Whatever happened to 'Japan'? - <AUTHOR> http://potlatch.typepad.com/weblog/2011/02/whatever-happened-to-japan.html <comment><USER2> I spent a couple of weeks in Japan last summer and spent a lot of time thinking in the context of Japan being a lens through which we can divine insight towards where we are headed as a country in the future.

There are two major issues facing the Japanese economy. Nepotism of the old (there is a much more succinct word for this, but it escapes me) and the incredibly long life expectancy of the population. The nepotism of the old (someone please tell me the name for this) is causing issues in a few different ways.

The older government officials are notorious for taking private sector positions in the very industries they previously regulated. This happens so frequently there is actually a Japanese phrase to describe it (again I can't remember for the life of me what this phrase is). In America this happens, but isn't nearly as blatant or widespread. It Japan it is a near guarantee.

The older population in Japan has a stranglehold on influencing public policy. They are a huge block of voters who actually turn out for elections. They consistently vote for, or force politicians to push for, unsustainable short- term solutions to problems. Japan has a pension crisis similar to our social security problem. Everyone knows it is unsustainable, yet the older people vote for it and push the burden onto the young.

The young people entering the economy don't have the job availability they need. Old people aren't retiring as early as they once were and basically aren't getting out of the way for the young. People are living longer and need to work longer. As a result, young workers are forced to be underemployed and struggle to become part of the economy.

There is also the issue of failure being viewed as shameful. There is very little entrepreneurial activity going on in the country so they don't have this potential of creating jobs for the economy.

The long life expectancy is exacerbating all of the above issues. That said, Japan is a fascinating place, the projections towards the strain social security and medicare taking on our economy in the future are good proof that Japan may still offer insight towards our own future.

<comment><USER3> > _The young people entering the economy don't have the job availability they > need. Old people aren't retiring as early as they once were and basically > aren't getting out of the way for the young. People are living longer and > need to work longer. As a result, young workers are forced to be > underemployed and struggle to become part of the economy._

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding your argument or not, but it sounds like you're saying that the more old people work, the fewer young people can, i.e. there are a fixed number of jobs. If this were truly the way economics worked, then it would be easiest to find in places full of lazy and/or incapable people. This isn't the case though.

As long as there exist services or makable things that people want enough to spend money on, there are always jobs to be done. Maybe the issue is in education, willingness to retrain, liquidity of job markets, or hurdles to starting businesses, but I don't believe that old people working means that young people can't.

If 99% of Japanese companies truly did hire old people into upper management _who weren't as capable as younger people_ at doing their work, the other 1% would eat them alive.

<comment><USER4> _If 99% of Japanese companies truly did hire old people into upper management who weren't as capable as younger people at doing their work, the other 1% would eat them alive._

"Doing one's work" in the modern world does not happen in a vacuum. If substantial segments of the market refuse to do business with you on the basis of your age, yeah, you're not going to be quite the stellar businessman.

When performance is measured by how much money you extract from a few organizations (think government contracting, think enterprise sales, think manufacturing), institutional prejudice can become one of the primary factors determining success.

<comment><USER3> Yes, that's a reasonable scenario for heavily regulated industries, some B2B and most government work. It doesn't really address my point about "running out of jobs", though.

Older people doing jobs of that sort in no way means that there's a shortage of work younger people could do... unless you're implying that Japanese people are both

1) unwilling to purchase goods and services outside of large industries that discriminate against young people

and

2) incapable of creating goods or services non-Japanese would pay for

<comment><USER4> When people say "jobs" they usually mean "access to an upwardly-mobile career path".

Most of the goods and services that _I_ purchase, anyways, are enabled by some sort of expensive and heavily regulated infrastructure. Every physical object that I buy was produced by a factory and purchased at a large retail outlet. The main services I pay for are communication-related (cell phone, internet, etc. - huge infrastructure there), automobile maintenance-related, and liability-related (e.g. insurance), medical-related, and the occasional meal at a restaurant. The only ones of those that one can do as a _small business_ are automobile repair and food services, neither of which are the first things I think of when I hear "upward mobility".

Basically every highly-upwardly-mobile profession relies on expensive infrastructure (communications), access to an enormous pool of money (insurance), good relations with government regulators (law, medicine, insurance, communications), access to a large distribution channel (retail), or manufacturing (retail). There are some peripheral service professions (advertising, real estate brokership, stock brokership), that rely on having a good relationship with a wealthy clientele, not to mention a good relationship with regulators.

Basically, upward mobility relies on existing infrastructure _of some kind_ , and if someone who isn't you and doesn't like you controls it, you're fucked.

So, you know, they could write web apps, since no one really controls the internet. Maybe. And they probably won't get VC funding. Or get bought by a company, unless they're _really_ profitable. Or get advertising deals.

It's only in web app land that 2) is possible without manufacturing, and the Japanese are at a steep disadvantage because of the language barrier.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "The future will now be produced by cheap and abundant labour, not by mysterious oriental tech-wizardry (NB I am trying to describe an imaginary, not a reality!). "

This is an artefact of today, not the future. As has happened in the developed world the developing world will eventually see automation and robotics become cheaper than human labour. Possibly within the next decade or two. Once this point is reached and those countries haven't lifted themselves up they're screwed. They'll have a massive number of undereducated, illiterate and underemployed people.

This is not China's century as many people are saying. Robotics will turn vast numbers of people in to a liability, not an asset.

<comment><USER6> On the flip side, if robotics are taking care of mass production with very little human input, 3d printing and other emergent home technologies will create an explosion in artisan production.

We're about to see a shift in the material world similar to the way the open source world changed software.

<comment><USER7> I don't see how "open source" had all that big of an impact on software.

IMO, "open source" software fills the same roll as government spending on infrastructure. Basically, contributing a small amount of energy for a share of a public good has a net positive result. But, little changes from the perspective of a user or a developer.

<comment><USER8> "Little changes" from the perspective of a developer? I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one.

If I'm not mistaken (please correct me if I am), a plurality (if not an outright majority) of web servers are run using an open source OS. jQuery/Prototype/MooTools together hold an obscenely high share of the JavaScript library market. The great majority of websites on the internet run some combination of PHP, Python, Ruby, many of those running open-source frameworks like Pylons, RoR, CodeIgniter, Kohana, web2py, Django, etc. A great number of developers code using Vim, Eclipse, or some other open source text editor.

And from the perspective of the user? It's hard to quantify this just by saying "Firefox" or "Chrome" or the "V8 JavaScript Engine". I think open source projects (like jQuery) benefit hugely from crowd sourcing their problems. By making their bug reports and code public, they allow someone like me to fork the project on GitHub, fix the bugs, and issue a pull request back to the master branch. They're basically fine-tuning their product without doing nearly as much work as closed-source shops without paying the person for fixing the problem. To the user, it looks like things get done quickly and bugs tend to come far less often (if the crowd sourcing is done right).

In my humble estimation, these are rather important considerations when judging the success of open source...and these are only web technologies.

<comment><USER7> After many years of software development I have briefly used Eclipse which sucked (IMO) and VIM which was slightly better than good old vanilla VI and nothing else on your list. (Note: as a developer.) Granted, I don't do a lot of web development but my point is just because there are some popular tools for your nitch does not mean there has been a fundamental shift in software.

<comment><USER9> Open source is way bigger than that. But, if you didn't like Eclipse or vim. What did you like?

<comment><USER7> BBedit was more useful for me than vim (at the time).

Recently I find Visual Studio is a nice IDE and last time I compared them Eclipse was clearly worse (it's been a few years). However, I have used a wide range of things from early versions of Borland Pascal and various things I can't even recall on old versions of Mac OS etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The 80's were Japan's time in the sun. I remember shock waves in the Valley when HP announced that it was no longer going to use US-made memory chips because Japanese ones were so much better. And a picture in Forbes Magazine open on a Tokyo sidewalk, saying that the real estate taken up by the magazine was worth $500,000K or some such astronomical number. General Motors announced that its goal was to make a car as good as a Toyota. And for us technical types the big shock was the Fifth Generation Computer Project was going to make Silicon Valley a backwater. Well it didnt happen that way. US semiconductor manufacturers learned to make chips, companies learned just in time inventory control and QC, and the Fifth Gen computer was overtaken by the PC, Moore's law, and the internet. (OK we did loose Detroit.) Then the 90's came and the Japanese economy tanked from the real estate bubble, insane infrastructure protects, and fiscal mismanagement, and never recovered dominance.

