Structure of recent philosophy (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://homepage.univie.ac.at/noichlm94/posts/structure-of-recent-philosophy-iii/ <comment><USER2> I think for a field like philosophy, which is composed of a bunch of relative silos (some within broader silos like the divide between analytic and continental philosophy as well as others like pragmatism and many sets of non- Euro/Anglo regional philosophy traditions), snowball-sampling isn't really appropriate to gather the "structure of recent philosophy". However, it is a cool look at _parts_ of the current analytic philosophy landscape, and I'm with the other commenters that the aesthetics are on point.

</comment><comment><USER3> >While the most prolific authors can not always be understood to have shaped the field in a deep fashion, they anchor the clusters in more recent debates, and give me an opportunity to mention more women in the graphic.

What a strange non-sequitur.

The clusters look strange to me as well - I don't see any expected names aside from Plato and Aristotle for classics.

The choice of embedding a first-person narrative into the poster is also quite strange.

<comment><USER4> >The clusters look strange to me as well - I don't see any expected names aside from Plato and Aristotle for classics.

What names did you expect? A lot of them look part for the course.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I can't speak to any of the philosophical content, but the design and layout of poster itself is absolutely beautiful, in my opinion.

It has the feel of a 16th-century world map with a modern twist.

</comment><comment><USER6> Where is Popper? He should be in philosophy of science, but why is the cluster for "reactions to popper" not closer to philosophy of science?

<comment><USER7> His "Open Society" is arguably his epistemology applied to political philosophy (just as falsifiabilism is his epistemology applied to philosophy of science).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Can someone explain me what sort of philosophical research is undertaken in areas such as "math", "set theory", "quantum physics" or "spacetime", or "recursion theory". Wouldn't a person researching that be a mathematician/physicist?

<comment><USER9> Other people have given more detailed answers, but those tend to be less accessible. Sometimes, questions are far more interesting and accessible, so as an introduction, ponder the following: why is mathematics so effective at describing the real world?

Perhaps its effectiveness means that reality is itself mathematical? Or perhapd it means that math is actually physical? Or perhaps neither?

Hopefully you can see that exploring such a question is neither a mathematical or a scientific endeavour, but it is firmly in the philosophical realm where it should be.

<comment><USER10> But does this kind of pondering lead to any deeper insights, and are this kind of questions proposed by philosophers or by physicists and mathematicians themselves?

About this particular question i know Wigner's article, and i saw Feynman, Tegmark, Arkani-Hamed, and lecturers in my univercity talking. But they all were physicists, and all of them seem to be rather sceptical about the philosophy's contribution to such questions (especially Feynman).

Was this question noticed by philosophers earlier than it was noticed by physicists? Do you know about any books or talks about philosophy that would help physicists to better appreciate the contribution of philosophy?

<comment><USER9> > But does this kind of pondering lead to any deeper insights

Depends what you mean by "this kind". If you mean nonempirical, nonmathematical exploration, then absolutely. Relativity and Bell's theorem both started as thought experiments concerned with metaphysical properties, which then led to real experiments.

> are this kind of questions proposed by philosophers or by physicists and > mathematicians themselves?

Hard to quantify, mainly because it's not clear how seriously scientists actually take philosophical works, so the sample is biased (and there's evidence they're largely disdainful of it).

Philosophers definitely read the works of scientists though, and they provide important analyses of their underlying assumptions. When scientists themselves also engage on this level, we see significant advances in foundations of theories, like many worlds, Bohmian mechanics, quantum information theory, and so on.

<comment><USER10> > and there's evidence they're largely disdainful of it

Maybe it's an immune reaction.

Scientists need to ask and answer to philosophical questions, to know where to search, but they also need to be ready to easily dismiss their philosophical theories to not spend too much time searching in a region with no solutions.

So this necessity of assigning low value to their own philosophical theories, may be causing them to assign low value to the whole field.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> American pragmatism (Richard Rorty) got snuffed.

</comment><comment><USER12> > Note the position of the point on the x/y axis is meaningless - only the > proximity matters. Only the relation of the point to each other can be > interpreted.

I don't understand the algorithm used to interpret the relations, but judging by Marxism between positioned between Math Logic, Philosophy of Biology, Theory of Science and Recursion Theory, I doubt its usefulness.

<comment><USER13> UMAP[1] and t-SNE[2] are two very similar and popular ways to map a set of points in a high dimensional space to a low-dimensional (usually 2D or 3D) space by assuming all the points are close to some smooth curved surface (a manifold[3]). These are unsupervised non-linear dimensional reduction techniques; if you're familar with linear dimensional reduction techniques like PCA[4] you can think of UMAP and t-SNE as curved generalizations of that. t-SNE is widely known to be hard to interpret and unstable with respect to arbitrary hyper-parameters[5] and I would assume UMAP suffers similar problems. It's also extremely difficult to define "similarity" between documents and authors. Techniques like LSA[6] and word embeddings[7] exist but are still an open area of research. Based on similar concerns as yours, I doubt any of these issues were seriously addressed when this visualization was developed.

[1]: [https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.03426](https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.03426)

[2]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-distributed_stochastic_neigh...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-distributed_stochastic_neighbor_embedding)

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

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

[5]: [https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/263539/clustering-...](https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/263539/clustering- on-the-output-of-t-sne)

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

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


Pokémon Go will soon get ads in the form of sponsored locations - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/13/pokemon-go-will-soon-get-ads-in-the-form-of-sponsored-locations/ <comment><AUTHOR> Very natural monetization idea. There are already some businesses who are promoting presence of pokestops or gyms nearby. Imagine what will happen if a cafe or a bar was a gym! People will just sit there and train their pokemons and compete with each other. Brilliant!

<comment><USER2> The real issue is whether this is a fad or not (i.e. if only hardcore Pokemon fans are left playing in a month).

If it's not a fad, this is a good idea monetization wise.

If it is a fad, this will alienate the fans, and the game will fade into obscurity (e.g. Draw Something, QuizUp, etc).

<comment><USER3> Even if Pokémon Go turns out to be a fad I think it's a natural business model for this genre of games.</comment></comment></comment>


UK Proposes Three Strikes And You're Out Illegal Downloading Law - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/12/uk-proposes-three-strikes-and-your-out-illegal-downloading-law/ <comment><USER2> The discussion on the Network Neutrality mailing list suggest that encrypted file sharing would become commonplace if ISPs inspected packets for copyrighted content.

This is a case of the music and film industries demanding that something be done and that ISPs have the technological power to intervene. Unfortunately, it will just cause an escalation and waste energy as the current traffic is encrypted and decrypted.

</comment><comment><USER3> This would kill sharing one's wifi.</comment>


Freactive: A high-performance declarative DOM library in ClojureScript - <AUTHOR> http://documentup.com/aaronc/freactive

<comment><USER2> Interesting. Two questions:

1\. Why only target this at the DOM? It seems to me that a reactive library could be useful for anything.

2\. When a change occurs, is the subsequent chain-reaction performed in a performance-optimal way?

<comment><USER3> 1\. The goal is actually to target several platforms. The data types are also implemented for Java Clojure and currently being used for JavaFX in fx-clj. I actually did propose doing this in a general way here: [https://github.com/aaronc/freactive.core/blob/master/UI- SPEC...](https://github.com/aaronc/freactive.core/blob/master/UI-SPEC.md) and started making a separate lib for just the data types: [https://github.com/aaronc/freactive.core](https://github.com/aaronc/freactive.core). The idea is to make it easy to work with many platforms.

2\. That's the idea. Did you check to the performance demo ([http://aaronc.github.io/freactive/dom- perf/](http://aaronc.github.io/freactive/dom-perf/))? I can't claim all the kinks have been ironed out... but the idea is to optimize performance.

Overall, I can't really say the idea of a reactive UI library for Clojure is anything new - this library is simply a pure Clojurescript (as opposed to React.js-based) library that aims to have have good performance and a simple and consistent programming model. Doing it in pure Clojurescript I think makes it easy to optimize performance, support complex animations and do things in a Clojure-like way.</comment></comment>


Bah Humblebrag - The Unfortunate Rise of False Humility - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/fashion/bah-humblebrag-the-unfortunate-rise-of-false-humility.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 <comment><USER2> He neglects one possible explanation: that some of the apparent braggers are actually trying to abase themselves to prevent themselves from becoming too arrogant, and perhaps just doing a clumsy job of it.

