Wanderers: a short film of humanity's expansion into the Solar System [video] - <AUTHOR> http://vimeo.com/108650530 <comment><USER2> I love the details in this film. Things like the winged people flying on Titan, possible due to its dense atmosphere. There are things on these other worlds that we could never experience here.

Even the title has multiple meanings to it:

 _In ancient times, astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky in relation to the other stars. Ancient Greeks called these lights πλάνητες ἀστέρες (planetes asteres, "wandering stars") or simply πλανῆται (planētai, "wanderers"), from which today's word "planet" was derived._

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

</comment><comment><USER3> This is beautiful.

For me, Carl Sagan's voice is incredibly inspirational. He knows just what to say and how to say it to elicit a beautiful and optimistic feeling of wonderment.

And the visuals were stunning. A tantalizing glimpse into the next century or two of human exploration and experience.

Thank you for this.

Edit: Reddit thread at [http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2nseb3/wanderers...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2nseb3/wanderers_why_we_leave_earth_one_of_the_best/)

</comment><comment><USER4> What a fantastic video.

My favourite part: BASE jumping from Verona Rupes - the tallest known cliff in the Solar System - somewhere from 5km to 20km vertical:

[http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110404.html](http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110404.html)

By comparison the tallest vertical drop on Earth is on the surreal Mount Thor at 1250m:

[http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/mount-thor-greatest- ver...](http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/mount-thor-greatest-vertical- drop-on.html)

[Some great details - like the Earth coastlines used in the asteroid interior (mentioned on the film's website) and the Taijitu in the crater at 1:54].

</comment><comment><USER5> Frustrating to realize that perhaps only 1 or 2 years of Earth's military spending would enable mankind to achieve this (approx $1700 billion/year). Not saying we don't need to spend money on defense, merely taking one the world's expenditures as a yardstick. It would be so great if mankind is able to cooperate in the colonization of our solar system.

<comment><USER6> It would be even better if we could spend this amount of money to fix the problems we already have on this planet, like global warming, pollution and hunger and stuff.

<comment><USER7> You seem to not realize those are problems for us, human virus, and not the planet problems. Those so called problems are natures way of trying to balance things. If you cut hunger and make a breakthrough in healthcare you will immediately accelerate population growth, and in effect accelerate pollution and energy use.

Earth is unsustainable in the long run. No one is willing to accept euthanasia, birth limits, basically efforts to maintain population caps. People might say its a good idea others should implement, not them personally :)

<comment> bjelkeman-again To learn more about population growth and the many misconceptions around it, I'd recommend watching something from Prof. Hans Rosling. Here are a few things:

[http://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-the-facts- about-p...](http://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-the-facts-about- population/)

<comment><USER7> I would suggest this too [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY)

<comment><USER8> While there are many who people do not understand exponential growth, such as that video's target audience, I'm pretty sure that none of them are population projectionists.

<comment><USER7> Its not that they dont understand, they dont even think about it. Even Hans Rosling from the clip above spends whole 3 seconds on the subject of energy needed to support 20 Billion people living at the same comfortable level as top billion people today in developed countries.

I seem to remember some funny back of envelope calculations that put energy needs of earth in 100 years (assuming current growth) at _full output_ of our sun.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wow; that was incredible. I wish it were three hours long.

That dude floating in that debris belt (ring of Saturn?) -- that looked a bit dangerous. Hopefully he had a force field around him.

There's so much out there, just waiting for us to get off our duffs and explore. We have much of the technology; if we could just stop spending trillions on machines of war and instead spend it on machines of exploration....

<comment><USER10> > There's so much out there, just waiting for us to get off our duffs and > explore. We have much of the technology; if we could just stop spending > trillions on machines of war and instead spend it on machines of > exploration....

I agree with this 100%. But while we're moving outward, however slowly, don't forget Sagan's Caveat:

"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand."

Absolutely, go see what's across the street. But make sure your house is clean and safe.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections_by_S...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections_by_Sagan)

Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g)

<comment><USER11> My reaction to Wanderers was also to consider our own planet. For all the curiosities out there yet to be discovered, Earth is flat-out stunning. I was watching segments from David Attenborough's Africa earlier and thinking that what we have already discovered is incredible, and (in general) we're already doing some excellent work in trying to wreck it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Awesome creation. Image Gallery and Explanation: [http://imgur.com/a/Ur5dP](http://imgur.com/a/Ur5dP)

<comment><USER13> Art and source photos aside, this link is sort of disappointing. For example,

>As Mars' diameter is about half of the Earths, the elevator cable wouldn't have to be as long to reach geostationary orbit and due to the lighter gravitational pull it wouldn't suffer as much stress from its weight.

Mars' diameter has nothing to do with the distance to stationary orbit, which is a result of gravity (and thus its mass).

<comment><USER14> The diameter actually does have an effect on where geostationary orbit is: it changes how fast the surface is spinning, and hence the orbital speed needed for a stationary orbit.

Mars spins once every 24 hours 37 minutes. If the diameter was twice as large, it would have to be moving twice as fast to maintain that length of day.

Interestingly, since you orbit faster the closer you are to the surface, a decreased diameter actually pushes geosynchronous out away from the planet. This effect is, of course, very much negated by the absence of mass. Still, two equally massive planets with the same rotational period but NOT the same diameter will have different geostationary altitudes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I would like to see a full length Wanderers movie. The optimistic feeling of adventure, travel and belief in science, would make it well worth spending a couple of hours watching.

<comment><USER16> It'd make a great sequel to Interstellar actually...

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy is apparently being made into a TV series now. This guy _must_ work on the visuals for that. He gets it; he really, really gets it.

<comment><USER18> I read KSR's Mars Trilogy after hearing about it repeatedly on /r/spacex and I highly recommend it. In fact, given that it is a 20 year old work at this time, I think it has stood the test of time very well.

I'm glad to hear it's being made into a tv series, but I worry that you really need a high budget to make it come alive (like Game of Thrones)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Beautiful.

You might be interested to learn that Erik Wernquist is also the person who created Crazy Frog some ten years ago.

</comment><comment><USER20> Martian sunset at 1:50 is based on an actual photo:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_rover#mediaviewer/File:Ma...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_rover#mediaviewer/File:MarsSunset.jpg)

See also gallery here: [http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/gallery.html](http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/gallery.html)

<comment><USER21> I had that picture as my workstation's wallpaper.

People dropped by and asked where I took the picture. I loved to explain to them the picture was taken by a robot on Mars.

There is also another one, with a small Earth shining above the horizon. That too was my wallpaper, and that too caused countless people to be amazed.

Inspiring people is important.

<comment><USER20> I used it as a wallpaper for a long time too :)

 _> There is also another one, with a small Earth shining above the horizon._

Do you mean a shot on Mars? Can you link to it please?

<comment><USER21> I'm having trouble getting to the files myself (the NSA proxy must be offline), but depending on networking conditions, you may be luckier: [http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAct...](http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1598)

<comment><USER20> It worked for me, thanks! Great shot. Here is the actual page for the image: [http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17936](http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17936)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Don't forget that you can download the video using youtube-dl (if you like me, get annoyed that Vimeo doesn't continue buffering when you pause it, and deletes the current buffer if you rewind)

[http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/)

<comment><USER23> Or VLC or XBMC which do a vastly better job of buffering than online players.

Youtube-dl is my first choice though (and is how I viewed this video).

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Wander? From earth into the rest of the solar system? If we'd grown up anywhere else in this solar system, then the place, the dream destination, in this solar system would be earth.

Since I'm already here, no way do I want to leave!

Send some machines to gather some data and transmit it back to us here on earth? Fine. Maybe terrific. Go there, in person? For me, no way!

<comment><USER25> If someone offered me the chance to travel the solar system, watch the sun rise on mars, jump off vertical cliffs on a moon, see jupiter and saturn up close, ... I would do it in a heartbeat

Do I think human space travel is feasible or even necessary at least at this point in time? No, not by a long shot. Machines can do a better job and will probably always be able to do it better if technology keeps advancing. Machines don't need air, water, food, living space, and that's some of the stuff needed just to keep us alive in an hostile environment, all resources can be instead focused on the mission itself.

I think that people tend to forget that we don't just happen live on planet Earth, we where born by it, molded by it :)

If we'd evolved anywhere else then that place would probably be by far the best possible habitat for us too.

