A Scenario Where Brexit Does Not Actually Happen - <AUTHOR> http://qz.com/717182/a-brexit-conspiracy-theory-nails-the-no-win-situation-boris-johnson-now-finds-himself-in/?utm_content=bufferdd5b0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer <comment><USER3> Well that pretty much nails it.

While on paper it still looks like Boris Johnson is in a great position to the vast majority of the public, the next Prime Minister is going to have to follow through with what they _know_ is a terrible idea, negotiate with the EU with remarkably less leverage than the 'Leave' campaign thought they had, try to deal with Scotland wanting to leave, restless regional pressure groups in Wales, Cornwall and other parts of the country, as well as try not to have Northern Ireland fall back into a state of ongoing political violence.

So Johnson either has put his hand up to deal with all these issues until the next general election in (or sooner) 2020 and go to an election with a struggling economy (I doubt and the Union slowly falling apart (remember, Scotland's independence would topple the sitting PM almost certainly) or he can wait it out, let another Conservative Prime Minister lose in 2020, and become party leader upon the election loss and hope to win in 2025.

I doubt he thought this through very well. On the plus side UKIP's work is mostly done so they mightn't poll as well any more.

<comment><USER4> Arg.. I just spent a half hour writing a long comment on this article, but then Chrome crashed when I hit "submit". I'll try to briefly retype my thoughts here since you've covered some of them.

It's quite clear that Boris did not want the referendum to win. While (like all tories) he would occasionally grumble about Brussels nobody considered him anti-EU during his time as mayor.

He was, however, obviously after the top job. He would upstage Cameron every chance he got.

When he decided to switch back to being an MP, Cameron brought him into his cabinet (without a formal position) He knew he had this referendum campaign to fight and having the popular internationalist by his side would help him command as much party loyalty as possible.

Boris then immediately pirouetted (bad mental image, that) and decided to lead the "Leave" campaign instead. The grassroots (largely Euroskeptic) tories who will pick the next party leader would appreciate his help. Cameron already announced that he would leave before the 2020 election, so this would mean PM Boris probably in late 2018/early 2019.

So the best result for Boris would be a narrow referendum loss while looking like a great anti-EU warrior. A lot of the rhetoric he employed was to this end -- when he would compare the EU to the Nazis, it would make him look fierce to the hardcore Euroskeptics who controlled his future, while whispering to the electorate-at-large that the whole Leave campaign was nutty.

It didn't work. He got what he nominally wanted, and now he has the chance to be PM faster than expected... but he has to deal with the fallout from this disaster.

If Cameron had invoked Article 50 immediately then the rest of the party would blame a sloppy exit on him... "we had a great plan to pre-negotiate everything, but Dave messed it up!" He's not giving them that option: if the country is to be destroyed, he wants them to pull the trigger.

It's startling watching the "moderate" Leave wing falling over themselves to dial back all of their promises during the campaign.... turns out there isn't more money for the NHS... of course there would still be free movement of workers from EU countries... maybe if Scotland doesn't want to do it we should call it off to preserve the union.... etc etc.. In victory, they're terrified of what they've done.

Of course, to the far-right any wavering will be seen as treachery. A fight is brewing there.

Meanwhile, Labour is also in full self-destruct mode. Corbyn just sacked the most credible member of his shadow cabinet and many of the rest will probably leave in protest. There have been many times in British political history when the out-of-power party goes through this sort of process, but never when the governing party is also in such disarray. Interesting times, unfortunately.

I don't know if UKIP will disappear, though. They could now be the party of northern grievance, locking Labour out of power entirely.

<comment><USER5> > It's quite clear that Boris did not want the referendum to win.

It's not clear to me. I think you are taking it as self-evident that Leave is a bad idea. In the mainstream narrative, the EU is associated with everything nice and international and the only reason to be against it is if you're a crazy old-fashioned nationalist.

There's a classical liberal case for Brexit, though, which Gove articulated reasonably well. I think Johnson kinda believes the same things, though without Gove's conviction (I voted Leave but I don't like Johnson, I think he's an opportunist). Like all conspiracy theories yours assumes that the conspirators concoct these elaborate schemes which have multiple failure modes. Leave had roughly 1/3 odds of winning all through the campaign, so it's not that much of a surprise. Nor is it clear that a Remain vote would have helped Johnson's career, given that almost the entire establishment backed Remain.

> It's startling watching the "moderate" Leave wing falling over themselves to > dial back all of their promises during the campaign.... turns out there > isn't more money for the NHS...

The media is really playing up this angle. Vote Leave isn't the government and the referendum wasn't a general election where the campaigners campaign on a particular manifesto. There is now more money in the UK budget, where it gets spent is up to the next PM.

<comment><USER6>
        > I think you are taking it as
        > self-evident that Leave is a
        > bad idea

Yeah. Me, every economist, the markets, almost all centrist politicians, Obama, people who are highly educated, etc

It's funny to watch Leavers complain that people think they're racist, with all their great arguments about common fisheries, not being able to depot Abu- bin-whoever, and whatever other weird non-issue is flavour of the day, not to mention the supreme irony of a people with an unelected upper chamber claiming they're booting out a directly elected upstream parliament for "democracy".

<comment><USER5> > every economist

Most but not all. Economics is currently split into multiple schools which disagree on philosophical fundamentals, and is hardly an exact science. How many economists predicted the financial crisis? Those that did tend to be small government advocates. (I don't endorse everything he says, but Nassim Taleb is one example, who is also pro-Brexit).

I wish someone had made this point during the campaign, to answer the snipes that Leave was anti-intellectual, anti-expert, and so on.

<comment><USER7> > Nassim Taleb is [...] also pro-Brexit

He just wants all these puts he's been buying to be worth something [0].

[0] [http://www.businessinsider.com/nassim-talebs-universa- invest...](http://www.businessinsider.com/nassim-talebs-universa-investments- crushed-it-2015-8)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Or maybe Boris looked subdued because he just had the flu.

All those plausible theories are just that: plausible and theories. Who knows what's going through Johnson's head right now? Who knows what will happen in the future? What good is this sort of analysis, that's based on some vague attempt to form a theory of mind of a particular person (rather than a class of person, say) by people who have never even met the person in question in, er, well, person?

In any case BoJo and all the Tories on the side of Leave are typical populists: their tactic is to agitate and profit. They shake the tree until office falls out, then make a grab for it. In chaotic times, the populist leads, so the populist actively tries to create chaos, in exactly the opposite manner than reasonable politicians do (regardless of whether they are also intelligent, capable or not).

This is BoJo's time. It's futile to hope otherwise. The whole country abandoned reason. The prime idiot is not going to back down now. Those people are not in this game to leave a good name for themselves in history: they're in it to do well in the here and now, and damn the rest of the world to hell.

If the reasonable people in the UK wish to retain control, they have to get their noses out of their consolation drinks and squeeze their brains hard to come up with actual ideas, rather than pipe dreams and wishful thinking.

<comment><USER9> I think you're as guilty as the columnist to try and read one's mind. I don't think anyone as well-educated and well-read as BoJo is in it only "for the here and now"; most politicians fighting for leadership positions do have a sense of purpose and historical role, as well as the competitive streak. It is much more profitable, in the short term, to just hang around in the shadows, brokering deals and pocketing kickbacks, than to lose sleep and health campaigning and shaking hands. People who are born from money can be narcissists, sociopaths or well-intentioned buffoons, but don't usually burn the place down for the hell of it.

</comment></comment><comment> pi-err There's a much better and simpler explanation to the 4-months delay.

As shown in Cameron's [white paper on Brexit from last February]([https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/504216/The_process_for_withdrawing_from_the_EU_print_ready.pdf)), the critical part of the exit process is to buy more than 2 years to define the new relationship (article 50 has basically only this period as a hard fact).

The paper does bold that a realistic timeline would be ~10 years. Meaning the UK needs to find bullet points to negotiate additional time... with all the free goodies of being still a "passive" member of the EU.

So they're buying 4 months now. They need this to understand their leverages, friends and foes. Many in Europe will be receptive on avoiding a clash. Merkel right now shows signs of resilience.

Make no mistake: part of the City and tech industry sees a strong potential in Brexit - as long as there is no "free fall" period after 2 years.

Everything will be about buying time.

<comment><USER9> Extending the deadline requires unanimous vote, which, since enlargement to 28 countries, is basically impossible. The interpretation of paragraphs describing art.50 triggering is vague enough that the EU will find ways to trigger it themselves -- it's already been suggested that a speech taking place in an EU setting and getting transcribed will be enough, which means UK diplomats and ministers are now all but ostracized from formal meetings of any sort outside the negotiation process.

