Apple to start making iPhones in India, says state government - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38853640 <comment><USER2> Local IT minister said it's gonna be phones for the domestic market only. probably to drive indian iphone prices down

<comment><USER3> It's interesting though, I think India is becoming more economically competitive as prices rise in China.

<comment><USER4> Manufacturing jobs Indian salaries are lower. But the effect of automation is showing even there as there is hardly any job growth in that area. The biggest problem India is facing is that population becoming old before it becomes a medium income country.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There are many who say protectionism hurts a country, yet here we see India's protectionist legislation leading to a lot of new, local jobs. Why wouldn't that work in the US?

Edit: to those downvoting me, I'd like to remind you that the downvote button is not the disagree button. I am trying to add to the discussion with this question, not argue for no reason.

<comment><USER6> India was (and still is to a large extent) a very protectionist country. When I grew up, you can only buy between 2 or 3 car models, all built by Indian companies and some with a government partnership. It held back the country severely and expanded poverty. Due to dire financial outlook of the country, India was forced to liberalize it's economy in the 90s. And since then there has been no looking back.

But many years of protectionism meant that India continues to lag behind China in most key indicators. India lost out on the manufacturing boom and an opportunity to lift millions out of poverty. India provides a perfect example of pitfalls of a protectionist economy.

<comment><USER7> Why was having only a few options for cars an economic barrier to growth?

<comment><USER8> Most comments don't give you a right perspective. Its really not protectionism, or socialism.

India started out very badly after Independence. It had nothing to show for, infact very little in terms of a trained workforce, quality human resources, industries, scientific enterprise, economy or anything for that matter. By the time British left, they had looted India to the very last paisa.

The first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had a great vision and equally good execution abilities. They faced a near impossible task of uniting a already politically, ethnically and linguistically divided nation. They federalized India on the lines of language, thereby uniting it under one union. They set institutions going for sound administration and bureaucracy.

Beyond all these political problems there is problem of nation building. Or Growth as you would call it. To build quality infrastructure you need taxes, to collect taxes you need industries, to build industries you need trained human resources, to get trained human resources you need to build good universities and academic institutions. You realize you are stuck is a chicken-egg problem.

The only solution most post-colonial states employed was to incrementally move upwards by building self reliance and capability. 5 year planning commissions were common.

The corner stone of Nehruvian economics was:

1\. Build quality educational institutions.

2\. Quality educational institutions build quality human resources.

3\. Establish state owned(or partially at-least) industries to develop indigenous, manufacturing, research and production capabilities, in all walks and branches of economy.

4\. Use 2 and 3 to eventually build private enterprise.

5\. Collect taxes using 4.

6\. Build infrastructure and other things in 1. and 2. using taxes collected so far at 5.

We were in the process of 'getting there'. Irrigation networks were laid, nuclear weapons were built, space programs were in motion. In fact India had indigenous presence in everything imaginable. However the politics of India was never stable.

Beyond all this 'capitalism' suddenly got fashionable. Why work and build indigenously when you could just pay and import?

In fact most of India's current predicaments arise out of abandonment of Nehru's path. We can't seem to build anything good. No good roads, no planned cities, no safe drinking water, frequent power cuts... the list just goes endless.

Sure you now have cheap mobile phones and internet. But a city like Bangalore was a heaven to live in during the times of Nehruvian economics. Today you reach home from office with a lot of dust in the mouth.

Ironically the same people who admire freeways, dams and social security in the US, which are the outcomes socialist policies. Hate the same in India.

In fact most people in India have barely a clue what socialism or capitalism actually mean. Except that they know if they hate something that automatically gets classified as socialist or communist.

EDIT: Looks like anything positive about Nehru is a magnet for downvotes.

<comment><USER9> > We can't seem to build anything good. No good roads, no planned cities, no > safe drinking water, frequent power cuts... the list just goes endless

And who to blame for this? Human greed which led to corruption and crony capitalism? There are always funds for everything in India like roads/bridges/housing for poor, but the roads built don't last for a year and the poor doesn't enjoy the housing, rather it's the middle men(dalal).

>But a city like Bangalore was a heaven to live in during the times of Nehruvian economics. Today you reach home from office with a lot of dust in the mouth.

Come on, I mean what was the population in Bangalore in Nehruvian times and now? The growth comes with lots of challenges, it's just that there was no plan by any politician to scale the city needs as per the growth. 7 years back when i visited Bangalore, it was the pleasant city with lots of trees, and now half of them are gone to accommodate metro and other things.

<comment><USER8> >>And who to blame for this? Human greed which led to corruption and crony capitalism? There are always funds for everything in India like roads/bridges/housing for poor, but the roads built don't last for a year and the poor doesn't enjoy the housing, rather it's the middle men(dalal).

That's at the first level. If you think of it a little deeply, its actually scarcity. Either reduce the population or increase abundance.

>>Come on, I mean what was the population in Bangalore in Nehruvian times and now? The growth comes with lots of challenges, it's just that there was no plan by any politician to scale the city needs as per the growth. 7 years back when i visited Bangalore, it was the pleasant city with lots of trees, and now half of them are gone to accommodate metro and other things.

My friend its not really outsiders. But something called as regulation and adherence to planning. All these regulations that we hate here in India we love it in the west when they say they want parks and broad roads while planning layouts.

Its not like Bangalore saw growth only after IT. We were there long before. And it was attractive destination for jobs decades before IT happened. Bangalore was home to every single industry back then. BAL's, HAL's, ITIs of the world.

But its just that after 90's people wanted everything in a instance order be damned.

Like I said why think, plan and make. When you can just copy, rush through and import.

<comment><USER9> > ts not like Bangalore saw growth only after IT. We were there long before. > And it was attractive destination for jobs decades before IT happened. > Bangalore was home to every single industry back then. BAL's, HAL's, ITIs of > the world.

Yeah, Bangalore was a big city and sure there were industries, but the thing is the rate of growth from 90's to today is way more than the city anticipated.

>Like I said why think, plan and make. When you can just copy, rush through and import.

I agree with you that there's no plan and that's the major reason of the dismal structure of the cities in general in India, but this has nothing to do with Nehru policies, just human greed and stupidity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Most reports seem to be focussing on selling price for iPhones in India. More than price, manufacturing iPhones in India lets Apple have Apple Stores, and sell to customer directly.

Currently, Indian customer has no access to Apple Store level of shopping experience. Yet to come across Apple Reseller Stores who are at least 10% as good as the Apple Stores.

Benefits to Apple:

1) Keeps full profits. No margin wasted for reseller

2) Offers world class Apple Store experience / customer service

3) Ability to offer refurbished products (currently they cannot)

4) Educating customers in the regional language about iPhones (will make a huge difference)

5) No Price Anchoring effect (resellers will cross sell android phones at 1/4th the price with higher margins / incentives)</comment>


Australia Newspapers Redact Front Pages in Media-Freedom Protest - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-20/australia-newspapers-redact-front-pages-in-media-freedom-protest <comment><USER2> The biggest problem with the whole thing is that they've been completely on- board with the Government's creeping authoritarianism, as long as they get some exemptions for journalists. But more recently, they found (just as all the tech experts, law groups, civil society groups and human rights groups warned - but mostly ignored in the media's coverage) that these laws can actually be used against them - and they have. Sources are drying up as the Government destroys whistleblowers financially (through endless lawsuits) and now subjects them to harsh jail terms. And the whistleblowers we are talking about are the the ones that bring Government wrongdoing to light.

The other blatant hypocrisy is Labor jumping on the #righttoknow bandwagon. They waved through the draconian TOLA act, warrantless metadata retention, voting for them and all the other over-reaching, flawed legislation despite huge campaigns by experts and the public, when they had almost the numbers to block it in the Senate.

<comment><USER3> Lately on HN I have made a number of comments about censorship: today it sounds great cause it shuts out those you hate. Tomorrow its used against your very voice. Do not disarm yourself entirely and give the government total power. Laws that are too strong in an attempt to stop criminals wind up punishing law abiding citizens.

These comments have been in regards to Twitter, Discord, Google, Facebook and so on all trying to define fake news or ban people with certain political affiliations. The saddest thing is that mainstream media pushes unverified sources on the race to being first. Nobody punishes them for being incompetent. If theres eyeballs for ads who cares?

There is a reason in America we have a constitution and a bill of rights. It could very well be argued our bill of rights was written in blood. The blood of those who fought against totalitarian type of governments who forbade: freedom of speech and religious beliefs, freedom to protect oneself and their families against bad people and rogue governments. Those two foundational things shouldnt be compromised under the guise of a safer country. It will not end well. History says so.

Sadly there are some in America who are quickly forgetting these things and are foolishly ready to give the kings to the kingdom away.

Without free speech we will perish and follow in the steps of bad forms of government. Without the right to defend ourselves legally, we give the government all power over us. Just ask Russia and Venezuela how those democratic elections are going for them.

