Apache Kafka 0.8.0 released - <AUTHOR> http://kafka.apache.org/downloads.html

<comment><USER2> Have read a bit of the intro material, but I'm still not grokking what makes Kafka fundamentally different from ActiveMQ / Apollo. Can anyone sum up where and why one might need Kafka?

<comment><USER3> It's an architecture thing. Most message queues are written the way you'd initially think to manage a message queue, you keep a big queue of objects in memory, and in order to get delivery guarantees, you have to hold on to them until the consumer confirms receipt. This leads to pathological garbage collection scenarios, the old "holding onto an object just long enough to make it really expensive to GC".

Kafka, on the other hand, when you write a message to the broker the broker writes it immediately to disk queue rather than holding it in memory. But isn't that slower? No, it's not, because it's in page cache, which is managed more efficiently than garbage collected memory. Then, when consuming, rather than keeping metrics for each individual message being received, consumers simply have a log position -- they periodically commit, which tells the broker that all of the messages until that point have been consumed. If they never commit, eventually another consumer will get those messages.

So basically, it scales a ton better because you're just doing scads of sequential I/O with occasional commits, rather than tracking a bunch of messages in memory individually (which in theory should be fast but causes GC problems).

<comment><USER4> How does that compare to RabbitMQ's disk backed store?

<comment><USER3> I'm not familiar at all with RabbitMQ, so can't really comment, but I'm pretty sure they give guarantees like a producer can wait until a given message is consumed. This means there's no fire-and-forget, even though the message is logged to disk at one point, you need to do all that per message book keeping.

<comment><USER5> It is more accurate to say that RabbitMQ supports both fire-and-forget and producer-waits. The exact behavior is specified by a combination of how you configure exchanges and queues, and per-message settings, and how you write your client code. For example, your application can decide that some of the messages it injects into a queue are to be durable and others not. It is quite flexible (though the docs are lacking when it comes to specific advice for various use cases).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Kafka is an integral part of Shopify's infrastructure. It's brilliant but under appreciated technology.

A full company, scalable event bus like this can totally revolutionize the way you build services.

<comment><USER7> And thank you for the amazing go client.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is the first release as an Apache top-level project and represents many months of hard work.

A few of the major improvements (from [https://archive.apache.org/dist/kafka/0.8.0/RELEASE_NOTES.ht...](https://archive.apache.org/dist/kafka/0.8.0/RELEASE_NOTES.html)):

      * Intra-cluster replication support
      * Support multiple data directories
      * Many new internal metrics
      * Time based log segment rollout

Plus many bug fixes and other improvements.

</comment><comment><USER8> May I ask how Kafka compares with an AMQP solution such as RabbitMQ? Thank you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Quora discussion: [http://www.quora.com/RabbitMQ/RabbitMQ-vs-Kafka-which-one- fo...](http://www.quora.com/RabbitMQ/RabbitMQ-vs-Kafka-which-one-for-durable- messaging-with-good-query-features)

RabbitMQ developer on the kafka-users list: [http://mail- archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/kafka-users/201306....](http://mail- archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/kafka- email@example.com%3E)

SO discussion on several queuing systems: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/731233/activemq-or- rabbit...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/731233/activemq-or-rabbitmq-or- zeromq-or)

<comment><USER9> Quora link where you don't have to register/log-in: [http://www.quora.com/RabbitMQ/RabbitMQ-vs-Kafka-which-one- fo...](http://www.quora.com/RabbitMQ/RabbitMQ-vs-Kafka-which-one-for-durable- messaging-with-good-query-features?share=1)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I wrote about this release and Kafka in general in Chinese and gather some information perhaps useful for Chinese guys: [http://geek.csdn.net/news/detail/3866](http://geek.csdn.net/news/detail/3866)

</comment><comment><USER11> This has nothing to do with the software itself, but it bothers me: Why do you call a "high-throughput distributed messaging system" Kafka? Kafka's stories essentially describe the polar-opposite: crippled, ineffective, labyrinthine message systems that are exceedingly hierarchical in nature. They are also rather user-unfriendly, i.e. their users usually die horrible, lonely deaths. Am I just missing the in-joke here, and it's called Kafka _because_ it is exactly the opposite of this, or did somebody overdo the hipster naming scheme?

<comment><USER12> That was my first thought. Based on the novels I've read, I would interpret it in a couple of possible ways:

\- You receive a message, but the system can't tell you why your received it nor what you should do. (The Trial)

\- It's not a distributed messaging system with bugs. Actually, you are the bug. (Metamorphosis)

As an aside, I went to a tech conference in Prague two months ago and visited Café Slavia, a hangout not just of Kafka, but also author Milan Kundera and president/poet Václav Havel. I had a glass of absinthe in their honour.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Congratulations to the Kafka team! Their work is always extremely impressive.

</comment><comment><USER14> Was this developed in Scala?

<comment><AUTHOR> It is a mixture of Java and Scala, though mostly Scala. GitHub mirror of the source: [https://github.com/apache/kafka](https://github.com/apache/kafka)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I like the naming trend and expect releases of Apache Ionesco, Apache Lovecraft, and Apache Poe real soon now. </obligatory-joke>

</comment><comment><USER16> Finally!

</comment><comment><USER17> Why is it written in Java? Isn't it a default performance hit? I'd expect such frameworks to be written in high performance languages.

<comment><USER15> Java is pretty high performance, usually on par with C++, and usually faster than e.g. Go.

Writing Java code so that there are no perceivable GC pauses is an art, but it is not impossible to achieve.

JVM might require more RAM upfront, but a well-written program is usually reasonably memory-efficient, too, so the consumed memory grows reasonably slowly with the problem size.

Writing things in pure C is often just too time-consuming.

<comment><USER17> _> Java is pretty high performance, usually on par with C++_

I'm not convinced. Java I/O is far form perfect, and Kafka is probably very heavy on I/O side.

 _> and usually faster than e.g. Go._

That's strange, since Go to some degree was intended as replacement for Java without having Java's downsides. Why would Go be less performant?

I'd be interested if someone would write such framework in Rust though. C++ is of course a default expectation, but usage of Java somehow surprises me in this case.

<comment><USER18> Kahka is written in Scala, not Java. The only Java in the project is for a JavaAPI and hadoop connectors.

Comparing languages in absolute performance terms is bad idea, it's an extreme simplification of what really goes into creating performant applications.

<comment><USER17> _> Kahka is written in Scala, not Java. _

Thanks for the correction.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


LiveJournal: Russia's Unlikely Internet Giant - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17177053?

<comment><USER4> I still use Livejournal. I've sadly not managed to find a better blogging site that has decent security options on it.

The threaded comments are better than almost any other discussion forum, and the level of control you have over comments and visibility are very high.

It's just a shame that the owners couldn't make money that way, and seem to be focussed on an entirely different demographic.

I'm "AndrewDucker" over there, by the way. Feel free to add, if you like lots of links to things.

<comment><USER5> Using LiveJournal too, since 2001. I think LJ technological base is great - for discussing random stuff, it's one of the best platforms I've used. Much better than the most other blog hosting engines. The russian-language community there is remarkable, both by the size and the quality - <USER2> prominent writers, political and public figures, journalists, scientists, celebrities are actively engaging in the community - it is a very interesting place, and much more fit for maintaining an engaged community than, say, Facebook.

However, since SUP bought the platform, the management was nothing short of disaster. The great success in community building in Livejournal is evenly matched by the failure of current administration in the technical site building. Technically, it is plagued with DOSes, screwups, breakdowns, security breaches and UI changes that nobody asked for and that make it annoying to use. Moderation is chaotic and voluntaristic, and prone to abuse by interested parties. They do not seem to have any plan of how to develop the site and so far almost all the improvements they made seem to make the platform worse, not better. The people in the management also have very openly disdainful attitude towards the users, publicly calling users complaining about their policies idiots, freaks, assholes, etc. Of course sharing any plans about site development with the community or, God forbid, let the community have a voice in it - are out of the question completely.

Their monetization efforts also seem to lack any coherent direction. They have paid accounts, and I have been paid user for many years. However, now I am considering switching back to the free option, since the feeling that I'm getting something for my money - better service, better options, etc. - <USER3> disappearing fast. Many paid options are useless for me - such as ability of having 200 userpics or 500 links in my homepage - but the main factor is that I don't feel the management of the site knows what they are doing. They bought a great platform and a great community, but my feeling is they are squandering it away.

<comment><USER6> Just curious, what do you think is the best alternative to LiveJournal for blogging? Do you see yourself moving to that alternative any time soon?