Although If we could somehow get rid of the human body, just take a brain, equip it with a neural interface of some kind and put it in a water tank ...

<comment><USER24> Other than earth? I might like to visit there, but I don't want to live there!

But with the realities, as you outlined, of visiting, really I wouldn't want to do that, either.

Mars? Okay, send a lot of robots. Let the robots get a good base going. Let the robots _mine_ Mars to get fuel for return trips. Let the robots come and go until it all seems highly reliable. Go to the trouble to get enough mass for cosmic ray protection. Let some high risk takers go and return. Then, maybe, maybe, maybe I'd consider a visit! But that whole scenario is not nearly realistic at all soon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Crazy how one man can do something that normally would take hundreds of people to accomplish.

Wouldn't it be nice if Erik Wernquist was in charge of the filmatization of "2312" (the novel that inspired his "Iapetus Ridge" scene).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2312_(novel)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2312_\(novel\))

<comment><USER27> I was immediately reminded of Robinson's work a few seconds in. There is so much to discover out there and the extremes of physical state and sheer size make it so hard to imagine it all. His writing offer a window into that world and this short was a great visualization of it.

<comment><USER4> Robinson is a fantastic author at conveying "a sense of place" \- particularly Mars, of course. I fell in love with Mars because of Robinson, unrequited love of course - _Blues for the Red Planet_ indeed....

Also, I also loved his book _Antarctica_ which is effectively "White Mars" \- at least there is a chance of visiting incredible places like the Airdevronsix icefall - arguably the largest waterfall on this planet (5km wide and 400m high):

[http://www.wondermondo.com/Countries/An/Antarctica/Antarctic...](http://www.wondermondo.com/Countries/An/Antarctica/Antarctica/Airdevronsix.htm)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> As a first step, I wonder how feasible it would be to have a constant presence around these planets and moons? A 'standard' orbiter, mass produced? I was reading about the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer mission, and it's incredibly exciting, but it won't get there until the 2030s, and even then it'll be a temporary presence.

The reason I think of this is that I recently came across this animation from _New Horizons_ showing a 330km-high eruption that recently happened on Io:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_(moon)#mediaviewer/File:Tvas...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_\(moon\)#mediaviewer/File:Tvashtarvideo.gif)

It's utterly captivating, at least to me, and I can't help but wonder what effect it would have on the public's imaginations to be able to see images like that every day, in high definition, from all over our solar system.

</comment><comment><USER29> Check out Reid Gower's videos as well, the Sagan Series, a collection of videos he did that also used Carl Sagan's voice.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY59wZdCDo0&index=1&list=PLF...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY59wZdCDo0&index=1&list=PLF17F07CFC3208E29)

And of course, Cosmos, which is where all the audio is from in all these videos

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dADUBcoEEHw&index=1&list=PLB...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dADUBcoEEHw&index=1&list=PLBA8DC67D52968201)

<comment><USER30> Episode 2 of the Cosmos series playlist gives me this:

> This video contains content from eOne, who has blocked it on copyright > grounds.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> All these visuals made by just one guy? I'm impressed. It has higher quality than many hollywood fx products.

<comment><USER32> > It has higher quality than many hollywood fx products.

Seriously. How are Hollywood CGI films so poorly made when this is possible?

<comment><USER11> Because they're trying to do a lot more.

<comment><USER33> Plus a film production is often trying to balance things like being able to make changes if the director requests a tweak. Much faster to do when the director _is_ the VFX artist!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> In the same genre, I watch this when I need a touch of inspiration. They're quotations from The Pale Blue Dot, again with the Sagan voiceover.

[http://vimeo.com/2822787](http://vimeo.com/2822787)

Often we forget how far we've come, and how far we have to go. It's easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of regular life. When I listen to Carl Sagan sometimes I feel like I've glimpsed a bigger perspective.

</comment><comment><USER35> Amazing video.

I especially like the world play here. Latin Planetes (as in planets) means wanderer. The name of this film can be understood as Planets.

<comment><USER36> Ancient Greek actually – apologies for being nitpicky.

'A planet (from Ancient Greek ἀστὴρ πλανήτης (astēr planētēs), meaning "wandering star")' > [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet)

<comment><USER35> Yeah, but judging from Google's etymology of the word it seemed to suggest plananan as greek word for planet, and not planetes.

I went for the more similar sounding one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Videos like this make me truly yearn for our civilization to expand off of our home planet.

I've finally gotten into some of Philip K Dick's works, as well as adventuring in the game Eve Online.

Both make me question how far we could be in technology, medicine, civilization, if we all could work together and not have schisms divide us.

I suppose it's the same as wishing for a utopia, though.

</comment><comment><USER33> What makes it for me is that every place depicted in here actually exists, right here in our solar system.

<comment> T-A Except for the O'Neill cylinder, I guess? :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I never thought I'd use this quote here, but:

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

</comment><comment><USER32> "As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts." \- Herman Melville

Wonderful quote by Sagan.

<comment><USER38> Well, it's not quite fair to call it a "quote by Sagan".

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> That was beautiful. I'd love to read more about how exactly the visuals were generated. This is a lot more than spheres rendered w/ NASA photo textures.

</comment><comment><USER40> Definitely check out the imgur gallery[1] with explanations of all the scenes!

[http://imgur.com/a/Ur5dP](http://imgur.com/a/Ur5dP)

</comment><comment><USER41> I want to go to there

</comment><comment><USER42> Which planet would allow for the largest/densest brain size in an organism that evolved to maximum size there?

</comment><comment><USER43> Wow ! This is beautiful. Stunning graphics + Sagan's legendary voice almost left me in tears.

</comment><comment><USER44> Todo list: 1- Invent powerful machines for simulations and calculations(ok) 2- Stop with childish religious beliefs altogether (in progress - 5ys) 3- Review completely the social contract (in progress - 50ys) 4- Fix mortality (urgent - 100ys) 5- Explore the universe (2114)

<comment><USER45> There is no single social contract, but if there is, it very well has to be reviewed before we "fix" mortality. And who says that the further exploration of the universe (which is happening since a few thousand years anyway) is tempting to a critical mass with an unlimited lifespan where distractions are manifold and any simulation more convenient and less dangerous than the exploration of the universe in person.

<comment><USER44> > There is no single social contract, but if there is, it very well has to be > reviewed before we "fix" mortality.

Just like I said.

>any simulation more convenient and less dangerous than the exploration of the universe in person

We have been risking our lifes to explorer our world for millenniums. Why would it be different for space?

<comment><USER45> Because we have unlimited time and unlimited things to consume on earth. Who'd give a shit about what's behind the horizon?

I'm just saying the audacity to suggest to "fix" mortality is stunning. The implications are unforeseeable, on so many levels. People might not be as idealistic as you make them out to be.

<comment><USER44> > People might not be as idealistic as you make them out to be.

Well, not everyone needs to be "idealistic". There are a lot of people willing to risk their lifes just to see a little further behind the horizon. You are not one of them. And this is ok.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> How I wish I was born in a time when mankind can travel the vast cosmos.

<comment><USER10> Make it happen. We might not go, but our far descendants would.

<comment><USER47> yeah we're out of luck unfortunately

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> I really loved this. Are there anything else similar elsewhere?

</comment><comment><USER49> Beautiful short film, excellent effects and voice-over. Like.

</comment><comment><USER50> I loved it, thanks!

</comment><comment><USER51> absolutely stunning. i will feel incredibly deprived if my exhaust without witnessing this sort of endeavor by mankind.

</comment><comment><USER52> I'll just leave this here: [http://youtu.be/FbpIwT9nV3Y?t=7m7s](http://youtu.be/FbpIwT9nV3Y?t=7m7s)

</comment><comment><USER16> Very uplifting.

