27" Retina math - <AUTHOR> http://www.marco.org/2012/08/30/retina-27-math <comment><USER2> That's pretty cool - I hope they bring these out soon!

But, since I hate incorrect terminology, this is wrong:

        4K = 3840×2160

Some TV manufacturers incorrectly use the term 4K like this, but the way it's been used for the last decade in the film industry (and is specified in standards like the DCI spec) is that 4K refers to images with a horizontal resolution of 4096 pixels [1] (the number of pixels vertically changes to accommodate different aspect ratios - the pixels are always square).

The TV industry is using 3840 because it has four times the resolution on 1080p. I don't think there are any specifications for this resolution, so there's no official term. I've heard it called QuadHD or 4xHD though.

1\. There is one exception, which is 3996x2160 (1.89:1 aspect) but all the others are 4096.

</comment><comment><USER3> All this Retina talk makes me sick. Apple doesn't have this technology under control. They screwed up.

My first Retina screen had horrible image persistence problems. The replacement from Apple now has the same problems. Coincidence? In the Munich Apple Store I had the opportunity to check four machines (of the seven they had standing around), all four had the exact same problem.

Apple can't build them now, they really shouldn't try to build more of them.

<comment><USER4> Cry me a river. That's the price of early adoption. "Retina" displays at sizes larger than 4" have only been available for less than 6 months.

<comment><USER5> I think it is valid to point out the flaws of a product which is regarded as market-leading. For example: why aren't other companies offering similar products? Could in part be because of problems such as this.

If we can't be a little honest about a company that is (I believe) bigger than Wal-mart then I don't know what company WOULD be strong enough to withstand mild criticism.

<comment><USER6> The flaws are real, but they are blown way out of proportion with comments like "Apple doesn't have this technology under control. They screwed up."

<comment><USER3> I'm sorry, but selling a product with a defect like that is just unacceptable. There are no ifs and buts about that. That's just how it is.

It would be great if they could fix this issue. I would be overjoyed. However, they seem to be unable to, now even going so far as talking the defect down.

<comment><USER6> >>I'm sorry, but selling a product with a defect like that is just unacceptable. There are no ifs and buts about that. That's just how it is.

Unacceptable to who? The products in question are selling by the millions. Clearly, the market finds them _very_ acceptable. In the grand scheme of things, what you think is largely irrelevant.

<comment><USER7> arrrg obviously has an ax to grind about Apple in general or just has some irrational, intense hatred for retina screens. From the replies I've seen, reasonable discussion is out of the question. "Illegal"? Please.

<comment><USER3> Ignoring the defect screen, I love everything about the machine. I think it's pretty plainly the best laptop on the planet right now (at least for me personally). I would much rather Apple fix this than having to give back my MBPr. But I can't accept a defect screen. It's quite simple.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm curious as to why OP keeps insisting that current Thunderbolt ports can't support a QFHD (3840 x 2160) display.

Thunderbolt layers a few lanes of PCIe with a DisplayPort 1.2 signal. DisplayPort 1.2 supports QFHD at 30 bits/pixel and 60Hz.

Of course you'd be limited to one display per port, and I'm not sure whether that much bandwidth on the DisplayPort lanes would crowd out the PCIe traffic.

Alternatively (as anyone who bought Macs in the 90's can attest), Apple has never been particularly reluctant to introduce a new interconnect when it was convenient for them.

Obviously if they simply pixel-doubled their current 27" panel it would be far beyond Thunderbolt's capabilities, which may be where the "Thunderbolt can't support Retina resolutions" idea originated.

<comment><USER9> In theory the display signal would need 12.8 Gbps leaving 7.2 Gbps for PCIe traffic, so it's not obviously impossible. It's not clear whether Thunderbolt controllers can mux and demux over 10 Gbps worth of DP though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm impressed with the way Apple succeeds at branding things like relative pixel density.

I expect there have to be some, but I'm having a hard time recalling similar schemes from other companies that weren't met with ridicule.

<comment><USER11> I don't know. If Lenovo, Motorola and Microsoft had teamed up and said "HiDPI is the future, we're putting it on our flagship devices and making it a primary feature of Windows". If they had done that, and implemented it well (eg, most people say it's gorgeous), then they could have named it "Windows ThinkDensity MotoDisplay Technology 8" and that is more or less what we'd be calling it.

Point is, it may be something that is conceptually simple and technologically practical but if company X bets their flagship product on the tech and ends up being the driving force in the mainstream adoption of said technology, then I think they get to brand it.

<comment><USER12> Microsoft's version of Retina is called ClearType Full HD Display. Non retina is called ClearType HD Display.

<comment><USER13> You forgot a few TM and R superscripts. Not having these is one of the main distinctions of Apple's marketing copy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Interesting math, 3840 × 2160 at 32 bpp (ARGB32) is just about 32MB per frame (3840 * 2160 * 4) / (1024 * 1024). At 60 fps that is 1.92GB/second of pixel churn. Perhaps I'm just getting too old but to me that is an impressive amount of data to throw around.

