Advertising Strategies Used by the World's Biggest Brands - <AUTHOR> http://ideas.adlove.com/advertising-strategies.html <comment><USER2> <All advertising aims to triangulate

I was in fortune 10 and never heard of that.

Be cautious adlove that you don't become some ceos appetitizers when he or she brings years of advertising budget approvals and tears this apart.

Reminds me of when a "new advertising" program was going to do something new: Bundle.

The VP simple said "it's not new. The Japanese car manufactures bundled and beat US manufactures. Show me something new!" The VP continued and asked how many from the advertising staff was old enough to purchase an American car in the 70's. None.

</comment><comment><USER3> The biggest brands don't have strategies like that, no none really do. Instead their advertising companies do, but none of those come up with advertising strategies like that.

In most cases the reality is this:

Some insight is used as the base for a new campaign (we found out that 20 out of 30 do x because of y) some times it's the brands themselves, or some new product is coming out and the brand needs to make customers aware of it, other times it's the agencies (for instance the planners) who pitch it to the brands.

Then that insight is presented to the creative team which then try to find a way to interpret it into som basic creative structure which is flexible enough to be used in different media and still specific enough to hold it all together.

Then that is presented back to the brands and if they like it, the team starts working on implementing it across the different media.

Sure there is theory, sure just like with identity work you can explain it theoretically like this. But in most cases the explanation is applied after the creation.

This is because you wont really come up with something unique (which is most creative companies primary aim) by simply following som rational process. There is always that last mile which is 100% based on intuition and experience.

I used to work at DDB.

</comment><comment><USER4> Strategy 0: Buying this will get you laid!

Strategy 0.1: Buying this will keep you alive long enough to get laid!

Strategy 0.2: Buy this or everyone will laugh at you and you won't get laid!

</comment><comment><USER5> Feels a bit shallow. For instance, 'desire of the crowd' is generally called social proof. But I like the 'cause-effect' infographic. Shallow ad-based popular article on ads? How meta is that.

</comment><comment><USER6> Throw enough money at the problem, and you can be cool. Look at Coca-Cola. The product is a century old, and just not very interesting. Yet they try desperately to present themselves as cool. Two Coke commercials before every movie in theaters, with young people and what sounds like white rap music.

</comment><comment><USER7> Blogpost doesn't really contain anything, this would be a better link: [http://ideas.adlove.com/assets/images/advertising- strategies...](http://ideas.adlove.com/assets/images/advertising-strategies- infographic.png)

<comment><USER8> Hey, you've missed the main part in the end - the promotion of Adlove network.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Ad strategy #1 - make someone an offer and ask them to buy.

If enough people buy, keep running the ad so long as it's profitable. Kill ads that aren't.

There is no ad strategy #2 worth bothering with.

</comment><comment><USER10> I strongly recommend Al Ries and Jack Trout's classic product marketing books _Marketing Warfare_ and _Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind_.

</comment><comment><USER11> > (If you can't see the infographic above check your ad blocking software > hasn't mistakenly blocked it.)

uBlock Origin did indeed block it. Could someone explain this website would continue to use a layout that they knew was being blocked by major ad blockers?

<comment><USER12> To encourage people to turn the blocker off. The ones that leave instead probably aren't worth a lot of revenue anyway.

<comment><USER13> You would be surprised how many people click on ads but say they don't. They just filter out that information and forget.

<comment><USER12> _You would be surprised_ can always be removed to improve a comment.

Given the audience here, it's going to be wrong often enough. I think I wouldn't be particularly taken aback by the numbers that you allude to but fail to provide, I've watched people try to use software before.

<comment><USER13> No, it is especially appropriate given the audience here.

<comment><USER14> Downvoted! Downvoted!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Going Dark – Are technology, privacy and public-safety on a collision course? - <AUTHOR> http://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/going-dark-are-technology-privacy-and-public-safety-on-a-collision-course

<comment><USER2> The assertions by the director of the FBI don't take in to account those of us who are non-criminal, privacy driven experts, who know that if there is a back door in a product or service for CALEA, that any script kiddie will be able to use it to gain access to our private data as well.

This short sighted thinking is going to destroy privacy as technology advances.

The FBI is supposed to keep the nation safe, including from the FBI.

</comment><comment><USER3> Unbelievable: "Perhaps it's time to suggest that the post-Snowden pendulum has swung too far in one direction—in a direction of fear and mistrust."</comment>


Why are Americans so angry? - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35406324 <comment><USER3> Maybe I'm just too skeptical of these types of stories coming from generic polling, but I will say that I don't have a high degree of confidence in polling done by random phone calls (the CNN/ORC poll listed says that on page 14 [1]). My wife frequently answers the political poll questions when people call, in part because she feels sorry for the poller. Answering those calls can take 15-30 minutes. So you're depending on the results of people who have 15-30 minutes to answer 35 questions about the government. I feel like there's a selection bias at work there already, and you're assuming that people will give thoughtful answers to the questions, that the order of questions doesn't affect responses, etc, etc, etc. You're depending on 1018 people who actually may not be statistically relevant, since America is a big, big country, to drive your thinking on that country.

Plus, would the responses to the surveys be different if the word 'disappointed' was used instead of angry? And would the perception of the responses be different?

Secondarily, and this is far more anecdotal, but I am friends with a fairly wide swath of people via social media, from conservatives to libertarians to liberals to progressives. The key takeaway that I have from watching all of their posting and all of their interactions is that people are angry at others. And people have always been easily angered by others, it's just that the modern American landscape allows for a) easier access to others and b) easier access to well-written, rational condemnation of others than can be easily shared. But reading through my feed,

Maybe Americans aren't actually angry, but since it's easier to construct understandable stories using language like anger, Americans feel like they should be angry?

[1][http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/29/politics/cnn-orc-poll- full...](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/29/politics/cnn-orc-poll-full-results- obama-approval/index.html)

<comment><USER4> > You're depending on 1018 people who actually may not be statistically > relevant, since America is a big, big country, to drive your thinking on > that country.

It's a problem if they're badly sampled, but the sample size you need is doesn't really change as you increase your population, as long as your population is a lot bigger than your sample size. If 1000 people would be OK for a population of 1M, then it should be just as good for a population of 100M.

I don't think this really invalidates your point, it's just a misconception I see a lot.

[http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm](http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm)

<comment><USER5> I don't disagree with the math, but wouldn't it be the case that it's easier to get a biased sample from 1000/100M people than 1000/1M people?

For instance, maybe your sampling ignored a particular region of the country or socioeconomic strata etc.

<comment><USER6> > I don't disagree with the math, but wouldn't it be the case that it's easier > to get a biased sample from 1000/100M people than 1000/1M people?

It's not the population size that matters; it's the variance in the underlying population.

Mathematically, the sample size needed to construct an n% confidence interval for a normal distribution is independent of the population size (the first derivative is zero).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The really shocking bit of data is near the end -- many Americans would be deeply upset if their child were to marry someone of the opposite political party. This is making politics _way too personal_! I'm not sure how the country is going to recover from this state of polarization. The media isn't helping, and none of the current crop of political candidates seem to be addressing the need to rebuild the American consensus held in past generations, although this might change once the primaries are over.

<comment><USER8> I have switched from a life long moderate Republican to a moderate Democrat. I think most of my friends think I am now going to Hell and I am a Hillary lover. I tell them that Republicans have no room for moderates. They make the craziest things up about Common Core, Environment and the nation's Safety Net. They have no idea how crazy they sound.

<comment><USER9> > I tell them that Republicans have no room for moderates.

Consider that the Democrats want no restrictions on ultra-late-term abortions. I think there's plenty of blame to go around here.

<comment><USER10> I think you're looking at that very wrong. They want people to be able to decide what they do with their own bodies. That's leaves the maximum amount of room for everyone's opinion.

You don't want it? Don't do it.

<comment><USER9> > They want people to be able to decide what they do with their own bodies.

I actually understand the argument. For all the rest of you know, I actually wrote the above response myself (I didn't, but I could have).

The counterargument is that there are absolutely two people involved if a woman decides to abort on her due date. Even in liberal Western Europe abortions must be performed before certain gestation dates.

Now, this sort of absolutism makes a kind of logical sense. The kind that also makes legalization of heroin a defensible position. And there are smart, compassionate people who want to legalize heroin. Just not the President and every candidate in the Democratic primary.

Point being, there's no room for compromise on the abortion issue from the left. We could be talking about eight months versus seven months, what counts as a "medical exception", what forms of enforcement are fair, etc. But we're not. There's absolutely no room for compromise.

<comment><USER11> > Point being, there's no room for compromise on the abortion issue from the > left.

Did you mean left? There's lots of discussion on the left about what time limits should be set; or how many doctors you need to persuade; or what conditions could extend the time limits; etc. But from the right there's a blanket "no abortion, ever, for any reason", with fucking stupid comments like "First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child."

<comment><USER9> My actual point was that the left is uncompromising _as well_. There are certainly absolutists on the right.

The fact that you brought up a foam-at-the-mouth comment from a disgraced former politician seems like a point for the there's-too-much-partisanship-on- the-left-too column.

There is actually common ground on the abortion issue, perhaps counter- intuitively. There is overwhelming support for reducing abortion rates, for example. The American people would absolutely be OK with a compromise that includes education, increased access to birth control, _and_ bans on abortions after, say, 8 months of gestation.

<comment><USER11> You've mentioned this 8 month thing a few times. You probably need to know that there are good reasons why a woman might need to get an abortion at 8 months.