<comment><USER4> I've had incomplete ideas about this bouncing around my head for a while now.

My current analogy is:

Censorship is the opium of the government.

Pain _feels_ bad, but _is_ good because it tells you when something bad has happened. Investigative journalism revealing wrongdoing is a type of pain. Censorship makes the pain go away without solving the real problems.

If you're doing the political equivalent of surgery, you need the painkiller, but it is highly addictive — if you don't stop using it as soon as possible, you'll find you can't stop, and you'll use it to your own detriment. If your political situation needs a lot of "surgery" you should ask yourself serious questions about that happened.

<comment><USER5> Well put. "Censorship is the opium of the government," made me snort my coffee and is highly quotable.

What's the term for when a small amount of something that hurts is actually good for you? Hormesis?

<comment><USER6> What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I would probably care more had the Aussie media not spent the last decade telling us that government backdoors, spying, censorship etc were good things. The Aussie media are boot lickers and only mad now that the government is going to treat them like they treat everyone else

<comment><USER8> I can understand the frustration with the Australian media (by all right they brought this on themselves) but that doesn't make this a topic that requires any less care because of it.

These are fundamental liberties for a functioning democracy and they are finally facing some pushback in the general media. IMO this should be embraced and supported by anyone who's been watching this unfold for the last two decades. This is probably the best chance of public opinion swaying to favour civil liberties and I can't imagine it's worth blowing because of what the media has previously done.

<comment><USER7> I'd be happy to support them if they were campaigning for all Australians to have the same rights to freedom from government spying etc but they're not.

Making journalists a protected class is not the answer, it just means they'll continue to push the agenda down our throats.

<comment><USER9> How does this approach _help_?

<comment><USER10> If the media can be made to understand they will get more support if they campaign for broader protections then maybe everyone can be better off.

I don't support making journalists a protected class. That is just going to open the door to more abuse and make it harder to push back on the fundamental problems with the prevailing thought - people should be generally free to tell the truth about what is happening, without harassment by government.

If the media wants something different, I don't want what they want and hopefully they don't get it. This isn't an issue where people should compromise away the core principles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Comically ironic that this is coming from Murdoch, who shamelessly uses his ownership of a massive share of the Australian media to push his own political agenda. If we really wanted to tackle censorship and manipulation in this country, we'd start there.

<comment><USER9> Context:

 _News Corp Australia owns approximately 142 daily, Sunday, weekly, bi-weekly and tri-weekly newspapers, of which three are free commuter titles and 102 are suburban publications (including 16 in which News Corp Australia has a 50% interest). News Corp Australia publishes a nationally distributed newspaper in Australia, a metropolitan newspaper in each of the Australian cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth (Sundays only), Hobart and Darwin and groups of suburban newspapers in the suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. The company publishes a further thirty magazine titles across Australia.[2] According to the Finkelstein Review of Media and Media Regulation, in 2011 the group accounted for 23% of the newspaper titles in Australia._

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

<comment><USER12> The biggest player controlling 23% of the market honestly sounds reasonable. It's worrying if someone controls 80% of the media.

Any idea what Murdoch's market share is by readership, rather than by total number of titles?

<comment><USER13> He also controls Foxtel, pretty much the only Pay TV operator in Australia.

Also by now I don't know if Australia has any cross media ownership rules anymore, so we could own a lot more.

<comment><USER14> I think cable is really a zombie now, Netflix and every other streaming service is destroying them.

And as a consequence of that, I think that the libs were able to do uncle Rupert a favour and cut away the cross media rules (completely ignoring the fact that IP streaming of entertainment isn't local news / news), but I could be wrong.

Just waiting for Netflix or someone to buy the cricket and footy and crush channel 9 and foxtel.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The Australian newspapers are able to do this because a) they care that their own are being targeted, and b) they have leverage via circulation.

Contrast this to the Australian IT industry that could have banded together during the initial AABill "discussion" and simultaneously covered their frontpages with info to their users, protesting the draconian legislation.

Apart from Atlassian, nobody big decided they wanted to be apart of that. And now we've made our entire industry a "systemic weakness" into our user's computers and networks.

I still wonder when foreigners will stop buying from Australian companies because we're essentially a backdoor into any computer system within our reach. Not even the CCP have the powers now granted to Australian authorities.

The Australian IT industry needs a lobby group, and it needs it now.

<comment><USER16> Not only that, but it weakens Australia's ability to pressure the SE Asian countries that are getting more authoritarian.

Telling Cambodia that it needs a free press and needs to stop spying on its people is now basically impossible for any Australian diplomat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> While I support this move, it would be great to see the media also try harder to expose the increasing moves to prevent FOI requests and redact far beyond the 'national security' justifications.

<comment><USER8> The 6 points the media is pushing for includes this [1], See 4.

1\. The right to contest search warrants: Applications for search warrants to be made to a high-level judge, with the relevant media outlet to be notified and given the opportunity to challenge the warrant.

2\. Protections for whistleblowers: Expanded safeguards for government whistleblowing, including an expanded public interest test. The outlets want to see a culture of secrecy replaced with a culture of disclosure.

3\. Restrictions on secrecy: New rules governing what information governments can deem secret, with obligations to regularly audit the material being kept from the public.

4\. Freedom of information reform: A suite of changes to FOI law to reduce and restrict the significant delays, obstacles, cost and exemptions that allow government agencies to prevent disclosure.

5\. Journalist exemptions: Exemptions to protect journalists from prosecution under a number of national security laws. Media outlets can currently mount legal defences against charges under these laws but want this strengthened to exemptions for public-interest journalism.

6\. Defamation law reform: Overhaul of defamation law to adapt to the digital era, address inconsistency across states territories, and ensure it is operating as intended.

[1]: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-culture-of-secrecy-what- is...](https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-culture-of-secrecy-what-is-the-right- to-know-campaign-about-20191018-p5323v.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Thank God for the first amendment.

What always comes to mind is the police busting into the news room of The Guardian in the UK after the Snowden revelations, demanding that computers be destoryed. That's something we'd expect out of Iran or China, but it seems increasingly common in the West.

I'm thankful to live in a country with a codified freedom of the press.

<comment><USER19> > Thank God for the first amendment.

Trust me, the last thing the Australian media wants is the first amendment.

They want _freedom of the press_.

<comment><USER20> This was my line of thinking when everyone was deathly silent during the data retention "debate". Only one article by a local newspaper junior emerged discussing the pro's and con's, which framed it in a really silly way (such as the only con being "well...hackers might get to it"). Also, that junior got promoted to a Senior Tech Editor role in a big national paper, and did strange things like posting their own local file share directory within their articles which involved a few pictures here and there, (I mean no personal offense to the individual, I just remember following it closely at the time with a slight feeling of horror).

The general mood in the media at the time the ball got rolling for these sorts of laws was that they were some sort of protected species who shouldn't be subject to them...just the general population. Some looked as though they were advertising their perceived sense of self importance and potential value to the governments of the time.

Sorry if this sounded a bit snarky, I didn't mean it to be, it's just that we should have been talking about this much much earlier than today, yet no-one wanted to until now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I feel I need to do a shout-out to the publication Crikey and the TV show Media Watch. They're two Australian pillars of telling hard truths around the actual situations (as opposed to the narrative that politics or other groups are attempting to push).

It's all well and good for the papers to be in support of press freedoms, but they've been all but silent on on-going prosecutions of non-journalist whistleblowers such as Witness K (and now his lawyer Bernard Collaery is being brought up on similar charges), and the fact that journalists and Doctors aren't allowed to visit offshore detention centres.

The same newspapers redacting their front pages are those that fawn over Australia's anti-science stance on Climate Change and anti-humanitarian immigration policies. They're pro-authoritarianism except when it comes to what they consider to be their little patch.

Crikey and Media Watch are of great value in exposing the hypocrisy of the majority of Australia's mainstream media.

</comment><comment><USER22> The PM's response that he also believes in the rule of law is utterly facetious. The whole point of the campaign is to demand that media organisations should be free to report on more matters of concern to the public. The most logical way to achieve that end would be the entirely usual procedure of changing the law, which is how every other legislative programme is achieved. The rule of law could not thus be undermined, for the legal situation afterwards would expressly allow what the media seek to do.

</comment><comment><USER23> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Austral...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Australia)

</comment><comment><USER24> I'm partly surprised by the cynicism. Yes, the media are flawed, but that doesn't mean they aren't essential.

I would rather have flawed free media than none at all.

</comment><comment><USER25> For a copy of this article unredacted by paywalls: [http://archive.is/biXCu](http://archive.is/biXCu)

Here are some photos of the papers: [https://twitter.com/i/events/1186056563900858369](https://twitter.com/i/events/1186056563900858369)

</comment><comment><USER26> Find it quite ironic that an article discussing freedom of the press restricts users from accessing the content while in private mode. Freedom of privacy perhaps?

