MacOS FileVault2 Password Retrieval - <AUTHOR> http://blog.frizk.net/2016/12/filevault-password-retrieval.html <comment><USER3> I've had this in my .profile for years:

      alias sleepsafe='sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 1 hibernatemode 25'
      alias sleepfast='sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0'
      alias sleepdefault='sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3'

Whenever I travel or need to leave my laptop, I always run `sleepsafe`, which will delete the key from memory and hibernate the computer when I close the lid. It has the added benefit of saving battery life.

Day-to-day, I use `sleepfast`, which is faster than the default hybrid sleep, because it doesn't spend time copying the contents of memory to disk.

I very rarely switch to `sleepdefault` which is the insecure and slower hybrid sleep.

This has been a known issue for years [http://osxdaily.com/2013/07/06/maximize-filevault- security-d...](http://osxdaily.com/2013/07/06/maximize-filevault-security- destroy-key-storage-standby/) [https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/02/02/filevault- encryp...](https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/02/02/filevault-encryption- broken/)

<comment><USER4> Thanks for sharing these awesome shortcuts!

Are there any caveats that I should be aware of before just stealing this to use for myself?

<comment><USER3> Just make sure you eject any removable disks before hibernating. And, sleepfast may drain your battery faster than the default hybrid sleep

<comment><USER5> OP said sleepfast increases his battery life. It sounds like you lose whatever is in memory though

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Things like this are a reason I unhesitatingly recommend that people stick with their OS's built in FDE:

1\. FDE is extremely limited. This particular attack is a clever abuse of sleep/reboot cycles, but of course people intimately familiar with FDE know that if a laptop is sleeping but not shut down it's already perilously close to the boundary at which FDE breaks down. And, of course, once it's woken up and unlocked --- which _every attacker who actually challenges FDE can arrange for_ , all bets are off.

2\. When flaws like this are found, the OS vendors have much more recourse than third parties do, which is why this post concludes by saying that Macs are now the most secure laptop platform with respect to DMA attacks against FDE.

Use FDE! Enable it on all your machines! But try not to rely on it, and don't waste too much time optimizing it.

<comment><USER7> I don't know about Apple but Microsoft has a pretty nasty way of handling user's Bitlocker keys.

If you use a Microsoft account, your key is automatically backed-up in Microsoft's cloud. Red flag #1.

Also, as the recent Bitlocker bypass "bug" showed us, Microsoft has some way of bypassing Bitlocker encryption when it performs updates on the system. I don't know if they have some kind of key escrow or what, but either way - <USER2> flag #2.

Of course, I'd say the bigger problem is that Microsoft doesn't even give the majority of Windows users the option to encrypt their computers, by restricting Bitlocker to expensive computers and Windows licenses, while every other operating system does. So the advice to "just use the built-in FDE" doesn't work for the majority of Windows users.

<comment><USER8> A PC + "expensive Windows professional license" is still cheaper than a Mac.

<comment><USER9> This is not really relevant to the discussion, or even fully accurate. Most people who buy windows licenses (including me) buy one of the base licenses because we generally don't need the other "professional" features on our home computers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Good on Apple for "completely" fixing this, according to the authors. But am I wrong to wish for more plain-English acknowledgement of the problem and reassurance in Apple's 10.12.2 release notes?

i.e. [https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT207423](https://support.apple.com/en- ca/HT207423)

Anyways, at this point in time it's nice to read (from the authors of the exploit): "The mac is now one of the most secure platforms with regards to this specific attack vector."

<comment><USER11> I read through the release notes, and I didn't see any mention of this issue at all. The fix must have been a EFI firmware update (my Mac did restart multiple times during the update, so this sounds plausible), but nothing is mentioned about this anywhere.

<comment><USER12> I saw the firmware-update progress bar (one of several similar progress bars that macOS/OS X can show during startup) during a 10.12.2 update. So that's a bit more confirmation...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Good hack, good on Apple for getting fixes out.

But what worries me somewhat is that the tools for mitigation for these families of attacks include a lot of technologies that are traditionally opposed by the community here on the grounds that it "takes away control from the user.

I'm not sure how we balance out those tensions, but attacks like this sure as heck concern me about my homebuilt machine. I do my best not to keep any important keys there.

<comment><USER14> What encryption are you using? I was under the impression that FV2 (or any other full disk encryption solution) does not work on a Hackintosh

<comment><USER15> It unfortunately doesn't work on the boot volume of a Hackintosh, but pretty sure it does on other volumes.

<comment><USER16> Actually, there have been recent development on this.[1] I'm not brave enough to try it though.

[1] [http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/317290-filevault-2/](http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/317290-filevault-2/)

<comment><USER14> Sweet, thanks for the link, will give it a try after i got everything backed up :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'm interested in how this was fixed.

Is the update an EFI update which disables DMA or does it with IOMMU? Or is the memory just overwritten on boot?

I'm also quite surprised they leave the password in memory in multiple locations. - Assuming the password is only used to derive the KEK for the actual key.

<comment><USER18> This interests me, too. I can only assume, since disabling DMA would imply a huge performance hit (and quite likely many broken devices?), that the update enables the IOMMU right from the system start, probably directly in the firmware, and has nothing/only a whitelist mapped, with further mappings only explicitly enabled by drivers?

<comment><USER19> I wonder if the chipset can't do a sort of DMA emulation, or DMA with conditions versus the sort of free-for-all stuff you'd see with things like FireWire.

<comment><USER18> That's what an IOMMU does.

Without an IOMMU devices on extension buses directly address physical memory.

With an MMU the host CPU creates a virtual address space for devices and can thus limit access to the main memory (conveniently also allows passing devices to VM guests), much like virtual memory for processes/VMs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Did a firmware password prevent it? The same problem with FireWire was prevented by that (a decade ago)

<comment><USER21> Would really want to know this as not everyone wants to upgrade their OSX

<comment><USER22> > Would really want to know this as not everyone wants to upgrade their OSX

Anyone who wants to stay secure should want to upgrade their system...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Has Apple released patches for El Capitan?

I'm still using it instead of Sierra because of Karabiner but this could force me to upgrade.

That vulnerability seems to be a pretty obvious oversight. I remember hearing about DMA (in the context of Firewire) as an attack vector since people first started talking of Truecrypt and Filevault and scrubbing the memory seems obvious... It's worrying that this could have been overlooked by Apple's engineers.

<comment><USER24> Is Karabiner Elements missing features you need? [https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner- Elements](https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner-Elements)

I haven't tried it because I can't find the wireless mouse that I needed Karabiner for, but my impression was it has most of the functionality running, especially the key/button remapping which seems to be their biggest use case.

<comment><USER23> I haven't found a way to configure Karabiner Elements to replace Caps lock with Escape when I only press that key (for vim) and with Ctrl when I press it in combination with other keys (for the terminal).

I also have both Shift keys bound to () when pressed alone and Shift when pressed in combination with other keys.

<comment><USER24> Discussion of the caps lock solo/chorded feature here: [https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner- Elements/pull/170#issuec...](https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner- Elements/pull/170#issuecomment-257091685)

Looks like it's not in master, but somebody has builds that do it.

<comment><USER23> Thanks wlesieutre! I had looked in the issues but somehow missed that pull request. Now I can use Sierra :)

<comment><USER24> Happy to help!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> FDE: Full Disk Encryption.

</comment><comment><USER26> Although this is an exploit and should be fixed, FDE rarely works if your computer is on / sleeping.

Same thing with the iPhone. Even though it has solid FDE, there have been exploits if the phone is on (even with a passcode, etc).

Turning off your device is the best protection, even if you have FDE.

<comment><USER27> Well, I'd say "Turning off your device is the only protection when you have FDE", since shutting off your computer will do nothing to protect it if you don't have FDE enabled.

If it's not encrypted, connecting another computer to it with an appropriate cable will let you use it as a remote disk, leaving no real traces that it was touched.

<comment><USER26> Uhh, I think that was pretty clear from my comment. FDE only gives you "complete" security in transit if you shut it off. Leaving a FDE computer in sleep mode will not protect you.

But even in sleep mode, a FDE computer is still better than no encryption at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Is a 10.11 machine encrypted with FileVault vulnerable to this attack?

<comment><USER29> Yes, even if you install the December 2016 security update for 10.11.6; only 10.12.2 is protected against this Filevault vuln.

<comment><USER30> Are you planning to backport the fix? It would be very disappointing if a serious security problem like this would be left unaddressed. Not all of us can or want to switch to the latest major within months after its release.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I compiled all security enhancing configuration I found for macOS at: [https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/pull/686](https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/pull/686)

Not sure these are mitigating the OP issue though. Still, can't be bad to harden macOS a little bit.

</comment><comment><USER32> While I'm not excusing this bug (didn't they already go through this round of DMA bugs with FireWire?), this reinforces my belief that once you have physical access to a personal computer - all bets are off. If you lost your laptop, rotate all keys. Change all passwords. Assume everything is compromised.

<comment><USER26> There is a huge difference between physical access and the computer being on. That is the first thing this exploit says -- it doesn't work if the computer was turned off previously.

This has always been the way to protect a computer that uses full disk encryption. Turn it off. Sleep mode will not protect you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Is this the main reason why the Kernel Version number increased with macOS 10.12.2 ?

