Naked Europe covers up - <AUTHOR> https://www.economist.com/europe/2018/09/01/naked-europe-covers-up <comment><USER2> I lived on the French Riviera in the 80s. Nearly all European women were topless at the beach, and in St. Tropez, there was full nudity. I recently visited, and the only topless women were older. None of the youth went topless. Fewer exposed breasts in advertising as well. No idea the cause, probably, instant global media has made them self-consciously realize few countries are that permissive.

<comment><USER3> Seems the United States of America is going for a cultural victory [1], doesn't it? Imagine, that you'd walk with your toddler on the beach in St. Tropez and your kid would see a nipple. That'd be downright traumatising. I mean, the deprivation of milk... Heck even Louis de Funès movies which took place in/near St. Tropez contained nudity. Now those would be 18+. A shame.

Although I don't want my child naked on the beach (she's half a year old) not because I mind someone seeing her naked but because of all the cameras/smartphones. The loss of privacy is real, and its a direct effect due to the common practice of taking your smartphone -with quality camera these days- with you everywhere.

[1] [http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Cultural_victory_(Civ5)](http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Cultural_victory_\(Civ5\))

<comment><USER4> I'm going to make a very controversial point for the sake of argument, not one I am even sure I agree with.

In my line of work, I don't see an increase in privacy happening, I see exactly the opposite despite increasing privacy measures.

In fact, I see observation (video, audio, etc.) devices are literally going to be everywhere. They are in our devices, homes, cars, transportation vehicles (aircraft, public transit), cities, streets - there is nearly nowhere to hide - for any of us.

Whether this is right or wrong may not matter any more unless it can be controlled. Can it be controlled?

If it cannot be controlled, I see only one other option - and this is the sticky point...

..we have to be ready to face ourselves and each other publicly at all times. There will be little to no way to hide, to maintain privacy, etc. Our cultures will have to adapt, perhaps, at first, by trying to hide, enacting laws, etc. However, if it is inevitable that privacy cannot be maintained, then I argue, our culture will have to evolve.

Perhaps the culture of the future will protect your child from sexual predators in a different way. Perhaps we will have equal potential to be seen naked publicly whether on the Internet, a nude beach, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.

To ensure the safety and security of society, people will have to change, even if our accepted norms of nudity, sexuality, etc. change. I can only hope that we as humans will be able to evolve to handle the changed paradigm and still ensure reasonable safety and security of society.

I will say, I believe people today globally already have to be extremely more open-minded than ever before, on average, just to mentally cope with how we have changed as humans.

Feel free to debate me here.. as I said, I am not sure if even I believe what I'm writing, but.. I'm trying to be open-minded about it.

<comment><USER3> Yes, the elephant in the room is that the trend is inevitable. However the severity of it is the arms race.

For myself, I'm cool with a lot of that. My partner will have to decide for herself. Though it might affect me since we live together and have a child. We're adults though. Our child, however, is _our_ responsibility and if I can protect her privacy in cases which are likely to backfire later on, I should, IMO. Don't get me wrong: I don't have the illusion I'll be able to protect her in every case in this regard but I believe this to be one of those examples. Another one is where your child did something stupid (such as breaking the law) and you documented it. Don't shame your child in public!

What's going to happen is that there will be documented cases of what children did in their youth which were not acceptable. But because roughly all children have that, its kinda OK. "We all were young" will have public sources to back it up, if they're searched for.

However not doing _anything_ is a defeatist approach to the problem IMO. In that light, I find your post defeatist itself; instead of being open minded about this I suggest being _pragmatic_ ; a slightly different angle, also less extreme one way or the other. We still have some privacy left. You can, for example, wilfully leave your smartphone _home_ as Bruce Schneier wrote in his latest book _Data and Goliath_. We have that _choice_. His essay _Data Is a Toxic Asset, So Why Not Throw It Out?_ [1] also covers this very topic. Because that also covers how _others_ should treat your private data, something the EU is far ahead on with privacy laws, right to be forgotten, GDPR, accountability on losing private data, etc compared to the USA.

[1] [https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2016/03/data_is_a_t...](https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2016/03/data_is_a_toxic_asse.html)

<comment><USER4> I agree that I did sound defeatist a bit. My reasoning for that is I am directly working in an area where I'm literally watching the technology be employed, and workarounds being created to "protect" privacy, for example, employing machine learning on a device to do image processing so the raw input data never leaves the device.

However, the ultimate goal of this technology is to uniquely identify you for the sake of personalization, tracking, etc. There's an implicit grant being invoked that if anonymized properly or if certain measures are taken, then the privacy breach is ok.

I'm reminded of some culture I heard of once that refused to have photographs taken of themselves out of fear that it would steal their souls.

Any case where data is harvested via observations of you in which that data that represents you is not controlled by you or you are not aware of, seems like a breach of privacy.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not defeatist, I believe we have the power to change things. But, I'm also saying, I'm not sure, for a variety of reasons, we'll ever be able to rollback the concept of pervasive survellaince because, it is starting to become part of technological advancement - for our technology to recognize and work with us better, it must observe us. So long as that is the case, that ability can be abused unless it is protected, and, as security experts like Bruce Schneier have said, there is no such thing as absolute security, only security that lasts for a certain period of time [1].

[1] [https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2008/01/the_psychol...](https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2008/01/the_psychology_of_se.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting contrast within the article:

> Today, nudists complain, it is more difficult to separate nakedness from > sex. French nudists say their movement's younger members are overwhelmingly > men; women are leery of being leered at. "Parts of Cap d'Agde have been > completely sexualised," says Wim Fisscher

> If any space is more embarrassing for non-European tourists than a French > nude beach, it is a German or Dutch sauna. They are unisex and naked by > default. All bodies, thin, fat, young or old, are treated non-judgmentally. > The one thing that will earn a disapproving stare is wearing clothing, > because such modesty implies an inappropriate level of sexual consciousness.

But then:

> But the vision of nakedness as a demonstration of freedom and equality seems > to be faring less well. Nudity has been central to European culture since > the Greeks first sculpted Hermes.

Hermes was a great choice for this sentence, but it makes me wonder whether the writer knew that. Representations of Hermes were often naked, or at least displaying genitals, but they certainly weren't conceptually separated from sex. A Herm had a large erect penis. There was a statue of ithyphallic Hermes in a famous temple of Demeter, and an accompanying legend saying that he'd gotten into that state by seeing Persephone.

<comment><USER6> Also, at least in the last couple centuries, the most famous 'nudes' in Western art depict women. The gender disparity suggests to me that sexuality and nudity is not completely separate...

<comment><USER7> Yeah, it's more like the context of "fine art" painting made inages of sexualized nude women acceptable in "polite society".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The change is very noticeable in public bathhouses here in Sweden. It used to be that one day in the week had bath clothes as optional, while now we have instead separate men and women days in order to be more inclusive to cultures where women don't feel confident to be in swim clothes in the same building (The official written statement).

As the article points out historically nudism used to been a progressive cause where the conservative right was against it, while today those positions has almost switched sides. I have yet to see a Swedish politician that both support nudist and Muslim to choose what clothes they want to use in public spaces, even if occasionally someone slip their tongue and say things like "Neither government or corporation should decide what clothes people should wear".

The smartphone argument that the article brings up sounds wrong. While it could be true for a beach, not many would voluntary bring expensive electronics to a sauna and most bathhouses has now days a ban for it anyway. Relax areas want to keep noise and photoing down, while other areas which allow kids want parents to keep track of their children and reduce the risk of drowning. If smartphones with cameras was a major contributors to this cultural change then we should expect to see a much small impact for saunas and public bathhouses that forbid smartphones, and yet I doubt the data support that.

<comment><USER9> > not many would voluntary bring expensive electronics to a sauna

You haven't seen the people who use the sauna at the gym I used to go to, then. They always freaked out at me for not bringing my phone/headphones in and just using a small hand-held timer to make sure I didn't stay too long... They also got mad because it made me want to talk too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> > _The home continent of public nakedness is growing more body_

Well, prudery is contagious, especially when it emanates from a dominant culture...

</comment><comment><USER11> Anyone have a plausible hypothesis on what's driving the trend?

The Economist is claiming "Today, nudists complain, it is more difficult to separate nakedness from sex." which seems plausible enough, but what would drive the change?

<comment><USER12> Prudishness, imported from America. Here, nudity == sexuality.

<comment><USER13> I'd go with the importation of Islamic values. American media isn't that prude, and not much else cultural is imported from the US.

<comment><USER12> They appeal to sexuality specifically because it is edgy and shocking to a large percentage of the population. American media is quite prude on the whole.

Don't forget that many of the early settlerd in the USA were literally Puritans. Hard-right moralizing Christianity has always felt at home here.

Also, as stated in many other places in this thread, it's ridiculous to ascribe to change to Islam.

<comment><USER13> Do you think islamic values are more or less prude than American values?

<comment><USER12> That's a non-sequitur. You're comparing a religion with a continent or a nation-state, depending on what you mean by American. If you mean Christian values, then no, they seem about the same. But I'm not a theologian and my opinion is uninformed and irrelevant.

Either way, it's clearly not because of Islamic values.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > In Germany it was everywhere: the country's Freikörperkultur ("free body > culture", or FKK) encourages stripping off while gardening, playing sports > or taking lunch breaks in the park.

This seems rather uninformed to me.

<comment><USER15> Gardening? Nudity and lawn tools seem a bad combination.

<comment> dan-robertson This is a "common sense" suggestion that falls at the first bit of actual common sense.

The risk with tools is usually the fingers (ie near the sharp bits of the tool). I don't know how you do gardening but I think one could garden in the nude for a lifetime without accidentally cutting something off. The other common tool would be a lawnmower and it's quite common to mow the lawn wearing eg flip flops or sandals even though your feet are close to the blades. I don't think they protect much compared to being barefoot.