I remember reading something once by a guy who was annoyed to hear rich people talk about the days when they were poor. He thought they were bragging. But I find I do this all the time, and mostly not to anyone else. I do it to fight the pull of the hedonic treadmill-- to try to get my old poor self back so that I can appreciate not being poor anymore.

Possibly some of the people he thinks are humblebragging are doing something similar.

<comment><USER3> Interesting. Honest question: when were you poor, Paul?

According to Wikipedia, you graduated from Cornell in 1986. You defended your PhD in 1990 and had sold Viaweb by 1995. Grad school life is certainly not luxurious, but I certainly would not refer to myself as being poor right now. Are you referring to the few years (91-94) before Viaweb was acquired? Or did you grow up poor at some point?

Also, have you noticed any correlation-- positive or negative-- between founders who come from more humble beginnings?

<comment><USER4> I suspect your using poor in a different sense than he is. Paul probably meant poor in the loose sense of the word.

Is your income less than $30,000? I think that's typical for grad students. That may not be 'poor' according to official statistics, but it's well below the aspirational income levels for college grads.

I earned somewhere between 30,000-40,000 dollars this year. That's above the median income in Canada. But if and when I hit my goals of earning much more than that, I'll look back on this as being 'poor'.

I still have to think about day to day purchases. Paul doesn't. That difference is more meaningful than any official definition of the word poor.

<comment><USER5> I will never let myself consider $30-40k to be poor, at least in Texas. That's enough money to take care of an average family and still have a very nice Christmas.

I'm young, in college, and working full time to support my family (which includes my mother and younger siblings) while my mom goes back to school to earn a degree and work somewhere she will be happy. I made what you would consider in the "poor" range this past year and was still able to pay bills in my apartment, pay all my moms bills for the house she rents, blow money on Steam sales, buy myself and my girlfriend used cars, make a mortgage payment for a struggling family member, and a lot more.

I'm not poor. I have been _not rich_ , but not poor.

<comment><USER6> It's all relative. I appreciate your perspective and think that many of us should pause to reflect on where we stand in this world.

For example, the poverty line in the U.S. is around $11,000 — that's in the top 13.1% richest people in the world (globalrichlist.com)

<comment><USER7> Although we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world in terms of personal well-being and life expectancy, we are also one of the poorest nations at consuming the world's resources responsibly. We are currently ranked 7th to last in this regard and our overall HPI is 105th in the world. [1]

[1] <http://www.happyplanetindex.org/data/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The interesting comments here prompted me to read the article. I wonder how genuinely poor anyone has been who has received a private university education in the United States, to take up an issue in one comment thread. (I fully agree with the idea that remembering my poorest years, which were during and immediately after my pursuit of higher education, is very good for me keeping perspective on my current more well-off life.)

Another comment mentioned refusing to accept compliments. That is just annoying in most Western countries, where the expected response to "Great job!" or "You look fabulous in that outfit" is along the lines of replying "Thanks." In some other parts of the world, standard politeness operates differently. In the Chinese-speaking world, it is expected to factually deny a compliment, no matter how actually counterfactual the denial comes out. If I speak Chinese in a Chinese-speaking country with my patently Western appearance, many people will politely say to me, "你的中國話說得很好" ("You speak Chinese very well"). And the only polite response to that would be along the lines of saying, "不敢當. 說得不好." ("I dare not accept your praise. I speak it poorly.") Different cultures have different patterns of politeness. The most extreme example I have seen in real life of the east Asian pattern of politeness was witnessing the husband of one of my classmates in Taiwan (both the husband and wife were Koreans in Taiwan to study Chinese) hear a Westerner say to the husband about our classmate, "Your wife is very beautiful," to which the husband replied, "No, she is quite ugly" IN HER PRESENCE. The statement was conventionally polite, and not at all weird in cultural context, but contrary to fact, as she was actually a beautiful woman.

</comment><comment><USER9> A lot of content on HN are poorly-disguised humblebrags. I would post some examples, but I am simply too busy building my million-dollar product.

</comment><comment><USER10> I seem to have interpreted many, if not the majority of those tweets as delivered with humorous intent, if not straight up jokes.

<comment><USER11> Same. The only person listed that I follow is Ken Jennings and I don't think he's ever posted something that isn't a straight up joke. So as I was reading I got the feeling the author was just missing the context of the rest of the twitter feeds, or missing that the entire reason to follow some celebrity on twitter might be to hear about the unusual things that go on in their lives.

But then he got to the part about his friend telling what sounds like an amusing story having to pay for an award. And maybe now I'm the one missing all the context, but I don't get it: can't our friends tell us about their success without it being interpreted as an assertion of superiority?

<comment><USER12> I missed it at first as well, but the author clarifies at the end that he was wrong about his friend, and advocates a "tolerance devoid of condescension" towards people who behave in such a manner.

<comment><USER11> He's still claiming that his friend was "trying to combat their own perceived weakness" by asserting his worth in this manner.

And maybe he was, I don't know the guy, but when my friends tell me stories about their successes I don't take it as an assertion of worth, I take it as them sharing a part of their life with me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It seems the author either doesn't know what a humblebrag is, or he is very insecure or unhappy with his own life. Many of his examples don't seem like humblebrags at all--like the Dina Manzo example about hot weather. Really??

Secondly, perhaps the reason humblebragging is so frowned upon is because we discourage just straight up bragging. That's fine and all, but for Christ's sake sometimes we work really damn hard for what we have that we should all be allowed to brag a little every now and then. If you busted your ass building a product and you lost so much sleep over it, and the product itself rocks, wouldn't you want to brag a bit? If you bust your ass at the gym and exert enough discipline to stick through a tough diet over the course of a year, wouldn't you be tempted to show off your results?

One of the main reasons bragging is a faux pas, in my opinion, is because too many jealous and insecure people become butt hurt. That's the truth. I've never understood why you can't show off once in a while. You hit the gym really hard and diet, but if you post a photo of your results on Facebook-- assuming the results are amazing (i.e. you're really ripped and you look great)--you're suddenly vain. You spend countless hours of practice and frustration over an instrument and show your results on Twitter - someone is bound to call you a show-off.

The reason I'm so tired of humblebragging is because I feel like people should just own it. Are you talented? Did you work really fucking hard for what you have or what you've accomplished? Did you suffer blood, sweat and tears to get to where you are now? Then show off a little. I encourage it. If you earned everything you have, if you've paid your dues and are now fit/successful/talented, fuck what everyone else thinks and screw all the jealousy. They're haters.

While we're at it, I'd like to clear up what a hater is: A hater is someone who is jealous and insecure and probably isn't very good at doing much. However, let's be absolutely clear on this: If your products/efforts/skills/knowledge are piss-poor or not up to snuff, the people who criticize you aren't haters, they're simply telling you the truth and you just can't accept it.

</comment><comment><USER14> One thing that bugs me is people who can't take a compliment. I wish they would just say 'thanks' or 'glad you liked' when someone commends their efforts, but instead they dismiss the praise. Real humility can be annoying, too.

<comment><USER15> I am really bad at taking a compliment. It has nothing to do with humility. It has to do with having been consistently and badly burned over it. Lots of people do not give sincere compliments. Instead, any nice things they say are just a manipulative ploy of some sort. And even if it is sincere, if done publically, someone else is highly likely to kick the shit out of me if I try to say "thanks" instead of ignoring it or downplaying it.

YMMV, but I am terrible at this and I don't feel it is merely neurotic.

<comment><USER5> Wow, sounds like you've hung out with a tough crowd. There's nothing wrong with being proud of your work, and I'm terribly sorry some rude people have tried to take that away from you through such dishonest means. Keep your chin up :)

<comment><USER15> Most of that has been on the Internet. I was seemingly popular in certain online forums. I found that just trying to be genuine and talk with people and say "thanks" when complimented fueled ugly attacks from folks who weren't fans. The attacks dropped off when I stopped saying things like "thanks" but it also left me in a position where most people seem to not know how to talk to me at all. I am only just now making in roads into getting people to actually talk to me again. It has been very very tough. But it seems to be improving.

<comment><USER5> It's hard to develop a thick skin. I get my feelings legitimately hurt by people, even online. I don't deal with confrontation well at all. The best I can do is make sure I don't instigate conflict needlessly, and be sure to hang around nice people.

<comment><USER15> My skin is pretty thick. That doesn't change the fact that a big enough "fire" is potentially dangerous, not just for me but also for other people.

