Visualising Electromagnetic Fields - <AUTHOR> http://lukesturgeon.co.uk/work/visualising-electromagnetic-fields <comment><USER2> Some years ago, an artist-in-residence at Bristol's Physics dept planted fluorescent tubes under overhead power lines, which then glowed due to the field and could be played with by visitors like a plasma ball:

[http://www.bris.ac.uk/changingperspectives/projects/field/](http://www.bris.ac.uk/changingperspectives/projects/field/)

<comment><USER3> In high school it was a fun geeky thing to do and drive out into the desert where the power lines from Hoover Dam headed over to LA and light up fluorescent bulbs. There is a story, possibly apocryphal, that was told by one of the professors at USC of a guy who lived out there and used a few hundred feet of 12ga wire to build what would essentially be a secondary coil of an air gap transformer to power his shack.

I found it interesting but not interesting enough to pursue a career in power engineering :-).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> An explanation of this kind of visualization given in a stanford lecture by Steve Mann, see 35-45 min into video.

Stanford Seminar: 42 years of Phenomenological AR for Natural/Reality/Direct User-Interfaces [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IpBVC-p3iU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IpBVC-p3iU)

Example in video [https://youtu.be/6IpBVC-p3iU?t=2436](https://youtu.be/6IpBVC-p3iU?t=2436)

</comment><comment><USER5> For a basic magnet, there was an old science fair type of experiment where you laid the magnet on a piece of photo paper, sprinkled iron filings, flashed the paper and developed. Of course, these days you can just basically shoot a digital photo of the magnets and filings. Lots of examples online.

<comment><USER6> The one misleading thing about iron fillings is that they tend to arrange themselves into lines, but the actual magnetic field is continuous rather than made out of discrete lines.

<comment><USER7> That is, in a sense, just calculus: Building a curve out of a huge number of straight segments is immediately comparable to the method of Riemann sums.

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

I think it forms a nice bridge from univariate calculus to visualizing the vector fields.

<comment><USER8> It's not that though. The iron filing change the magnetic field making it denser where the filing are. So they self organize into reenforcing channels of flux. So it's not a true visualization of the field, because the field is changed by the measurements.

<comment><USER9> Useless pedantic then, it is not a "true visualization" of the B field in free space absent the filings. It is however, an approximate visualization of it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> These are pretty, and I can appreciate them as art. As a visualization, though, it doesn't seem very satisfying because most of these images are pictures of the path traced by the person waving the screen, not pictures of the electromagnetic field. The shape we see is mainly a visualization of whatever way the person decided to move the screen through space, that only incidentally happens to be slightly affected by the field.

<comment><USER11> Not sure why you're being downvoted, it's a good point. There's a couple of links here that time-lapse the meter across a consistent 2D or 3D voxel space which gives a better idea of the radiation field, but some are clearly just driven by an arbitrary path chosen by the photographer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've always wondered about this... if an EM field is composed of photons which have higher energy than light, how come I've never seen image/video captured where the device is 'glowing' or something as a photon source? Is there something I'm missing that prevents us from detecting them similar to the way we detect visible light?

<comment><USER13> > if an EM field is composed of photons which have higher energy than light

That's not right - visible light is sort of a "midrange" photon energy that's exceeded by ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays and preceded by infrared, microwaves and radio waves. Everyday devices emit at low frequencies, with energies significantly below that of visible light. The higher energies (ultraviolet, xray, gamma) absolutely do have images:

\- Ultraviolet [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_photography#/media...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_photography#/media/File:UV_Portrait.jpg)]

\- Xray [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray#/media/File:Radiograf%C3...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray#/media/File:Radiograf%C3%ADa_pulmones_Francisca_Lorca.cropped.jpg)

\- Gamma [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray#/media/File:VACIS_Ga...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray#/media/File:VACIS_Gamma- ray_Image_with_stowaways.GIF)

Now, the photons with lower energies than visible light form an interesting case. First off there's infrared, which is fairly familiar:

\- Infrared [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography#/media/Fi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography#/media/File:Tree_example_IR.jpg)

Now, as the photon energies get lower the wavelengths get longer. This introduces a problem for lower-energy images: when the wavelength is around the size of the aperture, wave-like things will happen _involving_ the aperture. This tends to blur the images, meaning that for longer and longer wavelengths larger and larger cameras are required to achieve the same level of detail. However, these images still _exist_ \- but they are rarely taken of everyday things. Note that the imaging you are talking about (to capture the glowing of everyday electronic devices in low frequencies) would have to happen in the microwave and radio bands - because that's around the frequency at which electronics operate. The result is that a reasonably-sized camera would not be able to take a meaningfully sharp image of a router's "glow."

\- Microwave [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_imaging#/media/File:...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_imaging#/media/File:3D_image_of_rebars_with_corrosion_produced_using_microwave_imaging..JPG)

\- Radio Waves [http://www.gb.nrao.edu/epo/PageMill_Resources/galaxy.jpg](http://www.gb.nrao.edu/epo/PageMill_Resources/galaxy.jpg)

The radio wave picture depicts a galaxy. Radio imaging setups are usually very large, like this one: [http://mstecker.com/pages/astroVLAa15vlad-2c1.htm](http://mstecker.com/pages/astroVLAa15vlad-2c1.htm)

<comment><USER11> So does this mean infrared wavelengths are around the lower limit for taking images with a reasonable size camera? I've played around with the thermal IR camera attachements for smartphones (i.e [https://www.amazon.com/FLIR-ONE- Thermal-Imager-iOS/dp/B00VIL...](https://www.amazon.com/FLIR-ONE-Thermal- Imager-iOS/dp/B00VILVV62)) and they're pretty small.

<comment><USER13> The law for diffraction-limited systems is that the blurred spot size increases linearly with wavelength. (Double the wavelength, all else being equal, means twice as blurry.) Engineering concerns (for example, how big can you manufacture a CCD before it becomes prohibitively expensive?) determine what constitutes an "excessively large camera." Although, because infrared covers a 1000-fold range between visible and micro, I feel like it would be safe to say that cellphone-sized cameras might never be made for microwaves.

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction- limited_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction-limited_system)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is cool and reminds me of avalanche rescue training as you have to learn to follow flux lines during searches: [http://beaconreviews.com/transceivers/rescue_searching_coars...](http://beaconreviews.com/transceivers/rescue_searching_coarse.asp) edit: better link

</comment><comment><USER15> Excuse my question. I'm curious about a basic formula to calculate magnetic flux at a given distance from an AC conductor at a given power level?

<comment><USER16> [http://www.softschools.com/formulas/physics/magnetic_field_f...](http://www.softschools.com/formulas/physics/magnetic_field_formula/343/)

the strength of the magnetic field is equal to the (current times the permeability of the medium) divided by (the distance times 2 pi).

magnetic flux is the dot product of the magnetic field and the area vector representing the area through which you want the flux. theres another way to express flux as a ?derivative of voltage? but I can't find a reference and the exact relationship escapes me at the moment.

<comment><USER15> thanks

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Another take on this (Light painting WiFi by Timo):

[https://vimeo.com/20412632](https://vimeo.com/20412632)

</comment><comment><USER18> Hard to believe. What's the secret to see them ?

<comment><USER19> They have a video you can watch

<comment><USER11> The video doesn't really explain what they're doing though. Can anyone explain how they're visualizing the EM fields here?

<comment><USER20> It looks like they have a metering device that glows different colors based on the strength of the field detected. They then appear to be systematically moving the meter across a grid with time lapse photography. The lights photographed from different positions are blended together to create a voxel- like view of the field.