      You're in private mode.
      Subscribe to continue reading in private mode.

<comment><USER27> We who are not bean counters, we developers, journalists and truck drivers [raises hand], probably don't fully perceive the profit imperative in our larger organizations, even when we think we do. It's not that one hand doesn't know what the other's doing, it's that they're the body, and we're the tool.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> We need to fire the lot of them in Canberra and start again. Aussie pollies going backwards in the ethics..

<comment><USER29> Let's try to make this more constructive than the Herald Sun letters page, shall we?

For instance, I read a profile of Jacqui Lambie [0] in The Saturday Paper [1] the other week. I'm a Green-voting Fitzroy-dwelling hipster, literally, but I found it gave me a real appreciation of someone who I would have dismissed out of hand the week before [3].

Being a politician is probably a thankless task. I've no doubt it's difficult. They really don't get paid _that_ much. I wouldn't want to do it.

If you're generally cynical of politicians as a people, I can't recommend Ben Rhodes' book _The World as It Is_ [4] enough. It might not make you any less cynical — spoiler: politics is a shit-fight — but it might give you a little more appreciation for the fact that the people doing this job are just that. They're mostly just regular people, who thought they could do good. (Rhodes was Obama's adviser: if anyone has similar recommendations for Australian politics, I'd love to hear them.)

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

[1]: [https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2019/09/21...](https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2019/09/21/the- lambie-interview-inside-her-power-play/15689880008791)

[3]: Actually, a few weeks prior, Jacqui sat beside us in the Qantas lounge at Devonport. We moved — mostly because of the annoying kids clambering all over the furniture and the toxic hellstew that is Sky News blaring from the TV, but we joked that we didn't want to sit next to her. Now I wish I'd said hello.

[4]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_as_It_Is_(book)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_as_It_Is_\(book\))

<comment><USER30> Jacqui Lambie has matured so much as a politician. I used to see her as someone flailing around in an inexpert way, but now I actually respect her. I rarely agree with her stance on many things, but she seems to have developed consistency in her messaging, and doesn't toe party lines. She gets respect from me due to being a lot more genuine than most other Australian politicians. I wish we could have more politicians like her, but spread across the political spectrum.

<comment><USER31> This was an interesting article on her from the weekend:

[https://www.theguardian.com/australia- news/2019/oct/20/from-...](https://www.theguardian.com/australia- news/2019/oct/20/from-wrecking-ball-to-kingmaker-why-all-eyes-are-on-jacqui- lambie)

She's get my respect as she genuinely seems to want to make a difference, not just make a career out of being a politician.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Computer Vision Video Lectures - <AUTHOR> http://eliminatingwork.blogspot.com/2010/01/computer-vision-video-lectures.html

<comment><USER2> Wow!</comment>


Mark Zuckerberg's Political Awakening - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-09-21/mark-zuckerberg-s-political-awakening <comment><USER3> Paul Graham claimed in 2004 that the winning candidate each presidential election is actually the candidate with the charisma.

[http://www.paulgraham.com/charisma.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/charisma.html)

Since then, Obama beat McCain and Romney and Trump beat Clinton.

While it's hard on the ears to hear that Trump is charismatic, the reality is that his social intelligence is off the charts. That's why Scott Adams predicted early that he would win (as did I and I won some money betting on it even while I voted against him).

I don't see president-level charisma in Zuckerberg, although I'm not sure because i haven't watched him that much. I know at least one person who is really fascinated by him so maybe it's worth a second look.

<comment><USER4> I think PG is right.

Trump is dynamic and loves attention. He is energized by the audience. When attacked in debate he goes offense.

His message has little coherence or intelligent content, but that's not the point. It's not what he says. It's feeling he evokes: hate and anger. He was constant center of attention from left and right. MSNBC might have been supporting Clinton, but they could not avoid flying into the flame of Trump. He was the center of the every media.

Populist politicians talk directly to the 'Id' and Trump is instinctively doing that. He is "the Id". His campaign was like David Lynch movie. Messaging directly into the unconsciousness.

<comment><USER5> He must've known that he would have been marginalized as a candidate if he didn't continue to project brazenly offensive gaffes into the political arena.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> He reminds me of a male Hilary. I think we've been reduced to(maybe we've always been this) just quick reactions for Elections, and my immediate reaction even from the start was I don't like this guy, even before I knew about the "stupid fuckers are trusting me" and sweatgate. He just repulses me, in the same way Hillary physically repulsed me on an evolutionary level. And I think if America is filled with morons like me, he won't win.

<comment><USER6> Both Hil and Zuck are not genuine. That's not going to resonate, unless in the next 3 years we swing to the opposite end from Trump's uncesnsored raw bullshit and go full American Psycho Plasticity

<comment><USER7> Well, they're genuine in one way: they're both classic, technocratic neoliberals. Trump v. Zuck would be a disaster for one of the vain billionaires, and probably not the old one.

I think this nails the Clinton-ish technocrat world-view: [https://thebaffler.com/blessed-and-brightest/what- happened](https://thebaffler.com/blessed-and-brightest/what-happened)

<comment><USER5> Fantastic article!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "A study published earlier this year by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that heavy social media users were, on average, more isolated than their peers. Zuckerberg doesn't see it that way, arguing that the best way to a better society is more Facebook."

"Zuckerberg sometimes talks about the promise of brain implants, which he believes will one day convey the entirety of one's mental state to another human being"

Perhaps I have been watching too much Star Trek, but he is sounding just like the Borg.

<comment><USER9> Also seems like he's really taken with The Circle.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I welcome the onslaught of Zuckerburg in politics. He will get chewed up and spit out as he openly advocates for illegal immigration amnesty, universal basic income, and whatever else the socialist utopians envision. He will get raked over the coals with these ideologies in the states he has to win (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida). That is assuming the Clinton Machine doesn't destroy him first. He's way out of his league here and better stick to Facebook.

</comment><comment><USER11> Question for anyone who is knowledgeable about California elections: If Mark wanted to run for governor 2018, when would he have to take an observable action? (i.e. register as a candidate or similar.) At what point would we know for sure? And would winning Governor block a presidential run in 2020? And would losing it would indicate a candidate too weak to win POTUS 2020?

I think a key factor has to be whether Trump will survive through 2020. If Trump is weak in 2020 that is the best time to run, because if a Democrat beats Trump is 2020 and it isn't Mark, he'd have to wait until 2028, _and_ he'd be running for re-election after 8 years of a Dem executive. It will partly depend on the who is the challenger in 2020 was well. I wonder if there is a chance Hillary takes another shot?

<comment><USER12> January 31, 2018, for the July 5 Primary ballot.

[http://www.fppc.ca.gov/content/dam/fppc/NS- Documents/TAD/Fil...](http://www.fppc.ca.gov/content/dam/fppc/NS- Documents/TAD/Filing%20Schedules/2018/2018%2001%206-5%20State%20Cand.pdf)

<comment><USER11> Exactly what I wanted to know, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I wonder which PATENTS will put in place if he wins the US elections.

Facebook, Inc. ("Facebook") hereby grants to each human being within the US territory a perpetual facebook account ;)

</comment><comment><USER14> He'll probably have to run as an independent. Don't think Dems will let him usurp their system. And then he'll end up bring a Perot. This time he'll likely suck more voters from the Dems than Reps.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm not sure what Zuckerberg can do to combat the virality of Trump, I have some suggestions, which he may not like but he'll need to do:

* Ban Trump from Facebook (co-op with Twitter to ban him there also) * Flood Facebook with ads of people helping others, doing good, committing selfless acts * Forgo the traditional presidential campaign, instead of rallies do an eye-catching Apple-style presentation of people, their situations and solutions. * Stick to an optimistic message no. matter. what. Do not get in the mud. * Do not mention your competitor by name * Every week ask open ended policy/progress questions to an audience on FB (for instance, What would the year 2030 look like? Mars for humanity?) * Every week also feature an interview with an activist, about their mission, how they're changing the world and how the audience can help. * The people who helped build Facebook who are still around must absolutely be involved in the campaign as a testament to Zuckerberg's character and perseverance. * As campaign items distribute and sell posters of great SV pioneers and leaders. Beautiful ones of Jobs, Gates, even social justice and advocacy leaders in the world like Yousafzai, etc. And obviously past leaders like Obama, Hillary, Bill, etc. Don't make it about you, but about visionaries who push the boundaries and change things.

Zuckerberg has a significant chance to not end up like Hillary, but honestly, I would not dare to campaign in 2020; however I would be more than happy to get Zuckerberg across 270 with a campaign the world will remember.

<comment><USER15> > Ban Trump from Facebook (co-op with Twitter to ban him there also)

So, what exactly do you think would happen if they did that? I'll tell you: Facebook will start having some serious conversations with government regulators about all kinds of fun things like antitrust, telecommunications regulations, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Facebook's threat is that politicians have little control over it and it is not limited to just one country in scope. I don't use facebook but I like that it exist. the only regulation of such an entity is to keep it non discriminatory because if it were to start picking winners and losers it probably could have undue influence.

