I'm a successful software developer. I often want to hurt myself - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@somejournaler/i-m-a-successful-software-developer-i-often-want-to-hurt-myself-86366c93d8c1 <comment><USER2> Your fixation on the idea that other people would never guess how you feel inside indicates that you want very much for them to know. That you've reached some level of self-awareness and understanding is a good thing. It's a start. But in reality the only thing worse than your thoughts is being alone with them (if we don't count acting upon them). Blogging is not a serviceable substitute for talk therapy; typing is not the same as hearing yourself say it aloud, nor does it generate any real sense that you're being heard in the way you want and need. I've been where you are and when I think back on it I can see clearly that thinking I'd "come to terms with it" was merely another coping mechanism. The truth is that there is an extremely high probability that it's possible to get better. Don't stop here.</comment>


Ready for Zero (YC S10) wants to help Americans get out of debt. - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/01/readyforzero-wants-to-help-you-get-control-of-credit-card-debt/

<comment><USER2> The site is still invitation only.

Here's a little plan I came up with for someone, not quite 100% applicable but it worked pretty good:

(1) cut up your cards

Tough ? Yes, absolutely, very tough. But step one of getting out of a hole is to stop digging, so stop spending money that you don't have.

(2) cancel: cable, newspapers, any and all subscriptions, internet and cell phone included if you don't need them for your job. If you do need internet see if you can make a deal with a neighbour, especially easy if you have a laptop with wifi.

These are _not_ essentials in your life, you can do without them until you can afford them.

(3) stop smoking, stop drinking

Besides making you unhealthy this stuff is habit forming and costs you a bundle, even if you don't really notice because it's only a few bucks at the time.

(4) if you've bought stuff that you don't actually need, sell it. Liquidate it, set a price on what you realistically think it is worth and try to raise that money by selling it for cash.

(5) stop eating and drinking outdoors. Restaurants and coffee shops make a profit, that means that you can cook for yourself and make your own beverages cheaper. Sure, it may not be that luxury latte that you've come to depend on but it adds up.

(6) pursue ways in which you can earn more than you do today (this can be hard, it did not work out for my friend, maybe you have more luck)

(7) list each and every expense you make, look at the list at the end of the week and be critical, could you have saved on any of them? If you could do not repeat that spending in the next week!

All these steps together should give you a bit of money on a repetitive basis that should go towards paying off your debt.

That's cumulative, any money that you spend over and beyond the required interest payments will come back the next month as a further reduction in interest to be paid. So next month you can pay back more on the principal and so on.

Do not fall back in to old habits, be strong and look at your debt decreasing as a motivator.

\--

I'm really happy that the 'readyforzero' people built this. That's one of the nicest start-ups ever to come out of YC, in terms of the 'change the world' attitude.

<comment><USER3> we're actually letting people through to register as well but have throttled initial registrations so many will get an invite page. thanks for the support and feedback.

<comment><USER4> How long are invites going to take? I'd love to take a look at this; my recent wedding has simply wiped me out. I'm not sure what to do, and having a better idea or what needs to be done would be a real boon.

<comment><USER2> Why would you go in to debt in order to marry? I know it's done and that is not going to undo the damage, but if you knew this was going to be the result would you do it like that again?

<comment><USER5> Is that really helpful?

<comment><USER2> No, and I understand it isn't, I'm just trying to figure out how that could happen.

I see lots of people spend _way_ too much money on their marriage (1 day...) only to be in trouble for a year or more afterwards, which, surprise, puts a huge stress on their marriage.

There is some kind of peer-pressure going on there that makes people spend way more than is smart and I'd like to understand better how that happens.

<comment><USER4> It's not thousands and thousands of dollars, it's just a bit too much to make it easy to undo on a graduate student salary.

It's small things that rack up. It's small things that don't get easily factored into budgets: flowers for the groomsmen, that case of soda you forgot, lighting for the venue.

All of the predictable stuff like catering, venue hire etc. was absorbed by our (wonderful) parents. Day to day stuff was me. Now I need to figure out what to do.

It's easy to talk about not going into debt when you have a decent job. I never had a problem when I was working. Now I'm a student on what amounts to subsistence wages in CA. That's when it gets tricky.

<comment><USER2> If you have wealthy enough parents you might suggest that you consolidate your debt with them, that at least gets you off the hook for the interest. That's the killer longer term anyway. I think that's not an unreasonable request between family members. I've done it for my mom at times and she has done it for me as well before then. Looking out for each other is better than to have everybody save and borrow from the bank, and a lot cheaper too. Assuming everybody is honorable and you keep a paper record of what gets borrowed and what's been returned to avoid confusion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm all for any ideas that can help America get out of debt. It's also great to see someone step in and fill in the hole that MS Money left (it had a fantastic debt wizard/planner, I was sad when MS announced they are killing it, despite how buggy the app always was).

I do wonder if this site can really reach the market it's after. In my anecdotal experience, the people that are in massive debt don't really have the discipline or organization to get out of it, even with a great tool to help them. If they did, they probably wouldn't be in as much debt to begin with.

<comment><USER7> _I do wonder if this site can really reach the market it's after._

I think this is the big question. I really love this idea, because too many people are struggling unnecessarily because they don't realise the true impact of credit card debt. Having something that clearly shows them this impact is a great idea. But I find it hard to believe they will seek something like this out, so it's going to be tricky to reach them.

I was thinking about the very problem yesterday, and wondered if it would be worthwhile requiring information like this to appear on all credit card statements. Instead of just highlighting a minimum payment, what if the statements also had to outline the impact of higher payments somehow? It could be the only reliable way to get the information to the people that could benefit most.

<comment><USER8> Something like this is required as part of the recently enacted CARD act (in the US):

"Credit card issuers must disclose to cardholders the consequences of making only minimum payments each month, namely how long it would take to pay off the entire balance if users only made the minimum monthly payment. Issuers must also provide information on how much users must pay each month if they want to pay off their balances in 36 months, including the amount of interest." ([http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/help/what-the- ne...](http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/help/what-the-new-credit- card-rules-mean-6000.php))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm really glad to see this. I'd say it could count as a public service as well. What I hope the site will also offer is counseling on developing better spending habits in addition to the tracking/organizing of repayments. The crowd that visits HN is probably already pretty wary of the credit card game/trap, but too many Americans get pulled underneath unmanageable debt burdens before they really know what's happening.

I had a neighbor who had simple, yet fantastic advice: if you can't afford to pay for it cash, don't buy it. This guy was your average American, with a middle class job, but during his retirement years I noticed he bought a new porsche and humongous RV. I have to wonder if he bought those cash too, but I wouldn't be surprised. He had rental property, all his debts paid off I'm pretty sure, and all because of simple yet powerful financial common sense.

It actually angers me to see some of the interest rate schemes and fees banks deliberately put in place to take advantage of unsuspecting debtors. A site like ReadyForZero is timely in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. If 70% of our economy is based on consumer spending, it make sense to strive to keep Americans in a position to spend comfortably.

<comment><USER2> Debt is a huge trap. And consumer debt is being rammed down peoples throat in a way that should be illegal.

<comment><USER10> This is one of the areas where education in the US is really horrible. This stuff isn't rocket science, but people really have no clue what it means to get a car loan or carry a balance on a credit card, or even understand mortgages. It's depressing.

<comment><USER9> My oldest brother said one of the best classes he ever took was a high school course called Home Economics, or something like that. It taught students how to write and balance a check book, and prepare their tax forms among other things (he used to make side money doing taxes for people). By the time I got there the course was gone, but I think such courses should not only be commonplace, but be required, and certainly include debt and interest education.

<comment><USER11> My home ec class was worthless. We cooked and sewed, which I think is much more traditional course material for home ec. It sounds like your brother's teacher looked at the title and made up the syllabus - I've never heard of anything remotely economics-related ending up in a home economics class.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> That's really good! I'd like an app that will help repay my mortgage quicker, coming with plans etc.

Also I can't help but notice that techcrunch is basically an advertising platform for pretty much anything YC funded.

It's like if you get funded, you get something that floats, boom, you're on techcrunch.

I'd even say that a feature article on TC would help more than the original funding...

<comment><USER13> You might be able to argue that it's worth more than the ~$17k, but there's no way it's worth more than the advice, the ridiculous productivity because you have to tell everyone what you've gotten done every Tuesday, the intros to investors, etc.

<comment><USER12> yeah from outside, I have no idea about all these things. I'm sure you can't put a price on experience. I'd love to be a part of it but I guess it's not in my path :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> How are they dealing with the "we're not financial planners so this isn't financial advice" thing? (or is that not an issue in the US?)

</comment><comment><USER15> Dave Ramsey would like something like this.

</comment><comment><USER16> Sorry, but this one is going to fail miserably.

<comment><USER17> Why do you think so?

<comment><USER16> There is almost nothing there, in an industry absolutely _saturated_ with loads of people with a lot of something. The business plan right now appears to be "a simple Google Spreadsheet with a lot of annoying maintenance and superficial value-add surrounding it".