[https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129580-200-the- worl...](https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129580-200-the-world-needs- to-talk-about-child-euthanasia/)

Listening to anti-abortionists you'd think the woman just found the pregnancy inconvenient, when the reality is that the woman is going through an intensely traumatic time and having to cope with the loss of a much wanted child.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The data [1] is pretty noisy, but dissatisfaction with "the way things are going in the US" is pretty common in (presidential) election years. This shouldn't be shocking, all of the media is basically talking about how things are going wrong.

[1][http://www.gallup.com/poll/1669/general-mood- country.aspx](http://www.gallup.com/poll/1669/general-mood-country.aspx)

<comment><USER13> I don't see how the page you linked to supports your thesis. It doesn't call out, or even discuss, election years. 1996 looks to be better than 1993, 1984 better than 1981.

<comment><USER12> You can't compare across 4 year periods (General economic noise will swamp the signal), but instead look at declines in the run up. Basically take the first derivative.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Ridiculous hit piece based on dubious poll results.

There's a lot of angry people in this world. I remember quite a bit rioting in France, revolting in Syria, revolting in the Ukraine, etc.

> When asked if they trust the government, 89% of Republicans and 72% of > Democrats say "only sometimes" or "never" . . .

I'm in the never group and for obvious reasons. Governments abuse the power we give them. And that doesn't make me angry, but smart.

<comment><USER11> You might want to compare other indicators of anger. US has high murder rate, for example.

<comment><USER14> Doesn't look to be anywhere near the highest. South America and Africa seem pretty darn angry.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#By_country)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This list is rather incomplete. As an American, I'm angry because:

1\. I'm 31 years old and not even halfway through paying off my student loans.

2\. I can have anything taken away from me at any time with little to no legal recourse.

3\. My constitutional right to privacy and to refuse unreasonable searches no longer exists.

4\. If I am ever charged with a crime, I will face a justice system that is entirely stacked against me, and regardless of the crime or my guilt I will be coerced into agreeing to a plea bargain.

5\. A cop could shoot me in the back in broad daylight, on film, with witnesses, and most likely only wind up with a paid vacation as punishment.

6\. If I ever become suspect in a crime of national security I will likely be tortured, physically and psychologically, for years at a time.

7\. My government is torturing people right now, and the most I can ever hope to do about it is to eventually elect someone that will put a stop to it.

8\. My government is supporting the monopolization of internet services and suppressing initiatives to make internet service fair and reasonably priced.

9\. Every new copyright law is designed to further suppress fair use.

10\. Institutionalized bribery and corruption at every level of government means that without money, my voice will likely never be heard.

<comment><USER16> > 1\. I'm 31 years old and not even halfway through paying off my student > loans.

Why did you take them?

Disclaimer: I'm not an american, and this is an honest question. I always see that about US and don't understand why people get angry at someone else for their own decision.

<comment><USER15> The entire time I was growing up, I was told it was "college or bust". I was never told that it would be "college _and_ bust", but that seems to be the reality.

Kids were told over and over that a college degree would ensure their future success, that they'd be practically guaranteed to get a career that made paying their student loans trivial, on top of a nice house and a car because that's the American Dream, isn't it?

It's easy as an adult to look back on it and say "wow, that was a big mistake", now that I know how jobs and the economy actually work, but first we had to unlearn everything our parents, teachers, career counselors, and college financial advisers told us in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Fear. Fear of being left behind by the economy, fear of being encroached on by immigrants, fear of terrorist attack.

Not all fears are justified and proportional, but it's easy to turn them to anger.

<comment><USER18> I'm sure I read a study a while back that found that people who have "right wing" views are more afraid - and this certainly agrees with my experiences in the UK (particularly Daily Mail readers).

The US is rather more "right wing" than places like the UK so perhaps that leads to more fear?

And as the wee green beastie said:

"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate.. to suffering ..."

Edit: I think this is it:

[http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/biology- ideology...](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/biology-ideology- john-hibbing-negativity-bias)

 _" political conservatives have a "negativity bias," meaning that they are physiologically more attuned to negative (threatening, disgusting) stimuli in their environments."_

<comment><USER19> According to Sowell's "Conflict of visions" theory, the primary difference between people with right wing vs left wing views is their intuitive assumption about the span of human nature.

If you believe that human nature is malleable, perfectible and essentially good, then you tend to assume that the span of human potential is very large, i.e. the gap between the best of us and the worst of us is large. Sowell shows how this leads through basic logical deduction to left wing views.

On the other hand if you believe that human nature is essentially fixed, unchanging over time and flawed, then you assume that the span of human nature is not very large, and the gap between the best and the worst is not that big. This leads by logical deduction to right wing views.

So it's perhaps not so much that right wing people are more "afraid" per se, but rather, that they tend to be quicker to assume that as there's no way to fix 'enemies' by raising their human nature to a higher level, you may as well put in place systems that protect society from them. Whereas people with more left wing views may tend to assume that you can in fact negotiate and debate people away from being your 'enemies' and thus, they appear to be less fearful.

The above description makes left wing views sound superior to right wing views, which was not my intention. In fact Sowell's book lays down an extremely fair and balanced description of both right and left wing beliefs and assumptions, with IMHO no discernable bias between them.

<comment><USER20> > The above description makes left wing views sound superior to right wing > views, which was not my intention.

It certainly wouldn't be _Sowell 's_ intention (you don't get to be a Hoover Institute fellow with that kind of attitude.)

> In fact Sowell's book lays down an extremely fair and balanced description > of both right and left wing beliefs and assumptions, with IMHO no > discernable bias between them.

As I understand it, _A Conflict of Visions_ is the first part of a trilogy whose overall thrust, as I understand, is an attack on the "unconstrained" vision (the one you ascribe to the left wing -- not sure how accurate that reflects Sowell); though the first volume is mostly stage setting and the serious attacks are in the other two volumes.

From your description, it may be fair and balanced (though, given everything else I've seen from Sowell, I wouldn't expect that except in the Fox News sense of "fair and balanced"), but it doesn't seem at all _accurate_ of the difference between the left and the right (it might better explain some of the difference between the libertarian and the authoritarian -- though I would not describe it, even there, as the _dominant_ or _sole_ basis for either view -- and certainly its not unheard of for right-libertarians, especially American right-libertarians, which Sowell certainly is, to conflate the left-right and libertarian-authoritarian axes.)

<comment><USER19> Yes, there are other books I have not read. I didn't know anything about Sowell before reading ACOV and was surprised to learn he is some sort of arch- conservative. You wouldn't know it, from the book.

I found the theory to be accurate in the sense that it appears to have great predictive power, and provides reasonable and internally consistent explanations for a variety of observable political dynamics. Additionally, the book was recommended to me by someone who thought it explained the Bitcoin block size civil war, and I found it to be remarkably predictive of people's attitudes, philosophies and chosen tactics, despite that it was written in the 1980's. So to me it seems like the best explanation yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I wonder why "Bathed in pervasive, inescapable advertising scientifically tuned to elicit feelings of inadequacy while being bombarded by fear-driven news/politics" didn't make this list?

<comment><USER22> That's right. And there's more.

 _" Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." Steinbeck_

That worked for decades because people truly believed it, but they're seeing behind the curtain now that it's not getting better -- it's getting worse. That future, that they assumed would reach them too, somehow, someway, is gone. The reaction, for some, is anger.

<comment><USER23> I absolutely _hate_ this quote; it gets parroted all the time as a smug and flippant criticism of the American Dream.

Isn't it a _good_ thing that people see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires? How is that any different than seeing yourself as a temporarily embarrassed rock star, or astronaut, or breakthrough scientist, or famous artist, or successful entrepreneur? Is it such a bad thing that we're a nation of dreamers? Go ahead and tell a child that they shouldn't have big dreams because it's silly to believe they might come true, because that's essentially what Steinbeck is doing to the poor in this quote. See how smug you feel then.

Or should we do like the Europeans do and set low expectations rather than suffer the pain of not meeting higher ones? They say that the Danes are the happiest people in the world _because_ they nave notoriously low expectations. I'll take naive optimism over pragmatic pessimism any day of the week.

<comment><USER24> No, it's not.

Not everyone will become a cosmonaut... Or a rock star. That's just a fact. The problem isn't the dreaming - the problem is acting against your own best interests, and spending your political power on chasing lottery tickets.

See: The 2008 election's obsession with Joe the Plumber, and his concern for taxes on people making over $250,000/year. He didn't make anywhere close to $250,000...

And never will.

<comment><USER23> So because not everyone will become a cosmonaut, nobody should try? Think for a second about what you're saying. Would you honestly tell a child "sorry kid, the chances of you going into space are pretty slim, so why don't you aim a bit lower.".

The great thing about big dreams and lofty goals is that _even if you don 't reach them_ you often end up in a better situation. So sure, Joe the Plumber may not have made anywhere close to $250,000, but he made a hell of a lot more than someone not working at all, right? And yeah, little Sally may not become a cosmonaut, but she may land a gig working at SpaceX as an engineer and be on the team that eventually successfully executes a manned mission to Mars.

I'm sorry, but this is what's so great about America. When I hear people, especially foreigners, make fun of the American Dream I can't help but think it's just sour grapes.

<comment><USER25> "especially foreigners"

You realize most foreigners come here for the American dream, right? I don't know about you but look around. Many Americans, including myself, don't believe in that made up non-sense.

It was a period in world history where everything lined up. In the 50s to 70s, there was enough population but not too much, great economic expansion, and opportunity to be found.