<comment><USER12> Politicians _do_ have control over Facebook.

It's just not _entirely_ clear which ones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Can't wait for 2020 election. I suspect it will be even worse circus than 2016. Get ready for some ridiculous candidates!

<comment><USER18> Kid rock(see vice) & Kanye... (popcorn)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> There's this assumption that FB should be censoring advertisers. It seems logical - registering key phrases like "how to burn jews" is bad.

But I still wonder, had they preemptively censored advertisers, would that itself be a minor scandal?

</comment><comment><USER20> One can be an Atheist and believe religion to be important at the same time. One _has_ to believe religion to be important for certain, if one was to run for POTUS.

</comment><comment><USER21> His platform helped deliver the presidency to one billionaire, why not another?

</comment><comment><USER22> Seems like the real Mark Zuckerberg comes out at the end of that article.

</comment><comment> gm-conspiracy I don't think he is in as much control as he thinks he has.

<comment><USER23> I don't think we know how much control he has. 10 years ago he was nowhere, now he has all the conversations and pictures of 25% of the world.

<comment> gm-conspiracy He was either complicit with Russia or completely ignorant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Non-regwall: [https://archive.is/3kESs](https://archive.is/3kESs)

</comment><comment><USER25> Is it only me or this looks like a Macron-effect? I mean, President Macron did show to the world it was possible for a young fellow to hijack the elections, even in a (relatively) stable democracy. Actually, if you think about it, it seems not that hard to be (or look) much less repugnant than the old comical zombies and rotten clowns we get proposed.

<comment><USER26> Hijack? He's as establishment as they come.

He's essentially the french version of Rubio, not in the "minority candidate" sense, but in the "fallback establishment candidate" sense.

The only difference was that French elites learned from the US Republican elites, avoided internal discord and obliterated the opposition with "timely" scandals.

<comment><USER27> The only scandal was against Fillon, the candidate that was much more like traditional establishment. There was no scandal at all among the left side of the spectrum, there just could not agree on anything.

Without the scandal, it could have been Fillon president, so even more establishment, with corruption as an added bonus. I fail to see how it was an operation of the "elites".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Nobody wants this

</comment><comment><USER29> >'"Wouldn't it be better," he asks with a sly smile, "if it was actually an accepted thing for people to want to go understand how other people were living?"'

Hey Mark, here in the "normal regular person world" that's actually already accepted. There's a name for it, its called empathy, its a basic human trait. The fact that you perceive that as somehow "unaccepted" shows just how disconnected from reality and clueless you actually are.

The fact that you see going on a road trip as something extraordinary and worthy of your vast PR machinery is nothing short of a joke.

Also I'm sure that embarking on a road trip while being surrounded by security detail and a team of PR flaks is creating an authentic experience for all involved.

<comment><USER30> He is discovering what religions (yes all of them) have been saying for years. I don't see any harm in that.

Better than what a lot of other rich scumbags I know do with their time.

<comment><USER31> Which is more likely, that Mark is experiencing a genuine, and highly publicized, spiritual awakening, or that he's meticulously crafting his public persona based on unprecedented troves of information about modern society?

<comment><USER32> I do find his changes suspicious, but he did get married / have a kid which can also bring huge changes

<comment><USER29> I'm not sure I would consider the further cultivation of his megalomania and messianic complex a huge change.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> What a goober.

</comment><comment><USER34> Zuckerberg has done all these things within a relatively short period of time:

* Says he's no longer an atheist, "questioned" religious matters, he broke through his skepticism and now believes religion to be "very important."

* Restructuring of Facebook stock trough the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. In the SEC filing it says that he can take a leave of absence from Facebook and still retain voting control of the company if he goes to work for the government.

* Hired a top Democratic campaign manager David Plouffe into the iniative. Plouffe was Obama's campaign manager.

* Hired top Republican campaign manager Ken Mehlman into the iniative. Mehlman is a former George W. Bush campaign manager and RNC chairman.

* Promised to visit all 50 states and meet people.

* Hires a former top adviser to President Barack Obama and the chief strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

This is not PR as usual for CEO. He is into something big.

<comment><USER35> This country worships success. That's the reason Trump won.

Zuckerberg is not only ridiculously successful but touches everyone's life everyday and people may feel an intimacy that doesn't exist.

Without being judgmental just looking at the dynamics he is going to win.

<comment><USER36> What scares me about Zuckerberg vs. Trump is how much more of a cypher Zuckerberg is. Trump's motivations are pretty clear: money, fame, and his own ego. These aren't noble causes but they're easy to understand and it's possible to predict what trump will do from these. What motivates Zuckerberg? The mealy-mouthed, 5000 word manifesto [1] from Facebook this year certainly doesn't shed any light on this question. Nor does he have a track record in politics to point to.

From his unscripted words [2], actions [3], and the company he keeps [4] I suspect his vision is some kind of techno-libertarian utopia where anything is legal as long as it's in the TOS - unless it's _the bad thing_ and must be therefore be purged from the internet.

But considering Facebook's weird puritanical streak [5], and their recent refusal to reveal political ad information [6]. I'm left with this quote from Alpha Centauri:

> "Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he > dreams himself your master."

[1] [https://www.recode.net/2017/2/16/14640460/mark-zuckerberg- fa...](https://www.recode.net/2017/2/16/14640460/mark-zuckerberg-facebook- manifesto-letter)

[2] [http://gawker.com/5636765/facebook-ceo-admits-to-calling- use...](http://gawker.com/5636765/facebook-ceo-admits-to-calling-users-dumb- fucks)

[3] [http://www.mercurynews.com/2013/10/10/mark-zuckerberg- buys-f...](http://www.mercurynews.com/2013/10/10/mark-zuckerberg-buys-four- houses-near-his-palo-alto-home/)

[4] [http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-defends- faceb...](http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-defends-facebook- board-member-peter-thiels-ties-to-trump-2017-3?op=1)

[5] [https://news.artnet.com/art-world/facebook-censors- caravaggi...](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/facebook-censors-caravaggio- nude-cupid-730454)

[6] [https://www.yahoo.com/news/fire-facebook-refuses-disclose- po...](https://www.yahoo.com/news/fire-facebook-refuses-disclose-political- ads-bought-russian-trolls-230143492.html)

<comment><USER26> "Zuckerberg sometimes talks about the promise of brain implants, which he believes will one day convey the entirety of one's mental state to another human being"

Those who join us need only give up only half of their humanity - <USER2> illogical, ill-tempered, and disordered half, commonly thought of as 'right- brain' functioning. In exchange, the 'left-brain' capacities are increased to undreamed potentials. The tendency of Biologicals to cling instead to their individual personalities can only be attributed to archaic evolutionary tendencies.

\--Prime Function Aki Zuckerberg-5, "Convergence"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Great read, at first I thought it was just a puff piece but the ending is a great insight into the filter bubble that folks with that amount of money and power live in. He can't handle any criticism or line of questioning that dares to peek behind the curtain, it's something that just never happens in his world.

I'm not sure what level of power he's going to buy next, but everyone should be trying to peek behind the curtain. And deleting their Facebook.

<comment><USER38> >>He can't handle any criticism or line of questioning that dares to peek behind the curtain, it's something that just never happens in his world.

Neither can Trump, yet here we are.

<comment><USER39> Zuckerberg wants to fully combine his wealth and access to information about us into a presidency and then what? If you say the wrong thing about him on Facebook the IRS suddenly audits you? Criticism of Zuckerberg flags you in government databases as well?

Trump owns a chain of hotels and sells ties and hats, but doesn't operate what could largely be seen as the most expansive and intimate database about every American ever made.</comment></comment></comment>


Vassal – Online Adaptations of Board Games - <AUTHOR> http://www.vassalengine.org/index.php <comment><USER2> On the topic of online board games, I've been really interested in the idea of a pure play-by-email (PBE) system where there isn't a frontend or web interface at all. By that, I mean that a full game rendering is emailed to each player, and they take their turns by replying to the email with the commands they wish to execute.

I started one in Go a number of years ago[1] and I feel I managed to prove to myself that a pure email interface is possible and actually really convenient in some cases. I even managed to implement over 20 games[2]. It was only ever used in my closed circle of friends, but we played thousands of games and many found it simple to participate in slow periods at work or school.

If anything, my biggest takeaway was that if you want to really reach a level of expertise in a new technology, you need to find a project that you can pour your heart into. I've probably breached 100k LOC for the project and I've been working on it for over half a decade. I'm currently redoing the project in Rust as an attempt to become highly skilled in that[3].