I loathe confrontation but I deal with it pretty well. That isn't really the issue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's a shame that a really good topic (humblebragging drives me nuts AND infects my own writing) is ruined by a terribly-written article.

</comment><comment><USER17> I personally enjoyed the twitter postings more than the article. The article was a bunch of highbrow crap riding on the back of a few funny twitters.

That being said, I think we also need a term like "CharityBrag". If I had a nickel for every time I heard something like "When I was building a school in Africa... ", I'd probably have about five dollars.

</comment><comment><USER18> They're normally called first world problems, not humility...

</comment><comment><USER19> "The varieties of humblebragging represent a breadth of motive and technique. Most humblebrags are attempts to convey one of three messages: "I have too much work"; "I am an idiot/impostor"; or "I have firsthand knowledge of the gritty gilt to be found inside the gilded cage.""

zainny is a villain ;-)

</comment><comment><USER15> HN gives my browser indigestion, so my first attempt to reply is now lost in cyberspace. The short version: Some of the quotes remind me of the Joe Walsh song "Life's been good" [http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Lifes-Been- Good-lyric...](http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Lifes-Been-Good-lyrics- Eagles/F2BAF8E51772CF6E48256860002C2AF3)

So maybe wealthy/famous/successful people are still, first and foremost, _people_.

<comment><USER20> This is my favorite comment here so far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Cool article. FYI - a HN reader is mentioned (Tobias Lutke): <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=xal>

In this one case, Tobi might be more correct than bragging though...

[edit - had wrong user account at first]

</comment><comment><USER22> It's a shame he doesn't mention his friend's name at the end of the piece, but if anyone has the right to refer to themselves as "beloved" I'd say it's David Rakoff.</comment>


VPNs Are Overrated - <AUTHOR> https://maxratmeyer.com/blog/vpns-are-overrated/ <comment><USER2> People who understand what a VPN is know all these things. Those that don't are mostly just using them to bypass region locks on services like Netflix.

</comment><comment><USER3> This has been already heavily discussed here for months, and this post brings nothing new to the table.

</comment><comment><USER4> people who constantly say this are on par with "there is no cloud, its just someone else's computer"</comment>


Tagschat will change soon - <AUTHOR> http://www.tagschat.com <comment><AUTHOR> We'll release a completely new version of our Interest-based social network in a few weeks. Stay tuned for UI previews on dribbble.com :)</comment>


Hacker Who Claimed CIA Caused 2001 Anthrax Attacks Was Arrested for Child Porn - <AUTHOR> https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-hacker-said-he-had-proof-the-cia-caused-the-anthrax-attacks-they-had-him-arrested-for-child-porn <comment><USER2> Even if the child porn allegations are true, that doesn't necessarily mean his claim about the CIA is false:

 _Immediately after the anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressured FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove that they were a second-wave assault by al-Qaeda following the September 11 attacks._ \-- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks#Al- Qaeda_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks#Al- Qaeda_and_Iraq_blamed_for_attacks)

<comment><AUTHOR> Robbie Martin has done a lot of research into this question. The interview he did with Matt DeHart in prison goes into more detail about what was contained in the documents than has been reported anywhere else.

[https://twitter.com/FluorescentGrey/status/13056414401065738...](https://twitter.com/FluorescentGrey/status/1305641440106573824)</comment></comment>


The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - presentation at GDC - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMsF31NdNc? <comment><USER2> Their "Chemistry Engine" model (described starting at 39:55) includes Rule 3, which says that materials can't change another material's state. But what about a player (a material) eating an object like a poisonous mushroom (also a material) that makes them sick? Or eating a magical mushroom that heals them? It seems like there are cases where you would want to model materials changing another material's state.</comment>


What are your favorite podcasts? - <AUTHOR> I love podcasts - if I get stuck on a hard problem they're a great way to take a pause and let the mind wander while feeling productive.
(Or to reclaim time other wise lost to chores, commutes and other unavoidable time sinks)
For example as someone interested in infosec, Darknet Diaries and "Cyber" are both very good at keeping me in the loop on major trends.
For more "edutainment" Planet Money and Hidden Brain are great resources on behavioral econ and cognitive psych research.
What podcasts are my fellow hackers listening to? <comment><USER2> I enjoy lots of podcasts, few of which are tech-related.

Darknet Diaries, as mentioned, deals with security in a Malcolm Gladwell-style episodic mystery format.

Linear Digressions is a fun podcast about things related to data science.

The Changelog has interviews with creators and leaders spanning a wide variety of technologies.

The Tim Ferriss Show, hosted by Tim Ferriss, has long-form interviews with mostly celebrities and business leaders. A lot of good episodes.

How Did This Get Made is a podcast hosted by Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael that dissects terrible movies. This is just overall the funniest podcast I've ever listened to. Highly recommended.

Armchair Expert is a pretty cool podcast hosted by Dax Shepard. He mostly interviews other celebrities, but they tend to talk about real issues and usually aren't focused on promoting things. He's very open about his past addictions and his mental health, so I recommend picking and choosing episodes of celebrities you like.

I've listened to lots of others in the past, but these are my main rotation. Shoutout to Codepen Radio, Syntax, Elixir Fountain, Pod Save America, Harmontown, and others, although I no longer listen to those regularly.

</comment><comment><USER3> Freakonomics, Stuff you should know, Five minute Fatherhood, Escape pod, Sawbones, Nature podcast, Science Talk, Business unusual, EmacsCast, Stuff you missed in history cast, No such thing as a fish, Econtalk, Savage lovecast, Before breakfast, Writing Excuses... whew

</comment><comment><USER4> Pulling up overcast (a great podcast app) reveals:

* A bunch of Relay FM shows: Cortex, Clockwise, Automators, Upgrade, Under the Radar, Liftoff, etc.

* A few interview shows: Masters of Scale, How I Built This, That Creative Life

</comment><comment><USER5> I deleted my podcast app recently and started listening to lectures on youtube instead. The information content is way higher and half of the time is not wasted on trying to sell me crap.

</comment><comment><USER6> I strongly recommend you to rename the title to "Ask HN: What are your favorite podcasts?" so your question won't be missed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for pointing this out!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Swift by Sundell, GZero World with Ian Bremmer.

</comment><comment><USER8> Planet Money, Invest Like the Best, the Knowledge Project.....I mostly just look for episodes with people and topics I like featured

</comment><comment><USER9> Stuff you should know, Stuff they don't want you to know, and WTF

</comment><comment><USER10> No Guitar Is Safe, I'll Drink to That, and The Peter Attia Drive.

</comment><comment><USER11> I just installed play.ht for my chrome and it was fun to work with it

</comment><comment><USER12> Framelab, hands down. Followed by Where should we begin.

</comment><comment><USER13> Stuff you should know

</comment><comment><USER14> Accidentally Fasting.

</comment><comment><USER15> Talk Python to Me

</comment><comment><USER16> Darknet Diaries!</comment>


The search for better ways of storing electricity is hotting up - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21571117-search-better-ways-storing-electricity-hotting-up-batteries

<comment><USER3> The article doesn't mention it, but HNers may be interested to know that a lot of the materials research behind batteries is done computationally. Numerical models are used to vet materials for desired properties, before having to physically test them.

The "Ceder Group" mentioned in the article has a cleverly-chosen name. While Dr. Ceder runs the group, its name also is an acronym for " _Computational_ and Experimental Design of Emerging materials Research".

</comment><comment><USER4> The article points out that gasoline has sioux times the energy density of current batteries, but doesn't also mention that internal combustion engines are only about half as energy efficient as electric motors. By the time batteries are five times more energy dense, they will outperform gasoline in cars.

</comment><comment><USER5> "hotting up" hmm is this correct in British english? I swear I've never heard this in place of "heating up"

<comment><USER6> As I interpret it, "hotting up" is purely metaphorical, and "heating up" is usually literal (though not always). You might heat up your cup of tea by putting it on the stove, for example, but you would hot it up by tipping in some cocaine, adding a little umbrella, and drinking it from a pyrex glass covered in glitter.

<comment><USER5> Love the explanation, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Yet another obscure Economist diagram! I really like the Economist -- indeed, I'm a subscriber -- but they do need someone like Tufte to give them advice on making decent understandable diagrams.

<comment><USER8> I don't think it's obscure - it's essentially a phase-shift diagram, which are very effective when you need to understand how two variables impact a system.