As a generation that grew up with 9/11, two wars, an economic crash unseen in decades, unemployment, and now college debt, don't tell me that I'm not optimistic because that's the only thing I'm running on these days. The dream is dead (never probably existed), but doesn't mean we need to flush all our hopes into the toilet either.

<comment><USER23> "especially foreigners"

I should have been more specific, but I'm obviously not talking about foreigners _who come to America for the American Dream_. I'm talking about foreigners who criticize the American Dream despite having never came here to try to pursue it themselves.

And I happen to know a lot of foreigners who came here for the American Dream _and actually attained it_. They are its staunchest defenders, in fact.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> It's better for people to be angry and express frustration such as through occupy, blm, rural anti federal blm, anti open borders, etc., rather than allow things to simmer unnoticed and then suddenly erupt. These movements allow politicians who want to take notice to do so and address grievances slowly with input and participation from others, so that the outcomes are at least marginally palatable, rather than intractable.

<comment><USER27> It'd be even better if they did whatever they were doing peacefully, without guns. That armed refuge occupation here in Oregon is costing a ton of money.

<comment><USER9> It's odd that you call that out as violent and not the demonstrations in Ferguson.

<comment><USER28> What's odd is that you immediately try to insinuate some kind of nefarious bias because s/he didn't cite an incident that lines up with your political leanings.

The parent is clearly _in Oregon_ , so it's not exactly super duper weird that they mentioned a recent, relevant action in their own back yard.

<comment><USER9> It's odd that you went straight for "nefarious". I didn't actually think that at all. I assumed cognitive dissonance, actually. Mostly because _everyone_ experiences it, myself included.

I think I was mostly vindicated. We tend to assign more importance to events that are both recent and geographically close to ourselves. The events in Ferguson or the shooting at the clinic in Colorado probably had more of an affect on the collective American psyche.

<comment><USER27> I wrote about it because _you mentioned it_.

<comment><USER9> I didn't mention Oregon. Some GP comment mentioned eruptions and demonstrations. You picked out the Oregon one especially as being especially problematic in your mind.

I was trying to point out that _we_ are the problem because _we_ have our usual stalking horses and have no real way to track what the biggest problems actually are.

The Oregon thing is certainly newsworthy. I'm not sure it frames America's thoughts as much as the shooting in San Bernadino, say.

If you feel unfairly singled out, I apologize. That's wasn't my intent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> There is only one two word answer on the national scale: income inequality.

The dysfunction of current capital accumulation is driving roiling discontent: witness the 'unlikely' (not) success of Trump and Sanders.

Prediction: it's going to get worse before it gets better.

The drama IMHO this go around is that last time we had a populist backlash (100 yeas ago), it was not actively monitored and suppressed by a comprehensive suite of behavior analysis and sentiment management professionals.

I predict the existence of those things now is going to keep the lid on the pot a lot longer than previously. When it does blow off, it might be a lot more destructive. Where we once had a boiling pot, now we have a pressure cooker.

As with other systemic ills (e.g. climate change), the individual players are trapped in the necessity of maximizing for their perceived local best outcome... unable, even when very aware of it, to accept short term or proactive losses in the service of avoiding a catastrophic systemic failure...

Interesting times, etc. :(

</comment><comment><USER30> Because it's the narrative the media can use to generate interest and clicks --> [https://medium.com/@parkermolloy/5-things-the-media-does- to-...](https://medium.com/@parkermolloy/5-things-the-media-does-to- manufacture-outrage-ba79125e1262#.53cm4mmsk)

</comment><comment><USER31> I hate to see how race (as percentage of population) gets mentioned under the topic of immigration, as if the two are inextricably linked or represent our general anger. I live in New England where (IMO) race tends to matter little, however _culture_ still matters a great deal.

In fact, I'd say that we have a major cultural battle going on in the US. The media has seen fit to assign cultures to races, but that's just for convenience at great cost to the rest of us.

Even worse, I fear that many of the cultures at war want the exact same thing, but don't agree how to achieve it. In any event, the media is doing a fine job of radicalizing people based on race and income, neither of which represent cultural beliefs.

For example, I think we need to teach everyone how to speak English properly and you may think that's aimed at Hispanics. But it's not. It's aimed at people who speak gangster, girls and boys who can stop saying "like" every other word, and yes, all manner of other people who can't speak proper English.

Just like the Internet has common communication protocols, so must citizens for our nation to succeed. We all want our nation to be healthy, which is our common cause, and this is one thing I think would help.

When framed in this way, it's not about "those Mexican immigrants speaking Spanish" it's about everyone who can't participate in our economy because they're communication skills are lacking.

</comment><comment><USER32> They partially answer their own question, with... "seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington,"

They key point they are missing out on though is that because the corruption and cronyism is more blatant, more Americans are starting to realize how pervasive it has become and that justice isn't being served on behalf of the people.

08 crash and libor scandals are a perfect example. People should have been in jail, companies nationalized, assets frozen and investigated for frauds, the SEC pumped up, and a AG and various DA's should have gone into frenzy attack mode... but they didn't, because they were part of the insider group!

By undermining justice, and hence, our Constitution, the public will increasingly become agitated because without justice there can be no peace.

Here is the danger though (warning, put your tinfoil on), I think that what is being done is a systematic corruption of our countries constitution in order to pave the way for the global governance model. When things get worse, and puppets for the elite will start talking about how America is a young country and had it's chance and it's model is failing and therefor it should just join a EU model supranational government structure, _thats when you will know that the state of our country is only half due to incompetence, hubris, or apathy, and that the it is a deliberate strategy being employed by the AngloSaxon dominance group who honestly I don 't think ever forgave America for the revolution._

Britain isn't the ally we think she is, mark my words.

</comment><comment><USER33> One point that the BBC article doesn't cover is where exactly the 'middle ground' is. The language is still framed from an entirely American Politics perspective of there being two parties and no other reference points.

Lost is the fact that both American parties are fairly far to the right. Also lost among the message of anger is the point that they glossed past. The 'Washington' (DC) insiders /are/ the political parties.

</comment><comment><USER34> They left off the number one reason I think people are angry - the feeling of being powerless to change any of the examples given.

</comment><comment><USER35> C'mon. The number one point was stagnant median income for last 35 years. Do all the projection of your ideological biases and deconstruct the article to fit your views that you want to.

Bottom line is change hasn't helped the middle class wallet. It's no wonder people are backing Trump and Sanders. The establishment just doesn't get it.

</comment><comment><USER36> My two cents:

One, we are terrible at handling relationships, and emotions in general. A lot of psychological research is basically ignored, and we're talking basic stuff --things like how depression happens, how to handle anger, what a bad relationship looks like.

Second, we're in the unusual position of believing that we're economically and socially mobile--that the poor can become rich--and also being constantly given examples of how hard it still is. We chase an American Dream of being the self-made, self-sustaining free human being, but are constantly reminded that failure sits just behind us and that even the best of friends can trip you up.

On that note, we're also terrible at coping with failure.

</comment><comment><USER37> Weren't Americans (or at least their ancestors) generally dissatisfied with their lot in the first place and that's why they became Americans?

I don't know that dissatisfaction and mistrust is genetic but I'm guessing it probably gets passed on culturally, at least to some extent.

<comment><USER38> Weren't British (or at least their ancestors) generally dissatisfied with their lot in the first place and that's why they wrote the Magna Carta?

I don't know that dissatisfaction and mistrust is genetic but I'm guessing it probably gets passed on culturally, at least to some extent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Let's all agree to be happy instead of angry. You can only control your own actions and emotions. Be grateful what you have instead of focusing on what you don't.

</comment><comment><USER40> Middle class america is in a reverse depression - every other class is doing quite well.

</comment><comment><USER41> The way our country works, it becomes harder and harder for normal people to get by. Some Americans think this is the fault of immigrants. Some have other ideas.

</comment><comment><USER42> WE'RE NOT

</comment><comment><USER43> Oh god, let the HN theorycrafting begin.

</comment><comment><USER44> The common rule is that "no one thinks the same thing" unless there is a traumatic mind altering event that aligns people for a short period of time. Media, government, corporations, friends and family are all competing for attention to some degree.

Puppet masters know this all to well.

</comment><comment><USER45> The article does a good job hitting several 'topics' in the conversation, which is a reasonable place to start. As a collective emotional response, "anger" in the US population likely has a lot to do with rapidly changing social adaptations, acceptance, and transition which is frequently in direct conflict with traditional identity values - thus, a pretty understandable survey answer. Start broadening the perspective to include economic conditions (inequality, labor force participation) and it's not really a pleasing long- term outlook on an intellectual level.

For some reason, I can't quite shake the mental image of a cornered rat - <USER2> survival instinct response might be classified as 'anger' but the context and conditions are relevant in the grand scheme of things.

</comment><comment><USER46> As a non-US citizen who just casually observes US news like an outsider, I can think of the below reasons:

1\. The technology industry and EFF is very upset because of the ongoing patent-trolls issue. Only recently, a technoloy company was extracted of $625 million by the East Texas jury. Similarly, Oracle is trolling over its Java patent on a matter as trivial as the Java API. These two incidents are enough for the technology community to lose faith in POTUS/SCOTUS.

2\. The second group which is not happy is the entire populace who like an open market and free competition. Power users who understand it know that Net- neutrality is harming it a lot. Again, POTUS/SCOTUS is not listening to this problem, but has turned a blind eye to it.

As an outsider, my assessment could very well be observed, but I do think that these issues have enough potential to cause a feeling of anger and distrust in a lot of Americans (if not all). Ignorance or inactivity on part of POTUS/SCOTUS is only going to aggravate it.