<comment><USER11> Thanks for explaining that makes sense. What kind of metering device will glow based on these kinds of EM fields?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Given Choice, Patients Will Choose Cannabis Over Prescribed Opioids - <AUTHOR> https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2017/02/27/given-the-choice-patients-will-reach-for-cannabis-over-prescribed-opioids/ <comment><USER2> I get kidney stones pretty often (6 times in the last 8 years). I vomit from the pain, convulse on the floor, lose all sense of self as I just struggle to survive the sensation. It is intense. Usually I have to go to the emergency room for IV opioids. Then they give you some to take home after you pass the peak of the pain.

Last time it happened to me, I went home at around 6pm after going into the hospital that morning. At 3am, the pain was again intolerable. I had already taken the maximum dosage of the opioids. I knew taking more was dangerous, and was keenly afraid of getting addicted. But the pain was too much, so I went to get the bottle of pills.

As I stood up to go get the pills, it occurred to me that people say weed is good for pain and that I should try it before taking more opioids. I had weed (in cali, have a "medical" card) so I took some out and smoked.

I cannot describe to you how much more effective it was than the opioids. The pain wasn't gone, but it was just an interesting sensation now. Genuinely didn't bother me. I did yoga. I read. I enjoyed the night. And I was flabbergasted that no one I touched in the medical establishment had ever recommended it.

It feels like a genuinely corrupt world where something so clearly damaging to people and society is recommended before something relatively harmless and widely available.

I am still in awe of how effectively it handled my pain.

<comment><USER3> Have you tried riding rollercoasters with kidney stones?

Apparently some people did a study and found that it can be effective at passing kidney stones. Was in news last year [https://www.ems1.com/medical- clinical/articles/129734048-Stu...](https://www.ems1.com/medical- clinical/articles/129734048-Study-Riding-roller-coasters-can-dislodge-kidney- stones/)

They also said it's good as preventative measure (dislodging before they get too big).

<comment><USER4> I would think a trampoline would work even better.

<comment><USER5> Roller coasters have vibrations that trampolines don't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My mom has benefited from cannabis to help treat chrohns. While nothing has cured, it's been the most effective with no known side effects. Plus it's cheaper than the meds she has been buying for years (spending out of pocket upwards $10k a year with $500 a pill just for flare ups even with medicare in Canada).

She has been in hell for 30 years. They wanted to remove her small intestine ~20 years ago and she didn't want to make that sacrifice and lived with the pain.

Nothing honestly helped long term till I convinced her to try cannabis 3 years ago that so far has been more effective.

She is now on low daily dose with no flare-ups in atleast a year.

From personal experience as a 15 year recreational user and 10 years actual therapy/medicinal use:For chronic pain and intestinal issues it works wonders, but it's not any immediate relief with severe pain.

That may change with higher concentrations and improvements in delivery methods.

<comment><USER7> Crohn's Disease is one of those things where, if you do not suffer from it personally, you have absolutely no business telling someone who does what they may or may not do to treat it - or rather its symptoms. I have a friend with Crohn's, and based on his _reserved description (not far past PG-13)_ as to what he goes through on a daily basis, I would not _DARE_ tell him that he cannot use marijuana, opioids, or anything else. I don't care what he needs to help him get through his day; he deserves quite literally anything that chemistry has to offer that he is willing to take. Nobody - absolutely nobody - has the right tell him differently.

People are ignorant and frankly downright... disgusting/pathetic/opinionated (I can't find the words to describe how far beyond unacceptable some people's positions are)... with their attempts to regulate others, when it comes to issues that do not affect them personally. If you don't have a clue, shut your mouth and let those who have to deal with the situation dictate for themselves how they will manage or cope.

<comment><USER8> > Nobody - absolutely nobody - has the right tell him differently. > People > are ignorant and frankly downright... disgusting/pathetic/opinionated

Those are some very strong claims. You can be sympathetic without being hyperbolic, or assuming that the reason that other don't share your views is that they're bad people who don't share your perfect reasoning.

<comment><USER9> They are strong claims because current drug laws cost people their lives in large numbers. If there wasn't plenty of evidence to support that, I could accept that it might be excusable, but the evidence is there to the point that I have taken to at the very least consider politicians that oppose drug reform (who we should be able to expect to inform themselves) to be morally no better than murderers.

In fact, for the most part they are worse - most murderers do not cause further harm after a single death (it is exceedingly rare for people to commit more than one murder); most politicians who oppose drug law reforms continue to cause harm.

Sometimes we reach inflection points where certain views become so outdated by the availability of evidence that they become repugnant. Consider slavery (yes, I am making that comparison).

Our eras drug laws will come to be remembered as the same kind of barbaric oppression of - and violence against - weaker members of society.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The timing of this is interesting. A few days ago, the White House press sec claimed cannabis is a gateway to opioid use: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning- mix/wp/2017/02/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning- mix/wp/2017/02/24/sean-spicer-seemed-to-tie-marijuana-use-to-opioids-the- evidence-isnt-on-his-side/)

<comment><USER11> Reminds me of when Stephen Harper claimed Marijuana was worse than tobacco and the rather hilarious reaction by Canadians that followed his statement:

[http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-pot- marijuana...](http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-pot- marijuana-1.3255727)

From the comments "hey Steve...smoke a blunt or two and mellow out." is the kind of sentiment that I heard a lot of in Toronto.

<comment><USER12> From his standpoint pot is _much_ worse than tobacco - pot doesn't have well- funded lobbyists, campaign contributors, etc.

<comment><USER13> I'm kind of surprised that the alcohol and tobacco industries don't lobby for legalization. They could potentially diversify in to marijuana manufacture and sale, and leverage their brands and experience in selling other recreational drugs. The pharmaceutical industry could similarly profit from manufacturing and selling medical marijuana.

<comment><USER14> The problem from the pharma companies point of view is that they have patents on a lot of their drugs, granting exclusivity on production. Marijuana is a plant which anyone can grow (and thus compete with them).

<comment><USER15> So is tobacco and while I've known the occasional person who grew it, it's pretty uncommon. I've also been surprised that tobacco companies don't get in on the legalise marijuana thing. Possibly they are suffering so much from bad press they don't think they could withstand the backlash...

<comment><USER9> It is also a new market for them. They can sit on their current market share or help open up a new market and risk it cannibalising their existing market while they potentially may fail to get sufficient market share in the new market to offset the losses.

It seems like basically an industry on the defensive that see it as safer to just hole up and try to maintain status quo as much as possible.

<comment><USER16> Ah yes, the Blockbuster business model. Let's see how it goes for them.

<comment><USER17> I don't know why people attack Blockbuster's business model.

Blockbuster had a _phenomenal_ business model, and effective leadership, that lasted 25 years and went through several re-conceptualizations. What happened to it wasn't a human failing.

The market simply got disrupted by Netflix. Businesses aren't people, they can't just turn the ship around at a moment's notice. What would you have had them do? Not have ever been in the video rental business in the first place and leave all that money on the table? Have the foresight to see Netflix coming?

I can understand why non-techies would use Blockbuster as a symbol for all things tech-disruption-related, but we can do a little better than that I hope.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> There are also other substances (such as psilocybin and LSD) which have the potential to massively reduce the cashflow of big pharma (specifically: in the case of anti-depressants).

And now you understand the importance of the _War on Drugs_ for billionaires in our society.

It seems people are slowly beginning to understand to what degree our society and its systems are corrupted by "economic forces" and not built with the interest of the citizens' wellbeing at heart.