<comment><USER15> I just did those same calculations and got the same somewhat boggling numbers (actually, I only assume 24bit pixels at the panel and got ~24MB frames).

I then wondered how the OS & Window Manager & Applications & video driver & memory bus & pci bus & video card deal with the respective parts of their chunks of a data stream that big… (Then managed to realize I've got work to do before heading down the google-research-of-interesting-thing rabbit hole…)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> As I age, I find all my old monitors are upgrading in place.

I think someday even a 640x480 laptop screen will someday be a 'retina' resolution for my unaided eyes.</comment>


Ask HN: Rate my site iJiny.com - micro classifieds service in India - <AUTHOR>

I developed ijiny.com in my spare time. It's a simple micro classifieds service in India. We initially launched it to build a "better" craigslist there loaded with many features.
After many rounds of evolution, we're actually excited about building a micro classifieds service in India that ties in with the huge popularity of SMS (and it's inherent messaging limit) in India.
I'd really appreciate your feedback, comments, constructive criticism.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> It seems like a nice idea, although I don't fully understand it. Where does the mobile part come in? Do I post ads from my phone, or do I receive replies via SMS. I think foreign markets are really under-served when it comes to services like these. My only concern would be having the numbers listed on the front page like that. Could those numbers be spammed in some way? Best of luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, postings of ads from a phone by sending a text message to a short (or long, not decided yet) code number. SMS is really widely used in India so a service like this we envision could be useful.

It is possible that the numbers could be spammed - we're considering putting them behind a "show number" kinda button.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice website. Couple of suggestions.

1\. Is there a way for people to edit their ads? 2\. It's not very clear in the submit form, that the mobile number will be displayed in the ad. Some people may not want their mobile number displayed as part of the ad.

Otherwise nice idea.

</comment><comment><USER4> I like it. Clean design and description of what the site is on the front page.

Not sure about the name.. but it works for now.

<http://www.ijiny.com></comment>


The Coinbase Android App Has Launched - <AUTHOR> http://blog.coinbase.com/post/44730207780/the-coinbase-android-app-has-launched

<comment><USER2> I sent Coinbase the following email:

I paid for bitcoins on Feb 27, 2013. My natural assumption was that bitcoins will be deposited into my account in the next couple of days. It did not happen: the transaction was marked "pending". After a week, I suddenly hot an email saying: "Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk." I must say that this response is quite disappointing. Accusing an honest new customer excited about your new product of potential fraud as the first communication from coinbase.com is probably the worst thing a company can do for its PR. This has been a valuable lesson for me that accusing customers of fraud before they actually commit it is not a great way of promoting a new service. I saw posts to this end on news.ycombinator.com (i.e. do not use Coinbase to purchase bitcoins), but I ignored them and tried anyway...

The result was: "we have white listed your account", so now I am _free_ to buy bitcoins at 30% more than what I wanted to. I cannot explain to them that the attitude "guilty until proven innocent" will cost them more in good will of new users long term than the actual money lost on fraud otherwise, had they relaxed their insane risk controls.

<comment><USER3> I know there's some justified suspicion on the Bitcoin forums that Coinbase are cancelling orders if the value of Bitcoins rises between you paying and them actually delivering the coins, meaning that they get to profit from any rise in the Bitcoin price whilst dumping any loss if it falls on the purchaser.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Score one for open-source apps for a for-profit company. I did something similar with my company's Android and iOS apps. They're both open-source and I have a number of users who have improved the app experience for everybody because they were both technical and inclined to improve their own experience. And it's so unlikely that a competitor will do better than you by using [a mangled form of] your app that you get to weigh the benefits as winning out over the drawbacks of open-source.

<comment><USER5> Interesting idea. I could potentially make this happen at a for-profit university, but would need to sell the idea to some executives.

Where could I read more about the risks and challenges that a company attempting to do this would face (open sourcing a customer facing app)?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Just signed up and downloaded the Android app. I saw this in your EULA:

 _When buying or selling bitcoin, you are buying or selling from Coinbase directly. Coinbase does not act as an intermediary or marketplace between other buyers and sellers of bitcoin._

What's the effective exchange rate for customers? You already say you take 1% of each transaction; is the exchange rate tied to the current trading price of one of the major exchanges, or are you setting that yourself (like retailers do for foreign currency)?

I imagine you're doing some of your own arbitrage, here. That's fine as long as prices keep going up. What happens if prices crash and a bunch of people put in buy orders? I assume this is where the 48hr window you give yourself to "retrieve offline funds" comes in. In that event, what price do your customers pay? The market rate when they put in the buy order, or the rate 48 hrs later when you deliver the bitcoins?

It's an intriguing and exciting service, but I fear you're either leaving yourself open to massive liability, or are going to be forced to screw over your customers in the event of rapid swings in the value of BtC.