</comment><comment><USER53> Waiting.</comment>


5 things you won't learn from the Open Organization Leaders Manual - <AUTHOR> https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/5-things-you-wont-learn-open-organization-leaders-manual?sc_cid=701f2000000tyBjAAI <comment><USER2> Extra:

"The Open Organization Book Series"

[https://opensource.com/open-organization/resources/book- seri...](https://opensource.com/open-organization/resources/book-series)

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/5-things-you-wont-learn- open-...](https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/5-things-you-wont-learn-open- organization-leaders-manual)

Same link _sans_ cid.</comment>


Dick Proenneke: The Simplest, Wildest Man - <AUTHOR> http://www.realworldsurvivor.com/2014/08/04/dick-proenneke-simplest-wildest-man/#dick-h-2342 <comment><USER2> Proenneke's story is a captivating one. I'd run across several short videos of his cabin-making and Alaskan wilderness experience on YouTube, and recommend them strongly. This profile offers more background on his life and philosophy.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is captivating indeed.

As a software engineer who creates things that in a sense aren't 'real' \- I have always felt the need to have another outlet in which I can create something real, something tangible. Watching the "Alone in the Wilderness" videos and seeing Dick create everything from his house to tools to utensils from hand is just simply astounding.

<comment><USER2> I've had the opportunity at times to work on tangible products and it is a very different vibe. There's also something about working at your own scale, and on something you'll use directly.

Disintermediation.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Refinery – Data anonymization and governance for the masses - <AUTHOR> https://www.openquery.io/refinery
We are Christos, Damien and Nodar, founders of OpenQuery. We are building Refinery, an Open Source deployment written in Rust to automate the process of anonymizing sensitive data and governing how different consumers access that data using our 'policy-as-code' framework (It's based on Hashicorp's HCL).
We noticed that companies have been solving the same problem over and over  in different ways. The problem boils down to giving a data-consumer (this could be an analyst, a BI tool, an ML workflow, a different company etc. ) access to a sensitive dataset. Sensitive data can come in different shapes and sizes, maybe it's spatial data, maybe it's financial information, maybe it's sensitive patient health data. There is also the context in which this data is being shared - is the data crossing national borders? Is it leaving the organisation?
Refinery allows you to easily define how data-consumers access sensitive data, you can add users, groups, datasets and then define entities within datasets. Next, leverage multiple anonymization algorithms (from basic hashing and bucketing to differential privacy) and policies (built for spatial data or financial data etc.) to define how consumers interact with the data. Our query engine will then enforce that policies are upheld at runtime, so for a data-consumer it feels like they are interfacing with a plain old SQL database. Furthermore, having the configuration as code allows you to use your favourite editor and version control system to manage your policies.
We haven't launched the product yet - we are deep in development, launching soon and very excited! We would love to hear your ideas, questions and feedback. If this sounds like something that could be helpful to you please get in touch! <comment><USER2> maybe if BA was using that, my credit card info wouldn't get stolen by magecart</comment>


2014 Thiel Fellows - <AUTHOR> http://www.thielfellowship.org/2014/06/peter-thiel-announces-2014-class-of-thiel-fellows/ <comment><USER2> "As student debt soars and the wages of college graduates sag"...

Thiel continues to hand out $100K grants (plus non-cash support) to individuals to would receive full-scholarships to college and PhD placements _anyway_ , some of whome _already graduated college_ and provides no opportunities for average students -- the ones who take on debt.

The fellowhips are interestingm but don't help solve educational debt. The "college sucks" libertarian political agenda is stapled to the side, making the whole program smell bad.

<comment><USER3> Not to mention, every last one of them seems to be some kind of computer programmer. No offense to HN, and I love programming, but I'd have hoped to see more breadth.

Where are the biologists?

<comment><USER4> There have been biologists in previous classes.

Do keep in mind that the fellowship targets very very young people, and it's exceptionally hard to show excellence in most fields by that age. Software is a rare exception.

<comment><USER5> Not just 'show excellence' but actually know enough to contribute to the field meaningfully. For better or worse, one can learn programming and some basic math in order to contribute to the market in the span of a few years. Traditionally to do good physics required a few years doing nothing but math, and then a few years developing a good physical intuition. There have been some great physics papers turned out by early-/mid- 20-year-olds. Modern molecular bio requires a few years chemistry, a few years of either math/stats/systems/programming, a few years of bio, and then a few more years developing an intuition for biological systems. It's just a much longer route to travel. A student - no matter how good - just isn't well suited to being anywhere near 'useful' by the age of 20.

<comment><USER3> Agreed with all of the above points. What it suggests to me is that the idea of bypassing college and going straight into entrepreneurship may only be testable in a limited number of fields, notably programming.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Looking up one of the fellows who is using "crowd-sourced mobile computing", I came across:

[http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/21/meet-hyv-a-startup-that- can...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/21/meet-hyv-a-startup-that-cant-wait- for-phone-unlocking-to-be-made-legal/)

Apparently the idea is to build a pay-to-use BOINC or Folding@Home, except for iPhones, where the startup steps in by actually *paying 3rd party app developers to bundle their distribution code in their app, thereby allowing them to run independent code on a user's phone using the unaware user's computing resources, data plan, and battery life without the user's direct permission?

Not only would this seriously inconvenience consumers, have ample security risks, have a dubious market for legitimate customers (Such a system could never outperform the price of AWS or a custom GPU cluster, let alone volunteer networks like BOINC and Folding@Home), only works at a ludicrously large scale (Are there even enough iPhones out there to reach Folding@Home's 45 petaflops?), would require those running complicated algorithms to port optimized code to Objective-C, but the icing on the cake is it only works on unlocked phones.

So, did Thiel just fund a ridiculous idea which is essentially malware or am I missing something?

<comment><USER7> Sure, maybe today the concept isn't the right fit for cell phones (all sorts of trade-offs regarding CPU usage, battery-life, data consumption, etc.) but perhaps the concept can evolve to take advantage of the future "internet of things" grid which is likely to connect devices that have plenty of spare processing cycles without the same constraints imposed by a mobile phone.

Aim for where the ball is going. Not where it is right now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Nice to see Vitalik Buterin the founder of Ethereum getting backing.

<comment><USER9> I was pleasantly surprised to see him on this list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is a very interesting concept. I wonder how the previous Thiel Fellows are doing. Probably too short of a time period for any definitive results to come out, but it would be interesting if selection of highly qualified individuals is more of a predictor of success than say, Harvard or MIT.

One might argue about the pedigree & network you get from college, but couldn't motivated Thiel Fellows build equally powerful networks by virtue of being a Thiel Fellow too?

<comment><USER11> Based on previous years, it would likely be difficult to make the comparison with Harvard/MIT (or similar), given a good number of the fellows spent time at either of those institutions. Those who did have had access to the resources of both circles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Any news on the progress of past classes?

<comment><USER13> Illegal activities such as impersonation and fraud? [http://bluehat.us/posts/tracking-down-the-person-who- tried-t...](http://bluehat.us/posts/tracking-down-the-person-who-tried-to- impersonate-me.html)

<comment><USER14> You're generalizing and blaming the entire Thiel Fellow community because of one person? If you can somehow justify that, it still doesn't make sense to spam the entire thread with the same link over and over again. Thanks.

<comment><USER15> I do not think he is blaming the Thiel Fellows. After reading the link, it seems clear to me that there was someone that received a fellowship that clear should NOT have. The person putting in the link is just trying to raise attention to this fact - maybe to try to get the fellowship to help correct the situation. It does come off as spam, but honestly if this happened to you, what would you do? Please read the story of the dead link and then make your judgment. I probably would do the same after someone ruined my reputation

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The Thiel Fellows program is a joke. Apparently, they've been accepting lowlife, criminal script kiddies in recent years. [http://bluehat.us/posts/tracking-down-the-person-who- tried-t...](http://bluehat.us/posts/tracking-down-the-person-who-tried-to- impersonate-me.html)</comment>


Ask HN: What is the best /starter motorcycle for bay area commute? - <AUTHOR>

Hi there,
Currently, I'm commuting between Cupertino to San Mateo on I280 and am planning to get motorcycle to commute instead of car. Please share thoughts and experiences.
Many thanks. <comment><USER2> I've been commuting to work via motorcycle for six or seven years now, though I'm in Seattle not the Bay Area. Here is my generic advice:

Don't buy a shiny new bike to start on. You WILL lay it down and scratch the paint up - everyone does. But you'll stand it back up again and keep riding, because laying a bike down is not that big a deal.

No matter what you're intending to end up on, start with some fairly inexpensive ten-or-more-year-old Japanese bike, preferably a Honda. You want something simple and reliable, not something you have to tinker with, and a machine whose maintenance is cheap and easy, because it's all going to be unfamiliar.