Protective clothing is different. But I think gardening nude is about replacing wearing shorts and maybe a shirt, as opposed to replacing wearing long sleeved clothes and thick gloves.

<comment><USER15> It may just be me; I was crawling around under the rose bushes yesterday.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I don't think so.

In the Netherlands you can still go to sauna as usual. There are plenty of nudist beaches and campings. A few months ago I went to a party in a club where in the end it was encouraged to wear as little as you'd like. You have still plenty of nude advertisement on television after midnight. You have billboards with nudes. There are TV programs like Adam zoekt Eva (Adam searches for Eve). There are popular clip sites (bit like ridiculous, but without being prude) like dumpert.nl with weakly "vrijmibo" with nudes. Two weeks ago I was in Zierikzee. Mayor was judging nudes with bodypaint. A lot of kids run around naked as well in the backyards when it is hot in summer. No big deal.

No, there is no such thing as the North American shame for genitals or being nude.

<comment><USER17> I believe a more relevant observation is: How many women go topless in non- nudist areas?

In Florida, where I grew up, it was common in the 1980s to hear about European women visiting the beach and not realizing that women were required to cover their breasts. From what I understand, it's now uncommon in many parts of Europe where it once was common.

What you describe is not casual nudity that Europe (in my American viewpoint) was known for. Compare what you wrote with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freik%C3%B6rperkultur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freik%C3%B6rperkultur) \- being nude without direct relationship to sexuality. As the Economist writes, "stripping off while gardening, playing sports or taking lunch breaks in the park."

Advertisements, judging nudes, etc. are saying that being nude is not usual.

<comment><USER16> At times it is usual, at times it is casual, at times it is sexual.

Nice perspective: [http://theswaggernews.typepad.com/mothertongue/2014/10/why-t...](http://theswaggernews.typepad.com/mothertongue/2014/10/why- the-dutch-go-topless-and-americans-dont.html)

<comment><USER17> That link agrees with the Economists' observation of the decline in casual nudity: "I still live in Holland, but very few women go topless anymore. Topless just isn't cool. It's not considered very classy, much less sexy or erotic in any way. Although the topless trend has subsided greatly since I first came to this country, the Dutch attitude about the human body has not."

The author writes "Our Anglo-Saxon squeamishness with nudity and bodily functions started sometime between the Middle-Ages and the Victorians and it has continued ever since." and "I still get a wee bit queasy when the soccer coaches require the 9 and 10 year olds to take group showers after the games."

I do not believe the author is aware of changes in US views of nudity even over the last couple of generations. For generations, children swam nude in indoor pools in the US. Quoting from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude_swimming#Indoor_pools](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude_swimming#Indoor_pools) : "The 1937 Administration of Health and Physical Recreation training manual stated, "Nude bathing for boys is practiced universally, in a few schools girls may swim nude and this is the most sanitary method."

Elsewhere on that page points out "In America, skinny dipping by boys [in the late 1800s] was common."

It also suggests that the 'squeamishness with nudity' was due to the 'rise of the influence of Christian Evangelicals' during the Victorian era.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Lol. An article about changing attitudes re nakedness, but no mention of hair or shaving.

Young people today shave more than any past generation. Just look at the magazines. So a young person today, unclothed, is that little bit more "naked" today. It makes a difference twofold. Firstly, naked+shaved people are more exposed to everything from eyes to sun. Secondly, young people don't want to be naked when they haven't shaved. So getting naked is something you have to prepare for in a way past generations did not. A swimsuit is far easier than re-trimming every day.

It is probably a bigger thing for guys. Hairy chests are larger than armpits. Hairy backs are ... difficult. T-shirts are more acceptable at the beach than bears.

<comment><USER19> > Young people today shave more than any past generation.

Do you have a source for this?

<comment><USER18> If you are going to ask:

"But an increased focus on hair removal has curbed cases of lice dramatically. In Australia, Sydney's largest sexual health clinic has not seen a case of pubic lice among women since 2008, according to Bloomberg."

[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brazilian-bikini-wax-making- cra...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brazilian-bikini-wax-making-crab-lice- endangered/)

"During the same 10-year period, the self-reported incidence of total pubic hair removal increased from 19% to 31%, and partial hair removal 23% to 56%."

[https://www.wired.com/2014/09/pubic-lice-still-not-going- ext...](https://www.wired.com/2014/09/pubic-lice-still-not-going-extinct/)

<comment><USER19> Your sources do not support your assertion that young people today are the most prolific shavers in history.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> With the obesity rates being what they are in the developed world, I'm not sure that's quite a bad thing.

I have a few theories on why more people are covering up, but I'm going to go the self-censorship route here on HN and avoid stating them to avoid a flame war.

</comment><comment><USER21> The smartphone has to play a large role in this. You can't guarantee that you're not going to end up on the internet forever.

The politics is also different; nudism is no longer either associated with either progressive liberalisation or the vaguely fascist/eugenic parts of the physical fitness culture. It's just not an issue any more.

</comment><comment><USER22> Some part of it (older people versus prudish younger people) was hilariously captured in Gym Wildlife:

[https://youtu.be/n1GUQVo1Lps?t=235](https://youtu.be/n1GUQVo1Lps?t=235)</comment>


Show HN: Periodic Table Map - <AUTHOR> http://periodictablemap.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> This is a periodic table of elements that allows interaction a bit like Google Maps or similar. Zooming in enlarges the table and reveals more information.

I originally wrote it as an entry for this year's 10K Apart contest ([https://a-k-apart.com/gallery/Zoomable-Periodic-Table](https://a-k- apart.com/gallery/Zoomable-Periodic-Table)). I've now added some new features and refined it a bit.

</comment><comment><USER2> I can't get it to work in Firefox. Chrome is ok.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for letting me know. Was a specific thing in Firefox not working? I noticed double clicking to zoom was not working. I've fixed this now.

<comment><USER2> I don't know my way around the app but comparing Firefox with Chrome I find two basic problems which are not present in Chrome.

Clicking on row or column does not generate highlights and filters don't work; nothing happens! The filter box X close doesn't operate either. I'm using FF 49.0.2 and 'about:config' is out of the box. I hope this lack of response in FF isn't merely down to my setup!

<comment><AUTHOR> _Think_ I've figured this out now.

<comment><USER2> Yes, seems to be working now! I say 'seem' only because I haven't explored it thoroughly. The young aspiring chemist in the family will take it for a test run.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Scientists grow tiny human retinas in a dish - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/10/11/scientists-grow-tiny-human-retinas-dish/ <comment><USER2> Very cool. Now let's get some Islets of Langerhand please!</comment>


Show HN: Notepad5, a distraction free writing webapp - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/uddhabh/Notepad5

<comment><USER2> of all the software that can benefit from being on the web, this has to take the cake.</comment>


CLA Redux - The Donation of OpenOffice to the Apache Foundation - <AUTHOR> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011060314010442 <comment><USER2> An excellent and very detailed discussion of a complex issue. I can certainly see why any copyleft supporters who had contributed to OpenOffice are outraged. From the legal perspective, wasn't the GPL designed to prevent situations like this?

<comment><USER3> The GPL was designed to prevent certain things. But the GPL cannot prevent the copyright holder choosing to change the license of future versions.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where can I find tf–idf for English? - <AUTHOR>

I want to calculate weights for the terms appearing in webpages, and for that I require tf–idf (term frequency–inverse document frequency), which when multiplied by term frequency in the webpage gives how important is the term in characterizing it.
The problem is that for a set of documents you can calculate tf-idf by counting frequencies in all documents, but this is not possible with webpages as the Internet has nearly infinite English webpages. To solve this problem, I am considering two approaches:
1. Scraping the number of results returned by Google for a term and taking that as a proxy 2. Using Wikipedia as a proxy for the whole Internet
The problem with first is that it is not scalable and it is against Google's TOS. 2nd approach is more tractable but the Wikipedia dump (http://static.wikipedia.org/) is about 14G zipped (it included images, which I don't require), which I guess is huge.
Does anyone know any processed list of such form? Any English corpus with term frequencies? If not, I guess rather than processing all Wikipedia, a better approach would be to crawl a (random?) subset of Wikipedia pages and process them.  Any suggestions or tips? <comment><USER2> The reuters corpus was used for a lot of papers, and TREC.

[http://lucene.grantingersoll.com/2008/05/18/open-source- sear...](http://lucene.grantingersoll.com/2008/05/18/open-source-search- engine-relevance/)

[http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/papers/volume5/lewis04a/lyrl2004_r...](http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/papers/volume5/lewis04a/lyrl2004_rcv1v2_README.htm)

</comment><comment><USER3> Your best bet is to download the Brown corpus. It is a bit dated but well documented. However, neither the Brown corpus nor the Wikipedia are a representative sample of the web. If you let us know a bit more as to what you are trying to do, we may be able to add better solutions.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am trying to extract a set of keywords (and their weights) for any given webpage. Another option is to use Google's n gram but which has 13 million unigrams, but there is no option to download it (you have to order it for some 700 USD, I guess)

Brown Corpus, doesn't give term frequencies, does it?

<comment><USER3> The advantage of using well known corpora is that they are also 'tagged' so later on you can extend your text analysis. Text analysis is addictive, the more you do the more you want. Another option is the British National Corpus at probably around twenty pounds for the cd, with over a million words. The latter is also available in XML.

I had a similar situation about two years ago. I did some research on blogs. As a sideline the word 'blogs' does not even appears once in the British National Corpus! This put an end to me comparing against known corpora.