<comment><USER7> Someone on another HN thread said that they bought some bitcoins at a certain price, price jumped by a couple of dollars and five days later Coinbase cancelled the transaction due to 'lack of supply'.

One can only assume that in the reverse case they'd have pocketed the difference. So it seems like it might be the latter.

<comment><USER6> That's unfortunate. It'd be nice to be able to buy and sell BtC with the same app I use to transfer them, but I'm not letting them use me for arbitrage just for the sake of convenience.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Didn't they already have an Android app? I'm pretty sure they had one that didn't do much, so I was using blockchain.info instead. Their app (and site) is fantastic.

EDIT: Actually, can someone tell me the advantage of Coinbase over the Blockchain wallet? The latter syncs to my Dropbox, the app is ridiculously more featureful (even has push notifications on payment receipt), and it's been around longer. I don't understand why we keep hearing about Coinbase but not Blockchain.

</comment><comment><USER9> The iPhone app is lacking. You can only view past/current transactions. The web version of the site is way more useful as it has all of coinbase's features.

</comment><comment><USER10> Major props on open sourcing the app! My only complaint so far is having to build with Ant, but that's pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

</comment><comment><USER11> I have to wonder how hilarious it would be to get paid in only bitcoin with the amount of volatility. Your contract starts at 10K BTC/year worth $30000 at the start, and after a year of 14000% increases you are being paid $440000 in BTC. Seems like a huge hedge would have to be built in.

<comment><USER12> The contract would be priced using paper money like USD. At least until the BTC volatility calms down.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> FWIW, I've found Coinbase to be pretty decent and reliable. And definitely the open source app is a quite surprising (in best terms!) decision. I haven't seen many (good) open source Android apps out there built on the latest design specs and API…

</comment><comment><USER14> Looks nice! Open source and with NFC, too. I could see this as being the de facto Bitcoin wallet in the (near) future.

Does anyone know if Coinbase did this in-house or if they contracted out? Just curious...

<comment><USER15> The blog post describes this at the end:

      In particular, Isaac (a Coinbase user in Canada and previous Google intern)
      sent us a nearly completed Android app totally unprompted,
      and was kind enough to open source it.

<comment><USER16> Also relevant:

"and brought him on board to continue working on it."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Not a single mention of the BTC market crash today on HN, interesting.

<comment><USER18> What market crash? I don't see it[0].

0: <http://blockchain.info/charts/market-price>

<comment><USER19> There was an intraday drop from $49 to $33. It later went back up to about $40. That chart isn't granular enough.

<comment><USER20> Well it's about $44 now. Not really a crash in my view.

<comment><USER19> When the stock market plunges more than a few percentage points during a single day, every publication on the planet calls it a crash. During the last "flash crash" the market recovered within minutes; it was still a crash, covered internationally and garnering its own Wikipedia page. The bitcoin market losing 33% of its value in an hour is a crash.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Flash_Crash>

<comment><USER21> Call me naive and oldschool, but this is my biggest issue with bitcoin - essentially all of the coverage comes from people/groups of people with (what are now) large investments / conflicts of interest in bitcoin, so any negative (or objective) coverage is glossed over.

There don't seem to be (m)any experts looking at bitcoin either (maybe I just haven't looked) and so broader problems with the whole system aren't being raised or addressed, all of the writing and analysis that is out there seems amateurish. It's no surprise to me that aside from some minor trolling, there's no-one writing about the crash.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Cool beans. Are you monetized yet? Or, more pointedly, are you grabbing any fees from me for using this app?

<comment><USER22> You pay 1% in and out don't you? Says that on their website.

<comment><USER6> Just saw the FAQ, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Why is the camera icon blinking (GN4)?

</comment><comment><USER24> They shouldnt allow you to buy the coins untill your funds have cleared.

</comment><comment><USER25> Great job!

</comment><comment><USER26> If I buy bitcoins now but it takes 10 days to be approved/settle, what price will I be locked into?

<comment><USER27> If you purchase at $30/bitcoin, and by the time the bank transaction goes through the price has risen to $32/bitcoin, you still get them for $30.

Similarly, if the price drops to $28, you still pay $30/bitcoin.

So you're locked in at the exchange rate at the time you place the order.</comment></comment>


Evidence of exponential speed-up in the solution of hard optimization problems? - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09278 <comment><USER2> Quoting from the abstract:

      > ... a non-combinatorial approach
      > to hard optimization problems that
      > ... finds better approximations than
      > the current state-of-the-art.

So it appears that they're finding approximate solutions, so already it's rather less significant than the title suggests.

Then:

      > We show empirical evidence that
      > our solver scales linearly with
      > the size of the problem, ...

We know that for most NP-Complete problems, most instances are easy. The question then is whether they are testing their algorithms on instances that are known to be hard. There's a chance they're doing something like finding factors of random integers, which we know is easy in almost every instance.

I'm deeply pessimistic.