There is no way this situation can extend for 10 years. The EU will not allow it, especially if recession hits. If really UK elites get cold feet, we'll have a general election with an europhile party winning and abandoning the whole thing, with a second referendum forced.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> [http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/25/brexit-...](http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/25/brexit- live-emergency-meetings-eu-uk-leave-vote#comment-77205935)

The original comment.

And probably somewhat close to reality, but we can't say for sure, only time will tell.

</comment><comment><USER11> So... does anyone really think any democratic government would be so crazy as to totally discard the results of a referendum they called?

<comment><USER12> Sweden ignored a referendum where 83% voted for keeping left-sided traffic.

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

Often decisions are better left to experts, something that representative democracy usually achieves. I also think that we should explain representative democracy as the population being able to hold the people in power accountable instead of the people deciding things. So democracy might even be a misnomer. This result is exactly what opponents of democracy meant when they identified it with tyranny of the masses.

<comment><USER13> Left sided traffic is the classic example of something that should be determined by bureaucrats. Whether to let French people vote on laws that directly bind British people is the perfect example of something that should not be determined by bureaucrats.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The brexit will happen, but the result will be a trade agreement that imposes almost the same set of conditions on the UK, except without the ability of the UK to veto new EU measures. In short, the UK is still going to be controlled by Europe, but now without veto powers.

The negotiators won't be trying too hard to get a better deal from the EU, because they'll be the ones in power, and if they fail to negotiate a deal they'll be forced to give up that power. Trust politicians to prefer power over principles any time.

<comment><USER15> _the UK is still going to be controlled by Europe_

No it won't, as the EU has become a legislative body governing aspects of people's lives in the UK and it will no longer be the case.

<comment><USER16> If you want a trade agreement with the EU then yes it will govern aspects of people's lives in the UK because the majority of EU laws are trade regulations.

<comment><USER17> In a deflationary environment countries that run trade deficits make the rules. Germany is currently exporting its deflation (and its effects) to the UK via its trade surplus which the Bank of England then has to mitigate.

At this point severe trade restrictions with the UK would likely mean even more severe imbalances inside the EU and the eventual exit of Italy, Spain and Portugal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Here's why BoJo's face, sad or smiley, doesn't matter one bit:

 _The foreign ministers of the EU's six founding members, however, demanded Britain start proceedings "as soon as possible" to avoid a long and potentially damaging period of uncertainty.

The Dutch foreign minister, Bert Koenders, told the Volkskrant: "We can't have the kind of dithering Boris Johnson is suggesting. Everyone wants clarity: people, businesses, financial markets."

France's foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, urged Cameron to step down soon, saying: "A new prime minister must be designated – that will take a few days. But there is a certain urgency." He added: "We have to give a new sense to Europe, otherwise populism will fill the gap."_

The rest of the EU is not going to take this shit lightly when it is bad for business and it's also threatening to overturn the status quo and give a run for power to the Farages of the continent. If Boris, or whoever becomes the next PM, decides to procrastinate, the result will only be even more pain in the disengagement talks.

[1] [http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/26/eu- founding-...](http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/26/eu-founding- members-britain-agree-quick-divorce-europe-exit)

<comment><USER6> They don't get a say in it, so who the hell cares? Merkel has explicitly supported taking time over it, and she calls the shots

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Might as well link to the comment rather than the blog-spam which simply quotes it in part, then in full, with no further analysis: [http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/25/brexit-...](http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/25/brexit- live-emergency-meetings-eu-uk-leave-vote#comment-77205935)

</comment><comment><USER19> I wonder if a snap election could be called before article 50 is invoked? One of the major parties could campaign on "Remain" and if they won, they'd have a democratic mandate to ignore the referendum.

<comment><USER8> Look, forget about any of the major parties (like, the following two, Tories and Labour). They are responsible for this mess, either because they wanted to cause it (that's half of the Tories and a quarter ish of Labour) or because they failed to stop it (three quarters of Labour).

The best chance the UK has to reverse the result of the referendum is Nicola Sturgeon being able to do what she suggested today, blocking the process of the triggering of article 50. If she really has the power to do that, then there's hope still. Otherwise, the UK is screwed.

<comment><USER9> Sturgeon stalling will just give UKIP a majority next time around. How do Scots date to tell England what to do etc etc. It's a recipe for civil war, in the worst scenario.

Tbh I feel awful for Lizzie and Charles, who might end up being constitutional arbiters in the process of disgregation of a kingdom their family kept together for hundreds of years. They probably didn't expect to have to deal with this shit at their age.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I am not much close to UK politics.

But doesn't UKIP have a rising popularity right now?

If neither of the two traditional parties want to lead Brexit, would not this just result in UKIP volunteering and asking the population to back them in the next parliament elections?

</comment><comment><USER21> As an aside we should note that the globalists' regime is, per their concerted scaremongering propaganda effort since the Brexit vote, indeed so fragile that the mere defection of one nation sends it into a tailspin.

</comment><comment><USER22> A lot will be determined by the decision of who is going to lead the conservatives now. To invoke Lisbon, someone is going to have to stand up with a strong positive vision. It's also in their interest to delay starting the process to allow time for other countries in the EU to start their own referenda.

If the UK does actually go through with Brexit, whomever takes on this leadership role will have to court other countries in the EU to form a larger bloc before the UK's negotiations with the EU finalize. It's either that or accept a punitive deal from the EU.

</comment><comment><USER23> The media has been fairly biased wrt. Brexit up to the referendum but after the result is in they have just gone completely stupid.

Boris Johnson is an excellent future leader of the conservatives and will do very well as a prime minister. That he was able to become mayor of London shows his broad appeal to what is traditionally a left-winged and very EU- positive place.

What will happen now is much more about the future of the EU and how to create a well-functioning alternative for the many EU-countries who are not willing to go towards a federation.

<comment> grey-area Living in London I find your respect for Johnson surprising. Here is is a summary of his achievements, most of which began before he was involved:

[http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business- news/politics/ex...](http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business- news/politics/exclusive-four-great-things-boris-johnson-did-that-ken- livingstone-should-get-credit-for/11839.article)

The push for a better and bigger airport on the estuary was a good idea IMO, even if it failed, otherwise it struggle to think of any concrete achievements.

I doubt he'll make it to prime minister though, for one he's too intelligent and self-centred to want to preside over the dissolution of the United Kingdom and the difficult compromises that will be required if the uk wants access to European markets. I can't imagine a less persuasive figure than the affable but clownish boris to lead the uk in these difficult brexit negotiations.

On the future of the EU, that won't be decided by the UK who will have very little influence after they leave.

<comment><USER23> My point is merely that he got elected in London which is not an easy thing for a conservative.

UK's decision and how it will be handled will have very big influence over the rest of Europe and will set the agenda for the growing EU opposition here.

The media frames this as an (almost isolated) UK problem but it really is not.

It is about the EU.

<comment><USER24> Boris is not a conservative in the typical sense though. He's a populist like Trump.

And for at least the next few years it will all be about the UK. In particular all the internal work of redefining its relationship with the EU e.g. diplomatic, trade as well as figuring out what to do about EU regulations.

I would be surprised if any EU country has the appetite to hold another referendum when they see what it is in store.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> It really is a poison chalice all right. Of historical proportions.

To be in charge when the United Kingdom comes to an end and Britain fades into irrelevance is something nobody could possibly want.

<comment><USER25> You move towards the picture you create.

This sort of crazy hyperbole is why many people are scared. The UK will be fine. We are members of the top international groups, NATO, G7 etc.

<comment><USER24> The UK will not be fine though. Scotland is all but certain to leave. Northern Ireland is also quite likely to find a way to reunite in part with Ireland. The UK will be dissolved in all but name.

And of course UK will still remain within international groups. But it will no longer be the key entry point for political, commercial and cultural engagement with Europe.

To manage that shift is not going to be easy nor rewarding.

<comment><USER25> "Scotland is all but certain to leave."

Not a certainty at all, especially if new EU membership involves taking the Euro. There is a reason Sturgeon has not yet called the vote, they know that EU joining terms are likely to be very ugly for Scotland at this time. She first has to convince the EU to give them extremely exceptional rules (or legal challenge so Scotland isn't necessarily leaving then joining).

Your statements are hyperbolic. No one has any clue what is going to happen next. Making these assertions is unhelpful to everyone.

But. If you truly believe in what you are saying, now is the time for you to make yourself millions of pounds in the next few months easily. Plough your savings into the market, take large, leveraged positions against the UK.

<comment><USER26> The Euro thing is kinda false. Yes, new countries have to adopt Euro but there is no deadline and no penalty. They only have to promise to do it someday. That is why some countries don't have it and will no have for many years.