<comment><USER5> I'd probably go with heavily customized standalone wordpress setup. But that requires time to set up and tune and tweak, which I do not have... So for now I'm waiting till inapt LJ management pisses me off enough that I finally make time for it and move. Or that somebody develops a good blogging platform with same strengths in community building as LJ, but for the last 10 years it didn't happen, so I'm not very optimistic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> nothing is mentioned in the article that LJ was sold to Russian Media company "SUP" few years ago by Six Apart

<comment><USER8> Huh? It's right there. Quote:

      The Russian-language pages were licensed to the Russian company SUP media, founded
      by US entrepreneur Andrew Paulson and a Russian banker thought to be close to the
      Kremlin, Alexander Mamut. Just over a year later, SUP bought LiveJournal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think Tumblr could pickup where LiveJournal left off if comments were enabled.

<comment><USER10> Tumblr already has a lot of the userbase that LiveJournal used to have, even without comments, but it lacks LiveJournal's useful privacy controls.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The article is very outdated (02/29/12)

<comment><USER12> a three-month old article on a 10+ year old site is hardly outdated.</comment></comment>


Symbolic Logic (1897) - <AUTHOR> https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28696/28696-h/28696-h.htm <comment><USER2> What a glorious conclusion to the introduction:

"Mental recreation is a thing that we all of us need for our mental health; and you may get much healthy enjoyment, no doubt, from Games, such as Back- gammon, Chess, and the new Game "Halma". But, after all, when you have made yourself a first-rate player at any one of these Games, you have nothing real to show for it, as a result! You enjoyed the Game, and the victory, no doubt, at the time: but you have no result that you can treasure up and get real good out of. And, all the while, you have been leaving unexplored a perfect mine of wealth. Once master the machinery of Symbolic Logic, and you have a mental occupation always at hand, of absorbing interest, and one that will be of real use to you in any subject you may take up. It will give you clearness of thought——the ability to see your way through a puzzle——the habit of arranging your ideas in an orderly and get-at-able form——and, more valuable than all, the power to detect fallacies, and to tear to pieces the flimsy illogical arguments, which you will so continually encounter in books, in newspapers, in speeches, and even in sermons, and which so easily delude those who have never taken the trouble to master this fascinating Art. Try it. That is all I ask of you!"

<comment><USER3> Ah, Lewis Carroll. I see some of his works as a step in a long line of thought, from Renaissance philosophy, art and science. In particular, his approach to logic feels like a precursor and influence on books like Gödel, Escher, Bach.

The joy the author takes on conceptualization and mental operations, logic and computation; the willful use of the Imagination to explore and deepen understanding - there's irreverence, "just for fun", like a child working with the most fascinating toy of all - the mind - and at the same time, a respect and reverence to the profound insights, fruits of the work of play.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm currently reading up on formal logic in order to fully understand _Probability Theory_ by E. T. Jaynes [1] and I've found it difficult to find a good logic book. There's a thousand on Amazon and it's hard to tell which ones are written a century ago w/ re-released dates with old notation or missing some new ideas. An "original publishing" data feature on Amazon would be a godsend.

I've seen a few well reviewed Symbolic logic books but not sure if that fits the criteria. Mostly digging into boolean algebra atm.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Probability-Theory-Science-T- Jaynes/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Probability-Theory-Science-T- Jaynes/dp/0521592712/)

<comment><USER5> As a mathematician, I find this surprising - formal logic and probability theory don't usually have much to do with each other. Is the issue that you have trouble with formal mathematical notation?

<comment><USER4> If you look at the probability book I mentioned it uses an algebraic boolean logic notation and basic set theory to build a formal theory of inference. The first chapter is an condensed introduction to the formal logic and notation used - which is what I was struggling with following some of the more complex equations.

Having read half a book on logic and subsequently learned basic set theory has already helped read the first portion of the probability book. But then I also got really into formal logic, I found it really fascinating as a programmer and I think every person should learn it (with plenty of applications to regular life), so I decided to take a deep dive into it. The venn diagrams visualizations are what helped me the most.

I think one of things that held me back initially was my background as a programmer, it made reading the logic set notation challenging, ie the plus signs meaning disjunctions and primes negation conjunctions.

<comment><USER5> Ah, I see. That's interesting, I'll see if I can find a bootleg copy and have a read =). Logic is a beautiful, deep subject - all the best with your studies!

<comment><USER4> Here's the first 3x chapters, which I presume was for some course:

[https://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/prob/book.pdf](https://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/prob/book.pdf)

I've heard amazing things about it and it hasn't yet disappointed (the little I've read). Worth the $60 I spent on Abebooks for it (used) but the full copy is also on ThePirateBay if you want to see a longer preview.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here's an interactive website for trying the system out [https://lewiscarrollresources.net/gameoflogic/demonstrator.h...](https://lewiscarrollresources.net/gameoflogic/demonstrator.html)

Does anyone know if this graphical reasoning system something Lewis Carroll invented himself?

It looks like he also wrote a sequel book, about how to turn the system into a game: [https://archive.org/details/gameoflogic00carruoft/page/28/mo...](https://archive.org/details/gameoflogic00carruoft/page/28/mode/2up)

Unfortunately it hasn't been digitised as well as OP

</comment><comment><USER7> [http://finitegeometry.org/sc/16/logic.html](http://finitegeometry.org/sc/16/logic.html)

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

[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Charles_Howard_Hinton](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Charles_Howard_Hinton)

</comment><comment><USER8> I read this when I was a kid. In addition to presenting logic, it's also a delightful read, because Carroll's examples are hilariously sarcastic.

</comment><comment><USER9> Joyce's "Principles of Logic"[0] is also worth a read in this vein. Also, Fred Sommers and George Englebretsen have done some interesting work with an updated version of term logic called term functor logic.

[0] [https://archive.org/details/principleslogic00joycuoft](https://archive.org/details/principleslogic00joycuoft)

</comment><comment><USER10> A fun book, I especially like the bits about "Mr Venn's Method of Diagrams". Some of the examples are a bit questionable to a modern eye though, like the one with "No Jew is ever a bad hand at a bargain" as a premise.

</comment><comment><USER11> Gutenberg.org is just so unreadable. It's a damn shame that the classics of the ages are hidden on a website no one would choose to read on. Why is there no Penguin Books for the web?

<comment><USER12> I think what you're looking for is Standard Ebooks: [https://standardebooks.org/](https://standardebooks.org/)

They don't have _Symbolic Logic_ , though.

<comment><USER13> I produce SE books, I'll add it to my list.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> My brain temporarily read "Symbios Logic (1997)" and I got excited for a good story

</comment><comment><USER15> Yes, this is That Lewis Carroll</comment>


Show HN: MovieDip - our little project to watch movie trailers - <AUTHOR> http://www.moviedip.com/

<comment><USER2> This is an excellent site to come to if you'd like to see what movies are playing but you don't want your movie-going experience to be tainted by reading critic reviews. When I check out movies to watch, I almost always read the critic reviews. Some movies are awesome even if the critics don't agree. If I read a bad review, it'll spoil the experience for me. This site makes me long for the days when I was a kid and would choose which movies I saw based on how excited I got after watching a movie review. I suggest emphasizing this great trait: No reviews, no spoilers, pure theater experience.

</comment><comment> jack-r-abbit Site looks clean. But I'm not sure about the random aspect of the trailers. For one, it doesn't tell me which trailer is playing so I have to wait until I see enough of the trailer to determine if I've seen it (or the whole movie) before I can skip it. Other than that, nice work.

<comment><USER3> Our thinking was to emulate the experience of watching previews in the theaters. You don't know anything about the movie, making it more intriguing. That's why we chose not to fade in the title until the last 15 seconds of the trailer.

<comment> jack-r-abbit I can respect that thinking. But one of the beauties of the Internet is having more control over consumption than in real world situations. I've sat in a theater many times wishing I had a "skip" button. Not because I hate trailers... I like them. But I only need to see most of them one time. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> We built MovieDip over the last few days as a way to easily watch movie trailers. We have a lot of ideas of what we'd like to continue to build, but wanted to ship it quick and get some feedback.

What do you guys think?</comment>


Trump suggests using Huawei as a bargaining chip in US-China trade deal - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/tech/donald-trump-huawei-ban/index.html <comment><USER2> What happened to all the security implications?