<comment><USER3> While I agree with you, you should note that even approximation within any degree of error is NP-complete for a large class of NP-complete problems (e.g. TSP, and the problem MAX-EkSAT used in the paper).

That is, a polynomial algorithm for the approximate problem would be just as significant as one for the exact version.

<comment><USER2> But that's being NP-Complete, and so can be converted into exact solutions for other NP-Complete problems. Otherwise, by definition, it's not NP-Complete.

So it's not clear what they're actually doing, but if they can solve NPC problems they would say that. So I expect that they are getting approximate solutions that are not then NPC.

<comment><USER3> That's correct. Given a polynomial time approximate algorithm for Ek-SAT (note, by approximate algorithm I mean along the lines of the formal definition of approximate algorithm, that the solution given by the algorithm falls in some fraction of the real answer for all instances, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardness_of_approximation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardness_of_approximation)), you would show P=NP.

My first concerns, namely the usage of analog methods to solve NP-complete problems, lies along the same lines as this post: [https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2212](https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2212)

Moreover, from what I can see, and as you mention as your original concern, the extent of proof for the 'exponential-speedup' claim exists in the form of some benchmarks, hardly a proof that their method actually works on all instances, which would be needed to show that it is a approximation algorithm as commonly defined.

The purpose of my post was to highlight that for some problems (for example, TSP), even a really crappy approximation algorithm would imply P=NP. As highlighted by the authors of this paper, MAX-EkSAT is in a similar situation, though judging by [https://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~hungngo/classes/2006/594/notes/...](https://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~hungngo/classes/2006/594/notes/hardness.pdf), unlike TSP, approximation to SOME ratio is possible, though there exists aratio >1 which cannot be beat unless P=NP.

I was simply trying to address the statement: "So it appears that they're finding approximate solutions, so already it's rather less significant than the title suggests. ", since an actual approximation algorithm for some ratio really WOULD be significant (showing P=NP).

<comment><USER4> I don't think your first statement is true, there exist polynomial time approximation schemes and approximation algorithms for np complete problems, notably a PTAS for knapsack. In other words, an approximation of one np complete problems doesn't imply an approximation of all of them.

I can't fully articulate the reasons for this though.

<comment><USER5> The reason for this apparent discrepancy is found in the difference between strong and weak NP-completeness.

The fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) for the knapsack problem only runs in so-called _pseudo-polynomial_ time:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo- polynomial_time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-polynomial_time)

This means that the runtime is polynomial in the _numeric value_ of the knapsack. Since the _encoding_ of that numeric value only takes logarithmic space (unless you are using unary encoding), the runtime is in fact again _exponential_ in the size of the input.

For this reason, the knapsack problem is called _weakly_ NP-complete:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_NP- completeness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_NP-completeness)

One can show that, unless P=NP, a so-called _strongly_ NP-hard optimization problem with polynomially bounded objective function cannot have a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial- time_approximation_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial- time_approximation_scheme)

SAT, Hamiltonian circuit etc. are _strongly_ NP-complete:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_NP- completeness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_NP-completeness)

Thus, an FPTAS for these problems would indeed imply P=NP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This keeps popping up every few months for several years, and seems like BS. Here's an example:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8652475](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8652475)

And here's Scott Aaronson's debunking:

[https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2212](https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2212)

If these guys could really solve NP complete problems, they should have some amazing concrete results to show at this point, which they don't.

<comment><USER7> You link to research from 3 years ago. Does the latest paper (Oct 2017) not represent the concrete results you claim they don't have?

<comment><USER6> They claim to _solve_ np complete problems, which this paper is not demonstrating.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The authors have built a start-up based on these ideas:

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

They provide their SAT solver as a service that you can try.

A related paper I recommend in this context is _NP-complete Problems and Physical Reality_ by Scott Aaronson:

[https://www.scottaaronson.com/papers/npcomplete.pdf](https://www.scottaaronson.com/papers/npcomplete.pdf)

<comment><USER8> It's worth noting that Scott Aaronson has commented on previous work by the same authors: [https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2212](https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2212) . At the time, he was convinced that their approach wouldn't scale. I'm not sure about their current approach, but at a glance it seems similar to the previous one.

Previous work: [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1411.4798.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1411.4798.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Is this similar to what Berkeley MPC Lab is doing with quadratic programming using electricity? I.e. that nature has means to solve optimization problems in an instant and our approximations of this process in the form of differential equations allow us to do something similar, albeit not 100% accurately?

<comment><AUTHOR> Would you kindly provide link to the Berkeley MPC Lab work?

<comment><USER9> Here you go:

[http://www.mpc.berkeley.edu/research/analog- optimization](http://www.mpc.berkeley.edu/research/analog-optimization)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Can someone provide a technical tldr. I'm afraid this is over my head, but I'm extremely curious as I understand it's importance.

<comment><USER11> My initial instinct is not very important, but we will wait and see.