<comment><USER27> But Scotland doesn't have its own legacy currency. There's no need/excuse for a phase out period.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> There could be a life ring thrown in this situation after all - Scotland is thinking of vetoing Brexit - [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland- politics-3663...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland- politics-36633244)

<comment><USER29> And that will end well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> _The referendum result is not binding. It is advisory. Parliament is not bound to commit itself in that same direction._

Is this true in UK's legislation?

<comment><USER3> Yes, in the UK the parliament has absolute sovereignty[0].

Parliament cannot be overruled by the courts (unlike the US or Australia, where the Supreme/High Court can declare laws invalid), nor is there any requirement for decisions to be taken to a referendum (unlike Australia or Switzerland, where the constitution can't be changed without a vote).

The UK parliament can, in theory, ignore the referendum entirely - <USER2> that'd be hugely unpopular if they did.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Remain and the Media want to larp as Persian emissaries from 300?</comment>


Pac-Man recreated with a GAN trained on 50k game episodes - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2020/05/22/gamegan-research-pacman-anniversary/ <comment><USER2> I've observed an increasing trend with modern AI research that

A) It's no longer practical to incorporate into real products given the hardware costs for training _and_ inference. In NLP, large transformer based models can easily occupy a 5 thousand dollar GPU at a paltry 50-60 words per second processing pace.

B) The Research often demonstrates things that existing non-ML toolchains were already reasonable at doing with a better result, and a faster iteration time.

This demo looks like it's replicated the core mechanics of pac-man with _worse_ graphics, 3-4 orders of magnitude higher resource consumption, and undoubtably many _odd_ bugs hidden away from the pretty demo. It even needed the game to exist in the first place! While this is fascinating from the technical and academic perspective, it's hard to be convinced that any gains we see in the field won't be offset by increased hardware/latency costs from a product standpoint.

<comment><USER3> Or, to paraphrase: great paper, no application.

<comment><USER4> It really is a great paper, the problem is when your entire field has few real applications but everyone is making too much money to admit that. Cool tech demos like this is awesome as a blog post, but not sure why it's academic...

<comment><USER5> I don't know where you got the idea that the purpose of an academic paper is to produce the schematics for a working commercial product. The fact that it's novel and interesting is sufficient grounds for producing a paper about it. Why do you think projects like these are solely the domain of blog posts?

<comment><USER3> That is not true for academic papers in computer science and particularly in machine learning were contributions are expected to have some sort of practical application that is at least possible to foresee.

Indeed, a common criticism against papers in machine learning is "what is a real-world application of this approach?". If you can't answer that convincingly then it's unlikely your paper gets published, particularly if it has rather mediocre results otherwise, as is the case with this paper (see my earlier comment about the comparison to the two other systems which is a bit of an anticlimax).

In fact, the paper (well, the preprint version) makes a clear attempt to motivate the work with a practical application, saying that it aims to "learn a simulator [for robotic agents] by simply watching an agent interact with an environment".

<comment><USER5> > That is not true for academic papers in computer science and particularly in > machine learning were contributions are expected to have some sort of > practical application that is at least possible to foresee.

This is 100% not true for computer science and I don't know why you think it's true. There's are entire branches of computer science (e.g. complexity theory) that are highly theoretical and are certainly not geared towards immediate practical application.

Even in more applied branches of computer science like ML there are many papers that are geared more towards the fundamental research side of things.

> saying that it aims to "learn a simulator [for robotic agents] by simply > watching an agent interact with an environment".

Saying that a paper could lead to a useful application down the line is not the same that saying that the paper is intended to describe the schematics for a specific useful application.

<comment><USER3> Well of course, it's not 100% true- who said anything about 100%? There are theoretical branches of computer science; but most of computer science is not purely theoretical. Certainly machine learning (and more broadly speaking, much of AI) is like I say.

I'm not sure who brought up a schematic? The bit I quoted is taken from the paper and it's a clear attempt to motivate the paper's approach as having a practical application. To clarify, do you disagree with that?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This research reminds me of one of their April Fool's videos [1] with a gaming USB stick that you plug into your computer to offer various gaming enhancements. One of which is a "Ghostplay" feature where an AI program can mimic you after training on your gameplay.

I remember that video because it always struck me as not being far off from reality. It'll make the current set of online game cheats/hacks seem like child's play if it can be done effectively (read: human-like and undetectable). Maybe then a server-running AI will be needed to detect AI-like gameplay mimicry.

[1] [https://youtu.be/smM-Wdk2RLQ](https://youtu.be/smM-Wdk2RLQ)

<comment><USER7> But if the AI is functionally indistinguishable from a human player (human- like and undetectable), does it even matter really? [https://xkcd.com/810/](https://xkcd.com/810/)

(Conversely, if they're _not_ functionally indistinguishable from a human player, then that means it's possible to write an AI or other algorithm to detect them.)

<comment><USER8> >> does it even matter really?

Because, even if acting like a human, AI can play/fight 24/7\. Many online games still have leader boards that can be climbed through steady play rather than short-term bursts of skill.

<comment><USER9> One more reason to fix those games, I guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I made a video explaining the details of this paper if you are interested! [https://youtu.be/H8F6J7mYyz0](https://youtu.be/H8F6J7mYyz0)

<comment><USER11> Very interesting video! How does the GameGAN image discriminator work? I don't know so much about GANs but it seem to me that classifying PacMan images as real or fake would be a very hard problem because of the low resolution.

Suppose PacMan is in a corridor and there is a dot to the left of him and three to the right: ".P..." That is plausible because PacMan hasn't eaten any dots yet. But if the second dot to the right is missing: ".P._." something is wrong because the first dot to the right is still there and PacMan can't jump over dots. It must be very hard to get the discriminator to understand that the second image is fake.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for watching bjourne! There are three different discriminators, the first does realism for the game, the second does action-conditioned discrimination (making sure the generator takes in the action for its next frame prediction), and the third is a temporal realism with a 3D CNN.

Interesting scenario, it would be a cool experiment to walk through the latent space and try to find that kind of frame in the GAN latent space. I'm sure you could find it, but the question might be how far off the generated data's manifold is it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Thought experiment: Is my brain also generating reality without a physics engine and is filling in details that it thinks should be there? If true, what are the advantages/disadvantages of it?

<comment><USER13> Yes, absolutely. You can catch a baseball because your brain predicts where it will go before your eyes see its actual movement. This may be a good place to start learning more: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_and_indirect_realism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_and_indirect_realism)

<comment><USER14> How is that "not a physics engine"?

<comment><USER15> It's more general than a physics engine in that it's predicting an expected outcome...it just so happens that the outcome here is largely dictated by physics. (At some level they all are but some more obviously than others)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It would be super interesting to see if this knowledge generalizes with transfer learning. For example, after seeing 50,000 episodes of PacMan, would the GAN be able to recreate Space Invaders with just 5,000 extra episodes?

</comment><comment><USER17> Interesting to explore how this can be used. You still need to develop a game with an actual engine first, to generate all the samples for training the AI how to generate frames without an engine.

But maybe if training sample size can be considerably reduced, game making can open up to far less technical people. Instead of developing with an engine, game makers could show the AI "when I press this button, change the scene like this", and the AI could try to figure out the rules from given samples.

<comment><USER15> Seems like it's basically simulating an environment which it has agency to affect. To the extent that games are simulating some universe, it seems like this could also be applicable for simulating at least one universe that has a game engine we can't quite reproduce yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> The point is this brings us closer to demonstrating AI which is in some sense grounded in reality, as opposed to some kind of "Clever Hans" or Searle's "Chinese Box." The network has learned how to "imagine playing out a scenario" much like a human player might use his own mental model of the game to consider various strategies to attempt, perhaps with the real game.

That the network apparently has a mental model which is rich enough to simulate actual game play implies that it hasn't just fit a static caricurature of the game which immediately breaks on an unseen move. That is, it has a non-trivial "conceptualization" of its environment which goes beyond simple pattern matching or nearest neighbor matching.

</comment><comment><USER19> > Trained on 50,000 episodes of the game

Meanwhile an actual human will probably need only about 5 games to fully understand how the game works and reacts.

<comment><USER20> Fundamentally, this is because we have already been trained on years of living in and reacting to the real world, which, to some abstract degree, the game mimicks. The Nvidia model starts with nothing.

<comment><USER21> So you are saying that if you first trained it on a different game with similar real-world mechanics, then training it on this game would require far fewer iterations?

<comment><USER22> Pac-Man isn't a purely abstract game, it's loaded with human cultural references. Pac-Man himself is a creature who loves eating food: mostly white pellets but also various kinds of fruit and of course the iconic power pellets. Fruit of course is something humans immediately identify as something good to eat and in the game they're rewarded with points which are denoted by numbers on the screen that grow larger.

It almost needn't be said that human culture puts a great deal of emphasis on making numbers grow larger, particularly those associated with personal wealth and economic growth. To a computer without this context, why should there be any reason to prefer larger numbers over smaller ones? Heck, if you're going all the way and denying the AI direct access to the game's memory, then it's got to learn to recognize the digits first before it can even begin to decide whether it's good to increase them.