[1] [https://github.com/Miniand/brdg.me](https://github.com/Miniand/brdg.me)

[2] [https://github.com/Miniand/brdg.me/tree/master/game](https://github.com/Miniand/brdg.me/tree/master/game)

[3] [https://github.com/brdgme](https://github.com/brdgme)

<comment><USER3> The board game Diplomacy had a really thriving play by post community, which morphed into play by email. I'm actually not sure if there is a platform that actually supports play-by-email anymore (the ones I used to use seem defunct).

But there's this (claims to support play by email but I couldn't find actual directions in 2 minutes of reading around): [http://www.diplomaticcorp.com/](http://www.diplomaticcorp.com/)

When I played this ~10 years ago the main interface was just plain email. You'd send and email with the body containing commands like so:

signon gamename password A PAR-BUR A MAR-SPA F BRE-MAO signoff

Then there was a website that subscribed to your game as a observer and would render views of the map

<comment><USER4> Dunno about other games, but Lichess[0] has a correspondence gameplay mechanism[1]

[0] [https://lichess.org/](https://lichess.org/)

[1] [https://i.imgur.com/nYgMjuB.png](https://i.imgur.com/nYgMjuB.png)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The problem with VASSAL and Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia is that... it's awkward to play a real time board game online.

There's a lot of down time while everyone else takes their turn. You have to set aside one to three hours to play uninterrupted. In real life, you have the benefit of hanging out with these people as you play.

However, I've become a huge fan of [http://www.yucata.de/](http://www.yucata.de/) and [http://boardgamearena.com](http://boardgamearena.com) recently and not playing games in real time. Making one or two turns a day means there's no down time, and I can be much more flexible making my move(s) fit into my schedule.

<comment><USER6> The main thing I've found about playing games not in real time is you are always able to min-max every move. Since I don't necessarily play every game to win (I try to win, but if I don't it's not a big deal) I enjoy the arbitrary time constraint of playing in real time. Makes things move along and gives games more of a lighthearted feel.

Also it's only three games, but I play Food Chain Magnate a lot and you can only play it online here: [http://play.boardgamecore.net/](http://play.boardgamecore.net/)

<comment><USER7> You may try to min max everything, but you might not actually min max it. Not everyone is willing to build a model of the game with all its probabilities, and calculate the optimal solution. Many will just play their gut feeling for the probabilities. Others will build naive models. Others will just guess at a general strategy.

<comment><USER8> Right, it remains as much a social problem as a technical problem. If you worry your friends (or worse, you) might be prone to min/max more in asynchronous/delayed multiplayer situations, find social ways to encourage avoiding it.

(That's very much something that will be unique to your group dynamics, but little things like asking people to time how much they actively work on turn, or encouraging them to only do their turns during lunch breaks and from their mobile phone, can work for different sorts of people.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Speaking of online adaptations of board games.. My Massively Multiplayer Adaptation of Codenames was just approved for public consumption by its illustrious creator, Vlaada Chvátil today!

Sign up and help me test out Django Channels in production!

TL;DR: An MMOBG based on Codenames! - Sign up form: [http://codewords.io/](http://codewords.io/) \- FAQ: [http://codewords.io/faq/](http://codewords.io/faq/)

I needed to learn a few new technologies (TypeScript, Angular 4, Bootstrap 4, Django Channels.) Building the same chat room app that everyone builds as their first demo using these technologies sounded tedious. I decided to build a Massively Multiplayer Online Board Game instead.

If you'd like to help with a stress test or participate in a game, there's a sign up form up here: [http://codewords.io/](http://codewords.io/)

I'm going to try to get Vlaada to host a game with me, but, he's a busy guy. If he's unavailable I'll find someone almost as interesting to play with us.

If you'd like to know more, I put up an FAQ over there: [http://codewords.io/faq/](http://codewords.io/faq/) (you can skip to the gameplay FAQ by tugging on this: [http://codewords.io/faq/#how- work](http://codewords.io/faq/#how-work))

Screenshots and a gameplay overview can be found somewhere under here: [https://imgur.com/a/3xtZC](https://imgur.com/a/3xtZC)

<comment><USER10> Thanks for doing this.

For those who are looking into taking up boardgames, I highly recommend Codenames.

<comment><USER9> Thank Vlaada and CGE! I can't believe that they gave me permission to play with their toys. This is what it looks like when a company/creator responds with great kindness when confronted with a fan project!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Vassal has two main limitations: \- It requires a download (not web-based). \- Most games still require you to manage the board state yourself.

Like someone else pointed out, boardgamearea.com, yucata.de and (my favorite) [http://play.boardgamecore.net/](http://play.boardgamecore.net/) also manage the game state for you.

I've been working on a (very early stages still) rules engine that will hopefully make it easier for more websites like the above to pop up in the future: [https://github.com/google/boardgame.io](https://github.com/google/boardgame.io)

<comment><USER12> This is pretty nifty!

Do you have any desire to add AI? I could almost write a generic AI for your current version; the two things that are missing are a way to enumerate the possible moves (the ability to pass extra arguments to a move causes issues there), and a way for the game to know when a turn is supposed to end.

(I'm also at Google; drop the j from my name to get my ldap.)

<comment><USER11> AI sounds great!

One of the selling points of a project like this would be access to machine readable game logs that people could use to train bots offline.

Having something generic that could play reasonable moves by exploring a possible list of moves (and their outcomes a few levels deep) sounds pretty exciting too. Let's talk :)

<comment><USER13> Ruleset agnostic boardgame AI is a somewhat active area of research. The term to search for is "General Game Playing".

<comment><USER12> I was thinking of just doing a generic tree search + optional heuristic thing to start. As a game developer, my experience has been that even really stupid AIs help a lot to understand what my game plays like.

If having something simple in place prompts someone from the AI community to come try something more sophisticated, I'd certainly enjoy the show.

<comment><USER14> I won't say I'm from the AI community, but I've been wanting to take a stab at the basics and I have a science background. If you're interested I'd be happy to chat and see if I could contribute.

<comment><USER11> Feel free to get in on the conversation at [https://github.com/google/boardgame.io/issues/7](https://github.com/google/boardgame.io/issues/7) :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm currently finishing up a MVP for an entirely in-browser turn-based gaming platform.

It has a custom game editor/IDE with Google Blockly [1] inspired visual programming tools for implementing the game logic and the game UI. My design goals with the editor are to enable as many non-programmers as possible to make games (there's a lot that can be done here).

Games that are developed & published on the platform can be played online just like any other browser-based multiplayer game. Rules are entirely enforced by the backend game engine, so games can be played competitively.

The format for valid games is fairly open-ended. It should support games like Settlers of Catan, Risk, poker, Pokemon-style card games, go, chess, etc. To be clear, it isn't a 3d table-top simulation, by any means -- just HTML and CSS for now.

There will be forking and modding of games (sort of like github). I have several ideas for how this could work without diminishing the original game designer's efforts [2]. I also want to foster the formation of communities around individual games and any mods that are made.

I've been working on the platform for over a year now, and it's finally close to being ready, at least as an MVP. I'm hoping one more month...

Anyone interested in being a beta tester once the MVP is looking decent?

[1] [https://developers.google.com/blockly/](https://developers.google.com/blockly/)

[2] Currently, I'm thinking that a "fork" will only copy over the code & ruleset for the game, and not any graphical assets. It will exist on the same level as the original game, underneath the authorship of the forker. A "mod" _can_ make use of graphical assets, but will live underneath the umbrella/community of the original game. Definitely open to suggestions on this.

</comment><comment><USER16> Worth mentioning here for any interested parties is OCTGN [1], or "Online Card and Tabletop Gaming Network".

Interesting history - it started out from a VB6 application (specifically for playing Magic the Gathering) maintained by a single guy, he then handed dev off and the entire application was rewritten as a C# WPF application and was in hot competition with Magic Workstation directly for some time [2], which ultimately IMO made it a much better product. I believe I actually still have the original VB6 source on an old HDD somewhere... If I find it, wondering how to best archive it, or would anyone even care?

Anyway, OCTGN is currently a generic "tabletop game" program that allows for new games to be defined via the documented game format [3] and even supports python scripting.

[1]: [https://github.com/octgn/OCTGN](https://github.com/octgn/OCTGN) [2]: [http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic- fundamentals/other-...](http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic- fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/337938-octgn-2-0-is- finally-out-it-blows-magic) [3]: [https://github.com/octgn/OCTGN/wiki#create- games-on-octgn](https://github.com/octgn/OCTGN/wiki#create-games-on-octgn)

<comment><USER17> This seems to have a strong "Card Game" bias, with a slightly less strong "LCG/CCG" bias. Are there any game models for it for games that aren't primarily card based?

<comment><USER16> There appear to be _some_ but you are correct that it has a strong "card game" bias as it was originally meant to play Magic. I'm not aware of any, no.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Anyone aware of one of these board games sites that makes it a priority to be accessible? I'm visually impaired, so would benefit from anything visual also having a text/audio component. Also a lot of these are drag-and-drop, so having an alternative way to move things around would be helpful. Obviously some games wouldn't translate well to a non-visual medium, so that's why I ask.