<comment><USER19> I see people say this, and I disagree. And just for clarity, I'm definitely pro-drug legalisation - even of drugs I never want to be in the same room with.

I think drug companies are _precisely_ the sort of place to produce medical- grade LSD (and other therapudic "recreational" drugs) that has predictable dosages. Same goes for cannabinoids in pill form - especially the sorts meant for folks that would rather skip the high. Someone will need to supply mental health & addiction centers with this. And I think the sale of which will be basically on-par with at least generic anti-depressants. It won't replace anti-depressants or anti-anxiety meds, however. While some folks find improvements in such treatments, it can also make the symptoms worse. It isn't a cure-all, but rather an important alternative and/or addition to current drug treatments. Of course, this is all assuming folks have a clinical setting and that "big pharma" enters this section of the market.

This isn't saying that the war on drugs isn't something about money, but I highly doubt it is big pharma. In fact, considering some of the horror stories about medical treatment in prisons, it might actually be a positive for them even if they don't enter the market as those folks would theoretically get "normal" medical treatment. In contrast, private and public prisons have a huge network of suppliers. Companies and the government hire inmates to do work at very low labor costs. These folks have much more to lose from the end of the drug war.

<comment><USER20> LSD cannot be patented, so Big Pharma cannot make money on it - they'd have to compete on price, which would lead to really slim margins. If LSD is kept illegal, they can sell patented "alternatives" at huge margins.

<comment><USER21> As much as I believe that psychedelic experiences should be available to those who seek them, and pro rec mj, LSD can't be legalized. Enough dumbasses out there will drink a vial and then try to drive their car to the moon. Penalties should be much less extreme though.

Maybe designated psychedelic theme parks where it's legal and quality controlled with no access to motor vehicles? (with music too?)

<comment><AUTHOR> How is that different from drinking a fifth of vodka and doing the same? The difference is that in the years of people drinking, and the years of people dropping LSD, we have good stats on which is deadlier.

<comment><USER21> Do not disagree necessarily..

Like I said I think it should be readily available to those who seek it out, without the threat of substantial punishment, it would just be a shit show if Johny H.S. Senior is able to pick up a sheet at 7-11.

How many "Johny turned the school cafeteria into an acid test" news stories is this LSD legalization experiment gonna last for? It pains me to have to say that because I'd love to be able to pick some up at 7-11, just not sure if it's the best idea.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> For folks looking for more information regarding published studies on the topic, we supply an index of over 800 cannabis studies organized by almost 170 conditions, and summarized with a weighted average by our contributing PhD:

[https://www.cannabisreports.com/cannabis- studies](https://www.cannabisreports.com/cannabis-studies)

This includes a section for studies on cannabis and opioid addictions.

<comment><USER23> Maybe you can shed some light: there are lots of different kinds of pain, right? Is cannabis most effective for any particular type? Is it probably the wrong choice for any particular type?

<comment><USER22> _> there are lots of different kinds of pain, right?_

Yes, we have 7 or 8 different types of categorical pains listed for this reason.

 _> Is cannabis most effective for any particular type?_

To my knowledge, there is not a specific type of pain that cannabis has been shown to be "most effective" for. Cannabis acts on important receptors as an agonist or antagonist throughout our bodies.

 _> Is it probably the wrong choice for any particular type?_

There is no evidence, that I'm aware of, that would indicate cannabis would exacerbate or otherwise extend pain for any type of treatment. On the contrary, we discovered our endocannabinoid system[1], which is a strong regulator of pain and discomfort signals, through research and treatment with cannabis.

[1] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> The original article and this post have a very poor headline. The study covered pain relievers, anti-depressants, and sedatives. The people were not just suffering from pain. Some had mental health issues. Some has gastrointestinal issues. I suspect the reason why cannabis was so popular is because it helps with a lot of conditions instead of just one.

Also, cannabis has a much milder effect than prescription drugs and fewer negative side effects. It's not much of a stretch to imagine someone using it in place of a prescription drug when their symptoms are not as strong.

A "friend of mine" who suffers in excruciating pain for days from the occasional kidney stone smokes weed and takes ibuprofen rather than go through bottles of prescription pain killers. They have tremendously negative side effects if taken over a long period of time that he would rather not experience on top of the pain. After seeing his sister get addicted to them after having surgery, he doesn't want to risk them destroying his life.

</comment><comment><USER25> In many cases, though, cannabis and CBD oil aren't nearly as effective as opioids for relief from severe pain, right? How often is this a viable alternative for patients?

This study only looked at 250 people who already have medical cannabis prescriptions for pain, so this shouldn't be extrapolated too heavily.

<comment><USER26> I was diagnosed with chronic pain syndrome, and when given the opportunity, had my doctor switch my prescription from opioids to cannabis.

I don't think that one can appreciate how effective it is for chronic pain, until you've had to use it for that.

<comment><USER27> similarly, those who have only had opioids for acute pain (injuries, post-op, and such) have a hard time appreciating just how much baggage comes with these drugs when they are taken indefinitely.

<comment><USER26> Yes, the side effects of the opioids were as much of a reason for me to want to switch, if not more so.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Naive questions about this:

1\. How many hours does MMJ control pain?

2\. Does taking MMJ for chronic pain make you high all the time?

3\. In California, most MMJ dispensaries are oriented towards recreational users. How do you go about this from a legitimately medical path, i.e. finding a doctor able and willing to provide sound medical advice, instead of just collecting the fee for a green card?

<comment><USER6> With having alot of first hand and 2nd hand knowledge, I am very surprised by questions like these that show how much of the knowledge about this wonder drug have been suppressed and or generally just not known.

1)varies on so many factors to get into. -Tolerance,strength,variety,form, and how it's taken. What you eat before consumption can affect.

2)no. Lookup THC vs CBD, for pain relief it's more CBD which doesn't make you high at all. Some studies have shown full spectrum/mix of the 2 in concentrates may provide better results.

3)find a naturopath, or just go in and ask the dispensaries. Many dispensary workers are actually very knowledgeable.

Not sure about Cali, but alot of dispensaries here are very knowledgeable and cater alot to medical use rather than recreational, even though their key market is recreational.

Try finding a local compassion club, healing centers etc for support/seminars or information.

Recent article on CBD: [http://hightimes.com/medicinal/cbd-the-cinderella- molecule/](http://hightimes.com/medicinal/cbd-the-cinderella-molecule/)

<comment><USER29> I downvoted you for two reasons.

Cannabis is not a wonder drug. It treats a few things effectively, like many other drugs. Just because it has been suppressed doesn't mean you should use hyperbole.

Second, naturopaths are quacks. They do not have proper medical training and often recommend nonsense like homeopathy. They are the opposite of what the OP was asking for.

<comment><USER6> maybe from your experience.

Cannabis has not been fully explored since its supression by pharma/govt. there are many areas which they are discovering it treats effectively, more than a few already known and more being discovered.

i have seen a naturopath who also has a doctorate in science based medicine, and is not some hack pitching homeopathy.

not all are quacks and not all dont have medical training , i downvoted you for this reason, doesnt mean you should use a hyperbole.. :)

who do you recommend to see? you provided no information relevant to what OP was asking.

should they go see a medical doctor who in general (not all) dont believe the effectiveness just due to the stigma of marijuana?

or would you recommend a naturopath who may (not all) who has hands on experience advising and dealing with patients who have tried marijuana to help with various ailments.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I can second this. I suffer badly enough to use strong opioids daily. Up side of them is I can code pretty well on it. I prefer weed for a better sense of self, but find it hard to code(impossible).