<comment><USER11> >US semiconductor manufacturers learned to make chips

No they didn't - the chips are now made in Singapore or Malaysia with Japanese plant. When did you last see a US mask stepper?

GM make a car as good as a Toyota? I think their current goal is to make a car as good as a Fiat.

<comment><USER12> That's odd, I seem to recall Intel, AMD and IBM having major chip fabs in the US, Germany and Israel. Or are you talking about something different (I don't know much about mask steppers)?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There's comment made on the site under the post which I think is the most accurate, concise, spot on explanation of the difference between the Japanese market and the American market. Here it is:"Could Japan be a secret counter- example to the worldview that sees prosperity coming only from high growth? Maybe the Japanese have in many ways decided that they don't want high growth lives?"

I say the answer to that likely rhetorical question is YES. I've been traveling to Japan for business for 10 years and I think this difference in approach is the chief reason why most American firms never really 'get' Japan. Their business motives and market DNA are fundamentally different from America's devotion to growth and scale. In Japan it's not about growth, it's about consistency and quality, often even to the detriment of the business.

I think that's also why, in terms of tech startups, Korea & China & Singapore will ultimately leave Japan behind.

</comment><comment><USER14> Japan became America.

Labor prices went up to ours, people grew to want their pensions just like us, the old are living longer just like us, they now want the good things in life just like us.

In the short time since World War II, they have grown to have that good life. And in that they have become more and more plagued with the same benefits and detractions that we've been enjoying. During the time they were rapidly advancing, they had the same abilities as us, but a different lifestyle. And they beat us.

But what was the point of their growth? The point was to get to where we are. And now that they're the same as us, in the end, they'll just be the same as us.

China's the same. One day all of China will be just like America. And then they won't be competitive. Until then, they'll eat our lunch because although they can do the same things as us, they just don't yet have our standard of living.

</comment><comment><USER15> Curious coindidence – I was thinking about this the other day, wading through Gibson's _Neuromancer_. The novel, just like earlier Stephenson fiction, paints a not-too-distant future entirely dominated by "Nipponese" brands and cultural artefacts. _Neuromancer_ was published in 1984. A lot has changed ever since.</comment>


Killing Lone Cancer Cells Using Alpha-Particles - <AUTHOR> http://thefutureofthings.com/3182-killing-lone-cancer-cells-using-alpha-particles/ <comment><USER2> It looks like an interesting idea, but the article is not clear about how advanced is the investigation. The devil is in the details, it's not easy to transform an interesting idea into a reliable treatment. Did they have test in vitro? Rats? Which kind of cancer?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This a gun made for cancel.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you fall (back) asleep? - <AUTHOR> The world is quite stressful these days. There are a lot of problems to solve, people to help, and bills to pay. I feel like I'm in college again, wondering how in the heck I'll graduate. Except now, replace graduate with "live a full life."
So. How do you manage to fall (back) asleep?
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated :) <comment><USER2> Two things: breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR).

Breathing:

Breathe in deeply for about a 4 count, out for about twice as long. Focus your mind on your breathing: "I'm just focusing on my breath".

Andrew Weil advocates a 4-7-8 pattern: inhale deeply into your belly (not chest) for 4, hold the breath for 7, then exhale for 8. He demonstrates it here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz4G31LGyog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz4G31LGyog)

PMR:

Here's an explanation of how to do it: [https://www.uofmhealth.org/health- library/uz2225](https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/uz2225)

Both of these engage the parasympathetic nervous system--the 'rest and digest' system. Learning about this and how to 'hack' it has changed my life. Nothing else has worked for me for sleep and general anxiety.

</comment><comment><USER3> To understand the concept of sleep, we need to look at the concept of rest, autonomous nervous system, cortisol, and its regulators.

Source, Internet, disclaimer, not a medical or sleep professional. Use this only as hear-say.

Why do we need sleep - because we need to rest before our next conquest in life, which is tomorrow.

What our autonomous sympathetic nervous system does - it knows! It knows how nasty tomorrow is. We call this stress! Depending on the level of stress and ferocity or importance of the stressors, the nervous system decides that it is enough if you sleep for 3 hours in this time of personal emergency. So it wakes you up in 3 hours. But it is also kind! It produces cortisol, a pain reducing hormone so that, "hey my human, I woke you up in just 3 hours. So that you have 21 hours to solve our problems, so that we can have a happy future. Btw, it is painful, so I also spiked your blood with 500mg of cortisol so that you wont hurt". Sounds fair?

There you go. You are wide awake at 2.00 am, painless yet tired, nothing to do as the day hasn't started. Tossing in the bed.

Thus far we gave the definition of the problem.

What is the solution. We can go two ways.

We obey the brain. We get up, and do some meaningful work, and tell yourself, yeah, we did this so now my day is looking better. Then go to bed. The brain knows! So it lets you sleep another 3 hours. And you repeat. One day your problems will be really over. You sleep full night.

Second solution. Your problems may not be solved by you doing anything. Then, you do something to kill the cortisol. It is the baffle on which your brain is balancing your body. You knock it out. How? Vitamin C. It kills Cortisol. So take 5g of Vitamin C in drink form before bed. Take a drink of Vitamin C every time you wake. It should work. There are other Cortisol regulators, but none have the convenience, cost advantage and additional benefits of Vit C.

<comment><USER4> Do you have a reference you can share re: vit C?

<comment><USER3> [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27507778/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27507778/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There is a genre of nonsense stream of speech radio that helps some tune out and people sleep. [https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/](https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/) [https://wfmu.org/playlists/HA](https://wfmu.org/playlists/HA)

Personally I find TTRPG actual play podcasts can make me drift off.

ACT cognitive therapy has some good advice about intrusive thoughts, and acceptance de-fusion of thoughts. That can help break the cycle of worrying about worrying.

No caffeine after midday, make sure to get some exercise during the day, keep lights dim, and try a pair of 3m peltors

</comment><comment><USER6> Hi. I have been trying this technique for a few days and it is getting better as I practice.

[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/national-napping- da...](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/national-napping- day-2019-fall-asleep-fast-military-trick-sleep-a8817826.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> These seem great, I'll give them a try. Thank you!

<comment><USER7> Yup, I tried this too, and it works (for me at least)!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Waking up at the same time everyday!

Sounds counter intuitive but forcing myself to wake up at the same time irrespective of the quality of sleep has forced my body to adapt. If some reason I couldn't get a good sleep, I still force myself to get up at the scheduled time. This makes me drowsy on the day but I will be tired enough to get a deep sleep next day. If I let myself take few more hours of nap by snoozing because I didn't got enough sleep that spirals down.

</comment><comment><USER9> I don't try to fight it. Get up, make a cup of coffee, start my day essentially. About 30 mins in I will feel like I need a nap. So I nap and then wake up at a reasonable hour.

</comment><comment><USER10> I can relate. I have this problem most nights. What works for me is pretending to be asleep. In most cases, in less than 10 mins I will fall back to sleep. Of course all of this happens after I used the bathroom, check the doors and look out the front window.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree, the pretending to be asleep part usually works for me too. But as soon as I realize it didn't work...then my mind takes off. Checking the doors and looking out the windows aren't things I've tried yet, though. Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Melatonin, but I'm not sure if it eventually became a trigger via placebo.

The other is I let my eyelids sit heavy while I read (1/2 open).

Basically whatever tricks my body into sleep mode.

</comment><comment><USER7> I have two children </comment>


Here's What A Card Skimmer Looks Like On An ATM - <AUTHOR> http://consumerist.com/5218680/heres-what-a-card-skimmer-looks-like-on-an-atm

<comment><USER2> Recently I noticed that banks began securing they ATMs against skimmers: ATMs display a picture of card reader with a message "Please make sure it looks like the one on the picture. If not, don't insert your card and call us."

I wonder if this works.

<comment><USER3> sounds like the "don't use if seal is broken" warning. if i'm planning on tampering with it, wouldn't i remove the warning about the broken seal too?

<comment><USER4> Depends on the design. I think the glass jars do this really really well. The seal is obvious - and it can easily be checked if it's broken or not

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some of the skimmers i've seen pics of online are pretty darn convincing. I'm definitely going to try and keep a eye out and always try to be a little "rough" with the card slot at atms.

</comment><comment><USER6> I remember reading in one of Bruce Schneier's books that some clever thiefs set up a fake ATM machine outside the Burlington Mall in CT. When people went to withdraw money, the machine recorded their credentials and then displayed an ambiguous error message.

You have to wonder how they got the information from the machine, as it would have been relatively easy for the police to watch it once someone figured out it was a fake.