There have been many, many examples of people achieving significant improvements on many classes of NP-complete problems, and more come out every year, of course the more general your improvement the better. Modern SAT solvers with learning are such an improvement.

The claim of "exponential" seems very dodgy to me, they are running over a fixed set of benchmarks, it's hard to measure an exponential improvement over such a set.

I will wait until I see this peer reviewed, after a brief skim read I am a little worried about how big the circuits they are making are.

EDIT: they mostly compare against 3 specially crafted classes of random problems. Noone really cares about random problems, and it looks to me like they made random problems their system would be particularly good at dealing with. That sets off alarm bells for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Authors seem not know about this work: [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ff7b/3a7b1dad73797ff7c79ac2...](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ff7b/3a7b1dad73797ff7c79ac2dec6ef03f1dae5.pdf)

One of the claims in the fine paper that started the discussion is that there's a need to perform several flips at once to find better solution. The paper I cite does something very similar - it walks along chained variables postponing flips until energy lowers for sure.

They also claim their solver has O(vars) time complexity for many problems, including ones with high density (clause/variable ratio). But nothing revolutionary.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is really important if not bogus. Any comments from people in the field?

It's like back-propagation for digital logic.

<comment><USER14> Did you look at the paper or just throwing the analogy out there? It seems the described problems are integer programming which wouldn't have gradients as in back propagation.

The magic seems to lie in the so called self organizing logic gates detailed

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1512.05064](https://arxiv.org/abs/1512.05064)

<comment><USER13> Right. See the PDF of the paper at [1]. They're mapping Boolean logic into a kind of analog system.

"SOLGs can use any terminal simultaneously as input or output, i.e., signals can go in and out at the same time at any terminal resulting in a superposition of input and output signals ... The gate changes dynamically the outgoing components of the signals depending on the incoming components according to some rules aimed at satisfying the logic relations of the gate. ... A SOLG ... can have either stable configurations ... or unstable ... configurations. In the former case, the configuration of the signals at the terminals satisfies the logic relation required ... and the signals would then remain constant in time. Conversely, if the signals at a given time do not satisfy the logic relation, we have the unstable configuration: the SOLG drives the outgoing components of the signal to finally obtain a stable configuration."

This is sort of like supervised training of a neural net. I think. Test cases with both inputs and desired outputs are needed, and applying them to the network pushes the parameters towards values that yield the desired outputs. It's kind of like deliberately over-training a neural net to encode some explicit function.

The paper is vague about how you train this thing. It seems like it has to be driven by test cases, but they don't say much about that. It's not clear that this scales. It ought to work for small numbers of gates, but for large numbers, does this process converge?

[1] [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1512.05064.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1512.05064.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This looks too good to be true ... am I missing something?</comment>


Holder OK'd search warrant for Fox News reporter's private emails, official says - <AUTHOR> http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/23/18451142-holder-okd-search-warrant-for-fox-news-reporters-private-emails-official-says <comment><USER3> I supported Obama and worked for the campaign in 2008. I'm sad to see that this administration has been _more_ aggressive in leak persecution than GWB.

I don't think there is anything wrong in pursuing illegal leaks of classified information. I _DO_ think it's wrong to target bona fide journalists for criminal prosecution based on their reporting. The optics of this kind of thing are bad no matter how you look at it.

As a reporter, you're allowed to ask a question. You have no right to information a source is legally required to withhold. That said, if _they_ violate that requirement, it's not your fault. Obtaining the private emails of journalists is crossing a line. It makes it impossible for a journalist to guarantee the safety of their sources.

I think Holder is on pretty thin ice here and generations of future journalists are going to look at what happened and adjust their methods. As citizens, we have a right to know what our government does even if it doesn't want us to.

If a person with information decides to risk their freedom so that citizens can be informed, that's their choice. Attacking the fifth estate will make revolutionaries of us all.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I thought this was settled with the Pentagon Papers. But apparently everyone changed their mind after Wikileaks, and without court oversight.

Can Fox News sue here? It seems like calling him a co-conspirator (aka journalist) just to get the search warrant with no plans to charge him is super fishy.

And even more puzzling than Holder's actions, why isn't Fox News trumpeting this instead of Benghazi?

<comment><USER5> There was an article on BI a few days ago saying how "Americans don't care" about the AP spying (from a survey), and that they cared a lot more about IRS and Benghazi.

But let's put things in context. The IRS scandal, and especially the Benghazi one, have been trumpeted at least 10x more than the AP one. Maybe 100x more. With such "awareness campaign" is it really a surprise most people responded in the surveys with IRS or Benghazi?

So what this really means is that the _media_ themselves don't really care about the AP spying - which is actually quite frightening, and a worse situation than I thought. You'd think they would want to turn this into another Watergate or something - but apparently not. Same for the Fox News journalist.