Quick and dirty solution. Write your own routines. At the time I used PHP! Python is a better option but my Python skills were limited. I spidered blogs (with cURL). If the word 'blogger' 'blogroll' or 'comments' appeared I spidered further.

Once I had 20,000 pages I started calculations. As you add to the corpus your statistics change, so you need to find an efficient method of calculating all these. With PHP I was able to download on average one page per 20 seconds.

Your stop words need to also evolve as you go on, things like RSS, will crop up all the time, you would also think that 'wordpress' is one of the most common words in English! This led me to the next stage polishing up some form of pre-processor for cleaning up HTML. (Most Classes out there are not adequate, they tend to leave items in such as CSS style etc..). I used tidy believe it or not, very effectively for quick pre-processing. (Helped a lot to just identify only the ).

Other adventures along the way was downloading books from the Gutenberg Organization and using them as corpora.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I suggest you use a newspaper's archive if wikipedia doesn't suit you.</comment>


Rust for C++ programmers – part 4: unique pointers - <AUTHOR> http://featherweightmusings.blogspot.com/2014/04/rust-for-c-programmers-part-4-unique.html?m=1 <comment><USER3> Rust looks very exciting and promising. I see the hardest things for it to be not necessarily syntax and concurrency (which are very well done), but performance and getting to compete with C++11 (C++14), which actually seems to become fresh and interesting again.

Performance is tough. I feel most often C++ is not chosen for its inherent cleanliness, elegance and beauty, but because there are no viable competitors at the given performance point. C++ compilers have been honed and tweaked for more than a decade now, so it will be a hard battle ahead.

<comment> loup-vaillant > _I feel most often C++ is not chosen for its inherent cleanliness, elegance > and beauty, but because there are no viable competitors at the given > performance point._

My feeling is that most often, (i) people don't need nearly as much performance as they think, and (ii) they greatly overestimate the performance gap between C++ and garbage collected languages (most notably those who are compiled to native code, such as Lisp, ML, and Haskell).

<comment><AUTHOR> _they greatly overestimate the performance gap between C++ and garbage collected languages_

I think you're right about that, but I also think that people greatly underestimate the determinism gap between them, too. (Not necessarily the same set of people, of course.)

<comment> loup-vaillant I'm not sure. If you start using smart pointers in C++, you can get the same problem: instead of a GC pause, you get a cascading delete pause. To eliminate it, you have to devise a smarter memory scheme, at which point you probably _don 't_ underestimate the determinism cap.

Also don't forget that garbage collectors can often be tuned. Granted, many of them suck, but a generational, incremental collector whose parameters can be tweaked? Much less room for pauses.

<comment><AUTHOR> A cascading delete pause may be undesirable, but is it nondeterministic?

<comment><USER4> In the same way that GC is, yes. Technically both are probably fully deterministic, just not readily determinable by casual examination of the code at compile time.

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess I didn't mean nondeterministic in the philosophical indeterminism sense, but in the sense that different runs might produce different behavior.

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

<comment> loup-vaillant Well, you can get there if you lag enough to drop a few frames in a competitive FPS game: while the game is still deterministic, the game/players _system_ will diverge: a few dropped frames can get you fragged.

Also, some naive simulations will adapt the length of their steps with the time it takes to compute them. Any performance variation gives you full blown unpredictability.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Rust gives me the same feeling I had when learning C. I started with BASIC, then learned Java and a bit of Pascal, Perl, etc., but C was my first language with pointers. Now it seems silly, but understanding pointers was a huge step to me. There's a before and an after. Getting used to owned/transferable pointers seems to involve a similar step, although it's probably easier this time since I understand what they do.

Btw., if you like this kind of intelligent pointers, Vala something similar [1], and the syntax seems a bit easier at first glance. You have owned pointers (and can transfer ownership), shared pointers (with reference counting) and unmanaged pointers. It uses reference counting for all the UI stuff (Vala is highly integrated with Glib and Gtk), since that is usually not performance critical and you'd rather be correct there. If you feel the need to do without reference counting, you can manage memory manually, too.

[1]: [https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala/ReferenceHandling](https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala/ReferenceHandling)

<comment><USER6> > You have owned pointers (and can transfer ownership), shared pointers (with > reference counting) and unmanaged pointers. It uses reference counting for > all the UI stuff (Vala is highly integrated with Glib and Gtk), since that > is usually not performance critical and you'd rather be correct there. If > you feel the need to do without reference counting, you can manage memory > manually, too.

That doesn't sound safe—what if unowned pointers outlive the owned pointer, and you get use-after-free?

I don't believe it's possible to avoid pervasive reference counting or GC in a practical sense, and still be safe, without something like lifetimes built into the type system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've been working C++ professionally for a couple of years and honestly I'm a _huge_ fan - So I was excited to read about an alternative. After reading your 5 posts, I get the impression that RUST is mostly mildly useful syntactic sugar on top of C++.

Here is my feedback:

1 - If memory management is a serious problem for the software you work on, I've never found the boost library lacking. This seems like the main selling point for RUST. Given the scope of the project: you guys must be doing something that is so different that it couldn't be rolled into a library - <USER2> I'm looking forward to your future posts to see if there is something here that I really am missing out on.

2 - I'm not a fan of the implicitness and I personally don't use 'auto' b/c it makes scanning code harder. I guess this is more of a personal preference.

3 - A lot of things are renamed. auto->let, new->box, switch->box You get the feeling that effort was put in to make the language explicitly look different from C++

4 - the Rust switch statement don't fall through... This one was truly mind blowing. The one useful feature of switch statement got ripped it out! If you don't really need the fall through, I'd just avoid using them completely...

5 - I've never really seen an equivalent to boost (in combination to the STL) in other languages (maybe I didn't look hard enough). Could you maybe make a post about the RUST standard library? Libraries are always the deal breaker

To that point, my last comment is maybe a little more wishy washy. The main reason I'm consistently happy with using C++ (and why I put up with the header files) is that everything is available. If you need to do X, and X has at some point been put into library by someone: you can be sure that that library will be available in C++. Since Rust seems so close to C++, does this mean that linking to C++ code is trivial? If I can seamlessly start programming parts of our codebase in RUST, that could potentially make a huge impact.

<comment><USER8> > _If memory management is a serious problem for the software you work on, I > 've never found the boost library lacking._

As a developer that isn't working with C++, I'm finding memory management in C++ to be a nightmare and no amount of libraries can solve it.

Say you receive a pointer from somewhere. Is the referenced value allocated on the stack or on the heap? If allocated on the heap, do you need to free it yourself, or is it managed by whatever factory passed it to you? If you need to deallocate that value, is it safe doing so? Maybe another thread is using it right now. If you received it, but it should get deallocated by the factory that gave it to you, then how will the factory know that your copy is no longer in use? Maybe it's automatic, maybe you need to call some method, the only way to know is to read the docs or source-code very carefully for every third-party piece of code you interact with.

All of this is context that you have to keep in your head for everything you do. No matter how good you are, not matter how sane your practices are, it's easy to make accidental mistakes. I just reissued my SSL certificate, thanks to C++.

Yeah, for your own code you can use RAII, smart pointers, whatever is in boost these days and have consistent rules and policies for how allocation/deallocation happens. Yay! Still a nightmare.

Even if manageable, there's a general rule of thumb that if a C++ project doesn't have multiple conflicting ways of dealing with memory management and multiple String classes, then it's not mature enough.

<comment><USER9> > Say you receive a pointer from somewhere.

Here's your problem. In general I _don 't want_ to be receiving a _single_ pointer from anyone. Lately, I've found it helpful to think of pointers in C++ as special iterators rather than a referential relic from C. In such a mindset passing pointers around without an accompanying end iterator, or iteration count, just makes no sense. Anywhere that implied iteration count is always a constant, I'm probably not structuring my code correctly.

So my recommendation is to use references (foo&) for passing down (well, up) the stack, never to heap allocated objects. Because you can't use delete on a reference there's no longer an ambiguity. Use smart pointers to manage the heap. Write RAII wrappers (it's not a lot of code) to manage external resources. RAII wrappers are especially useful for encapsulating smart pointers so big things can be passed around with value semantics, which gives you even stronger ability to reason. Implementing optimisations like copy-on- write becomes fairly trivial.

> I just reissued my SSL certificate, thanks to C++.

If you're referring to Heartbleed then OpenSSL is written in C, not C++. Generally only a language that inserts array bounds checks for every access would have shielded you from this bug... C++s <vector> does this if you use the at() function of <vector>, but op[] doesn't by default for performance reasons.

<comment><USER10> The problem that Rust solves is that your advice, while good, is still _advice_. I absolutely agree that naked pointers are a code smell, and stack allocated objects should be the norm, with passing around (const) references to them. And RAII wrappers are great.

But all of that are patterns of use, enforced mostly by convention. In Rust, that's enforced by the language itself, and violating it will be a compiler error. The following kind of shenanigans won't be allowed outside of unsafe regions:

      int main()
      {
        int on_stack;
        int& ref = on_stack;
        int* ptr = static_cast<int*>(&ref);
        delete ptr;
        return 0;
      }

Yes, it's obviously bad code, but C++ happily let me write it, and it compiled with no warnings under -Wall -Wpedantic.

<comment><USER9> This is because delete is an operator that can be overridden, and whether it has been overridden isn't known until link time.

        void operator delete(void*) {  }

        int main()
        {
          int on_stack;
          int& ref = on_stack;
          int* ptr = &ref;
          delete ptr;
          return 0;
        }

and now it's safe :P... and yes, never freeing any memory is arguably a perfectly valid memory management strategy. Ok, this example is nuts... but it's a feature of C++, in the C tradition, that it lets you do crazy things. Can I plug custom per-type memory allocators in to Rust?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I recently wondered whether it's possible to compile rust into a dll/so or whether there is a way to call rust from other languages (e.g. C, R, or ruby). All I found is that this isn't (easily?) possible because of rust's runtime. Is this true? If so, will it be possible to call rust from, e.g., C code? I'd like to have an alternative to c/c++ for writing native extensions for interpreted languages.

