably also plays a role.

I doubt Github will go down the same path as Sourceforge.

<comment><USER2> > Losing code wasn't really a risk with Sourceforge either.

You might not lose the latest code, but you'd lose the history and the commit comments. Those are significant.

With github you'd lose stuff like issues, but I find those not nearly as useful as the commit history.

<comment><USER3> Git's definitely an improvement over Subversion (CVS, etc...). Without the commit history there's a lot you couldn't do (e.g. bisect stuff), but things would still be workable. Distributed models are almost always more robust than centralized ones though.

As I understand it, the main benefits are still risks though (e.g. central directory). The code itself isn't really at risk, especially with signed commits.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> All aboard the hype train.

Seriously, tho. The code history is the important part and DVCS provides plenty of redundant offline backups.

If people want issues saved offline, GitHub provides an API that makes it relatively easy to pull down the issues.

It wouldn't take a monumental effort to create an offline client.

Maybe if GitHub added some metadata to their models/api, it would be possible to diff the changes, cache data offline, and reduce requests.

Just don't version issues because recording all of the changes over time isn't worth saving.</comment>


Firebase turns two today - <AUTHOR> https://www.firebase.com/blog/2014-04-12-firebase-turns-two.html

<comment><USER2> You guys have been a huge inspiration to me. I love what you're doing, the systematic approach taken to everything, the total focus on customer happiness, the technical depth and quality of the platform...keep it up.

P.S. Funny to see my right leg in your launch video. ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> One of the most interesting platforms today. I couldn't believe how easy it was to plug into my application.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Glad you had a good experience!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> They've come a long way and deserve to be one of the major names in realtime apps. Congrats!

</comment><comment><USER5> Congrats!</comment>


My Weekend Project: Things Done Later - <AUTHOR> http://simcop2387.github.com/2011/02/16/Things-Done-Later.html

<comment><USER2> I'd really like the KanBan interface to be added. =)

Also, perhaps displaying the due date and changing colors if it's past due / about to be due might be a good idea. For instance, the day before change yellow and the day after change red?

When things are selected as done, the next day pushing them into an "Archive" list similar to how _Things_ does it might also be cool.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice.

Suggestion: lose the windows, lose the pop-up for each task; I found it takes too many clicks.

<comment><AUTHOR> What I've been thinking about is doing all the editing in place but that ends up a little more difficult to implement.

<comment><USER3> I see; very impressive for a weekend nevertheless</comment></comment></comment>


Google saw more downloads than iOS App Store, but Apple generated more revenue - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/20/app-annie-2015-google-play-saw-100-more-downloads-than-the-ios-app-store-but-apple-generated-75-more-revenue/ <comment><USER2> Isn't this expected though? I think it is obvious that people who can afford a more expensive class of phones also buy more apps. OTOH Android phones are literally selling for < $30, no contract. A huge portion of Android phones sold are these super-cheap phones. And the users will probably just be happy with the 1000s of free apps in the Play store, quite a few of which are very well-written too.

<comment><USER3> Flagship android phones are _not_ cheap.

Are we to conclude that if we took only the high end phones, iPhones would be in the majority?

<comment><USER4> iPhones are even more expensive than flagship Android phones. iPhone users tend to use Macs which are even more expensive than their Windows counterparts.

No matter how you slice it, if your business idea evolves around targeting people willing to spend money on mobile apps you're gonna find a lot more of those on the iOS ecosystem.

Also don't underestimate the fact that on Android you'll have to support more users that cannot be converted to paying customers because they simply don't care enough about apps to spend money on it.

<comment><USER5> > iPhones are even more expensive than flagship Android phones.

Even thought they are barely really worth it, thats simply wrong.

<comment><USER4> The iPhone 6s costs here in the EU 739€ in its smallest config, the 6s Plus 849€. (and many will opt for the 64GB option as 16GB isn't sufficient for most)

I don't know of any other Android phone that costs that much and has somewhat comparable sales figures. The Samsung S6 Edge and Edge+ are the only ones close, but how many do they actually sell of these?

Android flagship is mostly in the 500 to 650€ range, iOS is in the 750 to 1000€ range.

> Even thought they are barely really worth it

I did not make any statement about the cost/value relation of iPhones. But apparently they are worth it for consumers.

<comment><USER5> My last statement was rather a opinion yes. Mostly based on the fact that i barely notice a difference since my dual core nexus for me 3 generations ago. My current phone has a 2k screen what barely makes sense on that size, a 14MP camera which is grainy as fuck, 4 cores with about 2.something Ghz each, 2 of which are off nearly all the time because who needs 4 cores?. I use it for browsing and SMS ...

You are right that by price sign barely any phones are as expensive as the iPhone (if any). But some Sony Xperia, Nokia Lumina and Samsung S6 play in the same range.

What makes the price point invalid in my POV is that you buy it with a contract usually. AFAIK the majority does. All the above mentioned phones will be $100, all the others (including the 32GB versions of the iPhone 6) are $0.

Also clearly you cant compare the sale figures. Apple makes 1 phone every other year. While the others mass produce models and usually create new ones per series at least yearly. Fact is that the majority of the world population is using Android again, also the Majority in most western countries has changed back to Android (at least those i care about)

<comment><USER4> The point that I'm trying to make is not which OS or company is better, the thread is about Apple making more money with the app store and why that is so.

I argue that Apple customers are less price sensitive than Android users. (on average) I know there are many Android users here that are less price sensitive than the average Apple users, but not everyone is part of the tech industry.