<comment><USER7> WiFi

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> All on ATM skimmers: [http://logs.shashikant.in/post/98607370/what-is-an-atm- skimm...](http://logs.shashikant.in/post/98607370/what-is-an-atm-skimmer)

</comment><comment><USER8> The card skimmers I see now are lit up with an internal ring of green LEDs to reassure the consumer (I always whack it with my hand).</comment>


Saudi prince invests $300 million in Twitter - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3Nk_HUGilGKjSdSBe0wlqNeUdYg?docId=ed903df8db814df7b2f227cc983835d9

<comment><USER2> Very interesting, but it really makes me wonder.

If Twitter is making money, why dilute the shares with investment like this?

I'm sure one response is 'so they can grow the company', but that seems like a bit of a hard sell at this point.

How big does a company like Twitter really need to grow in order to be successful enough that they don't need to take $300 million investment deals? I mean, they are already the #1 provider of 140 character communication.

What is next?

<comment><USER3> I am not certain but it is possible that this was a secondary market purchase. The fact that it was announced by the Prince and not announced as a funding round by Twitter suggests a secondary market purchase.

In other words, the Saudi Prince may have bought the stake from an existing Twitter investor.

<comment><USER4> I think this is a direct investment at least according to WSJ, "Twitter spokesman Matt Graves confirmed the investment" [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020479110457710...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204791104577107733831343976.html)

<comment><USER3> That is a good find but it is not dispositive. For various legal reasons many people want secondary market transactions in securities that are not registered to happen through the company. So this may still be a secondary market transaction, but I am sure we will find out soon enough.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hearing news like this, I can't help wondering what will happen to twitter if/when the Arab Spring spreads to Saudi Arabia.

<comment><USER6> Presumably users would switch to alternatives in case of intervention, which would be a big hit to this prince's investment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Anybody know if this was a direct investment, or through a secondary market?

<comment><USER8> "Invests $300 million in Twitter" means "not secondary market."

<comment><USER9> How do you figure? The Saudi Prince is "investing" regardless of how the equity is purchased. The question is if this is an "investment" from twitter's perspective. Signs seem to point to no.

<comment><USER8> The word "in" means "in", which means "not secondary market."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I find it interesting that a government which allegedly funds terrorism [1] also funds a company which is supposed to be the shining beacon of transparency and a tool which has been crucial to the Arab Spring movements.

Wonder how much of an influence this will have on Twitter's self-censorship.

[1] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/wikileaks- cables...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/wikileaks-cables-saudi- terrorist-funding)

</comment><comment><USER11> How much of Twitter does that get him?

<comment><USER12> Using the $8 Billion valuation, around 3.75% of Twitter.

<comment><USER13> This concerns me about my investment as a user in Twitter. Even if it's only 3.75% of Twitter the company now owns, I don't necessarily want to support the venture of a Saudi billionaire. Maybe if they are really proponents freedom of speech and the press, it isn't such a bad thing.

<comment><USER14> I'm sure you don't drive a car, either.

<comment><USER15> Yes, and here's to hoping he doesn't do any business with Citibank, directly or indirectly.

<comment><USER16> Or uses any Apple products. Or Owns a car or truck from GM. The prince has huge stakes in each

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Good time to reduce holdings if you're an insider or early investor.

</comment><comment><USER17> If SOPA passes, surely this will be a regrettable decision...

</comment><comment><USER18> He was originally looking to splash money on a football (soccer in the US) club, but could not find one to buy, so... ;-)

</comment><comment><USER19> Feeling pwnage right now.

</comment><comment><USER20> To those wondering if this is a secondary purchase, the keyword I see here is 'Invests'. It is very different from "Saudi Prince _buys_ $300m worth of Twitter shares".

<comment><USER21> Buying $300m worth of Twitter stock would be an investment.

In any reasonable scenario, he is purchasing shares of stock in a company on the hopes their value will rise. Doesn't matter who he is purchasing them _from_ , it's still an investment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> FYI this is a secondary purchase (ie it was not an investment in twitter directly, but rather he purchased shares from other investors): [http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/19/saudi-prince- deal-...](http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/19/saudi-prince-deal-for- twitter-is-a-secondary/)

</comment><comment><USER23> Smart investment. Twitter has really changed news and personal broadcasting in ways many of us don't appreciate. And Twitter has some of the smartest people dispersing pearls of wisdom and knowledge like nowhere else.

Again, Twitter is a smart investment - in more ways than just money.

<comment><USER24> _"And Twitter has some of the smartest people dispersing pearls of wisdom and knowledge like nowhere else"_

You should check out the library.

<comment><USER23> Twitter is easy to mock, but I suggest you compile a list of your favorite thought leaders on twitter, then have the list emailed to you via a service like tweetymail.

Then you'll start to get a glimpse of how potent twitter can be.

<comment><USER24> Who is mocking? I use Twitter regularly. But I'm not the one claiming that it's the greatest source of wisdom and knowledge on the planet. It's an interesting and useful form of media, but it's not even clear whether there's a viable business model in there.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


It's time to replace passwords with keys - <AUTHOR> http://bryan-murdock.blogspot.com/2018/03/it-is-time-to-replace-passwords-with.html <comment><USER2> Moving in that direction: [https://www.w3.org/TR/webauthn/](https://www.w3.org/TR/webauthn/)

<comment><AUTHOR> That looks pretty cool at first glance — I need to spend some time reading it in my free time to figure it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm slacking right now from a project that's tackling this right now. I'm taking this as a sign to get back to work.

</comment><comment><USER4> I would add, it is time to use properly managed keys. i.e. ssh keys with passwords and IP restrictions. Even better, a centralized CA and expiration of keys.

Keys can be equally as dangerous as passwords if not managed correctly. Public keys, even more so. What systems and accounts trust my public key? Who knows? What is managing and mapping that? Did I have sudo for a while and shove my public key into your authorized_keys file? Are your ssh instances using the default location for authorized_keys that users can write to? Is this appropriate in your use case? Certainly not for production machines, right?

Do you rotate your ssh keys that are used in automation? Are your keys limited to specific CIDR blocks? etc... things to consider.

</comment><comment><USER5> [https://keybase.io](https://keybase.io)

It's mission is to bring public key cryptography to the masses, starting with programmers. The amount of progress that they've made in the last two years is actually quite impressive.

<comment><USER6> Keybase is how I found this site. Was looking through the list of accounts I could prove, and figured this was worth checking out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> >People can't barely manage passwords, they can't manage them at all.

This is like walking in a room, seeing a tiny speck of red paint on the wall and saying that the wall is painted red.

Virtually everyone who owns a computer uses passwords, and probably 0.1-1% use a password manager. The others manage the passwords with memorization or post- it-notes just fine. Sometimes they forget, but email password resets solve that problem.

They're not _trivial_ for developers, but you shouldn't care about that. You should care about the end result and UX.

Passwords are simple. No alternative is better because it's a solved problem. End of story.

<comment><USER8> More users will use password managers if you include those who use browsers' "remember my password for this site" functionality.

<comment><USER9> Even better, ship it with operating system like so: [https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/16/windows-10-bundled- passw...](https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/16/windows-10-bundled-password- manager-had-security-flaw/)

/s

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Car keys and house keys could be implemented as U2F tokens. A person could carry a single device, which could be a discrete token like a Yubikey, or virtualized in a phone, to authenticate to work, home, car, and computers.

I wish Tesla would adopt U2F. They already have something that seems to be BLE/NFC for the Model 3.</comment>


Richard Stallman steps down as as head of the GNU Project, effective immediately - <AUTHOR> https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul-oct.html#28_September_2019_(GNU_Project) <comment><USER2> Someone on Reddit says that his site might have been vandalized, and that it was previously vandalized yesterday: [https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/dambxx/stallman_step...](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/dambxx/stallman_steps_down_as_a_head_of_the_gnu_project/f1qz2l9/)

It's a bit suspicious because a) he just said two days ago that he has no intention of stepping down from GNU [https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info- gnu/2019-09/msg00008...](https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info- gnu/2019-09/msg00008.html) and b) there's another copy of the entry dated yesterday, deeper on the page: [https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul- oct.html#27_September...](https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul- oct.html#27_September_2019_\(GNU_Project\))

It 100% wouldn't surprise me if he didn't have adequate security for his personal website. He comes from a culture of leaving doors unlocked and passwords unset, and he also doesn't actually participate in the modern web (he has a daily cronjob that emails him text dumps of web pages he wants to read, he doesn't "browse" the web in any me), and his personal site is probably not actually run by the FSF or anyone else with experience in running websites.