<comment><USER12> Yes, it is possible to do it by just avoiding the runtime, e.g. the following works fine:

        #![crate_id="example_c"]
        #![crate_type="dylib"]

        #[no_mangle]
        pub extern fn my_rust_function(x: i32, y: i32) -> i32 {
            x + y
        }

Then compiling that gives a libexample_c....so file, which can be linked against the following C:

        #include<stdio.h>
        extern int my_rust_function(int, int);

        int main() {
            printf("%d", my_rust_function(1, 2));
            return 0;
        }

printing 3. (There's no interaction with a runtime here at all.)

In fact, it's even possible to "manually" start a runtime[1] inside another process (and if it's started on its own thread then I think it will work flawlessly, if not, then it might break in some corner cases).

[1]: [http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/master/guide- runtime.html](http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/master/guide-runtime.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Man. Now I really want to read the next post...

</comment><comment><USER14> From the blog:

> _I have history with Firefox layout and graphics, and programming language > theory and type systems (mostly of the OO, Featherweight flavour, thus the > title of the blog)._

Hmm, what are "type systems" of "featherweight flavour"? Anything real or some inside joke? Or perhaps an elaborate way to say "not that complicated"?

(Google mostly returns references to the same blog)

<comment><USER15> Featherweight Java ([http://www.fos.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~igarashi/papers/fj.html](http://www.fos.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~igarashi/papers/fj.html)) was a seminal paper which showed type soundness for Java. The formal syntax was a subset of Java subset and preserved the interesting features in the semantics (as opposed to encoding a language in an extension of the lambda calculus, which is an alternative style of formalisation). So, "featherweight flavour" refers to formal type systems work which follows this style of formalisation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> >>The memory will not leak however, eventually it must go out of scope and then it will be free. Yes, if the function that called it lives for ever the point is perhaps moot, in an extreme case if it was called by 'main'.

<comment><USER17> If the pointer is returned all the way up to the main function, then it must be required for the lifetime of the program (or else the program is poorly designed). What point are you trying to make?

<comment><USER16> It could also be a memory leak. For example, I have a for loop that keeps requesting a new pointer...

<comment><USER18> I just tried the following:

            let mut blah = ~MyStruct{x: 3, y: 4};
            for i in range(0,100000000) {
                blah = ~MyStruct{x: i + blah.x, y: i + blah.y};
            }
            println!("{} {}", blah.x, blah.y);

The memory usage didn't increase over time - the owned pointer frees when it gets reassigned.

<comment><USER19> See this example for more details: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7665617](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7665617)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> What the heck is this?

      y: <comment>~~Foo

<comment><USER21> I assumed it reads more or less like:

      Foo *****y;

Or, probably, more like:

      std::unique_ptr<std::unique_ptr<std::unique_ptr<std::unique_ptr<std::unique_ptr<Foo>>>>> y;

<comment><USER20> Thanks, I hope this is never needed anywhere, ever.

<comment><AUTHOR> I suspect it's a deliberately-perverse example, meant only to illustrate how deeply method calls will automatically dereference.

<comment><USER22> It also dereferences through <comment>&~@~~&~Foo.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How to install GalliumOS on a chromebook using Chrx - <AUTHOR> https://write.privacytools.io/connor/how-to-install-galliumos-on-a-chromebook-using-chrx <comment><USER2> Can anyone recommend a small, durable Chromebook (or other laptop) that plays well with Linux? The Dell XPS-13 looks amazing but that's a little over my budget at the moment.

I've been coding on an iPad Pro via SSH but would like to have a full Linux desktop environment.

<comment><USER3> What editor do you use? How do you cope with lack of ESC? Are you using vim with the jj insert mode trick?

I ask because I would really like to make this work but haven't found the sweet spot yet.

<comment><USER2> In Vim

CTRL + [

is the same as pressing the escape key, it took me a couple days, but now it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I've been using a combination of (Python shell & IDE), Working Copy (Git, can monitor and commit changes a folder in your iCloud Drive which Pythonista can also access), and Termius for ssh.

I've been trying to figure out how to fit Buffer (editing files on remote server via ssh) into my workflow but haven't yet.

It's not perfect, but I like traveling with my iPad more than my MacBook Pro because it's smaller and as an added bonus I can also edit photos from my DSLR on it.

<comment><USER2> Whoops, I meant to say that I've been using Pythonista (which is a Python shell & basic IDE)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thank you for that. My chromebook is fast approaching the end of its life and will stop getting updates, so I found that quite useful!</comment>


SQL Server App Store Reviews (If SQL Server were an app:) - <AUTHOR> http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2011/12/sql-server-app-store-reviews/

<comment><USER2> Here's another example:

"A Bit Buggy but Pretty Good

I am been storing information on the whereabouts of nuclear reactor fuel in this app, but recently we have become aware of the possibility that the information we think we are saving isn't what's getting out. So now we cant be sure some of our uranium hasn't been stolen. Oh well, what's someone going to do with uranium anyway? I suppose it's no big deal."

(<http://www.cdi.org/nuclear/nukesoftware.html> and noted on other sites. If one is going to come up with reviews, one can also make fun of some real cases, I suppose.)

<comment><USER3> Grim as that was, it's worth noting it's referring to issues with SQL Server 6.5 and 7 over 10 years ago. As the current release is v10.5 (2008R2) and we're scheduled to next year see v11 (2012) I would suspect the relevant problem tickets have been resolved...

<comment><USER2> Of course, but it still makes a funny app review.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love this one: "MY PHONE CRASHED AND I NEED MY DATA. CAN'T FIND MY BACKUPS. PLEASE CALL ME!!!"

I've seen reviews like this, it boggles the mind.

<comment><USER5> It seems to me that this is very much the same phenomenon as people posting to reddit or ask.metafilter questions or comments that would make much more sense to pose to a particular company's customer service. People think "hey, here's a place I can write stuff", and don't really have a mental model that differentiates between targets. It's a matter of degree, not qualitative difference, between thinking you should ask Reddit why your Verizon bill is being calculated wrong and thinking of "the internet" as a completely amorphous featureless blob that you can type to anywhere and it'll be just as good as anywhere else.

<comment><USER6> I've done that with Stack Overflow; I'll ask a highly-specialized question that would be best answered by the actual mailing list, often because I'm already on SO and I am too lazy to go sign up for the mailing list.

In my defense, two days ago I tried to post to the git mailing list and it took many, many minutes to do, because:

* the git web site does not actually tell you the mailing list subscribe address; it links to GMANE and shows the post-to-the-list address * GMANE has a subscribe option, but of course, they mean subscribe through GMANE

I finally found the master list of lists at vger.kernel.org (one giant unreadable page), which lists the unsubscribe command, which can of course be reverse-engineered into the subscribe command for that majordomo server.

And I freaking wrote a major mail server. No wonder people just post to "that place where you ask questions".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Works mostly as advertised, although it's not clear whether some behaviors are a bug or a feature."

This one may have come from a real SQL Server review.

<comment><USER8> Not to be glib, but couldn't I make this comment about nearly any "enterprise" software? Though, I guess as a whole, this entire review could be applied to nearly anything--since it's largely illustrate how ignorant users are. At least, I thought that was the point (pre-coffee).

<comment><USER7> Without a doubt. It's especially true with something like SQL Server though, where it's sheer scale brings it close to something of an operating system on its own. I find myself scratching my head because of it on a weekly basis; of course 99% of the time its more from my own ignorance than any fault of SS (and I'm sure most Oracle/MySQL/Postresql users all feel the same way).

<comment><USER8> I'm not a DBA by any measure, so I sort of find myself the same way when acclimating myself to any database--let alone the non-rational ones. I really have come to value a good DBA having to do some stuff myself at a smaller company. The shearing amount of planning and worry into setting up a DB for something like a CMS gives me ulcers.

I will say, though, I'd much rather be working with MSSQL than Oracle. Though, I might be using the wrong tools for the latter. I do feel somewhat "loved" by MS though as far as c#/VS tooling for MSSQL.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Do I really need to pay for MS Access to get a better reporting gui?</comment>


Turning Sublime Text into a Lightweight Python IDE - <AUTHOR> http://cewing.github.io/training.codefellows/assignments/day01/sublime_as_ide.html <comment><USER2> Maybe I'm the exception, but I can't see why people, why _programmers_ , bother investing their editing-skills in a closed-source editor and toolkit.

Sublime is closed source. When it croaks up and dies, all the skills you've built up will be wasted, and you'll have to rebuild them elsewhere.

Why not invest in something open instead? There's more options than ever before, and they're all good.

For me, VS Code seems to provide pretty decent Python IDE capabilities almost out of the box.

For those a little more deeply invested, Emacs with elpy and realgud gives me all I need: code-completion, docs, debugging, breakpoints, etc. And it's something I as a programmer can adapt to my needs and build on.

Sublime? None of that. So what's the appeal?

<comment><USER3> Because it works and it works great. It's fast and it never crashed on me. Give me an equivalent opensource editor that works and looks like Sublime and I'll use it. No, Atom and VS Code don't cut it. They're slow, they choke on big files and eat up hundreds of megabytes of RAM. I don't need or use plugins, so I don't care if it's extensible in <insert trendy language here>.

Vim is also nice but I only use it for remote console work. It doesn't have the nice features that Subline has (PCRE, select and Ctrl+D editing) or they're clunky.

<comment><USER4> Geany hits most of these except fancy select, though there might be a plugin for that.