The pie-in-the-sky fantasy land of future low interest credit card leads [which is the exact _opposite_ of the sort of offers such a site would get. The best would be predatory, secured credit-card type offers] and automatic...something...it just has the aroma of failure. It could as easily be a "lose weight today" website where you enter your desired weight and it tells you to eat less daily. Which...if such a site existed...I think we would all laugh at.

<comment><USER2> For someone with a hole in their hand getting a handle on their expenses can be a first step towards actually doing something about it. I would not rule this out as a failure quite so easily.

They'll have to make it _super_ easy to use though.

<comment><USER18> Another issue: the target customers don't have any money.

<comment><USER19> Kinda true but credit card debt =/ 0 buying power. A lot of these folks are carrying non-zero balances but using the cards anyway. The trouble is credibly collecting payments which will almost certainly come from users' credit.

As an aside, while this demographic has less total buying power than that of responsible consumers, it's also a hell of a lot more likely to buy stuff. Possible net positive?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


What will you get your Girlfriend/wife for Christmas? - <AUTHOR>

I am looking for Christmas gift ideas for my girlfriend. She is not tech/hacker, I'd like something original. Do you have any idea? <comment><USER2> I know what I am getting the wife but I don't know about the girlfriend yet:)

</comment><comment><USER3> A baby ???

<comment><AUTHOR> Even via FedEx, it is pretty impossible :)

<comment><USER4> Amazon Prime Air?</comment></comment></comment>


New Hardware, Switching to Arch Linux and PCI Passthrough for Gaming - <AUTHOR> https://timakro.de/blog/new-hardware-switching-to-arch-linux/ <comment><USER2> You did what I've been thinking to do from some weeks, my only problem is having only one monitor and older hardware but this is inspiring, good job!

I would have appreciated photos and screenshots of the setup and maybe a video too to have a better overview.</comment>


Start a "Dead Drop" in Your City & Share Files with People in The Street  - <AUTHOR> http://www.ageekinthugclothing.com/2011/09/start-dead-drop-in-your-city-share.html

<comment><USER2> this reminds me of geocaching</comment>


Why people don't like design patterns? - <AUTHOR> There are many articles over the internet puzzling me over and over. MVC is evil, ORM is evil, getters and setters are evil. Accessors are evil.
I find GoF quite useful and enlightening book. But I am completely puzzled about OOP after reading this article:
www.yegor256.com/2016/04/05/printers-instead-of-getters.html
What do you think? <comment><USER2> Clickable: [http://www.yegor256.com/2016/04/05/printers-instead-of- gette...](http://www.yegor256.com/2016/04/05/printers-instead-of-getters.html)

I think it's an interesting article. It describes a kludge for handling data that could probably be handled more elegantly. So I guess I could be accused of thinking that Java is evil, but I don't. I just think that some tools work better for some jobs and sometimes the tools are ruste and old and sometimes the tools are shiny new.

Good luck.</comment>


Ask HN: Good ntro to programming book for adult with no experience? - <AUTHOR> An adult friend on mine asked me about getting into programming.  I let him know first thing that it's super hard to break into, and to just be prepared to do way more work than he expects.  He still seems interested in learning more, and so I offered to help him find a good into to programming book, as he'd be starting out with limited access to computers and internet.  What book, or other resource, would you recommend as a good starting place?<p>My primary motivation is to help him explore coding as a career possibility.  I want to optimize sparking an interest in him wanting to know more if he's serious enough about digging into it.  I'm prepared to help him along, but I am not going to do the work for him. <comment><USER2> As someone who recently taught himself programming later in life, I would strongly recommend the "Learn Enough" series by Michael Hartl and "Python Crash Course". Both are very approachable and provide an excellent intro to programming.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

Can you comment on the how steep the learning curve is for Python Crash Course?

The Michael Hartl suggestion is great, too. My first serious push into programming was with Ruby & Ruby on Rails. I also remember feeling the initial learning curve for Rails to be somewhat steep, especially when trying to do it in a test driven manner.

<comment><USER2> Python Crash Course is not a steep curve learning at all. If anything, the book can move a bit slow at times, making sure to reinforce each lesson.</comment></comment></comment>


As Bitcoin declines, Coinbase's app is dropping in popularity - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1324638/coinbases-app-download-ranking-is-falling-along-with-bitcoins-price/ <comment><USER2> Coinbase's app is an investment/trading app. In a full-blown bear market, it is natural for this to happen.</comment>


Elon Musk Quietly Revealed a Plan That Could Change the Auto Industry - <AUTHOR> https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/elon-musk-quietly-revealed-a-brilliant-plan-that-could-change-auto-industry.html <comment><USER2> I suspect part of the reluctance aside from their considerable sunk costs involved with their own supply chains, vast hierarchies and subdivision vested career interests, and just plain stubborness is a worry that they would be commodified if they all depended upon Tesla technology as their common core.

<comment><USER3> Even if VW and GM are successful in switchover, there will be a host of companies on the outside looking in that Tesla could make money off of for decades.

Tesla also could acquire many of these companies as they become irrelevant to gain instant market share.

Full supply chain commodification is probably 25 years away, especially since a vertically integrated supply chain for EVs for battery and motors will be a major advantage.

Of course, a big leap in solid state or other techs could evaporate these vertical integration advantages, and batteries will probably change quite a lot in the next decade.</comment></comment>


Duolingo Sparks Gaelic Boom - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/02/duolingo-sparks-gaelic-boom-as-young-scots-shrug-off-cringe-factor <comment><USER2> It's a bit weird for an article that's mostly about Scots to put Duolingo's Gaelic course in the headline. Since the author wrote "Gaelic and Scots" in the introduction, it appears they know those are different languages, but I wonder whether that's also the case for whoever selected the headline.</comment>


Ask HN: Would you pay to use a "can you code" site once - <AUTHOR> I am always looking for the next contract job, and have realised that more "good" companies are using upfront "can the candidate code" tests - and frankly while the first one was fun a few years ago my reaction to being told (by some poor schmuck in a call centre who is gathering CVs for a recruiter who may or may not talk to the hiring manager) "it will only take an hour or so" indicates the fun has gone.
I don't want to do five codility tests to prove to five employers I can do FizzBuzz
So, what I would not object to is being tested online, checked if I am human etc and doing Te coding test "once" and then the employers coming along to see how I do
I don't think coding tests are great but they are fine for the simple first hurdle.
I think GitHub is a better resume but boy does that need polishing
So - a codility site where we do the test once and then use it as "proof" of our chops - what do you think? <comment><USER2> Interesting, this is like a TSA pre-check program for coders. The main benefit, I assume, is that the exam is proctored and your identity verified.

If not, then there is no value to this. I've already run across someone who said they were sent to a testing site, Googled the answers and got a perfect score. They didn't get the job, but the coding test was not the reason. So if you could guarantee against cheating, that would be an advantage.

I'd say sites like interviewing.io and Pramp sort of do that already.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes some kind of anti-cheating feature. To the extent of having a human being watch you, not sure - this is more an intellectual curiosity than a real business model (I think it won't fly - but the reasons why are interesting)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Probably not. Better question, since you're basically in the recruiter space with this idea would an _employer_ pay to use a "can you code" website? And aren't you already competing with the bazillion unofficial 'can you code' sites out there like hackerrank?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hackerrank seems to be same as codility - I apply for ten jobs I get to do ten different code tests. Not one and then the companies all look at it and go "ok"

I was not planning to make this site - was just intellectually curious as to why, despite we always saying "the software engineer has the whip hand" we end up with business models where we the applicant are expected to sacrifice hours and hours for a shot at an interview.

The cause seems to be "because employers pay" and "applicants don't" but it's interesting enough to ask why we don't pay.

(Personally I think people will get enthusiastic about one opportunity early on in the search and do one code test and then ... Be ever more reluctant to do another test.

<comment><USER4> HackerRank actually has a jobs app now that lets you complete one application and then all of their customers get to review that ONE application and you get offered from them-pretty much what you're describing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well there are already several such systems. University provides accreditation or certification via a CISCO or Microsoft style exam.

Your approach has a fundamental problem. Who pays for it? If I pay to take your test and get a poor score then I will simply never tell anyone I took it. If I do great I will boast about it on my CV. In that case I might as well go with a Microsoft/CISCO style certification because it is well known. If the employeer pays for it then I will still need to take five of them as each employeer will want you to take a test.</comment>


Mentionmap - Visualize Twitter interactions. - <AUTHOR> http://apps.asterisq.com/mentionmap/ Discover which people interact the most and what they're talking about. <comment><USER2> I'm not giving my twitter password, implement OAuth and come back.

<comment><AUTHOR> Twitter whitelisted the application, so it no longer requires a password, just the username you'd like to visualize.</comment></comment>


Bebo Embraces Facebook Apps With Its "Open Applications Platform" - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/12/bebo-warmly-welcomes-facebook-developers-with-new-platform/

<comment><USER2> Combined with this news: [http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=60](http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=60), this effectively kills OpenSocial dead in the water, in my opinion.</comment>


Twilio incident and Redis - <AUTHOR> http://antirez.com/news/60 <comment><USER3> What caught my attention was where Twilio said the redis-slaves were timing out to the redis-master:

[http://www.twilio.com/blog/2013/07/billing-incident-post- mor...](http://www.twilio.com/blog/2013/07/billing-incident-post-mortem.html)

I think timeouts should be abolished for the vast majority of software today.