The standard wisdom is that a beginner should start out on a small bike, 250cc or so. This is because small bikes are lighter, which makes them easier to handle, and because newbies often get in trouble by yanking on the throttle when something startles them, so you want to have less engine going crazy when you do that.

If you're going to be riding I-280 every day, though, I think you'll find that the low power of a 250cc bike will make life a little bit scary. Part of what keeps you safe on a motorcycle is the fact that you are faster and nimbler than everyone else around you. Cars rely on metal frames and bumpers and airbags for safety, but motorcycles rely on getting the hell out of the way. You'll probably want a 500cc-600cc bike to start with, so you have the option of flying away at 80 mph when you need to.

My current bike is a Honda Nighthawk 750 and I think it is probably the best commuter bike ever made. It is not exciting, but it is sturdy, reliable, and handles freeways with no problem. (Top speed is roughly 100 mph.) I've taken it on long weekend trips, too, and while it's not the most comfortable cruiser ever, it is certainly up to the job. But mostly I just go back and forth to work, and it just keeps on ticking, and life is pretty darn good. I'm not sure how it would work as a starter bike - it's a little on the heavy side - but if you're a tall guy it might work.

I get about 40 mpg. It is possible to do better, but I am a relatively aggressive rider.

<comment><USER3> > You'll probably want a 500cc-600cc bike to start with, so you have the > option of flying away at 80 mph when you need to.

Its a little confusing but cc's can be a bit deceiving. Some 600cc motors put out 100+ horsepower and would be a death ride for a new rider. Some 650cc twins are mild manner and put out only 70-80 HP and are more manageable. If freeway riding is planned then he would need around 50+ HP to do so safely. The Suzuki GS500 or the Kawasaki 500 EX are usually recommended as good beginner bikes with enough power for freeway use. The 250cc bikes put out about 35-40 HP and can go freeway speeds but not much left for evasive actions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> No answer to your question but I'd love a Puch Maxi style moped. They're not popular in the UK; and they're expensive; and you need to pass some tests.

An electric Puch maxi would be amazing.

My biking history: Started with a handme down Yamaha Passola, then a handme down puch-maxi-clone, then an abandoned converted Honda 75cc, and then I went to a moto guzzi v50mkIII (a 500cc motorbike) with a sidecar. At the time you could ride that with L plates without having to take a test. Looking back now it was a stupid thing for me to do.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is this to save gas or so you can lane split and save time during your commute? Have you ever ridden a moto before?

<comment><AUTHOR> >> Save gas or lane split to save time

Save gas. mostly.

>> Ever ridden moto before?

No. But got motorcycle driver license last week.

<comment><USER3> Riding is a lot of fun but I don't really recommend it for commuting, especially for a rookie on I280. Furthermore, I don't think it will really save you all that much in gas unless your car gets 10 MPG. Any decent car built within the last 10 years gets 20+ MPG on the freeway and your average bike might only be double that, especially if its a smaller bike that will be wide open throttle at freeway speeds. Get a different car or drive slower on the freeway at 55-60 MPH in the right lane during your commute is probably a better risk to reward strategy -- as I am sure you know and it is true -- motorcycles are dangerous and maybe more so today with all the distracted drivers.

I rode in college and recently got my M1 so I can do some recreational riding but have not bought a bike yet, haven't found the time to clean the garage. I recommend you sign up and hang out on BARF (bay area riders forum) and pickup the knowledge you need to learn and to ride safely. [http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/](http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advise & link.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Human mission to Mars may be planned for 2018 - <AUTHOR> http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/21/human-mission-to-mars-may-be-planned-for-2018/?hpt=hp_t3 <comment><USER2> This is great. My whole life landing on Mars has been perpetually in the closer and closer future.

The Russians talked about 20-25 year plans in the 50s and 60s.

When I was a kid, in the 80s, they talked about Mars in 15-20 year plans.

199x: 10-15.

200x: 5-10.

Now: 5.

The ambitious goals gradually decrease in time estimates and then one day, it actually happens.

Do I expect Mars in 2018? no. By 2030? sure. That's fine by me.

Imagine: Living humans landing on Another Planet; one that is but a dot in the sky to the human eye.

They'll get out of a space craft and set foot upon the /Surface of Mars/. We will be The Aliens.

On that day, we will assume the next step of being the intelligent life that we always hoped for; coming in from outer space, out of the sky, like a Greek God descending from Mount Olympus.

We'll need to dream a new future; this one will be in the past.

Be patient. Be part of it.

<comment><USER3> Just as an aside, the last time we seriously talked about manned Mars missions was in the '70s. NERVA would have been powerful enough to make the round trip in 90 days, but the program was canned in '72. This 501 day trip will be an interesting bit of logistics in itself.

We are almost living in a Heinlein novel, though it would be unexpected if Mars was colonized before the Moon.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket>

<comment><USER4> In many ways it would be easier to build a long term habitat on on Mars than the Moon. Mars might have a mostly Carbon dioxide / Nitrogen atmosphere at vary low pressure but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing. There is even enough H2O (220ppm) that it's probably viable to extract enough of it from the atmosphere to make up for recycling losses. (As in you could build a machine that produces more H20 over time from extraction than you would spending that mass shipping H20 directly.)

<comment><USER5> Mars is lousy with water. There's a very tiny amount of it in the atmosphere, but for long term colonization that's irrelevant. Much of the surface of Mars is underlain by significant amounts of water ice permafrost. If you pick a decent place to put a base then it would be straightforward to begin producing literally tonnes of water on a regular basis using a small amount of capital equipment.

P.S. To be more clear, the presence of large quantities of CO2, H2O, and Nitrogen as well as a near 24-hours day is a huge boon for a potential colony. With one or a small handful of shipments of industrial equipment it would be possible to bootstrap an initial Martian industry which produced Oxygen, water, Carbon Monoxide, Methane, and Methanol. O2 and water are obviously useful for human habitation as well as for growing crops using natural Martian sunlight (likely in inflatable domes). O2 and Methane would be used cryogenically for rocket propellants or as compressed gases for powering long- range / high-performance surface vehicles (such as the very bulldozers and excavators which would be used to mine water ice). Carbon Monoxide could be used to smelt Iron and other metals from high-grade ores. Methanol could be used as a fuel and could also serve as a chemical feedstock for manufacturing plastics and other organic materials. All of this is stuff that could be happening within the first few missions to Mars, which gives you a sense of the enabling characteristics of in-situ Martian resources.

<comment><USER4> Step one is keeping ~10 people alive for ~5 years with minimal risk. Colonization is 'possible', but there is basically zero economic incentive.

<comment><USER5> In the case of Mars the use of in-situ resources helps lower the cost of Mars missions and reduce risk, so colonization becomes a natural byproduct of exploration.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "His organization's new idea is to get to Mars and back in 501 days"

Does it involve landing? Is a free return flight similar to Apollo 8 what they have in mind?

<comment><USER7> I believe there is no landing, so just a flyby.

<comment><USER8> Skipping the landing seems like a great idea for the first trip. We'd still get to learn lots about keeping humans healthy on such a long flight and get practice doing such a long-range mission while we're still developing the tech for a landing. But what do I know? Anyway, I'm thrilled to see people trying to work out a plan one way or the other.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A human mission to Mars is analogous to the wide spread use of hydrogen fuel cells in automobiles. If you keep giving a date further and further away, no one will ever question the authenticity of the project.

<comment><USER5> Fuel cell powered cars are easy. Anyone could build one, the equipment is out there. The problem is that they aren't very practical. Compressed Hydrogen is not the best fuel choice for an automobile, and even aside from that the power and range you'll get on a fuel cell car is worse than a purely battery powered car.

<comment><USER10> Indeed Elon Musk claims that the theoretical maximum performance from a fuel cell is lower than the current practical performance from a battery.

As he might say, "Your best case scenario is still failure."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I would love to startup on Mars :D

<comment><USER12> what's your addressable market?

<comment><USER11> Martians with a lot of 'money' :D</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Dev w/ Journalists, how can I push them to write about SOPA and PIPA? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a dev going to a online journalist meetup today, they keep telling me news orgs and journalist don't take sides. I need some help showing that it affects them. <comment><USER2> Speaking as a journalist, they're never going to take sides, and you're not going to convince them. What you should do is convince them to look into the correlation between cosponsors of SOPA/PIPA and entertainment industry donations in a comprehensive way.