<comment><USER3> Well that's what was using on Linux before I installed Atom, although it's hardly a replacement for Sublime (which gets used on the Mac at the office for _real_ work). Really, I've tried just about everything.

<comment><USER4> Why hardly? I use geany everyday for "real" work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> No mentioning of Anaconda for Sublime? It has many of this features out of the box.

But the best IDE experience (beside PyCharm) is really using VSCode + the most popular Python extension [https://github.com/DonJayamanne/pythonVSCode](https://github.com/DonJayamanne/pythonVSCode)

This setup is a total replacement for PyCharm for me. Code Refactoring, code definition jump, IntelliSense suggestions and help, linting, virtualenv support, code formatting etc. etc.

And last but not least VSCode and this extension are both free, open source... unlike Sublime and PyCharm.

<comment><USER6> My biggest problem with VSCode was the loss of ST's support for working across multiple project folders. When I'm working with Django I'll break code out into reusable apps but find it difficult to work concurrently on these separate folders of code.

Would love to hear if there's a setting I was missing as I'd like all the other features in VSC.

<comment><USER7> I have each project open in a different VSCode — is that what you're asking for? You can do File > New Window and then open another project in it or just set "window.openFoldersInNewWindow": "on" to always open directories in a new window.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > The final requirement for a reasonable IDE experience is to be able to > follow a debugging session in the file where the code exists.

> There is no plugin for SublimeText that supports this. But there is a Python > package you can install into the virtualenv for each of your projects that > does it.

This drives me batty whenever I see "turn XYZ into an IDE for (foo)." The author of this post at least lists debugger integration as part of the IDE experience, but comparing against actual full fledged commercial / non-plugin- composite IDEs? I haven't seen one article for turning Atom/ST/Vim/etc into an "IDE" that comes close (edit: that is, close to a reasonable debugging experience, in an integrated way) capability-wise.

There's nothing _wrong_ with taking that approach, but if you need to shim on GDB and use a plugin to just _follow along_ in source (forget setting watches, gutter-click breakpoints, conditional breakpoints, etc., from Sublime Text), that's pretty definitively not integrated into Sublime.

<comment><USER9> That's because your definition is flawed.

When it's all said and done, all that matters is that you're able to get the work done. Take vim, for example. You can quite often use CLI tools to get the work done due to vim's integration into the surrounding ecosystem, and this includes things such as debuggers.

For a language like C#, you're never going to find as integrated an experience as you will with Visual Studio. It's just not going to happen.

But for everything else, you absolutely can be as productive in something like vim, the workflow is just different.

<comment><USER8> My definition of what? I literally said there's nothing wrong with taking that approach. I quite purposely did not argue productivity.

My issue is with the acknowledgment by the author that the standard for "IDE" includes debugging capabilities and then goes on to provide a plugin that provides follow-along only via running GDB, which would need to be configured (I assume, since the author does not specify) the normal ways.

If you want to argue UNIX is the IDE I can get behind that definition, but the debugger is absolutely not integrated into Sublime (or Vim or Atom or N++ or ...) in any meaningful way.

<comment><USER9> That's why I said your definition is flawed.

The point is to get work done, not do it all in a single window. you talked about "capability" as if because someone uses an external debugger you can't debug effectively or very well when using something like vim.

It's a flawed definition of effective.

When you use something like vim, the entire ecosystem is your IDE.

<comment><USER8> I've edited my OP and hopefully what I'm saying is more clear.

If the entire ecosystem is your IDE, you're not "Turning Sublime Text into a Lightweight Python IDE".

I don't know how else to phrase this to make it clear that I'm not attacking, denigrating, claiming inferior, etc., composite workflows like vim + GDB. But if you get to an article that says XYZ is now your IDE, and it offers a piss- poor debugging experience unless you leave XYZ, then that article is not turning XYZ into an IDE.

<comment><USER9> It doesn't matter if you're attacking, denigrating, claiming inferior, etc. The point you made is flawed or inaccurate, and that doesn't change because your motivations are clean.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> My path with Python IDEs has been:

\- Visual Studio (when I was a student)

\- Emacs (when I ceased to be a student)

\- PyCharm (when my job paid for a license)

\- Sublime Text (when I wanted something comparable to Emacs with some niceties thrown in and a single license cost)

All in all I think PyCharm is the most productive I have used. Minimal setup, the best code inspection I have used, nice integrations with things like git out of the box.

But Sublime Text has my heart at the moment because with the Emacs Pro package it has a very Emacs-y feel with almost identical key bindings (slight differences here and there). The package manager may be a bit "odd" and feel like a sidecar, but coming from Emacs...it feels pretty straightforward.

Sublime Text is also language agnostic so that's a plus.

At the moment I use PyCharm Professional for work and Sublime Text for personal stuff...and I think it strikes a good balance. Productivity where my requirements are strict and cost not a factor and flexibility where I like to try new things and recurring fees don't appeal.

<comment><USER11> I have had a similar path, except for VS. I have been happy (and still am) with Emacs for a very long time (in particular, I really like how easy it is to have some code in the left window, which I can easily send to an IPython REPL in the right window), but recently, for a new job, I picked up PyCharm Pro, and I must say that it's been pretty transformative. Three aspects stand out IMO:

\- It's a fantastic tool to explore and understand big, industrial codebases

\- The testing and debugging support is _stellar_

\- The Emacs binding emulation is great (so it's easy to feel relatively at "home")

<comment><USER12> > I really like how easy it is to have some code in the left window, which I > can easily send to an IPython REPL in the right window

This sounds pretty great. Would you mind explaining how that works? Is it specific to Emacs?

<comment><USER11> It's actually quite easy, as it comes pretty much out of the box with recent versions of Emacs (24+) and python.el (not to be confused with the older python-mode.el). I could not find a nice web source for python.el's documentation, but it turns out that directly reading its code is not so bad in this case:

[https://github.com/emacs- mirror/emacs/blob/master/lisp/progm...](https://github.com/emacs- mirror/emacs/blob/master/lisp/progmodes/python.el)

In particular, you need to set the `python-shell-interpreter` variable to "ipython" (which must be in your path preferably). You can then invoke `run- python` to start a REPL, and C-c C-c to send a buffer to it.

There are a couple more interesting commands with this mode, see:

[https://github.com/emacs- mirror/emacs/blob/master/lisp/progm...](https://github.com/emacs- mirror/emacs/blob/master/lisp/progmodes/python.el#L323-L329)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> i'd just rather use pycharm. [https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/](https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/)

<comment><USER14> Completely agree. I can't use even the best editor if it doesn't provide basic navigation, and debugging functions. 20 years ago, people claimed that IDEs were bad, but now the situation have changed. PyCharm has almost everything that Sublime has, and even more, there's vim mode, which moved editing to a new level.

<comment><USER15> I totally agree PyCharm's navigation and debugging functionality are fantastic. That said, when I last tried it (about 2-3 years ago), my Python code ran incredibly slow. I have a relatively large but not huge Django based python project (~2M LOC with libraries), but with debugging enabled my Python code practically ground to a halt. It's possible I misconfigured the debugger, and I can't remember how long I spent trying to get it to work, but it was discouraging enough that I dropped it.

My debugging now is just logging.info and some fancier log aggregation tools, but still feels like the early 1990s.

<comment><USER16> Pycharms 2017 debugger (pydev), is much faster now. You meed to use python 3.6 though. The debugger window suggests to install some bindings. If you do that the debugger runs much much faster.

<comment><USER15> I hate the 2.x / 3.x python split so much ... don't get me started.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> _Sublime Text comes with a great system for Package Control. [...] To install a plugin using Package Control, open the command palette with shift-super-P (ctrl-shift-P on Windows /Linux). The super key is command or ⌘ on OS X. When the palette opens, typing install will bring up the Package Control: Install Package command._

Sublime doesn't actually come with Package Control and Package Control itself is a confusing usability nightmare. It's a fine and snappy cross-platform editor but the whole extensibility thing has unfortunately turned out ugly and unpleasant.

<comment><USER18> True.. I have never bothered to find out how the ST community grew so much. It's a paid product and somehow people have built plugins for a package manager that is not even part of the core IDE. Does anyone know the history here?

<comment><USER19> When Textmate stalled between versions for years on end, Sublime came in with Textmate compatibility and simply scooped up a huge userbase who wanted something like Textmate on other platforms or were tired of waiting on Textmate to release a new version. Sublime is a Textmate clone that outdid the thing it was cloning but worked with all the existing Textmate bundles. That's how.

<comment><USER20> Yep, I think this hits the nail on the head. I'd add that on Windows there wasn't a good, native, option past Notepad++ (which is fairly limited in comparison).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I have used similar setups in Sublime Text for Python development, the main issue is instability and inefficiency. Installing these set of packages in sublime makes things slower and more unstable.

Multiple times while editing large files my editor would slow down or crash.

</comment><comment><USER22> I have mixed feelings about this.

I love Sublime Text. But it's also a real pain to get set up correctly. I want to like PyCharm . . . but it's also a real pain to get set up correctly, and it's slow as junk.

Then again there's straight up Visual Studio with Python tools, which is also a real pain in the ass to get set up and ready for use. And slower than I want it to be.

And vim, which is great when you get it going, but is also a huge pain in the ass to get set up.

Are we seeing a trend here?

I am. And the trend is that comprehensive IDEs really just take a lot more work with dynamically typed languages than they do with statically typed ones. Code introspection and completion is just a lot harder when you're guessing about stuff.

I don't know. I haven't found the sweet spot, and I prefer to spend my time getting things done instead of configuring tools.

My instinct is to choose the tools that are fast. Vim, Sublime Text. But fast has limitations. I have a pro license for PyCharm on my own dime, but I've always just given up when it comes to configuring it to something that makes sense.