<comment><USER31> As a few others have mentioned, try a CBD concentrate. CBD is another cannabinoid in marijuana, but it doesn't make you high and it seems to be primarily responsible for the pain-relieving effects of marijuana.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> They are making it 'more' illegal in the UK. You are drug tested if you are pulled over by their pigs and their companies do urine tests on every single employee regardless of role and fired. Unless you are an exec I bet and for something you could have done legally over a month ago stateside.

My niece has Crohn's. From a lovely vibrant kid she has managed this pain with a smile and nearly died once or twice. She is ill again now. How many of those cunts snort coke before their big hypocritical speeches?

<comment><USER33> >> their companies do urine tests on every single employee regardless of role and fired.

[https://www.gov.uk/monitoring-work-workers-rights/drug- testi...](https://www.gov.uk/monitoring-work-workers-rights/drug-testing)

> 2\. Drug testing

> Employers have to have consent if they want to test for drugs. Usually this > is when they have a full contractual health and safety policy, which should > be in the contract or staff handbook.

> Employers should:

> _limit testing to employees that need to be tested

> _ensure the tests are random

> *not single out particular employees for testing unless this is justified by > the nature of their jobs

> Workers can't be made to take a drugs test but if they refuse when the > employer has good grounds for testing, they may face disciplinary action.

[https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and- safety/dr...](https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/drugs- and-alcohol/guides-and-reports-reps/drug-testing-workplace)

> Despite claims from drugs-testing companies, there is no real evidence that > drug-testing is becoming common-place in British workplaces. It is mainly > used, often with union agreement, in safety critical areas such as transport > and energy generation or after an incident. There is also increased usage in > the construction industry. However generally where wide-scale drug testing > has been considered it has been rejected either because of cost, union > objections, or doubts over the effectiveness.

<comment><USER32> Everyone (allegedly) got tested. My buddy got fired. He worked on an IT helpdesk. It is in the small print of his contract. Yes it is construction. UK gov is a ministry of information thing. It says a lot of things that companies here just ignore because they can. Wrongful dismissal laws here were neutered by the tories. More friends tell me it is happening in their companies too. I would show the contract /say more but I do not want to identify myself. But thanks for the downvotes I hope the view is nice from that gilded tower.

<comment><USER33> The TUC is not a government mouthpiece. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trades_Union_Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trades_Union_Congress)

<comment><USER32> LOL Try phoning them. Haven't you noticed that they say if it is in the contract you either put up or shut up. Do you think we want to be tested like some animal because I sit at their desk? They tested EVERYBODY. Not random, not as a result of some clue. It was a blanket company wide purge of anyone they didn't like or desperately need who had smoked pot in the last hundred days. They are legally allowed to do so and even if they weren't legally allowed to do so they would do it anyway because what are you going to do? Fight a huge corporation's legal? Even if you win your award is capped at whatever crappy salary they deigned you were worth and you still have no job because they will just blacklist you. Methinks YOU have some vested interest you are not declaring because most people think this is disgusting fascist behaviour. My buddy worked on fucking helpdesk. They just don't like it and here we have the state saying you can regulate your pain with the drugs of their choice whilst making money off the back of stuff which kills millions. Well screw them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I was 8 hours from heading to the airport for a family trip to Amsterdam last summer when I burned the heck out of the fingers of my right (dominant) hand. It was probably the most pain I had ever been in, even including a compound fracture of the clavicle that involved 8 screws and a metal bar to repair. The latter caused me to get addicted (unknowningly) to opioids (hydrocodone) which led to a miserable week of withdrawl symptoms. I didn't take any opioids a year later after the surgery to remove all that hardware.

I told the doctors at the hospital I didn't want to get addicted again, so they gave me Tramadol.

I made it to Amsterdam and, that night, I finally gave in and took one of the Tramadols. It put me through a loop and wringer, but took away the pain and let me sleep through the night mostly.

The next day, my wife came back to our place with a "space muffin", or pot- laced chocolate brownie thing. I had never had any edibles before. That night, I figured, what the heck, they're always talking about medical uses so I ate it.

I have never been so surprised at something anecdotal in my life.

The pain was gone just as well as the night before with Tramadol. Furthermore, although the edible definitely was psychoactive, I was much more functional and less out of it than the single Tramadol I took, and felt much better the next day - not hung over.

I became a strong medical marijuana advocate that night.

Damn shame we don't have this available in my home state in the USA. Damn shame we have a moron of a President who loves states rights except when he doesn't (most of the time?). Damn shame we have a war on drugs. <sigh>

</comment><comment><USER35> It certainly has had a huge benefit in managing symptoms of PTSD it would seem. As an example, this site is from Veteran's Affairs Canada and shows how they will pay for medical cannabis. [http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/help/faq/cannabis-medical- purp...](http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/help/faq/cannabis-medical-purposes)

</comment><comment><USER36> I've got serious neck and shoulder pain from wrestling in high school and college. Currently don't have the time to get proper treatment. Doctors have tried to prescribe opioids and even tranquilizers for the pain to help me sleep but I'm terrified, with good cause, of becoming addicted. I took a run of percocet in high school for my wisdom teeth and enjoyed them too much to ever have that be a regular part of my life. No mater what the pain is like I don't think I'll be able to feel comfortable taking any opioids.

<comment><USER37> I used to have chronic neck pain, and didn't think that it would ever get better. I was eventually convinced to go to physical therapy at a location near my job.

It took several months of me going in for half an hour, twice a week, but my pain started to subside. I now only occasionally get pain when I have very poor posture. Give PT a try. It really doesn't take very long and is very effective.

<comment><AUTHOR> ^This!!! So much this. I had a similar issue years ago, and beyond the help of the therapy itself, she also pointed out all of things I was doing day in, day out, that caused my problem in the first place. She taught me to moderate the intensity of my typing, to take breaks, good posture, stretches, all of that.

It's valuable stuff to learn, plus the therapy itself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I can't help myself but wonder if some of those patients actually went to one of those doctors because they can prescribe MMJ In that case the study would be a bit biased towards MMJ, wouldn't it?

</comment><comment><USER39> I skimmed the paper, I can't see what mode of intake they suggest. I suppose users were smoking joints. Wouldn't vaporised THC inhalation be even more effective and less damaging for health ?

<comment><USER40> The negative health effects of smoking cannabis are relatively low. See the recent NSF report; there is definitely a problem with chronic respiratory issues for extremely heavy smokers, but no risk for cancer except for a type of prostate cancer which is easily treated.

<comment><USER41> My assumption that burning and inhaling anything would be dangerous has been proven wrong a few times on HN. Users have posted studies that show no real negative effects of smoking cannabis.

<comment><USER42> I disagree with this though. I've been smoking and vaping for years and every time my throat feels weird.

I've been making these oils that is just Hemp or Coconut Oil with the flower infused in it. It lasts a lot longer, but takes much longer to start. Around 2 hours whereas smoking is right away.

<comment><USER40> I'm not claiming there's no problem. however, in my experience, using a lower vape temperature is key. high vape temps actually do burn the material, which leads to much harsher smoke and coughing.

<comment><USER42> What temp do you set it

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I have a broken spine from a 10 yo climbing accident, with a smashed vertibrae and splinters sticking into the spinal column. I was prescribed Oxy after surgery, spent a month on them and then went through hell and back to get off the shit. I swore to never, ever touch anything from Big Pharma again. Since then, I've been happily puffing my pain away when needed. The whole 'illegalize to protect the people' is so obviously a scam. It's a sacred, healing plant.