<comment><USER19> I'd be pretty keen on this too, my girlfriend lives far away and is completely blind- it'd be really nice to be able to play board games with her online.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I don't know if it has become better in the meantime, I tried it some years ago and found that it's a nice idea but in practice most modules (i.e. games) are rather primitive implementations.

</comment><comment><USER21> What I'd love is a FOSS alternative to Roll20, which is namely for tabletop RPGs.

<comment><USER22> Have you tried MapTool? It's not an online service but a client/server Java tool, but if you're not e.g. looking for a new group it's good enough for scripting rules and displaying maps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm a developer of an online board game implementation. Before starting out, I consulted any library, platform and framework available to minimize implementation effort.

Vassal was also on the list to checkout. Various items made it clear Vassal was no fit (for me at least): 1) No web interface available 2) Lead developer who seemed to worry about inexplicable technical issues 3) non-existing usability 4) board game logic must be shoehorned into a generic framework, where I want to expose a boardgame specific API.

I ultimately decided to write it from scratch.

</comment><comment><USER24> Given the name I was expecting this to be affiliated with Tom Vasel (founder of The Dice Tower and notable game reviewer) in some way, but it seems to be completely unrelated.

<comment><USER9> And all around good guy. Have you met him in person? He's shockingly tall. Taller than you would think possible from his videos. I saw him again at PAX Unplugged last week... I'm always surprised by just how impossibly tall he is.

<comment><USER24> I met him at Gencon this year, but I didn't realize who he was at the time. I only listen to the podcast, so I didn't recognize him. He was sitting on a Rathskellers gaming table and I started asking him about the table. It was only when some people asked for a photo that I realized who he was.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Wonderful! When I was a kid before the microcomputer age I was a fan of exotic games like Turkish and Japanese chess. I had to make pieces using bread dough clay. Not fun.

</comment><comment><USER26> What's the copyright situation with the modules? The screenshots I've browsed seem to have images of the actual board and card art.

</comment><comment><USER27> The most played game in Vassal right now is the very popular Xwing miniature combat ([http://xwvassal.info/](http://xwvassal.info/)).

Sadly the Vassal devs seem to have lost the flame for the project. A big client side rewrite to get off of Java was planned for many years but never executed.

Great software even in its current state though!

</comment><comment><USER28> Slightly off topic but it's always interesting to run into open source projects that continue to be hosted on Sourceforge

<comment><USER29> Inertia ? Vassal has always been on Sourceforge.

I don't see much benefit in using Java for board games, especially in a client-side app where server resources are not an issue. Vast majority of board games are turn-based with alternating turns. The bottleneck is player input. A more expressive language like Python would work better in my opinion. Inertia, I guess. Java was all the rage back then.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Fresh from MHacks, 'Moments' for iOS - <AUTHOR> http://grantgumina.com/moments/

<comment><USER2> How do you stop someone from making an _ad_ out of a Moment? Or leaving some disgusting X-rated stuff designed to harass women or abuse children?</comment>


Crystal Survey 2017 Results - <AUTHOR> https://crystal-lang.org/2017/11/03/2017-crystal-survey-2017-results.html <comment><USER2> I remember discovering Crystal 3 or 4 years ago and loving the concept but waiting for the language and tooling to mature. It looks like years later a lot of people are still in this same boat.

While Ruby took app development by storm, I feel the pendulum shifted towards microservices with statically compiled binaries. But Go can be overly cumbersome for simple projects with a "role your own everything" mentality.

I hope Crystal 1.0 bridges the gap and can provide the portability of compiled binaries with the beauty and speed of development of Ruby.

</comment><comment><USER3> These are useful tools, but for a pre-1.0 language, it might be worth casting a wider net than people who would even know to take the survey. For instance, I started writing a command line application in Crystal, and there was some deeply strange bug with how stdout was handled -- no combination of the suggested remedies in the github issue fixed my problem, so I stopped writing it in Crystal. I've never returned to the language -- but that means I didn't hear about the survey.

<comment><USER4> I had a similar experience. I spent 2 to 3 hr trying to get a basic dev environment with an opengl binding setup and I couldn't manage it. Stopped using it and went back to c.

I'm waiting for the day I can come back.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Crystal community is growing rapidly. We've got a steady growing user base > with a lot of new Crystal developers joining every week.

That's an interesting correlation to draw from 35% of developers using Crystal for less than 1 month. I would draw from it that there's a high amount of churn in Crystal developers, most developers drop Crystal after a short amount of time.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. I could not even put in production since it was requiring too much memory so my droplet in digital ocean was failing to compile. I Had problems with CORS in Kermal framework, Crecto was crashing for no reason (so I switched to manually writing mysql queries, but not the ideal) and no one could help me with those problems. I switched to Elixir/Phoenix and it was great, but I still want to see Crystal in a few years again, it's a great language.</comment></comment>


What Makes Work Meaningful? Ask a Zookeeper - <AUTHOR> http://daily.jstor.org/meaningful-work-zookeepers/

<comment><USER2> Isn't it a sad sign when you see an article about a Zookeeper, and you're momentarily confused why it's talking about animals and zoology?

<comment><USER3> Not really, many of us use Zookeeper and follow its creators. Also this is Hacker News, not lifestyle magazine. But on second guess...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've always wanted to work with animals. The thing is that I love programming too. If only I could combine the two.

<comment><USER5> create the next farmville?

Just kidding. But seriously, there's a lot of room for robotics in livestock management.

Visit a ranch, and then come home and write as many ideas for automation or data intelligence as you can come up with. Show your list to the rancher, see what he thinks.

Make your own path in life. Be a trailblazer, so that ten years from now, there's an article about you on HN that inspires kids to forge their own paths.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Help, I think Amazon is stealing my ebook - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/FOUNDATION-PROGRAMMING-Building-Software-ebook/dp/B005BYS3FE I was recently pointed to a copy of my free ebook being sold on Amazon for the Kindle. I sent a DMCA takedown notice 5 business days ago and haven't heard anything back.
When I first saw it, I noticed that it was being sold by "Amazon Digital Services"..which I thought was really fishy - like someone trying to pass themselves off as Amazon. Now that I've done more research though, it seems like this actually is Amazon.
If you open the book on the website and you look at the very top, you'll see the original CC Non-Commercial license.
What should I do? <comment><USER2> For what it's worth, it's _not_ Amazon, but a highly scammy-seeming Amazon merchant: [http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/seller/at-a- glance.html?ie=UTF...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/seller/at-a- glance.html?ie=UTF8&seller=AG56TWVU5XWC2) ("Amazon Digital Services, Inc. US")

It's hard to believe Amazon lets merchants have "Amazon" in their name, but there it is.

If you don't get a reply from someone at AZ in a timely manner, I imagine you could go ahead and file a DMCA takedown as the copyright owner. They're making your copyrighted material available for download without your permission— This is exactly what it's for.

<comment><USER3> Actually, "Sold by: Amazon Digital Services" only means that it's a digital file delivered via the Kindle ditribution platform. For example, our book [http://www.amazon.com/Programmare-Python-Italian- ebook/dp/B0...](http://www.amazon.com/Programmare-Python-Italian- ebook/dp/B004E3XGC8/) lists ThinkCode.TV as the publisher but it's still sold by Amazon Digital Services. This is true regardless of whether the book is self-published or not (e.g., <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004IYIUN8/>).

What's happening here is that someone took the freely available book and published it via Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing, <http://kdp.amazon.com/>). Violations like this happen all the time and Amazon hates them. Simply contact them with a DMCA notice and they'll remove it right away.

It used to be common for people to publish no longer copyrighted classics and other freely available content through KDP. Nothing illegal about it, but people were so eager to make a quick buck for no work that it quickly got out of hand. The Kindle Store was inundated with such content, so Amazon had to become much more selective about it.

PRO Tip: Always include a message in your free ebooks (unless you allow commercial use) that if the digital copy of the book was sold, and not obtained for free, the reader should ask immediately for a refund and let you know about the violators. Most scammers are too lazy to go into the book and change it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks...I'm glad the company named is cleared up.

I did send a takedown notice on the 6th and haven't heard anything back.

Re the pro-tip..I did stick the license at the top..but, ya, that isn't very clear. In The Little MongoDB Book, I very clearly state that "You should not have paid for this book"

<comment><USER4> Why don't you telephone them? There is a telephone number given, along with detailed instructions of what to do in case of a copyright violation.

I'm a little surprised you'd write a blog post and get HN involved before picking up the phone.