<comment><USER16> > The second group which is not happy is the entire populace who like an open > market and free competition.

What? Since when did US blue collar workers liked open markets and free competition with their 3rd world counterparts?</comment></comment>


Show HN: Anonymous job offer feedback community - <AUTHOR> https://reffo.us <comment><USER2> Any verification schemes employee?

<comment><AUTHOR> Right now we don't verify beyond verifying your email address that it comes from a corporate domain. In the future I plan on adding features such as referrals which will need a stronger verification process.</comment></comment>


CodeFights thinks competitive programming could become a spectators sport - <AUTHOR> http://businessinsider.com/codefights-thinks-competitive-programming-can-be-a-spectator-sport-2015-9 <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10270014](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10270014)</comment>


How do you approach a coworker in a different department? - <AUTHOR> I'm crushing hard on a coworker but I never get a chance to talk to her.
What I am trying to do is figure out if she is okay with me going for her. If she is, I will. But if she isn't I'll drop it and move on.
I want to just walk over to her little hidey-hole cubicle and introduce myself. The problem with that is we've had a conversation before and my inner feelings just exposed themselves directly to her and I think she either reciprocated or was embarrassed beyond belief.
So if I go find her exact cubicle it's going to be super weird and uncomfortable for her if I am just this weird guy who is crushing on her. <comment><USER2> Ask once. Ask directly. Be unambiguous about the fact that you're asking for a date, not just "want to be friends?"

"Hi Jane. Listen, I like you a lot. Would you like to go out for coffee some time? If not, no hard feelings, and I promise not to bring it up again."

Yes, it's awkward, but at work ambiguity will create problems. So will gazing longingly at your crush. If you can't work up the courage to ask, then you need to get over this crush post haste.

If she declines, then do not bring it up again. Conduct yourself towards her in a professional manner. If you can manage it from an emotional standpoint, continue to be as friendly to her as you were previously, especially if you ever work together directly (women dread retribution in the workplace for turning down romantic overtures).

Treat her exactly as you would a male colleague or a female colleague whom you found unattractive. This is also what you need to do if you decide not to ask.

If she accepts, then congratulations!

Source: I'm a woman. This is how I would prefer to be treated and also what most female friends I've spoken to about workplace romance would prefer.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm going to do this. May God have mercy on my soul. Any advice on how to meet her aside from creepily waiting for her somewhere?

<comment><USER2> Walk over to her desk?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Just go over to her, tell her she caught your eye and ask if she likes to have some lunch with you today or any other day. If she confirms that she would like to, great! spend some time with her and see how it goes.

If she is overwhelmed by you approaching her or tells you she would rather not, tell her that it's fine and that in case she changes her mind she should feel free to contact you (she knows where you work). Then just to back to your work and get her out of your mind.

edit: fixed typo

<comment><USER4> > our

Freudian slip there?

<comment><USER3> "my — the royal our, you know, the editorial." [0]

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E09LU6XVyxs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E09LU6XVyxs)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Don't do it, this normally just doesn't work out very well. Unless you two are falling hard for each other every time you see each other, already hanging out after work and have each others contact info and talking regularly and going out on dates I wouldn't recommend it.

<comment><AUTHOR> But I'm just trying to figure out if she is okay with me even trying. You can't even asking that question, though, without spilling the beans. I just have very little direct contact with her and I wish I could get more exposure to her to get a better feel for what she thinks.

<comment><USER5> Since you are at work it could go south pretty quick if she does not feel the same way or even knows about you it can get very awkward and weird for both of you quick. Less career and emotional risk to search outside of work and treat everyone at work as your work brothers and sisters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Make plans with some other friends from work (mixed gender) and invite her along.

Or organize a bowling night, build a team from you cube farm and ask her to captain a team from her cube farm.

Just be a grown up and don't act scetchy. Show respect regardless of her reaction.</comment>


C# Language Specification 4.0 - <AUTHOR> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=DFBF523C-F98C-4804-AFBD-459E846B268E&displaylang=en

<comment><USER2> Expando is a neat concept in the 4.0 spec.</comment>


How-to add CalDAV and CardDAV accounts and sync with Windows 10 - <AUTHOR> https://ctrl.blog/entry/how-to-win10-webdav-syncengine <comment><AUTHOR> So they obviously have the code to support WebDAV/CalDAV but not the foresight to implement it correctly.</comment>


Show HN: Hyvor Talk – a better way to add comments to blogs - <AUTHOR> Hello HN!
I'm Supun from Hyvor Talk ( https://talk.hyvor.com ), a commenting platform for websites.
First, to be clear, Hyvor is the startup I'm building and Hyvor Talk is the first product of it.
Here's how it started. I'm a PHP dev and I did a blog a little while ago. When it came to adding comments I didn't like the options available there for three reasons.
1. Some were not privacy-focused. They collected a bunch of user's data and placed ads on users' sites.
2. Most of them were not modern-looking.
3. Most of them were expensive.
So, I created my own commenting system for my website with only comments and replies. After a few weeks, I thought it would be better if I could allow others to use this and solve the above 3 problems. So, in December 2019, I started working on this full time. Since then, I have developed many features (most of them are based on suggestions I got through our Discord server).
Here are some features/facts about it.
* It does not collect users' data. * It's fast because of no third party code, ads, etc.
* It has a powerful AJAX-based moderation console. * It's completely free up to 40,000 page views per month.
* It's fully customizable (colors, fonts, texts) - You can see some customized pages in our landing page.
* It has a built-in spam detector.
* I and my girlfriend (a graphic designer) worked hard to make the system as much as user-friendly and attractive.
At the moment, I'm happy to say, 20+ websites use this commenting system actively. More than 1000 users have signed up as commenters.
Thank you for checking this out! I'd love to hear your feedback. <comment><USER2> I think this looks really awesome. Love the design. I would put the comments higher up on the landing page (definitely above the list of features / installation guide etc).

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey!

I cannot imagine how this coincide. An hour ago, I added comments to the homepage. However, I added it to the bottom of the page. As you say, it would be better if I add it to the top.

Thank you very much!</comment></comment>


Whole Earth Software Catalog (1984) - <AUTHOR> https://archive.org/details/Whole_Earth_Software_Catalog_1984_Point/ <comment><USER2> We lost something when the catalog was overtaken by the search engine. With a catalog you could aimlessly browse and passively learn a slice of what was possible and available in some space.

Of course a catalog is edited or curated which makes it biased but maybe more human editorial direction isn't such a bad thing in our current world of algorithmic optimized, SEO, echo chamber, click-bait choices.

Browse-ability allows non-focesed search and informs choices that are made at a later time from passive data gathering.

<comment><USER3> Search engines aren't exactly "un-biased," they're just biased in more obtuse and often-unintentional ways. The entire field of SEO exists to make it biased in your favor.

(That's not to say SEO goes away in a catalog world - it just starts looking like the old-fashioned human marketing still used for other channels that it currently sits alongside.)

Influencers sit in a curious place between the two worlds. An influencer is basically an independent (but paid and buy-able) "micro-catalog" maintainer who is themselves exposed through an algorithmic platform.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The late 70s and early 80s had lots of these kind of wonderful "collections of interesting stuff" in book form. I recall a number of books like this I used to check out of the library constantly that just seemed to ooze with a kind of energy of things and technology and people coming together in just such a way as to hint or suggest at a magnificent future humanity could emerge into. I wasn't the only one who checked these books out as they were all almost constantly checked out. One in particular was a clear offshoot I still remember today called "The Kid's Whole Future Catalog" by Paula Taylor...almost entirely forgotten today, but I managed to snag a copy off of ebay.

I wish we could switch timelines in the future outlined in it.

<comment><USER5> Stewart Brand (still alive) is the famous innovator of this sort of stuff, starting with the Whole Earth Catalog.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Wait, archive.org has scanned books?? I guess I'm only familiar with the archive's "Wayback Machine" \-- I wasn't aware of their other offerings. This is interesting and has a pretty good interface for browsing. Even seems to use OCR to support search!

<comment><USER7> I've recently moved my support donations from wikipedia to archive.org after finding it out. Amazing content and the history of web deserves more

<comment><USER8> I've donated in the past, but with the recent copyright debacle, I'm less inclined to—not so much because I think they're clearly on the wrong side of the law (though I do believe so), but more because it seems like such an obvious and potentially catastrophic misjudgment. I'm fine with information activism, even if I'm not totally on board with the full program, but not at the expense of endangering the core mission. I don't think their actions will yield a valuable test case, so I'd prefer to see them instead work towards copyright reform in a more measured manner. I'll probably continue to support them because it's such an amazing resource and so many people are doing great work, but the leadership does not, at this time, have my confidence.

<comment><USER9> What recent copyright debacle?

<comment><USER10> Claiming they are library, they launched "National Emergency Library" initiative which made 1.4M works (of which some are copyrighted) freely available online worldwide. They have ended the program since.

[http://blog.archive.org/national-emergency- library/](http://blog.archive.org/national-emergency-library/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Stewart Brand has done lots of good stuff. My favorite is the 6 part BBC series on "How Buildings Learn". It really opened my eyes to the importance of buildings. Very relevant to the frequent discussions here about zoning, design, etc. But also just an amazing, clear, well-informed amateur analysis of how the US has been doing in this field over the last 100 years.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvEqfg2sIH0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvEqfg2sIH0)

<comment><USER12> The book that inspired the series is also great.