<comment><USER3> they turned out to be financial motives</comment></comment>


Genetic algorithms in Python, a tutorial - <AUTHOR> http://acodersmusings.blogspot.com/2009/07/curve-fitting-with-pyevolve.html

<comment><USER2> I had written a genetic programming module for Python, in case anyone is interested: <http://paraschopra.com/sourcecode/GP/index.php>

</comment><comment><USER3> This seemed like a tutorial for people who already understand genetic algorithms. I want to understand genetic algorithms.

Anyone know some good beginner tutorials or explanations?

<comment><USER4> An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms (Complex Adaptive Systems)

A short read, explains what they are, how they work, and what can go wrong.

<comment><USER5> Second that. I especially liked the last chapter where the author discusses some implementation techniques to get you going.

Amazon link: [http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Genetic-Algorithms- Comple...](http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Genetic-Algorithms-Complex- Adaptive/dp/0262631857)</comment></comment></comment>


Mackinac Island Stone Skipping Competition - <AUTHOR> http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/Lifestyle/Minnesota-Culture/Mackinac-Island-Stone-Skipping-Competition/ <comment><USER2> Last year a friend of mine finished work on "Skips Stones for Fudge" (mentioned at the end of the article). This is a documentary about competitive stone skipping. The world record was broken a couple times during filming. Some of the same guys in this article are featured in the film. The fun part was after the premier of the film in Missoula, most of the "stars" came out on stage and did a Q&A.

It's really fun to see people who take things like this to the limit. The film is worth a watch.

[https://vimeo.com/ondemand/skipsstonesforfudge](https://vimeo.com/ondemand/skipsstonesforfudge)

</comment><comment><USER3> Would it be legal to use tools to perfect stones, or even use artificially made stones?

If so, where's the Kickstarter?

If not, do people go and dive to retrieve record-breaking stones to sell them to competitors?

<comment><USER4> I'm not a pro but I think half the joy of stone skipping is finding the stones. It's an enjoyable leisure activity walking down a beach scouring for stones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Here's a video of the 88 skip record mentioned in the article.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1KfuErAcj0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1KfuErAcj0)

</comment><comment><USER6> That's got nothing on Easdale Island in Scotland : [http://www.stoneskimming.com/](http://www.stoneskimming.com/)

<comment><USER7> Hard to compare...

* Skims are judged on the distance thrown rather than the number of bounces

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A lot of history involved Mackinac. See some of the First Nations Histories at: [http://www.tolatsga.org/Compacts.html](http://www.tolatsga.org/Compacts.html)

Especially Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Huron. They are not short but quite good.

</comment><comment><USER9> I was mesmerized by the passion and detail of the article, regardless of it being stone skipping or other content. Hearing about little unknown communities like this is always heart-warming.

</comment><comment><USER10> Wow some people have lot of free time - no offense to stone skippers :)

<comment><USER11> Those who live in glass houses...

<comment><USER12> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnoxKXkPqEE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnoxKXkPqEE)</comment></comment></comment>


The Creative Act: Marcel Duchamp's 1957 Classic, Read by the Artist Himself - <AUTHOR> http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/23/the-creative-act-marcel-duchamp-1957/

<comment><USER2> an aesthetic osmosis !

"The result of this struggle is a difference between the intention and its realization, a difference which the artist is not [aware] of." this i am not so sure...

Duchamp's art coefficient = gap, good or bad,

So is it possible art coefficient=0 but esthetic scale = ∞</comment>


UbuntuBSD, Unix for human beings - <AUTHOR> http://news.softpedia.com/news/meet-ubuntubsd-unix-for-human-beings-501959.shtml <comment><USER2> > _The best part of using the FreeBSD kernel is that you 'll end up using the > famous Z File System, [...] with a separate UFS partition for /boot. As > expected, ZFS support is completely integrated into the ubuntuBSD operating > system._

It's not really "complete" to not put the boot volume onto ZFS, too. Having a separate /boot volume formatted as UFS was state of the art for FreeBSD some while ago. But things have changed since.

PC-BSD nowadays puts _all_ volumes onto ZFS, the root dataset (which includes /boot) included. The bootstrap loader has been augmented to support loading the kernel from a ZFS volume. The PC-BSD installer _only_ creates ZFS volumes, moreover.

* [http://web.pcbsd.org/doc-archive/10.2/html/install.html#zfs-...](http://web.pcbsd.org/doc-archive/10.2/html/install.html#zfs-overview)

* [https://blog.pcbsd.org/2013/06/pc-bsd-status-update/](https://blog.pcbsd.org/2013/06/pc-bsd-status-update/)

Having /boot in the same single dataset as / makes "boot environments" easier, as switching amongst boot environments is just a matter of changing the root dataset.

Ironically, there's less of a hurdle for "UbuntuBSD" copying this than one might think. PC-BSD 10.2 uses GRUB's loader mechanisms for Debian/kFreeBSD.

* [https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/a-closer-look-at-the-changes-...](https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/a-closer-look-at-the-changes-in-pc-bsd-trueos-9-2-part-1/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> My 2c is that this seems like an interesting project, but at some point lots of important Ubuntu packages (especially daemons) will be rolling out with systemd unit files and so on, it will be a lot of work to maintain BSD init scripts. It doesn't seem like it will be so simple as running Ubuntu userland on the FreeBSD kernel.

<comment><USER2> The point where packages are rolling out with systemd unit files _has already come and passed_. The first rule of migrating to systemd has applied since last year, at least; to Ubuntu as to everyone else.

* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/sy...](http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/systemd-house-of-horror/daemonize.html#first-rule)

* [http://askubuntu.com/a/626858/43344](http://askubuntu.com/a/626858/43344)

* [http://askubuntu.com/a/707750/43344](http://askubuntu.com/a/707750/43344)

Of course, it is _not_ a lot of work to maintain NetBSD/FreeBSD rc scripts, in the majority of cases. They don't look like System 5 rc scripts at all.

* [http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/~checkout~/src/etc/rc.d/...](http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/~checkout~/src/etc/rc.d/lpd?rev=1.6&only_with_tag=MAIN)

But you're making an unfounded assumption that because UbuntuBSD uses the FreeBSD kernel, it will use the NetBSD/FreeBSD rc system. This is not the case for Debian/kFreeBSD and I would be very surprised were it the case for this, which is apparently an "Ubuntu/kFreeBSD" (as it were). Debian/kFreeBSD uses the Linux System 5 rc system, which is very much _not_ "BSD init scripts". This will very probably use that, too. So the fact that NetBSD/FreeBSD rc scripts are a lot better organized than the Linux System 5 rc scripts that one finds on Debian is scant comfort.

What might give more comfort is that there's no reason that nosh couldn't run on UbuntuBSD. It can take systemd service/socket units and convert them to native service bundles, which can be used on FreeBSD under nosh service management.

* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/Softwa...](http://homepage.ntlworld.com./jonathan.deboynepollard/Softwares/nosh/worked-example.html)

It would be interesting to try.</comment></comment>


India's SMS Hoax Panic: Could It Happen In The U.S.? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/23/indias-sms-hoax-panic-could-it-happen-in-the-u-s/ <comment><USER2> Human frailty can happen to anyone, any time. I have been on Hacker News 1376 days now, and over the years I have seen highly educated people here believe absolute nonsense on many (and, alas, repeated) occasions. Our best defense against our common human cognitive bias of believing what we want to believe, or what fits our preexisting prejudices, rather than the truth is to have communication with our fellow human beings about what the facts show, and which facts are most reliable, and how all the evidence fits together. In the best case, Hacker News discussions can be practice in learning how to think twice before believing the latest new story on the Internet. But already today, and for every day thereafter, we will continue to see examples here of people whose minds are already made up before they've sufficiently examined their own beliefs on some controversy, and who will gladly pass on a rumor as fact.

</comment><comment><USER3> This happens daily via email threads, and more prominent media, that are passed around. Recently I was told that President Obama had replaced all forever stamps with stamps that celebrate an Isalamic holiday. Clearly false, but had made its rounds among a large group of people. Don't under estimate the stupidity and gullibility of a very large population.

<comment><USER4> People tend to be very receptive to things that confirm what they already believe. I don't know if stupidity or gullibility have as much to do with it, those are just people whose juju is different than yours or mine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well, This article is funny. The Chinese affiliation part is kinda weird. Seriously, China?

I'm a North Easterner, Manipur to be precise, who moved to Bombay in 1999. In Bangalore (the epicenter of the North East Exodus), since 2011.

I've lived long enough in Bombay, some in Pune and now in Bangalore. Have travelled to almost all of the major cities in India for business and pleasure. Of course, I've faced enough stare, ridicule and the perpetual question, "Are you Indian!". Sometimes, it's fun and you get the 'foreign' treatment (you know the way, we Indians treat foreigners, the good way) on various occasions.