</comment><comment><USER44> I got hit by a car on a bicycle. Instead of taking pain mess, I used edibles and marijuana for 2 weeks. It was just as effective, if not more because I was functional.

</comment><comment><USER45> Maybe these patients aren't aware of the risks. Maybe they don't know it can KILL!!! [http://hightimes.com/news/chelsea-clinton-suggests- marijuana...](http://hightimes.com/news/chelsea-clinton-suggests-marijuana-is- killing-people/)

<comment><USER46> This is hardly proof that it kills. And mixing particular drugs with particular other drugs can always cause issues. This doesn't make marijuana a 'killer'.

<comment><USER47> GP linked to a story in High Times. I think they agree with you and the post is sarcastic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> And fundamentalists Christians would rather let God heal their children than consult medical professionals.

Let's not elevate the desires of the non-professional to equal the guidance of medical professionals, no matter how wishful we are to do so.

<comment><USER49> And they should be free to do so. Fewer dumb people in the world.

You want to pop your heroin, you're free to listen to the pros.

Others think cannabis works better for them? Let them have it.

<comment><USER29> > And they should be free to do so.

For themselves sure. For their children, no.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Related: a Last Week Tonight piece on Opioids: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pdPrQFjo2o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pdPrQFjo2o)

</comment><comment><USER51> "want to smoke weed and feel good or do you want to take some pills and have a hard time taking a shit"

gee i don't know, doc

</comment><comment><USER52> Surprising that big pharma is an opponent to a readily-available natural substance outside the purview of patent protections. Quick, better enforce the federal ban. </s>

<comment><USER53> Been asking myself why drugs that make you feel good is banned like cannabis, mushrooms, LSD, etc. Government got anything against people feeling good? Conspiracy?

<comment><USER49> Something about people not getting addicted and ruining their lives.

But then you see alcoholics, smokers with cancer, morbidly obese from food, stabbings... basically, follow the money to see why anything is banned, ever.

<comment><USER54> Because opiates are well known to have no addictive properties whatsoever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> I suppose the more important question is, does it really matter? Use what works for the individual patient, every patient is different.</comment>


Startup Quote: Tim O'Reilly, Founder, O'Reilly Media - <AUTHOR> http://startupquote.com/post/9280412602/when-you-have-to-prove-the-value-of-your-ideas-by

<comment><AUTHOR> When you have to prove the value of your ideas by persuading other people to pay for them, it clears out an awful lot of woolly thinking.

\- Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly)

<http://startupquote.com/post/9280412602/></comment>


$50 to anyone who can tell me the whereabouts of these meatheads - <AUTHOR> http://www.hackersinshape.net/archives/35

<comment><USER2> It sure looks like the company the author works for could use a bit of a code auditing, not just the bits that you're looking at right now.

Who knows what else is squirreled away in there, if this could escape attention for 5 whole years then chances are there is more where that came from.

</comment><comment><USER3> Can you do something practical like throw away their home-grown J2EE auth and use Spring?

<comment><AUTHOR> We actually rolled out a new project for them recently using Spring framework, and was to a large degree a success. The problem with the system in question is that it would require some what quite a bit of re-architecture to work Spring into the bigger picture. Its on the cards for the coming major release though. The problem has been that the authentication/authorization to large degree is crippled. Crippled in a sense that each user login was bound through data schema and many other parts to only a single user role per user login credentials. So fixing this has been the obvious priority. As one of the requirements that came up is the user SSO (Single-Sign-On), integration with Corporate LDAP support for auth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I know exactly where those meatheads are. They are working for every company I've ever worked for. The larger companies usually have a higher concentration of them.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't get what is wrong with that, other than in the try - catch block in the init() method the Exception e is stubbed, i.,e., a stack trace or whatever is not printed. I know that is bad. Is that the main problem? Other than that, it looked like perfectly valid code to me, though admittedly I know C better than I know Java. Don't get me wrong - I believe you that there are valid concerns, it's just that personally I don't see them, other than the issue with the try - catch block.

<comment><AUTHOR> Besides the obvious try, catch ...do nothing, the code checks for a username "pustulio" and then redirect user to a screen that just say "all your base, are belong to us!" in plain text. Do I need to say more. :)</comment></comment>


Ancient virus found hibernating in the human genome - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/03/ancient-virus-found-hibernating-in-the-human-genome-and-it-might-wake-up/ <comment><USER2> Maybe we're mostly made of coopted virus fragments? Could be intelligent apes were spawned not by mutation but by viral meddling, however inadvertent it may have been.</comment>


Vine places porn at the top of every user's feed - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/28/vine-porn/ <comment><USER2> > "I clicked on the video b/c I thought the warning was a joke," wrote in the > comments. I'm furious I had to see something like this."

Really? And somehow it is Vine's fault you saw porn while clicking on a video named "Dildoplay" with the tags "nsfw" "porn" "nsfwvine". I can't feel sorry for you. Yes it is too bad that this showed up in the first place but lets not start with the pitchforks. This was a simple mistake that was completely avoidable by users who have 2 eyes and can read.

Like I said it shouldn't have been there in the first place but lots not act like you accidentally clicked on a video that has all the correct warning of it's content. "Officer, I didn't know that when I pulled the pin out of that grenade that it would explode, I thought it was a joke".

<comment><USER3> Well, Vine is rated 12+ in App Store. "Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity". I'm not sure what are ramifications if an application violates assigned ratings.

On a second thought, "Infrequent/Mild" is vague enough: does slash mean "or"?

<comment><USER4> I'd imagine it's pulled ASAP. None of the major app store providers allow porn on their stores, do they?

<comment><USER5> They allow browsers, but those are: "You must be at least 17 years old to download this app."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'd be interested to read why it was selected as an "Editor's pick".

There's also a small possibility an English law was broken. (<http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/12>)

<comment><USER7> The comment that it was "Human error" was also interesting, perhaps someone made it a favorite while logged in as the Editor? Of course the interesting bit for me was that the system had a porn screen in place, it "knew" it was porny since it required you to tap it to view it, so why does the program / tool that makes it "Editor's Choice" not automatically reject as an error an attempt to promote a porny video to that spot?

Google Video (the service that existed at Google before and to some extent after :-) they bought YouTube) early on used an algorithm for picking the top videos to put on the page based on views/ratings/comments etc but that early algorithm had built in from the start a check for things being NSFW and thus preventing them from ever making the list.

Seems like a brain fart. Either that or a poor attempt at getting publicity for the service. That latter would be really lame if Apple pulls the App based on the commotion.

<comment><USER8> _why does the program / tool that makes it "Editor's Choice" not automatically reject as an error an attempt to promote a porny video to that spot_

This was the second mistake. There should be business rules in place to prevent this. Most likely they rushed the app to production without considering this case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> An offtopic, but check this out - <http://imgur.com/kIacbiR>

It's a list of external dependencies of the linked VentureBeat page. I've been running RequestPolicy for a while now, but have never seen a website being this frivolous with sharing their hit information.

<comment><USER10> Install Ghostery and watch as it blocks all 24 of those insidious little things. And for every other site, too.

<comment><USER9> Ah, no. Ghostery has its own problems, stemming from who wrote it.

<comment><USER11> Don't leave us hanging.

<comment><USER9> The Better Advertising Project, with the basic idea to profile end-user ad- blocking activity on the Internet and to resell this data to advertisers. This might be OK with some people, but for me, personally, it's just too close for comfort.