How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Buildings_Learn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Buildings_Learn)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> One thing that I find absolutely bonkers, is that the Whole Earth Catalogue website, [http://www.wholeearth.com](http://www.wholeearth.com) is broken and nothing has been done to fix it.

</comment><comment><USER2> Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities by Kevin Kelly

[https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Tools-Possibilities-Kevin- Kelly/...](https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Tools-Possibilities-Kevin- Kelly/dp/1940689007)

is a worthy successor to Whole Earth Catalog in both content and spirit.

</comment><comment><USER14> Amazed to see AutoCad is in there along with 3D applications for visualisation.

I did not think there was much in the way of 3D software available on PCs at such an early time. I thought workstations ruled the roost in those early days when it came to 3D.

</comment><comment><USER15> Is it just my phone, or is this completely illegible? Much of the text is tiny dithered garbage, and pinch zooming just makes the document window turn black.

I wish they would use plain HTML or a PDF.

<comment><USER4> It is HTML. And the scanned documents on the Archive can be downloaded as PDF usually (among other formats).

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Page 16, from a review of the "Disposable" Commodore 64: "It works great, but it's not destined to become a family heirloom"

<comment><USER17> No computers of that era (or any era) are going to be heirlooms. The C64 shipped with a power supply that failed often and in a way that fried the computer.

[https://retrogamestart.com/answers/replace-c64-power- supply-...](https://retrogamestart.com/answers/replace-c64-power-supply- voltage-failure-will-kill-your-c64)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Page 34 Three Mile Island SCRAM simulator.. side-by-site with Flight Simulator

</comment><comment><USER19> Perhaps also of interest to HN - the hypercard version of the Catalog! [https://archive.org/details/the-electronic-whole-earth- catal...](https://archive.org/details/the-electronic-whole-earth-catalog)

<comment><USER20> Related discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23754441](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23754441)</comment></comment>


Just Because You Can't Hold It, Doesn't Mean It Should Be Free - <AUTHOR> http://blog.philgetzen.com/post/13563493399/just-because-you-cant-hold-it-doesnt-mean-it-should

<comment> B-Con I think that this mentality is because people don't see their device as consisting of various different components acquired separately, they view it as one device with functionality that is sometimes insufficient and needs to be supplemented. Somewhere in their head they view the purchase of their physical device as the payment to get everything they want out of it. I think that people often view software not as providing features but as fixing bugs. They aren't getting the ability to do X, they're fixing the fact that their device doesn't already do X.

Second, people seem to be more comfortable paying for something that they invested in. Driving to a store and standing in line is physical investment and it makes sense that the person on the other side of the counter wants something of value for the exchange. But browsing for an app takes all of a few seconds and once you find it.

Also, I think that people view app ownership as different from physical ownership. The app developer reserves the right to do anything he wants with the app in the future, so the app could change or get a UI the user likes less. The app may have extra levels of payment inside of it for more content. The app won't transfer from their Android device to their iOS device or to their laptop, it's locked into that one platform. The app may be obsolete on their next device anyway. And they can't even share it with a friend if they wanted to.

Contrast that with coffee. You know exactly what you're getting and you can do anything you want with it at any time. They can give it to a friend if they want to. You get this warm fuzzy feeling that, once you hold the cup, nothing can deprive you of the full benefit of the coffee in the way you want it and you expect to get it.

On an intellectual level, it really __is __silly that people are so resistant to paying for apps, but I think there are a lot of subtle factors at work in the average user dissuading them from doing so.

</comment><comment><USER2> The marginal cost of your copy is zero, though. The marginal cost of your coffee is nearly the entire price.

People seem to instinctively react to this in odd ways.

<comment><USER3> I think you're right. What people fail to realize is that there are on-going support costs (and in this case time to respond to general queries).

I think the main peeve is the way people find $4 coffee an afterthought, but find the $2 app worthy of being disproportionately discretionary.

<comment> jack-r-abbit OK... I'm not saying apps should be free. A dev should be able to make money from their hard work. But you wonder why people will throw down $4 for a coffee without a second thought yet resist a $2 app. These are my reasons.

The $4 coffee is a known. I will use it. It is compatible with my mouth. I will like it. If there is something wrong with it, I am likely to get a replacement.

The $2 app is unknown. It might not run well on my device. It might be lacking some important (to me) feature. It might be broken. It might be total crap. Outside of the return window, I am not likely to get my money back. If broken, I have no idea when (or even if) the creator will fix it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> jack-r-abbit Based solely on the title, I thought for sure this post was going to be about piracy/anti-piracy. Glad to see it was not.</comment>


AppSumo User Love Bundle Giveaway (Zendesk, GetSatisfaction, SnapEngage) - <AUTHOR> http://devgrow.com/appsumo-giveaway/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hopefully this doesn't come off as being spammy (since it is a giveaway) - <USER2> know for a fact several HNers could really benefit from using these services on their websites. My site is still relatively small too, so the chances of getting one are pretty high.</comment>


Freakishly realistic telemarketing robots are denying they're robots - <AUTHOR> http://io9.com/freakishly-realistic-telemarketing-robots-are-denying-t-1481050295

<comment><USER2> The way the bot sounds disappointed/bewildered at the end of the call is absolutely amazing, as is the fact that the telemarketing company also denying that they use robots.

</comment><comment><USER3> She sounds so sad at the accusation, like she's failed at the game.

I'm interested in what triggers the "laugh" response, it doesn't just appear to be a random "I don't understand", I wonder if it's picking up on the inflexion in the caller's voice and trying to mimic their tone/mood.

</comment><comment><USER4> "I am a real person, maybe we have a bad connection"

<comment><USER5> Are you a robot?

<comment><USER6> [http://lmgtfy.com/?q=lmgtfy.com&l=1](http://lmgtfy.com/?q=lmgtfy.com&l=1)</comment></comment></comment>


Can Google Help Translate a Classic Novel? - <AUTHOR> http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/71273-google-translating-a-classic-novel.html <comment><USER2> The more I think about the difficulties of translation, the more I think that "Darmok" of Star Trek: TNG season 5, is the rule rather than the exception. Not only is it difficult to replicate the literal meaning of individual words and the structure of phrases, but it seems inextricably hard to replicate the sentiment and cultural context of words (nevermind idioms).

The Olympics recently reminded me of this, when news orgs reported that Brazillians had a colloquial word -- jeitinho -- that could be roughly translated as "MacGyver-ism" [0]. But even _that_ rough translation needs a translation for all native English speakers who were born in America after the 90s.

Side note: The phrase "star-crossed lovers" is something that comes to mind that would be hard to translate. I threw it into Google Translate [1] and got "desventurados amantes", which I guess means "wretched lovers" (when I threw "desventurados" back into Spanish to English). Maybe a little gets lost in the translation, but at least Google Translate didn't return whatever the literal translation for "star" and "crossed" are.

[0] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-05/rio- olympi...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-05/rio-olympic- ceremony-marks-festive-showing-of-brazil-cash-crunch)

[1] [https://translate.google.com/#auto/es/star- crossed%20lovers](https://translate.google.com/#auto/es/star-crossed%20lovers)

<comment><USER3> _The article says "Another unvarying element of the Google Translate versions is the word "boat" for barco, a perfectly correct rendering of a simple Spanish noun. But in English, we have the expression, "When my ship comes in," ... Translating barco as "ship" brings an echo of that deep history of longing into our first, fleeting image of the narrator, Don Diego de Zama, who lives in the hope of a ship that will come to save him."_

This sounds rather grandiloquent to me.

But more significantly, my father was the captain of a ship. One of his pet peeves was people mistakenly interchanging the words "boat" and "ship". The two terms are not equivalent (boat being a small vessel, and ship being a large vessel that might even be expected to carry a boat of its own, viz, a lifeboat). If he heard that human translator taking liberties with his nautical vocabulary, he'd have a cow.

So do we want Google to translate more accurately, or do we want it to strive for a literary flair?

<comment><USER4> I'll be underwhelmed until translation software provides configuration for core assumptions

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Spoiler: No.

A better title would have been, "How Google fails at translations". The piece is actually interesting to read if you're into either language translations or how Google does stuff that seems magical, but the clickbait headline isn't doing it any favors.

<comment><USER6> Hmm,

So, the article notes that the Google translate of a challenging but not incomprehensible Spanish phrase hasn't improved in the four years the translator tested. I personally haven't noticed Facebook translate improve in any fashion over a similar period.

Yet I had heard of translation as one of the triumphs of recurrent neural networks. It may well be that such translations are doing better on some metric in some competitions yet that such formal improvements aren't palpable to humans yet. I have read previously things about translation now no longer needing language experts - which seems to say that perhaps automatic translation hasn't improved but merely gotten cheaper.

While this raises the "is this deep learning stuff hype?", I think AlphaGo shows that _some_ deep learning stuff is pretty amazing. One might argue also that ConvNets have had the unambiguous triumphs which RNNs' triumph is a bit more ambiguous.

I'd be curious how folks who actually create this this technology would view progress of this sort.

<comment><USER7> One scary thing I've noticed is that Google Translate has a new failure mode. While it used to return obviously incomprehensible gibberish when things went off the rails, it now sometimes returns something plausible but subtly incorrect.

For example, it silently dropped the negation in a French -> English translation. Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact phrase but it was so semantically implausible--something like "regardless, we will be liable for any damages" that I went back and looked at the source text. It also sometimes replaces pronouns with oddly specific nouns: "He does X --> John does X" I assume these are both reflections of oddities in the training data.