You could also wonder aloud to them how it is that an issue that doesn't even register on voters' radar got on the legeslative fast track, and who caused that to happen.

What meetup is this? Is it in the bay area?

<comment><AUTHOR> it was ONA Boston, the meeting got thrown in the direction of debating whether BuzzFeed was worthy of serving Political content.</comment></comment>


The BBC asks if daily deal sites have had their day? - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15574954 <comment><USER2> What I would like is the anti-Groupon.

Right now, every time I see a place that I currently frequent show up on Groupon I cringe. It means that my favorite restaurant or coffeeshop is going to be mobbed by cheapskates looking to save a few bucks. It means that the staff is going to be harried and tired. It means that I won't be able to get a reservation for a few months.

I want a way for these places to say "Hey -- regulars! We love you! Come back and spend time here so that we can avoid daily deals. We'll be happier and so will you!"

<comment><USER3> If you're a regular, aren't loyalty cards - you know, hole-punch-tracked rewards, etc. - enough? How much web connectivity do you need from a place that you actually frequent?

<comment><USER4> Some (MMOT) classmates are trying to do that (loyalty cards for small shops plus online advertising).

The main block is actually apathy from the storeowners - they don't believe they need it, most of them are conformists and traditionalists, not enterprising or risk-takers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think deal sites absolutely cater to "bottom feeders" who may be just looking for deals. I think it is the wrong way to attract a loyal following. A major point of this article made was with the 99£ oven cleaning for 19£. Who would pay 19 and then repeat and pay 99?! That's nuts, and the only way to get most of those customers to not feel ripped off is do another groupon or offer some similar huge discount.

<comment><USER3> I think the cleaning business is probably hoping for referrals.

<comment><USER5> And that is true, but referral making is largely akin to a pyramid scheme. I also think that if the referrer is talking about their 19 pound groupon, the refer-ee would likely balk at the price as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I signed up to GroupOn (UK) earlier this year

I unsubscribed from their emails after a month as all the offers just seemed to be either

a) Cosmetic treatments b) Health checks from private clinics

I'm a 24 year old male, why do I give a shit about any of those things? GroupOn needs to target their offers more

<comment><USER7> Groupon and their clones are basically the equivalent of coupons on the back of a supermarket receipt.

Nothing new here.... but it has been very profitable.

<comment><USER8> ...for Groupon! Not so much the retailers though.

<comment><USER9> Not for Groupon (which loses money) but some of it's investors have done OK out of it - so far.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think a lot of people misunderstand what Groupon offers a business. Basically it's advertising, but in a way that makes it affordable for small businesses. The company offering their deal, is putting their name out there, and only has to pay for it when someone walks through the door an makes a purchase.

Tradition advertising means paying for your brand to be seen. Magazines, newspapers, ect can target markets, but not to a very large extent. Google, Facebook, ect can target their market better, and businesses only pay when someone clicks (ie shows a bit of interest in the company). This is why they are stealing traditional advertising revenue. Groupon took this one step further, and made it so that businesses only pay when a customer walks through the door. This opened up advertising to much smaller businesses, Mom and Pop shops, since there is no upfront cost.

You'd think that Groupon would be trying to target their deals better. Have a "select your interests" when you sign up. Yipit is doing this, and it's a pretty cool take on it. That type of service adds a lot more value then a generic daily deal.

<comment><USER11> It _would have been_ advertising if it had a longlasting effect.

Consider that once you do a groupon for a 20% < discount, it is going to be _very_ hard to get that customer again for the full price of the product. So what do you get from the supposed advertisement? A single customer that may or may not give you his business again.

That's not advertising. That's what's crassly known as 'opening your legs'.

<comment><USER12> That's exactly what advertising is. You're paying for exposure and a chance that you can convert him to a lifetime customer. You can say the exact same thing about Adwords, and display advertising. You pay for each click that may or may not give you a single sale, let alone a lifetime customer. You pay for an impression that may not influence a customer's buying decision in the future...

Groupon may be a bad form of advertising for most businesses.. but it's still advertising.

<comment><USER11> You are absolutely correct. But Groupon doesn't give that impression. The impression you get from a Groupon is "I got this really good deal for $10, why would I want to return for $20?"

In a classic ad the full price is stated upfront. You convert your customers on that, not on a completely unsustainable one-time deal.

<comment><USER12> Yep, you are right. It dilutes your brand. It's a reason why most luxury brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton stay away from flash sites like Gilt and RueLaLa as well. It's also why Apple rarely has sales on iPods or iPhones.

By giving out discounts, you're training people to expect deals forever, and that's unsustainable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> From TFA: 'a [GroupOn] spokesperson said it was "difficult to give an accurate figure" for how many businesses are repeat users of the site.'

Really? I would have thought it would be pretty easy to run a query on their accounts and find out a nearly exact number.

<comment><USER14> I think it's one of these situations where it's not difficult to calculate, but it's difficult for them to release the figure. I suspect it would clearly indicate the malcontent of small businesses. "0.5% are repeat users" doesn't really bode well for you if your company is looking at an IPO.</comment></comment>


Chrome Finally Becomes Top Browser Worldwide - <AUTHOR> http://www.browsomatic.com/2012/07/chrome-top-browser.html

<comment><USER2> That's true only if you don't count China. The statcounter data they refer to so under-sample China that it only comes up at 1/5 the internet usage of India (the #1 chrome-dominated source in their stats), despite being more populous, richer and having higher internet penetration.

[http://gs.statcounter.com/sample- size/StatCounterGlobalStats...](http://gs.statcounter.com/sample- size/StatCounterGlobalStatsApr12_SampleSizeCountryBreakdown.csv)</comment>


Inside GitHub's Super-Lean Management Strategy (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/3020181/open-company/inside-githubs-super-lean-management-strategy-and-how-it-drives-innovation <comment><USER2> This is from almost two years ago. This tweet from Zach Holman leads me to believe that things have changed:

[https://twitter.com/holman/status/592757813107101697](https://twitter.com/holman/status/592757813107101697)

<comment><USER3> Correct. Though I wouldn't say the company is any less remote friendly than it used to be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This was written about 5-6 months before the sexual harassment claims, lawsuit, investigation, and the later departure of one of the cofounders.

My take on this is that lack of 'management' might seem like fun but there's a reason most grown-up companies have more process.

[http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2014/04/21/github- found...](http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2014/04/21/github-founder- resigns-after-investigation/?referrer=)

</comment><comment><USER5> Much of this is no longer true because, as I understand it, it didn't really scale.

</comment><comment><USER6> I personally don't find it off putting, but I bet the frequent references to "beer-thirty" and "drink-ups" could be offputting to a fair amount of people.

<comment><USER7> It's not that I would find it off putting, I quite enjoy happy hours and having optional social interaction with coworkers outside of work.

It's just that they're such tired, cliche phrases.</comment></comment>


OWC Makes MacBooks 'Pro' Again with Game-Changing OWC DEC - <AUTHOR> http://blog.macsales.com/39345-owc-makes-macbooks-pro-again-with-game-changing-product <comment><USER2> So buy an Apple and make it look like a Dell. Seems like a winner. /s</comment>


DoX: DNS Queries over XMPP - <AUTHOR> https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0418.html <comment><USER2> Cloudflare has a nice page for various fun ways to query DNS (via Twitter, Google Sheets, email, etc.): [https://developers.cloudflare.com/184.108.40.206/fun- stuff/](https://developers.cloudflare.com/18.104.22.168/fun-stuff/)

It seems DoX would fit in there perfectly!

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder how one would go about contacting someone at cloudflare responsible for that... :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'd draw your attention to:

* the name of the protocol: DoX

* the name of the request: IQ-get

* lastly, the current date

edit: OK, this might not be a joke after all, but it sure has a few hints in there.

<comment><AUTHOR> DoX is DNS-over-XMPP

DoH is DNS-over-HTTP

DoT is DNS-over-TLS

<comment><USER4> Yah, naming a DNS protocol DOX and then releasing it on the worst day of the year on the internet might not have been a great idea… I suppose we should have seen this coming :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> hmm... interesting, but why?