The usual reasoning goes something like this: for a TCP connection, if you don't hear from the server for some period of time, you can assume that something is "wrong" and drop the connection. The fallacy is, the TCP connection is not really important to the shared state of two devices. From the very beginning (I'm talking 1970s!), devices should have been using tokens to identify one another, regardless of communication status. The tokens could be saved in nonvolatile memory on servers so that jobs could always continue where they left off.

Instead we have a whole slew of nondeterministic pathological cases -exactly- like the one that hit Twilio. If you take on the burden of timeouts, you end up with dozens of places in your code (even more, potentially) where you just don't know what to do if you lose communication.

If you don't take on the burden of timeouts, then you can just track each connection and all it costs you is storage space, which is practically free today and getting cheaper every year. With credentials from the client, you don't even have to worry about duplicate connections. You can write your client-server code deterministically and stick to the logic, and easily stress test failure modes.

<comment><USER4> This resonated with me because I've been building services with zeromq lately. The zeromq bind and connect calls isolate the caller from managing disconnects. Zeromq will reestablish a dropped connection and the client code is none the wiser. Now I have some extra reasoning as to why this is a good idea. Thanks!

<comment><USER5> It's a good idea until the local send buffer fills up and starts silently dropping data.

There's no free lunch.

<comment><USER6> In theory don't programs already need to handle that case for slow/congested connections?

<comment><USER5> Of course, but zeromq makes it feel like you don't. It provides a message massing system that you pass messages into on one end and they magically pop out the other. If the network is slow, congested or down it'll cache messages locally until it can reconnect and send them. The problem is you don't know what's going on and if the local cache fills up it'll silently drop messages. In some use cases that's perfectly fine- it depends on your application.

Zeromq is great for some things - it's super flexible and FAST. It's just not, on its own, durable. If you need durability you have to build it on top. Doable, just not free.

<comment><USER7> You're absolutely right. It just masks the timeout from the client for as long as it can and then fails just as ungracefully.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Very clear and thoughtful post from antirez, as ever.

It's worth reading his post on how persistence works in Redis (and other dbs). It's very interesting and gives great insights as to what goes on down in dbs to try to keep our data safe - particularly for those of us how don't ever interact with that layer directly.

[http://oldblog.antirez.com/post/redis-persistence- demystifie...](http://oldblog.antirez.com/post/redis-persistence- demystified.html)

</comment><comment><USER9> It's good to see Twilio post this! That being said - yeah, I really am concerned that Twilio is using an ephemeral database to store such important data. Why not simply use Postgres? Is Twilio really making so many transactions per second that Postgres won't scale?

<comment><USER10> Totally agree. Need to clear up a developing misconception - Redis does not serve as the primary store for the account balance of Twilio's customers. The billing system uses a double bookkeeping model common to many high volume designs with Redis as the in-flight data store (e.g. when a call or SMS message is created) with the transaction also stored independently to an RDBMS post-flight (e.g. when a call or SMS message is completed).

Clearly however our implementation failed dangerously and did not recover in a manner that meets our customers' expectations. Totally get how such a misconception would occur from a cursory read of the incident report - <USER2> need to be clear.

<comment><USER11> Is there actually a legitimate performance or scalability need to incorporate a NoSQL database in this case?

Ever since NoSQL databases started receiving a lot of hype a few years back, I've witnessed a number of teams use them without any real justification. They'll build unnecessarily complex systems using one or more NoSQL database systems, all while a relational database would be more than sufficient for their needs.

In several of these cases, some of the developers have been quite adamant that these NoSQL databases are essential. Then we rip them out, usually because they've been causing problems like described in this case. It quickly becomes obvious that they were never needed in the first place, and won't be needed even in the face of significantly increased load.

<comment><USER12> No offence but attitudes like this are the worst. If we all took your advice we would all be still using punch cards or writing everything in assembler. Sometimes you don't need a clear justification to use newer technologies. Perhaps developers just want to experience the significant developer productivity that comes with using many of the NoSQL databases.

Also might be worth dropping the whole "SQL is better" insinuation. We have seen some pretty major data loss bugs in PostgreSQL and MySQL recently.

<comment><USER11> Billing systems are not to be taken lightly, namely because money is inherently involved.

When developing such systems, it is irresponsible to use new, unproven technologies without justification.

When developing such systems, it is irresponsible to trade off the reliability and safety of the system for some "developer productivity".

Such irresponsibility is just not acceptable. Failures due to such irresponsibility should not be tolerated, either.

<comment><USER13> money can be refunded... we're not talking about a life - or a human life we're just talking about software. Reading how Twilio was using redis it sounds very reasonable (fsync). I've seen MySQL servers melt under extreme load running on very high end servers so if you're saying that somehow having had SQL in this case would have saved them... well... maybe you're right... but I wasn't there were you?

I believe the engineers at Twilio are building and have built a platform to handle a scale that is going to continue to reach further than many traditional models will scale. It makes sense to me that they would need to look for in memory systems to push the limits - They are fsync'ing immediately - so while it's in memory for a read it's disk for writes so that sounds pretty safe to me... Also, a lot of people use Redis now, so I definitely wouldn't say it's unproven, that is as others have said like saying we should still be using typewriters to put ink on paper because it's "proven"... I'd answer that with... "good luck with that".

And at the end of the day - "the shit will hit the fan" and it did...

the team did great and we're all thankful.

<comment><USER11> Just because human lives aren't necessarily at stake it doesn't mean that poor (in my opinion) software system designs should be tolerated.

And when we talk about "relational databases", we basically never mean MySQL. I'm not even sure why you'd bother to bring it up, given its poor reputation, its lack of proper functionality in some cases, and the many other (and far better) alternatives.

As for scalability, some other commenter here posted a link to a twitter comment describing the scale in this case: [https://twitter.com/dN0t/status/360119871318659074](https://twitter.com/dN0t/status/360119871318659074)

It clearly states "tens of thousands" of transactions per second. That is well within the capabilities of the lower-end database systems on modern, low-end server hardware. Twilio will require a huge amount of growth just to reach the point where higher end database systems and hardware become appropriate, never mind "a scale that is going to continue to reach further than many traditional models will scale".

Running into significant billing issues due to a likely unnecessary use (in my opinion) of a NoSQL database while still at a relatively small scale is not something that a team should be commended for, and nobody should be "thankful" that the incident did happen.

<comment><USER14> The equivalent failure with PostgreSQL would be to update kernel.shmmax with a call to sysctl, and then forget to update /etc/sysctl.conf. Then if the machine reboots PostgreSQL will fail to start because it can't allocate enough memory. It mostly wasn't a redis problem as far as I can tell. That said, Twilio is probably at a big enough scale where they can afford to hire a couple full-time admins to deal with PostgreSQL.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Here's the Twilio post-mortem thread on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6093954](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6093954)

<comment><USER16> dog pile - reminds about FB outage couple years ago when their in-memory cache machines got simultaneously flushed by software update and as result piled up upon MySQL databases for the refresh. Twilio's prohibition of master restart seems like a solution to a consequence only.

<comment><USER17> That's a truly common problem. Experienced the same thing when I was working at Formspring. We relied heavily on Redis and SimpleDB for caching and when a large portion of the cache was lost the site was pretty instantly DOSd. Not fun at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm curious if you're using anything other than redis-cli to set the master/slave relationships, and if you have any failover mechanism. I've used corosync/pacemaker for a high-availability redis cluster, but without an awful lot of confidence (we likely misconfigured it, to be fair).

Just "slaveof <masterip>" and other redis-cli commands? Or are you using any automated process?

Or has anyone else got a great redis failover/HA solution that they'd care to share?

(I apologize for this having nothing to do with Twilio; I'm just curious)

<comment><USER19> The best thing out there is redis sentinel. It's in 2.6 and the issue I ran into 6 months ago is not a lot of drivers supported it yet.

[http://redis.io/topics/sentinel](http://redis.io/topics/sentinel)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Twilio definitely uses ec2, it's been an oft-highlighted choice in many presentations and posts over the years.

\- [http://www.slideshare.net/twilio/twilio-voice- applications-w...](http://www.slideshare.net/twilio/twilio-voice-applications- with-amazon-aws-s3-and-ec2-presentation)

\- [http://www.twilio.com/engineering/2011/04/22/why-twilio- wasn...](http://www.twilio.com/engineering/2011/04/22/why-twilio-wasnt- affected-by-todays-aws-issues/)

</comment><comment><USER20> Just like I commented on the original incident report post, I think systems like Redis are not suitable to work as a db for payment processing and transaction storage. Reading through the report I can't imagine something like this happening with a payment system built around Postgres. Not unless you are doing something incredibly stupid. And stupid those guys are not.

They are obviously bright guys meaning well, and yet they've designed and implemented payment system with such a bad failure mode.

I do understand that they have a LOT of billing events, and have to update customer billable amounts for each of them. But instead of holding the customer balances in Redis and doing payment processing on top of that, my paranoia would most probably lead me to only store 'amount to charge' in Redis and update it as frequently as needed, and store customer balances and transactions in an RDBMS. And only change during actual charge event. This way, if Redis data were to be lost, I'd under-charge my customers and not over-double-tripple charge them. The failure mode becomes less disastrous.