<comment><USER3> I feel like I remember him running Unix servers back in the 1990s that were _deliberately_ insecure, because computer security was itself immoral. I don't know that he actually runs this site, though.

<comment><USER4> Check the last section of [https://ftp.gnu.org/old- gnu/Manuals/coreutils-4.5.4/html_nod...](https://ftp.gnu.org/old- gnu/Manuals/coreutils-4.5.4/html_node/coreutils_149.html):

" _Why GNU su does not support the `wheel ' group_

" _(This section is by Richard Stallman.)_

" _Sometimes a few of the users try to hold total power over all the rest. For example, in 1984, a few users at the MIT AI lab decided to seize power by changing the operator password on the Twenex system and keeping it secret from everyone else. (I was able to thwart this coup and give power back to the users by patching the kernel, but I wouldn 't know how to do that in Unix.)_

" _However, occasionally the rulers do tell someone. Under the usual su mechanism, once someone learns the root password who sympathizes with the ordinary users, he or she can tell the rest. The "wheel group" feature would make this impossible, and thus cement the power of the rulers._

" _I 'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers. If you are used to supporting the bosses and sysadmins in whatever they do, you might find this idea strange at first. _"

<comment><USER5> GNU Project founded out of persecution complex.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There is a non-zero possibility that a rogue employee did this. He does not sign his web stuff with his GPG key after all.

Also, it is there twice [https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul- oct.html#27_September...](https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jul- oct.html#27_September_2019_\(GNU_Project\))

<comment><USER7> There seems to be something weird going on. Check archive.org's recent version on the site:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20190928070003/https://stallman....](https://web.archive.org/web/20190928070003/https://stallman.org/)

"What's bad about" section has a "Richard Stallman" link to the Medium post, and the "donate to the Free Software Foundation" link goes to the "Richard Stallman Eats Something From His Foot" Youtube video. The Youtube link is especially suspicious because Youtube uses proprietary Javascript, which RMS has never supported.

<comment><USER8> Javascript proprietary? Are you, people, all <redacted-expletive> here?

<comment><USER9> "Youtube uses proprietary Javascript [code], which RMS never supported ..."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't get why he doesn't simply apologize, take a few months break from publicity to think things over and then move on.

Instead he seems to prefer to step down from what he has been doing for the last 30 years. Does he really regret nothing?

On a human level I sympathize with the women he has offended (I know the story is also about his behavior over the years), but I also worry about him as well, I hope he stays in good health and spirit.

<comment><USER11> Stallman is the least hypocritical person I've ever seen. So, that's not happening unless he changes his mind about something he said.

Even if he changes his mind about some subjective things, he will keep saying other things that are objectively true but people don't want to accept.

<comment><USER3> Just because Stallman isn't a hypocrite doesn't mean things he says are "objectively true". Stallman advocated for the legalization of ("consensual") pedophilia, in those exact terms; that isn't a weird extrapolation of something he said, but rather words he put on his own website.

<comment><USER12> He is "correct" in a way. It is the inevitable logical extension of current society's view on sexual relationship (consent based). This is just a repeat of what happened in 70s with a bunch of intellectuals: Foucault, Derrida, Althusser, et al argued that age of consent should be abolished too [1]. Seems like the most rational men always come to same conclusion.

Society slowly unravel that consent is such a fragile concept, and they have to resort to some finite number (age) to strengthen that stance. But, as the most rational amongst us found out, those numbers are indefensible too.

A better and more defensible stance is the one Catholic's have (Humanae Vitae).

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

<comment><USER13> > It is the inevitable logical extension of current society's view on sexual > relationship (consent based).

No, it's not; a consent based view does not logically imply that children are capable of consent; in fact, the view that intoxication, mental disability, and other factors can make adults incapable of consent at least strongly supports an approach where children (to, perhaps, an age above the common ages of consent) ought to be viewed as at least presumptively, and possibly conclusively, unable to consent to sex; the dominant legal position is consistent in outline, though there may be room to debate the particular details.

> A better and more defensible stance is the one Catholic's have (Humanae > Vitae).

Humanae Vitae didn't even reflect the most defensible stance within the Catholic intelligentsia, which is why the Pope had to dump the position adopted by the Second Vatican Council workgroup on the topic to issue it, and why the document is widely disregarded by the faithful and even large segments of the clergy and even heirarchy (see, e.g., the _Declaration of Königstein_ ).

<comment><USER12> As you realized, you have to add bunch of qualifiers to make consent works: age-of-consent, condition-of-consent, etc. The defense then shifted into defending those qualifiers.

From system design perspective, it operates on lower level rule-based design. This is weaker. I understand there's debate internally about Humanae Vitae, and it's good. But at least it gets the core design stronger by operating on higher level goal/paradigm constraint (the purpose of procreation)

<comment><USER13> > But at least it gets the core design stronger by operating on higher level > goal/paradigm constraint (the purpose of procreation)

That's actually not how it works; the intricacies of the dual procreative and unitive function model in the theology under Humanae Vitae is no less complex than that of the consent-based system, but it's just based on a moral system with a larger number of specialized axioms; the consent-based system is based on a simpler set of axioms, because it doesn't need a specific set of axioms for sex; the principle of consent underlying the consent-based system of sexual morality is the same one underlying all of the liberal enlightenment political/social/economic ideology.

<comment><USER12> This conflates paradigm of a system with its rules (axiom). It's not the same.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> My feeling about Stallman is that he is that rare creature, a fundamentalist lefty. Its a pretty lonely island and I'm actually a little surprised he has lasted this long

<comment><USER15> He's not a lefty. He's a fundamentalist libertarian.

<comment><USER16> I'd say he's more communist, since he seems to believe that private property just shouldn't exist. Libertarians by contrast would tend more on the scale of "you should be able to do whatever you want with your private property."

<comment><USER17> Some argue that copyright undermines private property: [https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual- property-2](https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual-property-2)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> RMS is an important historical figure.

Having his inevitanle departure reduced to collateral damage of Jeffrey Epstein is a shame.

</comment><comment><USER19> These resignation messages are really short (the one from FSF being the other)!! Not much context in there. I get that he said a lot of things which some think are so-so, some think are terrible. Maybe he decided he's so bad at this he won't even try to explain what happened, choosing to resign without saying a word.

<comment><USER20> I've been in industry for 32 years now and not single one of my resignation letters contained any reason beyond "decided to pursue other opportunities".

<comment><USER21> I'll sometimes include a "Thank you" or "I enjoyed working with everyone," if it's true. But even with that, none of mine since I graduated University have ever been more than two to three sentences tops. Resignations should always be short and to the point.

Nixon's was one sentence: [https://watergate.info/1974/08/09/nixons- resignation-letter....](https://watergate.info/1974/08/09/nixons-resignation- letter.html)

<comment><USER20> Yep. "I wish $company all the best" etc. Just never a reason.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Who is his most likely successor? Will GNU strategy change(the kernel coming to the front of my mind) or will things basically be the same?

<comment><USER23> How relevant is any GNU project today really?

What is activly maintained and being used?

<comment><USER24> bash, gcc, coreutils, make, ...

For GCC, less Stallman influence, if it happens as a result of this, might have some consequences. E.g. there was some discussions about (not) having features giving deeper insight into internals some years ago, which are helpful to e.g. make code inspection tools, but also could be used to feed a non-GPL codegen backend.

Many "GNU" projects are really run independently though, with little influence.

<comment><USER23> "Many "GNU" projects are really run independently though, with little influence"

Ok, I meant GNU projects, with actual ties to the organization and not just the name. If there is no real connection, then it does not really matter who leads GNU

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Is there some context I'm unaware of?

<comment><USER26> Definitely peculiar. Three days ago, RMS stated that he intended to stay on as head of the GNU Project: [https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info- gnu/2019-09/msg00008...](https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info- gnu/2019-09/msg00008.html)

[EDIT] Quoting the text of the above link for convenience:

> " _On September 16 I resigned as president of the Free Software Foundation, > but the GNU Project and the FSF are not the same. I am still the head of the > GNU Project (the Chief GNUisance), and I intend to continue as such._ "

Earlier discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21088690](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21088690)

<comment><USER27> >Dr Richard Stallman

why does he sign this way? he doesn't have a PhD.

edit: i have never (ever) seen someone with an honorary doctorate actually call themselves doctor.

<comment><USER20> It's not appropriate to call yourself Dr. with an honorary degree so I'm not sure why you are being down voted.