Those non-indian treatment were mostly in established government establishments and mostly by not-so-educated people. I have never had an issue with the educated people, working class people, colleagues and business partners.

In India, most of the tourist destinations have two entry tickets - one for Indians and for 'Foreigners', which is costlier. Me and my family always have to carry an Indian Identity when we enter such spots to prove my "Indianness" and avail of the Indian pricing. Once at the Taj Mahal, me and my wife could not find our ID quickly. Instead of arguing with the person-in-charge, we got the 'foreigner' tickets. Of course, we got the foreigner treatment and were able to skip the long winding "Indian" queue to enter the gates to the Taj Mahal.

As for the SMS hoax and the recent NE Exodus back home, it was fueled by the fact that the North East people have always been kinda alienated by the common Indians who could not understand and fathom that we, the 'Asian' looking people live and thrive in India. Add to that, the miscreants taking chances of a phenomenon and attacking any 'asian' looking people in the cities. So, it was not just those NE people but many Tibetans, Nepalese were at the receiving end.

The incident could have well been evaded but this is India and nobody, specially the people in the governance, care about timely actions and getting things done on time.

Finally, in my personal experience, I get a much better treatment from the American people when I visit the US than here in my own country, India. Except for the immigration officers, nobody cares who or from where the hell am I. With my oriental look and an Indian Origin, I enjoy the company and good treatment specially from both the communities in US. Anyway, everybody else is too scared of lawsuits to have anything to do with racial profiling. :-)

As a parting note, here is a nice article about the perception of the general Indian towards the North Easterners. [http://www.indianexpress.com/news/national-interest-we- the-i...](http://www.indianexpress.com/news/national-interest-we-the- ignorant/989798/0)

</comment><comment><USER6> No, a lot of the social ills in India, including this one, can be traced back to poor education. And no matter what you say about the US education system, it's nowhere near as bad as in India.

<comment><USER7> Did you guys even read the article? It cited at least 1 social media hoax that's massively successful, the birther issue.

<comment><USER8> The birther thing is straight up racism, not education. Maybe a little of both, I suppose.

<comment><USER9> The hoax in question prays as much on discrimination and "the other" as the birther movement.

<comment><USER10> Just a note, I do think you mean preys. It gives quite a different meaning to the sentence. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> No. The article is a link bait opinion piece that is not all to thought out, as evident by it's original claim that a large region of Indian wants to be part of China.

I remember that days after 911 there were some fake/spam emails that where forwarded around that claimed that more attacks where eminent, including at malls and other public areas. These were immediately debunk and people went about their business.

</comment><comment><USER12> It would be difficult to perpetrate this kind of Hoax in the US (though not impossible). On the whole a lot of people would try to find some other source to back up the SMS after the number of Hoaxes they have been subjected to.

Unless there was a really coordinated campaign that used multiple media platforms to reinforce the message....

</comment><comment><USER13> It happens every hour on partisan "news" shows.

</comment><comment><USER14> Any hoax or spam you've seen in email is being tried or has been tried with SMS. Texts are read instantly, so the information can spread faster than email. Social media is pretty quick with things like this because it is a one- to-many broadcast medium.

</comment><comment><USER15> No</comment>


Ask HN: Mom Sent a TON of personal info to WRONG gmail account. Any options? - <AUTHOR> Hi,
I am reaching out to the HN community for help.
About two hours ago my mother sent a TON of personal information from her company email to her newly registered gmail account. But she misremembered the username and now a lot of her, my dad's, and my personal information is sitting in some stranger's inbox.
I'm talking about passport copies, ID cards, diploma copies, medical information etc.
Yes, it was perhaps stupid to have that stuff in any email at all, but she made a mistake and I didn't know about any of this until she called me in panic half an hour ago.
Can you PLEASE help us? I wrote some stuff on a gmail froum. I sent an email to google (got back autoresponder). I also emailed the stranger's gmail asking for a deletion in 3 languages.
But all that is very unlikely to get any attention and it's hard to stop worrying when you are an open book to a stranger.
Can you please help me get in touch with Google and try to find a definite solution to this? Or any other recommendations?
Thank you sincerely, Jasmine <comment><USER2> Actually contacting someone at Google is notoriously difficult, and unfortunately, it's intentionally difficult. At their scale, there's no way Google could provide support for all the countless billions of people using their services.

In some ways, Google is fairly bad about following standards. On normal mail servers, if you send to a non-existent address, the server will reply to let you know about your mistake. Google doesn't do this. The reason they don't has something to do with their spam handling, and the costs of spam handling, but it's still against the conventions of email to not let people know that the address they used doesn't exist.

If you are really lucky, the wrong address your Mom used does not exist, and the message she sent was never saved or seen.

The only way you could test if the account exists is to try registering the mistaken address.

Well, I've possibly lied a little bit; Google supposedly saves everything, including spam, so even if the email could not be delivered since the address doesn't exist, google may still have a copy of the message sitting somewhere.

If the mistaken address is actually real, then attempting to track down and contact its owner might be helpful. The odds of success are bad, but it can sometimes work. Call me overly optimistic, but I like to believe most people are good and would help you out.

Good Luck!

<comment><USER3> > At their scale, there's no way Google could provide support for all the > countless billions of people using their services.

Google does not deserve such charity - plenty of companies with far more customers have figured out how to support them, Google explicitly _chooses_ not to.

Fedex, UPS, DHL, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut, Dominos Pizza, MacDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Subway etc, just off the top of my head.

You can literally talk to United Airlines, one of the most incompetent companies in the world, and get a response and resolution.

<comment><USER4> A single ticket on United costs far more than I'll ever pay for the gmail service I use on a daily basis - this might well be true even if you take into account revenue from ads I click on. Facebook aren't exactly known for being responsive to this sort of customer problem either.

<comment><USER3> Google's worth 40 times what United is so obviously their margins are just fine.

<comment><USER5> Or there market is much greater?

<comment><USER3> Either way they are making more money than most companies and choose to provide less support than shitty companies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> My recommendation is to relax and think about how incredibly unlikely it is that that information went to the tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny subset of humanity that can and might use it against you.

If you are really concerned you should research the recovery process for affected customers when companies are hacked and lose massive and broad sets of customer information.

You should not bombard them with scams and spam to get your mom's old email blacklisted, that is an overreaction and most likely you will just cause the other person inconvenience.

</comment><comment><USER6> Send a few more emails from the same account with obvious scam-attempt material.

E.g. You've been selected as our daily winner. You will be rewarded a brand new Apple Phone 5!! Visit here to claim: <insert fishy URL>

Maybe they'll notice all the others from the same account and mass delete them all without opening the rest.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow that is a very original idea! Some risk of pissing off the person if they have already read my email asking for a deletion. And they would know my mom's company as it all came from that and complain or something. Worth the risk you think?

<comment><USER2> I'd try being polite first. Though spamming the account _might_ work for getting everything sorted as spam, it does not delete the problem message and it will anger the account owner. If someone made a simple mistake of sending you something, and then bombed your account, you'd be rightfully angry.

If you want help trying to track down the owner of the account, contact me privately (email in my profile).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Take the email address and search on Facebook, LinkedIn, various blogs, etc. At the least you could be re-assured if the person looks like an upstanding citizen. And if you reach out on a trusted social network, the person might actually respond. It might also send a "I know who you are" type of message. But don't be too persistent, you're probably just freaking the person out. And if you upset this person, well they have your info.

Also, go ahead and get set up with an identity theft monitoring service. You'll know the instant a new credit line or address change is made.

Like others have said, the vast majority of people have no interest in identity theft. You realize that as a manager I have access to hundreds of applicant's passports, driver's licenses, etc.? You know how many people see your social when you apply for a mortgage? Ever considered how many average restaurant servers could steal your credit card number?

Anecdotally, I sold my car to a dealership which years later I realized had my social security card and birth certificate in an obscure compartment in the car. Probably the worst documents to lose. Nothing came of it.

</comment><comment><USER8> I upvoted and tweeted about this just so we raise the possibility that you get a good solution to your problem.

Even if you manage to reach Google and they somehow delete that one email from that guy's inbox, how can you know that he hasn't already saved the information? So, instead of trying to solve this from the gmail side, why don't you look at the other one? Contact your bank, let them know and have your card numbers and passwords changed, start the process of getting a new passport maybe and in general "protect" yourself by making the information that guy has useless.