<comment><USER21> If you're running with AOF then redis is perfectly fine for storing eg: call logs where the transaction is naturally atomical to a single command.

In my experience problems have occur because AOF isn't the default persistence setting (Snapshotting is the default in Ubuntu apt at least). So if Redis get's upgraded in an apt-get upgrade then the sysadmin needs to take care not to override the AOF configuration.

This is not unlike postgres upgrading from 9.1 to 9.2, for example. Not catastrophic, but boy it'll make your heart pump!

I think the best solution at the moment it to not use apt to manage Redis updates so that you have full control over the configuration.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I do not understand why, when updating a balance from a CC transaction, you wouldn't be using transactions.

      Start Transaction
      Update Balances
      Call CC Processor
      Commit

That would eliminate "the billing system charged customer credit cards to increase account balances without being able to update the balances themselves" \-- you don't go call a non-transactional CC processor until you've actually been able to process the update in your own system (which you can easily rollback).

If you're worried about Commits failing (due to not using pessimistic locking, for instance), then separate it into two transactions. That way when you go to process the CC the next time, you have a record stating there's already a transaction in-flight.

For financial records, I'd expect a bit more care. Sounds like they had proper records, but only as a backup/logging.

(Even for telecom, in which I work. There are fully ACID databases that have no problems handling millions of transactions/sec. In-flight balance information is trivial to handle.)

<comment><USER23> What databases are those?

<comment><USER24> These ones, for starters: [http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_perf_results.asp?result...](http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_perf_results.asp?resulttype=undefined&version=5%&currencyID=1)

On good server hardware, Postgres will happily push 100-200K small transactions per second. Naturally the definition of "transaction" varies, and you'll see vastly different performance depending on contention, locality, indices, etc. I'd expect logging independent events in a single table to be a good deal faster than multi-table transactions, especially those involving contended rows.

On EC2, the story is (naturally) a good deal less heartening. I think you'd be hard-pressed to make it to 10K on TPC-B, given reports like [http://www.palominodb.com/blog/2013/05/08/benchmarking- postg...](http://www.palominodb.com/blog/2013/05/08/benchmarking-postgres- aws-4000-piops-ebs-instances)

Granted, single-node performance may not be the question to ask here, because this problem is readily shardable by customer ID, and operations can also be buffered in local memory to some extent.

Remember: if it fits in Redis, the problem requires, at _maximum_ , a single node's memory and a single core--and can tolerate network latencies.

<comment><USER25> "Remember: if it fits in Redis, the problem requires, at maximum, a single node's memory and a single core--and can tolerate network latencies." Not entirely true. A number of places out there use sharded redis. In which case, you're not limited by the memory or core in the same manner. A nit to pick, but hoping to keep the conversation on point (as you alluded to with the "shardable" comment)

<comment><USER24> If you're using a sharded Redis, your problem is a collection of problems satisfying the above law. What I'm getting at is that if performance is _seriously_ a problem, few things beat a dedicated service with concurrent, in-process memory--instead of pushing every operation to an external, fully serialized heap.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Should we change the name of our startup? - <AUTHOR>

We are www.tesla.im - an encrypted messaging service for teams. We are named after the brilliant scientist Nikola Tesla. People confuse our name with the more famous Tesla Motors.<p>Should we change our name? Please tell us here. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uERhq0A9GIRMaIDh8AtAw8_ZHGtUSpNiZbXK6xt56rE/viewform <comment><AUTHOR> We are [https://www.tesla.im](https://www.tesla.im) \- an encrypted messaging service for teams. We are named after the brilliant scientist Nikola Tesla. People confuse our name with the more famous Tesla Motors.

Should we change our name? Please tell us here. [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uERhq0A9GIRMaIDh8AtAw8_ZHGt...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uERhq0A9GIRMaIDh8AtAw8_ZHGtUSpNiZbXK6xt56rE/viewform)

<comment><USER2> ahem.

tesla.im survey.

The form "tesla.im survey." is no longer accepting responses. Try contacting the owner of the form if you think this is a mistake.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, it should work now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Having a name like that is very bad, because a) you will be forever trailing on the 6473th page of Google Search results and b) it will be difficult to grow a meaningful brand around a name, which already has such a strong emotional charge.

If I were you, I would definitely rethink the name.

</comment><comment><USER4> Do you want to ever show up in search results when people google your company name? If yes, then yeah, you should change it. I wouldn't even worry about trademark issues or brand confusion, just visibility.

</comment><comment><USER5> Absolutely. Tesla is very well known and is not a common word that you can brand in your space and develop over time like the word "Square." People will always think of the car dealer.

</comment><comment><USER6> Yes, you should definitely change your name. These things always come back and bite you in the future. I just submitted my answer in that form.</comment>


Flight Attendant in Coma After Contracting Measles Flight from NYC to Tel Aviv - <AUTHOR> http://gothamist.com/2019/04/18/israeli_flight_attendant_comatose_a.php <comment><USER2> I'm not one for authoritarian solutions, but the idea that you can get flights like anyone else regardless of whether or not you have chosen to make yourself at risk to serious diseases seems crazy to me.

I'm on a plane right now with an infant who is not old enough to be inoculated against measles. Something has to change about how we handle these people as a society.

</comment><comment><USER3> Vaccinations are one of the areas where I consistently fail to find any sympathy for the other side (people against vaccinations). There are real reasons why you should not vaccinate specific people, but I've never run into an anti-vaxxer who was a real exception.

At this point I strongly believe that religious and personal belief exemptions should simply not be accepted, in the same way that red lights aren't optional for drivers.</comment>


Clojure, Scheme or Haskell ? - <AUTHOR>

I am not trying to start a flame war, i am just interested in learning a new language after python and c. So which would you advice, clojure, scheme or haskell? I am only interested in developing web applications. thanks <comment><USER2> If you're looking for a practical language with which you can quickly build real-world applications, I would vote for Clojure, simply because it has a wealth of libraries readily available through Java. Having said that, I haven't got a lot of experience with Haskell and certainly not with its libraries, so I don't really know how it compares, besides the fact that Java has a huge amount of libraries for just about anything you could want.

This also means that you can write web apps in Clojure and deploy them on one of the many Java-based web platforms - that is, its reasonably easy to get your Clojure (or rather, JVM) based web app _out there_.

If you do decide to go for Clojure, the defacto web framework is Compojure, which is a very simple, but powerful and flexible, framework. It has some nifty features, such as allowing you to write HTML using s-expressions instead of XML tags resulting in much simpler and shorter HTML. Clojure also has a library which helps you to write Javascript in an integrated Clojure-esque s-expression based way called Scriptjure. All in all, Clojure + Compojure + Scriptjure provides a consistent and integrated framework for developing rich web apps. You can be up and running in Jetty within moments and with a few minutes of preparation, you can compile your app as a .war file ready for deployment in something like Apache Tomcat.

The only thing that takes some Java API knowledge is interfacing with a database, though afaik theres some Clojure wrappers for that too. If you don't mind looking through some Javadoc and want some NoSQL goodness, I'd recommend grabbing the MongoDB Java Driver. It happened to be the first Java API I tried to interface with in Clojure and I was pleasantly surprised at how hassle free and easy it was to get it to work.

Whatever you choose, good luck! It should be fun to get into functional programming after working with C and Python :-)

<comment><USER3> _This also means that you can write web apps in Clojure and deploy them on one of the many Java-based web platforms - that is, its reasonably easy to get your Clojure (or rather, JVM) based web app out there._

Including App Engine (and thus you can also write bots for Wave) [http://elhumidor.blogspot.com/2009/04/clojure-on-google- appe...](http://elhumidor.blogspot.com/2009/04/clojure-on-google- appengine.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I also came from Python (and c#/java, c, js) and have dabbled with Haskell and Clojure a bit, with a tiny bit in scheme.

I personally think that learning both Haskell and Clojure concurrently has a lot of merit. Clojure is more pragmattic; while it encourages pure functional practices, it also accepts that doing IO and interacting with the ecosystem (including java) is necessary, so its straight forward. Haskell on the other hand is - IMO - a must learn for any programmer; It is chock full of brilliance, but its not so easy for someone unfamiliar with a type system as comprehensive to get going with. Many of the leasons you learn in Haskell will be applicable to clojure (and vice versa).

Additionally, to me clojure feels like what i wanted python3000 to be. Its got a nice little ecosystem of web tools growing too. I found haskells web stuff to be a bit imposing.

Summary: Learn clojure primarily, and augment it by working through haskell stuff like Real World Haskell.

<comment><AUTHOR> i heard that for you to get the most out of clojure, you have to know java, is that true?

<comment><USER3> No, you just need to be willing to learn some java APIs (honestly though, not that hard. mostly they are larger, more long-winded versions of things you are used to in python).

In particular for web stuff you could probably exist within the clojure eco system. The clojure-contribs package is getting pretty comprehensive these days.