Blargh.

This situation is a thing that makes me just a tiny little bit envious of the C# crowd. Visual Studio + Resharper is basically the best in class of coding tools. Yeah, you're going to spend some time with setup, and you are not going to edit shit on the fly on a server.

That tooling really works and works well. And SSMS is the gold standard for SQL IDEs. The open source Python part of me is incredibly jealous of the Microsoft tooling stack.

Some of the limitations with Python are by nature of the language, and some are because we just seem to be willing to settle for good enough.

But damn, I really miss Visual Studio environment when working with Python and Postgres instead of C# and SQL Server. I'm actually playing with C# and SQL Server for toy projects sometimes just because the tools are so good. If you happen to have a Windows box laying around. Which, you do, if you play any games.

PyCharm is the closest thing to that experience, but it's so gross, I just kind of can't stand it. Every time I sit down and decide, "Okay, I'm going to make this work for me. Today." I just give up. Fuck it. I'll just go back to vim and Sublime Text. They are good enough.

</comment><comment><USER23> I am using Notepad++ (I'm a windows user) for more than 5 years for python/django development. Never regreted it - never found something better. I stuck to Notepad++ even when I was using a Mac for some months (through Wine) - I couldn't find something better or faster.

Everything else is way too slow (Atom, VS Code, pycharm) or way too inefficient (Vim / Emacs - inefficient for me they may be great for you) to replace Notepad++. An IDE is not really needed with python - it's not java - If you want to debug something just add a breakpoint to drop directly to your program (I have actually written a tutorial for that [https://spapas.github.io/2016/06/07/django-werkzeug- debugger...](https://spapas.github.io/2016/06/07/django-werkzeug-debugger/)) - you'll then have a full repl to do whatever you wish!

I really think that notepad++ is a great editor (at least for windows users) and should get more traction.

I had tried sublime text a bit and the only feature I found usefull that notepad++ lacks is the quick switch to file - but I can live without it, especially since Notepad++ is Open Source!

<comment><USER24> Only if you haven't worked on Pycharm, you can say this. Try the latest Pycharm on a medium/big size project and you will understand. It is the best Python IDE out there, right now.

Nothing even comes close.

<comment><USER23> Pycharm is good - I've used it. However there are various disadvantatges to it:

a. It is not open source b. It is slow on my (Celeron based) PC c. I don't really need the capabilities of a full-flexed IDE (auto-completion, debug etc) for Python

<comment><USER24> Well, I think you are mistaken here. There is an Open Source Community Edition of all versions of Pycharm if you are so inclined to the Open Source. That is quite good enough. Celeron is quite old and slow and it is not fair to expect an IDE to work fast on that old PC. Though you can still disable some advanced features( inspections) and make it reasonably fast.

Again, it totally depends on the project you are working. For a reasonable sized project, you can do away with an editor. But with large codebases, IDE support is a great difference. And this is coming from someone who has been writing all his code on Vim for last 6 years or so. Basically, all you require is a productive environment that doesn't hold you back and enables you to write faster and correct code. For me and a lot of other people, Pycharm is quite that tool.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> PyCharm is better for pure Python development, but I still use Sublime because of inertia. It does most of what I need it to without changing much regardless of which language I'm currently programming in so I'm pretty happy with it. Plus I spent $80 or whatever the cost was to pay for it myself so I have more incentive to use it.

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm confused. I've been using Jupyter as my go-to Python IDE. It has auto-code completion, nice charting abilities and even nice tools to convert my notebooks into presentations for execs.

What am I missing by not having PyCharm or the other IDEs mentioned here? Thanks

<comment><USER20> Jupyter is probably much better if you're doing what it's suited for. I work on web application development in Python and Jupyter is not suited to that at all, however my colleagues who work on business intelligence/analytics/data- science/etc love it.

<comment><USER26> Makes sense. I use it for analytics and data-science projects.

Will check PyCharm out though; this thread's got me curious about what it can do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> A lot of unjustified negative comments.

Sublime Text is a nice fast IDE for python.

So is PyCharm.

CWWFY (Choose what works for you)

<comment><USER28> Indeed. I use both. If I have to do something quick, I just open it in Sublime(chances are I have it already open because it's also my notepad) but if I need the full env I just fire up IntelliJ.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Just my two cents, I prefer to use syntax specific settings instead of global user settings in Sublime Text.

I think it is more flexible.

</comment><comment><USER30> Just try Geany. If it doesn't meet your needs then go looking.

</comment><comment><USER31> Wait — People are actually still using ST in 2017?

And here I was thinking Atom and VSCode had dominated the IDE/Editor environment

<comment><USER32> I don't understand this attitude. Atom's look/feel/functionality/default keybinds are based on sublime text. Sublime text is a lot faster/more reliable. Atom has a large community building addons for it.

Take your pick. I used atom until I got annoyed by how it choked on large files and crashed semi-frequently.

<comment><USER33> There's nothing wrong with using multiple editors for different tasks. I'm currently using vscode after a stint with atom for the majority of my editing. But I use sublime text for scratch space or quickly opening large files or one off text files.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Help Kevin McCallister in 2018 with today's tech - <AUTHOR> Hello HN,
One of the things that got me thinking as a kid watching Home Alone II was how Kevin was able to accurately rewind the tape on his voice recorder to the exact point he needed. He nailed every time. Of course, that was a limitation tech had those days.
Today I remembered that ahd thought: now he`d just record and play it on his iPhone. No big deal.
That got me thinking... what would a 2018 version of Kevin McCallister do with all the tech our homes have today?
So please, help us think of creative solutions that current tech would help him overcome those bandits?
Please, exclude the obvious ones such as posting online LEFT ALONE BY MY PARENTS, SOMEBODY`s ON MY DOOR, PLEASE HELP! :)
Kevin McCallister needs your help this Xmas, HN... Please help! <comment><USER2> Haven't you seen this? [https://youtu.be/xKYABI-dGEA](https://youtu.be/xKYABI- dGEA)</comment>


How to indefinitely detain JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon - <AUTHOR> http://www.emptywheel.net/2011/12/15/how-to-indefinitely-detain-jamie-dimon/

<comment><USER2> He's a US citizen. He gets habeas corpus.

edit: why the heck would anyone down vote an accurate, factual, relevant statement?

<comment><USER3> Let me say first that I didn't down vote you (I in fact up voted you even though I think your comment was missing the point).

That said your comment misses the point. The article's intention, as far as I can tell, is to point out just how far the Executive Branch has gone in denying U.S. citizens their rights (under both the current and previous administrations). So much so that the argument can easily be made for indefinitely detaining a very high profile White House adviser.

So the post's point was "People's rights are being suspended at the drop of a hat" and your response was "he has rights" which is nonsensical.</comment></comment>


Show HN: A simple memorable site to view and easily copy your public IP address - <AUTHOR> https://bigip.space <comment><USER2> > An ad/script blocker has blocked the ability to view your public IP.

This is BS. :-(

Googling "what's my IP" is pretty memorable as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I know - it uses ipify.org and my guess is some sites might use it for tracking, which is a shame. Note that no ads or tracking are used for the site, and I added a page showing uBlock users how to only allow calls to ipify from this domain.

While Google and [https://api.ipify.org/](https://api.ipify.org/) are cool and fast and memorable, this started as a side project to make it easy to copy and display in the tab title as well (plus I found a cheap domain). Thanks for clicking!

<comment><USER2> Why ipify though? I connected to you. You already have my IP.

<comment><AUTHOR> Another goal was to keep this super cheap, quick, and familiar, so this uses a static site hosted on S3. Pennies per month, but no server-side power.

I'm not a web dev by trade, so perhaps there's a way to make it work. Maybe using WebRTC with a fallback to ipify for IE. Something to investigate!

<comment> s-c-h Maybe you can create a lambda function and connect to it through api gateway. You can get one million calls free each month.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I prefer ip4.me personally.</comment>


Ask HN: Is there a chance to prove to Stripe Atlas I really will work in the US? - <AUTHOR> Hi all! Facing strange problem with Stripe Atlas support, and don't get how to go out from this loop. They have a list of countries they do not support, including Russia. I am Russian but live in the US, have another business (Delaware-based corporation) etc. The new startup has three founders - one currently lives in Russia (relocates to the US soon), second lives in Germany, me, as I told, live in Miami. Stripe thinks that we will do business in Russia, however, we are building a global service aimed at English speaking markets. Exchanging emails for a couple of days, but these guys look like robots - if there are Russian founders, then you will work in Russia, application declined.<p>Any advice on how to explain them it seems like a racist thing that has nothing to do with their real rules (as we won't work in unsupported countries)? <comment><USER2> If they're only declining you for Atlas, the services they provide are to help people outside the US and will be very easy to do yourself from Miami.

<comment><AUTHOR> Doesn't seem logical to me: they wrote in plain English that they do not work with certain countries. I live in the country they support (USA), so why do I Can't use this damn service even if I can do all the paperwork by myself just by logging in to Delaware division of corporations website? Especially, if the service is declined based on a nationality which is clear discrimination</comment></comment>


How Microsoft Plans to Beat Google and Facebook to the Next Tech Breakthrough - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-microsoft-research/ <comment><USER3> Microsoft has suffered a heck of a brain drain in the past decade. I don't believe they can recover from it in the long term. I also don't believe in innovation by executive edict. Google and FB models work because executive edicts are not necessary there: top researchers and engineers run the whole show.

<comment><USER4> Microsoft research is nearly legendary in many academic circles. As prestigious as many top colleges. There are many brilliant people working there.

Admittadely, the prestige probably has a lot to do with the previous circumstances (work on whatever, don't worry about the company), but it seems like this will be a very beneficial move for Microsoft.