<comment><USER10> Let's say they are re-selling this data that says who ad blocks.

And I'm ad-blocking everything.

So advertisers find out that an increasingly growing segment of the population don't abide "traditional" Internet advertising.

This is bad for me why exactly? Honest question.

<comment><USER9> Why do you block ads? It's a leading question, and the answer is likely to be that they are annoying.

But why are they annoying? If you drill down a bit, then it's not because they blink, but because someone somewhere thought that you should see their ad. Because they made a decision for you, without asking, and it's not a decision that you would've made yourself. Similarly, any sort of reporting, anonymous or not, falls into the same domain - someone somewhere decided that you should be OK with it. I don't appreciate this. It's not what they _do_ , it's the fact that they thought they _could_ do it. It's ethics. I don't have a problem with someone accidentally farting in a room, but I would have a problem if someone had a choice of walking out, thought it over and then proceeded to do it anyway.

It might be OK with others, but it's not OK with me. HTH.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> One of the perils of being a startup, and instead of growing organically and having these embarrassing moments early in front of a small number of hardcore users (who will use you no matter what, and forgive you no matter what you do), you get pushed out by a behemoth like Twitter.

</comment><comment><USER13> While its embarrassing for Vine to have porn pop up in the top of users feed's , and the societal norms say it's a "bad thing" for the company; I can't but help feel that in actual fact this would attract far more users.

<comment><USER14> I don't think so in this case...even if we assume that porn is a major driver in tech (I think iOS's whitewashed dominance is a clear counter argument), _six-second porn_ is likely not satisfying enough for porn aficionados to stick around with. Even if there are some _great_ clips, it's still seems like a lot of work to hit refresh-next-whatever (I don't know, I don't have the app), nevermind wading through all the unsatisfying clips.

Meanwhile, the many users who do not want to see porn, either at all, or at least during daytime hours, will have a negative user experience.

<comment><USER15> I think you underestimate people here. They've been hitting refresh and waiting for static images to load for a long time. Vinepeek makes allows you to just sit back and watch, and with the addition of tag searching, I'd imagine that sitting through this content isn't a chore at all considering the lengths people will go to find new material to begin with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> There's an easy fix: add options panel with hashtags to filter out. And add #porn as one of the defaults in it.

<comment><USER17> Your solution depends on pornographer's honesty in tagging. They have tons of incentive to be dishonest this way.

<comment><USER18> I'm genuinely confused as to what the incentive is for the people posting the porn. They certainly aren't profiting from it- do they just have a vested interest in seeing Vine fail?

<comment><USER19> It's an advertisement for viewers to "see more" -- there's lots of free porn out there, and most of it is used to funnel a percentage of the viewers to paid subscription sites where other / more similar content exists. Conversion rates are not as low as you think.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I honestly feel that most users would not be offended by this, but might feel embarrassed if this showed while they're showing the app to their parents or a non-close friend. However, I'm sure that Apple (or their censors) take things like this somewhat seriously, which is silly because this is the Internet! There are going to be offensive things every now and then; that's what happens when you democratize the creation of content. I wish Apple would take a more hands-off approach and just throw-up some disclaimer that "online interactions are not rated by Apple" and leave it at that.

<comment><USER21> Or just make age ratings opt-in. By default all apps would be "unrated" and thus prohibited when parental controls are enabled. Apps that can guarantee no adult content can request a rating review.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Am I the only one who installed this app AFTER reading this article :P

</comment><comment><USER23> I guess you could also describe this as 'Vine creates first real time video priority engine to 'get it right'' for a large percentage of users.

</comment><comment><USER24> I loved the ad I saw on the page (I am on a mobile device) proclaiming, "Need an eye exam?" from Pearle Vision. Seems oddly fitting.

</comment><comment><USER25> Sounds like everything's working as intended here. It's not like the Internet is used for anything besides anonymous slander and porn anyway.

Edit: And ponies.

<comment><USER26> and lolcats</comment></comment>


Show HN: 415-483-1860 twilio-translator - <AUTHOR>

@andrewacove and i built this in a few hours at the apihackday.  if you like it tweet it up.<p>this is mostly for fun, but it should translate any phrase to the best of the twilio transcription service. <comment><USER2> Pretty slick. Would be nice to have a bit more in the way of menus at some point - press 1 to repeat the phrase, 2 to do a new one, etc. Nice job.

<comment><AUTHOR> dude, remember this is 4 hours work, in a hackday environment with weak wifi. api's were breaking left and right, but the good folks at apigee, heroku and twilio were responsive.

i guess twilio does not handle 301 redirects for audio files, and apigee does not handle utf8 in their debug console, but other than that the app is just an MVP hackday thing, and we got it to work.

andrew and I will probably improve the menu for any language supported by the Microsoft Translate API.

twilio is awesome for this sort of thing, but my server languages are php and python, so i will probably port it to app engine so that it only costs per request, rather than instance time.

also since twilio knows the incoming phone number, we will probably allow you to set a default language or something.

<comment><USER2> I was not _criticizing_ your efforts. It's good work - would have even been impressive at 8/10/12/20 hours.

Yeah, a default language is a good idea too - I hadn't thought of that.

Again, nice job. Congrats :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Just called and choose Japanese, after asking me what to translate I got to the (pleasant, it seems Japanese?) waiting music but eventually hung up after 5 minutes because nothing was happening. Choosing Spanish or French immediately hung up on me. Cool hack though!

<comment><USER4> Every now and then, Twilio fires the transcription callback with a blank transcription. Unfortunately, we didn't encounter the problem until about 20 minutes before demo time, at which point it started to happen pretty frequently, including during the demo. There isn't a code path in place for when that happens yet.

<comment><AUTHOR> we could call someone back, if we can't modify the call. hmm? I wonder if there is a call back if the modify call fails.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "We're sorry, an application error has occurred. Good bye!" :(

<comment><AUTHOR> yeah, that happens when heroku can't respond.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sorry, a bit confused. Is this some sort of an IVR in the US?

<comment><AUTHOR> i guess you could say that, but the language select is performed by dial tones only.

more accurately it's a dialtone menu system with a transcription callback to an conference call of one. the largest amount of error happens with the transcription service, both in how long it takes, and.... what it produces.

we found that the translation part is actually pretty accurate when compared to the transcription.

i am currently seeking out if there are better near real time transcription options.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Just tested it out, worked like a charm. Very handy!

</comment><comment><USER8> good job! tried it out and it seemed to work as expected.</comment>


Dogecoin Tutorial - <AUTHOR> http://howtodogecoin.com/ <comment><USER2> My advice to everyone: if an altcoin pops up, mine it for a day or two. Place the funds in a private wallet. Backup the wallet on a USB key and two hard drives. Do not access it for 2-3 years. Early on, farming a block takes no effort at all. Later on, if the altcoin succeeds, you hit a random lotto. Otherwise, you have a few encrypted wallets and probably wasted 15 minutes setting up the miner per altcoin. Be wary of the altcoins.

<comment><USER3> My advice to everyone: Existing cryptocurrencies and especially all the "i made a coin too" are a shady, complicated and potentially completely useless things. Consider them all schemes to lure money into the creator's wallets. That's the whole purpose. Now make the ethical decision if you want to support that for a chance on a questionable gain in $YourLocalRealMoney through shady exchanges. And if you feel stressed already that you missed the opportunity to be a fantastillionaire with bitcoin, you will probably get addicted to mining and feel miserable overall. Do you want to feel stressed and perhaps evil for a tiny chance of money or do you rather have a constant flow of secure meatspace money by working?