About the contracts: I don't know about the US, but in Austria/Germany the iPhones are more expensive even on contracts. I wonder how that could be that the price of a Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6S could be identical in the US on contract.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Anecdotal evidence and total sample of one person using actively both platforms, but I don't find many (or any, so far) apps for Android that I would consider buying. I have downloaded roughly the same number of apps on both phones, but I only ever bought iPhone and iPad apps (mostly from iOS-only developers, like OmniGroup). Is that just the part of platform identity, or overall software quality? Discovery issue, or reliance on well known software names before purchashing? I don't know, but I find I rely on Firefox on Android for mostly everything I do on that platform (excluding free communication apps), while iOS is far more varied.

<comment><USER4> I made the switch to iPhones a year ago (although I'm still mainly an Android developer) and can agree somewhat with your statement.

I rarely bought anything from the Google Play Store but I'm pretty sure this is due to the fact that on Android there is almost ALWAYS a free alternative for whatever you need.

On iOS not so much, even the crappiest app will cost you something.

But on the other hand I would do the same. iOS users are willing to spend more money on mobile apps/services which is also the reason why they buy expensive high end phones in the first place instead of buying a 50$ Android phone.

<comment><USER7> > even the crappiest app will cost you something.

isn't that a sign that competition in a more open platform makes for a better market for the consumer? And that paying for software is a thing of the past, and that other revenue models needs to be thought up.

Games have already made the transition, mainly due to the way they raced to the bottom and high cost of production, but i suspect utility apps will follow suit very soon.

<comment><USER5> IMHO they did. They serve ads and make often more money than if they would sell the app for a reasonable price. You even see this on Windows applications, like qTorrent which imo really sucks, but thats exactly what you get from expecting free software.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This data is bland. Google's revenue from its ability to use the additional data from this ecosystem surpasses Apple's 30% cut.

You know who looses? Developers.

<comment><USER9> According to some analysts (yes I know, but if a guessing game), Goggle makes 75% of its mobile ad revenue on iOS.

[http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/15/05/27/apples- ios-...](http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/15/05/27/apples-ios- drives-75-of-googles-mobile-advertising-revenue)

<comment><USER10> I would like to look at that "Goldman Sachs report" because everyone is quoting it but nobody has put a link to it. Now it seems like a fact but there is no single proof of it.

And not taking into account that Appleinsider is not the best and unbiased source of information.

<comment><USER9> The story was broke the New York Times, but Business Insider seems to have the best reference for it as they quote directly from the note and mention the lead author. Presumably the note isn't available online (for free anyway, such notes are often part of paid subscriptions but are occasionally provided to journalists). But bear in mind this entire thread is predicated on analysis, not canonical data.

[http://www.businessinsider.co.id/apple-walked-away-from- iad-...](http://www.businessinsider.co.id/apple-walked-away-from-iad-to- starve-googles-core-business-into-irrelevance-2016-1/)

<comment><USER10> So, there is no single proof of the assertion.

Is like God, you have to believe

<comment><USER9> The level of evidence I need for god is a bit higher than the standard I need for the mobile ad market. I suppose it depends on which religion we're talking about. I've often heard it said that the whole ad business is Voodoo.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder what the number of downloads represents, user-initiated acts or files transmitted?

Google lets developers publish updates easily and Apple does not, so the number of updates might be larger on android than on ios. Might be, I don't know.

<comment><USER12> I worked on a top 10 grossing (at one time) freemium ios/android game. Our iOS and android DAU were basically equivalent. However iOS generally made about double what android made daily.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I would like to know from which countries the iOS revenue comes from, given that in many countries very few people can afford one device off contract.

</comment><comment><USER14> Basic economics. You increase the price, sales go down. You lower the price, sales go up. Somewhere, there is an optimum in the profit you make.

<comment><USER15> Look up Veblum goods.

<comment><USER16> You mean Veblen goods :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I mostly use iOS (my phone) but i have an android tablet. From the few apps on my android tablet it seems they are lower quality, have more ads, and i have much much fewer apps on my android than ios mostly because of these reasons. It isn't a surprise that there are more Google downloads than app store downloads.

<comment><USER5> You choosed to use a free App which usually finances itself via ads. If you choose a paid app this usually is not the case. Apple is rather like paid apps only, and those which are free are usually really crappy (or earn with you otherwise)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> In late 2010, I did a survey in my office with my co-workers. 9 of them had Android devices and only 2 of us had iPhones. I went door to door and asked everyone if they had ever purchased an app for money. Only Android user said yes, but it took him a while to remember what he had even purchased since he didn't use the app anymore. Both of us who had iPhones purchased multiple products including on Cydia (The jailbroken app store). We both also made purchases early on when the App Store prices were still in the $5 - $10 range for apps which are today mostly free. This seems to be a continuation of that trend; More total Android devices with less total revenue.

</comment><comment><USER19>
      Apple is getting ahead mostly because of China app store revenue. China Android app stores revenue alone is more than half Apple Worldwide store revenue.
       Google entering into China market will improve its revenue but China Android App store are extremely competitive market and they will have a hard time entering and taking away market share from current app stores.

</comment><comment><USER20> It's always been like this, no?

</comment><comment><USER21> "Revenue" meaning total money moving through the store, or revenue to Google/Apple only? If the latter then the numbers will depend on the cuts each company takes.

<comment><USER22> Isn't that the same for both stores though? (30% of price)

<comment><USER10> No, Google doesn't take a cut from Netflix, Amazon, etc

And not taking into account that that revenue is only from direct payment, ad revenue is not included.

<comment><USER15> Apple doesn't take a cut either for selling non digital goods and Amazon doesn't let you buy digital goods via the app.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> apple customers spend more money. android customers are cheapskates... this is old news, but the scale of it and having some measurements from others to back it up is nice.