These two stories would be reason enough to call for the impeachment of the president in my book. I mean it threatens a core power in the society - <USER2> press. The Benghazi story, and even the IRS one to "some" degree, are the real distractions here.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I hate that circular logic. Americans drink more coke than pepsi, look at the advertising budgets. You hammer something on prime time every night for 6 months and people will think it's a bigger deal than the story you don't.

There's not an actual scandal behind Benghazi. Literally none. They're alleging a cover-up, "of what?", "they're covering it up!". That's the whole story and somehow it's 6 months of airtime.

The IRS story is just bad CYA by the administrators there. Political groups applying for charity status is in fact something that the IRS should be auditing and cracking down on, regardless of political party, and there were a lot of tea party groups applying for charity status -- The dept head was actually a Bush appointee, they just weren't tactful enough about how they set their filters to make it look more bipartisan.

This leak case, on the other hand, is actual erosion of press freedoms. And the media (?!?!?!!) seem to care the least about it.

<comment><USER6> Lying to everyone about Benghazi to maintain a narrative about terrorism prior to the election satisfies most people's definition of a scandal. And for _some_ reason the people on the ground, even in the country, were told to stand down rather than attempt to help, something that no one can remember ever happening before.

Really now, this is the first Ambassador killed in the line of duty in 33 years (previously under Carter, of course) and you're _sure_ there's nothing suspect about it?!??!!!

Your claims about the IRS abuse completely fail, since no "progressive" organizations suffered such abuse. One group even resubmitted their application, just changing the name to include the word Green and sound progressive, and it sailed through the process. And stonewalling != investigation, many groups were delayed for 3+ years, two election cycles, and are still left hanging. Compare to many many other examples, like Obama's Organizing for America -> Organizing for Action 501(c)(4).

You may have no problems with the heavy hand of the government suppressing those you politically oppose, but I assure you the other side does, and as I note elsewhere in this subthread this sort of thing has grave consequences.

<comment><USER7> And this is why they say to keep politics off of HN. None of your assertions are backed up by fact. It's really disheartening to see this nonsense here.

<comment><USER6> In other words, you have no basis to deny my words, so you want them banned on this forum.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Well ... looks like it's time for every news organization to implement this:

<http://www.newyorker.com/strongbox/>

</comment><comment><USER9> It sounds like there was an actual warrant in this case? Not a huge fan of the actions taken here but it's not as horrendous as the end run around oversight that the subpoenas entail.

<comment><USER10> I am not a lawyer, but my naive understanding of how it works is that a judge (or magistrate, somesuch from judicial branch) "signs off" on a warrant to authorize it. Maybe the article means that the AG approved requesting a warrant from a judge?

<comment><USER11> I seem to remember reading somewhere that there are extra procedures in the Justice Department when issuing search warrants involving members of the press. Namely, that the AG has to sign off personally. I'll see if I can find a source.

Edit: Yes. The AG has to personally sign off on them.

"Justice Department regulations call for subpoenas for journalists' phone records to be undertaken as a last resort and narrowly focused, subject to the attorney general's personal signoff. Under normal circumstances, the regulations call for notice and negotiations, giving the news organization a chance to challenge the subpoena in court."

[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/phone-records-of- journa...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/phone-records-of-journalists- of-the-associated-press-seized-by-us.html?pagewanted=all)

Double Edit: I guess that just references phone records. It's not clear if it includes all types of summons.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's not a real search warrant if the cops' boss's boss's boss signs it. A real warrant needs to come from a judge.

</comment><comment><USER13> Being a tea party member or a fox news contributor is starting to look like a "get out of jail free" card.

</comment><comment><USER14> This is part of an extremely strong partisan streak in HN's political postings over the last year or two which I find irritating and inappropriate.

If I wanted right-wing skewed tech news, there is already Slashdot.

<comment><USER15> Slashdot is right wing? Bahahaha. That's funny. Did you know CmdrTaco actually works for the Washington Post now? Not exactly the fortress of the right wing. In fact, quite liberal. Some would say very liberal.

Anywho, this topic is about government abuse, regardless of party.

<comment><USER4> Washington Post isn't liberal or conservative. It's beltway. If one party says that the sky is yellow, and the other party says it's red, the Washington Post will be there in all their wisdom to inform you that it's actually a shade of orange, and they're the mature adults who can rise above partisanship and see the truth.

<comment><USER6> I wish that was still true, it was when I was living in the area 1991-2004. But to me at least they've abandoned that position; that they still employ Ezra Klein after his JournoList was exposed tells you all you need to know. Heck, he and Josh Marshall were just observed going into the White House for a private meeting and now they're saying the same things.

<comment><USER4> You _wish_ that were true? It's fucking terrible.

Take a look at their front-page right now. Or tomorrow. The whole op/ed section is filled with the same crap that every politician is talking about. Strategically balanced so that they're acting as stenographer for both side's media consultant.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Inversion Of Control: An Architect's Version of Global Variables - <AUTHOR> http://wekeroad.com/2012/04/01/inversion-of-control-an-architects-version-of-global-variables/ <comment><USER2> Look, it is dated April 1st...</comment>


Results of The Hacker Survey - <AUTHOR> http://davelyon.net/mldata.html

<comment><USER2> Six people expect to make negative income this year. Highest incomes are 110M, 98M, 68M, 25M, and 10M (watch out, that last guy took the survey 6 times with bad data).