<comment><USER3> This is a pretty silly debate. Plenty of people have done far less far- reaching CS work to obtain "actual" PhD's; it's not like computer science doctorates are medical degrees. Let him have his "Dr." title.

<comment><USER20> I really don't care, but it's yet another convention he ignores, in a terse resignation letter no less.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> While I thought RMS's technical knowledge wasn't updated properly since he pivoted his activities to be an evangelist of freedom rather than being a programmer.

I believe he was directly responsible of the development stall of GCC, Emacs and various other projects. It's also his fault for not abandoning the Hurd sometime around the early 1990s.

His forced resignation should better be happened earlier for the lack of skill, not by his opinion on the definition of pedophile and the correct understanding of intention in criminal law system.

</comment><comment><USER29> Very sad. I hope he is able to take some loyalists with him.

Stallman forever.

</comment><comment><USER30> It's not on the linked site. Fake news?

<comment><USER31> Whoa. It was there an hour ago. I wonder what's up?

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> [https://stallman.org/seeking-housing.html](https://stallman.org/seeking- housing.html)

<comment><USER27> lol talk about out of touch. doesn't mention paying either. it's astounds me that people can be so dense that even after clear contradictions (don't be so obnoxious that you lose your job) they persist.

<comment><USER6> Have you considered the possibility that he might not be able to pay?

Also, I am sure that there are many people who would offer him somewhere to live, he has quite a few fans.

<comment><USER33> I honestly would love to offer him a room, but I'm nowhere near Boston. This guy is a FLOSS hero -- his thoughts and opinions beyond FLOSS do not matter to me.

<comment><USER34> >his thoughts and opinions beyond FLOSS do not matter to me

Why? That's an impressive amount of benefit of the doubt to give anybody, but so much more so if you're also willing to personally host that person. It's almost unbelievable. Do you in fact mean to say not that you don't care about his opinions, but that you simply have read about them and don't find them particularly condemnable?

<comment><USER33> I have attended his talks, listened to podcasts and read some of his conversations on mailing lists. I can see why people may not like him, or the way he talks. But we disagree with people all the time.

I would be willing to host him just for the conversations, and because I feel like it's the least I can do for a man who shaped much of the software that I use everyday.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'm completely in awe with how a significant portion of this community believes (directly or indirectly) the accomplishments of a person makes being a decent human being optional. This leads to a "strong-rules-all" culture and I think what we're seeing is just modern barbarism.

<comment><USER33> I don't think it's strong-rules-"all."

I appreciate RMS for all that he has done. But unless he committed a crime, which he didn't, I don't think we should police his thoughts and opinions. The thresholds for decency may be different for you and me. And RMS is not a politician whose opinions could potentially affect all of us. If you don't link what he says, you can just ignore him.

<comment><USER3> He is welcome to his thoughts and opinions, and everyone else is entitled to their freedom not to associate with him as a result.

<comment><USER36> More to the point, everyone else is entitled to their freedom _to_ associate with him, _despite_ his thoughts and opinions. He is entitled to be the head of the GNU project because _it 's his fucking project_. And if other people are willing to contribute money or code to that project, _fucking FINE_.

 _That 's_ what this is about. Sarah Mei is coming from a place of, "Because RMS said this Very Bad Thing, _no one_ should associate with him _at all_." Carrying with it an implied threat: if you continue to associate with a Bad Person, then _you_ are a Bad Person and maybe whoever signs your checks should know just what a Bad Person you are.

<comment><USER37> FWIW I have never heard of Sarah Mei until today. I had a quick look at her Twitter account. There must be over 100 tweets and retweets about Stallman and the FSF over 10 days, that's when I stopped scrolling.

I have no horse in this race, this is too much of a hot topic to take a stance about personally, but I can't say I'm enjoying the modern viral Twitter shit- storm phenomenon very much.

The loudest campaign, wrong or right, wins by deafening everybody and amplifying their moral stance through that platform.

I have nothing against Mei personally, but I _loathe_ the modern Twitter driven moralism. Does everything have to be a crusade?

<comment><USER3> People have literally written the same thing about me and DNSSEC, both here and on Twitter. If you don't want to pay attention to Sarah Mei, you don't have to. People are allowed to decide what they care about, and to advocate for those things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> G.N.U. is now undeserved.

</comment><comment><USER39> Is this another victim of the awful all-American outrage culture, or there's some actual reason why he should throw away his life's work?

<comment><USER3> Resigning from an organization doesn't destroy the organization, let alone the work that organization has done in the past.

<comment><USER39> I meant his career and reputation, though.

<comment><USER3> Then you should say that, and not "his life's work", which is obviously something different. People are going to keep using and extending Emacs.

<comment><USER39> Yes, I can see your point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Richard Stallman is a victim here. He's been taken out of context, provably so, and then the lies repeated and amplified by social media and even legitimate news outlets.

It is a witch hunt, pure and simple. There is no smoke, there is no fire.

<comment><USER3> _The nominee is quoted as saying that if the choice of a sexual partner were protected by the Constitution, "prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia" also would be. He is probably mistaken, legally--but that is unfortunate. All of these acts should be legal as long as no one is coerced. They are illegal only because of prejudice and narrowmindedness._

<comment><USER41> That quote is from 2003. This quote is from 2019:

 _Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it._

 _Through personal conversations in recent years, I 've learned to understand how sex with a child can harm per psychologically. This changed my mind about the matter: I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why._

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> After that event I don't trust to both FSF and GNU organizations. I kind of accepted them because of RMS, but now they are irrelevant. I'll look forward where RMS will go.

<comment><USER43> Why?

<comment><USER42> They treated him unfairly. He did nothing wrong.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> EDIT: It seems like the sites can't be held responsible because they didn't create the false information, they just disseminated it. Leaving up the wrong part of my comment for context.

The sites that ran articles quoting the garbage medium article should get sued over this. RMS lost his job and doesn't have anywhere to live because someone who never met him decided to write a hit piece instead of talking like an adult.

<comment><USER3> On what legal theory do you propose that sites who run articles quoting a Medium article should be sued? Before you say "libelslander", if that was your plan, you should do some reading about how libel in the US works.

<comment><USER45> [https://sterling-archermedes.github.io/](https://sterling- archermedes.github.io/) documents how RMS's words were twisted. The reporting was without doubt careless and misleading. Specifically, his

 _she presented herself to him as entirely willing_

was re-phrased to

 _then he says that an enslaved child could, somehow, be "entirely willing"._

'Presented as' and 'be' are subtly, but _critically_ different, so paraphrasing him like that is a lie. At the same time, it's close enough that it could be argued it's an honest mistake. Given how short the original quote was, I highly suspect the decision to trim it to a mere two words was malicious. But convincing a court it wasn't an honest mistake/misinterpretation would be difficult, and it's close enough to the truth that "reckless disregard for truth" wouldn't apply, I assume.

Other publications repeated this, with titles such as _Renowned MIT Scientist Defends Epstein: Victims Were "Entirely Willing"_ \- which is again false, as he neither defended Epstein (if you _must_ interpret his statements as a defense, it was only for Minsky), nor did he claim the victims were willing.

In sum, the reporting contained damaging false statements - did you have some specific reasoning why this wouldn't be libel (even if difficult to prove intent in practice)?

Edit: Yes, I agree, merely quoting the initial article wouldn't be libel. However, many articles repeated the creatively re-contextualized RMS quote themselves, without attributing it to the original medium post, and made it look like it was something they themselves were stating.

<comment><USER46> He actually went one step further and said _" presented herself to him as entirely willing. Assuming she was being coerced by Epstein, he would have had every reason to tell her to conceal that from most of his associates."_ He never said she was willing, but that she was likely coerced by Epstein to present herself that way. The medium post and reporting thereof all somehow equate this to _" RMS said the victim was entirely willing"_. O_o</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Caliper: all functions deserve to be measured (Clojure) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tolitius/calip <comment><USER2> how does this compare to Tufte and Criterium ?</comment>


Ask HN: Whats the Best Linux Supported Notebook 2019? - <AUTHOR> I need a new notebook for work. Running ubuntu. At least 32GB RAM and LTE. Are there any out there that are not designed for gamers, eg. thin and solid like the ThinkPad's? <comment><USER2> The thinkpads are good. Dell has a good lineup of laptops that support ubuntu right from the factory. XPS line would be my bet and if you want more business leaning laptops the Latitude series.