</comment><comment><USER24> This is why we develop for iOS first => [https://impossible.ventures/ios- first/](https://impossible.ventures/ios-first/)

<comment><USER25> Yep, if you release for iOS first and then bring halfassed obsolete version on Android (as most people do) one year later, you're of course going to see less revenue there.

<comment><USER26> There are also developers, like ustwo who releases the same game (Monument Valley) on both platforms within a short period of time. In this case iOS in April and Android in May. Still the numbers for Android are nowhere near those of iOS, despite there being more Android phone.

If the development cost for both platforms are roughly equal, it might not make sense to develop an Android version in the future. Instead the money could be put to better use making a new iOS title.

The reason why Android apps are selling so poorly could of cause as you say be due to lack of quality on the apps in general. If you buy two, three or four apps when you get your new Android phone and their all terrible, then you might decide not to waste money on any app in the future. If that's the case Google should start curating their app store. Otherwise it will be a continuing vicious circle where users aren't buying and developers push out increasingly lower quality, because the revenue can cover the cost of development.

<comment><USER24> > If the development cost for both platforms are roughly equal, it might not > make sense to develop an Android version in the future. Instead the money > could be put to better use making a new iOS title.

Yup - this is our reasoning too.

<comment><USER25> > Yup - this is our reasoning too.

And that's understandable, but acting lously towards your customers will make you fail on the market. On iOS and Android. It's shockingly common that Apple user CEOs suddenly throw all attention to design, marketing and customers out the window on their Android wonder and then whine how noone likes to buy their applications.

<comment><USER24> Why do you assume that we do this? You're pretty accusatory about this whole thing.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Whats the best way to track success of ad campaigns? - <AUTHOR>

Hey Guys, We just launched Mingle Trips and I am using various ads on Facebook to get initial users to the site.
But my problem is that I do not know how many of them are actually converting - ie. creating a trip on Mingle Trips.
I can create different landing page for each campaign and track that way. But this looks like too clumsy a method.
Is there a better way to do this?
I tried Google Analytics and KissMetrics, but doesn't solve my purpose. Thanks. <comment><USER2> Why does Google Analytics not meet your needs? Rather than creating different landing pages, have you tried tagging the links in the ads using Google's URL builder [0] and then using Goals and Funnels in Analytics to track conversions?

[0] [http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?...](http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578)</comment>


Five IC makers join $3B 'capex club' - <AUTHOR> http://eetimes.com/electronics-news/4212394/Five-IC-makers-join--3B--capex-club--

<comment><USER2> It is very interesting to see TI scaling back 25%, particularly with their OMAP 4 processors being in demand. I wonder what the reason is?

<comment><USER3> TI may be scaling back due to the costs of keeping up. It would not be unexpected for them to go fabless. The thinking is that 3 organizations will continue manufacturing logic chips: Intel, TSMC, and GlobalFoundries.

<comment><USER2> Oddly enough my PandaBoard (TI OMAP 4) arrived today... but it was ordered back at the start of November. I actually called the manufacturer that supplies Digi-Key to figure out what was going on after two successive 1 month delivery slips from Digi-Key.

For all intents and purposes, the PandaBoard is basically the prototype for the OMAP 4 chip, save for the obvious fact TI did not build it. It seems TI has no interest in providing an "official" development platform, and most likely because others were willing to build them for free (to TI).

Even with this outside help, TI has had problems keeping component delivery dates with the folks building the PandaBoards. Though I haven't heard any "verifiable rumors" (assuming there is such a thing), my guess is TI is having fab process and yield problems on the OMAP lines. The really troubling thing is, those kind of problems are usually solved by _more_ fab investment, rather than less.</comment></comment></comment>


Getting Started with AppHarbor – Heroku for .NET - <AUTHOR> http://www.aaronstannard.com/post/2011/01/14/Getting-Started-with-AppHarbor-e28093-Heroku-for-NET.aspx

<comment><USER2> I migrated <http://weekplan.net> yesterday in just a few hours. The main difficulty was the incompleteness of the documentation which is easily solvable.

Asp.net Mvc3 + NuGet + Razor + AppHarbor is becoming a viable alternative for productive development.

<comment><USER3> Agree, very easy once I was able to git out of my own way. Haven't really done much with it yet, but this is what Azure should be in terms of a developer experience. I'll be interested to see the AH guys evolve the service and start to get some of the elasticity of heroku, Azure, et al. Great start though and great support as they build out docs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Cool... so what are the current known issues with AppHarbor compared to Heroku (sans the witty -- "uses .NET").

<comment><USER5> I doesn't support MS Test in its testing process it uses during builds, but other than that I haven't run into any issues using it. It does support NUnit and xUnit though.

<comment><USER4> Thanks. Have you tried it with WebMatrix?

<comment><USER5> I haven't yet - I have ASP.NET MVC3 RTM up and running on it though: <http://geekyreads.com/>

<comment><USER4> I didn't even know that shipped already (MVC 3 RTM)! I thought HN was supposed to keep me up to date on stuff like that! :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> .net needs this so bad. The two paid hosting providers I've used in the past were beyond terrible.

<comment><USER7> It needs an open source solution or a solution you can buy and run on your own servers, because most of us doing .NET are doing it for corporations and on their own private servers.

<comment><USER8> I agree with the demand. Personally, however, I do think that most companies should seriously consider cloud hosting rather than running a private cloud...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks awesome. Can't wait to try this out...unfortunately the invite code seems to have expired.

<comment><USER8> It's good for twenty more sign-ups, so please try again.

<comment><USER9> I kept getting "invite code not found" errors. If you have any more invites, I would love to get one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What are the security limitations of AppHarbor? I see that they support NHibernate via custom security, but could I also run NHibernate Search / Lucene.NET, or is the filesystem locked down like Heroku?