The very best diagrams in Visual Display require you to spend a bit of time understanding them, but once you do they are highly effective (for example the train schedule that's on the cover of the book, or the diagram of Napoleon's invasion)

<comment><USER9> Personally I think it's an awful diagram, it'll either confuse or mislead the vast majority of people who see it.

The "best" is a personal opinion, but I think the best diagrams are ones that make something that's hard to express in words easy to comprehend. This one fails massively at that, which is a shame in an otherwise excellent article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There's work at University of Nottingham in the UK on using bags of air under water to store energy as compressed air.

<http://youtube.com/watch?v=UkY2bmBUito>

Now why didn't I think of that? This might be perfect for storing coastal windpower.

<comment><USER11> Energy density of that solution must be ridiculously low. It's pretty much equivalent to raising water to a certain height.

<comment><USER10> _> Energy density of that solution must be ridiculously low. It's pretty much equivalent to raising water to a certain height._

I really hope you aren't representative of the typical HN reader in terms of evaluation of engineering. That may be true in some pedantic sense, but the practical economics of this is more like what you get from compressed air. The pressures you can achieve wouldn't be as large as in steel tanks, but really large units could be made cheaply and in large numbers. Also, with his weighting scheme, they could be really cheap to deploy, especially for offshore wind, where they already have the mooring rights.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> [http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy.html)

MIT prof. Donald Sadoway here explains his large scale cheap "battery" - capturing the output of whole power stations if you like.

But that's not why you should watch it. Watch it because it is far and away the best demonstration for why you need universities, tenure and opinionated professors.

If you aren't whooping at the end of the talk, you have not spent long enough in and around academia.

#oldskool

<comment><USER13> I came here to post about Sadoway's grid-scale liquid metal batteries. These, or others like it, have the potential to be absolutely world-changing, IMO.

<comment><USER12> I am fascinated by the number of "disruptive technologies" That are appearing on my limited radar - if you know of any others dump them here - we can tidy them up and may e start a thread - it would be fascinating to see what HN thinks are disruptive within the next five years

Me:

Military:

\- directed energy weapons. Real life trials of 25kw weapons Have shown ability to instantly deliver plastic explosive levels of energy (1g PETN ~ 1kj). Link this to optical targeting and you have ability to cut the wings off an entire airforce, stop any human walking a Ross miles of ground and plain old assassination from a drone.

The US has more aircraft carriers than most of the res of the world. What now?

Transport:

\- driverless car - natch \- electric cars - storage batteries could supply off line grid level storage too

Energy

\- solar power from desert to city \- grid level storage from LmBC

Medical

Err - need to dig out my notebook but its a start

Thoughts?

<comment><USER14> I think one of the most important disruptive technologies I've noticed over the years is the production of electrostatically controlled nano-valves. This (in my limited opinion) is on par with the "trick" life got involved with many billions of years ago when it chanced on lipid bi-layers with embedded protein gates. It promises a level of material science that is ultimately a phase transition in complexity for life. With the Nokia/Graphene news recently I am confidently hopeful that this technology will produce huge advances.

<comment><USER12> I was thinking of disruptive in 5 years and disruptive in 50. This I assume is a 50year scale technology?

However, with apologies to Drexler, hasn't nano-technology just failed to deliver over past twenty years? What makes this trick so different?

<comment><USER14> yeah I can dig that, there's a hell of a lead-in for any nano-tech.

I guess this trick is different because it's a process or function - <USER2> in vein to those used in the nano-tech drug delivery systems. Which, if you think about it, are very similar (in kind) to viruses in the way they work. Whereas the nano-valve allows the (directed/conscious/intelligent) production of controlled environments - which are similar to cellular structures.

When I first read about it I figured it would be jumped on straight away by the big material science players like Intel or IBM for the production of VERY highly controlled doping for instance. Which is why I think it could be accelerated in it's development in comparison to other nano-tech. But I'm no expert in this area. I'm just interested in the intersection between technological solutions and biological solutions and nano-tech is a big ping on my radar in that respect.

To me it represents a phase-transition in the development of life. First we had utilisation of latent energy, self replication, environmental stabilisation (cellular), multi-cellular structure, agent based systems, environmental stabilisation (social), meta-agency ("knowledge" and "culture") and now meta-matter. But as I say, this is not the considered analysis of an expert, just something I find intriguing. In my wildest dreams this new phase will attain stability and the descendents will look back on our current phase like we now do with mitochondria. (Suffice to say I'm a fan of "Deep Time").

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is what I like about the world focusing more and more on renewable energy. You get more billions of dollars being invested in the technologies to make them better and cheaper, and you get more scientists focusing on the problems, and coming up with more and more unique ways to solve the problems.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm surprised they don't mention vanadium, with its 5 oxidation states. It's already used in commercially-available flow batteries for grid energy storage ([http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-largest- vanad...](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-largest-vanadium- flow-battery-goes-online-in-usa-149083905.html)).

</comment><comment><USER17> We can easily produce enough energy, it's storing enough for a month that is the issue !

</comment><comment><USER18> The US prices listed on that diagram are at the pump (i.e. they include taxes). If that diagram is accurate, why isn't Europe, where typical pump prices reliably exceed $8/gallon, already running on hybrid cars?</comment>


George Washington Statue Toppled by Portland Protesters on the Eve of Juneteenth - <AUTHOR> https://blacklivesmatter-clothing.com/blogs/news/george-washington-statue-toppled-by-portland-protesters-on-the-eve-of-juneteenth <comment><AUTHOR> A group of protesters gathered around a statue of George Washington in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday night and lit a fire on its head before pulling it to the ground.

</comment><comment><USER2> Some people who have pulled down these statues or defaced them have been arrested and facing the minimum 10-yr prison sentence.

Trump also decided to respond to these anarchists by anouncing a new "state park" with memorials to national heroes of all races and colors, protected by the national guard.</comment>


Sprouter shutting down - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/07/26/startup-qa-site-sprouter-to-close/

<comment><AUTHOR> They went from 'Twitter clone'[1], to adding formspring/Q&A features[2], to focusing on purely Q&A[3]. This looks like a good case to break down and see what went 'wrong'.

[1] [http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/02/entrepreneur- socia...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/02/entrepreneur-social- network-sp.php)

[2] [http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/08/sprouter-a- formspr...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/08/sprouter-a-formspring- for-entrepreneurs.php)

[3] [http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2011/02/quora-for- startups...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2011/02/quora-for-startups- sprouter-pi.php)</comment>


AT&T cuts another 1,800 jobs as it finishes fiber-Internet buildout - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/06/att-cuts-another-1800-jobs-as-it-finishes-fiber-internet-buildout/?comments=1 <comment><AUTHOR> Currently we have multiple business fiber installs in AT&T territory that will not be installed for months. These are in built up areas what is really "strange' is that the AT&T people tell us off the record that the delays are due to lack of installer resources to do the installs.

<comment><USER2> My first fiance's father was a VP of something or other at AT&T. From the stories he told, there was an enormous amount of deadwood in the organization that couldn't be gotten rid of except through the passage of time or early retirement incentives. They were investing enormously in fiber infrastructure, but there was a shortage of fiber personnel, and a glut of copper union employees that wouldn't retrain.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Smart and Easy Customer Support Inbox Built for Indie Hackers - <AUTHOR> https://www.plummapp.com <comment><USER2> The name and to some extent the logo, reminds me a lot of Pulumi.</comment>


On some LCD monitors this will cause them to emit a tone (epilepsy warning) - <AUTHOR> http://thume.ca/screentunes/ <comment><USER2> From another thread here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856829](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856829)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8857209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8857209)

I see that this screen has alternating black and white lines. I count 43 black lines on my monitor. Assuming 60 Hz refresh rate, that is 2580 Hz in terms of the pixels being off or on, which is a perfectly audible frequency. Even with 120 Hz refresh rate, that would be 5160 which is still easily audible. Without knowing anything else, I guess that there may be a capacitor somewhere that is charging and discharging along with the brightness of the screen as it is refreshed from top to bottom, which is causing it to flex in a way that produces an audible noise.

</comment><comment><USER3> In some humans this page will cause the head to ache.

<comment><USER4> My refrigerator's compressor just happened to turn on when I clicked the link. I was impressed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Any thought that this might damage our monitors?

<comment><USER6> Why is this downvoted, this is a very reasonable question.

Noise is a mechanical wave produced by something vibrating. If you can hear it, it means that thing is vibrating quite hard inside your monitor.