</comment><comment><USER3> I would _not_ recommend Thinkpad CX1(gen6). It works but has a number of problems despite being Ubuntu Certified. Like trackpad and trackpoint not working / funny, fingerprint scanner, overheating, or closing the laptop lid. An older Thinkpad may be a better choice.

</comment><comment><USER4> As asked for thinkpad;s alternative: HP ZBook [https://store.hp.com/us/en/mlp/laptops/workstation-352501-- 1](https://store.hp.com/us/en/mlp/laptops/workstation-352501--1)

<comment> non-entity I looked at these, expecting the "alternative operating systems" to be maybe Ubuntu, but shocked ticsee a FreeDOS offering

<comment><USER5> The FreeDOS option is basically the option to not pay for Windows ($229 for Windows 10 Professional, $197 for Windows 10 Home).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Purism laptops might also fit the described need [https://puri.sm/products/librem-13/](https://puri.sm/products/librem-13/)

</comment><comment><USER7> Entroware (UK) company builds linux-supported laptops / PCs.

</comment><comment><USER8> Any System 76 laptop

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I didn't know them.

<comment><AUTHOR> BTW: The first online store for notebooks i see that isn't filled with tons of javascript and overlays and all the stuff. That alone is a reason to buy one from them.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Should you accept LinkedIn invitations from people you don't know? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Beyond the questionable / debatable social cues, this is a potential security risk, and not necessarily for you. One common social engineering technique is to gain credibility with a target's colleagues and friends before attempting to contact the target.

By accepting invitations from people unknown to you personally you could be unwittingly facilitating a social engineering attack on a friend, colleague or co-worker.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> That is, are there downsides to accepting LinkedIn invitations from people you don't know? If so, what are they?

<comment><USER3> Perhaps, if they have an interesting justification for doing so, I could see accepting it. They might just be young-faced individuals that want to increase their network and you might have a mutual sharing of ideas.</comment></comment>


Package Management in OpenBSD - <AUTHOR> https://unixsheikh.com/articles/package-management-in-openbsd.html <comment><USER2> OpenBSD has a new release every 6 months, which includes a new set of packages. Or you can help test -current snapshots, which has at least on amd64/i386 new packages generally every 24 hours, depending on the point in release cycle we're in, or if a hackathon is in progress.

> People on FreeBSD use poudriere for that, but that doesn't exist for > OpenBSD.

This is no longer true. If people want to build their own -stable packages, they can use dpb(8), the distributed ports builder. This is used by the official ports build clusters.

[https://man.openbsd.org/dpb](https://man.openbsd.org/dpb)

Many OpenBSD developers would like for there to be -stable packages, and that may even happen again someday. But it requires a level of commitment and coordination from many people, who might be otherwise preoccupied (ports development happens on -current). All I can say on that front is stay tuned.

</comment><comment><USER3> I wish OpenBSD had more unofficial documentation on this topic.

I am designing some python software application that configures custom hardware. Since the application requires specific hardware peripherals and an exotic network configuration, it makes sense to package it on a purpose-built appliance.

The software application works on any unix-like environment with python3 available, so OpenBSD and Debian are both candidates; both support my hardware platform and both receive security updates. Debian can be pared down to a minimal install to harden it, and OpenBSD has proactive security features like pledge() that could be integrated into the application code. Either way, I'm mostly looking for a not-insecure OS that can run some python code.

While OpenBSD's security is venerable, debian stands out in software packaging software. Building a .deb, signing it with a GPG key, and installing/removing it is covered by numerous tutorials. On debian, `apt-get' can install this package, and later remove every file.

But figuring out the ideal way to make an equivalent package for OpenBSD has been less straightforward. The ports tutorial says all ports need to be built with X-windows running on the build machine. Does that still apply to python3 code? What if I have a compiled utility to add to the package later? There is a man page for 'pkg_create' but there's hardly any tutorials that reference it or how to use it.

On freenode, #openbsd has been full of incredulous, unhelpful tips like "why would you use a package manager when you could just untar an archive onto root to install your application?"

As much as I respect the OpenBSD team, it's frustrating when you try to perform what should be a straightforward task but google and IRC make you feel like you're the first person who's ever tried it.

<comment><USER4> Distributing binary packages outside of OpenBSD's official repository is generally discouraged, as you'll need users to install your public key (packages must be signed, unsigned packages are rejected by pkg_add), and set a custom installurl. This is unsafe as you could be providing other packages overriding the official repo.

In general, ports should be submitted to the ports@ mailing list, in which case packages are built and signed by the OpenBSD project instead. This way they can be built on multiple architectures, and be available for release and -current users.

If you do intend to distribute packages, you still need to use the ports infrastructure for it, ports exist to build packages. They should not be manually constructed.

<comment><USER3> Since the application is useless without a specific set of hardware peripherals, it seems impolite to clutter the ports namespace and add tasks to OpenBSD infrastructure. The software is only useful when run on an instance of a specific hardware appliance.

Also, since the application may have its own security flaws, it would be ideal for my org to have our own package server and signing key to serve the application in packaged form, so that critical application updates can be published independent of the OpenBSD release schedule. It would not be hard to configure each appliance to trust the 3rd party package server at manufacture time.

This use case is well covered by something like a ubuntu's PPA infrastructure, which avoid namespace clutter while allowing 3rd parties to securely provide packages with independent update schedules and explicitly avoids the assumption of support from distribution developers.

I really like OpenBSD as a user, but there doesn't seem to be a good supported workflow for OpenBSD as an appliance.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been using OpenBSD as my main OS for the last couple years. I've found the slower pace of ports updates to be refreshing.

<comment><USER6> I run it in one of my computers, the small X230. I kind of regret I went with the current; running snap takes some time and I generally do it on Sunday mornings to keep packages and system up to date.

Stable would be much better here. The system just works, is always on when I open the lid and connects to the wifi fast. A perfect system for Sunday morning HN reading marathons.</comment></comment>


Legislation for Cybersecurity of Internet-of-Things Introduced - <AUTHOR> https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/89972-legislation-for-cybersecurity-of-internet-of-things-introduced <comment><AUTHOR> Bruce Schneier famously called for regulation of IoT:

1\. [https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/02/security_and_...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/02/security_and_th.html)

2\. [https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/09/opinions/cybersecurity- la...](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/09/opinions/cybersecurity-laws- internet-of-things-schneier/index.html)

Now it appears someone is taking this up.</comment>


Ask HN: What (tech)conferences are you going to in 2011 and why? - <AUTHOR>

I've only ever been to one conference in my lifetime.  I'd like to go to more because I had a fairly positive experience.  My primary motivation is that I want to meet new, interesting, people and learn new things in a social environment.  So, what conferences are HNers going to this year and why are you going to them?  That information would be great fodder for me (and anyone else) who'd like to create a conference schedule for 2011. <comment><USER2> I'm in information security, so my tech conferences might be a little different than some others.

I couldn't make time in my schedule for ShmooCon, so I will unfortunately be missing that one this year.

I will hopefully be able to make it to SOURCE Boston.

I will be attending Black Hat and DEFCON in Las Vegas this summer.

And I will try to make it to ToorCon San Diego again late in the year, as I spoke there this year and enjoyed the experience quite a bit.

I generally only go to one conference per quarter, but they are always a great time both for networking and learning.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the leads. I'm in the Washington, DC area so I'll be looking into ShmooCon. I had never heard of it. The other's are on my "too investigate" list, too.</comment></comment>


How "The End of the Tour" Nails an Entire Profession - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-artificial-intimacy-of-the-magazine-profile

<comment><USER2> > Something of the same spirit of annunciation has greeted the performance of > Jason Segel, who is being talked about as an Academy Award contender for his > portrayal of Wallace as a skeptical, ambitious, modest, hyper-self- > conscious, depressive, and fundamentally generous figure of genius. Segel > deserves acclaim for a performance that is as revelatory of the unexpected > depths of this hitherto bro-centric actor as it is of Wallace's self- > effacing fascination.

Anyone else find this propose hard to follow? I ducked out after that paragraph. I'm struggling to figure out what's being said. Maybe it only makes sense to people who already know what this is all about.

<comment><USER3> I thought the very first phrase of the article described what the article is about, so the writer could reasonably assume that those continuing past the first paragraph have some background knowledge of Wallace, and some interest in the interplay between a journalist and a novelist in a high-stakes interview. That first paragraph acts like a filter in that sense.

The second paragraph that you quote struck me as basically expressing surprise that the professional actor who has previously made money in fairly formulaic entertainment films can, in fact, act rather well in a more complex role. Then the paragraph asks us to consider the role of the actor playing the _journalist_ David Lipsky, and the rest of the OA focuses on the journalist's behaviour and motivations. I agree that the writing is a little mannered and I had to read that paragraph twice to fully grok what the point being made was.