<comment><USER8> Reminds me of the photocopier that started changing numbers in documents it copied.

[http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox- workcentres_...](http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox- workcentres_are_switching_written_numbers_when_scanning)

<comment><USER7> Wow. That must have been absolutely maddening to discover.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Salí de la ciudad, ribera abajo, al encuentro solitario del barco que > aguardaba, sin saber cuándo vendría.

> I left the city and made my way downriver alone, to meet the ship I awaited > without knowing when it would come.

The human translation seems a little wrong to me.

I'll argue for the following:

 _I left the city, downstream, to the solitary meeting of the ship I awaited, not knowing when it would arrive._

"encuentro" seems to be a noun here, therefore "meeting". "solitario" is an adjective and describes the "meeting", not the narrator's manner of leaving.

<comment><USER10> I agree your translation is a lot closer to the original text, the original for example talks about a 'solitary meeting' with the ship, it does not say like in the translators' that the character got there alone, they could have gotten there with others and left them to wait for the boat alone for all the reader knows.

As much as the sentence in the article is quite nice, it seems more of a reinterpretation of the original compared to an exact translation like yours.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I find Google Translate good at translating sentence fragments but generally not full sentences. Also, any Google Translate Japanese to English translation is near jibberish.

<comment><USER12> J>E is the worst, Spanish is also not great. Google Translate is especially bad in places where the speakers will assume their interlocutors will infer significant amounts of information from context—because Google Translate has not actual knowledge of the context.

<comment><USER13> Japanese->English can't be "the worst", because I've seen Korean websites telling this one weird trick for better quality: "Translate Korean to Japanese first and then translate that to English, and the result is better than direct translation!"

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

When I tried, it was more of a hit and miss, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is a perfect lesson in understanding the difference between computer and human intelligence. Google "knows" more languages than any human, and how to translate most words between languages, but when it comes to 1) parsing the meaning of the sentence and 2) bringing that into another language, it's generally pretty bad. It's no match for a person who speaks both languages adequately.

EDIT: It's the type of thing that makes me not fear the threat of AI. Seems like we are still pretty far from HAL. Missed his 2001 launch window.

</comment><comment><USER15> Yes.... ish? I've done the following for French -> English on an essay: 1) Google translate all the single sentences or sentence fragments. Use an online dictionary when the answer looks odd. 2) Re-mangle the machine translated blocks into decent English. It mostly worked. Doing this process on a novel would hurt. ;-)

<comment><USER16> Yes, but manual translation of a novel would also hurt ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> What a beautiful sentence - and challenging.</comment>


The Biggest DDoS Attack in the History - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@lucyhales/the-biggest-ddos-attack-in-the-history-6ecdc7d3377b <comment><USER2> you have to pay in order to read it ...</comment>


Tell HN: My 'mystery project': I couldn't sleep, so I backed up GeoCities - <AUTHOR> http://www.reocities.com/ <comment><USER2> Hi, jacquesm.

Huge props to you for taking this initiative, but are/were you aware of Archive Team and our process of backing up Geocities since April? We found ways around the bandwidth limit months ago, and will be mirroring/distributing the data as well. We own <http://geociti.es>, for example.

We're somewhere in the 1TB range of data, and we're still finding new stuff, by the way.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think I have 2+T all together right now, and I did that in 6 days, makes me wonder how there can be such a big difference ?

Anyway, feel free to 'complete' your set from mine, but let's please coordinate that so we don't kill this poor little server :)

<comment><USER3> I remember Jason (of the Archive Team) telling me that Yahoo! had very little bandwidth that they were allocating toward Geocities and that downloading was horridly slow. Getting even 1MB/s was nearly impossible.

I'm wondering if Yahoo! increased the available bandwidth (or maybe everyone else just stopped using it, increasing what was apparently available) so that when you got to it then it was nice and zippy compared to when the Archive Team hit it earlier in the year.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's very well possible. I have no idea how they were doing it, I have about 20 different IPs in the farm that is doing this, 8 machines in total.

Even the mail server is doing double duty :)

The only thing that is still doing what it is intended for is my main webserver, everything else is going flat-out. There is some risk of duplication but I'll take care of that later.

I'm getting nearly 150MBit/sec peak so I really can't complain.

I have to hand it to my provider though, we get transit times that are just about unbelievable, when it's quiet beteen 30 and 50 ms rtt, and when it's busy still under 150. That helps a lot.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> For all of those that were wondering what my 'mystery project' was, it's an all out effort to backup all of geocities.com in 6 days before closing time.

It was a lot of hard work, with the help from Abi and some others.

I think we got most if not all of it.

The account restoration process will probably take the better part of the week, there is just too much raw data to do it all in one go. There are still a whole pile of integrity checks to be done and broken links to be repaired.

Please be kind to the server, it is still doing a lot of very hard work in the background. On the homepage there is a status indicator that shows you how many accounts and files have been restored. How many accounts and files eventually will be restored I can't tell you right now but my guess is that we've managed to save a very large portion of geocities.

<comment><USER4> Great idea! My wife was just lamenting over the loss of her highschool web- years. Hopefully they'll live on through reocities. Nice design too, especially considering the time crunch.

<comment><AUTHOR> Abi did an awesome job, he did the whole thing under 5 hours.

I have no idea how long it will take to process all the raw data, it's spread out over a whole pile of machines right now, I'm pulling it in batch by batch to integrate it in to the main site.

But it's as close to a 'drop-in' replacement as I could think of.

<comment><USER5> Thanks Jacques. Super cool project -- was a pleasure to work with you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hah!

Here is the war journal:

<http://www.reocities.com/newhome/makingof.html>

:-)

[Edit:

Quote of the day.

"It doesn't matter what you do with apache, if there is a problem you can always solve it with mod_rewrite. The question is _how_." -- jacquesm]

<comment><USER7> Very interesting. I'm unclear about one thing though -- were the bandwidth caps per account, or per user/session + account?

If it's the latter, did you consider distributing the crawlers to other users? Some sort of system where people with spare bw/clock cycles can do your work for you and free up your bw/clock cycles to receive and parse the data? Would writing something like that up have taken more time than it would have saved?

Regardless, congratulations on your accomplishment. It really is impressive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Per account, the same user session would be able to see other accounts.

<comment><USER7> Oh, now i understand. Then distributing it would still work then? (or would have worked i guess). Sorry to belabor that point, I'm just learning about this stuff, and I want to make sure I understand it, and you seem like you might be able to answer the question :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, absolutely. That's how most of the work got done. The biggest problem when you start distributing it is to avoid duplication.

I took some shortcuts there, so I'm fairly sure that a portion of what I've downloaded is in duplicate, but that will be resolved in a merge step.

Right now the files are spread out over 7 machines, the one I started on is the 'master', and then there are 6 others that have a portion of the data on them.

Each of those has been told to fetch only from a restricted area of geocities, but the master one had no such restrictions, so chances are there is some duplication between the master and the individual slaves.

Merging all the data and importing the user accounts is going to take a couple of days at least, it's quite a collection of files. I have no stats yet but when I'm done I'll do a write-up on the main statistics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What's the copyright position here?

In the UK transitive copies for the purposes of display, caching &c., have been cleared as non-infringing actions. Googles caches link back to the original author by way of attribution for example. But archiving and reproduction without attribution in any way?

Also whilst Google may have been given a pass in robots.txt (were sub-sites allowed individual robots files? I never had one) to crawl the site declaring oneself as Googlebot in order to spider and archive the whole site could well show bad faith?

Just wondered if you'd discussed the copyright position, perhaps with Geocities. Maybe there was a disclaimer that effectively released content as PD, I doubt it though.

A brief discussion on webmasterworld, <http://www.webmasterworld.com/foo/3898789-2-30.htm> , but more interestingly an idea to "rape" geocities for content for ad serving sites, see <http://ducedo.com/free-content-geocities/> .

Someone on webmasterworld considered whether Google might back-rate based on content so that highly rated content pages that disappear from Geocities (&c.) could be given a boost in the SERPs.

OT: did you use the current username based addressing too or are you only linking the old "campus" names, can't remember mine, was in RT somewhere IIRC.

</comment><comment><USER9> Good stuff Jacquesm. That's one of the most beautiful things about the internet, things can literally live on forever.

Simple as you take it, in this one thread alone there are at least two copies of significant portions of geocities, and I am sure there are others out there (not even aware of HN) that have done the same.

Oh how I love technology.

<comment><USER10> WP mentions a couple more sites doing some archiving:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocities#Closure>

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > To fix links pointing to old GeoCities pages, we provide you with a small > Firefox Greasemonkey script.

This is a nice touch.

</comment><comment><USER12> I think the Internet Archive got involved in this too. I asked the head of the IA if they could just get Yahoo to give them the hard disks and stuff them wholesale in the IA. But in the end, the IA put a 'spider' page on one of the main Geocities FAQ pages on Yahoo, which is not bad I guess.

The IA is distinct from Archive Team BTW.

</comment><comment><USER13> You can scroll back for a bit in screen. C-a [ (or, apparently, C-a Esc) goes into copy mode, in which you can scroll using the arrow keys. Exit copy mode by wailing on Esc until it gives up. Be careful not to leave a screen sitting in copy mode and expect the process in the screen to keep running.

</comment><comment><USER14> Just a heads up: The "some interesting pages" link (<http://reocities.com/tablizer/>) on this page (<http://reocities.com/newhome/makingof.html>) returns a 404.

<comment><AUTHOR> Don't worry, I've got them.

Restoring all this is going to take some time, it's spread out over a number of machines right now.