<comment><USER29> The kernel version was incremented due to kernel fixes ([https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207423](https://support.apple.com/en- us/HT207423)). The Filevault vulnerability was fixed in 10.12.2 with a firmware update, part of the incremental update.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Dupe of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13187655](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13187655) ?</comment>


"SSD hard drive inside my IBM PC 5150" - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/FozzTexx/status/888943973284302849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fredcursor.net%2F <comment><USER2> I have an Oric-1/Atmos configuration, with a Cumulus peripheral, so I have another architecture example of this kind of things.

The Oric-1/Atmos is a very small, underpowered little machine from 1982, using a 6502 CPU with 48k of RAM and little else. It wasn't a super successful machine, but yet .. it lives on. (8-bit revival is awesome, btw!)

The Cumulus is a PIC-based peripheral which emulates the Atmos' disk systems - which were extremely difficult to get, if you were an Oric user back in the day (I was) - and as a result of modern hackers keeping the 8bit spirit alive, we have had "SSD on Ancient Computer (LOL)" for some years now.

This is a machine with, at most, 48k of RAM. Attached to a machine more than 8x more powerful than itself, which function is simply to emulate a very archaic storage system.

This storage system provides the little 48K CPU running at 1MHZ with 16 GIGABYTES of storage.

The problem is neither that there are bottlenecks, nor limits to storage, any more.

The problem is, as it has always been, what the hell to do with it, and .. well the answer is, keep running the machines, and keep writing software for it:

[http://oric.org/software/](http://oric.org/software/)

See also, this:

[http://forum.defence- force.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1273](http://forum.defence- force.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1273)

EDIT: The wonderful Cumulus:

[https://retromaster.wordpress.com/cumulus/](https://retromaster.wordpress.com/cumulus/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Isn't the XT-IDE just a standard IDE<->Compact Flash adapter? A Flash card isn't quite an SSD...

<comment><USER4> IDE came a bit after the AT. The HD interface of that generation was ST-506. IIRC, my first computer with an IDE drive was a 486DX-50.

<comment><USER3> Aha, it's an ISA card adapter

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is there a write up or video on this, or just the tweets?

<comment><USER6> I spent the entire day just getting it to work, I haven't had a chance to write a blog post yet. Soon!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Going for complete authenticity there, I see, with the individual power switch center under the monitor.

</comment><comment><USER8> Is there any change to bottleneck. Like previously it was storage, now is it RAM or CPU?

<comment><USER9> The SSD might be faster than the RAM. I'm betting it's going to be the CPU.

<comment><USER10> The controller on the SSD is probably faster than the CPU.</comment></comment></comment>


Suicide rates climbing, especially in rural America - <AUTHOR> https://news.osu.edu/suicide-rates-climbing-especially-in-rural-america/ <comment><USER2> I come from a rural community in midwest United States.

It is rough. All of the factories closed. Then all of the small businesses closed. Then all of the grocery stores closed. We now have to drive almost an hour to the local Wal-Mart to get our groceries. The crime rate sky-rocketed, job rates feel, and everything went to pot. [0]

It is grim. I am very fortunate I arbitrarily chose "Computer Science" for my college degree. I make extremely good money. I could have easily ended up back in my small town trying to make ends meet.

Observation: A lot of my friends did not make it out and are doing great. A lot of my other friends are NOT. One false move and you are stuck with a degree nobody wants, working a shitty nowhere job to survive, and not enough time or energy to change careers.

IMO, The rise of the "alt-right" and general dissatisfaction in modern America comes from the same place: The jobs suck, the retirement sucks, the communities are car-hell, you work yourself into the grave to make someone else money and get very little back.

My family ran funeral homes for years, made decent money. Now my parents are in their 50s and disaster after disaster have drained their bank accounts. The community went broke, so we went broke. Thankfully, they managed to get regular 9-5 jobs around the community to support themselves, but it feels like everybody is constantly walking on a tight-rope, and one more stiff breeze is going to upset everything.

0: [https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk- ia/crime/](https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk-ia/crime/)

<comment><USER3> Honest question: why do many of these communities continue to vote for "pull yourselves up from your bootstraps" conservative politicians and reject "help a man when he's down" progressive politicians? It seems what these communities need is a helping hand, better educational options, and healthcare safety nets.

<comment><USER4> There are a large number of assumptions to unpack in your question. Most key, I think, is the mapping between progressive proposals and helping people when they're down.

If I'm a rural American farmer or miner, how does it help me to require me to buy health insurance or pay a fine? How does it help me to tax me so that the future white collar and management classes of the American populace can owe less in student debt?

The problem isn't just that the rural poor don't act in their own best interests. It's also that the coastal rich are extremely presumptuous about what other people's interests are.

<comment><USER5> Well..

First - when you buy that Heath insurance, if you're poor or poorish, it's heavily subsidized. Of course, it might have been free but a number of red States didn't expand Medicare. But yes, it may cost you money because Oabamacare was step 1 and was always planned to be tweaked but well... We've seen how political discourse has gone. But medical bankruptcies have fallen tremendously with Obamacare. That's why you have to pay because it'll save you if you're unlucky. Just like social security.

Re:free college - why do you think rural areas couldn't benefit from free college? Less, more expensive education isn't going to help. And the people that need to pay for it are the ones destroying your neighborhoods and city centers (aka the Walton family and their ilk)

The lack of investment in their people and empathy for their people of Midwest governments is what's killing them, not costal elitism. The green new deal is a perfect example of the sort of investment it needs. But they'll fight it because winning is all that matters, people's lives be damned.

<comment><USER6> Do you not have a model of people who disagree with you that includes sincere belief that the policies don't work? Policy is more complicated than wishing for something and having it work out exactly the way you want: people voting against the ACA or free college may think it'll legitimately hurt the economy.

FWIW, I'm a pretty strong supporter of the ACA (relative to the counterfactual, though single-payer would be nice..), and I'm neutral to warm about free universal college (much of the problem with the way college fits into our economy is that it's used as a blunt employment filter instead of actually increasing human capital, and universalizing subsidies may just exacerbate the problem. OTOH, blowing up that filter and making college the new high school may be useful in and of itself).

Neither of those opinions prevents me from understanding that people may have different models of what the effects of these policies are likely to be. You may argue that it requires a degree of economic illiteracy to believe that, but 1) the majority of supporters for every policy are grossly economically illiterate, 2) there's a core of sound economically-literate arguments for almost every policy, and 3) economic illiteracy is a vastly different charge from "you're in a cult that prefers winning to improving your and others' lot in society".

I suspect that it would be pretty easy for someone to take the confident, unnuanced opinions you likely have on a host of similar issues and make a similar or at least symmetric charge about your motivations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This disproportionately impact men and boys. Can't recommend "The Boy Crisis" enough as a must read. Or at least this TED talk: [https://youtu.be/Qi1oN1icAYc](https://youtu.be/Qi1oN1icAYc)

<comment><USER8> A similar study on attempted suicides would be interesting. IIRC, the rates of attempted suicides are more equal between men and women, but women fail more often since they use less effective means.

There must also be a large number of people who drink or smoke themselves to death or who overdose on drugs, and effectively commit suicide.

<comment><USER6> > IIRC, the rates of attempted suicides are more equal between men and women, > but women fail more often since they use less effective means.

It's a tricky stat to disentangle, as an attempted suicide gives us slightly different statistical information than a completed one. Namely, the odds that it was a "cry-for-help" attempt vs a serious one are naturally far lower for completed suicides. These are of course important in and of themselves, but it would be valuable to be able to tease out the two separate phenomena.

That is to say, looking only at attempted suicides fails to capture the full picture in the way that looking only at completed ones does, but there's no easy way to disentangle the data we're actually interested in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> To me, all these problem and more seem to come straight out of our monetary and fiscal policies.

1\. Fed pumping so much money drove up useless asset prices. Which means people are spending more and more of their income towards paying for expensive assets which are all owned by a fraction of the rich. This rent-seeking is drawing money away from small businesses and small scale production

2\. Tax cut on the rich. Now that asset prices are beyond comprehension and people are spending so much money enriching the rich, the least we could've had was tax the rich and recycle into rural infrastructure projects. But no, we gave the rich a tax break, furthering the asset price rise. Even today,most people are just paying more and more towards rent.

The rich have completely bought this country.

</comment><comment><USER10> "Suicides were most common among men and those 45 to 54 years old."

</comment><comment><USER8> Contextual Factors Associated With County-Level Suicide Rates in the United States, 1999 to 2016

[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2749451)

</comment><comment> lota-putty Are there any effective solutions that work to counter suicides?

</comment><comment><USER11> Regardless of where one lives in America, chronic disease sufferers can't get pain relief anymore. Everyone has a breaking point and the fake opioid crisis has taken away the ability to live with chronic diseases that have pain as an effect.

<comment><USER12> You are misinformed and pushing an unproductive narrative. From the Center of Disease Control: [https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/index.html)

"Drug overdose deaths continue to increase in the United States. From 1999 to 2017, more than 702,000 people have died from a drug overdose. In 2017, more than 70,000 people died from drug overdoses, making it a leading cause of injury-related death in the United States. Of those deaths, almost 68% involved a prescription or illicit opioid."