<comment><USER7> The most likely culprit is inductor windings. The magnet wire used for windings is generating a changing magnetic field which causes them to vibrate, usually at the fundamental frequency of the excitation signal. (see image at [http://www.digikey.com/product- detail/en/744773122/732-1258-...](http://www.digikey.com/product- detail/en/744773122/732-1258-2-ND/1638663) for an example.) This is a fairly common source of audible noise in electronics.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> More info: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856829](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856829)

<comment><USER9> eli5?

<comment><USER10> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8857209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8857209)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Interesting. My primary screen, a 27 inch Dell something-or-another costing me €350+ a couple years ago gives an audible noise at the thinner bars.

My secondary screen though, a Fujitsu Siemens 19 inch thing probably eight years old by now doesn't do a thing. However, that one broke down a couple of years ago - the condensators in that one had broken, and my dad replaced them with higher-voltage alternatives.

Note that monitors breaking down due to capacitor malfunction is a common issue - the manufacturers intentionally install capacitors with a too low voltage limit, which will cause the monitors to break down within 3-5 years, shortly after the required 3 years warranty. Planned / designed obsolescence, and stuff. Free business opportunity for anyone with a soldering iron: buy old 'broken' TFT screens and replace the broken capacitors with ones with higher voltages.

(note I'm not an electronic engineer and I forgot all of my education about the subject, my phrasing may be wrong)

<comment><USER12> You're very right. Most electronics are from bad or undervolted caps.

The only thing to make sure is to put caps in the same polarity as the dead one (assuming polarity of said caps; some dont).

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Can we get a warning on the link for people susceptible to epilepsy, seizures or migraines? Thanks.

<comment><USER14> also, no one knows if it can cause damage to hardware

<comment><USER15> If an image can cause damage to hardware we are in serious trouble with people out for the LULZ

<comment><USER16> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863041](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863041)

<comment><USER15> LED noise is not due to something vibrating.

Former Sound Engineer and well LEDs make noise (super quiet). My guess it is the transformer that is making the noise since a LED powered monitor is regulating the voltage of the LED as needed if it didn't do that your power use would be many times higher than with a voltage regulating transformer.

Wouldn't mean anything damaging is happening at all.

<comment><USER16> _LED noise is not due to something vibrating._

The definition of noise is, literally, something vibrating.

<comment><USER15> The definition of light is also vibrating aka waves :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'm not crazy!

Some text patterns (like, say, grep going through minified JS) make my monitor emit a weird noise I was having all the trouble in the world believing.

Now I know this tone _actually exists_

</comment><comment><USER18> As I was holding my iPhone up to my ear, I realized that there is a constant static noise coming out of my phone speaker, even with the volume down!

This page also produces a tiny bit of inductor noise near the middle of the device.

</comment><comment><USER19> Nothing on my Retina MacBook Pro, Thunderbolt Display or 2011 27" iMac. Then again, I've got pretty bad ears. Now I need to send this to coworkers to see if their mileage varies.

<comment><USER20> I have a 2011 27" iMac and I can hear it, but it's on the edge of my perception.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I thought listening to CRT with AM radio was cooler, with Tempest for Eliza[0] :)

[0] [http://www.erikyyy.de/tempest/](http://www.erikyyy.de/tempest/)

</comment><comment><USER22> I've noticed this phenomenon before, then with the V File Viewer in CSV table mode until I changed its default colors.

This page did not seem to trigger it though.

</comment><comment><USER23> I'm somewhat relieved by this. I thought I had something wrong with one of my monitors. If I open a terminal window, make it cover most of the screen, and then view something with lots of long lines (such as Apache logs), I get a whining tone. It's bugged me for a long time not knowing what could be causing it.

</comment><comment><USER24> It would be fun to set this to a musical score, and run it on three monitors in harmony.

Also, for some reason the effect reminds me of this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4)

<comment><USER25> I was hoping it was going to be musical and not just a rehash of the post from yesterday :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> It sounds like a circular saw. I guess certain sinusoidal patterns sound the same.

</comment><comment><USER27> I have two Dell 2408WFP panels which didn't exhibit this behaviour. The older 2405 panel did (and the pitch changed as the bars narrowed and widened), although it was barely audible.

<comment><USER28> You should try tinnitus, nothing is barely audible ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Wish I could get it to work to check it out. I've tried with my 4k monitor, an HP laptop, and a macbook air, and just in case a galaxy S5 and I'm not getting anything.

</comment><comment><USER30> Works on a Dell U2713HM. The noise (well... at least the portion of the noise I'm capable of hearing) occurs when the bars are at their fattest. It's barely audible.

<comment><USER31> My LG W2242P does it for a range where the bars are at there thinnest. When they start getting close to thinnest, it gets higher pitched, and then reverses when they start to thicken again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Confirmed with LG 22MP65 IPS LED and iiyama ProLite E1906S.

You can hear a faint sound when the lines reach a certain distance from each other and it fades out as the distance changes.

</comment><comment><USER33> Way cool, worked on my Dell U3011! How does this function, why does the screen emit a high pitched noise?

<comment><USER34> There's a working theory in the Github explanation.

White and black pixels take different amounts of power to draw. As the screen scans up and down to draw the various rows, it thus has to rapidly charge and discharge the capacitors. The capacitors are expanding and contracting a bit as they do so, which vibrates the air and makes a tone.

Frankly this sounds like an awesome way to blow up those capacitors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> 27" iMac does indeed emit a tone.

<comment><USER36> Late 2009, 27" iMac: emits tone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I noticed this same effect with the Scroll Slow, Have Fun (scrollslowhavefun.com) demo from yesterday.

</comment><comment><USER38> Can it damage those monitors?

</comment><comment><USER39> My old Samsung's SyncMaster T200 sound a little at the thinner bars.

</comment><comment><USER40> It does on mine (24" eIPS) at like 30% reduction.

Any chance of damage?

<comment><USER11> TBH if your monitor would break due to a video signal I'd get a refund for supplying a sub-par product. Video signals shouldn't be able to break hardware (just people's brains according to some of the comments)

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Dell P2210 emits a tone. Motorola Moto G phone does not.

</comment><comment><USER41> Can it be made to play 'Ode to Joy'?

</comment><comment><USER42> Confirmed iiyama PL2779Q. Loud and clear

</comment><comment><USER43> I think the tone is my eyes screaming.

</comment><comment><USER44> This is some black mirrorish stuff here... I've suddenly forgotten who I am.

<comment><USER45> Long live the new flesh!

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> works here!

but could use a warning

<comment><USER47> I would think "on some LCD monitors this page will cause the screen to emit a tone" would count as a warning? :-D</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Anyone hiring part time remote non-developers? - <AUTHOR>

On Friday I got an early Christmas present - being laid off from my job. I was doing technical/customer support and html/css work for an IT services company but they decided to eliminate my position.
I guess this is a long shot but I figured I'd ask: is anyone looking for part time remote help? I'm currently a student and I live in a small city, so I'm trying to find something flexible & remote.
I have several years of full time technical/customer support experience, and I'm fairly good at html/css. I also enjoy writing and I'm interested in marketing as well.
If you know of any positions like this I'd love to talk to you. <comment><USER2> Honestly, I'm looking for someone. No promises though. We'd have to talk and see if we're a right fit. Where are you located? How advanced are those skills you mention? I need help writing some HTML and CSS _sometimes_ and I actually could really use someone to help me do some copywriting. Just get in touch using the email in my profile and maybe we can work something out. No promises, though. I don't want to be an ass and get your hopes up.</comment>


Hernando de Soto: The Destruction of Economic Facts - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_19/b4227060634112.htm

<comment><USER2> Not directly related to the article, but something I've been thinking about.

In times past, we had a confusion between politics and church. The pope had a lot of weight to throw around, kings had an on-again, off-again relationship with him. Politics and state were intermingled, and the suggestion it didn't was either laughed at, or someone would try to kill you.

Then we had a series of social revolutions that created the idea of separation between church and state. This is now a strong principle, and supported by the man in the street.

The situation now: we have a confusion between banking and state. States hold themselves to be responsible for the state of the economy ostensibly because they care about you, but really because it's about power - to legislate things away, to win elections, to steer graft.

States participate in a complicated dance with the set of organisations that keep the world liquid through currency transfer, bonds and risk management.

This has created an environment of privilege backed by a couple of huge advantages: there are active monopolies on the way that bonds can be traded, and practical advantages to currency trading (you get edge by having flow, which is why the powers in FX are big banks) that cause it to trend towards oligarchy. Systemic risk creates moral hazard, an environment of privilege that attracts many of the best and brightest, just as the church once did.