Even more abstractly, the game relies on the human concepts of good and bad. It's good to eat the fruit and pellets to increase your score counter. It's bad to let a ghost catch pac-man, causing him to die and lose a life. Without being taught, human children can identify all of these elements but the computer would seem to have a more difficult task.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> For those confused, this is just a recreation of an animated image of pacman, not a playable recreation of the actual game.

Impressive still, but not exactly what's lead to be believed by the title.

<comment><USER10> It's not quite as playable as the full pacman game, but it is more than an animation since it's conditioned on the action taken

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Full article is here:

[https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp- content/uploads/2020/05/Nvidi...](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp- content/uploads/2020/05/Nvidia_GameGAN_Research.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER24> So how large is the generated model compared to the Pac-Man binary? (edit: which was 16KB)

</comment><comment><USER25> I wonder what the copyright implications of this are. Obviously it's Pacman, but none of the source is the same.

<comment><USER14> Game rules aren't copyrightable. The visuals are a copy but obviously fair use, and it's obviously trademark use, and Nvidia probably has a marketing partnership with NAMCO for this

<comment><USER26> ""We were blown away when we saw the results, in disbelief that AI could recreate the iconic PAC-MAN experience without a game engine," said Koichiro Tsutsumi from BANDAI NAMCO Research Inc., the research development company of the game's publisher BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., _which provided the PAC- MAN data to train GameGAN_. "This research presents exciting possibilities to help game developers accelerate the creative process of developing new level layouts, characters and even games.""

Emphasis mine.

Also, while I disagree that this would be real "fair use" (rather than Internet Pundit fair use, which is virtually indistinguishable from "I want this, so it must be legal") without permission, it wouldn't matter anyhow. If nVidia did this without permission and tried to distribute exactly what we saw, it would also be a trademark violation. Pacman is almost certainly in the top 1% of defended trademarks, if not .1% or .01%... not a great thing to try to use without permission.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The design of their GAN looks super complex, and Pacman is pretty simple... I kinda wonder if they meta-overfit the game (ie the Pacman game engine which they say is missing is sorta hidden in the structure of the GAN architecture that they start off with)

</comment><comment><USER28> How long until this method evolves to solve business requirements? (Argument could be made that the game _is_ a set of business requirements)

Imagine visual programming but instead of connecting systems and dealing with high level schemas, the stake holder just defines the data flow, and the model creates a (hopefully) more extendable system than current visual programming systems.

But the complexities/black box nature of some neural nets (and the CPU designed by AI that was enormously complex) may transcend to this use case. Meaning we can create systems that are more efficient, more easily, but we ourselves can't interpret the entire system, let alone each piece sufficiently.

<comment><USER29> In most real world business situations we can't even define the requirements and constraints in a manner amenable to AI solutions. It only works for the most trivial issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I've never had a harder time explaining something this impressive to my gf.

</comment><comment><USER31> So AI can learn to play the games, but can it learn to create them? That is, can it create compelling cultural novelty?

The most successful examples I've heard are computer generated classical music, but generating abstract art like classical music is simpler than generating art that relies on coherent language and narrative, like opera, or the blues, or a good novel.

<comment><USER32> There has been research on it. I forgot the source and can't find it easily, but if you email Julian Togelius, he might know. He doesn't focus on game AI research and is the only name I can remember at the moment.

Edit: oh, Togelius also seemed to have researched it.

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.technologyreview.com/2017/1...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.technologyreview.com/2017/11/29/147421/ai- is-dreaming-up-new-kinds-of-video-games/amp/)

<comment><USER31> Cool. Thanks for that link!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> This seems less impressive than the Mario recreation from a few years ago[0] -- I must be missing something because this is a simpler game that was trained on significantly more data, yet the result is comparatively worse.

[0] [https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/10/16276528/ai-video- games-g...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/10/16276528/ai-video-games-game- engine)

</comment><comment><USER34> What're the total number of possible states in Pacman?

<comment><USER35> The number of possible pellet configurations on the grid is astronomical on its own, then you have pacman positions and ghost positions at least. I don't know the exact value but my estimate is "a very big number".

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Does anyone know if we can combine knowledge from different domains when training to play games? Example: have a language model read pieces of text about the game, then feed the output of that into a model that's doing normal reinforcement learning. Maybe train them both at the same time?

The hope is that the model can combine inputs from different domains and generalize better.

</comment><comment><USER37> I predict methods like this will be used to create a simulation environment that approximates the real world. Reinforcement learning folks are running out of game engines win inside of. I believe the best way to transcend this coming limitation will be to take a learning based approach similar to this.

<comment><USER38> I mean, it's pretty _clear_ that we are already living in such simulation, right?

<comment><USER39> What evidence do you have? How would the world look different, if we weren't in a simulation?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I wonder, does it also reproduce the four unique behaviours of the ghosts? (their movement patterns are all programmed differently, one is random, one goes away from you, and I'm not sure about the rest)

</comment><comment><USER41> For anyone interested on how the ghosts AI works: [https://youtu.be/ataGotQ7ir8](https://youtu.be/ataGotQ7ir8) I doubt the AI actually recreated this.

</comment><comment><USER42> Please help me understand the point. Is it to show that nVidia chips can be used to create game AI using GANs? Or is it to aid in game design? Wouldn't a human be in a better position to do both?

<comment><USER43> If I'm understanding correctly, the machine learning model was able to create a game executable from information about a game.

<comment><USER7> From the article, it sounds to me more like the AI itself is rendering individual frames of the game. It takes the last frame and the current state of the gamepad as input, and outputs the next frame. They've effectively replaced the entire game code with a neural network.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> How do they know it's fully functional without trying out how it reacts in every possible situation (which isn't really feasible)?

<comment><USER45> I guess they should train an AI to play it too

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> So wait, is this playable, or is it just capable of reproducing video of gameplay?

</comment><comment><USER47> If the old patterns don't work its not really pacman.

</comment><comment><USER48> hmm, train a bunch of UI elements and interactions and feed it underlying codebases and see what comes back... lol.

<comment><USER18> That's actually been done at least a couple years back.

[https://towardsdatascience.com/code2pix-deep-learning- compil...](https://towardsdatascience.com/code2pix-deep-learning-compiler-for- graphical-user-interfaces-1256c346950b)

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> dumb question but could ML be made to copy an OS? since this has a learning/input ability with rules.

</comment><comment><USER50> I'd love to see more gameplay. In fact, I'd love to play it myself. I just can't believe it replicates the original gameplay exactly.</comment>


A brown man laying down on NYC subway floor, helped by white guys - <AUTHOR> I made the account just to tell this story.
I am a brown man. I've been living in new york city for almost 8 years. Tonight, Saturday September 12th 2020, I have experienced something that does not happen in my life very often. I got a bit carried out on a Saturday event so i was so wasted, i fell in the subway car. I don't remember much but i was laying down on the subway car floor while some white folks on top of me asking whether i was OK. Not only that, but while i was trying to collect myself to answer them, there was that other white dude offering me to sit in his seat. I was stoned of course, so i didn't think so much. I just said thank you, i got up from the subway floor and sat down in his seat. I did say thank you though. What even crazier, a few mins later after i sat down, a person, who worked with the subway company, came to me asking whether i needed a medical assistant! I said no of course.
I just can't be any more thankful to this city and to the folks who helped me. I am writing this post while i'm still under the same condition. I just got back home. And I so want to let the world know about this experience before i sleep and forget what just happened to me.
My point is i was so freaking laying down on the subway floor!!! i was so fucking wasted!!! And the only people who helped me and offered to help me, were white folks. I'm just so fucking thankful to them and to this city.
Stay safe everybody. <comment><USER2> Thank you for telling your experience.

As a minority myself I get angry how White people are portrayed and bashed in guilty.

I myself have to remember them that I have _MORE_ rights here than in my country!!!

There is __NO other __race that fight and died to free another race.

Is there racist white people ?

Yes but same or less proportion than other races.

Please remember to give support to them. They have the right to live as they wish and without shame.

 _" And the only people who helped me and offered to help me, were white folks"_

Yes, they are great..

Be kind

</comment><comment><USER3> As a brown immigrant, I have known many brown people who assume that all white people are racist. It would be shocking to them if a white person helps them.

Not saying this applies to you and it is good to share these stories in our communities.

</comment><comment><USER4> From what I've seen, when something like this happens, anyone who's around, given that the environment is safe and that they are able bodied, stops and helps, regardless of race. Did you expect something different?