Pain management may be a problem, but the opioid epidemic is very real.</comment></comment>


Everything You Need to Know to Get Started in Cybersecurity - <AUTHOR> https://assets.sentinelone.com/learn/sentinel-one-everyth <comment><USER2> Why is this submitted? It requires registration and a company email to see the contents.</comment>


Stop thinking big and start thinking small  - <AUTHOR> http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/2013/06/stop-thinking-big-and-start-thinking.html

<comment><USER2> Interesting.

I read your article, expecting something totally different... which does not make your article less interesting.

I think that most of the time big ideas start small... in their respective non existing markets. Tesla was a big endeavor, but seen as niche (high end EV?), Facebook started as niche, etc....Even the Brazilian demonstrations or the Arab spring started "small".

The problem of many entrepreneurs I see is that think so big that they cannot think small and so they cannot start. Their product is fluffy and fails miserably.

So today, at 40 years old, your friends don't understand Snapchat. And yet, at some point, Snapchat may cross the chasm and Jay-Z will spend money to advertise his shows there, and in an era where privacy is going to become important again, Snapchat might - who knows - actually become the poster child of the evanescent private Internet.</comment>


David's Ankles: How Imperfections Could Bring Down the World's Perfect Statue - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/magazine/davids-ankles-how-imperfections-could-bring-down-the-worlds-most-perfect-statue.html?_r=1&referer=http://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F08%2F21%2Fmagazine%2Fdavids-ankles-how-imperfections-could-bring-down-the-worlds-most-perfect-statue.html <comment><USER2> previous: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12306562](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12306562)

</comment><comment><USER3> The "clueless tourist" anecdote at the beginning reminds me of a time I agreed to meet a friend in Florence. We agreed to meet "at the David" \- I was thinking the one in Piazza della Signoria.

It turns out there are not two, but three Davids in Florence. The one in the Piazza, the one in the Galleria, and a third one in Piazzale Michelangelo, made of bronze.

<comment><USER4> I've actually found [http://what3words.com/](http://what3words.com/) useful for avoiding this, but you need to know that they know about the app first

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Suggestion: when we submit articles, can we submit the non-mobile versions? If you're on mobile, I'd assume that the browser would request the mobile version anyway if you attempt to load the full version.

</comment><comment><USER6> I saw this previously posted on HN, and when there was news about the earthquake in Italy, my first (somewhat callous) thought was "What about David?" since I'd just read the article recently.

</comment><comment><USER7> Nothing lasts forever. I assume they would have laser scanned David by now and could 3D print other ones if required.</comment>


Evil Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://caiustheory.com/evil-rb

<comment><USER2> I can't help but feel that even the "good" example makes things unnecessarily complicated for the sake of saving one line of code.

        # original
        start_date, end_date = ["24 Dec 2011", "23 Jan 2013"].map {|d| Date.parse(d) }

        # better
        start = Date.parse("24 Dec 2011")
        end = Date.parse("23 Jan 2013")

<comment><USER3> This really depends. If your data already comes in tupels (which often happens in this case), deconstructing assignment can express very well what you are doing.

        # original
        start_date, end_date = timeframe.map { |d| Date.parse(d) }

        # better?
        start_date = Date.parse(timeframe[0])
        end_date = Date.parse(timeframe[1])

For decent Rubyists, reading a map is very easy. On the other hand, both versions are acceptable - I wouldn't bother discussing about either of the options.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> FYI, evil.rb was also a script that hooked you into Ruby's internals, so you could e.g. change the class of an object, unfreeze objects and do all sorts of funky things: <https://github.com/yugui/evil-ruby/blob/master/lib/evil.rb>

</comment><comment><USER5> I actually like and use the last one. I don't see why it falls into the "don't do this" category of tricks.

I consider

      def foo(bar=(default_given = true; nil)
        puts "default value given" if default_given
      end

a quite readable solution to the problem. Actually, it's the only solution if you need to know if an explicit value was passed and you don't have any restriction on what values are acceptable.

<comment><USER6> I'm still trying to think of a situation where I _want_ to know if someone has passed the default value or not.

The method itself shouldn't care; it returns the same result regardless whether an argument was passed explicitly or not.

What am I missing? :(

<comment><USER7> You might want a lookup method to usually throw an exception if it doesn't find anything, but sometimes return a user-specified default.

It's problematic though, because writing a thin wrapper becomes a pain in the ass.

<comment><USER6> I'd argue that it's really two functions:

* One to do the lookup and potentially explode; this always takes an argument.

* A second to provide the default.

Have the caller call the appropriate one. User provides params[:search] (or some other "explicitly trying to search"), then call the first. If not, call the latter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The first example's use case has benefits beyond just shorter code. When writing ruby, I try to code as functionally as possible, and so I built myself a Ruby version of a construct stolen from Lisp, which I use for this exact purpose:

        def let; yield; end

        let do |b = ["24 Dec 2011", "23 Jan 2013"].map {|d| Date.parse(d) }|
          puts "#{b.first} to #{b.last} is #{(b.last - b.first).to_i} days"
        end

\---

Unfortunately Ruby's parser doesn't understand multiple assignment and default values in block argument declaration when used simultaneously, so you can't do:

        let do |(first, last) = ["24 Dec 2011", "23 Jan 2013"].map {|d| Date.parse(d) }|

Though you can do this:

        let do |both = ["24 Dec 2011", "23 Jan 2013"].map {|d| Date.parse(d) },
                first = both.first, last = both.last|
          puts "#{first} to #{last} is #{(last - first).to_i} days"

</comment><comment><USER9> You forgot this one, using point-free style:

        ["24 Dec 2011", "23 Jan 2013"].map(&Date.method(:parse))

</comment><comment><USER10> If you find these sort of ruby (ab)uses interesting, take a look through the ruby Koans solutions at <http://rubykoans.com/>

Playing around these examples led to a fun discovery: I'm 5 days away from begin 10000 days old. Maybe I'll take Monday off!

<comment><USER11> Good suggestion. I love the koans.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why not #tap with some one-letter variable for the first example?

<comment><USER11> OS X default ruby is 1.8 and therefore didn't have Object#tap till the last few versions. I still forget that I can use it in one-liners there without it throwing an error. :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13>
        # Add method foo only to instance x.
        (x = Object.new).instance_eval { def foo ; puts 'bar' end }

<comment><USER11> I find a better way of doing this is to use a module.

        x = Object.new
        x.extend Module.new { def foo; puts 'bar'; end }
        x.foo
        # >> bar

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've used similar to the last one in LiveScript:

      a = (b ? throw TypeError "buuut b!")-> b</comment>


Microsoft PR Chief Shreds New NY Times Columnist Over His Advice Column - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/frank-shaw-disagrees-with-farhad-manjoo-2014-2

<comment><USER2> Hardly a "shredding". he is saying something like "don't buy established products A or B but buy established products M and S".

I think he is also trying to imply that MS products are somehow new and exciting - even emerging technologies - which is a pretty weak argument.</comment>


An Open Letter To Jona Bechtolt - <AUTHOR> http://www.analogindustries.com/blog/entry.jsp?msgid=1232779669878

<comment><USER2> I've created this post, and my price tag is 20 dollars. If you wish to read the rest of it, you must pay me this sum, or you are committing a crime. There's really no grey area.

On a more serious note... Pirating software is nothing like stealing a candy bar. When you steal a material good, you are depriving someone of something. When you copy software, you're not taking anything away. People may argue that you are depriving them of potential sales, but that's not the same as stealing at all. I'm depriving a company of potential sales when I rant about their poor quality. That's certainly not a crime.

Now, just to clarify, that doesn't mean you shouldn't respect copyright. It's still a civil offense to use software if the copyright does not permit it. I use free and open source software because I cannot afford the crazy prices of software (among other things). I think putting a price on software is silly, yes, but that doesn't mean I pirate it like this person.

<comment><AUTHOR> _It's still a civil offense to use software if the copyright_

This depends on jurisdiction. For example, some bilateral free trade agreements have made the use of unlicensed software in businesses a criminal offence.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This guy is definitely overstating his own importance, at least with regards to his "Google footprint" and I have to wonder how many club owners he actually knows. <http://www.google.com/search?q=jona+bechtolt>, Analog Industries is a few results down.

</comment><comment><USER4> interesting. From reading it, it sounds like the author is going to make it difficult for the pirate to move in the circles which the author has influence in? Personally I think I'd prefer to give the pirate the chance to pay for the software first, but I may have miss-read the blog post.</comment>


Ask HN: Logging Hours for Sprints, Useful? - <AUTHOR> This may have been discuss adnauseum before but here goes:
We run weekly sprint and require engineers to log hours on work accomplished to calculated actuals vs original estimates. As with any setup, engineers don't see the value in logging hours. Because, we aren't billing a customer directly I am a bit baffled on why we would also.
Is there any way to get velocity from a sprint based on Original Estimate and tickets/tasks completed without logging work hours? That is somewhat effective to get a worker KPI? <comment><USER2> My $0.02USD:

Sprints are estimated in points, not time, based on relative story complexity.