I found the article as a whole of interest because it lead me to Lipsky's book, written years later, but based on the interview held over the five days in 1996. Lipsky's book is criticised in one of the Amazon reviews as being 'transcripts of the tapes' instead of being edited or reflected on. This immediately interested me so I've just bought a copy. I have an interest in interviews and transcripts and have read a little Wallace.

I also found out about Janet Malcolm's book about the relationship between the journalist and the interviewee which looks interesting for future reading.

Granted some previous knowledge of the novelist will help but Wallace has been mentioned here before lots of times and many here have read his novels so probably relevant to _some_ on HN.

Finally, I have been thinking about how many interview tapes must be lurking in boxes in the cupboards of journalists, and how many projected articles have been spiked over the years. There is a home for almost any substantial work on the Web _somewhere_ surely?</comment></comment>


Babbage builders turn down Kickstarter - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20004192

<comment><USER2> It's a pity that the BBC focused on that aspect because that wasn't the main point of briefing them (and only came up because they asked): the main point was that the project is actually happening and we need about £250,000 to do the first part.

The first part being... study all the documentation Babbage left behind and build a 3D working simulation of the Analytical Engine. When done that'll be the first time anyone has seen the AE in action, albeit a computer, physical simulation.

And the Kickstarter situation is more complex than just 'costs too much': [http://blog.jgc.org/2012/10/why-plan-28-decided-not-to- use.h...](http://blog.jgc.org/2012/10/why-plan-28-decided-not-to-use.html) And, as I told the BBC, we have discussed using Kickstarter once we come to build the engine itself when it would be more appropriate.

<comment><USER3> Shame about the angle the BBC took, but the publicity worked at least in part - I've just donated :)

<comment><USER2> Thank you. It is greatly appreciated.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So this is the URL to donate to the project: <http://www.justgiving.com/plan28>

</comment><comment><USER5> I think I am a bit odd, but whenever I donate, I opt-out of gift aid, so that I don't have to remember the values for the tax return (hate filling in forms). It's often difficult to opt-out of it too. Sometimes you have to select that the donation is from someone else, or you have to select that you aren't from the UK. It's rarely a yes/no question. Like I say, I'm odd. :)

By the way, good luck. I think KS would have given the project more momentum, but JustGiving is fine too.

<comment><USER2> We think Kickstarter will be great when we get to the 'build the machine' phase because we'll be able to offer all sorts of incentives related to the physical machine.

<comment><USER6> I'll definitely donate through kickstarter in the future if I get a cog or something that comes from the main production run.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The title of this article is poor. It's as if Kickstarter was asking them to use the site. No.. Kickstarter is a platform and you can choose to use them or another platform. That's like saying I decided to sell my used car and saying that I turned down eBay because I decided to sell it on Craigslist.</comment>


Getting Started with Handlebars.js - <AUTHOR> http://thinkvitamin.com/code/getting-started-with-handlebars-js/ <comment><USER2> Does anyone have good experience comparing Handlebars to jQuery's semi- official template plugin sponsored by MS?</comment>


Linear Algebra for Game Developers - Part 4 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/07/Linear-algebra-for-game-developers-part-4

<comment><USER2> Everyone always seems to bail out on giving a good intuitive description of how quaternions are used as rotations. Sometimes I wonder if this is because most people just don't really understand them, or if they are genuinely hard/weird.

Perhaps they're the gaming equivalent of monads from Haskell - born from math, useful for real, but make your head explode if you try to understand them "properly."</comment>


Food Startups Bring New Life to Detroit's Century-Old Eastern Market - <AUTHOR> http://www.eater.com/2016/10/21/13353696/detroit-eastern-market-kitchen-connect <comment><USER2> I fondly remember how vibrant Eastern Market was as a kid in Detroit in the early sixties. It was like a United Nations of food. By 2008 it had shrunk to just a few buildings.

Now it's coming roaring back. But there's still a lot of room for growth, I'd guess 30-40% of the buildings are still empty.

One great thing the city did a few years back was to bring in artists from all over the world to use the market buildings as their canvas.

[http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/arts/2016/09/...](http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/arts/2016/09/23/murals- market-leaves-lasting-public-art-eastern-market/90970426/)

The art to me is almost as much of the draw as the food itself.

[http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/mark- stryker/2...](http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/mark- stryker/2015/08/21/detroit-street-art-must-see-pieces/32145547/)

I still have friends too frightened to visit Detroit. I tell them you're missing out on the dawn of what I predict will be a second golden age for the city.

</comment><comment><USER3> Both DC and Baltimore have something like this (Union Market in DC, not eastern market) and it's a really great trend. It's a fun place to take people, and it's nice to choose from different cuisines when you have a group.

DC's is tough because most of the vendors are pretty high-end so it draws mostly yuppies, but it's hard to criticize these small shops for targeting high margin foods.

I wonder if there's a way to promote these kinds of markets while targeting more affordability?

<comment><USER4> Baltimore's had Lexington Market for 130 years. It's been one of the saving graces of the city for donkey's years. It'd be great to see something similar arising in Detroit. Michigan certainly would benefit from exposure to a broader palate of cuisines and spices.

It seems like the large arab community (out of Dearborn) ought to be front and center in any new Detroit food market. "The Motown Bazaar" has a great ring to it. And don't forget the east european foodies around the Hamtramck area.

<comment><USER5> Eastern Market has been around since the 1850s, it's nothing new

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was interested as I thought this was foodtech like us - [http://8-food.com/](http://8-food.com/) \- but was disappointed to find it was just a wishy-washy news piece about "people opened some market stalls".

<comment><USER7> Please stop spamming your link</comment></comment>


Foursquare's Valuation Is Getting Chopped in Half - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/jeff-bercovici/foursquare-down-round.html <comment><USER2> It will be a huge loss (not monetary) for a lot of people if foursquare closed the shop.

Their database is pretty much unbeatable when you want to search for meaningful places - a.k.a places people actually go to.

In addition, that database can be used for accurate analysis of different vectors, like product sales predictions[1].

It really seems like they waited too long to monetize, and unfortunately decided to go all-in on the social & gamified route. The problem is that even some Xcorp buys them, it's only a matter of (short) time until all that data will be practically stale, and getting people into the check-in frenzy will be difficult.

EDIT: With that being said, I'm glad they're at least taking a down-round since it means them, and investors, actually believe they can turn things around.

[1] [https://medium.com/foursquare-direct/right-on-target- foursqu...](https://medium.com/foursquare-direct/right-on-target-foursquare- accurately-predicts-iphone-sales-4140c450a396)

<comment><USER3> > Their database is pretty much unbeatable when you want to search for > meaningful places - a.k.a places people actually go to.

For points of interest, Foursquare varies heavily by city.

It's fantastic in NYC, but in Ohio, Yelp, Foursquare, and Google Maps' place databases are all nearly equivalent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a keyboard analyst and former Foursquare user, I believe it was a mistake to remove the "chekin" from the Foursquare app.

The new app (cannot recollect the name) would have been ideal for pushing their new focus of review while Foursquare remained and did what it was meant known for - checking in and providing data.

By creating a new feature/ direction for an old brand and moving the old feature to a new brand, it caused a lot of confusion.

People simply decided to move on

<comment><USER5> I remember being dumbfounded when they announced they were removing check-in functionality. It was the main thing I associated with the Foursquare "brand" and I was a heavy check-in user at the time (the game mechanics were great).

They must have known everyone was there for the check-ins, and it seemed arrogant of them to believe they could force all their users to migrate to some other app. (talk about shooting yourself in the foot)

I never downloaded Swarm on principle (i can check in with the Facebook app if i really want to). Foursquare did this to themselves.

<comment><USER6> > I never downloaded Swarm on principle

On what principle?

<comment> rm_-rf_slash Presumably the same principle of not letting ones self be jerked around by companies who don't give a rat's ass about the consumer experience, like the bizarre Netflix/Quickster fiasco from a few years back.

<comment><USER6> The Netflix/Quickster fiasco changed the value equation for customers.

All that happened with Foursquare/Swarm was that the user had to press a button to download another free app. I agree it was a silly decision, but was ultimately just a 40 second inconvenience.

<comment><USER7> > ultimately just a 40 second inconvenience

Unless you're offering a large value proposition that the consumer finds it difficult to say no to, you just elaborated one of the biggest challenges companies face.