Clojure's interop stuff makes calling java seem fairly native. Obviously you get stateful behavior and need to be careful, but thats no worse than python or c. Currently clojure's tools for creating classes is a little frustrating but thats being replaced with some very nice facilities in 1.1.

I'd say the number one thing you'll need to do is get familiar with the javadoc.

For the reference, i programmed java at uni (2001-2004) with Java 1.4. I havent written a java program since then, but i havent found it any hinderance at all in my experiments with clojure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You might want to experiment for an hour or so with DrScheme/MzScheme: lots of good libraries for web app development -- same comment applies to Chicken Scheme.

My favorite Scheme is Gambit-C which has fewer libraries but if you install from source, then look in the examples directory for a simple HTTP server example.

That said, DrScheme would be a fast way to evaluate Scheme for your purposes.

</comment><comment><USER5> I came to Scheme from C and Java and have looked briefly at Clojure. Clojure is a great effort and makes interfacing with Java simple but unless you are forced to use the JVM, I would recommend a regular Scheme instead. Clojure doesn't support continuations and tail call optimisation which are key features of Scheme and contribute significantly to its brilliance.

Gambit is a very practical implementation that is fast and offers relatively easy interfacing to C.

But, most serious effort in functional programming is done in Haskell or OCaml so thats where the libraries and jobs are. Of the two, I think Haskell is probably bigger and is the better language with more features.

My recommendation would be to learn Scheme until you understand the basics, continuations and macros and then move on to Haskell which will be a lot easier having come from Scheme.

</comment><comment><USER6> You should learn Scheme, and then Haskell or an ML language (OCaml would be my choice.) Clojure is a "subset" of Scheme/Lisp, so if you learn Scheme or Lisp (as in Common Lisp), you basically know Clojure, plus some extra stuff that Clojure can't do because it lacks proper tail calls.

<comment><USER7> I personally find scheme to be the simplest Lisp to learn (after working with Common Lisp, Clojure and Scheme). If you do want to learn scheme, I found the MIT lectures [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and- Compute...](http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer- Science/6-001Spring-2005/VideoLectures/index.htm) brilliant and the little schemer [http://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P- Friedman/dp/02...](http://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P- Friedman/dp/0262560992) a lot of fun as well.</comment></comment>


Some problems are so hard they need to be solved piece by piece - <AUTHOR> http://cdixon.org/2012/11/23/some-problems-are-so-hard-they-need-to-be-solved-piece-by-piece/ <comment><USER2> Interesting. It seems like there's some good discussion over the past few days on hunting ground for good ideas. Everything is rightly disclaimed with a "not guaranteed to produce a good idea."

Moving people from general tools to more specific ones is tricky. Most of the things people use spreadsheets or email for could be done with more specific tools, possibly better. Time tracking, data storage, project management, scheduling. General tools that you are already using have a lower overhead.

I can guess at 2 big gotchas. (1) To move people to narrower tools you need a very big improvement. Slightly better isn't enough. For a lot of things there just isn't that much room for improvement. (2) When you move from general to specific tools the software dictates how the user does stuff more. This leaves room to get it wrong.

<comment><USER3> Have a look at <https://pinad.com.au> \- it might be the big improvement you speak about. It has structure and specialization for each of 81 categories currently available.

I described a bit more in a reply to the main thread (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4824233>)

Disclaimer: I'm the creator of pinad.com.au

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Has anyone had a good experience hiring via StackOverflow Careers? I've found it to be expensive, and it doesn't necessarily provide more or better candidates than craiglist, Indeed or LinkedIn.

<comment><USER5> I was always afraid that by putting my profile on StackOverflow Careers, prospective employers would see us as individuals liable to spend company time solving other peoples' problems online and therefore be less likely to hire us.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point, I find it kind of unnatural to transform a developer community into a recruiting platform. I think it's just companies searching for a solution to solve the resume problem.

<comment><USER6> It's also an incentive for developers to earn karma as it may reflects on a career opportunity. Other popular developer websites, such as github, also have a way to differentiate /popular/ or strong developers (number of stars/fork). Personally, I prefer the github as a developer and a manager mostly because I'd feel more comfortable working with an employee that crack lots of code rather than one who spend lots of time answering questions.

<comment><USER7> as a developer and a manager, i'd love a guy who could productively answer questions. it means that he can both solve problems and help other developers who might be struggling with the same issues.

this is the kind of developer who will make sure his code is commented from the perspective of letting someone else see how it works, and that your internal dev wiki is well gardened. if you ignore the value this sort of person can add, it is entirely your loss.

<comment><USER8> I think I'm with you on this one. Crappy code can still get a lot of stars/forks and great code can pretty much get ignored if it's not the flavor of the month with the majority bandwagon. I think Github is great if you want to look at someone's code, but being able to successfully answer questions, while more academic than utilitarian, in general identifies those with a deep and thorough understanding of the technology. SO gets gamed though.

Ultimately, I suppose that either are a good bet if you're looking for someone who stands out in a certain way. In both places you should vet the quality of the code or quality of the answers. And if you're the type of employer who uses these as metrics for rating candidates, then I think you should also probably give your employees time to work on their Github projects/SO profiles (I didn't intend the irony there, but it's there all the same).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Interesting. As someone eluded to in the post's comments, the "horizontal" can almost be thought of as a platform in some ways, where "vertical" are the individual product(s).

So, if the "platform" does not exist yet, it may need to be built first, but I suspect many of them already exist. It's interesting to think of what horizontal platforms are being developed, or are becoming more popular, and how you could target a vertical area on top of (or within) it.

I've seen a few discussions recently on Google Glass and the work Microsoft is doing augmented reality area as well, and wonder what vertical products could stem from that over the long term.

<comment><USER6> It's very hard for a startup to create a platform without a main popular product. It may be proven wrong, but in my opinion (and experience), it's better starting vertical and then horizontally expanding. Existing companies with revenues can afford wasting resources for a while and trying to attack each market individually.. but a startup?

<comment><USER10> Feels like you should take the advice even further for a startup. A startup shouldn't be going vertical or horizontal - a startup should be picking one individual problem to solve and focusing on only that.

Horizontal is close to impossible for a startup. The budgets involved don't usually allow for focusing on more than one product market at a time.

Vertical is also very hard. The startup would need to be in at least two different businesses to go vertical. Lots of IT/web startups do try this by being in both the infrastructure business and the software product business, with half of their startup aimed at creating new methods of managing servers and data, and half on providing some user software on top of that. There are lots of success stories here, but you have to assume there are lots of failures also who went overboard on building up a vertical where they didn't need the whole vertical to solve their actual startup goal.

Basically, I'd say in the same way a mature corporation is one that pays out in dividends any money that they can't get good return on, a mature startup would be one that focuses only on a single core business goal of some kind, and fails quickly if that business goal doesn't work. Vericals/horizontals can come after the startup phase and the business goal is met.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I remember the first time I sat down with my C64. That thing was quite scary. Full of buttons that had weird symbols written on every face of the keys. It had a disk drvie that would make _drruuuun prrub drruuun_ sounds while the little light flashed. Boy, did it looked busy. The power button was nowhere to be found by this 7 year old. The cables? Where do they go? Little by little I kept breaking down each issue I faced. Its funny how things never change. One cable went here, the other there. Turns out someone was smart enough to make the cables fit in one way only. Then I found the power button after hitting every possible key on it. Luckily I had managed to plug it in before doing that. The monitor came alive and suddenly I had a working computer in front of me. Little did my oldest brother know that unplugging it would not keep me from using it.

Then came the issue with not knowing how to use the thing. I did not speak or read english and the manual was written in it. What was PRINT? GOTO? Well, that was for me to find out. Turns out, I still use the same method. Break up everything into pieces and work with each piece at a time. I do miss that C64.

</comment><comment><USER12> But this multitude of narrow solutions creates a marketing and usability nightmare for users. What's the hip place to rent rooms now? And how do I use it, because it has no UI consistency with services for renting cars and objects.

So even if these services have success, it's hard to out-market a go to portal for trading/renting between individuals. Without a unifying interface they'll merely coexist with Craigslist.

<comment><USER13> That's true but the problem might be smaller than you think. I have no stats to show but how many people visit more than three or four sub sections of craigslist.org? I personally only use two.

Besides, what is lost in UX compatibility and uniformity might be gained in important features that greatly improve the service offered. For example, Odesk has immensely more usable features than the computer gigs subsection on craigslist.

<comment><USER12> Yes but who will find Odesk? How will you tell it apart from a bunch of competitors and ZenDesk?

You're limiting Odesk's fancy functionality to the small subset of experienced computer users. Even if you only use 3 subsections of craig that's 3 O/Zen/StandingDesks you didn't have to Google for, memorize stupid names of, compare to competitors and learn where they put buttons.

That's assuming some marketing or universal interface magic doesn't fix it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Probably the vertical approach started from a need to have better search and be able to describe a certain type of object/activity. Think about it for a minute: to be able to search you have to be able to describe what you want. To be able to match a description you need to have a structure in place (e.g. the attributes of a car is a structure).