<comment><USER8> We are currently evaluating whether or not to allow writes to the file system... The thing is that while you could use it for temporary storage, we may transfer your application to another server or run it on multiple, so you can't really rely on it. So for indexing I would just recommend that you try out <http://websolr.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Probably editing error, but their terms page (<https://appharbor.com/page/terms>) skips over section 4.1.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's fixed, thanks!</comment></comment>


An example of command-line bullshittery in computer science research - <AUTHOR> http://pgbovine.net/cmdline-bs-example.htm

<comment><USER2> In physics, most time is spend with "fiddling with experimental apparatus bullshittery". I don't see why CS research should be any different- if you want to do state of the art work (the blog author is not) you have to expect some level of DIY assembly.

Most of the complaints in the blog post could really have been addressed in other, simpler ways (for example, a self-signed cert is acceptable for prototyping work).

Further, you can't just expect the world to be elegant, or think that spending time to make things more elegant will get you further faster. You have to accept some level of friction.

If you want to fix this, get out of CS research and build some good open source software that solves problems for people then promote the software so that people use it.

</comment><comment><USER3> _some steps require waiting for up to an hour_

Poor poor man. I should forward this to all my experimental physics and engineering friends, where a slight change inputs means several weeks rebuilding your experiment hardware, plus waiting 6 weeks for that one obscure piece of hardware to ship from that one obscure supplier in Germany (only to find out that you actually really needed something slightly different).</comment>


Google launches Its Knowledge Graph - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/16/google-just-got-a-whole-lot-smarter-launches-its-knowledge-graph/

<comment><USER2> Finally Google is moving in the right direction. There is still a lot more they can do with semantic search. For example, wouldn't it be great to see the related topics in a concept map, have meanings and history right there, but also let people curate this knowledge graph.

Check out InstaGrok. It does something like that- <http://www.instagrok.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> Discussion here <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3982887>

</comment><comment><USER4> Ok, this is much cooler than spew (I mean spyw).

Thanks Google - I'm looking forward to having relevance in my search again!

</comment><comment><USER5> Looks like Wolfram alpha inside Google, no ?

<comment><USER6> More like DuckDuckGo if you ask me.

<comment><USER7> More like Metaweb, the technology this is based off of (purchased by Google in 2010).</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Virtual Financial Officer - When SaaS dashboard isn't enough - <AUTHOR> http://www.virtualfinancialofficer.io

<comment><USER2> Maybe you could offer some screenshots of an example so we know what to expect?</comment>


37Signals Redesigns Basecamp's Homepage - <AUTHOR> http://basecamphq.com

<comment><USER2> A screencap of the previous page design would help - from what I recall it must be pretty similar.</comment>


Overheated Silicon Valley Is Headed for a Bust - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/543381/vc-bill-gurley-tries-to-bust-the-bubble/?utm_campaign=Mattermark+Daily&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=24055255&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_ccDuOrbreIm1i8ZQbVIeG9OtMgGi5SVYDfaJqsz3ygdiDX5tGdhMEyDYzi_2TlsdZLhOPm-B86TeXxlEHHdZ9-JFaQQ&_hsmi=24055255 <comment><USER2> Here, have a ton of articles saying we're in a bubble and it's about to burst.

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=bubble%20silicon%20valley&sort...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=bubble%20silicon%20valley&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

</comment><comment><USER3> That was pretty hand wavy, particularly compared to this counterpoint:

[http://blog.samaltman.com/the-tech-bust- of-2015](http://blog.samaltman.com/the-tech-bust-of-2015)

</comment><comment><USER4> I hope it bursts soon, we could use the traffic relief.</comment>


Google tracks link clicks in Hangouts - <AUTHOR> Open a Hangouts chat from the GMail web client.  Send a URL to someone (or receive one).  Right-click → Inspect Element; the actual link will be a redirect through google.com.<p>I can't be the only one who thinks Google is severely violating user trust by tracking clicks in supposedly private conversations.  (I know Facebook does this too, but I don't think anyone would be surprised at Facebook's behavior.) <comment><USER2> Really, well I am pretty shocked if it is liked that. Although firewall settings are different, it may be possible that some [https://viebb.com/entertainment/free-unblocked-movies- websit...](https://viebb.com/entertainment/free-unblocked-movies-websites- online/) sites are blocked. You can use VPN services or Socks proxy sites to access these sites</comment>


The fivethirtyeight R package - <AUTHOR> http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2017/01/the-fivethirtyeight-r-package.html <comment><USER2> In my opinion, 538 did some of the best analytics work in the 2016 election. They were the only ones who came anywhere close to property estimating the chances of the outcome that actually occurred, and they were one of only a couple models who took sufficiently seriously how unusual things were - particularly, the massive unpopularity of both candidates.

I'm getting really irritated with people (in this thread and other) attacking 538 along partisan or personal lines for not making the same predictions they did personally. 538 made a model, not a poll; they are only ever as good as the polls they represent, and even then, they still managed to be better than quite a lot of public polling and commentary. If Hillary Clinton had won, the same kinds of people on the other side would be attacking 538 for being _too_ bullish on Trump.

The worst part is that a lot of this is predicated on the idea that giving something a 1 in 3 chance is the same as saying it'll never happen, when it's almost the opposite. There are some critical misunderstandings of statistics going on here, on all sides.

<comment><USER3> After the election, Silver said something to the effect of this. That given the polling data available, there is no way anyone could have favored Trump. Clinton was leading by a large amount in a large percentage of polls. You would have to apply some _seriously_ creative statistics to make a model that favored Trump.