Glad you're safe.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. That's true, agree. I didn't have any specific expectation. But when you are on nyc subway, you will be surrounded by all different kind of races.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm glad you were helped but man why it is sad that this is an unexpected story. Why isn't this normal for people to help each other out in the most basic way.</comment>


Awakening from the Meaning Crisis – Episode 6 – Aristotle, Kant, and Evolution - <AUTHOR> https://kaue.me/posts/2019/06/10/john-vervaeke-awakening-from-the-meaning-crisis-episode-6-aristotle-kant-and-evolution-summary/ <comment><USER2> The red highlights are distracting. Why is "in-formation" spelled that way?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry to hear the highlights are distracting, I could make a checkbox that disables them. The spelling of "in-formation" emphasizes that it is related to the meaning of "in formation", which is not something noticeable by default for most people I think.</comment></comment>


Fixing HN:  How to take away the incentive for irrelevant replies. - <AUTHOR>

Currently there is an incentive for placing a comment as a reply to a highly ranked comment even if it is irrelevant to that comment (but still relevant to the submission).<p>One way to fix this would be to allow people to vote on making a comment be a child of the submission.  If a certain threshold is reached in the voting, not only would this be done but the comment would be downvoted as well to discourage people from doing this in the future. <comment><USER2> Why would this be necessary? Already, the incentive to do this is reduced because new comments pop up to the top based on some type of vote/time decay function (he accelerated this already right after he tried not showing the number of votes not so long ago if I recall).

Doing this would seem to add complexity to a system of voting that seems pretty elegant?

<comment><AUTHOR> You might still think your comment will be highly visible for longer as a reply to a highly upvoted comment.

<comment><USER2> There's another form of accountability: when irrelevant, these comments get downvoted.

<comment><AUTHOR> An insightful but irrelevant comment in this situation may not be downvoted.

And even if it is, it is still ranked higher than it should be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Sounds like a neat idea. You should download the HN source and implement it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Why? This is something that PG could implement rather easily if he wanted to.</comment></comment>


The Rehab Camp My Parents Paid to Kidnap Me - <AUTHOR> http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1680-5-things-i-learned-escaping-troubled-teens-facility.html <comment><USER5> I think the camps might work in some situations, if they are properly run.

The missing ingredient, is 'something to believe in'.

The reason that 'disciplinarian' measures work in the forces, is because you're doing it for a cause much greater, more important than yourself. You have to 'dig deep' to find that. And without a 'cause' \- it won't work.

Also - in the forces you can have incredible amounts of responsibility - <USER2> responsibility really changes people. You've see the changes when people become parents - well - it's the same in the Navy/Army etc.. Finally - is the amazing cool things you get to do. Travel, jump out of planes, blow things up. etc.

I'm not justifying this necessarily, just pointing out the nature of the changes that often happen.

I doubt this guy would be well suited to the forces, but you never know. A couple of years in the Navy - seeing the world, having some responsibility, might have changed him. But for many of these types, simply finding the right creative outlet might be it.

<comment><USER6> If movies are correct, judges during the pre-volunteer military days would tell someone their choices were the military "to straighten you up" or jail.

I think that's the better comparison than your comparison to the modern military.

How often did that work back then? Because I get the idea that the answer is "not much", or at least, not worth it for the military. The regulations are clear that the option of "military or jail" is no longer permitted.

Volunteers might be in the military for the greater cause, certainly. (Though some are in it for college money or other reasons.)

Draftees often have a different goal - keep your head down, do the time, and get out. What they believe in is getting out.

FWIW, even after the draft finished, marijuana use in the military was also pretty common, eg, [http://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/19/us/navy- reports-6-of-14-ki...](http://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/19/us/navy- reports-6-of-14-killed-aboard-nimitz-had-used-marijuana.html) reports that 6 of 14 killed aboard the USS Nimitz had used marijuana, in 1981. This guy from Cracked might have fit right in to the pot scene among the enlisted men.

<comment><USER5> It wasn't just 'in the movies' \- it was for real.

Did it work? So long as the troubled kids got through '2 years' \- then I would argue that it worked.

'Back in the day' \- the Army was a job for people who were somewhat patriotic, but it was also a job - at least for privates, it was pretty straightforward. As long as you 'did your work' \- it would keep someone focused on doing something, and I suggest they would be 'much better off' than having spent the time in jail.

'Back in the day' \- almost everyone was patriotic to some extent. 'Slacker' might have been someone who didn't wear a hat in public (!) or later, had 'long hair' (!). These kinds of people aren't hardened criminals or bad people, just people off the path, that need some bit of motivation - even if it's a little coerced.

And even 'back in the day' when military standards were not so hardcore - <USER3> there was still enough 'value' work being done, enough of a cause for them to 'mostly believe in'.

I think it would be a great program for _some_ kids, even to this day.

Prison is the worst thing for not-quite-real criminals. It creates a really negative atmosphere, hardens them, depresses them - it's like the absolute worse possibly 'peer pressure' situation imaginable. The _worst_ role models possible.

This guy is not a bad kid. He's more of a 'catcher in the rye' type - <USER4> needs to find his path. When you are pushed a little bit on a path for a couple years, that includes a very rudimentary amount of 'getting up' 'doing something constructive' 'learning something' 'applying yourself' ... then I think you have enough momentum (and hopefully a few dollars in the bank) to possibly do something afterwards.

<comment><USER6> It looks like you've gone from "often really changes people" to "get through two years by having the goal of getting out." The latter is the same goal for those in jail.

The question I have is, how do you know that conscripted service, which is what you propose, is more effective than prison. By that I mean a sane prison, like what Norway has, with the goal of rehabilitation, and not the inhumane US prisons designed to punish. And is it more effective than other alternatives?

Yes, movies often portray military service as transformative, but movies want to tell a good story, and military service is one of many ways to structure a bildungsroman. (Movies also tend to portray the good side of the military.)

I don't understand your "back in the day" comments. Almost everyone _now_ is patriotic to some extent too. Remember, back in the day, many Americans did not consider communists, socialist, unionizers, peace activists, or people of Japanese ancestry to be patriotic Americans. These are people who would have been put in jail or internment camps.

Question for you: were Eugene Debs, Charles Schenck and Elizabeth Baer "patriotic" back in the day? What of the 100+ communist party leaders jailed under the Smith Act?

The problem I have with saying " _some_ kids" is that nearly anything will work for " _some_ kids". Certainly the military works for some people. Jail works for some people. College works for some people. Getting a job works for some people. Religion works for some people. Counseling works for some people. Taking up a sport works for some people. Moving to another town works for some people. Simply waiting a few years can also work.

The hard part is knowing which methods are appropriate for which people. And training someone for military service is not cheap. How much money should we spend for a "catcher in the rye" type, and are there cheaper alternatives?

Forced military service as a alternative to jail is not going to happen again. The military well remembers what damage even a single disgruntled draftee can do in the modern highly-technical military. Take a look at all the sabotage done during Vietnam when a large fraction of the military were against the war. (Eg, sailing of the USS Ranger was delayed for months after its main reduction gear was sabotaged.)

Also, the modern "hardcore" standards are only possible because everyone is a volunteer.

<comment><USER5> "The question I have is, how do you know that conscripted service, which is what you propose, is more effective than prison."

It's not quite 'conscripted' \- it's a choice.

I was in the Army. And I have distant family members in prison.

My friend - it's clear you don't have exposure to either. Nobody would compare serving in the Army to 'prison' unless that person really, really didn't want it - in which they could chose prison.

Prison is a terrible, _terrible_ place for most people. It's where people learn how to be criminals.

And I didn't go from 'having something to believe in' to 'getting through two years of service'. They are not quite mutually exclusive.

"Forced military service as a alternative to jail is not going to happen again. The military well remembers what damage even a single disgruntled draftee can do in the modern highly-technical military."

This is not an issue, and neither is 'sabotage'.

Also 'getting a job' and 'getting religion' are not comparable to prison or the military. In both prison and the military - you have a fairly guided life. You have a lot of set rules. You are required to follow a lot of rituals.

Having a choice to go into the service for a couple of years instead of some kind of aggressive sentencing would be a great option, in 2016 for many kids, left to the judges and military's consent.

<comment><USER6> "My friend", my wife served 8 years in the military and did two tours in Iraq and my grandfather served as a quartermaster. You are obviously extrapolating from no data when you say I have no exposure to the Army. I certainly have more experience with the Army than you have with the prison system.

But you, "friend", keep talking about the experience in a modern volunteer army.

What is _your_ experience in a conscripted army? What is _your_ experience in an army containing people whose choice is "jail or military"? From your history, your grandparents recently passed away, which means you no older than 50. The US became an all volunteer army in 1973, so if you, a non-American, served as a Combat Engineer in the US military then you at best heard things second-hand.