Sites like Craigslist offer a GENERIC way to DESCRIBE MANY objects/activities therefore they offer a GENERIC way to SEARCH for many objects/activities. Sites like AirBnB offer a SPECIALIZED way to DESCRIBE ONE TYPE of object/activity and they have a SPECIALIZED way to SEARCH for that one object/activity.

What if we have a SPECIALIZED way to DESCRIBE MANY activities/objects and a SPECIALIZED way to SEARCH for MANY activities/objects?

That's what I'm trying to do at <https://pinad.com.au>. Currently I have 81 structured categories and hundreds of attributes and options. All of them allow a specialized description and a specialized search. Would this be a better alternative for a centralized marketplace?

</comment><comment><USER14> Think we're likely to see a similar pattern with Facebook—seems clear that the instagram acquisition happened because they were scared of someone capturing the photo-sharing "vertical" better than they do.

</comment><comment><USER15> EVERY problem ever solved was solved piece by piece - steam engine happens when it's steam engine time.

The only exception is the moon-landing, I'm still trying to figure that one out.

</comment><comment><USER16> Craigslist is the epitome of the "worse is better".

</comment><comment><USER17> On the other side, picking a category that's too specific ties you down to that niche, and can limit the potential of your startup.

</comment><comment><USER18> This fits with the observation that the structure of production is constantly deepening and specialising.

No matter how niche your field is today, it will eventually break up into smaller, more specialised fields.

And someone will move into that specialty.

This is a _good thing_.

</comment><comment><USER19> Someone was browsing Adult.</comment>


Does Playing Music for Cheese During the Aging Process Change Its Flavor? - <AUTHOR> http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/does-playing-music-for-cheese-during-the-aging-process-change-its-flavor.html <comment><AUTHOR> wondering if playing R-Kelly to it makes it smell like piss

<comment><USER2> Less crass but I was actually wondering if they've found that cheese would have suffered a metalheads vs preppies style culture division in the 80's.

Brie is totally Pet Shop Boys. Old Fort Cheddar is Metallica all the way. Cheeze _Whiz_ is probably R Kelly, come to think of it.</comment></comment>


Why Java Is Doomed to Fail (1997) - <AUTHOR> https://imgur.com/a/BSWOU <comment><USER2> Interestingly enough, I think the author TFA was right about a lot more than he was wrong about. Yes, very few people would say that Java "failed" in the overall sense, but in terms of not making much money for Sun... well, he seems to have nailed that big-time. For as popular as Java has been over the years, all you ever heard about was how Sun never actually profited much from it. I think they did make some money licensing the mobile Java stuff there for a while, but not much more than that, unless they kept it really secret.

OTOH, the stuff about Microsoft "borging" Java... well, the author was prescient in terms of predicting that they would _try_. It just worked out that Sun was able (though a lawsuit among other things) to block Microsoft's efforts to borg Java.

</comment><comment><USER3> The strangest thing about this essay is the assumption that the only function of Java is to financially "save" Sun. The second strangest thing about this essay is that the author, even as late as 1997, considered both Java and Windows to be technically interesting and advanced.</comment>


Ask HN: Learning Java in 2010 - <AUTHOR>

Almost a month ago I read one "Ask HN" story, and debate, about Learning C++ in 2010 (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1119992>).
I was wondering the same about Java: It seems that the language and the ecosystem are taking off again and I am increasingly interested in Java projects (from Cassandra to Lucene and some other stuff from the Apache Incubator).
What should I read? How should I "practice" to avoid all the bad Java docs and programmers out there? <comment><USER2> If you're new to Java, I would suggest going through _The Java Programming Language_ and _Effective Java_. The former hasn't been updated very recently, but should still be a good introduction. The latter was updated two years ago, and offers great advice on Java style.</comment>


Bezos's Security Consultant Accuses Saudis of Hacking the Amazon CEO's Phone - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/technology/jeff-bezos-saudis-hack.html <comment><USER2> NYT recycling the work of the original source with nothing new to add.

HN thread: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19532185](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19532185)

Original source: [https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeff-bezos-investigation- finds...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeff-bezos-investigation-finds-the- saudis-obtained-his-private-information)

</comment><comment><USER3> Possibly related? [https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/11/21/exclu...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/11/21/exclusive- saudi-dissidents-hit-with-stealth-iphone-spyware-before-khashoggis-murder/)

<comment><USER4> Mentioned in my comment here [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19532185](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19532185)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm curious to know what OS his phone has and how did _they_ managed to hack into it.</comment>


The First 30lbs Bitcoin - <AUTHOR> http://bitcoinsculpture.com <comment><AUTHOR> It all started a year ago during a crypto fever run. A bitcoin coin is cool, but you know what's better? A gigantic Bitcoin bronze.

At first with an out-of-scale wooden version, then things started getting serious. 3D printer, silicon, and molten copper. Making such a piece with a mirror finish requires fine art expertise and took several trials.

The sculpture is signed by the foundry and encrusted with the bitcoin payment transaction hash on its side. It is close to impossible to counterfeit such a piece. Each foundry has its own signature based on the shares of each metal composing the bronze. Moreover, being handmade, two sculptures will never look exactly the same.

What do you think?

<comment><USER2> If you have 1 BTC equivalent to spend, buy 1 BTC, not bronze.</comment></comment>


I don't care how good you are at programming - <AUTHOR> http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1768-i-dont-care-how-good-you-are-at-programming

<comment> UK-AL If people start acting like that, something in their environment has put them on edge.</comment>


Storage device writes information atom-by-atom - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36824902 <comment><USER2> Several submissions of this story:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12118804](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12118804) (phys.org)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12118645](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12118645) (popularmechanics.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12118244](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12118244) (nature.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12118235](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12118235) (phys.org)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12117792](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12117792) (mashable.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12117365](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12117365) (bbc.co.uk)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116686](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116686) (nature.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116615) (gizmodo.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116577](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116577) (sciencenewsline.com)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116127](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116127) (wsj.com)

Very few votes or discussion on any of them - will this be the submission that finally gets some attention?</comment>


Ask HN: How do you disrupt Silicon Valley and tech elitism? - <AUTHOR>

I don't know, maybe I'm becoming jaded because I'm having problems with my own future but the more I look at the successful Silicon Valley style startups and personalities, the more I see elitism.
This isn't bad, per say, but I want to cheer for the underdog.
But when I see companies like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Google, and so forth rule the land.  I wonder, does the underdog have a any chance of becoming a multibillion dollar success?  Can the underdog rule the land?
Of course, there's Steve Jobs and his Apple but even that seems to fall under special circumstances.  He didn't last very long at Apple before he got thrown out.
I hear hundreds stories of garage startups going from nothing to top dog but it looks like even those garage startups have an elite background.  Even Paul Graham himself comes from such a background.  But to his credit, some of his earlier YCombinator finds did not.
I'm looking for underdog winner stories.  Like how many of the US East Coast companies were founded.  People with no education and no help from the elite at the time somehow making it work.
Even Nikola Tesla has a more interesting story then many of the "innovators" I read about in Silicon Valley.  He didn't rule in society but he was a master in electricity. <comment><USER2> "Does the underdog have a any chance of becoming a multibillion dollar success? Can the underdog rule the land?"

Ironically, you are describing Silicon Valley perfectly while looking to replace it.

</comment><comment><USER3> "...Of course, there's Steve Jobs and his Apple..."

And Jeff Bezos and his Amazon. Also Larry Ellison and his Oracle.

But yeah, if you want to create a company that doesn't create value and sell it for some quick mega-bucks, then you need to be in that circle in that location.</comment>


The Cult of the Bulletproof Coffee Diet - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/style/the-cult-of-the-bulletproof-coffee-diet.html <comment><USER3> I'm wondering if there is real strong evidence, other than anecdotal accounts, for the wonderful claims that are made for the quasi-magical properties of that coffee melange.

I get it that under extreme physical circumstances (high in the Tibetan mountains) coffee mixed with butter can be a good way to replenish your energy quickly, but I'm not sure how this can be extrapolated to our more sedentary lives.

Even if the boost in energy (undeniable since you're ingesting a lot of fats) does make you feel good, it doesn't necessarily translate into long term benefits.

I'm wondering if there are any studies showing the effect on cholesterol, insulin levels, fasting sugar levels, over time.

And then can't help but getting very skeptical of the whole thing when I read that some of the products on sale on the website are marketed for 'brain detox'.

Sounds like snake oil to me.

<comment><USER4> I really want to see one serious double blind study where someone extracts oil out of snakes and tests its effectiveness on various common ailments. Not for scientific rigor. At this point, I just really want to know what would happen.

<comment><USER5> See: [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/snake-oil- salesmen...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/snake-oil-salesmen- knew-something/)

They reference Kunin 1989 [1], Shirai 2002 [2], and Shirai 2007 [3].

Chinese snake oil is a reasonable source of omega-3s.

[1] [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1026931/pdf/west...](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1026931/pdf/westjmed00120-0094a.pdf) [2] [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5317(02)00426-8](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5317\(02\)00426-8) [3] [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1444-2906.2003....](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1444-2906.2003.00806.x/full)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I did this for a while a few years ago. I'm not adverse to fat and so I was all in on the butter. Bought a little hand blender/frother from amazon and went all out for about a month.