Systemic polling error is a thing that happens. It's happened in previous elections. The polls are much more accurate than chance, but they aren't infallible. Particularly in this election, it's difficult to predict voter turnout from polls.

538 was one of the only models that took that into account. And as far as I know, they gave better odds to Trump than everyone else that tried to predict the election with statistical methods. Certainly they have a better track record than political pundits, which have never been better than chance.

<comment><USER4> Yep. And it's also worth remembering that FiveThirtyEight's thing is that they do analysis based on data as opposed to punditry. Yes, they apply corrections and otherwise filter the data sources. But some people seem to think that Silver should have gotten up a couple days before the election, state that he had a bad feeling about things, and dismiss the best forecast he could make based on some shaky polling data and gone with Trump based on gut feel. Sure, he would have ended up being correct. That would also run counter to the fundamental philosophy of the site.

<comment><USER5> People forget that Silver's approach is basically weighting polls to figure out what the election will be, and he's the best "poll weigher" out there. But if the polls are systematically wrong, being the best at it is an unimpressive subtlety to the layperson.

To the extent 2018 brings increasingly contentious elections, we will likely see polling to remain inaccurate due to voter unwillingness to state unpopular opinions. In that case, multi-input "big data" approaches may prevail.

(Of course, it's also possible that 2016 is a "top" in terms of divisive rhetoric...only time can tell.)

<comment><USER6> >In that case, multi-input "big data" approaches may prevail.

What do you think this would look like? Inferring voter preferences based on proxies or instruments?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's worth nothing that per the linked talks, 538's data visualizations are indeed created with R and ggplot2; the fancy annotations are done in Illustrator after exporting from ggplot2 in SVG/PDF.

The vignettes ([https://mran.microsoft.com/web/packages/fivethirtyeight/vign...](https://mran.microsoft.com/web/packages/fivethirtyeight/vignettes/bechdel.html)) are a good tutorial in dplyr/ggplot2 too.

<comment><USER8> Side question: Can I create interactive visualizations with R? Something akin to D3 in javascript?

<comment><USER7> I strongly recommend using Plotly, specifically ggplotly ([https://plot.ly/ggplot2/](https://plot.ly/ggplot2/)), which converts ggplot2 charts to interactive d3 charts with good parity. Plotly also has WebGL and 3D data visualization support. One of the Plotly developers has a very good book on using Plotly in R: [https://cpsievert.github.io/plotly_book/](https://cpsievert.github.io/plotly_book/)

Here's a higher-level demo of ggplotly in one of my R Notebooks: [http://minimaxir.com/notebooks/breach- network/](http://minimaxir.com/notebooks/breach-network/)

Shiny requires an external server and is often overkill for static data.

<comment><USER9> You can build Shiny apps in RStudio and publish them with one click to shinyapps.io. Works very similarly to publishing with Plotly, even though Shiny is a server-side package vs. client-side for Plotly.

(You can build a Plotly chart in ggplot, embed it in a web page and then script it with JS to get a visualization. Frankly, that's a PITA. You can write R/shiny code that will generate a visualization, with HTML controls etc, and you end up writing a web app in R and that's a different PITA. I would like to see Plotly generate a web wrapper that automates wiring up a plotly graph and scripting it from an app so you can update data on the fly to make it a visualization. Supposedly they are working on it with their dash framework, but it's not released yet.)

<comment><USER7> The pricing on shinyapps.io is prohibitive if the post gets any more than a trickle of page views.

The embed-directly-into-HTML is the approach I use for my Jekyll blog and it does not require much effort. (I just have to set a YAML flag to load Plotly library)

<comment><USER9> Yes, for embedding a chart and getting some basic active functionality Plotly is very easy.

The part that requires some custom Plotly coding is when you want to script the chart ... have HTML buttons, sliders, to filter, recompute, revisualize the data.

It's beautiful that it even works, and you can programmatically update the JSON of an embedded chart. But it would be nice if you could give Plotly a dataset, plot the data, and say, give me a button to filter rows using these criteria for this column (or run some other code on the data) and re-render the chart. Right now you have to code that manually and update the JSON model.

Visualization used to mean charts that were animated and/or would dynamically update but now it means any old chart LOL.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I find it interesting that there isn't a single comment here about the package itself.

There's some interesting datasets in here[1]! Everything from "How American's like their Steak"[2] to "The Most Common Unisex Names In America: Is Yours One Of Them?"[3]

As a (mostly) Python person I'd like to see these in Python!

[1] [https://mran.microsoft.com/web/packages/fivethirtyeight/five...](https://mran.microsoft.com/web/packages/fivethirtyeight/fivethirtyeight.pdf)

[2] [https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how-americans-like- their...](https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how-americans-like-their-steak/)

[3] [https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/there-are-922-unisex- na...](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/there-are-922-unisex-names-in- america-is-yours-one-of-them/)

</comment><comment><USER11> I remember HuffingtonPost showing a 98% chance of Hillary winning. Seemed way too optimistic. I wonder how many voters that influenced to "safely" vote for a non-mainstream candidate...

Here is their methodology -- apparently quite flawed?

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/high-probability- clinton...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/high-probability-clinton- winning_us_581d0399e4b0e80b02ca2498)

</comment><comment><USER12> My eyes, the small text.</comment>


What makes teams successful? 150,000 GitHub projects analyzed - <AUTHOR> http://research.gigaom.com/2014/07/part-1-what-makes-teams-successful/ <comment><USER2> This sounds like they are reversing the likely cause-and-effect:

"Even in larger teams, high-impact teams have core and support cadres. A small number — sometimes just one — of the team do the majority of the work, while other, non-core members act in support roles."