Individual tasks are tracked for ideal engineering hours vs reality. It's an internal metric used to tune engineers' abilities to estimate actual time spent on various types of tasks. It's also used to identify bottlenecks in the entire development process.</comment>


NYC Subway Was Delayed by 1930s Signals. A Fix Is Finally Coming - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/nyregion/nyc-mta-subway-signals.html <comment><USER2> "the cost estimate for installing new signals on the 12-mile-long piece of the Lexington Avenue line, at $3 billion"

15 years ago China built the 19 mile Shanghai maglev for $1.3 billion. Top speed is 268 mph.

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


Zynga plummets 19% after cutting 2012 outlook - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/04/technology/social/zynga-outlook/index.html?source=yahoo_quote

<comment><USER2> As an ex-employee I am saddened by my ever decreasing stock value =(</comment>


Ask YC: What is the yc news algorithm? - <AUTHOR>

I've recently seen a post on yc news reach #5 of the front page with only 3 points and 2 comments, each comment with no more than 2 points.  What makes such a submission reach the front page?  Human editors?  Inconceivably high karma of the submitter?  Or is there something more interesting going on here? <comment><USER2> PG answered this a while ago. I actually found it referenced in a thread from the last time someone asked.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38704>

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What software do you use daily? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I was never big on IDEs. So I am pleasantly shocked at how much use I currently get out of "lite" tools like VS Code and Data Grip

I also think cloud interfaces are getting much more performant, rich, easier to use. Tools like Google Cloud's BigQueryML are designed around rapid experimentation. Speed here is key. As well as a revenue driver for them, I guess!

</comment><comment><USER3> zsh, vim, git, systemctl, journalctl, htop, urxvt, i3, mpv, firefox, emacs, ssh

</comment><comment><USER4> \- vim

\- qutebrowser

\- alacritty

\- mpd

\- git

</comment><comment><USER5> \- Chrome \- iTerm \- Sublime

</comment><comment><USER6> atom chrome git docker slack

</comment><comment><USER7> Firefox

Vs Code

conemu

blueStacksk

bitCommet

</comment><comment><USER8> Emacs

Firefox

Kitty

</comment><comment><USER9> QtCreator

sublime text

vscode

chrome

terminal

git

</comment><comment><USER10> Fedora Linux

Chrome

Firefox

Konversation

Pidgin

RSSOwl

Eclipse

Slack

Git

</comment><comment><USER11> I think top 3 is:

\- Mac OS

\- Google Chrome

\- iTerm</comment>


Reverse tunnel to your SSH server over SSH - <AUTHOR> https://serveo.net/blog/remote-access-to-ssh-servers-using-serveo <comment><AUTHOR> Serveo is my side project. It's similar to ngrok, but only uses SSH as the client.

With this new feature, you can set up a reverse tunnel to an SSH server:

ssh -R my-alias:22:localhost:22 serveo.net

Then conveniently connect to it over the internet:

ssh -J serveo.net user@my-alias</comment>


Mathematicians crack 44-year-old problem - <AUTHOR> https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/miop-mc4121217.php <comment><AUTHOR> Early version of the paper on Arxiv:

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.10550](https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.10550)</comment>


Top Breakthroughs for 2019 Curated by Bill Gates - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2019/ <comment><USER2> A small comment on one of these technologies: cell-free DNA. A big problem in innovating there is that THE big backbone technology player Illumina (for DNA sequencing) has its own big research initiative (named grail) in the field. I know from at least one start up that got into trouble regarding some new tech with them as Illumina obviously does not want competitors to succeed and has far too much knowledge about those to let them go freely. So being a big "breakthrough" area can have disadvantages as it also attract monopoly players.

</comment><comment><USER3> Bill Gates seems to have upped his media presence this year. I am seeing a Gates article in some stream or the other almost on a daily basis.

<comment><USER4> I have two hypotheses as to why that is.

Bill Gates is financially involved in a large number of startups mentioned in the article. Good PR = more sales = Gates' portfolio is better off.

The other reason is a little more conspiratorial. There is a growing trend of financial populism where politicians are clamoring for higher taxes on the rich (70% on $10+ mil). I think Gates is trying to mitigate this movement by showcasing how he uses his wealth for the greater good.

<comment><USER5> Considering that Gates has publicly said that he wants the government to tax him more(He said it most recently during the AMA not to long ago) I would disagree.

<comment><USER6> yeah, sort of. He isn't clamoring to be taxed quite yet. [https://twitter.com/anandwrites/status/1087749307380523008?l...](https://twitter.com/anandwrites/status/1087749307380523008?lang=en)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wrote the story about ECGs on your wrist! [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612929/wristwatch- heart-m...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612929/wristwatch-heart- monitors-might-save-your-lifeand-change-medicine-too/)

<comment><USER8> I'm hoping the ECG thing catches up to where you don't need an iPhone for it to work - the first step, in my mind, in making it widely available. Last I checked, 80% of owned smartphones were running Android.

<comment><USER9> Buy a Kardia Mobile - only $99. Works with Android and iOS.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> >> In China, consumers are getting used to Alibaba's AliMe, which coordinates package deliveries over the phone and haggles about the price of goods over chat.

I'm surprised by this. Seems like there is a lot going on in real brains when negotiating, much less a computer running some probabilistic algorithm. I'd be interested to see the specifics of how "consumers are getting used to" having a computer talk the price down with a real human seller.

</comment><comment><USER11> Interesting that blockchain is not mentioned at all. Is it past its hype cycle?

<comment><USER12> Blockchain is a net negative for the world.

The emissions it enables through the reckless waste of power does not outweigh the currently limited benefits.

<comment><USER13> Very much like ITER's fusion reactor, not worth it, right?

<comment><USER12> What a bizarre comment.

If ITER is successful then it will be the saving grace of humanity. Being able to have a limitless, emission free source of power will bring hundreds of millions out of poverty and help prevent climate change.

What humanity sized problem is Blockchain solving ? It's maybe a better payment system, maybe a better data storage approach, maybe a better contract mechanism. That's all. Not guaranteed. Just maybe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I have to admit I was never a fan of Bill Gates when he was heading Microsoft.

But he's turning out to be an ideal billionaire. I think he's really making a difference.

</comment><comment><USER15> Tech breakthroughs these days don't seem on the level of things like airplanes, the computer, the internet, nuclear power, space flight, satellites, etc. I wonder what is different now.

<comment><USER10> It seems the difference is that developing a new toilet doesn't require the manpower that developing nuclear power or spaceflight does. This is just the list for 2019, not the 20th century.

<comment><USER15> It's representative of recent breakthroughs.

For example if we looked back in time to the invents I mentioned, the year's breakthroughs would have surrounded these much bigger breakthroughs.

The theme of current breakthroughs seems much smaller scope. For some reason our vision is smaller. I don't know why. We are either focused on very large things that appear unlikely to happen, like AGI, or on very small, speculative or trivial things like social networking or blockchain. None of the middle ground which are large, clearly important and have traction.

I guess a lot of the big tech I mentioned was generated by the necessities of fighting a global war.

<comment><USER10> Yes, the drive to kill something before it kills you is a very strong driver of innovation. All of these breakthroughs cater to precisely the opposite target: promoting human health either directly, or by improving our environment. This makes sense since this is the primary focus of the Gates Foundation, in 2019. That's a small scope if you ask me. You'd better believe that humans returning to space would be on this list if Gates had a horse in that race. I personally admire Gates' commitment to humans rather than stuff 'n things.

Also, I don't think its fair to call blockchain or social networking trivial. But thats neither here nor there given this listicle.

<comment><USER15> Gates is a billionaire thanks to a lot of wartime technology.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Some thoughts:

\- _custom cancer vaccines_ \- the idea being that _the vaccine, which triggers a person's immune system to identify a tumor by its unique mutations, could effectively shut down many types of cancers_ , but this could also easily be retargeted and used to shut down the _whole body_ (or just a vitally important part). It's still a question of delivery, the toxin would need to be delivered to the body in an undetectable way to be really dangerous... This is explored in an episode of The Expanse [0].

\- _carbon dioxide catcher_ \- I wondered before to what extent does _production of [...] synthetic fuels, using the captured carbon dioxide as a key ingredient_ even make sense - more energy is spent (likely from carbon) to produce the fuel than is released by burning the fuel, so this really only makes sense if we have enough clean energy to power the whole world (e.g. solar), but not enough batteries to run the economy (cars don't just need energy, they need energy in a convenient portable form). The CO2 -> fuel processes could enable us to go to zero-net-CO2 energy cycle, while keeping current infrastructure (fuel-burning cars, planes, ships).

\- _an ECG on your wrist_ \- how about an ECG _in_ your wrist - a chip implanted into your body that would be able to not just measure the heartbeat, but also continuously monitor various blood markers - glucose, cholesterol, stress hormones, ... Is anyone aware of any company working on this? Are such sensors even possible from a medical-technology perspective (disregarding energy, data transfer and privacy issues)?

\- _sanitation without sewers_ \- a similar technology (full dirty feces -> clean carbon & water process) will need to be developed for space habitats...