First off, the Aero Press didn't really impress. I got rid of it - it just wasn't worth it for me. I could never make it 'work', coffee was always thin.

As far as the Bulletproof coffee, it was too 'light' for me. I know Dave was talkin about making a darker roast, but at that time his roast didn't really appeal to me. I was doing French, Italian, or Espresso roasts via drip funnel for a while and I had it down pretty good. I felt like I had a pretty rich and big flavor, but I was willing to try the low toxin approach. Didn't hold me for very long.

Also, Dave says he can thrown down multiple cups of this stuff and after the first cup (I would even thrown 1/2 stick of butter in), my stomach was not happy.

I get where he is going with all this. I've been to Tibet, I've had yak tea, I've had Chai in India, etc and the Bulletproof method just didn't do it for me.

But back to fat. I've actually moved to a high fat diet (more or less). I don't do _anything_ low fat. I do veggies and meats and for the meats, I want the fat. My morning always consists of some sort of fat - only grass fed butter with eggs, full fat yogurt, etc - and it works for me. Nothing processed, whole foods only.

For my coffee I love Weavers. They have fair trade organic and their French roast is _really_ good. Prob one of the darkest roasts I've tried that just has this really killer smooth, nutty flavor. I use whole cream and a little sugar. I love it.

My weight has pretty much stabilized. I'm not super lean, but I'm not super lardo either. If I hopped back on my bike, I could prob drop 20lbs in a few months. My LDL checks in at normal and my doc said nothing is crazy out of balance.

Everyone has theories and Dave's are interesting. I guess it just boils down to trying different things and seeing what works.

<comment><USER7> Aeropress: were you using the brew method suggested in the Aeropress manual? If so, yeah, that one sucks - no wonder you didn't get on with it!

If you fancy giving it another go and haven't tried it already, the general approach used by most champion baristas who use Aeropress is much hotter water (around usual brew temperatures, 90 - 96C) and the "inverted" method - <USER2> [http://stumptowncoffee.com/brew- guides/aeropress/](http://stumptowncoffee.com/brew-guides/aeropress/)

<comment> semi-extrinsic Inverted brewing is by far the best, but if you want to stick with the standard method, buying a metal filter helps a lot. Able brewing sells a very good laser-cut stainless steel one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Dave Asprey markets well known and researched concepts under his own brand, from performance/biohackig perspective.

The bulletproof diet is basically at it's core a very low carb/paleo/ketogenic diet, incorporating intermittent fasting.

Mark Scisson has pretty much the same approach with his Primal Blueprint - re- branded diet and prepackaged lifestyle.

Using healthy fats as main energy source, skipping breakfast and excluding carbohydrates from your nutritional intake would regulate your insulin sensitivity, blood glucose levels, respectively leading to imoroved energy balance.

NOTE: references to be included.

<comment><USER9> What I like about Sisson is that he talks about things in practical senses (this is best, this is better, this is how you can deal with it in a pinch). Dave tends to be a bit more high-end with a focus on "you either do it the uber-optimized way or not at all."

No way is right (I actually tend to like the extreme ends myself), but I find Sisson's approach is typically more end-user friendly (especially for newbies).

<comment><USER10> Sisson ends up being fairly pragmatic. I really like the encouragement to do self-experiments to see what works for you. All dogma should be secondary to the results you see personally.

<comment><USER9> Agreed - he ends most posts with "see what works for you" which is refreshing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> _red lights on his head ("boosts mitochondrial function," he says)_

This seems to be about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemoencephalography](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemoencephalography) (in case you are going "What?", as I was). His company sells a machine for it.

</comment><comment><USER12> Everybody is trying to make a buck out of selling magic potions.

</comment><comment><USER13> My grandma used to make every tea cup with a piece of butter.

</comment><comment><USER14> This is a great evidence-based evaluation of Bulletproof Coffee claims by an MD/PhD: [http://evidencebasedfitness.net/yummy-but-not-special- part-i...](http://evidencebasedfitness.net/yummy-but-not-special-part-ii- bulletproof-coffee/)</comment>


Google's $6B Miscalculation on the EU - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-08-06/google-s-6-billion-miscalculation-on-the-eu

<comment><USER2> The story that Google sold itself was that Microsoft was driving the investigation to keep Google in limbo. This probably speaks more to an irrational fear of Microsoft then actual reality. It looks like the base facts are that Google had some negative impact on specific companies and people. A fact would be, Google changed something, now we rank lower, our traffic is was x now it is y. These facts have different stories based on who is telling them. One story is that Google is using its monopoly position to hurt competition. Another is that Google is providing a better customer experience. At the same time it looks like the main critics are also subject to regulation and as such they are using the regulatory sledgehammer to drive their outcomes which could be as abstract as hey we are regulated and so you should be. For Google to achieve its goals, it needs lay a common ground with its critics. Perhaps the strategy here is to achieve consensus in favor of broad deregulation.

Uber will have similar issues where some locales will ban them and others will allow them. To succeed they have to push for deregulation as well.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think a lot of their problems in this area stem from an arrogance that they seem to have where they think they're right or doing the right thing at all times, or at least don't seem to acknowledge their mistakes properly.</comment>


Day 166: To all my friends without children. - <AUTHOR> http://jasongood.net/365/2011/06/day-166-to-all-my-friends-without-children/

<comment><USER2> Absolutely understandable by me, I am in the exact same situation.

Having kids alters your life dramatically.</comment>


Show HN: gr:)interest uses the power of the group to help make good ideas happen - <AUTHOR> http://www.grinterest.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> A group of people is stronger than a single person. The simple concept behind gr:)interest is to use the wisdom of crowds to figure out what needs to happen, then do what we can to help make it happen.

Please take a look and give any feedback you might have, pro or con. Thank you.</comment>


Researchers show children are silent spreaders of virus that causes Covid-19 - <AUTHOR> https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200820102442.htm <comment><AUTHOR> >Pediatric SARS-CoV-2: Clinical Presentation, Infectivity, and Immune Responses

[https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(20)31023-4/fulltext](https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476\(20\)31023-4/fulltext)</comment>


The US government's web traffic - <AUTHOR> https://analytics.usa.gov <comment><USER2> If anyone would like to see, use or contribute to the code we used to build the Dashboard, we're on GitHub: [https://github.com/GSA/analytics.usa.gov](https://github.com/GSA/analytics.usa.gov)

And also open-sourced the adapter we use to get the data out of Google Analytics and into a nice clean JSON API for our client-side static app to consume:

[https://github.com/18F/analytics-reporter](https://github.com/18F/analytics- reporter)

<comment><USER3> There was a bit of a kerfuffle around Healthcare.gov sending data to analytics services (despite that being industry standard practice), so I'm curious if there's any push to ditch Google Analytics, etc., for .gov, and move analytics services in-house.

<comment><USER4> Can you be more specific about what you mean by "kerfuffle"? This is the same healthcare.gov that was/is sending PHI data to 3rd parties analytics and ad services (doubleclick, etc)?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> 28.3% on IE, 41% on Windows 7. Wow.

It's odd, being in the tech bubble, you forget how many people there are that really don't think about their technology (or work somewhere for whom the most important things are cost and stability).

It would be interesting to take a poll of what people _think_ the numbers would be like before they saw them. I would have guessed a lot more Chrome/FF.

<comment><USER6> What's wrong with Windows 7? The majority of the world runs Windows and 7 is a fine choice. It's rock solid and there's really no reason to upgrade to 8.

<comment><USER5> Nothing is "wrong" with it, I'm just surrounded by people who obsess about tech all day and go after whatever is newest and shiniest - if you're not running chromium on your 15" retina macbook pro then you're obviously incompetent.

Turns out for most people stability and cost are much more important than having something incrementally better.

Not passing judgment on one or the other, just thought it an interesting realization.

For what it's worth, I run Windows on a virtual machine to do some stuff and I use 7.

<comment><USER7> I work in tech and take the latest shiniest things very seriously. But when it comes to PCs I don't put Windows 8 in that category, for me it's an egregious regression in UX quality and pleasure of use than Win7. Hope springs eternal for windows 10, but for me Win8 is so packed full of annoyances that I would never consider it to be an upgrade from 7.

<comment><USER8> Have to agree here... my company even develops primarily for Win8, so its not as if I'm not used to using it, but I still vastly prefer Windows 7.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> If you'd like to build things like this Dashboard, and help fix the services Americans depend on, we are hiring. We have an amazing core already, and are growing fast. Read more about the U.S. Digital Service and apply at: [https://www.whitehouse.gov/usds](https://www.whitehouse.gov/usds)

Our pitch is pretty simple: Fix Stuff That Matters.

<comment><USER9> While you might be hiring, it was remarkably hard to find any details on job listings. (edit: I don't think I actually found any.) The closest I could find was by following many links and eventually getting a web form where I could give my contact info for joining the Digital Service.

Is there a chance you could put a more convenient link directly to your listing of jobs (or a friendly page that links directly to USAJOBS, or explains about that painful tar baby) at the bottom of the main 18F page?