Successful projects will tend to bring in a larger number of contributors, most of whom will only make a few contributions. So successful projects will tend to have this pattern. But it is the success of the project that creates that pattern, not the other way around. Lots of projects are not successful, so no one ever contributes to them.

<comment><USER3> Yes, I had the same reaction. I don't think the 'more people participating' observation is so useful.

 _But_ I find the related -- and almost opposing -- one to be useful and thought-provoking, and matching my experience and suspicions:

> Even in larger teams, high-impact teams have core and support cadres. A > small number — sometimes just one — of the team do the majority of the work, > while other, non-core members act in support roles...

> High-impact teams are more likely to be 'dominated': where the lead member > contributed more work than all the other contributors combined.

I think sometimes we think to have success, we have to widely distribute the responsibility/authority. This apparently shows that that's not _neccesarily_ the case, a succesful project can still have a very small number of people (often just one) doing the bulk of the work and with authority (formal or informal) for the direction of the project.

I'm not sure that means you should try to create this as a means of success. On the other hand, it can be hard, but possible, to have a clear direction and goals and stay consistent to them, with "too many cooks".

That successful/influential projects have lots of people participating is not surprising -- success draws contributors. What may be counter-intuitive is that even after this happens nonetheless there are still usually only a few (or often one) person providing the heavy lifting.

<comment><USER4> It does appear to be the 90-9-1% rule of the Internet at play, but you might be on to something.

In a more traditional organization you would have architects and other senior development leads plowing the way with a number of subordinates that provide the necessary but dirty grunt work scaffolding around the central architecture. It's not that they're doing more work. Instead they are charging through the hard problems that more junior developers struggle around, but don't have the time to dive deep into tiny implementation details required for large projects.

The interesting data would likely come from these closed sourced projects and complement the data of the open projects. I would love to see that analysis and comparison.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In the teams where one person does more than all others combined, why is that described as "a successful team" rather than "a successful person who succeeds despite a bunch of hangers-on"?

<comment><USER6> I think that's looking at it the wrong way - you have one person who's talented and/or hard-working; contributing to the majority of the project and the others are the supporters - they're function may be primarily to allow the core contributor to do what he does best and while they take care of the more mundane tasks, provide their knowledge / experience and so forth when needed.

A little bit of encouragement and support goes a long way.

<comment><USER7> IME it's usually the other way around about who's doing the mundane tasks. Occasional contributors are most motivated by getting in their one pet feature; it's the project leader who takes on the dull task of cultivating an environment where other people can bolt on that feature successfully.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I find that most mature projects are incredibly hesitant to accept patches.

I have found critical bugs in some projects and the people with repo access let the pull request sit there for a year or more.

<comment><USER9> Any examples/PR links?

<comment><USER8> Sorry but I'm not willing to make a public enemy out of any of these projects just to prove a point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The summary at the top seems to indicate that a team will have high impact if one guy does all the work and have a "team" unimportant work. So not quite what I was hoping to see.</comment>


Show HN: IndexTank's search API will live on at Searchify - <AUTHOR> http://www.searchify.com/

<comment><USER2> It's absolutely amazing how fast you managed to get it running. You're awesome.

</comment><comment><USER3> As one of IndexTanks developers, I think this is awesome. Good work!

</comment><comment><USER4> Good luck to Searchify. I love/d IndexTank. And Jorge thanks for all the assistance you always gave us in IRC and on live chat. :)

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice. If someone for Searchify is here, I would love to know whether you think you'll be out of beta before April.

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here.. yes for sure. Probably more like February

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Better name than Indextank!

<comment><USER4> I disagree, IndexTank is great. Each to their own.

IndexTank would be a great name for the Google crawler too.</comment></comment>


What the grieving mother orca tells us about how animals experience death - <AUTHOR> https://theconversation.com/what-the-grieving-mother-orca-tells-us-about-how-animals-experience-death-101230 <comment><USER2> The idea that beings which are grossly anatomically and physiologically similar to ourselves somehow don't experience similar emotions as ourselves is objectively the most backward, bizarre, and anthrocentric biological idea I can imagine.

The default rational -- and scientific -- position should be that animals' inner lives _are_ roughly similar to our own, at least in proportion to the similarity of their observable experience, and until proven otherwise. To assume otherwise -- that animals are dead inside, because they look different, or -- forgive the cynicism -- because they challenge some misplaced idea of human exceptionalism -- _that_ is "faith", and not science.

<comment><USER3> I've been struggling with this myself recently, about the ethics of eating meat and whether animals have a "soul".

My argument for a long time was that animals have no ego, therefore death is insignificant to them. Animals are incapable of forming abstract concepts, of thinking about the future or the past in concrete terms, of forming feelings and emotions.

However, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that at least the more intelligent mammals, such as whales and dolphins, as well as apes, do have an ego. Plenty of people argue that it's unethical to kill whales and dolphins because they do have an ego and can form abstract thoughts.

So apparently whales are off the table, but cows are fine? Where is that line drawn? I don't have that answer, so I've gone off eating meat in general. The concept of killing a living, possibly thinking being in order to eat it seems a bit fucked up to me these days. I can't say with certainty if/what animals do have an ego, or if they are capable of abstract thoughts, but it for me it seems safer to assume they do and avoid eating them.

<comment><USER4> Nature is rough my friend. Dogs and bears (which are closely related to dogs) have emotion and form bonds, but they ruthlessly prey one on the other. You and I might live a comfortable life now, but without society you would put any sentient being on the plate in order to feed your own sentient offspring.