This is the master copy:

<http://org.reocities.com/tablizer/>

But that does not include all the other boxes, just this one.

edit: Ok, it's fixed now. Thanks again!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Quite an achievement in such a short timespan!

Nitpicks: the frontpage says "an verification method"; should be "a". And, of course, validation: <http://vldtr.com/?key=reocities.com>

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Jeroen,

I fixed that thanks!

As for validation, I'm painfully aware of it, that's entirely my doing not Abi's. I will fix those errors asap but I have to concentrate on getting the user data in there right now, which is still quite a job.

The design was imported in a great hurry and I absolutely suck at CSS and anything else that is design/formatting related.

Give me tables any day :)

But I will get around to it.

If you feel like helping out shoot me an email ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I love the internet for things like this. Awesome job. I remember back in the day hoarding hundreds of geocities accounts to store and distribute MP3s . . . and of course I owned the copyrights to all of those. . . .

<comment><USER8> If those files are still there then jacques is going to be serving those from his own pages very shortly ...

<comment><USER16> Ha. That's great. Too bad I didn't have gmail back then, because my site names would totally be archived.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> FYI: In "Making of" you're linking to <http://reocities.com/tablizer> which is a 404.... probably want to fix that ;-D

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok, I bumped that one in the restoration queue.

Should have thought of that before, there was another mention of it below but I didn't think I'd be able to work around without messing things up.

thanks!

<comment><USER17> Awesome work. Seriously, mad props are in order for a bang hack job.

Great project, mate!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Do you plan to host reocities indefinitely, or is this just a stopgap measure before you can donate the collection to another organization?

<comment><AUTHOR> I can host it just about forever, I own & operate ww.com, which has a fairly large traffic bill anyway.

I figure if I put some 'friendly' ads on it the thing should pay for itself and that's good enough for me.

The kind of corporate superstructure that Y! puts on top of its products is what makes it inviable, not the concept of free hosting by itself.

If you figure that bandwidth in bulk costs around $3 / Mbit / month then you can serve an awful lot of pages to make back that 3 dollars.

Geocities pages weigh in at about 25K a piece from my meagre sample, so based on that cost / Mbit that's 13 million pageviews + a bit thrown in for server depreciation.

I'm not too scared about doing that.

If the need arises I can put the whole thing in a foundation to keep it alive forever.

<comment><USER19> I'm paranoid, and my first thought is that if you put 'friendly' ads on there, it'll only be so long until someone comes along and calls what you're doing profiting from copyright infringement. What's the deal with copyright on geocities stuff? I'm not well-versed in this matter.

<comment><AUTHOR> As far as I know that's exactly the situation that there was before, after all Yahoo also had ads all over the place (and those were 'non friendly', as in popups and stuff like that).

Bandwidth costs $, I'll take the risk as long as it is managable, if it goes over that then it will have to make some money. Not much but enough to keep going.

The copyright of the materials is totally clear, it lies with the original authors, not with me.

But since they were being 'hosted' before in an environment that made their sites disappear on an hourly basis before and that will no longer happen they might even see it as an improvement, hard to tell at this point in time.

If someone owns a piece of it and doesn't want it on there I'm sure they'll tell me, it's not as if I'm hiding.

To me it's on the order of the preservation of the 'stone age' of the internet, if I can only preserve it 'offline' for my own gratification that would be a useless thing, it has to live on. If you're willing to sponsor the bandwidth then we can look at that, that would be an easy way to keep it completely advertising free. Personally I would prefer that but if it is to be done out of pocket then that will only go so far. If I have to drop a grand on it per month to keep it ad free then I'll do that. If it is more then that then there will have to be some other way to make it pay for itself. Maybe a donation button (though I don't think those work very well, I'm one of the few people I know that actually does donate to projects that I use), or some other mechanism.

Time will tell. But without the data it all stops, so that had to come first.

<comment><USER8> _If someone owns a piece of it and doesn't want it on there I'm sure they'll tell me, it's not as if I'm hiding._

That's not how copyright works - "Well Your Honour I was selling those DVDs in public if the film distributors didn't want me to they can just ask, so no fine for me??"

Plus if you're putting ads with this you can't exactly say you're not making a commercial enterprise out of it. I'd leave it to someone with lots of lawyers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I wish I could remember what my Geocities site was called. It was before Yahoo! bought them, so it has been quite a while.

<comment><AUTHOR> give me a segment of text that was in there and I'll scan for it.

<comment><USER21> I don't have a geocities page, but that is an awesome offer!

So many times I hear people saying: I had a page, but can't remember what it was.

<comment><USER22> I wish I could forget my Geocities pages. The internet has a tendency to record all the stupid things you do when you're young.

<comment><AUTHOR> Are you suggesting a business model ;) ?

<comment><USER7> Yes! You could easily sell users a service that helped them hunt down and delete their old embarrassing geocities sites, if you could figure out a way to confirm that they are indeed the authors.

People could use google, but you could put extra work into brewing up some special sauce that would, for example let them find their sites with only a combination vague memories, such as their neighborhoods, or when they created it, or the types of things they linked to, or the background music their site had (mine had the mission impossible song) or the type of content (mine had lots of animated gifs). Google wouldn't care enough to do that.

If users find their content on their own, they can always request it to be removed, all you're selling them is a tool to help them do it.

I wonder if people would really pay for it? It would be fun to find out. I would help build it

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd do it for free, regardless. It's their content after all.

There's a sketch on my notepad here about authenticating 'lost' content. It's not easy and there will be a lot of stuff that needs special casing, but I think it can be done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Is there any small chance that you could release some of the code that you used to scrape it? I'm interested in archiving some site and wondering what you used to execute it? Just scripting a lot of wgets?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, just a bunch of wgets. That's the principle anyway.

But it is quite a bit more involved because you somehow have to avoid duplication and retrying of stuff that simply doesn't exist. Then there's the problem that the urls weren't case sensitive, which causes wget to retrieve much more than necessary.

The code I wrote is pretty geocities specific, I highly doubt it has any value outside of that (other than a sustained DDOS maybe ;) ).

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> it looks like someone already pointed it out, but you should def talk to the archive team on irc <http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=IRC_Channel>

They helped me out with an idea I had a while back on shortened urls. The same thing needs to happen with shortened urls cause once that shortened url service goes down, all the links are lost...

</comment><comment><USER24> Now do you need to buy more print cartridges?

<http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/7/1/>

</comment><comment><USER25> Super nice work.

I wonder about two things:

 _Did anybody try to contact Yahoo to get a copy of the server content?

_ If you where running out of machines, why not try Amazons ECC? Would be pretty sweet having web 1.0 saved by web 2.0 tech.

<comment><AUTHOR> Because it's pretty expensive for bandwidth intensive applications.

It they were anywhere near competitive I would have signed up a long time ago, as it is there really is no point.

<comment><USER26> Softlayer.com cloud servers have free incoming bandwidth, and outgoing traffic is cheaper than ec2.</comment></comment></comment>


Our memory shifts into high gear when we think about raising our children - <AUTHOR> https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-12-memory-shifts-high-gear-children.html <comment><USER2> This reminded me of this gem from the Simpsons:

[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/do-it-for- her](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/do-it-for-her)

When job gets boring or uninteresting I always remember that. For some reason it seems to help and it cheers me up.

<comment><USER3> That is such a sweet episode and always makes me tear up at the end.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Been working as a developer full time for the past 5 years with some 1 week vacations thrown in here and there (I can count them all on one hand).

I'm on week 4 of a 12 week loa for baby #3. I was totally focused on my career, side project(s), and keeping up w/ latest tech to stay relevant my memory felt foggy if you were to ask me household/family things that my awesome wife just took care of on the daily.

I've noticed a complete change in me remembering what my family has going on. Household stuff, etc. It's been great!

<comment><USER5> If you want to take that a step further leave your family for a year and come back. It wildly changes how all these things work in the mind.

<comment><USER6> Would you mind describing in more detail?

<comment><USER5> People tend to fall into routines when doing the same things day after day. The behaviors are predictable like training pets.

When you leave for a year all that predictability and programmed thinking goes away. It really alters how you perceive many parts of the world around you. I have done this three times when my part time second job magically becomes the full time primary job.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _According to Miller, the failure of the mating scenario may reflect our prehistoric ancestors not realizing that mating could result in children because of the nine months between mating and birth._

This seems to imply that successful evolutionary neural behaviors are consciously learned, as opposed to being "learned" over generations due to natural selection [0], in a similar way to how a neural network is trained.

[0] [https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/883/234025](https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/883/234025) William G. Wright; Neuronal and Behavioral Plasticity in Evolution: Experiments in a Model Lineage: Evolutionary changes in sensory neurons correlate with changes in learning phenotypes, BioScience, Volume 50, Issue 10, 1 October 2000, Pages 883–894

<comment><USER8> Maybe a nit, but I'm sure at least the female of the species observed something within a few months, rather than 9. Sure birth by 9, but I'm sure they felt hormonal changes, physical changes etc which culminated with bearing... so not quite a 9 month gap.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Makes sense- for a prehistoric adult, with very little cultural guidance to go on, to be able to empathize at all with a tiny version of him/her-self, it would probably be crucial to be able to remember a time when they themselves were that small. And when _else_ would a hunter-gatherer be called upon to remember events more than a few years back?

Dealing with children could be the only evolutionary reason we have very-long term memories _at all_.