In the bell curve of "# of years in industry", there are spikes at 10, 12, 15, and 20 -- looks like people rounding.

27% work 40 hours a week. 15% work 50, 10% work 45, 9% work 60, 4% work 35 and 30.

Unemployed hackers are very much more likely to be single (compared to the ratio for all types of employment).

I can see no noticeable correlation between hours worked and expected income.

</comment><comment><USER3> Mirror: <http://defunkt.github.com/hacker-survey/>

CSV: <http://defunkt.github.com/hacker-survey/data.csv>

<comment><USER4> Mirror: <http://go.cleverinnovative.com/hacker-survey.htm> CSV: <http://go.cleverinnovative.com/data.csv>

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Thanks for posting the data/results. Only 2% of the respondents are female. Wow.

<comment><USER6> Why was this voted down? I was fairly shocked too. I mean, I know we're in the minority at HN but not by this amount.

<comment><USER7> Not sure what conclusion you can draw from that - it was a self-selected sample. For example I didn't vote because of the non-existent "academia/research" option.

I think if you wanted to get a better handle of how many women are in HN, a poll entitled "Are you female" with the options of yes-no-it's complicated- will give you better traction.

<comment><USER8> > I think if you wanted to get a better handle of how many women are in HN, a > poll ...

You mean: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=749617> ? There, female was about 6%.

<comment><USER9> Both groups are self-selected, though one of the samples is larger. But I've no reason to doubt the numbers--they seem to be in the right ballpark. In a competitive, technical community like this one, 2-5% women is about what experience tells me to expect. Fighter pilots are a similar, if more extreme, example: <http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/fighters.html>

The phenomenon simply is what it is -- I do not know or speculate on the cause. But I find it fascinating that many people feel compelled to quickly invent stories to explain it away. A little encounter with heresy seems to provoke a defensive rush into mythology.

I think a little cognitive dissonance, a little acceptance of heretical fact, a little uncomfortable admission of ignorance, is good for intellectual hygeine; I welcome and cherish odd little phenomena like this, even if--in fact, _especially because_ \--they run so counter to my beliefs and expectations.

<comment><USER7> Not sure what the point you are trying to make - there is a huge difference between 2% and 6% (factor of 3 to be precise). I personally would think it would be 5% at least, so I chose to believe the poll that confirms my preformed opinion :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Will you remove some of the obvious fake outliers from the data set? eg. Line 338 on the .csv file is a 99 year old female self-employed, pre-high schooler with 10+ kids working 140 hours per week and earning $1M per year. Sounds a little suspect to me...

Not to mention the 22 year old student who completed the questionaire 4 times and has 70 years of experience, works negative hours and earns $100M.

Or the divorced 407 year old female with 700 years of experience and 8 kids.

<comment><AUTHOR> I decided not to filter the data in the interest of giving anyone the ability to use the exact data set I received. For my personal use, yes, I removed the bad data. But as far as giving out the csv, I thought it made more sense to give people the full set and let them decide (honestly, some people are fishy, but not obviously fake... so it'd be hard to be fair).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder what the =SUM() of the yearly wage is after all the 'for the lulz' posts are filtered. Kinda curious what percentage of the US GDP the HN readership is :)

<comment><USER12> [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=0.00318+percent+of+1415...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=0.00318+percent+of+14150000000000)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The CSV file is wonderful. Now I know (among numerous other things), how many people took the survey before me.

My line in the survey can be defined by surprisingly few fields.

<comment><USER14> Me too. The first thing I did was try to find my record. It was easy because my salary figure was fairly unique.

<comment><USER15> It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if your Age, Salary and hours are unique in the table. In fact, I'm relative certain that any two of the numerical fields (family excluded, since so many people had 0) would uniquely identify you, or at least limit it to on a handful of individuals. The concept of "Anonymous data" is largely non-existant; if you know who you're looking for in a table of anonymous data, you can usually find them.

<comment><USER14> Hmm. I whipped up a quick python script to test this theory.

      Age,Hours Wrkd,Income was unique ~89% of the time
      Age,Hours Wrkd, Yrs in industy,Income was unique 97% of the time
      Age,Education,Hours Wrkd,Income was unique 94% of the time
      Age,Education,Hours Wrkd,Yrs in Industry,Income was unique 98% of the time

Here it is if anyone wants to play with it. <http://paste.pocoo.org/show/136649/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> 91% of the people that answered attended college. Can we stop with all the "College is useless" submissions now?

<comment><USER17> Could you please explain this logic? Wouldn't ~90% of us attending college, then seeing its effects, qualify us to comment on the topic?