You are right, it isn't conscription, but the difference is mighty small. If you are conscripted, you go into the military or you can choose to go jail. If you are in front of a judge, you go to prison or you can choose to join the military. The difference is almost only the time you might serve in jail. (Conscientious objectors have another option.)

The US military flat out says they don't people who are forced to choose between the military or jail. Why do you think the military is so strongly against what you think would be so useful? (Hint: [https://www.army.mil/article/106813/](https://www.army.mil/article/106813/) )

Do you believe in equal justice under the law? If so, what of those who cannot join the military, perhaps because they don't have a high school degree, or are too short, or handicapped, or don't meet some other military requirement? Or those who are pacifists or another type of C.O.? According to you, they'll become criminals as they have no other option than prison. Sucks to be them!

Regarding the treatment in jails, I again point to my earlier statement, "By that I mean a sane prison, like what Norway has, with the goal of rehabilitation, and not the inhumane US prisons designed to punish." Do you think Norwegian jails are a place where people learn to be criminals?

Ahh, but looking at your comment history I see you think the Norwegian penal system is morally corrupt, not punitive enough, and you think execution can be a form of justice. It seems you would rather have a penal system which breeds criminals than one which does its best to rehabilitate, though knowing there will be some failures.

I notice you didn't answer my question about what you meant by "back in the day" and patriotism. Since you are not an American, which country and patriotism are you referring to?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Even though it's on cracked.com, I think this is a valuable and pretty unique story that can't be found anywhere else. Other people have died in these "wilderness therapy" camps - heck, even the name is straight out of Stalinist Russia - and usually the managers aren't punished, or only get a slap on the wrist.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, I've been reading about these sorts of camps for a few years now. I still can't believe there's so little regulation about any of it.</comment></comment>


Twitter desktop app returns to macOS - <AUTHOR> https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/10/twitter-for-mac-catalyst/ <comment><USER2> For those curious - it's a native app, not the negatively charged subatomic particle that shall not be named.

> The new Twitter for Mac app will use our existing iOS codebase</comment>


"In most rich countries, real pay has grown by at most 1% per year since 2000" - <AUTHOR> https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/06/02/if-wages-are-to-rise-workers-need-more-bargaining-power <comment><USER2> Actual title: "If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power".</comment>


Instantiating Classes with Internal Constructors (C#) - <AUTHOR> http://www.rvenables.com/2009/08/instantiating-classes-with-internal-constructors/

<comment><USER2> Part of RMock.cs was not genercized.

Instead of this: 47: FieldInfo[] EventFields = typeof(DataReceivedEventArgs)

It should be this: 47: FieldInfo[] EventFields = typeof(T)

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed (with one other bug)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Neat fix, but wow, what acrobatics to do something that should be simple. Tsk, tsk C#.</comment>


How To Do A Seasonal Promotion For Your App - <AUTHOR> http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/10/14/holiday-promotion/ <comment><AUTHOR> Three examples of how to do a seasonal promotion for your software or web app, using my Halloween activities as a case study. (Suffice it to say they have already bought me a whole lot of candy.)

Short version: mini-site focused on the holiday, PPC campaign for seasonal keywords, work your email list. There are also some thoughts for seasonal premiums you can offer to heighten the perceived value and urgency without costing you anything at the margin. (That is a veeeeery nice feature to have in a marketing strategy.)

<comment><USER2> Patrick, I really liked your point about IP - we create it, and we know it can be scaled or replicated easily, but because many of our clients (you with teachers, me with SME business owners) live in a scarcity space, the value they perceive is much higher.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What do you use for password management and why? - <AUTHOR> Also, do you share passwords/credentials with a team? <comment><USER2> We have KeePass, with the database file stored on our server. It's free, pretty basic but it does the job just fine.

<comment><USER3> Me too. Use Dropbox to sync the file to devices

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've been happy with 1Password for teams. They have a white paper, which outlines their encryption strategy clearly, and their family of apps have worked great.

Of course, when sharing 'vaults' with team members you have to remember that each vault is only as strong as the weakest master password of everyone on the team.

</comment><comment><USER5> 1Password for Teams and 1Password personal. I use 1Password because, even with their sync service, 1Password's central systems don't ever receive the keys required to decrypt the passwords. That is, 1Password's sync infrastructure is completely untrusted. That's what sold me compared to other options.

More: [https://1password.com/teams/white- paper/](https://1password.com/teams/white-paper/)

</comment><comment><USER6> 1password for families. Create multiple shared vaults. Automatically create and store password for each service you signup to. Worth every penny. Happy user here.

</comment><comment><USER7> I use Lastpass, but got paranoid (and will forever be) about someone hacking it. I developed my own command line tool that doesnt use the internet for anything, albeit its much less convenient for me when at work, but gives me piece of mind that its no longer an attack vector (unless someone gets through my workstation).

<comment><USER8> By "commandline tool" do you mean a password encryption program? Implementing your own cryptographic procedures is highly inadvisable (unless you're an expert in the field). If you're not storing particularly sensitive data you should be fine with a homebrew application, otherwise, you probably ought to use something else. Keepass is pretty good security-wise; it is open source and widely used and does not rely on any network connections.

<comment><USER7> '''Keepass is pretty good security-wise; it is open source and widely used and does not rely on any network connections.'' neither does mine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I signed up for LastPass a few months ago because I got tired of keeping track of credentials for so many accounts. For $12 a year it is nice to sync across devices and be able to have peace of mind.

Also they have a command-line tool that I can use to copy passwords to the clipboard for SSH.

<comment><USER10> The command line tool I was not aware if. Now I have a little afternoon reading to do!

<comment><USER9> I should have included the link before but here it is: [https://github.com/lastpass/lastpass- cli](https://github.com/lastpass/lastpass-cli)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> 1Password because it seemed much more polished than LastPass. And yes, I was quite swayed by the nice animations.

Still use some "pattern" passwords for things I want to remember should my 1P break for some reason.

</comment><comment><USER12> 1password on computer and iPhone. Generates strong password for every stupid site that wants a login and store it for easy use should I need to return to the site.

</comment><comment><USER13> passwordSafe. It runs fine on Windows and on Linux under Wine. I have never tried an alternative, to be honest, as it does a good job - double-click to copy password, an option to display certain characters from password, auto- generation of new passwords, hierarchically organised and searchable.

When sharing passwords with a team when using passwordSafe, we had to share the same sign-in password - not ideal.

</comment><comment><USER14> Using 1Password on my Mac and iPhone. Recently started playing with 1Password for teams.

I generate a random password for every site which requires a login.

</comment><comment><USER15> I use Password safe. Why? I don't trust a third party service to keep my passwords for me.

</comment><comment><USER16> We've used Vault (from Hashicorp) as a password management for teams on a self-hosted VM.

</comment><comment><USER17> 1 password at work and lastpass at home for shared passwords with my wife.

</comment><comment><USER18> Enpass. Easy to use. Supported nearly everywhere. Syncing options.

<comment><USER19> I second Enpass. I'm surprised at how little press it gets given its user friendless, platform support, pricing, and multitude of supported sync platforms.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What can a potential startup founder do living in the US on an H1-B? - <AUTHOR>

[Sorry, this is a repost, but I had no responses for the first one]
Hey guys, I figured HN would be a good place to ask this, as some of you may have encountered similar situations. I've been living in the US since I was 14, and studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering at Cooper Union in New York. My mother was a diplomat, and until I got a job, I was staying in the US through her with the A1 visa. Once I got my job at Amazon, I switched over to an H1B visa, and have been on that since.
I've also been working on my startup idea with a few others for the past 7-8 months, and we're getting to the point that we will soon be pitching investors for funding. I've been working on this for most of my available free time, but I really think it's shaping up, and would love to quit and concentrate on it full-time. And even if that's not possible, if somehow we're able to make this happen while I'm working full-time at the job that allows me to stay in the US legally, I'd certainly want to stop working my job and concentrate on making my startup succeed. However, I'm not aware of any options for an immigrant to legally reside in the US without an employer sponsoring him for the H1B (unless I get married of course, but I'd rather not explore that route right now ;D). And since I'd be a stakeholder in the company, I don't think I can sponsor myself.
Do you have any advice for my situation? I'd be incredibly bummed if I had to give up my baby to foster care. <comment><USER2> There is a legal way you can be a founder and sponsor your own H1b. Check out [http://www.quora.com/Can-a-H1B-holder-work-for-a-startup- as-...](http://www.quora.com/Can-a-H1B-holder-work-for-a-startup-as-a-co- founder). Get a very good lawyer though. I am on an h1b as well, and the only thing I can recommend is, take care of your legal status first before starting a company. US is not that kind to legal immigrants. Now if you are illegal, all the politicians will line up behind you.</comment>


Hackers as a High-Risk Population - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0XK9yMAxPk

<comment><USER2> And, uhm, yes.