<comment><USER4> >Consider them all schemes to lure money into the creator's wallets

Some launches, like Dogecoin's, are done ethically with no pre-mining. Look at the coin creator's launch plan and if they violate (as the recent Coinye coin did) take them to task for it (Coiye crashed and burned).

<comment><USER5> It's effectively the same thing, except that the set of people at the top of the pyramid is larger. It's still most lucrative for the creators, it's just also highly rewarding for the earliest adopters.

<comment><USER4> How is it more lucrative for the creators than the early adopters?

<comment><USER5> I can see how my post left room for misinterpretation; my intention was to express that the creators are in the set {people for whom it's most lucrative}. The earliest adopters are in the set too, obviously.

Put differently, my point is that "ethical" launches are simply good marketing, and are quite compatible with the sentiment expressed upthread that "[altcoins] are schemes to lure money into the creator's wallets". If a given coin becomes popular, the creator is going to profit immensely from it whether or not they engaged in pre-mining. By doing an "ethical" launch, they're making it more likely that the coin gains significant adoption, albeit probably decreasing the expected size of their payout. That seems like a smart play, given diminishing marginal utility of money, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm honestly very interested by Dogecoin, the community enthusiasm and positivity seems to be it's wildcard. But I find the lexicon "so wow! to the moon!" et. al. just terribly grating. It honestly impacts my willingness to dive into the space.

<comment><AUTHOR> The meme powers the community and drives its marketing. You'll become immune to it after a short time.

<comment><USER7> I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see HN jumping on the "repeating old memes over and over and over and over again" bandwagon. So moron, wow.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Does it include information on the market manipulation?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7126153](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7126153)

<comment><USER9> Thank you, those were my thoughts exactly when I saw the headline. Those kinds of problems lead me steer wide and clear.

<comment><USER10> It's also going to be much harder once the currency has any sort of significant financial value. This kind of manipulation is only easily possible at the early stages.

<comment><USER11> They'd better hurry then, since all the coins will be mined soon

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> k-mcgrady Nice, I just started looking into Dogecoin a few days ago. It's been two days now and my wallet is still doing its first sync (about 70%). I also set up a BitCoin wallet and it looks like that'll take weeks to sync. Is this a problem people starting crypto currencies are thinking about? Is it solvable or just how they work?

<comment><AUTHOR> When you're using an offline wallet like bitcoin-qt or dogecoin-qt, you have to download the entire blockchain for the cryptocurrency. This is what's 'syncing' and can take a while to finish.

You can bypass having to download the blockchain by using an online wallet instead, which solves that specific pain point but they're less secure than your local storage offline wallet.

<comment><USER12> Please, do not recommend that. Online wallets are first target for scams and hacks and should not be used.

If you browse /r/dogecoin, you will see that everyone is recommending to stay away from them. They were especially hit by the dogewallet.com hack.

An alternative is using the android wallet. It's been around for some weeks, now, and I didn't see any complains about it. It relies on no central server and it's code is opensource [1], so it can hardly be a scam, I think.

I remember reading something by its author saying that it won't download the whole chain. From my experience, it's faster to sync than qt client, so I suppose it's true. Also, some neat options like disabling sync when not charging and/or not connected to wifi, which make power / bandwidth consumption not a problem.

Anyway, the only official wallet is the qt / cli one [2]. If you want to be safe, it's the one to use. The sync thing may be annoying at first, but it's easily dealt with if you open your wallet once a day, or once in two days (it will take something like five minutes to sync).

[1] [https://github.com/langerhans/dogecoin-wallet- new](https://github.com/langerhans/dogecoin-wallet-new)

[2] [https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin](https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The "next" at the bottom needs to be bigger/bolder for newbies...

<comment><AUTHOR> updated on site

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Perhaps it's not the right thread to ask this, but:

What stops e.g. Pixar from opening up Pixarcoin where they let the community render their next movie? Am I missing something here?

<comment><USER15> Rendering a movie is not suitable as a proof of work function. It's probably very difficult to design a mathematical framework to verify that you really rendered the movie and not just send garbage back in exchange for coins.

At the moment most Coins use either one or multiple hashing functions¹ or prime chains² as proof of work system³.

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

2: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primecoin#Proof-of- work_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primecoin#Proof-of-work_system)

3: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of- work_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system)

<comment><USER16> An additional problem is that the rendered images will leak.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> On the computer parts section on the mining page, you talk about discreet GPUs, but you probably meant discrete.

Otherwise looks great!

<comment><USER18> thanks...I don't know what I was thinking haha

<comment><USER19> It's OK, man. You need GPUs that aren't gossipy anyway. ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm skeptical of some of the hype around Dogecoin. The various stats sites are currently showing _hundreds of millions of dollars worth_ of Dogecoin transactions every day ([http://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/sentinusd- doge.html](http://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/sentinusd-doge.html)). These are trivial to manipulate by sending transactions to yourself.

Where are all these transactions happening? Am I just out of the loop?

<comment><USER18> there is a big tipping culture in the community, especially on reddit. in addition to karma upvotes, people can use a tipbot to send doge to each other. the /r/dogecoin subreddit has 40k+ subscribers, with lots of tipping in each thread.

additionally, it may be that each transaction is counted multiple times. if I were to tip you, I would first send funds to the bot, who then sends funds to you.

<comment><USER20> Ok, lets be generous and assume all 45,199 /r/dogecoin subscribers tip daily, and there are 2 transactions for every tip. Each subscriber would need to tip an average of:

$427,079,860 / 2 / 45,199 = $4724.44

Not likely, IMHO, even if each tip required 10 or 100 transactions.

Most tips seem to be less than a dollar. [http://www.reddit.com/user/dogetipbot](http://www.reddit.com/user/dogetipbot)

It just doesn't add up. Where else is Dogecoin being used?

EDIT: some actual numbers are available here [http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/1wd49h/huge_udoget...](http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/1wd49h/huge_udogetipbot_announcement/)

\---

On January 26th:

\- 7,258 inbox messages were read by dogetipbot (even more were sent and were still unread at the time -- backlog).

\- _4,565 tips were given._

\- 572 new users registered for their first time.

\- 359 shibes withdrew some dogecoins

\- 743 shibes still kept sending +info requests even though i turned them off. ;)

\- _1,063,466.73376456 dogecoins were tipped._

\---

1,063,466.73376456 dogecoins = $1488.85 USD (using current exchange rate of 1 doge =US$0.0014)

There you have it. ~$1500 worth of Dogecoin was tipped on the /r/dogecoin subreddit on Jan 26, while $240M worth of Dogecoin transactions took place.

<comment><USER18> I haven't run any numbers (great analysis by the way). Other sources I can think of:

-conversion from other currency holdings (LTC, BTC), which some people have openly said they did

-recent run up / down of the value caused a lot of people who were previously holding to buy / sell (started around the time of the big news push with the Jamaican bobsled team fundraiser, right now it is dropping)

-general interest, people buying some amount to hold for the first time. i have had friends making their first crypto purchase in doge recently, who don't understand the technology and probably shouldn't (due to the news i think and not wanting to miss out on bitcoin 2.0)

-Chinese investors getting in / out? i think i saw a graph of cny to doge being a major part of the transactions

personally, i haven't looked into it that seriously because i haven't invested seriously. i put time in (especially for the site content), but all my coins are mined from an existing gaming computer. my total doge USD value is ~$50, which is probably lower than what people would expect of the dogecointutorial creator. my doge mining actually started because I wanted to cheaply explore how cryptocurrencies worked. then the tutorial site actually started when i was testing out aws / github pages for landing page hosting. originally i just had some sort of dogecoin index placeholder but found myself jumping around / searching for info as i learned about doge and cryptocurrencies...so i started my own guide. if you do more research, do share it!