<comment><USER6> There's an awful lot of "why not?" here. Remember, this is an Experimental XEP. The XMPP Council saw no reason to actively block it, but that doesn't mean we're all mad keen that everyone should rush out and do it.

There was an intense debate on whether it ought to be published as Standards Track or Humorous...

<comment><AUTHOR> There are, however, already multiple independent implementations:

[https://github.com/wiktor-k/prosody-dox](https://github.com/wiktor-k/prosody- dox)

[https://github.com/moparisthebest/jDnsProxy](https://github.com/moparisthebest/jDnsProxy)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> [deleted]

<comment><USER4> This is a real protocol. It just got published yesterday and made its way onto HN today.

<comment><USER8> Purely curious, what advantages does this give you in a corporate sort of scenario where your login is probably authing against Active Directory? Does this protocol offer any leverage for developers in a multi-forest setup via API to programmatically choose domain controllers?</comment></comment></comment>


The Hackathon Never Sleeps   - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/11/the-hackathon-never-sleeps/

<comment><USER2> I'm there right now working on a new idea I came up with today, TaskTurtle. It's like TaskRabbit but for tasks that you don't need to get done anytime soon and want to spend far less on. Economy shipping vs overnight delivery. We match up people with tasks and the unemployed, elderly and homeless to do these task economically.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm chilling at the hackathon right now. Somehow made it through the night, and the Dart Chaos Wars. Come say hi to me and the rest of the CloudFlare team at our booth (pictured in the gallery :)!</comment>


Friendship's Dark Side - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/science/friendship-discrimination.html <comment><USER2> I have noticed this for years. I say people are not racist, homophobic, etc... People just want to gang up together and the existence of a group reaches the height of its meaning (to its members) when they can say "This is us. That is them. Clearly we are different (superior). Don't mix us." Same is true when you have 10 Harvard grads with 5 "insert_your_state_university" grads in the same room.

The ultimate test: Take a hispanic who hates blacks. Add a black who hates whites. Add a white who hates hispanics. Leave them stranded in the desert and they must rely on one another to survive. They will be friends in no time. When they get back to town it will be "This is us, the survivors. That is them, those who never had such an experience. Don't mix us."

<comment><USER3> Beyond just skin color look at religion, sports, nationality, school almamater, etc...Humans are pretty wired to form ingroup/outgroups.

<comment><USER4> If we want to consider the business world, there is frontend vs backend people, dev vs ops, sales vs development, blue vs white collar, management vs employee, ...

<comment><USER5> But frontend sucks for REAL, no ?

<comment><USER3> Back End > ALL (as long as you're not using PHP)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't think a single one of my friendships involve a common enemy, beyond both of us being allied against boredom. Physics is unrecognizable after being passed through the dirty lens of journalism, and I guess this is what happens when they report on fields with _even messier_ situations.

> _Game theory models predict it, real-life examples confirm it. "In order to > band together, we need a common enemy," Dr. Christakis said._

What do these models say about behavior around shared tasks? There are a lot of prisoner's dilemmas and tragic commons in the world but there actually are some cases where you can get something out of _nature_ while other people _help_. Maybe that's why hackers tend to not be very xenophobic, they have something to focus on other than dividing up the morning's pie.

<comment><USER7> _> Maybe that's why hackers tend to not be very xenophobic_

Actually, i respectfully question that assertion. In my limited experience, groups of hackers have actually been much more on the homogenous side than random other groups of friends or freely-associating people (recent examples off the top of my head: a recent software developers meetup, or the makeup of the engineering department i work in – spoiler: it's overwhelmingly white, male, able-bodied and middle-class, straight). And IMHO, a lack of diversity certainly signals that something is going on. You might find the term "xenophobia" too strong, but exclusion is real and happens, _especially_, i would argue, among hackers. You needn't actively say something silly like "i don't like women joining my hackathon" for there to be a very palpable jock- nerd atmosphere that will turn off many folks that aren't white/middle- class/male. I think this might be an unpopular opinion here, but i believe it bears pointing out.

A while ago i read a very thought-provoking book entitled "Unlocking the Clubhouse" by Margolis and somebody else whose name eludes me. If you're not already convinced by the unapproachable ivory-tower side of STEM fields, that book may convince you.

<comment><USER8> >groups of hackers have actually been much more on the homogenous side

>it's overwhelmingly white, male, able-bodied and middle-class, straight). And IMHO, a lack of diversity

Nice job. I think you managed to touch just about all the bases in the buzzword lottery.

<comment><USER9> "You're wrong because you used buzzwords" is no better than a buzzword itself. Can you address their actual point?

<comment><USER8> What point? Let me inform you of something. When I was growing up, I remember quite clearly being teased and bullied because I liked to read a lot and I liked messing around with computers. The peer group I surrounded myself with were other people just like me who also put up with the merciless bullying. Everybody else self-selected out of my peer group and did everything they could to make me feel lesser because of my interests. But now all of a sudden the internet and smartphones catch on and now coding is "cool". And the same people that selected themselves out of my group now accuse me of being "xenophobic" and "homogeneous". The fucking gall.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Happens in every conceivable kind of social group I am aware off. Those in the other classroom, those in the other office, those of the other political stripe, those across the border, those who play on the other team, those who dress differently, those who use Ubuntu, those who code C++, those who prefer cats, or dogs, or whatever, ad nauseam. It happens here on HN, for Gods sake.

No, we're not baying for the blood of those guys, but the dislike is there, or the mistrust. And seeing how all kinds of other animals exhibit the exact same pattern, there's no sound reason not to assume we are hardwired for it.

In so many cases a silly atavism. And in many others no doubt an essential group mechanism, if nowadays not necessarily for survival, then for internal group cohesion and a basic guard against intruders.

</comment><comment><USER11> People need a common purpose to unite... moonshot, get to Mars, threat of climate catastrophe, etc. Otherwise, wedge issues tend to form fault lines and natural selection will encourage war to reduce competition for resources / survival.

<comment><USER12> > _natural selection will encourage war to reduce competition for resources / > survival._

Not commenting on the rest of your comment, but that's not how natural selection works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is the 3rd article I've seen like this today. I think what's missing from the conversation is bonding vs bridging social capital.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital#Sub- types](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital#Sub-types)

We have known for a while that close homophobic bonds (bonding) can create animosity towards outsiders. But not every relationship does this. Some relationships connect us with people outside our normal groups (bridging). The extent to which people bond or bridge varies from person to person, and across time periods.

I suspect this conversation is being had in response to Facebook's tendencies to bring out the worst in people. I think the internet has the potential to create both kinds of social capital. It's helped me stay closer to my friends and family, while also introducing me to people in different countries, or people with different religions. When we design social networking software, we should design it with bridging social capital in mind. If it only encourages bonding, we'll be creating a world of hostile tribes.

</comment><comment><USER14> I think the author means to say comraderie requires a common enemy, which is a very different statement and one that I would say is true.

</comment><comment><USER15> Sounds more like the dark side of Tribalism than of Friendship. I suppose it's all in how you decide to define things.

</comment><comment><USER16> More like, together we are strong, now we can take on an enemy.

</comment><comment><USER17> > In order to band together, we need a common enemy

Yes, to band together, sure. But is that friendship?

> _Friends are predetermined; friendship takes place between men and women who > possess an intellectual and emotional affinity for each other. But > comradeship — that ecstatic bliss that comes with belonging to the crowd in > wartime — is within our reach. We can all have comrades. The danger of the > external threat that comes when we have an enemy does not create friendship; > it creates comradeship. And those in wartime are deceived about what they > are undergoing. And this is why once the threat is over, once war ends, > comrades again become strangers to us. This is why after war we fall into > despair._

> _In friendship there is a deepening of our sense of self. We become, through > the friend, more aware of who we are and what we are about; we find > ourselves in the eyes of the friend. Friends probe and question and > challenge each other to make each of us more complete; with comradeship, the > kind that comes to us in patriotic fervor, there is a suppression of self- > awareness, self-knowledge, and self-possession. Comrades lose their > identities in wartime for the collective rush of a common cause — a common > purpose._

\-- Chris Hedges

Of course, disliking the same thing or person can also be a result of intellectual or emotional affinity. I can meet someone in the wilderness and think they're an okay person because of how they are to me, but if we then go back to the city and they steal from a blind beggar, I'll no longer think they're okay. Likewise, if I walk around with a supposed friend and we see someone do that, and they react with a shrug or even a smile, that will similarly lower my opinion of them.