It's not just that hackers may have the disposition of "going to war" but "we the people" that pernicious rubbish, is turning those who are incapable of hacking, it's turning them into a new form of clientele. It's already happening in Houston.

You can look at my Website. You can see I am a designer. But because I use vim/Terminal, over night my community re-defined me as a "hacker."

</comment><comment><USER2> I really think this "Age of Autism" movement is doing more harm than good.</comment>


Simple & Painless Way To Do Android Database Development - <AUTHOR> http://kitchenhacker.com/post/9586401419/simple-painless-way-to-do-android-database

<comment><AUTHOR> Hopefully it will help some other android devs that might have had a similar problem. I'm happy to get more detail into the code if anyone is interested.</comment>


Hack: Set the "Ready Message" on HP printers to INSERT COIN - <AUTHOR> http://kovaya.com/miscellany/2007/10/insert-coin.html <comment><USER2> This is a clever hack often used by university students on unprotected printers. It's much cooler if you combine it with another option that disables all the buttons on the printer.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is about ten years old:

<http://www.irongeek.com/downloads/hpnt.c></comment>


Blue versus Green: Rocking the Byzantine Empire - <AUTHOR> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blue-versus-green-rocking-the-byzantine-empire-113325928/ <comment><AUTHOR> I looked this up after reading about the Roman charioteers.

The racing team factions evolved into political and religious sects.</comment>


IPad now with Retina Display - <AUTHOR> https://www.apple.com/ipad/overview/ <comment><USER2> I don't think mass-posting the Apple product pages to HN is very useful, personally.</comment>


Heading to a cardiologist - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/a40qm5/heading_to_a_cardiologist/ <comment><USER2> I've got the Kardia and had the opposite experience. I was having heart palpitations and was convinced I was dying even though every time I went to the cardiologist they said it was just premature contractions and nothing to worry about.

Since it was intermittent, I was convinced they just weren't capturing the afib while it was happening. The doctor recommended I get the kardia.

After a few weeks of compulsively checking the kardia every time I had a palpitations it kept saying over and over again 'normal'. I even captured a few that had visible skipped beats and sent them in to their technicians and they said 'pvcs', the same thing the cardiologist told me.

After a month or so, I finally convinced myself I wasn't dying and the pvcs slowed down to the point where I barely noticed them.

Turns out that anxiety about heart palpitations _causes heart palpitations_ which is sort of fucked if you think about it.

I basically quit caffeine, started exercising more and now I just get pvcs for a few minutes every few weeks or so instead of for hours every few days.

So yeah, if you have any anxiety about heart stuff at all, I recommend getting the new watch.

<comment><USER3> I've had PVC's too. Getting enough sleep is what takes care of mine. When I get overtired they start to come back.

<comment><USER4> That's happened to me, too. Worst episode I ever had was in India earlier this year, while dealing with jet lag and a significant case of gastrointestinal poisoning, my PVCs stepped up to once every two-three beats. For a short time, they spiraled into some form of SVT (not formally diagnosed as this was before I started carrying an EKG on me) that resulted in visible chest movement (as in you could stand in front of me and watch my chest shaking) and a 240 bpm reading on my Apple Watch. Good times. Between being absolutely run-over-by- train tired and having (likely) electrolyte imbalances due to the impossibly large amount of liquid going in one end and out the other, my heart was not at all pleased.

Now that I'm back on my routine schedule, I find that everything is mostly okay if I get a full night's sleep and take my meds. Even with the meds, though, if I get woken up by the kids or something and get a half-night of sleep, the PVCs ramp up quite a bit. As does the temptation to find some caffeine, which would be completely counterproductive.

Sorry for the wall of text.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Apple as the world's leading health tech company is currently underrated and not widely thought about.

Despite a confused and unfocused introduction, the genesis of the Apple Watch came about when Steve Jobs was ill and had to experience the issues with the healthcare system first hand. It's been documented that the watch project came about as a result of this experience and the true goal for it is to contribute significantly to improvements across health and the broader healthcare system.

The biggest issue with introducing a new wearable product is having users happily wear it. In recent times, only Apple has been successful in doing so. This shouldn't be dismissed as it will give them a market advantage for decades to come.

<comment><USER6> Meanwhile, the Android OEMs that tried to get in front of the Apple Watch by rushing their own products to market seem forever condemned to third-class marketshare. What happened?

<comment><USER5> Apple managed to get people happy to wear a computer on their body for most of their waking hours. Even 10 years ago such a thing would have been considered far fetched.

They called this computer a watch so that people had a shortcut to think about its utility and placement on the body.

They then introduced it as a high-end fashion item (e.g. in gold) to ensure that style makers can't dismiss it as simply a geek low end piece of technology. It didn't need to continue to be a high end item but by introducing it as this, it managed to allay any potential initial low end connotations.

They managed to make it a high-end fashion item by hiring some of the most experienced people in luxury goods. People such as the former CEO of Burberry, the former CEO of Yves Saint Laurent and world class designers such as Marc Newson.

What did Android OEMs do? They slapped some technology together, grabbing an OS from Google and a processor from Qualcomm. Lately they've tried partnering. None of it will work and they should just give-up trying to compete with such a multi-faceted approach that Apple is taking with wearables.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't understand something from the the reddit thread. He said his heart rate was finally down from 120-140. If that's your non-exertion heart rate, isn't that a pretty good sign that you should see a doctor? Apart from any more sophisticated diagnosis?

<comment><USER8> Yeah, if your heart is beating that fast, you should go see a doctor... If a fast heart rate is accompanied by other symptoms (feeling light-headed, short of breath, etc), call an ambulance.

<comment><USER9> I've had a handful of those episodes over the summer but only after heavy exertion. Running stairs for 4 hours at an indoor water park, TKD sparring, and once or twice after very stressful events. I wrote it all off to a stressful year with unique occurrences. That morning I just happened to be paying attention and the Watch was the final straw that made it click.

<comment><USER10> Pardon for asking, but if you're doing TKD sparring, my hunch is that you're otherwise pretty fit? I do a lot of aikido as my primary source of cardio exercise, and my resting heart (Apple Watch 3, now thinking about the 4) is quite low (low/mid 50s). I have no idea what my heartrate is when I'm at peak exertion, because I can't practically wear the watch on the mat, but I suspect it's probably up pretty high.

So, if I understand things correctly, your doctor would otherwise probably look at you and be like, "nah, don't need to worry about this guy's heart." Is that fair to say?

<comment><USER11> _So, if I understand things correctly, your doctor would otherwise probably look at you and be like, "nah, don't need to worry about this guy's heart." Is that fair to say?_

Not OP, and I'm sure as hell not a cardiologist, but I would have fit that description. Wolfes-Parkinson, and would only rarely raise its head under narrow circumstances involving exertion. If you looked at my heart (which they did) and it didn't repro the problem, you'd never know the difference. Former Cat 1 bike racer, and pretty damned good distance runner, I was for sure fit. But you can't outrun genetics.

HR of 145bpm an hour after exercise told me, "something ain't right", abalation fixed it. I'm not diagnosing, and odds are darned good that OP doesn't have _my_ problem, but if it were me I'd pay a visit to doctor. Being fit doesn't exclude one from heart problems. Wolfes-Parkinson killed a college ball player many years ago, and I personally witnessed a 35 year old Cat2 bike racer drop dead mid-race from what I suspect was Wolfes-Parkinson or a similar heart-related anomaly (again, IANACardiologist).

And as a side note, I wish the Apple Watch were around fifteen years ago. In an attempt to get a repro, I wore this inconvenient contraption for a few weeks (no repro). I know it's only single lead, but at least I would have had _something_ to record data when the problem repro'ed. And were the watch to have picked up something, I would have gone to the doctor a lot sooner because at least I had _a_ tool that's probably better than Dr. Google. As it was, "I should make a doctor appointment. Meh, probably nothing." Men...amirite?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Anyone know - can I stop in an Apple Store and try this on a demo watch which is out for display, or do you have to be logged-in to iCloud and paired to a phone for it to work?

<comment><USER13> Don't know about demo at Apple Store but setup of ECG required Health app on my iPhone. So if you already have an iPhone, you can just 'buy' the watch, use it for couple of weeks and return it if it doesn't interest you using Apple 14 day return policy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The reddit post was interesting but not helpful (actionable) for other patients.

In the USA, if you experience the symptoms of a heart attack, you just take a taxi to the emergency ward, walk up to the receptionist and say, "I think I'm having a heart attack."

You will get priority over everybody else, minimal forms, and you don't need insurance to get initial treatment.

If you can think of other reasons for the symptoms, like you went to the gym for the first time the day before and have chest muscle soreness, then you can just sit in the lobby while you sort things out. (Walking up a flight of stairs at the hospital is a good DIY stress test. Some on-call doctors actually ask what entrance you arrived at, and if there's a ramp, they know you're prolly ok if you walked in.)