Perhaps it doesn't have to be that way. What if we had a well-recognised separation between the extent of banking, and the reach of the state? What would Martin Luther say?

<comment><USER3> In the case of the banks, their regulation by the state is a recent phenomenon, as is fiat money itself. So we can look at what happened before when banks were more independent. I'm no expert on the subject, but it doesn't seem all that attractive - as the article mentions, crashes and panics were a regular feature back then.

<comment><USER4> People had a healthy mistrust of banks and also means to store money outside them (precious metals). The bank panics didn't have lasting damage, recovery was fast and they didn't get bailed out by the government. Perhaps government control has mitigated against these little panics, but it set the stage for real meltdowns and slow recovery afterwards.

There are two distinct functions banks do: money storage and lending. These can be completely separate. You only need a money store for the convenience of not having to carry metal. Nowadays, you may want an electronic store as not to have to carry cash.

As for lending, that is a function much older than banks themselves. You don't need consumer deposits to lend money. Some banks do operate that way, but there should be a more clear distinction. We could have 'vault banks' and 'lender banks'.

Both 'vault banks' and 'lender banks', or combinations can operate in a free market.

<comment><USER5> You can store currency or gold in various non-interest-bearing ways in the current free market. It isn't a very attractive option compared with banks, however as stored money (metal-backed or otherwise) that isn't lent or invested necessarily loses value _on average, in the long term_ against currency that is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Full text: [http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/11_19/b42...](http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/11_19/b4227060634112.htm)

(I'm tend to be annoyed that I have to read the first page of an article, only to find out that it stretches across multiple pages, then having to scroll up, find the print button, click it andthen having to scroll back down again to where I left off...)

</comment><comment><USER7> > The importance of economic facts may not be obvious to Americans. "What does > the fish know about the water in which it swims?" asked Albert Einstein.

Interesting how that water and fish story repeats itself...

<comment><USER8> It is a ridiculous analogy tho'. What do humans know about the air we breathe? Well quite a lot actually. What do humans know about the ground we walk on? Ditto.

<comment><USER9> And what did we know about air before the 1500s or so - for the last 50 millennia?

<comment><USER10> Without wanting to sound harsh, but we knew it existed and that one could not live without it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Someone I talked to once said that its time to get rid of rating agencies and replace them with open source rating systems. If we did this, companies could post their own rating and it could be verified by anyone who was interested in them. In addition, people with very specific requirements (for whom the regular ratings don't work) could tweak the systems as needed.

I'm skeptical about this working since rating agencies should, in addition to following formulaic rules, look for company specific pieces of information that would affect the rating, but its an interesting idea.

</comment><comment><USER12> The "shadow markets" in this article reminded me of the "shadow systems" we often run into in the business intelligence space. Except instead of rouge, hidden, and prone to error spreadsheets it's rouge markets. Because the logic is effecively hidden dishonest individuals can use their shadow spreadsheets to massage their numbers into an up and to the right shape. The same potential for abuse and accident exists in shadow markets but with the global economy on the line. Terrifying thought!</comment>


Call yourself a 'brogrammer'? Then get the hell away from me. - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jgc.org/2012/03/call-yourself-brogrammer-then-get-hell.html <comment><USER2> From Urban Dictionary:

 _brogrammer, n.: A programmer who breaks the usual expectations of quiet nerdiness and opts instead for the usual trappings of a frat-boy: popped collars, bad beer, and calling everybody "bro". Despised by everyone, especially other programmers.

Ex: Oh my god, John is talking about football and chicks again. That guy is such a brogrammer.

See also: programmer, frat boy, bro, douchebag, developer_

This is not a good stereotype to conjure up, even in some ironic-parody- hipster sense.

It isn't a joke, either; I've definitely seen programmers where I've worked who _really do_ act like that -- and they are like toxin for introverted programmers. Most other programmers probably don't appreciate a "bro" constantly talking about his sexual conquests instead of interesting technical topics or hobbies.

<comment><USER3> Hipster irony that sounds and behaves exactly like actual misogyny, as far as I'm concerned, _is_ actual misogyny.

A lot of bigotry and exclusionary behavior is couched in terms of being "just a joke".

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is a toxic side-effect of a healthy thing: the rise in status of programming work.

In the dotcom boom, douchebags didn't program, they did MBAs and took for granted that as "business guys" they would have the lion's share of wealth and status just for being who they were. That many of them now feel compelled to join the profession their forebears saw as underlings and learn to actually do real work, while many of the rest are pleading for technical cofounders, are signs of a major shift.

Remember that video that did the rounds on HN a year or two ago about the Valley in the 70s? A typical technical cofounder would end up with 2% ownership and zero control. Compare that to Mark Zuckerberg retaining control of Facebook and extolling "the hacker way" in an SEC filing. It's a massive change in the right direction, and most of it has happened in the last 15 years and it's still accelerating. It will be interesting to see the social consequences. Annoying epiphenomena like "brogrammers" are inevitable, but deeper changes are the ones to watch for.

</comment><comment><USER5> Huh, I had thought the "brogrammer" thing was a parody, not a serious self- description. I usually run across variants of the descriptor "bro-ish" as derogatory, not something people actually want to call themselves; for example, "brostep" is a derogatory term for a subgenre of dubstep that dubstep purists don't like, not something people proudly call their own music. But I'm admittedly totally out of this particular loop.

<comment><USER6> I thought so too, but the word I hear from people I know at Facebook (where the term originated) indicate that the people who started this are pretty dead serious about the concept.

Thankfully I work with no brogrammers - this might actually start being a hiring _disadvantage_ if companies are known to be brogrammer-heavy.

<comment><USER7> It's a very useful indicator that the company is looking to hire barely- sentient PHP monkeys rather than actual programmers to solve interesting problems.

<comment><USER8> I've never heard that about Facebook, only the opposite: they hire awesome programmers, and then teach them PHP. Certainly, any Facebook developers I've met (online or in real life) have been pretty awesome, though my sample size is in the single digits.

<comment><USER7> Interesting. I wasn't referring specifically to Facebook, btw, and I've never seen Facebook mention "brogrammers" in their job postings.

Do they self-identify as "brogrammers?" If so, did they do so before joining Facebook or only after the fact?

The self-described bro in the linked article appears to only "program" in PHP according to his own website, so I think my assumption that he's just a monkey is fair.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why are people so angry? It seems like these guys are mostly just acting silly. I don't think it's particularly interesting or funny or whatever, but that's no reason to be _mad_ at them.

<comment><USER10> There has always been a problem in STEM jobs where people try to use social manipulation rather than technical achievement to get ahead. With brogrammer, people are trying to convince employers to exclude certain classes of employees such as women or non-social people. Then it becomes a race to the bottom of who fits the stereotype the best rather than rhe most qualified, and technical people end up taking orders from popped-collar types with no technical skills. This is not a joke, and there is a very real reason people are doing this.

<comment><USER11> I think you've got it backwards. There is definitely a degree of pride associated with being nerdy and non-social to the exclusion of "brogrammers".

Try getting a technical job as with a popped collar. Even if you are technically very proficient, there is stigma and distrust from people like the author of the article

<comment><USER12> It's hardly irrational to distrust someone clueless enough to go into a job interview with a popped collar. This isn't really limited to the tech world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is nothing new, back in ~2004 when I was at university for CS there were plenty of students who were desperate to shed the "nerdy" image and would compensate taking up macho hobbies like bodybuilding , playing metal music, martial arts or motorcycling or by drinking large amounts and getting high every weekend.

The whole brogrammer meme reminds me a lot of DHH. Whenever you see him speak he is always dressed and groomed well and fashionably , likes to swear a lot and has a keen interest in fast cars.

It also reminds me of the sorts of people who are into PUA manuals.

<comment><USER14> Is there really a problem with nerds being groomed well and fashionably dressed? The people they describe are off-putting because of their attitude, not because their appearance clashes with the archetypal image of a nerd.

<comment><USER15> What's common with all those behaviors he described is that the way they are usually carried, and the predictable "maleness" with which they are chosen, create an air of trying way too hard -- this is something I defintely experience when meeting many programmers. The irony is that the most defining characteristic of authentic masculinity, for most women I know, is the sense that a man believes in hemself and does what feels right for him. Taking up a bunch of stereotypically male activities for the sake of appearing more male is exactly the opposite of that. It's as if the new practitioner looked around and saw what "successful" guys are doing -- dressing well and riding motorcycles -- and decided to copy the outward appearances without understanding why those patterns exist.