But I agree on the "relax" part too, I mean, how many of us would take such an email seriously? Chances are he/she thinks "Oh, those Nigerian Princes are advancing their techniques..", laughs at it and marks it as spam.

If it reaches someone, that is - and it's quite possible it doesn't.

But, yeah, my advice would be to let everyone know and eventually make all that information useless.

Good luck and let us know if something happens! :)

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you and all others.

my family is all in different countries so the passport renewal situation is difficult at the time. but we will definitely do that asap. finances are less of a concern, no CC info was passed along - it's more being prone to ID theft.

about the inbox, well in an ideal world, we could make a case to google to delete the emails. but the more realistic hope is to reduce the uncertainty in the situation - is the stranger an active user or is it one of those dying accounts? from which country?

anyway thanks all for the suggestions. i will try to communicate some of this perspective and optimism to my mom over the phone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Did you try creating a new gmail account with that email? If you succeed, it means no one ever received those documents :)

<comment><AUTHOR> unfortunately it's taken and even tied to a backup AOL email (i clicked the "forgot my password" just to see if there'd be some number or alternate email. the AOL email is shown, but only as i __ email@example.com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'd also suggest searching her sent mail to see if any previous mails have been sent to the said id.

but i agree with other comments here, and wouldnt worry 'too' much.

maybe you can send a kind mail informing of what happened, and request to delete the same.

~B

</comment><comment><USER11> This is _less_ dangerous than your mom losing a folder with all of that stuff in the train. Which would be worrying, but not "in a panic" worrying. As others have said, relax.

(In case this is the question you were asking: there's no reliable way to hack into any of the major e-mail providers that I know of. Getting access to another's account is highly unethical, not to mention illegal; it's unlikely to reduce the number of problems you have, especially if the risk is less "caught for being a foreign spy" and more "identity theft".)

<comment><USER12> > there's no reliable way to hack into any of the major e-mail providers

I'd argue that the "forgotten password" forms on most major e-mail providers is a trivial way to hack them.

In particular if you can research someone. Like if you can cross-check the e-mail address in google, then find a Facebook, which gives you more info which you can leverage again for yet more...

Obviously unethical and illegal. But reliable.

<comment><USER11> Hardly reliable, not everyone puts everything on the web/Facespace.

I deleted that paragraph before posting for a reason; you may or may not want to consider that next time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Send an email to the erroneous email address you sent to originally. Say that you are recalling the previous email, that the email was sent in error and ask the recipient to keep the contents confidential, delete the email and any copies of the information contained in the email.

Word it nicely but firmly.

I am NOT a lawyer, ...

</comment><comment><USER14> If I received this email, I would probably delete it immediately. I probably wouldn't reply to any follow up messages either, I'd just delete those as well.

No advice here, just letting you know what I would have done if I were the recipient.

<comment><USER15> Just curious, why wouldn't you respond?

<comment><USER16> In the U.S., at least, there are many contexts (speaking very generally) where an acknowledgement de facto increases your risk.

One being that it can provide the pretext for legal action, such as a lawsuit.

Even if you've done nothing wrong, this can impose a significant burden upon you. And, given our legal system, there's no guarantee you'll come out vindicated -- or whole (e.g. financially), even if you "win" and are "vindicated".

P.S. And so, by extension, some people decide that if they do not understand a context and its implications, the best default action is to forego acknowledgment of it unless compelled.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Just relax. The chances of some random email address's owner being an identity thief is incredibly small. Not everyone is capable of abusing those documents.</comment>


Ask HN: Is it time to leave Google? - <AUTHOR> I've been at Google for 2+ years and am pretty happy with the salary/benefits, but I'm really strating to question the overall direction of the company. It's not clear to me that Google is still innovative like it used to be. I'm a bit torn because I don't want to be cavalier and forego the opportunity that was given to me, but it seems like a lot of smaller companies are doing much more interesting work. How do I know when it's time to leave? What sort of criteria should I be looking for in other companies? I've always been interested in aerospace but most of those companies (SpaceX, etc) seem like a stretch.<p>(Note, I'm new here, let me know if there's anything I can do better when writing textposts)<p>Edit: It seems like maybe my particular role isn't that interesting. Which orgs within google are good to work for? <comment><USER2> How senior are you? I would first spend some time hunting for innovative teams within Google to transfer to. There are plenty of boring jobs at Google but also plenty of ambitious small teams working on startup-like projects. Even cute experimental features on big established products (search/gmail/maps/drive/etc.) often could plausibly be the basis for an entire startup, but there are also some pie-in-the-sky projects people are working on if you look around a bit.

<comment><AUTHOR> There might be some possibility for leadership but otherwise it's all CRUD operations and the complexity is in the business, not the tech.

<comment><USER3> Why aren't you _creating_ something interesting? Good careers don't go to those waiting to be handed a golden egg.. understand the business, understand innovative technology, and connect them, and the world will be your oyster.

If management won't let you understand enough of the business to do so, I sympathize, I've been there. But if you're allowed to understand the business and are expecting _someone else_ to come up with the innovation, you just need to get your shit together and be an engineer.

<comment><AUTHOR> I see what you mean, but getting approval to make changes is challenging in this particular department.

<comment><USER3> Also, if you're not getting approval, maybe you need to work on connecting your ideas to business value a bit more...

<comment><AUTHOR> That's true. I'm still new to this org so things might change

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> At the risk of stating the obvious- it doesn't matter how innovative a company is as a whole, it matters how innovative _what you 're doing_ is. SpaceX does some really cool stuff, say, but you're not a rocket scientist- managing their financial software wouldn't be cooler than it would be for anyone else's. Conversely, Snapchat is just a goofy app for teenagers, but whoever writes the facial tracking system they use in their photo filters is doing some neat science. I don't know what the insides of Google are like, but I would bet that if there's anywhere a mid-career programmer can gain some interesting new skills on the job, it's probably _somewhere_ in there- and that will get you a more interesting position, whether you stay or go elsewhere in the longer run.

<comment><USER5> I respectfully disagree with this. Doing something cool in your day-to-day work can still be depressing if your personal values are not alligned with the organisation's.

For example, I was once offered the opportunity to work on low-latency software that identifies users as they move between websites (fingerprinting in ad tech speak). There are tons of cool CS problem around this, but in the end I turned it down.

Now I do ostensibly 'boring' CRUD work for a large eCommerce marketplace company. But it's an honest business model that benefits both sides of that market and I feel happier than I would have been in ad tech.

<comment><USER4> Sure, but company ethic is a different axis from innovative-ness. It sounds like you chose to work at an ethical-but-conventional position over an unethical-but-innovative one, and good on you for it. But you can have both (or neither) at once, too. Where Google falls on the ethics dimension is a good question, but that didn't seem to be the poster's complaint.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you've been there for 2+ yeara and you're no longer excited about the work you're doing, maybe take advantage of Google's liberal transfer policy, and join a different team.

But it never hurts to interview.

</comment><comment><USER7> I do not work for Google but know people who do, and did. The ones who are happiest have a high degree of personal autonomy and self actualise to work on things which interest them. Some of them took their 20% cool time to real work.

Some resented being moved interstate or overseas, and sought a path home to where they like to be.

Some say they are burned out and burnt by scale problems but mainly I think it's loss of autonomy at root. Being told to do things you don't believe in is hard.

Only one left in some sense fully vested, and he's a bit bored by the outside world. I don't think google is a 'chocolate factory' but be warned after initial enthusiasm wears off, you need to retain some sense of core role in any job, and few may be as accommodating as Google is said to be.

</comment><comment><USER8> I generally go with decisions like this with my gut. If you feel like that you aren't happy with where you are then quit or figure out something new to do either within or without the company. Do you want to be filled with regret or not at the end of the day?

</comment><comment><USER9> Many Googlers I meet/am friends with have no fucking clue about the rest of the industry, especially so if that was their first job. If that applies to you, be careful.

I'd look internally first.

<comment><AUTHOR> How so?

<comment><USER9> Couple of things I notice mainly

1\. Pushing code and being unaware of the build system that does anything else.

2\. Unable to comprehend that there can be teams/companies where some products are written and maintained by one person, and does not have any practical code reviewing. (This is not a good thing, but it is not difficult to imagine how that can be).

3\. (and lately), people explaining things that come off to me as SWE/SRE friction, as opposed to the typical google SRE hiring/book propaganda.

I'll add anything I can think of, but obviously it's one persons opinion.

<comment><USER10> Can you elaborate on #3 a bit? I'm not sure what you mean and m really curious. I've always gotten the vibe that the SRE recruiters were not giving me an honest view of the realities of that job.