\- _smooth-talking AI assistants_ \- this almost seems like a solution in search of a problem. Do we _actually_ want to haggle _with an AI_ (hyperoptimised and hyperexperiences and almost certain to beat us while giving us the impression that we're getting a great deal!), don't we just want to get a fair price (in the free market sense, i.e. with most profit competed away)? I wonder what are some problems that can/should be automated at scale, but that _cannot_ be automated via other means (e.g. buying plane tickets online)... I'm guessing Google's application of an AI booking appointments (with people) is one of the best applications, as it treats speech as a kind of a _universal interface_ (originally developed for humans)...

[0] [https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/The_Monster_and_the_Rocket](https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/The_Monster_and_the_Rocket)

<comment><USER17> All these seem like more or less products that are variations and extensions of things already existing. Indeed, a lot of them are solutions in search of a problem. Robot dexterity has indeed been increasing for a long time but has been held back back by computational complexity of interacting with the world. Cancer treatments relying on the immune system have been tried over and over again and have failed for a similarly period, undone by the complexity of cancers. Carbon sequestering in various forms is often talked about but none of them make much sense compared simply stopping profligate carbon release (sure, once that stops and things are still bad, then this maybe but stopping release is always going to be the most cost effective until we some serious reduction).

So either the complexity of modern society means world-change innovation has become vanishingly small or Gates is pushing products of some pals rather than taking a serious look at possibilities.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Behind paywall apparently

<comment><USER8> That confused me as well - there's the line

> But what exactly is the purpose of a plow?

After a paragraph about it, but then the article just jumps right into the "Top Breakthrough Techs" no big deal? I couldn't tell what was going on, I'm not even sure I read the "actual" article.</comment></comment>


TrackDuck Launches its Interactive Website Feedback Tool - <AUTHOR> http://goaleurope.com/2014/02/04/lithuanian-trackduck-launches-new-version-of-its-interactive-website-feedback-tool/

<comment><USER2> Great service, it's nice to see TrackDuck progressing rapidly.Keep it up guys!</comment>


My Philosophy On Alerting (2014) - <AUTHOR> https://linuxczar.net/sysadmin/philosophy-on-alerting/ <comment><USER2> "...over-monitoring is a harder problem to solve than under-monitoring."

Amen! Too many times I've seen the assumption that if we're logging something then we need to monitor it, and if we're monitoring then we need to alert on it. And the end result is an operations alert email address getting 30 or 40 emails an hour that serve little more than at assure the systems are still running and increasing the chances that important alerts will get buried and ignore or not noticed at all.

</comment><comment><USER3> Discussed at the time: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8450147](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8450147)

</comment><comment><USER4> Interesting how so little of this can be applied to security alerts. E.g.: most security alerts can't be actioned.

<comment><USER5> A most interesting statement. If security is reported broken or compromised, it's very actionable, surely?

<comment><USER4> No, security alerts tell you something might be wrong. You have to then perform some analysis tasks and determine if it is a true or false positive alert. Even if it is a true positive you may not have enough info to action,you might continue monitoring or dismiss the threat. You might have to determine the cost of further investigstion and remediation vs security risk.

For example in a past life I was in a position where malware traffic will be detected from some locations but the infected device can't be located. Or some overt webapp scanning is happening,I want to know about it and make sure it isn't excessive but it's not worth the effort of blocking.

You don't really action security alerts and events,you action security incidents(which are security events/alerts confirmed to be true positive). With infrastructure monitoring if you see an alert that means something is wrong,the alert is an incident. Been on the responding side of both types of alerts.

Incident response is very interesting,most plans hardly survive the battlefield.</comment></comment></comment>


Crustache is a fast C implementation of Mustache - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tanoku/crustache

<comment><USER2> Yikes. I hate to be critical, but whenever I read, "a faster implementation of $ruby_thing in C", I get ready for an entertaining night of reading someone's first ever C project. Crustache did not disappoint. So far, I've only read array.c, but I had to stop when I realized that his "dynamic arrays" reallocate by 1 array element each time. This provides for O(n) appends, which means O(n^2) to build an entire array. Ouch.

You need to double the size of the array each time in order to get amortized O(1) appends. It's easy to convince yourself of this if you don't trust me: assign a "copy credit" to each array element you add to the array without calling realloc (which can copy the entire array in O(n) steps), and spend one "copy credit" each time you copy an element to a new array. If you've spent more than you've earned, you aren't amortized constant time anymore.

Let's walk though an example. Let's allocate two elements to start. We write the 0th element, and get a credit, then write the 1st element, and get a credit. When we write the 2nd element, we need to grow the array. We allocate a 4 byte array and copy the original array here, spending two credits in the process. This leaves us with zero credits, which means everything is OK.

Also interesting is that the author gets his binary search right (at first glance) and even protects against integer overflow correctly. The irony is that binary search is a standard library function, bsearch(3), so why reimplement it? And, why copy and paste that implementation no less than three times? And, oh... of none of the other additions in the file (on operations on the same array as the binary search, no less) are protected from overflow. Inconsistent.

I'm not sure how much I like the array insertion function that reallocs, copying the entire array, and then memmoves the half of the array after the inserted elements. That's a lot of copying; why not use a linked list or a more esoteric random-insert data structure? A finger tree can provide O(log n) inserts and O(1) lookups.

Finally, why "int" for the size and not size_t?

Anyway, be careful when you download some code from the internet written for speed. It's often not as fast as it could be, and it's certainly not as reliable as code written in a higher-level language.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like you have a nice bit of a pull request in the works. Look forward to seeing it!

<comment><USER2> I'm going to rewrite dynamic arrays, a wheel that's been reinvented a thousand times, for some random ruby project?

<roy>Well no.</roy>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice, but is the templating engine really the bottleneck for your application? And if not, does it really matter that this implementation is 40 times faster?

<comment><USER5> For a lot of dynamic languages, at least, the templating engine is a surprisingly large portion of your page load times. I wish I could bring up the breakdown I saw a while back, but it's certainly non-trivial in many cases.

<comment><USER4> I would be very interested in those breakdowns. Does someone else maybe have some info on that?

<comment><USER6> Ryan Tomayko wrote a post on Ruby/C/Perl Markdown parsers and did some benchmarks a while ago:

[http://tomayko.com/writings/ruby-markdown-libraries-real- che...](http://tomayko.com/writings/ruby-markdown-libraries-real-cheap-for- you-two-for-price-of-one)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I had a little project a while ago that compiled Mustache templates into C. Never was completely done, but it mostly works: <https://github.com/tyler/speed_stache>

<comment><USER8> And I won't stop bugging you about Speedstasche! The first time I met you was when you showed it off like 2 years ago!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> What a horrible name.

<comment><USER10> _Crustache: The templating engine which may explode right under your nose_

To their credit, this is the first time a templating engine makes me laugh.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I love the author's complete disregard for what science actually is, and instead using the word as a synonym for something unstable and dangerous:

        "WHO KNOWS WHATS GONNA HAPPEN. DO IT FOR SCIENCE."

It reminds me of Looney Tunes cartoons' impressions of chemistry sets and scientists. Fun is often the best response to the natural question: "but what if I just do...that?"

</comment><comment><USER12> we've recently started using Mustache and are very impressed with it. This could be worth looking at, so I will do so and feedback here

</comment><comment><USER13> Loved the "monkeypatch from hell" comment.</comment>


Nokia to Cut 10,000 Jobs After Weak Second Quarter - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/06/14/business/14reuters-nokia-restructuring-jobs.html?hp <comment><USER2> If you run a tech company and are hiring, now is a good opportunity to try and hire some ex-Nokia hackers. Most of the talented ones probably took the pile of money offered in the last series of layoffs but there may be some still left.

During the last series of layoffs, my company hired a whole team of Linux kernel hackers, together with the team's former manager. The guys already knew each other and were up to speed in no time.

<comment><USER3> I worked for Nokia briefly two years ago, and while they never seemed to know what to do with them, they really managed to attract very skilled people.

<comment><USER4> The team on maps did a great job. I still prefer their mobile maps over the google version.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does this mean Nokia is falling apart?

I guess that mean that Microsoft's strategy (implemented with that Trojan horse guy) of "don't let them do Android even if it means destroying them" is working in a way.

Then again, Nokia were the guys who popularized the paradigm of "make phones that destroy themselves if they detect non-original accessories" and they are Microsoft front now (and thus on the other side of War on general purpose computers than me), so I'm not really sad to see them leave, should that be what's actually going on.

<comment><USER6> Don't think the strategy to also-use Android as a latecomer and go against Samsung et al. without subsidies would have worked well.... The 'trojan horse guy' seems to me more like a friendly enabler for the only/most successful looking strategy left.

<comment><USER7> The fact that he's ex-Microsoft ends up looking fishy. I mean the guy leaves Microsoft to head Nokia and his first (?) major decision is to make Nokia a Microsoft shop. On the other hand, if you're constantly using hammers, then every problem can start to look like a nail (i.e. he felt that WP was the best solution because he spent a lot of time drinking the MS kool-aid, so to speak).

<comment><USER8> It is fully possible Elop was hired _after_ the decision to go to the dar... cough ... to go Microsoft.

<comment><USER9> The previous CEO compared using android as 'peeing in your pants to stay warm', i wonder what using WP would have felt for him.

And pretty sure Elop's memo is evidence enough he was the one changing Nokia (Symbian -> Meego) strategy.