<comment><USER16> So does that mean femininity does not entail belief in one's self and doing what feels right?

<comment><USER15> Only if you think femininity is the set of all things not masculine.

<comment><USER16> So why would two factors common to both femininity and masculinity be something that women focus on to represent true masculinity. It doesn't make any sense.

This is nothing more than the propagation of an _un_ idea that people tolerate because it doesn't make any value judgements about either gender, or something.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> First, let's be clear that the term "brogrammer", tongue-in-cheek or not, is downright misogynistic.

But equally problematic are the common beliefs that spawned the term in the first place; that programmers must always be obsessed with technology above all else, and to appreciate things like sports, fashion, or fast cars is somehow "bad" or "uncommon" for programmers.

There are a whole host of programmers who despise guys like DHH for enjoying fashion and cars. They seem to believe that somehow, those traits detract from his skill or significance as a programmer. That Rails is a "bad" or "fashionable" framework because of those things and is thus to be avoided. This kind of thinking is just plain ridiculous.

The spectrum on programming ranges from a hobby, to a career, even to the lengths of an obsession. But no one should be expected to act like the "norm". A programmer that cares more about the latest Ferrari than the latest web framework is not necessarily an undesirable programmer. They're just a programmer with different interests, and no one should be treating them differently because of that.

<comment><USER18> At the first sentence I was like "..really?" then you were like "DHH ... enjoys fashion" and my head exploded. He dresses like a high school kid.

<comment><USER19> We must realize that Ed Hardy under button up shirts two sizes too large is considered fashionable by some people. I've never met them, but I'm sure they exist.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This isn't high school; there's nothing productive or rational about assigning labels to yourself or others. Judge someone by the quality of their work and the output of their lives, not how they dress or the culture they associate themselves with.

<comment><USER21> This sounds nice and everything, but actually, there's a lot that's productive and rational about assigning labels to yourself and others. If you needed to carefully evaluate the sum of every participant's life before every interaction (rather than caching the result of that evaluation in a set of labels), you would be paralyzed. Humans simply don't have the mental capacity to constantly think that deeply about everything. If you tell yourself you don't ever assign labels, at least in your head, you're either deceiving yourself or you're a Buddha.

<comment><USER20> Absolutely. But there's a difference between subconsciously creating labels in your head and writing blog posts about subcultures.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I actually have "Polyglot Brogrammer" as my headline on LinkedIn in the hope that recruiters leave me alone. It hasn't worked.

<comment><USER23> If you're trying to get recruiters to leave you alone, why are you using LinkedIn?

<comment><USER22> This implies that the only use of LinkedIn is to be courted by recruiters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> FWIW, only 17 people turned up in a people search for "brogrammer" in LinkedIn:

[http://www.linkedin.com/search/fpsearch?type=people&keyw...](http://www.linkedin.com/search/fpsearch?type=people&keywords=brogrammer&pplSearchOrigin=GLHD&pageKey=anet_about&search=Search)

That compares with more than 914,000 results for a people search of "programmer"

<comment><USER25> To be honest, I can't think of any bigger red flag on a LinkedIn profile than being a self-declared brogrammer.

<comment><USER26> Actually this is awesome. I now know exactly who not to hire. Please, brogrammers unite! You have nothing to lose... except working with me! :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The problem with "bro" culture is its narcissistic conformism. I guess they are really looking for an excuse to behave badly. They know they are being assholes, so they manufacture a social environment in which they are encouraged to be assholes.

So listen, bros:

If you want to get drunk, and hit on chicks, that's your choice. But don't give in to peer pressure, and don't pressure your mates. Just be yourself.

</comment><comment><USER28> Pretty sure the entire brogrammer meme was meant tongue-in-cheek, and humor aimed directly at developers. Besides, anyone who might actually carry on in brogrammer style would soon learn the acronym CLM -- career limiting maneuver.

<comment><USER29> Agree. I don't see how you could take "brogramming" seriously, it's just a meme. At my company it's a running joke.

That said, if you do happen to meet someone who takes it seriously and lives that "life", then they're dumber than you think they are.

<comment><USER30> If that was the best social solution they could find, do you really want them near your codebase in any case? : P

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Here is a pic of the guy who said the line about the girls in the hot tub.

<http://danilo.ariadoss.com/about/>

Pretty much exactly what I expected.

<comment><USER32> Nobody who's published an RPG based on Harry Potter can refer to himself as "bro".

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> One thing I've always liked about programming is the technical culture of getting things done. What offends me about this 'brogrammer' idea is that it tries to turn programming into yet another fashion.

"We're the cool programmers" is particularly offensive because it alienates people who have been doing work in this area for some time.

I can understand wanting to refine your image but do it without slapping labels on something that belongs to many people, not just you.

<comment><USER13> Perhaps it's a way of asserting some sort of superiority if you discover that you are really just a mediocre programmer.

Like saying "I don't understand haskell but that's cool because I can totally bong a bear unlike you losers"

<comment><USER34> But most Real programmers don't understand Haskell either. Every time someone succeeds in understanding Haskell, an alarm rings by SPJ's bed, signaling him to publish another semantic and type-system extension to GHC.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> As someone who actually has bro friends the author has no idea what he's talking about. He's completely misrepresenting bros and is regurgitating stereotypes.

First he gets all pissy about stereotyping nerds as having pocket-protectors and then in the next sentence regurgitates his one dimensional view on what "frat-house culture" is and bros' attitudes towards women.

</comment><comment><USER35> "There's a rising group of developers who are much more sociable and like to go out and have fun, and I think brogramming speaks to that audience," said Gagan Biyani,

Oh my, stereotypes FTW...

</comment><comment><USER36> Jeez. How about just being a normal person? Y'know, like the vast majority of programmers out there.

</comment><comment> brown9-2 _"Want to bro down and crush code? Klout is hiring."_

Honestly, who does this type of recruiting really appeal to? Phrases like "crush code" have about as much of a cringe-factor to me as "wanted: code ninja".

</comment><comment><USER37> Yes we're all nerds carrying around TI89s on our belts, and still coding in FORTRAN...

I find this image of regular programmers nearly as offensive as the faux geek imagine hipsters try to acquire while wearing cheap prescription glasses they don't need.

</comment><comment><USER38> There are two things that needs to be defined here (Well three if you include how media never portrays the story as it was interviewed, media always searches for the dramatical pitch [1])

The first is that of the Brogramming meme. The definition at Urban Dictionary is a joke in itself. It's a joke accept it, don't accept it. No developer in their right mind goes around proclaiming that they are a brogrammer and if they are saying that they are serious (like some say in the case of Facebook and Zynga) you are being deceived [2].

There is a second definition which that I _think_ everyone clumps with this meme and that is of the asshole/douchebag/sexist employee. He is everywhere. Not just in software development. These individuals are the ones making the _majority_ of sexist comments, makes sexist jokes while a female employee is in a cubicle nearby, trying to hit on female coworkers during work hours and going to bars every night. They have existed long before any reference to Brogramming.

Now, I will say this. It was not smart of this individual to try advertise the meme to the SfGate readership. Just based on the prefix "bro" alone will bring about perception of sexism even if the original intent was not to be.

[1]: <http://www.facebook.com/ariadoss/posts/305742279480205> [2]: [http://www.facebook.com/getwiththebrogram/posts/373108606051...](http://www.facebook.com/getwiththebrogram/posts/373108606051857)

</comment><comment><USER39> what if women (concisely or subconsciously) find the bro sexually attractive. Could one of the reasons more women don't enter computer science be because of the perception of "slim social pickings?" I'm not suggesting I personally agree with the "bro" ideology but it's fair to consider those that do not choose to enter computer science (male or female) make that choice for reasons motivated by mate selection.

</comment><comment><USER40> I can see why a lot of people seem to dislike this particular stereotype, but I'd like to remind them they are equally falling prey to stereotypical discrimination when they are looking to hire "geeks" or "nerds". My main OS is Ubuntu, I'm comfortable with half a dozen programming languages, my editor of choice is Vim, I built a Linux distribution for fun, I just wrote a K-means algorithm implementation in Javascript, for fun... Yet, I don't feel I'm either a geek or a nerd. I don't like video games, RPGs, I'm not awkward/shy, I don't particularly care about mangas, anime or whatever makes a geek a geek or a nerd a nerd. To be honest, I don't know why people would want to be associated with two terms that carry heavy negative connotation (according to my own experience and Wikipedia). Perhaps, I am misunderstanding the meaning of those words but does it really matter? Unless, I'm part of a tiny minority, what's the point of using words that are vastly misunderstood? While "geek" and "nerd" are arguably less harmful than "brogrammer", I just wish people would stop using such labels altogether.