<comment><USER9> Reach out over email, please? I'm not super worried about my friends being identified but got to respect their privacy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So the way you're describing the situation is "should people leave google", not "should __you __leave google ".

General career advice has been discussed a lot here, but it really depends on your personality and motivation. (E.g. do you want a stable job, can you tolerate a stable job for a long time, are you looking to get into management, can you pull off company hopping every 2 years, are you a SWE and do you have a math background & drive to branch into data science, are you planning to launch a startup and what skills are you still missing to do that, etc)

<comment><USER12> ..and maybe: do you agree with the ethics, moral values and the direction they are trending towards, and your personal contributions to these aspects :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think you probably know the answer already. Given the wealth of forums inside Google where you could ask for this advice, you've decided to post anonymously to Hacker News. That probably means there's some underlying issue, like you think your manager is going to punish you if he or she finds out that you aren't happy with your position, or you think future teams you may want to work with will look upon you unfavorably if they read the post. As soon as you stop trusting your coworkers, it's probably game over. (And I'm not saying you're doing the wrong thing, or that your concerns are unwarranted. They are probably legitimate concerns.)

I was extremely happy at Google for many years. I liked my coworkers, I liked my work, I liked my manager. I did get burned out from time to time, but usually there was something interesting to keep me going through the rough patches, and my team, coworkers, and managers were all very supportive of what I needed to do to stay productive and happy (which in a lot of cases was "sleep for 2 days and maybe wake up to have a meeting that would be inconvenient to move"). It was quite wonderful. I had no trouble getting promoted, got "strongly exceeds" performance reviews, and had a lot of fun. Good times.

All good things must come to an end eventually, however. I came into work one day and my project was cancelled (and not like "wind it down over the next 6 months", but literally "might as well delete the CLs you're working on") and I hastily transferred to another interesting-sounding team that, in retrospect, I kind of got the hard-sell to join.

As it turned out, I didn't really care for the other team that I transferred to, and thought to myself "everyone else on my old team got 6 months to sit at home and research other projects to transfer to, so I'll just look for another project." I did not get that option. I was basically told "you just transferred, so you can't leave." And then told, "you really aren't getting enough work done on your own hours, I want you to be here at 9am so I can make sure you're working." That went as well as you'd imagine. A bunch of people advised me "you're depressed, you should take 3 months off and get some antidepressants". I talked with my doctor and did that. In the end, it had no effect. The third-party company that handles paid leave denied my claim, so it was unpaid leave. I decided to take a vacation right at the end of my leave... which the vacation system decided was invalid and silently discarded. When I was on vacation without cell phone service, Google started calling my parents (I'm 32 BTW) looking for me. It was quite a production when I finally got cell phone service back. 3 months of de-stressing, instantly erased.

I got back and started working on a new project under the supervision of my existing manager. He decided that, based on git commit timestamps, I wasn't programming quickly enough. (I got that from another very new manager once, and it was also an App Engine project. I'm not sure if that says more about me or App Engine, but I digress.) To be brutally honest, I'm kind of offended that he didn't consider me to be capable of forging timestamps on git commits. I thought about it, honestly, but in the end decided that experienced managers knows that some things are easy and some things are hard. But in the end, I thought honesty was the best policy.

I was pretty stressed out at this point because my manager and I clearly didn't get along, and the project I wanted to work on didn't have official headcount so I couldn't really get out of a bad situation. At that point I wrote up some email to the relevant concerned parties and realized "I do not want to read the response to this email", so I didn't. Some time passed and someone from HR called me saying "you know if you are gone for 3 days, you're voluntarily resigning, right?" I said, "yup." And that was the end of my experience working for Google. I still have my laptop and badge. They still have a box of my stuff (including my beloved Realforce 87UB keyboard!) Oh well.

My point is, there are other places to work. Google is a huge company and some people are happy and some people aren't. If you're unhappy, maybe you can find happiness elsewhere. I'll tell you one thing, though... antidepressants won't make you happy about a job you don't like.

</comment><comment><USER14> You did't say what office you're in, but Google is a big place and there are lots of internal job openings, at least at the larger offices. I'd suggest looking around both internally and externally to see if there's something that interests you more. (There are teams doing good work that has little to do with the larger political issues.)

That's awfully generic advice, but to do better you'll need to get an advisor who can get to know you.

<comment><AUTHOR> And recommendations for advisors?

<comment><USER14> Not really, but if you decide to look for internal transfers, I think there is an internal advisors program that might help. (I never used it but it seems like a logical place to start.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Brain. Verily, calico, look at their venture page: hundreds of amazing projects backed by teams of phds in the prime of their careers. You could bring some of that work in house.

</comment><comment><USER16> Nothing has really changed in the world in the last two+ years. Google did some cool innovated stuff then, and it is doing it now. Small companies were doing cool innovated stuff, as well as boring stuff then... As well as how. I'm not saying you shouldn't leave, but I wouldn't leave because of the reason you gave. There are advantage and disadvantages to worrying for a small company. Look around, but look around Google as well.

</comment><comment><USER17> Find People and teams you want to work with internally first and interview with them. What is happening in the news has nothing to do with developing your own skills. That fully depends on the people you surround yourself with. And if you haven't learnt how to find those people within a place like Google, it's not going to be easy to learn outside.

<comment><USER18> A fun, different, but effective way to find creative Googlers and Xooglers to chat with is at [https://gxjam.com](https://gxjam.com)

GXJam prolly wasn't designed for that purpose in mind, but that's how I use it :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> On the whole, Google is still one of the most innovative places to work. Even if their ingenuity is decreasing, that doesn't necessarily mean some other place is better. Another thing to consider is what about your job specifically? If that is innovative enough for you, why do you care?

</comment><comment><USER20> I found this to be an interesting discussion on the question: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2gidnJyGZA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2gidnJyGZA)

</comment><comment><USER21> What is your skillset like?

<comment><AUTHOR> FlumeJava/Spanner/Stubby Services, mostly in payments

<comment><USER22> Hear, hear. I am formerly Google Payments too. Don't leave just yet, there's plenty of hope for you staying and transferring to another org.

I have been at Google about 12 years now and had a three year stint in Payments until somewhat recently. Out of all of the organizations, projects, and products I worked on (6 projects, 12 managers, 5 offices, 2 continents), Payments is the least Google-feeling of them all with the worst management and politics (frankly it was fucked). The rest of Google was a dream in comparison. Had I known Payments was in bad shape, I might not have joined it originally.

Before leaving, try somewhere else. I recently founded my own team elsewhere build software for distributed system infrastructure, and I cannot tell you how fun it is. The joy is still at Google, but Payments is a blackhole. I can't believe the rest of the leadership tolerates that hostile black sheep of an org.

Google is largely what you make of it.

<comment><USER23> What team are you on now?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> "Fuck yes or no" lets me see the answer. Nice job using your position to help your name get some bubble. Everything cool is happening outside of silly con valley at this point.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you have suggestions for other places to work let me know</comment></comment>


Designing Web Applications (2nd edition) - <AUTHOR> http://nathanbarry.com/webapps?ref=hn

<comment><USER2> Nathan Barry's first version was fantastic. Have already upgraded and am looking forward to learning more from v2.</comment>


Greens calls for clear-out of 'climate change deniers' - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26187711

<comment><USER2> "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it." ― George Orwell, 1984

</comment><comment><USER3> And people still wonder why climate change faces such fierce opposition. At this point I'd expect large amounts of people to refuse to budge with childish arguments. And the people who pull this crap deserve it.

Sadly typical for UK governments though. Clearing out anyone working for them with an incorrect ideology (or party card. Technically illegal. Technically even against human rights. Sadly very common). Sometimes they're even demanding government suppliers do the same.

I realize the people calling for this are not the same people that do climate research but still. At this point I'd really expect to hear arguments along the lines of "if you were right, why is this necessary ?".</comment>


Is there a single-click service to set up all online accounts for new employees? - <AUTHOR> This would be highly valuable. <comment><USER2> No. How much would you be willing to pay for such a click tho?

<comment><AUTHOR> I think every single startup (even up to the size of Twitter) would pay $10 to set each new employee up with all of their online accounts with a single click. You could imagine several different profiles they can choose from. It would auto populate all the services (Slack, Trello, G-Suite, etc) and then the admin has the chance to take a quick glance and subtract/add any to tweak it. Once it's clicked, it instantly sends all necessary welcome and sign-up emails to the new employee. Similarly, it can revoke access to all accounts with a single click.