Whether one regards it as absurd or not, that 40 seconds makes a big difference (not to mention people don't like change very much once they're comfortable with a thing they use). It's in that 40 seconds that the consumer shrugs and says to their self: meh, I don't feel like it, I don't want to deal with this new app that I don't understand, my phone is already cluttered with apps I don't use.

Shopping cart abandonment due to second thoughts on purchases. Drawn out check-out processes. Long sign-up forms. Slightly slow web page load times. Waiting in lines. Every study comes back with the same conclusion on consumer behavior: those seconds matter _a lot_.

<comment><USER6> I agree completely, I just wouldn't consider disinterest and dissatisfaction as being synonyms for 'principle'.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I got a low-ish offer from them four years ago, and the HR person tried to talk up the value of the equity, saying "Right now, this equity grant is worth $XXX, assuming our valuation doubles in the next year, your equity will be worth $YYY!

For what it's worth, also included in the list of perks was an Rdio membership.

In spite of this, I actually wish I hadn't turned them down, since everyone I'd met interviewing was awesome.

<comment><USER9> Don't know why, but I got a particularly special giggle from the Rdio mention. Thanks :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> ...and they won't be the last, as more and more later-stage "startups" begin to show they won't ever make the returns their valuations would suggest, and start begging for cash as they burn through their existing investments and meagre revenue.

<comment><USER11> Could this lead to an domino effect?

<comment> rm_-rf_slash Tech investment crashed in the 90s because billions were poured into companies that didn't make money, there's no reason to believe it couldn't happen again.

I still have absolutely no idea how Foursquare makes money.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm impressed that it is only half. Most of the time once the illusion is broken you are in a 90 degree down decline.

<comment><USER13> Agreed. Maybe the existing investors are refinancing it. In that case they could be in the weird situation of having the perverse incentive (compared to a new investor) of trying to salvage the valuation by throwing more bad money at it. Sunken costs fallacy in action.

<comment><USER6> Except that Foursquare/Swarm isn't entirely valueless. Depending where you are on the planet, there can be a lot of great data in there — some of it particularly invaluable for not being intensely gamed like TripAdvisor/Expedia are.

When I was traveling around Europe this year, in many places Foursquare recommendations were consistently accurate and of good quality. (My one wish: integrate Google Translate for tips! The locals' tips would surely be the most worthwhile to read.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> > Down rounds are typically punishing for founders, reducing both the value > and the size of their stakes in concert. Frequently, doing one triggers > "anti-dilution" mechanisms designed to protect early investors by carving up > founders' equity still more.

In practice, how do these anti-dilution clauses play out?

Do those protected previous investors get issued more shares to hold their same percentage post-money?

Are full-ratchet anti-dilution provisions common?

</comment><comment><USER14> I just wonder when the same will happen to Groupon, a former VC darling that has seriously floundered the past few years.

<comment><USER15> It's already happened. Groupon is a public company and we got to watch it go from ~$26/share to ~$3/share in real time! [https://www.google.com/finance?cid=10792264](https://www.google.com/finance?cid=10792264)

<comment><USER16> According to wikipedia it was valued at $13B when floated. Then lost ~90% of its value. That means $11.7B. Wow. ELI5: did anyone profit from this other than the founders?

<comment><USER17> Yep, people who knew a lot about their business model and shorted it. Just like the ones who shorted zynga and demand media.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Checkprint, a little Python library for filling pre-printed checks - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/veterinarian/checkprint <comment><USER2> Isn't it about time people just abandoned cheques? We haven't used them here in Norway for so long I can't remember how long ago I last used one, before the start of the century I think. Most shops and services haven't accepted cheques for years. Although they are still used for very large transactions they accounted for only 0.02% of transactions in 2015.

<comment><AUTHOR> It'd be great, but it's not up to me. If I'm asked for a check, I've got to write it. Thankfully, we've been using ACH much more, but for transactions between two tiny parties, there aren't many better options yet. Perhaps Zelle will come into its own soon.</comment></comment>


Uber helps fund World Bank report that says ride-sharing good for women - <AUTHOR> https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topics_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/gender+at+ifc/drivingtowardequality <comment><USER2> This is a terrible use of World Bank funds, if true. Where does it say this is funded by Uber though?

<comment><AUTHOR> look at the longer pdf in 'Acknowledgments', "The report was mostly funded by IFC, with financial contributions from Uber" [1]

[1] - [https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/ec101088-8a12-4994-9918-...](https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/ec101088-8a12-4994-9918-14455b8e2cd9/00418+IFC+DTE+Report_Complete_Layout+Final2-pxp.pdf?MOD=AJPERES)</comment></comment>


Marissa Mayer to outline the new new new turnaround plan for Yahoo - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/19/marissa-mayer-to-outline-the-new-new-new-turnaround-plan-for-yahoo/

<comment><USER2> I really like her and hope for her to succeed, but the longer yahoo is waiting for a homerun, the less likely it gets.

<comment><USER3> I thinking swinging for a homerun may be the wrong strategy. Tumblr was a solid double, maybe a triple. Yahoo! is a media company looking to sell advertising, having a large breadth of singles, is just as valuable as a big homerun. Similar to AOLs strategy, but maybe with more technical chops and more consumer by-in. AOL is essentially a collection of blogs where Yahoo! has greater user engagement where users are creating at least some of the content on Yahoo!. That's how I see it anyway.</comment></comment>


Judge Assigns Elon Musk Essay on SEC Settlement - <AUTHOR> https://www.localnews8.com/news/national-world/judge-assigns-elon-musk-the-sec-an-essay-on-settlement/803042373 <comment><USER2> Why wouldn't you just pay your publicist to write it?

<comment><USER3> Because he's already paying his lawyers to write it.</comment></comment>


Nomadler – Community of nomads - <AUTHOR> http://nomadler.com

<comment><USER2> I tend to hover over links on aggregator sites like this, and find the nomadler.com/out?url=http[...] kind of annoying. I'd suggest making the href the actual URL. If you want to route people through /out, I think you can just hijack the click event.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right, I'm using the default Telescope functionality/behaviour right now, but it's something I'd definitely implement in future, thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Please add an RSS feed. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, I'll take a 'firehose' feed if that's all that's available.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll try to create one. Your can follow a curated Twitter-account of Nomadler in a meanwhile - [https://twitter.com/nomadler](https://twitter.com/nomadler)

<comment><USER4> there already is one at [http://nomadler.com/feed.xml](http://nomadler.com/feed.xml)

you should look at your telescope packages. also, what kind of box are you hosting it on? hows the performance?

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, thanks! I'm hosting it on DigitalOcean. Honestly I'm designer and I worked all this Meteor / Telescope stuff together by myself and not sure how should I respond to the performance question :D How can I measure it so it'll be helpful for you?

<comment><USER4> well, i'm kind of in the same boat... what size node is it on, and how many users can it support? also, you may want to check out the "meteor hacks cluster" package. it allows meteor to take advantage of multiple cores.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Please add a proper font stack. The design doesn't break down nicely on systems without Helvetica Neue installed.

Other than that, good start!

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you mind to take a screenshot please? I'll appreciate it very much!

<comment><USER5> [http://i.imgur.com/ONHTVZU.png](http://i.imgur.com/ONHTVZU.png)

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you very much, going to make a deploy once HN traffic will calm down! :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Looks like a lot of inspiration borrowed from producthunt? Granted you could probably say that about any site with the ability to contribute a link and upvote content.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I'm an active user of Designer News and Product Hunt, so I've got a lot of inspiration from them (mostly Designer News).

Nomadler build using Telescope and their tagline on the website is "Build and customize your very own Hacker News, Reddit, or Product Hunt!" :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> When will we get an HN for monads?

<comment><USER8> probably about the same time that haskell agrees to leave the academia and discover the real world

<comment><USER9> So 2008[0] then?

0: [http://book.realworldhaskell.org/](http://book.realworldhaskell.org/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The only thing that renders in Lynx is an RSS link. So I have no idea what this is, but it's not accessible. Edit: Just viewed source and wish I could unsee it. Meteor.js :/

<comment><USER11> It's 2015. Why are you browsing the web with Lynx, and why should anyone design for the incredibly small population of people like you?

<comment><USER10> Because it's the standard terminal browser, and it works well for reading the vast majority of web content that I care about in the terminal.

No one is saying to design for Lynx; while in the minority, much more than the "incredibly small" Lynx community cares about websites degrading to better than a blank screen when Javascript is either turned off or broken.</comment></comment></comment>