But that's because of what I am _for_ , which is primary and a cause if you will -- not because of the need to be against anything, which is secondary and a symptom.</comment>


I want to write about your startup - <AUTHOR>

Hey,
I'm the new editor at SocialTimes.com. Before that I was handling PR for a lot of different startups, and I found getting coverage was kind of a crapshoot. Or. A game of "Who you know".
So, since taking over SocialTimes, I've wanted to fix that. If you're looking for some coverage, email me at email@example.com and I'll connect you with our startup reporter. <comment><USER2> Just sent you a mail about Shyahi, a startup focused towards making it easier to showcase your developer contributions and social activity.

</comment><comment><USER3> Any startup or startups related to social media?</comment>


Show HN: The result of our first hackathon - <AUTHOR> http://www.thebooklistr.com/

<comment><USER2> UI looks clean and functional. Good work. If I can suggest one feature, how about adding "browse" or list functionality. With a limited "inventory" at this point, search interface does not seem to be the most efficient way to use the site.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, that's a good idea. We'll try it out!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Comments and critique are very welcome.</comment>


Russia, Japan aim to establish permanent bases on the Moon - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/05/russia-japan-aim-for-the-moon.html

<comment><USER2> We should stop sending humans into space and start sending lots of robots but first we need to create better robots.

There's no reason or advantage of a human being there. Well, that's not really true now but only because robots still suck too much and it's only a matter of time.

<comment><USER3> There is a _long_ way left before a robot will be anywhere near as good as a human.

First of all, we need better mechanics. The mars rovers are a great example. They work really well until they get stuck in the dirt. Something like that should ideally not be possible.

We might solve that problem soon enough, but doing stuff in space is problematic if you rely on teleoperation. Even on the moon, the delay makes it difficult to control anything as unpredictable as a rover with wheels on a rocky and dusty surface. Mars is obviously even worse. On Jupiter, you'd have a delay of over two hours before you see what your commands did.

Obviously, we need autonomous robots. To make them even close to as useful as a human, they need pretty strong AI. We simply don't have that technology yet (if ever).

I think the best solution would be to send a human operator to monitor and command a larger number of semi-autonomous robots. If we can get the operator to control a robot Avatar-style, he won't even need to leave the space craft. He could stay in orbit, removing the need for any sot of landing/take off vehicle, considerably reducing the risk of getting stranded.</comment></comment>


How to encode all of your videos on the cloud, quickly and cheaply - <AUTHOR> http://blog.picloud.com/?p=153

<comment><USER2> There doesn't seem to be any information about patent indemnification.

I've done video transcoding in the past. While I wasn't an expert on the legal/patent issues, I know that the product we used (helix mobile producer, from Real) indemnified us such that we could then use ffmpeg as long as it was on the same machine.

If you use this service, you might want to inquire into patent issues, and if you are covered.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point. At the end of the day, we're not a video encoding service, so our users should use us in the same they would their own Amazon EC2 instance with ffmpeg.

Here's ffmpeg's take: <http://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html> Here's Zencoder's take: <http://zencoder.com/docs/codecs-and-formats/#licensing>

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> How many of these "running FFMPEG yourself is so much cheaper than XX service! XX is a ripoff" posts are we going to see?

If you pay for a good transcoding service, you're not just paying for being able to run FFMPEG. That's the easy part. The hard part is dealing with thousands of combinations of audio and video codecs, containers, pixel and display aspect ratios, handling improperly encoded files and optimizing to produce the best quality at a given size. There's a reason entire companies are based on being good at these things, and people are willing to pay for it. This is not trivial stuff.

I'm not knocking the PiCloud product at all, as there are certainly some limited use cases where it would fit nicely and get the job done cheaply. But it is in no way an apples-to-apples comparison between a generic FFMPEG setup and a professional encoding service like Zencoder or Encoding.com.

<comment><AUTHOR> While this might not be clear in the post, we completely agree: "Needless to say, they do have a full video encoding service with a wide range of options and customer support, whereas we're showing you a building block that could be used to replicate their service. But, this does give you an idea of the premium they are charging for their service." We strive to be a general service for computation that can be applied to many verticals.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In terms of price, the PiCloud rate for this particular video is also significantly cheaper than Zencoder (YC W10). PiCloud charges $0.585 for encoding with the worse locality (source/destination both NOT on s3). Zencoder charges $0.02 per minute of video at their highest tier. 0.02 _30 videos_ (3.5 min/video) = $2.1 total on Zencoder.

(The difference will lower for higher output resolutions. Nonetheless, PiCloud should always be cheaper than Zencoder's pay-as-you-go rate).

</comment><comment><USER5> They've chosen the worst video formats to use. H.264 encoding with libx264 would outclass anything ffmpeg's FLV encoder and MPEG-4 ASP encoder could produce. N.B: The FLV container does not require the use of the FLV video codec.

</comment><comment><USER6> How is one to know what external programs are available in PiCloud. They just state the FFMpeg is available in PiCloud, but I don't see any 'master list.'

<comment><AUTHOR> Good question. We're just starting to venture outside of Python, so we don't have a master list of executables just yet. We do have a list for Python packages <http://www.picloud.com/pyapi/packages/weblist/python/> which includes pyffmpeg. But, that list isn't pretty :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> @kelkabany

I find this interesting, but two questions.

1\. Would you be able to provide a downloadable working copy of the python source?

2\. Picloud seems to be limited to 5GB files, most video files that one would transcode are larger than that. Is there a way around this?

<comment><AUTHOR> 1\. If you piece the code snippets together in the post, it'll work. Nevertheless, I'll be posting a downloadable source file soon.

2\. Our cloud.files module does have a 5GB file size limit. However, you are free to store your data elsewhere (probably on EC2 for fast and free data transfer), and access it using PiCloud. For example, you could store the video files on your own CouchDB server running on EC2, and simply query the server in your code (using the python-couchdb module) for the video.</comment></comment>


An XMPP server with Node.js - <AUTHOR> http://blog.superfeedr.com/node-xmpp-server/ <comment><USER2> I'll definitely try that out, as I'm not _that_ happy with ejabberd (documentation is awful and erlang is..well.. a little bit weird to me). Does it already support MUC?

Btw. did you see vines? the ruby xmpp server? Sounds also interesting :)

</comment><comment><USER3> It's amazing how powerful a combination Node and Redis are. What more could you need?

</comment><comment><USER4> all the node.js peeps will be frantically trying to sort out their @node_knockout projects, I hope those that need it see this in time

</comment><comment><USER5> It would be interesting to see how this stacks up to Ejabbered with say 20k+ concurrent users.

</comment><comment><USER6> and compared to ejabberd it is, let me guess, slower, unscalable, uses more memory and can handle less simultaneous connections. ^_^

<comment><USER7> Which only matters when it matters. There's lots of use in having sometging hackable. And who knows where it's heading. So no need for the "it's not as scalable as X hence it's worthless" attitude...

<comment><USER8> Hear hear! By tossing out that attitude, Node developers have been able to ignore better, more mature codebases like Twisted and Event Machine in favor of hand-rolled event loops built on a slower, less useful language, and the world's definitely better for it.

<comment><USER9> Since when was Javascript slower and less useful than Python and Ruby? V8 has made JS one of the fastest interpreted languages and it is one of the most used languages around (you're running it right now!). Also, node uses libev for its event loop, not some 'hand-rolled' one.

<comment><USER8> PyPy's faster than V8 and all of the maintained reactors in Twisted are faster than libev/libevent. Also, no, I block JS by default, and HN is written in Arc (a Lisp), not Node.

<comment><USER10> I could not find any resource stating that PyPy is faster than V8. May you provide us with your source?

Another thing, the fact that you're blocking JS may counter the _"you're running it"_ example, but as you know, it doesn't invalidate the point that JS in one of the most used languages.

<comment><USER8> And every time you bank, you use COBOL. You rely on millions of lines of C just to start your computer. You're currently in a web browser written in more C++ than any single site has of JS. (Although I'm sure this last point has a counterexample somewhere, which saddens me.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That seems cool but it took me a few seconds to realize that their 4th and 5th line of code in the clustering example in the post are identical. I doubt that should be the case. Pretty early it seems.