<comment><USER10> This 18F blog post talks about the different types of roles people play on our team: [https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/02/25/We-Are- Hiring/](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/02/25/We-Are-Hiring/) . The application form for the Presidential Innovation Fellowship program also calls out specific skills and domain expertise they're looking for: [https://pif.gsa.gov/](https://pif.gsa.gov/) . Cheers!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Gov.UK has something similar.

The detail: [https://www.gov.uk/performance/site- activity](https://www.gov.uk/performance/site-activity)

By department: [https://www.gov.uk/performance/web- traffic](https://www.gov.uk/performance/web-traffic)

All Gov.UK and digital services performance data: [https://www.gov.uk/performance](https://www.gov.uk/performance)

<comment><USER12> Really interesting to see a spike in people switching from desktop to mobile and tablet at Christmas - and then switching back afterwards!

<comment><USER13> Or prison visits for that matter:

[https://www.gov.uk/performance/prison- visits/volumetrics](https://www.gov.uk/performance/prison-visits/volumetrics)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I love this.

Top Pages right now:

Where's My Refund? - It's Quick, Easy and Secure. 4,600

"You take ~40% of my money every year. And you took _too much_ this year. Give me a little back, please?"

National Weather Service 1,858

"What's the weather gonna be?"

National Weather Service - Forecasts by Region 1,846

"Will it rain today?"

Internal Revenue Service 1,672

"Let me spend a few hundred hours figuring out how to pay you for the weather."

NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 1,155

"What is the weather today, though, seriously?"

myUSCIS - Case Status 1,053

"Please let me in so that I can work in your private sector."

The United States Social Security Administration 921

"Where's my check this month?"

<comment><USER15> What on earth are you doing that you pay a 40% effective tax rate and spend a few hundred hours doing your tax return?

<comment><USER16> Medium volume day trading (hundreds or thousands of transactions per day), where you make $500k per year (which will get you to the 40% marginal tax rate, 31% effective). Have to account for the basis of every trade, all short- term gains/losses, and let's assume they're doing that accounting work themselves (the hundreds of hours is a stretch though), and that they're not plugging a csv file into a program to take care of it for them so it's all manual gain/loss matching.

That's about as close as I could come without getting silly. Even oil companies like Exxon don't end up paying 40% (35% effective I think in their last fiscal year).

If you make $5+ million per year, and have nothing to offset any of that, you can end up paying over 40%. Pretty rare group of people likely to fall into that.

<comment><USER17> Add the ~8% spent by the employer for Medicare and Social Security, and the 31% effective rate becomes ~39%, doesn't it? For income above $200K, there's also an "Additional Medicare Tax" of 0.9%.

<comment><USER18> I always hear this comical assumption that the employee would automatically receive the matching Social Security and Medicare tax amounts if they were repealed but do you honestly believe that to be true and it wouldn't just go towards padding margins or buying more office supplies?

Employers by definition want to pay employees as little as possible, only enough so they stay.

<comment><USER17> I think you may have failed to think of freelancers, who are often employed by their own company.

Secondly, the specific effects of repealing a tax doesn't make it any less real.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Hmm, I was expecting to see what sites government employees were visiting the most. Probably not for a few years at least :)

</comment><comment><USER20> There's a similar service in place for Gov.UK: [https://www.gov.uk/performance/site- activity](https://www.gov.uk/performance/site-activity)

Nice to see IE gets updated a lot quicker in the US than it does in the UK (though there aren't browser usage statistics available for Gov.UK sites I don't think...)!

<comment><USER21> Browser stats for gov.uk sites: [http://data.gov.uk/data/site- usage#totals](http://data.gov.uk/data/site-usage#totals)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> That is one very sexy government website.

</comment><comment><USER23> Wow beautiful site, nice work to all involved! I found there's a good blog post about how it all works too: [https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/19/how-we-built- analytics-usa-go...](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/19/how-we-built-analytics- usa-gov/) It's all static pages with JSON data pulled in from reporting services that use Node. Very cool!

</comment><comment><USER24> This data is really valuable to gauge OS & browser usage. Like anything, I would expect it to have some sampling bias in it, but I can't think of better sources for this data. Google, perhaps. (does Google release this type of data?)

I would love to see some history to understand what's growing, what's in decline, and how rapidly.

</comment><comment><USER25> What scares me is Safari's Usage is higher than the Mac usage. Does that mean people are using the old Safari on Windows?

<comment><USER26> Safari (20.4%) < Mac (9.1%) + iOS (16.7%)

Probably not an issue of Safari for Windows, but not accounting for the mobile users. That sums to 25.8% so around 5.4% of Mac + iOS users are using something other than Safari (the vast majority of that is likely Mac users).

<comment><USER27> The non-Safari visits from Mac + iOS are actually 5.4% of _all_ visits, or about about 21% of Mac + iOS visits.

(5.4% / 25.8% = 20.9%)

<comment><USER26> Yes, thanks. That's what I meant to write.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Are DHHS and Ed not on there yet? Or do they just not rank very highly?

<comment><USER29> They're on there - they just aren't popular enough to rank. Some DHS services are there (like USCIS).

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> The petitions are ranking pretty high...

</comment><comment><USER31> Really surprised Safari accounts for 20% of the visitors on Gov sites but MacOS only 9.1%. Means 10.9% of those are Windows Safari users.

<comment><USER32> Mobile safari?

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> [http://i.imgur.com/H3E8NMh.png](http://i.imgur.com/H3E8NMh.png)

They can't get a number sorting algorithm right? :/

<comment><USER34> Look slightly to the right and you'll see why.</comment></comment>


Swiss City Of Bern To Switch To Free And Open Source IT Solutions - <AUTHOR> http://www.muktware.com/4955/swiss-city-bern-switch-free-and-open-source-it-solutions

<comment><USER2> It's quite interesting, since Switzerland has been quite "under the thumb" for a while when it comes to proprietory software, so this comes as a welcome relief.

Disclaimer: I live and work in Switzerland.

<comment><USER3> Quite unrelated but could I ask you a question or two (via e-mail/irc) about working in Swiss IT?

<comment><USER2> sure. email's on my profile.

edit: ok.. my username at bluewin dot ch (however, i'm going to bed soon, so you may get an answer in some hours..! ;) )

<comment><USER3> then you've hidden it well ^^ I don't see it. edit: cheers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The city of Munich even has created their own Linux distro in 2006, called LiMux, which is part of the identically named LiMux project, aimed at switching all their software systems to free and open source software. (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux>)

</comment><comment><USER5> Swiss Neutrality

</comment><comment><USER6> Cool. It would be interesting to see an estimate of the savings from software license purchases they no longer have to make, and what they plan to do with the savings.

</comment><comment><USER7> Hopefully this will contribute to improve the open source office software.</comment>


Facebook for Spies?  You're kidding, right? - <AUTHOR> http://www.altgate.com/blog/2008/09/facebook-for-sp.html

<comment><USER2> _"... Facebook for spies ..."_

Of course they do.

People centric information are what Security Services are interested in. Being able to analyse and evaluate the mulit-dimensional networks people create (time, space, financial, other people) is important to understand their activities. Registries in the Intelligence services store the raw information but having an interactive layer above the raw intelligence is bread and butter for companies like I2 in the UK ~ <http://www.i2.co.uk/company/default.asp> In fact they have an (desktop) SIS module ~ <http://www.i2.co.uk/solutions/sis/default.asp> Having web based solutions along similar lines is not beyond reality. Take a look at the types of technology jobs available in the UK Services may give you a better idea ~ <https://www.mi5careers.gov.uk/job.aspx?jobid=141>

</comment><comment><USER3> I just thought "facebook for spies" was just an analogy. Don't expect "About me" and "Quotes" sections and user profiles. I just assume it will be a way to trade information between agencies via user-defines relationships.

And of course, it won't be a web site connected to the public network.

Hell, I'd be surprised if they didn't have something like this already in place...

<comment><AUTHOR> The CIA dude on CNN showed an "about" page (and seemed to be showing it off as some sort of novelty).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> That has got to be either the dumbest satire ever, or the worst idea our gov has had since they allowed that "Matrix" documentary out into theatres.

</comment><comment><USER5> the gov't isn't as sophisticated as we would like to believe.

</comment><comment><USER6> this is disinformation.

<comment><AUTHOR> you think?</comment></comment>


Why I am not buying an autonomous car - <AUTHOR> http://jamespmcgrath.com/why-i-am-not-buying-an-autonomous-car/

<comment><AUTHOR> Being a reluctant car owner I am looking forward to this becoming a reality. I can only imagine that it is going to decimate the car industry though.

p.s. I totally submitted my own blog to HN. Shameful really :-)

</comment><comment><USER2> tl;dr play on words: you don't _buy_ an autonomous car.</comment>


One more thing — Google is switching all employees to Macs - <AUTHOR> http://www.fakesteve.net/2010/02/one-more-thing-google-is-switching-all-employees-to-macs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheSecretDiaryOfSteveJobs+%28The+Secret+Diary+of+Steve+Jobs%29 <comment> mike-cardwell I'm assuming this was supposed to be a joke? But it wasn't funny, and the kid looks like a bit of a spaz, so maybe it's not. Who knows.

<comment><USER2> Never heard of Fake Steve Jobs before?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lyons></comment></comment>