<comment><USER8> That Elop was the one to announce the Microsoft strategy doesn't really prove he invented the idea since going there.

Why else hire Elop specifically? The guys hiring him could have found a lot of CEOs with more telecom background.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The thought of only having two choices of mobile phone OS is disturbing. I hope that Nokia's gamble on Microsoft pays off and they keep the pressure on Apple and Google to keep things moving forward. More competition at this point can only be good for us consumers.

It is, of course, sad that so many jobs will be lost. Although I can't help thinking that since Nokia no longer has to develop an entire OS, it would have quite an excess of engineers. Obviously that's only part of it.

<comment><USER11> Nokia had alternate operating system and they abandoned it. Maemo was well liked by the people who used it. It seems Nokia decided to board another company's burning ship. It's a shame to see all that engineering talent go to waste.

<comment><USER6> By the _few_ people who used it... No chance at all that Maemo could have become the mainstream platform/ecosystem needed for Nokia to prosper.

Uh and IIRC a lot of engineering talent was wasted with gtk/qt/meego changes. The Maemo UI (imho of course) looks boring and dated in comparision to Metro. It's a shame, yes. But it's good they not only whine but change something!

<comment><USER3> What if there were only few users because it was rather hard to get devices and it was never really advertised outside the tech circles?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> interesting fact about the layoffs - they have wiped out their Linux/QT team (in Ulm and other areas).

Nokia has hereby given up any development Meltemi on featurephones for emerging markets ("the next billion" as they dubbed it). a bunch of their top developers already are tweeting their defeat notes.

Choice blog forum post: "Meltemi product creation was in Ulm and Oulu. SW development in Espoo (UX, Linux core), Tampere (UI FW + Qt) + all Qt sites (Trolltech heritage). Over 1000 people focused on that. Nokia security working hard to ensure code does not leak outside Nokia, they already closed development enviroments and wikis this morning before announcements. By now they most propably have wiped hard drives where Meltemi code was residing."

[http://communities- dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/06/brief-c...](http://communities- dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/06/brief-commentary-on-todays-nokia-bad-news- day/comments/page/1/#comment-6a00e0097e337c88330163068ee374970d)

<comment><USER13> Whoa whoa whoa...they just fired _all the old Trolltech employees_???

<comment><USER14> I bet Digia is about to hire a lot of people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Having never worked in such a large company I'm always surprised at these round numbers. Is it really standard practice to pick a large round number and just start firing? Or perhaps is this the reporter favoring round numbers over accurate counts?

<comment><USER16> It will be an estimate. You want to do some voluntary offers over picking each guy if you can (because it is also an opportunity to get rid of demotivated/already checked out staff who you aren't aware of).

Some big decisions (close area/team X), some voluntary offers, some selections on individuals. Give a rough estimate of what it will mean, announce it along the big decisions, iterate to see what happens in the voluntary area and then do extra mandatory selection cuts if needed to hit your savings target.

<comment><USER17> Also, in countries with labour-friendly laws (like Finland, I assume) there is usually a process to follow where the company has to justify the cuts, so they have to actually set target numbers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Oddly enough, Elop and the board who hired him are not among those...

In more civilized societies, they'd be expected to commit ritual suicide.

<comment><USER19> They still have over 100,000 employees. And they're building new factories in Asia. And their Lumia phones are best sellers in several countries. I don't think they're going anywhere yet.

Edit: Could you explain why they should commit suicide? Are you saying the executive board has failed? I think it's much too early to tell.

<comment><USER20> Can anybody say that the executive board hasn't failed? I don't see how Nokia could have fumbled the ball more totally than they have.

The Stock price: [https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1...](https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1339515960000&chddm=446054&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=INDEXSP:.INX&cmptdms=0&q=NYSE:NOK&ntsp=0)

<comment><USER19> They're making a long term investment with Windows Phone (WP) -- with the current plan they probably won't reach profitability for another several quarters. If the plan succeeds, Nokia will be profitable again when the point comes where WP gains a significant enough marketshare where Nokia is able to completely replace the drop in Symbian sales with WP phones (and their new cheap feature phones).

If you follow the path of no-Elop, Nokia would still be investing in Symbian and Meego. Are you claiming the stock would've been better if following that path? It's very unlikely, especially if you look at the steep drop in Symbian phone sales over the past few quarters.

<comment><USER21> The drop in Symbian sales came after it was announced to be a dead platform. Without that announcement, no steep drop. And from all indications, the Meego N9 would have (or did according to some) outsold the Lumia 800 if it had been generally released.

Nokia was stagnating before, but not drowning. The major problem that they had was management of their software projects, which were becoming a tangled mess of unfixed bugs and missed dates. Instead of buying a new car, they just needed a new transmission.

<comment><USER19> 1\. From my understanding all reports were that Symbian had just become too heavy to maintain and improve. Thus not worth it.

2\. I don't think it matters too much if Meego would have outsold Lumia 800. Again, it's not about selling individual phones in the short term, but it's about the ecosystem. Meego may have been OK in the short term, but I believe unless it was massively better than iOS/Andriod (which to me it seemed like a poor copy in many respects), and it would be able to get the app count, I do believe it would have died before long. I believe Windows Phone is a great OS already, superior in many ways to iOS/Android, and has great potential still. In addition, I can guarantee that Microsoft has 10x the capability of Nokia to rally up developers to develop apps. And lastly, MS has massive additional weight to ensure it's a success -- to continually pump the money until it reaches success.

Although Nokia isn't the only maker of WP phones, MS has done a lot to give Nokia the advantage. I agree we're yet to see if it pays off though. I'm hopeful.

<comment><USER21> Symbian was definitely a creaky mess, and definitely would have to be replaced by something in the medium term, but people liked it a lot, and with the Qt ecosystem being ported to both Symbian and Meego, they were going to be able to use the same apps (depending on the power of the phone, of course.)

It wasn't in any way a copy of iOS or Android. It was a full multitasking Linux desktop that you could treat as a smartphone, and had (and has) a small, rabid developer community. Of course, the Meego move was a bit silly, but I think they were using it as an excuse to reboot the GUI systems, of which there were three, which is two too many.

There are still new apps being created for Maemo (and Meego/Harmattan was just tarted up Maemo) all of the time. What was lacking was a mass market phone that would encourage more commercial developers to target the platform. The N900 was a phone for technophile nerds like myself, but all of the glowing reviews of the phone accidentally made the N9 a massively anticipated phone, because it had N900 cred, yet looked pretty (unlike my beloved N900 brick.) They had to dump it outside of major markets in order to avoid comparisons of it and the Lumia, because people wanted and liked it so much. Me, I like a keyboard.

<comment><USER19> Firstly, I don't think it really matters if there's a small community. Or if it satisfies the nerds. In the end they need volume, that's it. That's also why I think Android will suffer long-term -- it just might be too (or overly) complex/confusing for many people.

Personally I agree Meego had/has potential. And the fact that it was fully multitasking, and based on Linux, is cool. I just don't think any of these facts (and most derivative effects) matter to the vast majority.

Lastly, FYI -- WP will have keyboard options when Windows 8 comes out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The takeaway ...

"Chief Executive Stephen Elop is placing hopes of a turnaround on a new range of smartphones called Lumia, which use largely untried Microsoft Corp software. But Lumia sales have so far been slow, disappointing investors."

</comment><comment><USER23> With WP7, Nokia is fighting with one hand tied behind its back. It can really only offer a handful of similar spec'd phones b/c of the platform's limitations. WP8 will allow them to do what Nokia does best and offer a wide range of products across a number of price points. So, I think it is a little premature to count them completely out. With that said, they will live or die with the WP8 launch. Personally, I hope they succeed b/c they have been doing a lot of cool things with their hardware and value added software.

</comment><comment><USER24> Rumor is they also buried Meltemi today.

</comment><comment><USER25> More details from Bloomberg:

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/nokia-to- cut-10-000...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/nokia-to- cut-10-000-jobs-as-elop-tries-to-stanch-losses.html)

</comment><comment><USER26> And thus Stephen Elop becomes the Trojan Horse of modern era.

</comment><comment><USER27> Nokia still has time to diversify (albeit not much). Every successful gadget company out their (apart from Apple, but they have IOS and MAC OS) like Samsung (windows phone, droids and some version of in house dumb phones), HTC (windows, droids) , ASUS (Windows, Droids) have diversified. Nokia's Elop is betting 122000 jobs on an OS which has 1.5 % market-share. I get that they need to make Windows Phone flagship due to investment from Microsoft but they should still think about making Android devices. I am sure with Nokia's build quality, innovation (they really own some cool technology) and Android ecosystem they will give Samsung a good run for its money and will sold far more phones then Lumia with lesser marketing cost. People who use Nokia love it for its build quality.They make good phones. Wish they don't melt away because of management politics.

</comment><comment> joverholt</comment>


Confessions of a 20-Something Startup CTO - <AUTHOR> http://bencoe.tumblr.com/post/28287898568/confessions-of-a-20-something-startup-cto <comment><USER2> >I've always struggled with confidence issues. As a way of compensating for this, I leaned on my programming licks; here was at least one thing that I was awesome at. >When I got into the startup world, something shocking happened. I started to meet people who were my equals, or even worse, better than me! This caused an existential crisis.