<comment><USER3> Research, yes. But Research alone can't pull this off. And most of the rest of the company can't tell logistic regression from a hole in the ground.

<comment><USER5> Almost nearly every single successful Google products were either developed out of research or out of 20%, or via acquisition. Most in-house business projects don't end up successful (Google Plus?) A big company has to invest heavily in R&D to push the limit. You just need one big idea that works and become a game changer.

<comment><USER3> At Google most in-house projects are infrastructural, and if you look at the scale at which they run and the fact that there's basically nothing that even comes close, they are wildly successful. You could also say Android was in- house, because what they bought is not at all what they ended up shipping. What they bought looked like a Blackberry rip-off, what they ended up shipping was an iPhone rip-off. And let us not forget Ads, the in-house system that has dominated online advertising for a decade now.

But I kind of fail to see what any of this has to do with Microsoft. :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Good luck because great minds think alike. Getting a product idea finished and out to market takes time, and competitors might be able to do it faster.

Skype Translate reminds me of the Star Trek universal translator but it can only do several languages. I remember when Babelfish came out and some translations didn't take too well. There has always been a need for a computer to translate foreign languages and to translate accurately as well.

I think Apple is trying to do the same things as Microsoft for their iPhone and Macintosh series. So Microsoft has to compete with Apple too to get new ideas to market.

It is a shame that Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple can't work together to share ideas and see which ones does them best.

<comment><USER7> If anything, the race to attract top minds has actually forced these companies to open source their proprietary libraries. (TensorFlow, CNTK etc). While they might not be working together, there's definitely a greater good that has happened as a side-effect. I'd argue that the open sourcing of libraries is better than 2 big companies working secretly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> What does Tech breakthrough in this context means? And what tech breakthrough came from Facebook?

Is something like HHVM considered a tech breakthrough?

Automated self driving cars considered a tech breakthrough? (most probably)

<comment><USER9> > Is something like HHVM considered a tech breakthrough?

A largely backwards source-compatible, JIT'ed interpreter for one of the world's shittiest designed but most widely deployed languages? That runs the frontend fleet for the #2 site on the Web? While supporting new core language features and extensions? Yes, I would say that's a breakthrough in interpreter implementation, and thus tech.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Pretty good analysis of MSFT, Google and Facebook. In the 1990s Bill Gates shared his visions in 1990 and 1994 at COMDEX (information at your fingertips and "Cairo"). In the 2000s Longhorn, WinFS (failed because dotNet was too slow) and the great work of Microsoft Labs like Photosynth. MSFT was on its peak with Office 2010 and Win7. Though then they closed their Labs department. And Satya Nadella only tries to milks the custumer with SaaS versions of their former on-premises software, expensive license model changes and hostile privacy intrusive spying stuff on end consumer. MSFT is such a mean company.

<comment><USER3> WinFS failed not because .NET was too slow, but because no one, not even the people in charge of WinFS, could explain why the fuck anyone would want something like this. I also don't get what's so great about Photosynth. Last I checked it completely failed to take off anywhere.

<comment><USER11> For the same reason we want "locate". Except it would be nice to be able to query on many more attributes. And without having the machine be unresponsive for a while every day, only to find that "updatedb" decided to churn the machine.

<comment> semi-extrinsic Have you tried mlocate? It has a much more sane updatedb, reading only the changes to the filesystem.

[https://fedorahosted.org/mlocate/](https://fedorahosted.org/mlocate/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I have to say that our team has been really impressed with Microsoft from a developer perspective.

They were very accommodating with bringing us in to see/try the Hololens and we have been really happy with Azure since switching from AWS.

<comment><USER13> They seem to have had that strategy for a very long time -- entice developers to lock in end users. It worked quite well obviously, but I myself still find a good REPL, solid CLI tools, and fully open source code all the way down to the BIOS even more enticing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Microsoft's "next" is; they've tried a lot of "nexts" that didn't always pan out.

<comment><USER12> Yea except 100% of our end users are on iOS. We have no intentions on building for Windows Phone or Windows OS and they know that.

<comment><USER14> > We have no intentions on building for Windows Phone or Windows OS and they > know that

That is the biggest change in Microsoft IMHO. Talking from personal experience - in the past whenever we worked with MS they always put in stupid requirements such as we _had_ to support X or Y (with X and Y being some new Microsoft technology/platform/product).

It was abuse of their position so I am glad to see this is changing.

<comment><USER15> Yeah I was in total shock yesterday when I found out they are phasing out app fabric caching in favor of REDIS. Glad times are finally catching up to them, but it feels so much like Sun.. Too little, too late.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Microsoft's independent innovations of the last decade are the kind the average person doesn't really want or need. They're making a skype translator... fantastic... but the market for that is still pretty niche.

When Google released maps/street view, or apple announced the iphone, those were the kinds of things that built excitement because they were big ideas, and it was the kind of future we wanted to live in. Microsoft doesn't really do that, and from this article they still don't get it.

<comment><USER17> And at the beginning of the multi-touch revolution, while Apple was releasing the iPhone, Microsoft was still busy developing Surface (now PixelSense) - <USER2> 80kg, 50x50cm coffee table cum multitouch screen. Really. So I agree with you, it seems that impressive products of Microsoft research look like proofs of concept rather then viable mass products.

<comment><USER18> > it seems that impressive products of Microsoft research look like proofs of > concept rather then viable mass products.

Isn't that kind of the point of having a research division? Let the research people go crazy with new ideas, then sift through them and figure out what to make of that, product-wise?

It's not like MS Research hasn't delivered some cool stuff, but Microsoft was either not capable or not interested in turning that stuff into products. At least that is the impression I get.

<comment><USER16> The biggest thing I can think of that MS research delivered in the last few years is the kinect. They hinged a lot upon that being the next thing in gaming, but what is it now really? Their competitors aren't exactly in a rush to copy it... because once again, its a gimmick for a niche market.

Now just look at VR on the other hand... there's many big companies investing in that and there's a lot of hype around it. Heck even Facebook is on board and Microsoft is nowhere to be seen. There's yet another technological revolution that they're missing out on.

<comment><USER19> The connective fabric is that Microsoft has _always_ been investing in VR, or at least AR/Holograms: the Surface Table/PixelSense was a step towards physically touching digital spaces, the Kinect was a step towards physically touching digital spaces, the HoloLens will be a step towards physically touching digital spaces. All of those steps have learned from the past steps and build on sensors and software built for the previous step. (Crudely, the Kinect moved the table's sensors into a platform that could be attached to an Xbox and the HoloLens is now strapping those sensors to your face.)

I don't think that Microsoft is missing out on the VR revolution: I think that all this time Microsoft has been trying to baby step/bootstrap their way towards some very cool things. I think it's useful to take a step back and appreciate the incremental/evolutionary approach Microsoft has been taking here. I still think it's kind of brilliant that MS/MSR was able to use gaming to commoditize the Kinect (what was a lab's worth of sensors is now available in every Wal-Mart for a reasonable cost).

<comment><USER20> Is anyone here aware of Hololens? I am not understanding why people are claiming ms is missing out on the vr revolution, unless you consider AR to be so wildly different that it doesn't qualify as similar?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> As a developer I noticed lately there is an impressive number of libraries coming from ms. They probably have a hundred libraries just on github and many older ones on codeplex. I hope this new practical money making focus doesn't mean those libraries will get neglected. Part of the charm with ms is that they are not as calculating and ruthlessly capitalist as apple and google. They are more focused on the developer and researcher than the user. I hope they don't end up becoming the same.

<comment><USER13> _Part of the charm with ms is that they are not as calculating and ruthlessly capitalist as apple and google. They are more focused on the developer and researcher than the user. I hope they don 't end up becoming the same._

I take it you weren't in the industry when the Halloween documents leaked, or the antitrust case was prosecuted. MS was (and probably still is) every bit as ruthlessly capitalistic as the new 800lb gorillas in town.

<comment><USER21> The ms is evil thing is very 90s. It doesn't look so bad compared to say facebook and google who's core business is advertisement. Those will sell your personal information to 3rd parties any chance they get. Ms core business is still about selling software and services to users. In my book thats a more honest way to make a living. I hope it stays that way. Apple is another story ..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I really don't think that the problem with microsoft was their research division being too seperate. although interfacing better with the rest of the company makes sense they've always fallen on their face when it comes to execution, they were a real player in the smartphone sector at one point for example.

figure out how to execute on your ideas, the generation of ideas themselves aren't the issue.

</comment><comment><USER23> Question from non-technical person: What script is used to do the headline scramble? What process do you use to find out what script it is? thanks

<comment><USER24> It's entirely custom but it leverages the d3 library so it's quite short/relatively simple in its execution as it leaves most of it up to d3.

Process for finding out is not fixed. Generally a simple "View Source", look at <script> tags, read script files and look for obvious clues is the best first port of call (and worked easily here). If there's a lot of indirection and pre-compilation being done it gets harder.

<comment><USER23> thanks, appreciate the response. I had a hunch it was with d3, but wasn't sure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Any time a CEO of a company this size has to make a last-minute forced integration between groups in their company to catch up with a competitor, it means the CEO failed at their real job: anticipating their competitor, and being prepared with a response.

If CEOs are micro-managing tactics like this, it means they are failing to hire and delegate.

<comment><USER26> Granted, it was a very different CEO that failed to anticipate their competition

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Sincerely hope this is the case.

</comment><comment><USER28> Headlines like this are good for a mid-day laugh.

Operative phrase: "Plans to."

Two words Microsoft needs to learn before it tries anything: "Strategy tax."

<comment><USER29> Since I'm not familiar with the term could you explain it like I'm five?