<comment><USER10> Long term memory is a key aspect of learning. We often consciously remember things that are similar to current experience. So being near baby triggers recall of memories of childhood.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Do you find the master branch offensive? - <AUTHOR> I'll be honest, I don't understand North American outrageism and victimhood, it's just... weird.<p>Anyhow in the wake of renaming Redis terminology a new thing started where people want to rename the master branch because it's supposedly triggering to PoC. <comment><USER2> I thought the slave wording (or combination) was the offensive one.

For branches I assume master refers to "an original from which copies can be made" ([https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/master](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/master))

</comment><comment><USER3> No, of course not. What sane and well-adjusted person could? It's patently inoffensive.

</comment><comment><USER4> FYIs - Redis _does not_ use the name "master" for its main branch. This was changed years ago to "unstable".

As a bona fide lunatic, I find this offensive and is that a pink flying elephant?</comment>


How Copyright Laws Keep E-Books Locked Up - <AUTHOR> http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/how-copyright-laws-prevent-easy-sharing-of-e-books-a-961333.html

<comment><USER2> Greed/pride -> copyright -> DRM/uneven limitations -> unhappiness for the work's largest audience.

HDD space is not as scarce a resource as ink, paper, etc.

Copying of digital information is not as costly as the copying of physical information.

What's the "news"? Did I miss something? People are kind of beating a dead horse with the whole "DRM sucks, piracy is cool, free software is kick ass" thing.

<comment><USER3> Agree that it's not really news; Stallman predicted this 17 years ago:

[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to- read.html](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I feel like this is a sign that books are on the verge of extinction.

<comment><USER5> Its traditional publishers that are on the verge of extinction, Amazon is putting them out of business by providing a better publishing platform</comment></comment>


Show HN: Tweets about TV Shows - <AUTHOR> http://tvchatapp.com/mobile/

<comment><USER2> Your alphabetization skills need improvement. For example: "The Apprentice" should be under "A," not "T." Similarly for any shows that begin with "A" "An" or "The."

Am I correct that you're pulling them in by hashtag? So any without the proper hashtag will be missed?

Very nice layout, tho. Clean.

<comment><USER3> And anything using the same hashtag for other purposes (see House) is polluted. We ran into the same problem classifying comedy shows and eventually wrote a multi-tier relevancy matcher based on the hashtag, key indicators, sentiment and time. A nice problem to chew on if you're so inclined.

<comment><USER2> OMG. A generic hashtag like House must be a nightmare. Good thing you're not doing Canadian TV shows too. There's a cop show just called "King." I ranted in a post about how search engine-hostile that title was.

<comment><USER3> To derail slightly, some of the comedy shows we ended up dealing with were "Party", "Hotel" and "Free". We didn't require that people used a specific hashtag for each show name (our audience wasn't savvy enough), but we wanted to make sure there were more indicators than just the name.

Some included the hashtag for the comedy festival itself (easy), key performer names, temporal or location cues and relevant other words that were strong indicators for the comedy show rather than its other meaning - I curated a list. The same approach'd work here.

Why are TV shows so badly named, though, that's the real question? Is it the drive towards simplicity I'm starting to see in a few different places? Or is it "grittier" if it's a show named after just a surname?

<comment><USER2> >>>Why are TV shows so badly named, though, that's the real question?

TV marketers are not Internet savvy. If I can intrude with a post URL, at least the Oxygen Network understands and assigns hashtags in its ads:

[http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/oxygen-channel- lov...](http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/oxygen-channel-loves- hashtags/)

If only all the other TV shows did that!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks cool, but there's no search box, you've got to have this, i.e. I want to see the tweets for _True Blood_. Also, when I click on a show, the Cats&Crew overlay doesn't display anything and cannot be closed (Firefox 3.6)

</comment><comment><USER5> 1\. listing the hulu shows is sort of pointless for mobile. most phones don't support flash, and I think Hulu blocks shows anyways and tells you to get hulu +. I could be wrong on the hulu thing.

2\. Should be a way to retrieve additional tweets outside of your initial list for each show when reaching the bottom. I do see a button randomly appear at the top of the list that tells me new tweets are available, but I'm not even sure it does anything.

I am viewing it on chrome so maybe somethings may work differently ?

<comment><USER6> on #2 the button at the top for new tweets, let's you control when to refresh the list (click on it). Otherwise shows like american idol have so much traffic you can't read the stream.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thanks. The search box is a good idea (can't believe I forgot to add it). As for other channels/shows I will be adding more, I just wanted to get it out there and start getting feedback

</comment><comment><USER7> The problem is that you're relying on users of twitter to specify the correct hashtag, which will significantly decrease your SNR. You should collect entity information on the actors and characters the show is about and do some intelligent associations to help separate the wheat from the chaff.

Otherwise, great job on sucking down some tweets and parsing hashtags into verticals. I also think the design is simple and clean. What's the tech stack?

<comment><USER6> Thanks.. cast and crew are on my short list to add, so you can just watch the stream of tweets from the cast. And not all of the random public tweets too..

The tech stack is a little SpringMVC, JQuery Mobile, mysql

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> My friend Mike recently created this app and would love feedback:

<http://tvchatapp.com/mobile/>

It's a way to connect with people who have common viewing interests with you and view Twitter chatter about those TV shows.

</comment><comment><USER8> I've used this for two minutes now and have no idea what it is. Is it Tweets for shows? How is it different from me just searching for the show's name?</comment>


Free for all Friday at Inventables - Crazy or Obvious? - <AUTHOR> http://inventables.blogspot.com/2010/05/our-motivations-dan-pink-inventables-on.html

<comment><USER2> Sure as heck matters what your employees do on other days. If I had a customer service team, I don't think my customers would appreciate it if they all decided to stop answering support calls on Fridays.

</comment><comment><USER3> Google did it, Google did it!

Seriously though, it's obvious, and shown to work with quality engineers, but no less cool for all of that. Bravo to Inventables, we need more companies that do this (and in general, organize their workforce according Dan Pink's insights).

</comment><comment><USER4> At some point between the Renaissance and today we, the western world, seem to have acquired the notion that inventing and craftsmanship are not creative endeavors. That seems to be going away, and with it the correspondingly outmoded ideas about work environment, schedule, and structure. If you treat creative endeavors like an assembly line you'll get assembly line employee satisfaction and assembly line levels of innovation and creativity.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's an elegant way of putting it. At the core I don't believe that software engineers are assembly line workers. They are not cogs in some big machine that can be automated. Writing web applications requires creativity and intellectual thought. Everyone knows that telling someone "be creative now!" is a ridiculous approach.

<comment><USER5> 'They are not cogs in some big machine that can be automated. Writing web applications requires creativity and intellectual thought. Everyone knows that telling someone "be creative now!" is a ridiculous approach.'

On a number of occasions I've talked with people in the Web development/software business, and they make regular use of the term "creatives". And every single time they use it to distinguish some group of people (designers, ad writers, whatever) from mere software developers. Who, apparently, are not creative, or not doing creative work.

It's probably a lost cause to get people to consider software developers part of that group (at least with those who most often us that term), so I propose we call developers, hackers, engineers, etc. "Inventives."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Bad title, good article.

<comment><AUTHOR> What would you have titled it?</comment></comment>


Goo.gl Challenges Bit.ly as King of the Short - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/googl-challenges-bitly-as-king-of-the-short/?ref=technology

<comment><USER2> I guess I still don't understand the purpose of URL shortners. Isn't this what markup is for?

Hey, check out this  page!

I get it that twitter has the 140 character limit, but isn't this something twitter should have solved themselves?

Why do these news articles seem to pop up every other day? Why is bit.ly offering a "pro" service?

<comment><USER3> Especially when they are trivially easy to create. [shameless plug] I created an appengine variant ( <http://symlinkd.com> ) in about a day, including a simple update api and per-handle history [/shameless plug]

<comment><USER4> That's funny - I was thinking about setting up an appengine to archive the URL shorteners, to minimize fallout when they fall over.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> only for google products at the moment

<comment><USER6> Not quite. From Google's PR: "Google URL shortener is not a stand-alone service; you can't use it to shorten links directly. Currently, Google URL Shortener is only available from the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. If the service proves useful, we may eventually make it available for a wider audience in the future."

[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/making-urls- shorter-f...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/making-urls-shorter-for- google-toolbar.html)</comment></comment>


Samsung Galaxy S6 catches fire on plane - <AUTHOR> http://avherald.com/h?article=4a1d9ee1 <comment><USER2> To be fair, its owner _had_ asked to be seated in the smoking section.</comment>


Microsoft renames SkyDrive to OneDrive - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/27/5349830/microsoft-onedrive-new-name-for-skydrive

<comment><AUTHOR> Sadly, it's too late to change the title to "OneDrive to rule them all, OneDrive to find them, OneDrive to bring them all and in the darkness bind them" ;-)</comment>


The U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index (JQI) - <AUTHOR> https://www.jobqualityindex.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> The JQI Curve: [https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/voxaradev/pages/11297/...](https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/voxaradev/pages/11297/attachments/original/1573675173/image001.png?1573675173)

Current Level is 80.62

Change From 1990 Inception is -14.3%

> They recently unveiled the US Private Sector Job Quality Index (or JQI for > short), a new monthly indicator that aims to track the quality of jobs > instead of just the quantity. The JQI measures the ratio of what the > researchers call "high-quality" versus "low-quality" jobs, based on whether > the work offer more or less than the average income.

[https://qz.com/1752676/the-job-quality-index-is-the- economic...](https://qz.com/1752676/the-job-quality-index-is-the-economic- indicator-weve-been-missing/)</comment>