Spot on. It's not just you, buddy.

Edit: Contrary to popular naysaying, there _are_ some of us who do like reading about others' trials and errors. I also loved the article on rock climbing. Keep it up!

</comment><comment><USER3> When you say that "Bootstrapping a startup is stressful", are you only referring to the time before you raised the $2.5 million? How long was that?

EDIT: According to CrunchBase you raised $500K two months after your company was founded, and another $2 million 13 months later. I'm sure you just used the word without thinking much about it, but technically you bootstrapped for all of 8 weeks. :)

<comment><USER4> Why is there this overwhelmingly anti-bootstrapping sentiment present in the startup community? What's so wrong with taking outside funding?

<comment><USER5> If you take outside funding, you're _not_ bootstrapping. According to Wikipedia:

"Bootstrapping in business means starting a business without external help or capital."

Source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping#Business>

There is nothing wrong with taking outside funding, but then you don't get to call it bootstrapping any more (as per the widely-accepted definition above of what the term means).

This is mixing up terms.

<comment><USER4> I should have clarified that I was trying to ask a more general question as to why bootstrapping is seen as a superior way of starting a company as opposed to taking on funding.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Ahh, I remember when I was 20 & how nice to think what you have to say is important. I've personally found that people want to read about functionality. They might want to read about your personal stress after you've become successful but chances they're more interested in reading about a new integration or how to look at something different.

</comment><comment><USER7> The "MIT syndrome" thing is crucial. I think the most important trait in a startup leader is humility. To build a kick-ass sustainable company, you absolutely, positively must be comfortable working with people who are (in some or most respects) smarter than you.

Also, I find it very interesting that the "high" of this roller coaster is the funding.

<comment><USER8> I never understand why funding seems to be the end goal either. To me, apart perhaps from some vindication of your idea, the happiness people experience when funded almost shows a lack of vision.

<comment><AUTHOR> For people with financial burdens, venture capital can be the difference between being able to pursue your startup dreams, or letting them die on the vine.

There are definite downsides to raising money, and I totally understand the stigma the HN community tends to attach to it.

Having said that, a 500k seed investment let Jesse and I put down everything, and put 100% of our efforts towards Attachments.me. I have no regrets about this.

<comment><USER8> I'm not debating the merits of raising cash. Most companies and businesses have to do it when starting out. The part that I (and I'm assuming the OP) find puzzling is the part about "climbing to the top of the hill overlooking the city and realizing all our childhood dreams had come true" after having raised a round of investment. This seems to me to be saying "we got a million+ investment and we won!" I think for most that's not really the point of starting a business.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Thanks for writing this. As a 20-something startup CEO, I frequently want to write about something mundane (or not) but often choose not to for reasons of confidentiality or that I worry some things will cause problems for me later. I don't think I'm a startup god, or an expert at all. Sometimes it would just help to vent or have a discussion about something with strangers who are in similar positions as me.

Unlike some of the other commenters here, your post didn't strike me as self- important. Just looked like you felt like sharing and wanted to have a dialog.

</comment><comment><USER10> Could you elaborate on what you mention is the MIT syndrome? I saw one definition (based on over explaining) but it seems like this is something else

<comment><USER11> Students entering MIT are the ones acing every class, being constantly praised by teachers/parents and feeling better than everyone else in high school. Then they enter MIT, where they find themselves with hundreds of fellow students just like them.

For a lot of personalities, this leads to depression and even in some instances suicide.

<comment><USER12> I would think the fact that they are one of hundreds out of billions would inflate rather than deflate the ego.

<comment><USER13> That doesn't make sense. People emotionally calibrate themselves against the visible skills of the people in their peer group, not a global distribution of IQ.

<comment><USER12> Yeah, I know they do that, but it doesn't make sense to me why they do that. If everyone expects to be #1 in the world, everyone but one person is going to be disappointed.

<comment><USER14> It's not a rational thing, but more instinctive. Your immediate surroundings influence you in all sorts of unconscious ways, but all the people in that global distribution are pretty abstract. You can quote statistics all you like, it's difficult for them to change how you "feel" about yourself.

Also <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbars_number>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Thanks for the post; running a company is not only about making the right decisions, it is also about living with the bad ones. I think this blog post is a good testimony that helps with that.

</comment><comment><USER16> I don't see much traction here:

<http://siteanalytics.compete.com/attachments.me/>

It looks like aqui-hire is the best option for attachments.me

<comment><AUTHOR> Our main products are a Chrome Extension, and an iPhone application. The website itself gets a, granted small, but growing amount of traffic -- but it's mainly just there to direct people towards the clients.

I don't think that Alexa or Compete do a perfect job of reflecting our usage numbers, since the website itself is not the main way people interact with us.

<comment><USER16> 1) Compete shows downtrend for attachments.me I understand it could be a mistake due to low numbers, but still does not look promising.

2) What are attachments.me actual usage numbers today and 1 year ago?

<comment><AUTHOR> I won't give you all of our numbers, but If you look at our Chrome Extension page, you can see that we have 35,000 active installations. Much of this growth has happened over the past six months.

These numbers simply aren't well reflected in the Compete score.

My coworkers and I work hard, and believe in what we're doing. Rome wasn't built in a day, let's hold of on the talent acquisition talk ;)

<comment><USER17> 35k active installations does not sound like a lot, especially for a free download.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I think IT is more like confessions on anyone starting out at anything. Tanks for verifying what carnegie said.. 100 years ago ;-)

</comment><comment><USER19> "I began getting depressed about the lack of a life I had outside of work. I'd bring this bad mood to work with me, in turn making it a worse place to be.

I've since made an asserted effort to dedicate time to my social life: going on trips with friends; going on dates; and, most importantly, getting work completely off my mind occasionally."

Serious question (and my thoughts) here I'm not trying to be cute. Regarding your "social life".

Do you think you will grow out of this? Because what do you think is going to happen if/when you are married and have children and aren't living in SF or some exciting place and have much on your plate?

The best way to insure that you can live the life you want and have some fun is to put all the effort in that you can now and try to put off having fun until a bit later on. Now is when you have energy and should be able to work non-stop with very little else. (I didn't surface for air for 7 years working 6 to 7 days a week ..)

I point this out also because the world is littered with people who didn't get into a good school because they spent a bit to much time worrying about missing something or having fun and are paying for that later. I'm sure you've met people like this in your high school.

It's a little unclear how long you worked before you realized what you wrote. It was certainly less than two years since you wrote this: "I've grown a lot as a person in the past two years." That's not a long time to be denied the pleasures of other people and fun (look at people on tours of duty in the war or speaking of my own experience).

The fact that you never had a problem until later means you really haven't dealt with the situation you are in now in the past which I think is what you are saying. Things were easy for you until you got around a group of people who were also good. I know first hand about the MIT syndrome since I saw others that suffered from it at the school that I went to which was quite good.

I didn't suffer from that for one simple reason.

Things were never easy for me it always took hard work and it also took plenty of effort for me to get into the school I went to. So when I got there I didn't fall apart if I got a "B+". I just kept chugging away while the ones who were "so much smarter" who got in with their top grades and SAT's wilted under the pressure of having to do so much work. This was a long time ago compared to when you are in school. So to answer your question, no, things haven't changed that much.

You've got plenty of time to have fun. Now is the time to work as hard as you possibly can with minimal breaks in order to achieve your goals. You might not surface for air for a few years but it will probably be well worth it.

One last thing. There will be times in life when you might have some crisis either in personal life or business that will require you to work all the time. I had a case where several of my top people left, I was in the middle of a legal case, and a breakup, and I still had to show up to work doing the job of three people and deal with personal issues and family fights. Having to go through that and knowing I could (similar I'm sure to having climbed a certain mountain like you are doing) was a great experience that made me realize that I didn't have to be scared of the unknown and that I could handle it.

<comment><USER20> > The best way to insure that you can live the life you want and have some fun > is to put all the effort in that you can now and try to put off having fun > until a bit later on. Now is when you have energy and should be able to work > non-stop with very little else. (I didn't surface for air for 7 years > working 6 to 7 days a week ..)

There's a flip side to the coin, though: your opportunities for 'having fun' are very different as a twenty-something living in a big city than as someone who's married with children in a less exciting locale. Many older people successfully start companies; far fewer stay out partying with their friends until 4am or go backpacking across Europe.

I'd argue you can find a balance. You shouldn't piss away your youth and your potential, no, but life's too short to spend it perpetually saying "I'll have fun later" because one day there won't be a later. Especially since working insane hours is usually a game of diminishing returns: while you might have been able to spend 7 years working your ass off 7 days a week, most normal people burn out, even the most driven and brightest of 20-somethings.

<comment><USER19> "most normal people burn out, even the most driven and brightest of 20-somethings."

What's really important is making sure you are getting enough sleep and exercise as well as eating correctly (although that's more of a long term thing). Those are the few things to me that take priority over working. Because without that (sleep and exercise) the working hours are much less productive. And without your health you have nothing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This article might have a good point, but it's hard to find it amongst all the "my friends and I are really cool and awesome people" speak.

Does this article, coupled with the fact that the author submitted it himself, strike anyone else as terribly vain?