<comment><USER30> Strategy tax is where an individual product is constrained in some way to further the overall goals of the company. For example, Microsoft killed a project to port SQL Server to Linux because the product would help to strengthen Linux as a competitor to Windows.

The term has been used inside Microsoft since the 1990s (and maybe before that time).

<comment><USER31> It's an interesting but misleading phrase, because it doesn't allow for the fact that a bad strategy does nothing to further the overall goals of the company - where a relaxation of a bad strategy does.

If your strategy is "Protect the crown jewels at all costs" while your competitors have discovered a diamond mine, no one needs to care what cutlery you're supposed to use.

Of course that sounds ludicrous, but the impression I get is that that kind of strategic confusion has been endemic at MS since Gates moved on.

Clever innovations like Skype Translate or even Hololens are not a strategy. Selling lots of good individual solutions still isn't a strategy.

You can't play defence on strategy (Office 2026? Windows Infinity?) You need a kick-ass plan for the 5-10 year future, and I see no evidence that anyone at MS is capable of designing a product plan for consumer markets that don't exist yet, and then wondering how to market them - while Google, FB, Apple and even Amazon are at least thinking about it.

<comment><USER20> Wouldn't universal store across devices count? I mean it doesn't matter if you sell X amount of phones or Xboxes or Desktops, you just need the # of devices that have access to the store to give someone a reason to develop for it. I don;t see anyone moving in that direction at all....

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Microsoft could build a robot that did chores around the house for me, and I still would have no interest in it. Because it's microsoft, and there is a lot of baggage that goes along with that. This holds true for other large tech companies as well - there is always baggage. It might be poor updates, crappy support, no production quality, poor execution, poor security, or required integration with their larger platform.

Yahoo is faced with a similar problem; they can't shake who they are, no matter how cool or different they try to rebrand themselves. They're still Yahoo. And nobody is interested.

I say this because MS seems to think that if they get a slamdunk on technology, everything else will fall into place. And maybe there is some truth to that. But you can't escape who you are and what you've done, especially when it's become your M.O.

Facebook has an advantage in this space: they're still a new name in tech. They're "hipper" although still have their own baggage; but it remains to be seen how that permeates throughout what they do. So far it hasn't looked good though.

Really, I think there is too much talent locked up in this major companies. I think the world would be better off if more engineers and creatives were forging their own paths, chasing their own dreams and coming to market themselves. We need less whales and more/bigger fish.

<comment><USER33> Facebook is a new name?

The review of the the pixel book got me thinking...

What do FB and GOOG have to prop up their valuation beyond advertising? In both cases the user is the product, advertisers the customer.

Amazon, MSFT, and Apple have other avenues. It's always interesting how a past reputation glosses of a legacy name is used to gloss over the behaviors of "a new name".

<comment><USER34> What does Microsoft have besides Office/Windows? And what does Apple have besides the iPhone?

<comment><USER35> Here's a list circa 2013: [http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-16-billion- dollar-bu...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-16-billion-dollar- businesses-an-updated-list/)

<comment><USER34> The moment I saw XBOX I knew that list was suspect. And according to Ballmer even the Azure numbers are cooked.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Need help calculating Covid-19 growth - <AUTHOR> My so called "rich first world country" decided to stop counting new cases once they were caught with their pants down after a 90% growth in a single day.
I generally don't care about their excuses, but I need to know how to actually calculate growth based on past data and other variables.
I recall seeing something that you could use population number, previous cases and growth to figure out how long until a certain % of the population was infected, but I can't seem to find that.
We live in the city center surrounded by bars and restaurant and this Friday they were still crowded and even had a queue outside.
Me and the missus have quarantined ourselves with food and entertainment, but need to figure out when most might have recovered from it. <comment><USER2> I somewhat doubt that it makes sense to apply this on an invididual level but this Wolfram group lists a few resources and models [https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/1872608](https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/1872608) e.g. [https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/1896178](https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/1896178) if you really want to plug in your country / county level data. Especially given the dynamic nature of responses we currently see many of these models can only provide a really broad abstraction and will not be a reliable indicator when you personally are not affected anymore. With the current information on this outbreak it is pretty unlikely that full voluntary self quarantine can be upheld until "it's over" (you might live in a bunker, in that case replace "can be upheld" with "makes rational sense for the majority of the population").</comment>


What the [UK] budget means for start-ups - <AUTHOR> http://www.kernelmag.com/comment/opinion/1674/what-the-budget-means-for-start-ups/

<comment><USER2> So government is speding on high-tech start-ups, to (hopefully) create jobs presumably for foreign educated workers, since school budgets are cut savagely. Don't get me wrong, I am all for small government, I just believe they are forgetting their primary objectives in particular the educaton of children.

<comment><USER3> Don't forget that part of the solution to education is role-models. You can teach all you want, but if kids ain't interested - they ain't interested.

High tech startups (and when they are seen by the public to be successful) are good role models covering entrepreneurship, engineering, design etc.

So I'd argue that putting money into science, tech, entrepreneurship _is_ doing good for the education of our children. (I'd rather my daughter looked up to the likes of notch than some x-factor winner).

Listen to Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson on NASA whose budget could equally be spent on education, welfare etc full episode at 34m 30s [http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/28/2909148/on-the-verge- episo...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/28/2909148/on-the-verge- episode-004-dr-neil-degrasse-tyson)

<comment><USER2> Not to disagree with you, more thinking out loud. Shouldn't teachers provide the primary role model? In stead, teaching has become a profession for losers. The status and quality of teaches have all gone down consistently during the last 20-30 years. Children's first role-models should be the best of the best.

And, to disagree with you a bit anyway. I have the feeling that the example set by start-up role-models is more of the make-lotsa-money-fast kind, than the technical kind. Maybe that's not mutually exclusive, but I remain sceptical.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The tax relief on Angel investment could make a huge difference.

<comment><USER5> Yes, this is really excellent news. Good to see the government making some positive, useful changes, rather than just talking the talk, or setting up another 'body' to encourage entrepreneurship

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great article. I actually sat and listened to the budget and there was a lot of really positive stuff in there for businesses, it's just a shame so much it was overlooked because of the dust storm kicked up by the cut in the 50p top tax rate band

<comment><USER7> I wish the dust storm was about the top rate of income tax! At least we could have enjoyed a few minutes of "sane" class hatred.

No, the real topic for media reporters was _a tax on pasties_ (which is not even a real tax, but rather a realignment of some food categories in the tax system).

<comment><USER5> I know- it was absolutely ridiculous. Made me really depressed about the state of the media, and the level of political discussion in this country.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Am I the only one who's a little worried about the focus on patents?

<comment><USER5> I think we need to remember that this isn't just focussed on tech startups.

The UK has a good number of pharmaceutical, engineering, bio-sciences. In these industries patents are probably a pretty good proxy for innovation.

<comment><USER9> Perhaps for those industries patents are a better fit and more standard practice. My personal opinion based on observations of patents in software is that they inhibit innovation.

Invariably in a race to the bottom everyone loses.

<comment><USER7> > Perhaps for those industries patents are a better fit and more standard > practice.

Pharma industries live and die on patents, today, and in the UK they are over- represented in any lobbying effort on the subject. Most politicians don't know/care about software patents, but they _will_ have been lobbied by the likes of AstraZeneca and they will write legislation with _that_ sector in mind, mostly.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Which domain registrant do you recommend? - <AUTHOR> I have been using Namecheap for the past few years but I am thinking about moving my domains to another registrant. Namecheap is fine for the most part but I have found their support to be completely incompetent (looks to be outsourced, takes 10-15 emails to get the most simple of things resolved).<p>Google Domains has a decent UX but I'm concerned Google might close down my account out of nowhere and leading to me losing my domains <comment><USER2> I also use namesilo.com for domain registration.

</comment><comment><USER3> I moved away from them before but am back at GoDaddy. Not the greatest company in the world, you'll get shoddy upsells everywhere you look, but their domain management tools are top class, their prices/promotions are usually worthwhile, and you can call them on the phone 24/7 and reach people who can help you out, which is a major outlier in this day and age.

There's little to no chance of GoDaddy moral crusading (I mean, look at them) and shutting down your account, or failing at the domain registrar business, and they give endless nag emails to ensure you don't lapse a domain. I let one lapse intentionally recently and have gotten about fifty emails about it.

My main advice though is to never register domains and host your site with the same company. As long as they're separate, migrating is relatively painless if you have issues. But companies with both your domain and your site can make leaving a pain in the rear.

</comment><comment><USER4> nearlyfreespeech.net

Plus:

\- no upselling, no nonsense

\- text based interface

\- quick and easy to use/renew/change/etc.

\- privacy add-on is reasonably priced and easy to select

\- competent, long track record, reliable

\- supports 2FA

Minus:

\- there may be cheaper ones out there, but not by much.

\- I don't know how many oddball TLDs they support.

\- If you like animations, eye candy, flashy IU, gradients, 3D elements popping out of the web page, JavaScript changing the page out from under you as you click and hover around, then you won't feel at home there.

</comment><comment><USER5> I moved my domains to NameSilo.com. They support a moderate range of TLDs, don't charge extra for domain privacy, support 2FA and charge the same price for renewals as for the initial year. Plus the UX is usable and the charges are competitive.

</comment><comment><USER6> easydns since they are no-nonsense with a great helpdesk with virtually no waiting time for phone support.

</comment><comment><USER7> DNSimple.</comment>


ML instructor Siraj Raval allegedly scammed his students - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/d7ad2y/d_siraj_raval_potentially_exploiting_students/ <comment><USER2> His channel reeks of typical click bait & you come out with no insight at the end of it. Nothing original ever came out of him apart from cringey memes & parroting HN top articles.</comment>