</comment><comment><USER15> I went on a weird diet of pure fat once and my wife could feel my heart was skipping a beat.

Went to a cardiologist and he told me to stop, though he said it might be a virus. I wore a machine for a day and it was showing loads of missed beats.

No symptoms since.

Worth doing if you ever suspect anything with your heart.

<comment><USER16> >> diet of pure fat

Why? Was this in attempt to get to ketosis?

<comment><USER15> Some local gym I signed up to said it would work. Felt awful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've had afib and it's not as scary as "heart problem" and "cardiologist" makes it sound like. Where I live at least, you don't even go to a cardiologist but an electrophysiologist and if you get the operation, it's a same-day in and out or maybe one night procedure with 85% success rate.

<comment><USER18> > get the operation, it's a same-day

Could you expand on that? Radio-frequency ablation is not something that is done the same day.

<comment><USER19> King of pandora is saying that the operation can be done as a day surgery under a local, and the patient can go home the same day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Good to see they got FDA approval for ECG. Anyway, I wish they could measure glucose levels without going under skin which is still far from happening.

<comment><USER21> Isn't that the roadmap for Verily(Google)'s opthmalogy line? Contact lenses with blood glucose sensing?

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I clued into my afib when I tried to take my heart rate in the usual way by counting pulses but the pulses were too irregular to count consistently.

</comment><comment><USER23> > pressure still elevated around 125/80 Elevated? 120/80 is perfect. 135/x > seems only a bit worrying for everyone around me. I recently had around > 150/x for whole week.

I know something is going on, keeping on doing the checks, but saying 125/80 is elevated sounds so silly to me. I've never seen such nice pressure on myself.

<comment><USER24> 120/80 is now considered per-hypertension.

<comment><USER25> Source? I have never seen 120/80 mmHg, which is vastly considered normal for those without CV disease, labelled as pre-hypertension.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Does AppleWatch measure the ECG on the wrist or the crown? Cause it asks me to hold Crown while collecting ECG data.

<comment><USER27> There's two features: the irregular heart rhythm notification (available on Series 1 and later) which uses the heart rate sensor and is passively monitoring you, and the ECG app (only available on Series 4) which is an actual ECG (lead 1).

>If the PPG-based arrhythmia detection is enabled, each tachogram is classified using a proprietary algorithm to determine if an irregular rhythm may be present. An irregular tachogram initiates a cascade of more frequent tachogram collection (as frequently as possible, subject to a minimum spacing of 15 minutes) and analysis. Tachograms are collected and analyzed only if the user remains still enough to obtain a reading; because of this, the algorithm is not always monitoring the user, but rather is doing so opportunistically when adequate signal is available for collection/analysis. If five out of six sequential tachograms (including the initial one) are classified as irregular within a 48-hour period, the user is notified of the potential arrhythmia. In addition to the notification, the user can access more information related to these irregular tachograms within the Health app (Figure 1). If two tachograms are classified as not irregular before the threshold is reached, the cycle is reset and tachogram collection returns to the baseline rate (every two hours).

Apple published a white paper and a mini site for medical professionals about it [1][2].

[1] [https://www.apple.com/healthcare/site/docs/Apple_Watch_Arrhy...](https://www.apple.com/healthcare/site/docs/Apple_Watch_Arrhythmia_Detection.pdf)

[2] [https://www.apple.com/healthcare/apple- watch/](https://www.apple.com/healthcare/apple-watch/)

<comment><USER8> To clarify a bit, the first (passive) feature only uses data from the wrist. The ECG app requires both the wrist and the crown.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I agree, men should go to the doctor more often. It would improve their life spans.

<comment><USER29> Isn't one of the early conclusions of the "evidence based medicine" movement that this is _not_ in fact true?

<comment><USER30> At age ~35 I had a pretty comprehensive medical checkup as part of my Australian permanent residency application.

I asked the doctor if I should be getting checked like this regularly.

"Do you feel okay?", he asked. I said yep. "Then no", he said.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Well done Apple, well done</comment>


Frequently asked questions in Mathematics - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/mathtext/math-faq.html

<comment><USER2> Not what I was expecting. Here's some beautiful (and more technical) explanations about mathematical topics that consider the motivation behind them, and are thus very natural summaries:

<http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/mathsindex.html>

</comment><comment><USER3> Waterloo, my school.</comment>


Computer Science courses with video lectures - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Developer-Y/cs-video-courses <comment><USER2> I can't say enough great things about the lectures on cs50.tv & cs75.tv. The prof (David Malan) is engaging, all the materials are available (homework, TA sessions, notes, slides, videos... everything). cs50 is particularly great for those who don't have a CS background but are interested in understanding CS principles from the ground up (vs trying to learn JS by doing a few tutorials).

<comment><USER3> Thanks - I've just started watching cs50 and he is great.

I've been doing professional software development for 10 years but his explanations finally made some very basic things click like they haven't ever before.

<comment> et-al Was there anything particular that jumped out? I skimmed over the first three weeks but nothing caught my eye and my ADD kicked in. Going to check out CS75 now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm currently working through CMU's 15-213. I highly recommend lectures 5-9 for anyone who never learned how processors handle functions calls on the lowest level. Part of the effectiveness of the class is CMU's interface for displaying the classes which is the best online class experience I've ever encountered.

<comment><USER5> Did this course as a student. Highly suggest reading the text book, quite literally has all the answers and explains everything very well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is there a similar list but _without_ video lectures?

<comment><USER7> Here's a list with a mix of different kinds of courses:

[https://github.com/prakhar1989/awesome- courses](https://github.com/prakhar1989/awesome-courses)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Putting Compilers with Programming languages and theoretical CS is probably not a good idea.

The issues in compiler construction and optimization are orthogonal to those observed in designing programming languages, type systems, theorem provers etc.

Systems will be a better idea, or its own category.

</comment><comment><USER9> It even has distributed systems of the VU (in Amsterdam) on it! Man, this list is comprehensive :O

For those that dont know: Maarten van Steen worked directly with Andy Tanenbaum and IMO he was one of the best if not the best teachers at my uni.

There are many other universities on it as well that I normally don't see. It would be amazing to see if more people have recommendations from lesser known online courses.

</comment><comment><USER10> This list is awesome, and I hate to criticize. But it would be really nice if there was just a little more metadata for each link to provide some extra context.

Being on GitHub, this is probably a problem that could resolve itself with some PRs.

</comment><comment><USER11> Awesome!!

</comment><comment><USER12> Unless you're naturally gifted in Mathematics it's difficult to obtain a BS in CS.

<comment><USER8> As someone with a PhD in CS and working at one of the 'Big 4', I would like to disagree with you!

I am still afraid of calculus..

The type of math you need for CS should not be too difficult after you get some intuition in programming.

In combinatorics, for example, you just need a clear head to think through the cases, just as you would do when writing a program.

<comment><USER13> Can you elaborate on which types of math you believe one needs for CS?

<comment><USER14> I'm not the parent but here's my list.

* Discrete Mathematics

* Linear Algebra

* Combinatorics

* Number Theory

* Introductory Real Analysis or "Calculus 1"

* Probability Theory

* Statistics

This will prepare you to be a general purpose CS professional. Further specialization will likely require some additional high level topics used in your field.

<comment><USER15> Yeah, you can't do half of these without understanding Calculus.

<comment><USER8> Well, understanding calculus and being able to compute indefinite integrals or solve differential equations analytically on paper are very different things.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


[Show HN]Daily archive of home page screenshots for top 1000 websites - <AUTHOR> http://weback.org

<comment><AUTHOR> This is my side project, which is aimed to archive home page screenshots and html source for Alexa top 1000 websites.

ps, any one know any cheap (< $50/month) vps with more than 1 TB storage space? This service eats ~ 1GB everyday ...</comment>


Tracking eye centers location with Rust and OpenCV - <AUTHOR> https://www.blog.nodrama.io/rust-opencv-eye-center-localisation/ <comment><USER2> «the video can't be played because the file is corrupt»

vlc disagrees, though</comment>


Ask HN: What are possible drawbacks of using a company in Singapore? - <AUTHOR> What are possible drawbacks of using a company in Singapore for selling software online, targeting the clients in USA, EU and UK mainly - wrt the ease of doing business, possible double taxation, etc? (I'm not a citizen of any of those countries) <comment><USER2> Sounds like a big question you'll probably need a lawyer and tax advisor that specialises in Singapore. What attracts you to there are you based there?

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, I think that it's not some arcane knowledge that nobody but enlightened can understand. Anyway, it's better to collect some information before talking to them.

Singapore looks like a good location wrt taxes and ease of doing business, but I may be missing something.</comment></comment>