<comment><USER20> I did some more calculations here: [https://www.quora.com/Dogecoin/Where-is- the-currently-massiv...](https://www.quora.com/Dogecoin/Where-is-the- currently-massive-Dogecoin-transaction-volume-coming-from)

Notably, the volume across all exchanges today is 562,124,614 doge, which is about $786,974, and mining accounts for another ~$1,000,000/day (500000 * 60 * 24 * $0.0014).

2x each of those to account for transactions into/out of mining pools and exchanges, and it's still only a few million dollars (plus a lot of trading never touches the blockchain)

<comment><USER18> bookmarked, will keep an eye on it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm also building a DOGE/USD (and other currencies) exchange, [http://doges.org/index.php?topic=4435.0](http://doges.org/index.php?topic=4435.0) It's tough work doing it legitimately since so far most banks have turned their nose up at my business, but I'll get there.

<comment><USER22> You might also have the fun time of actually getting arrested. [http://business.time.com/2014/01/27/bitinstant-ceo- charlie-s...](http://business.time.com/2014/01/27/bitinstant-ceo-charlie- shrem-arrested-for-alleged-money-laundering/)

<comment><USER21> Yeah lol I read that article, hence the emphasis on making my company as legal as possible. There are banks in my country that will accept it, they just need persuasion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite (I own some bitcoins and have upvoted some bitcoin threads here), I am getting tired of seeing dogecoin threads. They don't seem to contain very novel or insightful information. Also, how long can the doge meme honestly keep people interested in the currency?

<comment><USER18> we just wanted to get feedback on the site, like any other show hn. wasn't trying to provide novel or insightful information, other than a guide simple enough that my parents could follow.

<comment><USER23> Sorry, I didn't mean to single you guys out individually, it was more of a meta comment. Resources that make it easier for people to learn and do things are always helpful :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Regarding: "Since the wallet requires an internet connect, if you have a firewall you must allow the program access. Make sure the boxes are checked, then allow access if prompted." [http://howtodogecoin.com/images/wallet/windows/win- firewall....](http://howtodogecoin.com/images/wallet/windows/win-firewall.png)

I don't think you should be allowing the Doge Client to run in public networks. Am I wrong?

<comment><USER18> Hmmmm, you may be right...i'm not super knowledgeable on this type of thing though. I'll update the picture, but can you give me a explanation I can use?

<comment><USER25> The configuration is the same as Bitcoin.

Basically, the Dogecoin wallet is going to attempt to punch a hole in your firewall with UPnP and any other NAT-busting techniques the author (of Bitcoin) has contrived to enable you to help new nodes to come to sync by sending them blocks from the winning blockchain.

The daemon mode (which listens on an RPC/HTTP port for commands like "send money here") is not going to attempt to run unless you enable a password in your .doge/config (just like bitcoind). RPC clients will need this password to be able to issue commands. If you have one node, then both the client and server will have the same .doge/config and it's secure, assuming they don't guess your password. If you have multiple nodes, this is the way to have a lightweight client that sends commands to your "heavyweight" wallet. If the client doesn't have your RPC password, the client can't do anything that any 'nobody' new node on the network should be able to do.

You can run Dogecoin on public networks, or the Dogecoin wallet has a bug that you should report. Whether it's wise to be in a position to be the first to discover such a bug (by losing all the coins in your wallet), that's another matter, but if there are such bugs in the wallet then it's really not viable, and you should therefore probably sell all your doges immediately.

<comment><USER25> (If you haven't ever looked at your .doge/config or attempted to run in daemon mode, you won't have an RPC password and your client is also secure, since it won't accept commands that are not authenticated.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> i like this info site too : [http://howtodogeco.in/](http://howtodogeco.in/)

</comment><comment><USER27> Such tutorial. very wow. <\--- imagine this in Comic Sans

How dissimilar is the process for converting dogecoin to normal-people money? (I have no interest in Bitcoin except as a necessary stepping stone.) If very different, could you make a page for this?

<comment><AUTHOR> The process is the same for converting doge to USD (which I should make clear in the guide, thanks).

There are a few exchanges with plans to offer direct exchange from Doge to USD in the coming weeks, which I will also be making a guide for when it's released.

You could alternatively sell your Doge for USD through a service like eBay and add a nice markup for convenience (doge is selling for 2x the value in some bids), although you chance dealing with scammers.

edit* thanks for the props, specifically in comic sans :)

<comment><USER27> YW and thanks. I'm the person who asked on reddit about converting to JPY. A Japanese shibe and I are trying to help Atsuko Sato, the owner of the doge, learn how to convert dogecoin donations. Since your tutorial is real clear I'll point my Japanese friend to it to translate.

<comment><AUTHOR> No problem! Let me know if you have any questions on reddit (username: kbouw)

<comment><USER27> Great, thanks. I'm dirthawker0.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Where's that tutorial page on how to buy such an island & yatch with much millions you'll mint from Dogecoins. Wow, very missed.

But in all seriousness, good effort for newcomers.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not necessary when you're going to the moon. We're talking spaceships and mars with the dogecoin billions.

Thanks /chestbump

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Doesn't include compiling for Linux.

<comment><USER18> co creator of the guide here, it is on my to do list. the guide in its current form isn't even close to complete yet, we just thought it was good enough to start getting feedback and be useful to the average person (who probably doesn't know Linux)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I just signed up ad still don't get it? I think it has something to do with communicating via email? I know one guy who spent 50 plus house setting up a "developers" site--just shut it down because of Hackers.

I think I go pan for gold, but won't dredge because of fish eggs. Or, apply to McDonalds? Or, boom? No, I'll go back to my f--ng website.

<comment><USER18> what? there is no sign up. copy paste into the wrong thread?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> So when's a dogetipbot hitting HN?

</comment><comment><USER32> so interesting, such opportunity! wow! to the moon!</comment>


Convincing the TSA that I'm not dangerous when I set off the scanner - <AUTHOR> http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/16617/101

<comment><USER2> A simple solution is to carry a dated, signed x-ray image that shows the screws. This won't eliminate the annoyance of being a constant suspect, but it may reduce the time spent proving you're not a terrorist.</comment>


Canonical Is Building A Standardized, Open-Source OS Specific To China - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/22/canonical-is-building-a-standardized-open-source-os-specific-to-china/

<comment> non-sense Previous discussions on HN: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5422563> and <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5422288></comment>


Visual Studio Code – April 2020 update - <AUTHOR> https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_45 <comment><USER2> vscode has entirely replaced any ssh+tmux+vim I'd do. I can download or even preview remote files, share my session with coworkers, and their onboarding is amazing. You can use the editor from the very first second productively, and get constant reminders of the shortcuts.

vscode completely fixed all the things that annoyed me when working with remote machines.

Great to see another update!

<comment><USER3> Quick question. I develop with VMs a lot and use vagrant to set up an sshfs share from my local repo mounted within the VM as shared drive. This sort of does the job, but it's a bit spotty, sometimes I can save my code, and then build the source, but sshfs has been to slow and I end up building without the freshly saved changes. Is there a better way of doing thus native to vscode?

<comment><USER4> You should check out the remote dev extension for vscode. [https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/remote- overview](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/remote-overview)</comment></comment></comment>