<comment> k-mcgrady I don't think people are saying that programmers should conform to the geek/nerd stereotype. I think the issue is that some programmers are actively trying to conform to the 'bro' stereotype. They seem to think this makes them 'cool' when the 'bro' stereotype is mainly used in a derogatory manner. You should really just be yourself and do good work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> I call Poe's Law :). I have had so much fun with the brogrammer stereotype - developer jocks do exist and are quite common. We considered changing the name of our local developer meetup group from "Nerdy Food Meetups" to something "cooler" like Hungry Hackers, but we decided against it, lest the name prove too inviting for brogrammers. So far: success. The group has been 100% self- selective for nerds.

<comment><USER42> Kind of interesting.. excluding people not based on their qualifications (or ability to contribute), but based on their willingness to self-identify as a nerd. Doesn't seem very welcoming..

<comment><USER41> How is it different from excluding (bro)grammers based on their unwillingness to self-identity as a nerd, despite their qualifications?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Some of the people in this thread need to think carefully about why it is they think what they do about some of these issues. Lumping all women together into an anti-sexually free, prudish bunch is horribly insulting.

If you want to attack "brogrammers" because their attitude annoys you, or you don't like their style (which I completely agree with. I personally find the style completely obnoxious) that's one thing. Those of you attacking them because they like sex, women, porn, naked parties, etc. - please stop to think about who and what you are painting with that wide, wide brush. I can assure you that the women I know in the BDSM, poly, swinger, sex club, goth/industrial, alt porn and other largely sex-positive communities would be offended not only by your generalizations that women do not like these things, but offended /at your offense./ Additionally, many of those women are not only in those communities, but some of them happen to be systems admins, developers, and hold other technical positions.

Please do not conflate "prudish people" with "women." The above mentioned communities will thank you.

</comment><comment><USER44> maybe "brogrammers" are just bros first, programmers second. i know plenty of guys who were "bros" that are now developers. why can't you people just let them be who they want to be and live their life?

i'm pretty sure the guy in the hot tub full of women is getting very upset with the trash people are talking about him on the internet. i'm sure he's taking time away from watching football and drinking natty lite to pen a witty response.

how about you all stop clinging to a false sense of identity , live, and let live?

</comment><comment><USER45> The problem is that it is a trend to the detriment of our profession. You don't have any other half way respectable profession with a sector of it trying to emulate being frat boys. Its embarrassing really.

Its a surprising slice of programming culture in that most who get into programming tend to be the polar opposite of frat boys. Maybe this is a side effect of The Social Network movie.

<comment><USER46> Finance.

<comment><USER18> ".. bro! Keep your fucking work life balance." ... "This is wall street bitch you don't belong here!" ... "Damn it feels good to be a banker!"

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROlDmux7Tk4>

<comment><USER47> I forgot all about this

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> The fact that anyone is talking about any of this speaks volumes about how skewed some people's priorities are. The author of this article comes across as a whiny bitch, and the author of the article in question comes across as a douche-bag. Can we get back to discussing meaningful topics?

</comment><comment><USER49> When tech stops being as lucrative, the brogrammers will scatter like cockroaches.

</comment><comment><USER50> brogrammers are just programmers that are irreverent. That's it. Nothing to get up in arms about.

</comment><comment><USER51> I think it was just a way of categorizing the non gaming non- awkward subculture of programmers. I played sports most of my life and i dont play rpg or any game other than sport games with friends. i would say i was the typical developer. Its just a way of identifying men than aren't a typical programmer i would think that women would welcome the change in a very stagnant geeky comp sci culture.

</comment><comment><USER52> Whoa bro. Take it out at the gym

</comment><comment><USER53> I proudly call myself a brogrammer (well sometimes at least!) and maybe you should take it easy bro!

</comment><comment><USER54> Its not a non-female concept as the author misunderstands. Its called Proglamming.

Its called free choice. To each its own; don't nag somebody's way of life and correlate it to their talent. Don't hate what you do not understand.

Brogramming is state of mind. If you let yourself immerse in it, you will see.</comment>


Ask HN: is Google using users to decode addresses w/repcatcha? - <AUTHOR>

Since some days ago I'm only seeing numbers, and their appear to be small pieces of home pictures.. <comment><USER2> Yes, they've been rather public about that.

[http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/29/google-now-using- recaptcha-...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/29/google-now-using-recaptcha-to- decode-street-view-addresses/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes, they are.

Here's my (shameless plug) rather simple explanation of how it works.

The long and short of it though, is that only half of any given reCAPTCHA is known, and you can usually bypass it somewhat persistently by just guessing that half.

Also interesting that I attributed its function as "contributing to the common good", while I infer the intent of this post as suspicious of nefarious motives. I suppose either stance makes sense with the appropriate amount of skepticism.

[https://medium.com/tech-talk/e8f2a748f95f](https://medium.com/tech- talk/e8f2a748f95f)</comment>


A proposal to fix Social Media/YouTube - <AUTHOR> I am posting on anonymously hacker news for various reasons, mostly to gain feedback on the idea:
The problem: Youtube/Social Media has a lot of problems. It's controlled by very few companies ie (Facebook, Google). People are being de-platformed for voicing their opinions. The algorithms are a blackbox
The solution: Build an open source decentralized peer to peer social network/video sharing website.  Where advertisers can pay the content creators/server hosts (peers) with cryptocurrency.
Getting paid in cryptocurrency would incentivize people to host videos and create content. This would solve the problem of lack of seeds most p2p solutions have.
While decentralized, this does not mean it's a free for all where people can post anything.  But it does mean that the algorithm for monitoring content can be open and improved to make better.
Ideally this would become a new way to host all forms of social media/videos and it could be created by the people for the people as opposed to the big tech companies. <comment><AUTHOR> I am posting this anonymously to get feedback on this idea, I am a software developer capable of building this, but I would like to make this a community effort of people who would like a new type of social media.

</comment><comment><USER2> Do you mean like PeerTube or DTube?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, very similar. But the problem I've seen with those solutions is that many of the videos have a lack of seeds.

This would add the ability to pay content creators/peers with cryptocurrency, so they could be incentivized to create videos/host the content.

<comment><USER2> Well, DTube is based on Steemit and content creators are rewarded with cryptocurrency tokens (STEEM)

<comment><AUTHOR> I see. Yes, it looks like DTube is already a successful implementation of this idea. Thank you for showing me that, I didn't know about DTube I was only familiar with PeerTube.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


MI5 comes out against cutting off Internet pirates - <AUTHOR> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6885923.ece

<comment><USER2> This just shows how out of touch the UK govt is. I wonder which Labour sponser lobbied for this. The government assume this is a hardcore minority. I'm not an illegal filesharer, but I sure know a lot people that do. I don't think it's a small minority. Questions...

\- How do you define 'illegal fileshare'? Based on the network used? The content of the file?

\- How would this be implemented? Would the ISP do the blocking?

\- What's to stop the 'criminal' from using a wifi connection elsewhere?

\- What effect does this have on the neutrality of the net in the UK?

(Sorry, posted this comment on another thread before seeing this)

<comment><USER3> Also:

\- Does the whole household get cut off when one member illegally fileshares?

<comment><USER4> "Does the whole household get cut off when one member illegally fileshares?"

I would imagine the entire connection gets cut-off, because it would be very difficult to allow the household to keep the connection and prevent one person from going online.

<comment><USER5> What if they move house? what if its a big house? or several flats? an internet cafe? a business? a university?

<comment><USER6> I can see three plausible options:

      i) The government throws its hands in the air and gives up.
      ii) The government cuts off the entire building/complex.
      iii) The government cuts off people entirely at random.

Knowing the way most governments tend to work, my money is on number 3, with number 2 coming in a distant second.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Encryption will make this moot very soon. In fact routine encryption will confound many attempts to post-fit content control into the existing internet. For instance, deep-sniffing routers that prefer ATT traffic over Vonage, or prefer one ISP's subscribers' traffic over another because of the rate they pay.

</comment><comment><USER8> Related: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=907571></comment>