Just as you believe that animals are no different from man, you should realize that man is no different from animals and that our physiology requires us to eat them just as they must eat each other. Of course with modern nutritional knowledge and preparation techniques you _could_ live off flora, but human physiology in the absence of technology requires meat no matter how cute or emotional the prey.

<comment><USER5> I don't see the relevance. We do live in society and do have technology. Without those things, we wouldn't have hospitals, cardboard, or Hacker News either, but what does that mean?

There's a sort of meme which is like a lecture on how dangerous the world 'really' is, often to justify or advocate a lack of compassion. It's portrayed as 'realism' but I find it surreal: We don't live in a state of nature and we have no desire to. Why are we talking about it? Why don't we aim for more, as our ancestors who built this society did?

<comment><USER6> > There's a sort of meme which is like a lecture on how dangerous the world > 'really' is, often to justify or advocate a lack of compassion.

But on the other hand, compassion is not an absolute value either. Taken to extremes, it fosters individual weakness, hypersensitivity, emotionality. And, on a social level, degeneracy of all sorts - crime, mental disease, etc.

That's why ancient societies took pains to train their young men in the arts of war, long after it had ceased to be objectively necessary. The predatory instincts have a great deal of character-building value.

<comment><USER5> > Taken to extremes, it fosters individual weakness, hypersensitivity, > emotionality. And, on a social level, degeneracy of all sorts - crime, > mental disease, etc.

I disagree. What is that based on? Compassion fosters crime? The experts I know, and my experience in the world, say compassion fosters emotional strength, reduces behavioral problems, and increases resilience.

> That's why ancient societies took pains to train their young men in the arts > of war, long after it had ceased to be objectively necessary. The predatory > instincts have a great deal of character-building value.

Again, is there any basis for this? It's bizarre. Even if it's true of "ancient societies" (what time period? which ones?), I have no desire to live in one - and neither would you. We've moved far beyond their bizarre, archaic beliefs and practices. Should we return to human sacrifice, illiteracy, and constant war too?

I'm guessing that fostering "predatory instincts" fosters crime, mental disease, not to mention war and violence.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Anthropomorphization is tempting but wrong [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/health/02iht-02angi.15827...](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/health/02iht-02angi.15827535.html)

> Everywhere in nature, biologists say, are examples of animals behaving as > though they were at least vaguely aware of death's brutal supremacy and yet > unpersuaded that it had anything to do with them. Michael Wilson, an > assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota who has > studied chimpanzees at Jane Goodall's research site in Gombe, said chimps > were "very different from us in terms of what they understand about death > and the difference between the living and the dead." The Hallmark hanky > moment alternates with the Roald Dahl macabre. A mother will try to nurse > her dead baby back to life, Wilson said, "but when the infant becomes quite > decayed, she'll carry it by just one leg or sling it over her back in a > casual way."

<comment><USER8> Whether they actually have similar internal experience or not I think still does not justify the way humans treat animals. If a developmentally disabled human was not able comprehend life, death or suffering, that would not excuse mistreatment of that person.

Whether animals understand life or not isn't really the point, and I think these arguments are misused to justify explotation and mistreatment.

<comment><USER7> This whole discussion is about whether they understand it. But I think it's revealing that multiple people have shifted the discussion to the treatment of animals -- it seems to me like some of us, rather than thinking animals deserve better treatment because of their sentience, think animals must be sentient because they deserve better treatment. Personally, I do not find the evidence that humans have anything approaching a human internal life persuasive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Or, could the behavior just show that that whales don't understand death at all and the whale was just instinctively trying to aid her "sick" calf until he recovered?

</comment><comment><USER10> in a similar way, there's a story about octopussies: they will heat their offsprings nest to near death and then leave as far as possible so predators aren't attracted by her corpse.. If true that's a deep conceptual step

<comment><USER11> That's just evolution. The offspring of octopus mothers that died next to the nest also got eaten so didn't survive to reproduce and pass on that trait.

<comment><USER10> evolution also made a path for mothers to heat the nest

still it's a interesting common point

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The entire article is stupid

> This is perhaps because most humans failed to even entertain the possibility > that animals might care about the death of those they love.

Ever person with two pets who hung out and had one die has looked to see if the other showed grief. A really stupid strawperson premise. And you'll see it, but the question as a layperson is, is it real or imagined.

Also dogs mourning their dead owners have multiple fucking movies made about them. It's pop culture for dams sake. Hachikō was re-made into an American movie from a Japanese movie made off multiple news articles.

But at the end of the day if animals show grief why are they using this current cliche of J35. Why not the billions of animals that interact with us every day. Why are they using famous cases of grief that we've all heard before?</comment>


Looking for What's Not There - <AUTHOR> https://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2019-06/nsec-cache.html <comment><USER2> I keep seeing this argument that dnssec/dane puts more power in the hands of registrars, which are not as trustworthy as CAs.

Aren't most TLS certs domain validated anyways? The current TLS practice already puts full trust in registrars AND CAs.

Also, complaints that registrars can quietly change out sites without anyone noticing, is pretending that we cannot watch the state of the DNS over time. Don't we have certificate transparency already to solve a similar problem in the WebPKI?

<comment><USER3> Yes, on DNSSEC the people that can impersonate your site is a strict subset of the people that can do so on TLS.

But I'm not sure certificate transparency will work as well for DNS as it does for TLS. At least not without some changes (that are a good idea for many other reasons) like permitting SRV for HTTP.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Huston here concedes that the intended benefits of DNSSEC haven't panned out --- TLS provides all the name authentication people want, browsers won't adopt DANE to move CAs into the DNS (also, certificates are now free), mail providers are doing STS instead of DNSSEC. It's hard to see an impetus for deploying DNSSEC, and, of course, virtually none of the most important names on the Internet are signed.