<comment><USER11> Welcome to HN, where everyone is a rockstar entrepreneur!

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'm a 20-something startup CTO, why do I want to read the thoughts of people my own age instead of people who are more experienced?

<comment><USER23> A lot of times people more experienced are so far detached from what you might be going through.

I've found people who have just gone through what I've gone through can help a ton.

Joel Gascoigne sums this up better than I.

[http://joel.is/post/28198804700/why-im-helping-startup- found...](http://joel.is/post/28198804700/why-im-helping-startup-founders)

<comment><USER19> "A lot of times people more experienced are so far detached from what you might be going through."

Some of those people may have gone through the same and can offer their opinions of how it worked out for them.

Have you ever had a medical problem and asked an older person about it? They might tell you "don't worry I had that same pain and it went away, no biggie". Don't assume someone older has no experience or empathy to what someone younger is saying.

<comment><USER23> I wasn't. Just simply trying to provide a perspective on why someone younger might also have valid advice.

Life doesn't have to be one or the other. :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The iPad is Bad for the Consumer  - <AUTHOR> http://blog.herlein.com/2010/01/the-ipad-is-bad-for-the-consumer/

<comment><USER2> iPad is bad for the nerd. iPad is great for the consumer. I'm a nerd, so I've already got an iPhone that's jailbroken to all hell, and I've got a decked out laptop I can't live without. _I_ don't need an iPad.

My mom, on the other hand, reads email, watches Youtube, and plays Sudoku on a computer. She doesn't have a smartphone, nor would she want to shell out 1000+$ for a decent laptop. iPad is great for people like her.</comment>


Step by Step into an Advanced Webpack Setup - <AUTHOR> https://www.robinwieruch.de/webpack-advanced-setup-tutorial/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone. I went through an advanced Webpack setup last week and documented everything I encountered along the way. You start with a basic JavaScript application which gets bundled by Webpack from scratch. From there, you introduce development and production builds, source maps, environment variables, further build configuration depending on development and production mode, additional add-ons and lots more.

I have another minimal React + Webpack tutorial [0] on the side which can be easily combined with this one to evolve it into an advanced React + Webpack setup. You can also combine it with ESLint [1]. I hope it's useful for someone :)

[0] [https://www.robinwieruch.de/minimal-react-webpack-babel- setu...](https://www.robinwieruch.de/minimal-react-webpack-babel-setup/)

[1] [https://www.robinwieruch.de/react-eslint-webpack- babel/](https://www.robinwieruch.de/react-eslint-webpack-babel/)</comment>


Ask HN: What would you want to see in a nutrition facts food label? - <AUTHOR>

I'm the current founder of a start-up that generates FDA compliant food labels (www.quickfoodlabels).  As all of you know, reading those labels are notoriously complex.
For example, I think the number of servings in a package is confusing, because you need to multiply the servings by the calories to get how many calories is in a package.
I was wondering for the HN community, what would you want to see in a nutrition facts food label? <comment><USER3> I want to know whether the food is: vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, certified organic, certified fair trade, and country of origin (and whether some ingredients are from different countries).

I don't have a problem multiplying, really. Maybe something indicating how good/bad the quantities are (e.g. green light for low unsaturated fat per serving) or something.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd like to see all of the nutrition information encoded in a bar code so I can scan it with my smart phone. That would make tracking my nutrition easier (provided there was also an app that could make use of that info).

You could then print that barcode on register receipts for food items ordered and on menus -- that would be awesome.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yea you really are hitting on the best case solution. What we are doing though is for whoever uses our service, we are generating qr codes for every item, so smart phone users can scan the entry and get detailed information. But that would really be limited to the restaurants which use our service.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nutrition facts labels often give misleading information about trans fats, which are quite unhealthy.

The RDA for trans fats is 2 grams. Trans fats are listed on the nutrition facts in grams and amounts less than 0.5 grams are listed as 0 (this is often advertised outside the nutrition facts label). But a serving of food with say 400mg of trans fats is actually a lot (especially if a "serving" is defined as much less than the average person actually consumes). The simple correction would be to list trans fats in milligram units instead as sodium (which has a comparable RDA) and ban the misleading phrase "0g trans fats."

This may seem nit picky but I don't think we should put up misleading numbers in the nutrition facts label.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are totally correct about this. As a developer generating these labels, I implemented the rounding rules

[http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformat...](http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/GuidanceDocuments/FoodLabelingNutrition/FoodLabelingGuide/ucm064932.htm)

and it is really mind boggling

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey hn'ers, I just want to state that with the feedback on this thread, I'll be generating some experimental labels. If anyone has any more suggestions what they want, feel free to state it here.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've tracked every calorie / nutrient I'm eating a couple different times in my life. I always wanted a barcode tied to a detailed (and downloadable) nurition summary, which others have already mentioned. I also greatly appreciated labels which reported glycemic load, inflammation factor, and provided a colored calorie triangle, like here:<http://nutritiondata.self.com>.

</comment><comment><USER7> You're right, serving size should be the package unless it is likely not to be consumed all at once.

I have been mining the USDA nutrition database lately and have found some good things. However, I wish it was more specific and stringent.

</comment><comment><USER8> The NRF index[1], which measures the nutrient density of a food.

[1] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20368382>

</comment><comment><USER9> I want to see what unnatural ingredients they put into the food and their possible harmful effects listed in the labels.

</comment><comment><USER10> Notification for all GMO ingredients.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think it'd be great to be able to see country of origin for a product and each of its ingredients

</comment><comment><USER12> kCalories per typical serving size (with the serving size listed) and kCalories per 100 g / 100 ml

<comment><AUTHOR> hmm.. for US labels, it already is kCalories per serving size with serving size listed.. but yea there is no kCalories per 100g/100mL

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I want to know how the food was changed by processing. For example, how much sugar did they add? Not just the total.

<comment><AUTHOR> So like a new line item drawing out something like

Naturally occurring sugars - 10g Added sugars - <USER2>

?

<comment><USER13> Exactly. For as many things as possible.

By the way, I got this idea from something Robert Lustig said in a recent interview on KQED's Forum.

<comment><AUTHOR> Just as a side project from our mandatory fda labeling, I'll be generating some experimental labels and will post it on HN with feedback on this thread.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Date slaughtered for anything meat.

<comment><USER15> Or harvested, bottled, whatever. Freshness isn't just important for meat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> List out all the monosaccharides contained in a serving's disaccharides & polysaccharide content.

It's so frustrating to see something like this:

        Total Carbohydrates: 75g

             Dietary fibre: 2g

             Sugar: 23g

... ok so what is the remaining 50g of carbs?! It makes a big difference if it's 50g of fructose or 50g of glucose (starch or lactose). Plus, what is meant by "sugar"? Is that sucrose (50%/50% fructose/glucose), HFCS (55%/45% fructose/glucose), or some other disaccharide?

<comment><AUTHOR> From the regulations (The questions page)

N16. How is total carbohydrate calculated? Answer: Total carbohydrate is calculated by subtracting the weight of crude protein, total fat, moisture, and ash from the total weight ("wet weight") of the sample of food. 21 CFR 101.9(c)(6)

N17. Does total carbohydrate include dietary fiber? Answer: Yes. Dietary fiber must be listed as a subcomponent under total carbohydrate. 21 CFR 101.9(c)(6)

N18. What is meant by sugars on the Nutrition Facts label? Answer: To calculate sugars for the Nutrition Facts label, determine the weight in grams of all free monosaccharides and disaccharides in the sample of food. The other nutrients declared on the nutrition label are defined in 21 CFR 101.9(c). 21 CFR 101.9(c)(6)(ii)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Please check our project - MiBuzz.tv - <AUTHOR>

Hi Everyone, This is the first time that I've submitted anything here, but I lurk and read HN. My partner Ramiro and I just launched a social network for video fanatics and we wd really love your feedback:<p>www.mibuzz.tv <comment><USER2> Some meta-advice:

Don't make me click through to see what you're talking about. "Please check our project" is pretty much content-free, and unlikely to get many people taking you up on it.

Then you make me cut-n-copy your actual link. The least you could've done was make it clickable by adding a comment. Look, here, I've done it for you:

<http://www.mibuzz.tv>

Then there's an annoying, auto-starting video. It might be great, but having opened it in a separate tab, I then had to go find it to shut it down.

It emphasises what your product does, it doesn't emphasise the problem it solves. Concentrate not on the many things you do, but on what pain your user has that you can take away.

Finally, there is no "tutorial tab".

On the plus side, the video is genuinely slick, the design looks OK (but I haven't tried to use it, so usability is unknown to me) and it probably does have an audience.

But it's not me.

These are my instant reactions, and they are probably worth what you just paid for them.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the report, you gave us some interesting comments in there! There should be a tutorial tab, below the main screen. Probably as it is now it's not enough visible..

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> If you are collecting personal information you need to have some sort of privacy policy on the site. If you want some help feel free to contact me -- check my profile for contact details.

</comment><comment><USER4> Cool!

Just a suggestion – it should be Show HN not Ask HN :)

</comment><comment><USER5> Looks very nice! Would be nice to see how many other people (through MiBuzz) are watching the same video...

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good idea, thanks!</comment></comment>