<comment><USER2> Yeah i can see that. I wrote it down in my idea book, not sure if i ever find time for that tho.</comment></comment></comment>


"metadata" - <AUTHOR> http://blog.urbanmapping.com/2013/06/10/metadata/ Verizon-NSA call logs take metadata to an entirely new level <comment><USER2> The IMEI is more then just the device make/model. It's more akin to a MAC address. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Station_Eq...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Station_Equipment_Identity)

Which is essentially like having a device finger print that's authenticated by VZW's towers. It's essentially their unique key to map data too, removing much the anonymity. Additionally Verizon knows which accounts have what IMEI's activated at any given time.

<comment><USER3> Are there ways to randomize IMEIs on startup the same way you can with MAC addresses, and still have the phone be usable on:

(1) Cell networks (2) Wifi networks

<comment><USER2> Unfortunately no, when I used to do BREW dev, we had a few lines setup for many many handsets, everytime we needed to swap active lines between devices it meant calling up Verizon and giving them new IMEI.

Now I don't know exactly how this all works with LTE and the sim cards, since I no longer work on mobile apps I haven't really bothered keeping a close eye on it.</comment></comment></comment>


Thought #19: Virtual Library - <AUTHOR> http://blog.shopsimply.me/2012/07/21/thought-19-virtual-library/ <comment><USER2> Dallas/Fort Worth has had virtual libraries for years. You can check out ebooks just as you can real books from the physical library, and they maintain a fixed number of licenses. It's using <http://www.overdrive.com/> as the basis.</comment>


Ripple can now make payments to Bitcoin accounts - <AUTHOR> https://ripple.com/blog/bitcoin-bridge-lets-ripple-users-make-payments-to-bitcoin-accounts/

<comment><USER2> Ripple is controlled by a corporation, unlike Bitcoin it is fragile and useless.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is useful. Have you ever traded currencies on Ripple? It's awesome.

And once it is fully open, it will not be controlled by anyone.</comment></comment>


The looming Series B funding crash - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2011/07/11/series-b-funding-crash <comment><USER2> I've never seen anyone use the word 'may' so many times. And a 'might' and 'perhaps' in the same sentence at the end really sets the tone well.</comment>


Show HN: ListMakr – Make and share fancy lists - <AUTHOR> https://listmakr.com <comment><USER2> I had an idea somewhat like this a while back, but never worked out how to do it. Basically I wanted to "log anything" so basically you'd enter a quantity, a unit and what it was... and then later I'd figure out a way to make graphs and charts. This is clearly different, and the execution is good. I was a little confused by the interface early on, so some tooltips might be in order. I also wonder if a "date" type might make sense. I wanted to add a date to my list of items - maybe it would be a due date, or if you're listing things that took place, you'd like to add that to the list. Or just record when you had an idea that you want to add.

<comment><USER3> Your idea sounds a little like the Dayta iOS app, or the Daytum webapp/iOS app:

[https://www.macstories.net/iphone/dayta- review/](https://www.macstories.net/iphone/dayta-review/)

[http://daytum.com/](http://daytum.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I liked the idea. There's also an enthusiasm coming out of it.

I got confused after trying it, because I kept thinking on the first screen that I was using it, while in fact I wasn't: I was supposed to be clicking on Next. I'm not sure what would be best, but I think I want to not go through the four screens that show me how to use it.

I wish the "Save" button was closer to "Add Item" so I don't have to move the mouse.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is great.

I don't know why would one use it (why on earth would I want to share a list?), but it is a very well done thing.

Maybe this great interface could be used to power: public forms, enterprise data, a CMS like [http://contentful.com/](http://contentful.com/), a general purpose customizable CRUD app for small businesses.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! Funny you should mention "general purpose customizable CRUD app for small businesses". That's exactly what I started building, then decided to make a smaller, simpler version first - and so ListMakr was born.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nice! Could see myself using something like this for exactly one of the use cases you described: looking for houses.

Found a bug: URL custom field type wasn't saving.

Also, grabbing images from a URL rather than download/upload would be a nice feature. Perhaps even grabbing an image from the URL field like a facebook or twitter share does.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback! Will work on that bug and expanding image upload techniques (google image search is another method I am considering).

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Made with Phoenix, for all of you Elixir fans out there ;-)

Feedback is appreciated!

</comment><comment><USER7> That's cool. I had the exact same idea some time ago but I never started it. Nice job.</comment>


How did managers get introduced at GitHub, and did it really change everything? - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/holman/ama/issues/800 <comment><USER2> This is one thing I really liked at Amazon. The SDM at Amazon were very focused on the human side of management and left the project management to PM/TPM. Coincidentally at Apple the opposite waa true and my manager was closer to a tech lead which made personal growth and advice difficult.</comment>


HN: Let's ask Mythbusters to test some hacker myths - <AUTHOR>

Come with ideas to what hackermyths needs to be busted. <comment><USER2> Correlation between monitor size/number and productivity

Though I struggle to think of how they might incorporate blowing stuff up, shooting things, and robots into hacker myths.

<comment><USER3> The dual monitors makes you more productive, would be a good one.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Test whether caffeine really is improving productivity or concentration.

<comment><USER4> I vote this. Also test if pizza has some magic quality that aids the coding process</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How old are you? - <AUTHOR> Just trying to get a rough idea of age distribution here on HN <comment><USER2> 51

My recollection is that previous surveys (done as a thing you could vote in, without having to identify yourself by age) have suggested the site had a fairly large cohort of people in their 20s and 30s, with ages from early childhood to 80s. If I were any good at searching the site, I would post links to previous surveys.

</comment><comment><USER3> 47

<comment><USER3> Oh shit.

<comment><USER4> ??

<comment><AUTHOR> Probably realized he/she might be the oldest here. haha. I doubt though.

<comment><USER5> I'm 56, and I know that there are people here who are older than me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 31

</comment><comment><USER7> You might want to do this as a poll.

<comment><AUTHOR> How do I conduct a poll on HN?

<comment><USER8> [http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll](http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll)

There may be a karma threshold for doing polls, not sure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> 46

</comment><comment><USER10> 39

</comment><comment><USER11> 21.

</comment><comment><USER12> 37 *

* hexadecimal or 55 base ten

</comment><comment><USER13> 22

</comment><comment><USER14> 53

</comment><comment><USER15> 50

</comment><comment><USER16> 35

</comment><comment><USER17> 20

</comment><comment><USER8> 43

</comment><comment><USER18> 55

</comment><comment><USER4> 46

</comment><comment><USER19> 34

</comment><comment><USER20> 24

</comment><comment><USER21> 34

</comment><comment><USER22> 17

</comment><comment><USER23> 29</comment>


Pretend your internal initiative is a startup - <AUTHOR> https://critter.blog/2020/09/01/pretend-your-internal-initiative-is-a-startup/ <comment><USER2> Venture capitalists fund ten businesses in all sectors, expecting to get nine flops and one mega-success. A large company doing an internal software project is not a venture capitalist. They have a specific goal in mind and must use their existing assets like manpower, server time, consulting hours, software licenses, hardware, etc. A new software initiative will need to collaborate with provisioning teams, DBAs, business analysts, HR, QA, offshore teams, etc. to succeed. All these employees are not going to collaborate with two different teams working on the same project simultaneously, much less ten teams. So they will have ten failures at the end.</comment>


HowTo: Implementor's guide to rssCloud - <AUTHOR> http://rsscloud.org/walkthrough.html <comment><USER2> I recommend reading this comparison of protocols before investing time in rssCloud: [http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/wiki/ComparingProtocol...](http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/wiki/ComparingProtocols)</comment>


Facebook Continues War On App Developers. This Week: Super Wall - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/07/facebook-continues-war-on-app-developers-this-week-super-wall/

<comment><USER2> Maybe I'm way off here, but it seems like responsible people are passing the buck when it comes to "spammy content" because of all the applications I originally used, none of them made me invite tons of users to do anything, I only invited people if it was something I knew they'd like.

When it came to invitations and notifications, it's when people using these apps continually send you the same invite even though you've already ignored it.

Passing the buck I say.</comment>


Solving Rubik's cube from scratch, in python - <AUTHOR> http://fulmicoton.com/posts/rubix/

<comment><USER2> If you're trying to figure this out by hand, without software, here is the general technique:

1\. figure out how to swap two corners on the top layer, leaving the rest of the top layer intact, completely screwing up the bottom. 2\. rotate the top layer. 3\. do the exact opposite of step 1. This will repair the bottom two layers and swap two other corners of the top, leaving you with a 3-cycle or a double swap.