<comment><USER5> It's 2011. Who picks up a phone? Phones are for texting, web surfing, and posting on HN.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I see that you've released the book using the Creative Commons "Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported" license, so it looks like Amazon is clearly in error here. Have you contacted them according to the instructions here? [http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/102-5493...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/102-5493690-1847300?ie=UTF8&nodeId=508088#copyright)

There's a telephone number there-- I imagine you should be able to get this cleared up quickly.

<comment><USER6> I notice that on the Code Better page, [http://codebetter.com/karlseguin/2008/06/25/foundations- of-p...](http://codebetter.com/karlseguin/2008/06/25/foundations-of- programming-ebook/) , he says "I'm excited to finally release the official, and completely free, Foundations of Programming EBook.".

This _could_ be interpreted, as there is no contradictory license statement on that page, as "this book is free-libre".

If "Amazon Digital Services" (which, if not originating with Amazon, has to be a Trademark violation that could lose Amazon their Trademark right if not challenged) counter the DMCA notice with such a statement I think that would leave the matter unresolved and Amazon wouldn't, IIRC, be obliged to take down the material. You'd have to lawyer up instead.

IA(quite obviously I'm sure)NAL.

<comment><USER7> But who would _seriously_ interpret it that way, other than as a pedantic legal defense? ;-) When the newspaper says _"Toy Story DVD Free Today!"_ it'd be odd to interpret that as assuming you could sell your own copies of Toy Story. I don't think authors necessarily have to stoop to defining everything in legally precise terms if the general term fits the case and, particularly, since copyright law is on their side already even if they say nothing.

<comment><USER6> All I'm saying is that it could be sufficient defence against a DMCA. He should IMO edit the page to state the license.

> _if the general term fits the case_ //

The general term "completely free" means that I'm able to do absolutely anything with it without paying.

<comment><USER8>
        The general term "completely free" means that I'm
        able to do absolutely anything with it without paying.

In a court of law, it doesn't mean squat, unless the work itself has been released in public domain and even then, in some countries public domain doesn't apply or is limited.

That's why there's a copyright law that is applied implicitly and that's why releasing works should be accompanied by a real license that explicitly says what you're allowed to do.

The reason "completely free" does not mean anything is because it is ambiguous. If it refers to price, that doesn't mean you can redistribute it.

         that it could be sufficient defence against a DMCA

No it wouldn't.

<comment><USER6> > _In a court of law, it doesn't mean squat_ //

This is more or less what I've been saying.

> _because it is ambiguous_ //

Ambiguity was my claim initially if you read back.

Clearly you have a handle on DMCA take down notices that I don't. How, if an ambiguity in license isn't sufficient, does the DMCA protect from malicious take down notices. If what you say is true then it appears that one can simply submit a DMCA take down notice and the carrier is _always_ required to remove the content without and need to demonstrate that it is infringing.

Obviously it's fine to remove content that is questionable, within ones ToS, but we're not looking at that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement

If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide Amazon.com's copyright agent the written information specified below. Please note that this procedure is exclusively for notifying Amazon that your copyrighted material has been infringed.

        An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
        A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed upon;
        A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site, including the auction ID number, if applicable;
        Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address;
        A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
        A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Amazon.com's Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement on its site can be reached as follows:

        Copyright Agent
        Amazon.com Legal Department
        P.O. Box 81226
        Seattle, WA 98108
        phone: (206) 266-4064
        fax: (206) 266-7010
        e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com

        Courier address:
        Copyright Agent
        Amazon.com Legal Department
        410 Terry Avenue North
        Seattle, WA 98109-5210
        USA

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I'll try snail mail. However, I did send a DMCA takedown notice to firstname.lastname@example.com (the address they have registered for such complaints).

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Perhaps take this under advisement ...

You might want to consider creating a blog post outlining carefully the situation, the steps you've taken, and the responses you've had. Be careful to state only what you have concrete evidence for, and/or mark very clearly bits that are supposition or deductions.

Mark things clearly with the date and time - make your records of the progress (or otherwise) public. After a few days, start to publicize the page.

Be visible.

When the whole episode is over you will have a documented story of your interaction with Amazon - this could be priceless to those that follow.

<comment><AUTHOR> I wrote down my story so far: [http://openmymind.net/2011/8/12/Amazon-Is- Selling-My-Free-Eb...](http://openmymind.net/2011/8/12/Amazon-Is-Selling-My- Free-Ebook)

Not sure what the purpose of waiting a couple days are to be public about it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

<comment><USER10>
      "Not sure what the purpose of waiting a
       couple days are to be public about it."

If someone had a dispute with me, I'd appreciate a couple of days to clear things up before they chose to escalate it by going public. This is something you need to decide on - do you want the whole thing to be public, which might make someone on the other side be more cautious about what they say, and possibly just "lawyer up" instead of negotiating in good faith.

But I'm not in the USA.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I should have pointed out that on the 6th of august I sent a DMCA takedown notice to email@example.com (the address they have registered for such complaints) and haven't heard anything since.

<comment><USER11> You may want to send a letter via certified mail, return receipt requested, to the address provided <http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/list/a_agents.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> You're not the only one, it's been noticed before by a bunch of SFF writers here: <http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012933.html>

Includes suggestions to file DCMA takedowns, and generally how much amazon doesn't care.

I wonder, in idle speculation, if a three strikes law would remove their internet connection for three instances of trying to sell a copyrighted work where they don't have a license to distribute it.

<comment><USER13> _I wonder, in idle speculation, if a three strikes law would remove their internet connection for three instances of trying to sell a copyrighted work where they don't have a license to distribute it._

Surely you know better than to think that corporations are held to the same standards as individuals ;).

</comment></comment><comment> mike-cardwell I assume you've contacted Amazon? Have they responded? A little more info would be useful...

<comment><AUTHOR> yes, on august 6th i sent a DMCA takedown notice, based on one of many templates I found online. I wasn't sure how long it should take, but it seems like 1-3 days is what people consider reasonable.

I also found a number of article suggesting that Amazon has ignored DMCA notices in the past, which is what caused me to escalate it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I just looked at the Amazon sale page and saw it had one review from the author saying that he is the copyright holder, then refreshed the page and the review was gone.

So it seems that Amazon is aware of the problem and is deliberately continuing to distribute his book while concealing any information about the copyright challenge.

</comment><comment><USER15> I read this e-book when it first came out. It is excellent. Probably the best thing I read that year.

<comment><USER16> I agree wholeheartedly - OP, I am sorry this is happening to you, but I am so glad that you wrote this book. It takes a lot to make me want to stand up and cheer after reading a book! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This happened with a report my research group put out. The work was paid for by the U.S. government, and posted free on our web site.

Some publisher downloaded it, slapped on an ugly cover, and started selling it on Amazon.

We talked about whether to do anything about it, but in the end decided not to. At this point, the details are a little hazy, but it was some combination of "meh", "we did the research on the public behalf, so as long as the information is available, we're happy", and "our legal advisor says it would cost more to pursue than this rinky-dink report can justify".

PDF of the work in question: <http://securebuildings.lbl.gov/images/BldgAdvice.pdf>

<comment><USER18> I would just leave a review with the link to the free copy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Great book, read it awhile ago. As you've probably figured out, there's been a lot of articles written about content publisher spam and content harvesting...

Seems like Amazon needs to get their systems together to deal with this stuff quicker, much like YouTube.com.

</comment><comment><USER20> Hmm is this also happening with Learn Python The Hard Way?

<http://learnpythonthehardway.org/>

Available for Kindle on Amazon but no mention on the official site?

<comment><AUTHOR> zed confirmed that the book is official: <http://twitter.com/#!/zedshaw/status/102019632772288512>

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Looks like this is a common problem and Amazon's starting to take it seriously: [http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/amazon-cracks- down-...](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/amazon-cracks-down-on-some- e-book-publishers/)

</comment><comment><USER22> Perhaps you could sell a 99 cents version on Amazon?

<comment><AUTHOR> I appreciate the thought, but I'm pretty strongly opposed to charging for tech books ([http://openmymind.net/2011/3/31/Why-I%27d-Never-Charge- For-A...](http://openmymind.net/2011/3/31/Why-I%27d-Never-Charge-For-A-Tech- Book)) and having to charge just so someone else can't isn't right.

<comment><USER23> Think of it this way; at $0.99, the buyer is paying for Amazon's distribution services and nice formatting, and getting the content for free!

No, seriously, I have a Kindle, and I would much rather pay $0.99 for a nicely formatted book managed by their backend than hunt down a poorly formatted free version. Plus it is easy for you to update the book.

$0.99 is hardly profiteering, and I feel like in standing on principal you eliminate a possibility everybody would be happy with.

<comment><USER24> Yeah, though I think $.99 is kind of steep for this feature, it is probably worth some money to me to get the cross device sync feature that having it be on the kindle platform provides. I can read from my phone, my kindle, my browser and it saves my place. I think that's honestly worth more like... $.25 or $.10 to me instead of $.99 but it's definitely worth something.