<comment><AUTHOR> Jerome, the cluster example is just an example of clustering :) you can run the example/c2s.js for a single node example (which won't even require redis).

Also, the 2 lines are actually different. The node.js lib for redis is a bit weird, so we need both a "pub" client and a "sub" client :)

<comment><USER11> Sorry about the remark. What a difference a character makes... I suppose it was too late or too early in the day. In any case, your article was quite helpful because I've been using Redis a lot, but not yet the PubSub functions. I've found this approach solves a clustering problem I foresee with a current real-time node project.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: The Lean Party - <AUTHOR> In light of recent political events, I'm doing Customer Development on a political MVP.
Would really appreciate your feedback at: https://goo.gl/8oZnwr
At this stage, I'm simply aiming to get as many responses as possible to further optimize the Policy section. <comment><USER2> You might get more responses if you allowed people to comment from a policy page, rather than requiring reading and remembering a while pile of them before taking the survey. Also just asking agree or disagree on a whole topic area seems hard - what if I kind of like most if it, but hate one point? You won't kniw which point is the stickler.

<comment><AUTHOR> I considered that but worried the comments might get unruly. But perhaps I'm prematurely optimizing :)

Does anyone know a good way to do this with MediaWiki? (I'm new to the platform)

Is the Comments extension a decent way to go?</comment></comment>


Never ever write software for Oculus - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@pragu/never-ever-write-software-for-oculus-9587266a979f <comment><USER2> It's easy to get mad about stuff you don't understand, read or research correctly.

It even states that "In the event you are a developer who submits User Content to Oculus, you acknowledge and agree that our agreements with you as a developer may supersede this section of the Terms."

In any case, this section of the ToS is not even about Software, but about User Content. There's a "Developer Distribution Agreement" for that: [https://share.oculus.com/developer-distribution- agreement](https://share.oculus.com/developer-distribution-agreement)

Quote: "You grant to Oculus a nonexclusive, worldwide, and royalty-free license to: copy, perform, display, and use the Products for administrative and demonstration purposes in connection with the operation and marketing of the Store and to use the Products to make improvements to the Store, Rift, and any other Oculus products and services."

Valves Steam Distribution Agreement looks similar (if [http://stuff.danbo.vg/sda.html](http://stuff.danbo.vg/sda.html) is to be believed): "Company hereby grants to Valve a non-exclusive license to reproduce, publicly display and perform, transmit, sell, license and otherwise distribute the Applications in object code form via Steam and through any type of payment method to Steam Account Owners in the Territory."

Not trying to defend any companies here. Those terms might as well be shitty. I don't know, I'm not a jurist or anything. But at least get the facts right.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nothing seems especially horrible here, they're basically saying that if you submit things to their distribution network (whatever it is, I honestly have no idea) that they can then distribute it worldwide. A little strange that they don't allow you to terminate it at some point but that's probably to ensure growth of whatever this Store thing is going to be.

But I mean, no one had a gun to your head about writing Oculus software anyway, so...

<comment><USER4> Among other rights it includes the right to "adapt" (i.e. modify), so it isn't just about distribution rights.

<comment><USER5> In the case of software content, that would include automatically recompiling the content that you upload to a new target format in the future, so if Oculus develop a new way of deploying content in 5 years time they won't have to bin everything people have uploaded. It's not really any different to Youtube asking for a license to transcode video content in to new formats.

They could ask only for the right to do that sort of thing, but a more broad language covers things no one will have thought of. It's not (necessarily) evil.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is really one of the worst submissions I've seen in the many years I've been on here. It offers no cogent, insightful argument why as a developer I should be afraid nor anything particularly useful other than give up the opportunity to develop for a lucrative, ground breaking platform. Brilliant.

And as a developer surely this person would understand why this clause is necessary. Because when a user uploads a photo to a service they will use it, copy it, adapt it (e.g. re-encode, make thumbnail), display it and distribute it (e.g. to CDNs). All of which needs a sublicense in order to do.

</comment><comment><USER7> Huh? This paragraph

> By submitting User Content through the Services, you grant Oculus a > worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual (i.e. lasting forever), non-exclusive, > transferable, royalty-free and fully sublicensable (i.e. we can grant this > right to others) right to use, copy, display, store, adapt, publicly perform > and distribute such User Content in connection with the Services

is pretty much standard in terms of service for virtually any type of online service or, well, anything which involves user-created content. They're not asking for control over your work, they just want to be sure you can't sue them for copyright violation simply by virtue of you using their service and them distributing your content for you.

It's legal boilerplate and should not be worrying. Read the ToS of your favourite social media service, it probably has the same paragraph near- verbatim.

\----

If you don't believe me, look at the individual provisions, they're quite reasonable:

"worldwide" – Oculus want to be sure that they're able to distribute your content in not just your home country, but all regions they're distributing it in.

"irrevocable" – Oculus do not want you to be able to revoke their ability to legally distribute your content while they're still doing so. This doesn't mean they won't give you the option to stop doing so.

"perpetual" – Likewise, it would be problematic for Oculus if in a year's time they could no longer legally distribute your content. Again, if you wish to stop distributing it, you can ask them to.

"non-exclusive" – You're not giving up your rights to let other people distribute the same content.

"transferable" – Oculus themselves might be distributing the content, but what if they later merge with another company? In which case, they need to be able to transfer the license.

"royalty-free" – Oculus do not want to have to pay you for every single time they make a copy of your content. This doesn't mean they won't pay you if people, say, buy your game.

"fully sublicensable" – Oculus, in the course of distributing your content, might use other services (for example, Amazon AWS). In the course of doing so, they need to be able to extend this license to them.

"use, copy, display, store, adapt, publicly perform and distribute such User Content in connection with the Services" – Covers every possible use they can think of, because laws may consider each of these to be different.

The reason they ask for this license is because otherwise there's only an implicit one, and being outright about it saves them potential legal headaches. Each of these provisions is not necessarily implied in an implicit license grant. It's an unlimited do-anything license because that covers every possible use-case.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Reddit discussion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/4dafji/never_e...](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/4dafji/never_ever_write_software_for_oculus/)

Most noteable:

> If the Terms Of Service didn't make you feel uneasy, try this one: > [https://www.oculus.com/en-us/legal/privacy- > policy/](https://www.oculus.com/en-us/legal/privacy-policy/)

<comment><USER8> There's also the huge discussion about the Oculus "malware" that pings and listens to Facebook servers every X seconds and has full admin rights on the users machine: [https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4da3r5/oculus_home_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4da3r5/oculus_home_network_traffic_detailed_analysis/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Better stop using Facebook/Twitter/et al then

<comment><USER10> Some of us don't use those things to begin with.

<comment><USER11> That's fine, but the article makes it seem that this is some kind of out-of- the-ordinary agreement. It's fine if you're opposed to such agreements as a matter of principle. It's just strange to single out Oculus for this. It's as though the original poster has never actually read a ToS document before.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I went to scroll down ... and nothing. What? Where's the content?

</comment><comment><USER12> Posting was removed</comment>


Ask HN:  How do I get honest feedback from interviewers? - <AUTHOR>

Usually, when I get declined for a job, I ask the company for feedback (unless I already know why they declined me).  The answer is almost always along the lines of "We thought you were the greatest person we've ever met.  We just don't think it's a good fit."  While I can understand why they give this kind of response, and I appreciate them not wanting to hurt my feelings, this response just isn't very helpful to me.  To be honest, I'd rather employers just tell me that I'm the worst human being they've ever met as long as they tell me how they made that decision.
With work at a startup coming up, I felt this would be a good question to bring up.  Does anyone have any advice for me on this subject? <comment><USER2> Unfortunately you'll almost never get really honest feedback from a job interview that didn't work out. While IINAL, truly honest feedback can expose the company to certain liabilities, so they play it safe. In fact, this is also true for reference checks. If a company says bad stuff about you when called for a reference check, that also apparently opens them up to some sort of liability. In all cases, for every company I've done interviews for, I've always kept feedback for those we didn't hire to an absolute minimum.

Best bet for you: Do pseudo interviews with friends, and have them review your resume. It'll be much easier to get honest feedback from them.</comment>