Figure out the same thing with edge pieces.

You can now get all of the pieces in the right location.

Now figure out how to rotate a corner clockwise (only screwing up the bottom two layers), then turn the top and undo it.

You can now rotate all of the corners to the correct position. (For every rotate, you have to un-rotate something.)

Do the same with flipping an edge piece. (You can flip an edge, but you have to unflip another edge.)

NB. With the 3-cycle you developed in the beginning, you will may have to turn an edge to get the three pieces you want to rotate in the right position relative to each other, and then turn it back when you're done with your transformation.

This technique can be applied to similar puzzles.

</comment><comment><USER3> from a pure math point of view:

You can solve the cube – with commutators! [http://lamington.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/you-can-solve- the-...](http://lamington.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/you-can-solve-the-cube- with-commutators/)

</comment><comment><USER4> [http://www.cube20.org](http://www.cube20.org) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_algorithm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_algorithm)

</comment><comment><USER5> The link indicated in the comments is how I learned how to solve the Rubik's cube: [http://beust.com/rubik](http://beust.com/rubik)</comment>


Ask HN: Do you cut your own hair? - <AUTHOR> Not sure if this is very HN appropriate but this is one of my biggest pain points. I am fortunate to have thick hair that I grow quickly. I like to keep my hair short. Anything beyond 3.5-4 weeks is pushing it. I hate, absolutely hate going to a hair salon/barber etc.
I even bought lot of hair cutting tools but how the heck do you cut your own hair ? <comment><USER2> I've actually been cutting my own hair for probably close to 15 years now with a standard hair clipper. It's not just a buzz-cut either. I actually have more on the top (like a #7) and a less on the sides (#3).

It really just comes from practice and learning the shape of your head. Once you use clippers for a while you'll understand how it works. The only challenging part is trimming your neckline which is where I usually have my wife help me. Otherwise it's just a lot of practice.

One tip is always start with a higher numbered attachment and work your way down. It's better to cut off less than more when you're first learning. If you don't like the result, you can go to a barber and he can fix it for you.

<comment><USER3> Same, I use clippers, but go #3 - #8. Here, I photoshopped a quick image.

[http://i.imgur.com/tXbKNtF.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/tXbKNtF.jpg) (red and green wrap around the head, blue is just the top section)

Red, I use #3. Green, I use #5. Blue, I do #8 at the front, #7 towards the back. Then, after that, I use the inbetween numbers. So I use a #4, and smooth out the transition from red to green. Then I use a #6, and smooth out from green to blue.

To finish, thinning sheers. They're basically magic. I have thick hair, so I just clip all over the place at different lengths, and it blends everything together nicely.

The neckline is difficult to get straight. I'm finally able to do it with a few mirrors, but it's a lot easier if you have someone else that can take 10 seconds for you.

I just use some clippers by Wahl, and they've always worked fine. Cleanup takes the most time. Watch a few YouTube videos to get a better idea, and pick a forgiving time to cut your hair as a first attempt. If all goes wrong, you can just buzz it, or wear a hat for a week.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I started cutting my own hair a few ago to save money and because I also hated going to hair dressers. A started doing small trims, but after a while was confident to try whatever I felt like. Guys hair really isn't that hard to cut if your just doing the basics, and I've found it is really convenient to be able to do it myself.

</comment><comment><USER5> Yes. Like everyone else here, I use clippers ($8 in Wal-Mart) and have for now about 7 years. Wife does the edge by neck, or I can try in a mirror. Key point: take them seriously when they tell you to oil after every use, or they will rust/lock up.

I'm up to about 7 * $15 * 5x/yr = ~$500 savings. Look out, world!

</comment><comment><USER6> Yes.

Last time it needed to be done I let my 3 year old son do it, using clippers. Great fun.

EDIT: as to how -

Get some wide masking tape. Stick that on the back of your head / neck. That gives you a really easy way to get a straight line.

Use the graded combs.

Practice.

</comment><comment><USER7> No, but then I actually really enjoy getting my hair cut, so I'm probably not the kind of person from who should be answering this :)

In answer to how do you cut your own hair, not sure if this product is available in the US, but it looks pretty good - [http://www.amazon.co.uk/BaByliss-For- Men-7435U-Clipper/dp/B0...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/BaByliss-For- Men-7435U-Clipper/dp/B002FGTIZU)

</comment><comment><USER8> I don't know if this helps, but you can get a good haircut for cheap in ethnic neighborhoods in major cities (~$5) [e.g. Devon Ave. in Chicago] They often do a quicker and better job than in franchise hair salons/barbershops that charge 2-3x. I really enjoy a good haircut and I don't like overpaying, so this is the best option I've found.

</comment><comment><USER9> I shave my head every few days/weeks. The longest I've gone without shaving my head is probably three months.

I've been doing this for at least the last ten years, and mostly I manage to avoid cutting myself. That said if my hair is too long I never shave the day before a wedding, interview, or similar. Just in case I end up having to go with wounds!

</comment><comment><USER10> Yes. I use a clipper to cut my hairs short and same length everywhere. Takes between 5-10 minutes (plus cleaning) every few months.

</comment><comment><USER11> I used to with a clipper, but because there was no real way to even out the cut it meant I'd cut off all the hair till my head shinned in the sun. My girlfriend didn't like the look so I stopped....:)

</comment><comment><USER12> I did actually. Working on the cloud306.com brought me to it. I looked like a hobo.</comment>


Ask HN: Ideas/Advice for a sole 18 year old hacker? - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN. I read what goes on on this incredible site almost every day. I'm 17 years old and a modestly competent hacker. Last year I published an app to the Apple app store, but is has since been removed because I haven't renewed my license with the big A. This is in part owing to my pedestrian mac dev box (2010 mac mini; 2Gb RAM; Lion; Slow) and because a new mac and $99 are not trivial expenses to an 17 year old guy from South Africa. And I still prefer Linux ;)
Do you, accomplished hackers of HN, have any suggestions for how a sole 17 year old with programming skills can make something that presents its users with value. I don't come from excess wealth and privilege, so making profit is a goal for me. Specifically, I'd like to ask about the kind-of-forum (i.e. app store / PAAS hosted web app etc.) for software publication that is both accessible and possible for a single person with limited funds but tremendous drive. Even if you just have words of inspiration, any positive feedback is appreciated.
Being an autodidact, I have spent copious hours reading about "software construction" - considerably more than the mechanics of programming. Stuff like RB-trees and Big-Oh don't scare me (that much)
Any and all feedback welcome.
Much love from S.A.
Daniel <comment><USER2> Try the iPhone App Store (assuming that's not what you tried before). If you create something even moderately useful and charge for it, you should more than makeup the cost of Dev free. (personal experience)

What can you do in the mean time before you get the $99 to publish? Not quite sure, but blog/write a book about building an app and see if someone will sponsor your dev fee? (or sell the book?)

</comment><comment><USER3> Some things I found were highly valued: Creating software fast, and designing it damn well. The latter takes a skill all in itself. I'd suggest partnering up with someone with stills in that. Also 2 people = helpful support structure. Unfortunately there's no "free money" and often making a business requires lots of leg-work. After starting working on a startup I developed an immense appreciation for how much value someone working full-time on business building brings.

I wish I could tell you good programming skill alone is enough, but often its the trio of Programmer [the builder], Designer [the lure], and Product [the meat]. By being solo, you take on all 3 roles.

Especially in a poor area, having 3 means $33 each not $99 and it's ok to split the profits. Also means you can work cheap. At the beginning you can undercharge to make a name for yourself, and use that as a playground to improve skills. Remember that clients appreciate people pushing back on requirements you think will hinder the product.

<comment><USER4> I think there is a middle step here that Daniel could tackle.

Building small- to medium scope tools for himself that can be dressed up with affiliate links to serve as lead gen for a 3rd party site/service.

The trifecta of building something he would use, potentially making some profit, and building his portfolio at the same time is very compelling.

Targeting the web, building on open source, and deploying to a free(mium) platform (eg. Heroku, free tier of AWS) addresses some of the cost concerns.

The final piece is effective marketing. Get the tool in front of like-minded users (HN & consistent tweeting/blogging) to build up your user base over time. Refine the tool as needed.

Of course the devil is in the details, but given what I'm seeing about Daniel's case this is the advice I would give.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Daniel - I have something you might be interested in. Shoot me an e-mail, jvrossb at gmail.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'd like to help. Email me (it's in my profile).</comment>