Of course, if they provided it for free, I'd be happy, too :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Send Amazon a DMCA takedown notice and alert the seller as well.

</comment><comment><USER22> The link is now dead. I think that means you succeeded!

</comment><comment><USER26> Great promotion opportunity. Run with it.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a pretty old book that I'm not sure people should still be reading, let alone pay for. But, if you want promotion, you could always read The Little MongoDB Book (<http://openmymind.net/2011/3/28/The-Little-MongoDB-Book>) it's also free though....(and I'm constantly keeping an eye on Amazon for it now).

<comment><USER26> I will. See - it works!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> i dont think they will sell anyway... out of the 16 feedbacks they have received... 63% are negative...

</comment><comment><USER28> Great, ordered it!</comment>


Groovy 2.0 from an insider - johnx123-up http://www.jroller.com/melix/entry/groovy_2_0_from_an

<comment><AUTHOR> The linked to article bears no relation to the title of the submission. That's why I've flagged it.

Update 1 hr later: Someone's now changed the submission title.</comment>


Intuit Not Out to Change Mint Says Founder - <AUTHOR> http://www.mint.com/blog/updates/intuit-not-out-to-change-mint-says-founder/

<comment><USER2> That's what they all say. "We love you, you're perfect, now change." That's what we heard when the company I work for was purchased by a company with about five hundred times as many employees. The bigwigs came in and said, "We bought you because we could never do what you have done. We don't want to change your culture. You guys are great!" Since then it's been a steady drumbeat of being forced to use _their_ systems and integrate with _their_ processes. Every time we scrap one of our nice, customized, lightweight systems or processes and adopt their crappy, heavyweight, generic, unsuitable processes, our bosses get to take credit for insane amounts of "savings" -- they literally claim we save millions of dollars. So in general they love the fact that we're different, but when it comes to any of the hundreds of small differences between us, it is taken for granted that we must conform to their superior way of doing things.

Leaving us to ask, "Hey guys, what difference will we be allowed to retain? Can you name _anything_ that we'll be allowed to do differently from you? If we have to do everything _just like you_ , and you freely admitted that you could _never do what we do_ , why don't you just get it over with and shut us down?"

<comment><USER2> P.S. I just realized another thing: Intuit might have got the shit kicked out of it by Mint (to borrow a phrase from the 37signals post), but it's safe to assume that most people at Intuit who competed directly against Mint still think they were right and Mint was wrong. About everything. Or at least 90% of everything. Mint got lucky, got better press because of its upstart cool factor, whatever. And the Intuit guys are determined to prove they were right by forcing Mint to do things the "right" way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Just because they're not planning to change it doesn't mean they won't.

My experience in a small startup acquired by a large multinational is that all the unintended things -- the processes, procedures, standards, overhead -- add up to massive unintended change.

Example: we had an integration process between salesforce.com and our core product underway when we got bought. Sales guys would be able to hit a button and orders would flow directly into our product for execution -- eliminating overhead, reducing errors, and improving yield by allowing better forecasting and delivery.

The large multinational conducted a review, and told us that in order to avoid running afoul of corporate standards, we'd have to migrate our sales tracking to SAP, and integrate with SAP instead. The project was put on hold. The hold grew longer when it turned out that currency issues in the large multinational's SAP implementation would prevent us from billing certain foreign customers in their local currency. Then we realized our budget wouldn't permit us to use this radically more expensive product, and there wasn't a magic SAP budget out there for us to tap into. A year later, we were still using salesforce.com, without a connection to our core product.

I'm all in favor of acquisitions, and this will probably be a great thing for mint -- contrary to (say) the rant from 37signals today. But don't expect that it's not going to change things.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> From the article:

 _Following the close of the acquisition, Aaron Patzer and the Mint team will remain in charge of Mint.com to continue both its principles and its fast pace of progress.

We're not planning to change Mint.com and make it like Quicken. Quite the opposite. Aaron and team will also run Quicken and Quicken.com to ensure this doesn't happen. Plus they will benefit from this larger pool of resources. I want Mint thinking to infuse Quicken._

While the post comes across as genuine, I wonder if by spreading the Mint.com team thinner, across all the Intuit products, they will really be able to "...continue both its principles and its fast pace of progress."

<comment><USER4> I thought that was weird as well, who want's to run two competing projects? Quicken Online and Mint are basically direct competitors. Which one do you spend your time on? When you have a new feature do you put it in both?

<comment><USER5> Best case scenario for the new Quicken Online:

      .htaccess:
        Redirect 301 / http://www.mint.com/

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is too bad. I was really hoping that Mint would be able to handle some things in a slightly sane way now that Intuit was involved. For example: I get paid $X per month, direct deposit to my savings account. I then transfer $Y to checking, and $Z to investment accounts (NOTE: not buying investments yet, just staging it). According to Mint I now have an income of $X+$Y+$Z for the month, and have spent $Y+$Z. When I by investments that amount also gets added to both income and expense totals.

It seems to me that doubly entry bookkeeping was invented at least 1000 years ago, and handles the whole funds transfer thing just fine without misreporting income. I certainly wish the Mint team could do so as well.

</comment><comment><USER7> In which Scott Cook demonstrates he still doesn't have a clue.

I'd have to concur with many of the comments on the blog post. I didn't switch to Mint.com because it was free, or it was the latest shiny product. I may be young, but I'm not stupid, nor was Mint.com a fad decision. I switched because Quicken was big ball of a program, with poor support on my platform, a horrendous upgrade path, and notoriously poor customer service.

I didn't flee Quicken because I was rebelling. I left because I made an informed consumer decision.

</comment><comment><USER8> Isn't this exactly what a lot of people wanted to hear?

Disruptive technology is exactly that: disruptive.

We are so used to thinking, "New is good, older _must_ be bad," that we forget that we can evolve to the "best of both worlds". Some changes take a little time. Give this baby its 9 months to be born.</comment>


Ask HN: Etiquette for open source bug reports? - <AUTHOR>

So I've been working on a few projects in which I've found a number of bugs.  It turns out I found 3 in the time span of 20 minutes and I sent them merrily along to the developers ...<p>Is this bad etiquette?  Should I be waiting a day / a few hours between submissions? <comment><USER2> If you find bugs, then you find bugs. Just make sure that the bug hasn't already been reported, and that it is actually a bug (not just you expecting something to behave differently - the unexpected behaviour may be intentional, or at least documented)

Other than that, though; bugs are bugs, and waiting to submit them to spare a developer's feelings doesn't really help anyone.

<comment><AUTHOR> yeah this is kind of what I was after ... I'm sure its not "HOORAY MORE BUGS" but I think I agree with "waiting to submit them to spare a developer's feelings doesn't really help anyone"

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> If the bugs are new it shouldn't matter how quickly they are filed.

Do be sure to _search_ existing bugs before adding more however. A unique bug report is helpful but a duplicate can be a nuisance. Sometimes the duplicate will be a closed bug too, e.g, "we found this and decided not to fix it for the following reason:".

<comment><USER2> Or "this has been fixed in a newer version".

<comment><USER3> That's not necessarily an open and shut case. People have their reasons for being unable to upgrade software; while the developer can certainly start by pointing out the new version, it is sometimes reasonable to resolve the issue by releasing a patch of an older version.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think sending as many as you find when you find them is fine, as long as you present yourself well. I recently wrote (and have given this presentation at a conference) on the topic of communication etiquette in bug reports for open source, believe it or not.

[http://www.alfajango.com/blog/communicating-with- engineers-a...](http://www.alfajango.com/blog/communicating-with-engineers- and-contributing-to-open-source/)

</comment><comment><USER5> If you found them in the first 20 minutes of using the program, there's a good chance they've been already reported. Search the bug database before submitting, if these are indeed new bugs, developers won't mind if you submit a bunch of them in one go.</comment>


R's response to Julia - <AUTHOR> http://obeautifulcode.com/R/R-I-Love-You/

<comment><USER2> Are R people thinking about porting to the Javascript/web platform? They should be.</comment>


Ask HN: Source of machine parsable product catalogs? - <AUTHOR>

Hi, I would like to experiment with product space exploration ideas. Current state of affairs(I mean, for example check Amazon page for Compact Cameras, link in footnotes) is pretty dissatisfying. Interface like this is build for people who know what they are looking for. What if one don't know much about cameras? It won't learn here what is the price range, which features are important, which products are similar to each other, etc.
I need data to experiment with. Can you suggest any machine parsable databases of product(any products not only cameras, of course) specifications?
1. http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Cameras-Photo/b/ref=amb_link_352847582_18?ie=UTF8&node=330405011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gp-left-3&pf_rd_r=1B0R149NHNKN3FQT4FFV&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1282914402&pf_rd_i=502394 <comment><USER2> Try Amazon's data itself via their API - <http://aws.amazon.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> You mean Product Advertising API. I have already checked it. They provide very little data. No tech specs at all.</comment></comment>