Huston suggests a new reason to deploy DNSSEC: it might stop a specific DNS denial of service attack.

(The attack is trivial: you can just have a botnet make up random DNS names and query them, saturating the authority servers.)

DNSSEC is designed around "offline signers", meaning that as originally designed, it can't synthesize new DNS responses for queries. But it also wants "authenticated denial", which just means you can cryptographically trust "no such record" responses. That's problematic, because you can't predict the nonexistent names people will ask you about, and you can't sign responses on demand.

The way DNSSEC originally solved this problem was with "NSEC", which is a record that states that no valid name exists between a lexicographically ordered pair of names. You pre-generate the covering NSEC ranges for your zone, and your servers can now authenticate the non-existence of any record.

(This addresses Huston's DOS attack by allowing DNS caches to NXDOMAIN queries they've never seen before, because they've cached NSEC responses from authority servers that state that there's no point in forwarding the queries).

There's an obvious problem here: attackers can also now enumerate precisely all the hosts in your zone, which is an old feature of DNS (AXFR) that network security teams have been frantically disabling for 2 decades. There's a whole line of DNSSEC revisions that try to account for this fact, most notably NSEC3, which uses a weak password hash to scramble the ranges (pretty unsuccessfully). But the best-known mode of deployment for DNSSEC now involves something called "whitelies", in which the DNSSEC server now simply becomes an online signer and generates new ranges on the fly.

Which breaks Huston's proposal.

Mostly I think it's funny that anyone would try to motivate DNSSEC deployment as a mitigation to a single species of DOS attack, especially when DNSSEC itself is (fairly or not) itself notorious as a DOS amplifier (DNSSEC responses are huge, so there's a pretty big packet magnification effect in its deployment).

<comment><USER5> >>

Why doesn't DNS simply accept the fact that either:

1) your hosts are public

2) DNS is a stateful protocol and different clients _may_ see different responses by server? (e.g. return false denials for unauthorized clients)

<comment><USER6> > 2) DNS is a stateful protocol and different clients _may_ see different > responses by server? (e.g. return false denials for unauthorized clients)

Caching is what makes DNS usable. If you do this in a way that doesn't break caching, it's not so simple.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm looking for what's not there: An informative title! Heh heh. Seriously though, this might've been one of those rare occasions when improving on the original title might've been warranted. Something like "The Value Proposition of DNSSEC" or "Is DNSSEC Worth It?" (though the latter starts to sound like clickbait)

For the record, the HN submission guidelines encourage changing the title if it's misleading, but not if it's vague.

<comment><USER2> There was an informative title. Can't think of a good reason why it was changed here on HN.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Has anyone here started a software company in a small town? - <AUTHOR> Hello HN,
I am originally from a town of ~6,000 people in northern Michigan. My story mirrors most of the college educated students in my graduating class: moved away for college, got a degree, and then stayed away from home because there are few jobs for college educated people.
I've always wanted to give back to my home community by starting a software company there. The local economy couldn't support a software consultancy, but a SaaS company could work. The obvious problem is attracting and retaining talent [and also having a profitable company ;)].
I suspect that there are software developers out there that would want to have the small-town lifestyle while still working on interesting things and not having to be remote.
So, has anyone here ever started a software company in a small town? How'd it go? What were some of the problems? Successes?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> I initially wrote a rather long post about the disaster that was my experience. I have not really talked about it in a decade and it felt good to rant about it. If there is interest, I'll post the longer post as well.

I'm sure there are great small towns and not all experiences will be like mine. My caution from personal experience is this: Make sure you actually understand the politics before you invest any resources. Perhaps as a this is your hometown you will be able to succeed where I failed.

Small town politics are insufferable. In this town of 2800, one extended family held every political office and every board membership, and by extension controlled every municipal job. If the town leadership don't support you, you are screwed.

No matter what your intentions are, you should expect that some members of a small community will question them and distrust you if you are an outsider. This prejudiced will extend to any out of area employee you bring on board. Someone actually challenged my efforts to install solar power stating it would cause cancer.

The graduating class typically had one kid moving on any form of higher education. Education and technology were just not priorities for the people of this more agrarian community.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hi.

1) I can't find the really clear article that introduced me to this, but a fellow started a hardware/software company in Nelson, BC (2016 population = 10 664 people). It appears to me that he moved to the small city for the lifestyle, started networking for like-minded people by forming a hacker space, and was able to found a high-tech company. [1] [2] [3]

2) I have a friend who had some success making mobile games, and asked a couple of us, who live in the rural southern Alberta, Canada (my town's population is ~3500) to help co-found a company to do more of this. [I myself am a programmer, not an entrepreneur]. We did contract people (especially programmers, artists) around the world, peaking at around 30 people. The business did really well for about three years but is struggling now.

I wish we could afford to hire local talent. I see so many incredibly talented people, such as a world-class painter, struggling to make ends meet. I also know that the chief limit on people moving to my area is simply the lack of jobs.

Cheers.

[1] [https://kootenaybiz.com/40-under-40/article/brad_pommen](https://kootenaybiz.com/40-under-40/article/brad_pommen) [2] [https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment- business/econo...](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment- business/economic-development/bc-ideas-exchange/success-stories/technology- sector/nelson-tech) [3] [https://smrt1.ca/about-us](https://smrt1.ca/about-us)

</comment><comment><USER4> I've worked in the NY suburbs. Finding office space with high speed internet and enough parking can be challenging as you grow. Financing will probably be the more traditional bank loans, although it's worth checking to see if Michigan has any special programs for starting a company in a small town or rural area. For engineering talent, expect a number of capable people without CS degrees.</comment>