<comment><USER16> You're telling the, at most 9% of the rest of us how useless it is. I just don't think it really contributes anything.

<comment><USER17> By that logic, all of the linux zealots out there should stop encouraging people to use linux since all the linux people already use it.

Is that about right?

We're telling the other 9% "Hey, guys, learn from our mistakes! Have a nice day!".

<comment><USER18> I guess 91% of us are saying "Don't sweat the small stuff such as a degree". However, I wish unlearning the college stuff would have been as easier as a switch to linux :)

<comment><USER17> I wish getting the money that I spent back would have been as easy as switching to linux.

Oh, idea, OPEN SOURCE SCHOOLING!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Hackers appear to have a startlingly low divorce rate.

<comment><USER20> perhaps they are more adapt at finding bugs and implementing fixes in all realms of their lives?

<comment><USER21> "I want a divorce.":

"Hold up, let's backtrack and work this through step by step to see if we can isolate this bug."

<comment><USER20> Yeah and unfortunately there comes a time when you have to admit that the entire premise of the project was flawed and it's time to liquidate and start- up a new.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I was looking at the guys that make 100k+. It seems that there is a correlation between having a girlfriend/wife and making more money. I'm wondering why? Doesn't having a girlfriend/wife take some more of your time when you could do some coding?

P.S. Wow. I've always thought that this is a very vibrant community and full of intelligent people. It seems I was right. But man even if I'd wish I just can't read all the comments and everything in here, and I'm sure there many worth reading.

<comment><USER23> According to stereotype, the causality flows the other way, and having more money is likely to get you a girlfriend or wife. I suspect the stereotype is somewhat wrong and that more money leads to more free time, which leads to more friends and fun activities, which leads to a girlfriend or wife.

<comment><USER24> The stereotype is not wrong at all. Women are attracted to resources, and this is well established both in humans and in non-human animals. The reason is because women bear most of the inherent costs of child rearing (9 months gestation, breastfeeding, etc). However, providing sperm is not a very costly endeavor. Since females can afford to be choosy (that is, there are many males willing to spend the low cost of a load of sperm or two) they'll choose males with resources, all things being equal. Theoretically this male will lessen the inherent cost to the female by perhaps providing her with food during pregnancy and breastfeeding as well as for the child after it's weaned.

In some birds and mammals, females will choose males that have a bigger or better territory. In some cases, if a male has an especially big territory, the male will attract more than one female. (Emlen S. & Oring, L. 1977. Science 197 , 215-222)

In insects, which tend to not have bi-parental care, this is usually in the form of a "nuptial gift" which is basically a nutritious package that comes along with the sperm (Vahed, K. 1998. The function of nuptial feeding in insects: A review of empirical studies. Biol. Rev, 73:43-78.)

<comment><USER22> I agree too that women are attracted among other things (celebrity,intelligence, etc) to resources. I would be more specific and mention financial resources nowadays.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Great job!

You must know us as well as we know ourselves because you included the raw data. For a hacker, this is a starting point, not a result. I can't help myself; I've already started my mini-project of building my own data base and reports from your data. Thank you!

(I'm curious what the 407 year old female and 7,000 year old male do to take care of themselves :-)

<comment><USER15> Yep, thank you very much for releasing the raw data too. I've just been playing with it a little, but here's some interesting factoids I've pulled out so far:

* The only people to mark "Private" as their income had at least a bachelor's degree.

* Out of the responders, the average income for people with a High School education was 58,967.73, some college was 70518.36, and a bachelor's degree was 72603.26 (Note that I removed anyone who marked >1 million as their income, since it skewed things massively).

* The median incomes were HS: 50,000, Some College: 55,000, Bachelor's: 65,000.

I also noticed that several people marked that they made $0 this year, but were not unemployed or students. Would anyone mind clarifying that one?

<comment><AUTHOR> Good stuff! I think the employed, no income might be startup types who aren't paying themselves (just a guess).

<comment><USER26> Your assumption is correct (at least for me).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Who are the 5 that have 10+ in their family?

</comment><comment><USER28> Perhaps it's the fact that I have to use IE to view certain sites from work (had to vote Corporation), but the age, avg. hours, years in industry, and pre-tax income results are not showing the horizontal bar charts like the other question results.

Very interesting to see the data results, thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> This is due to how Google allows you to collect data. Those fields were 'open' so Google doesn't know it can show them in any way other than a list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> 61% Single!

Horrible. I'd recommend getting a life.</comment>


Shanghai City in panoramic view in 195 gigapixels - <AUTHOR> http://sh-meet.bigpixel.cn/ <comment><USER2> By looking at the river you can notice a moiré pattern with lines both horizontal and vertical to the camera, although the vertical lines are more apparent. I figure these would be either artifacts from the stitching process, or limitations of the lens itself. The effect also correlates in size and shape with out of focus areas, which can likewise be found in the river, signaling that it is indeed an artifact caused by the panorama.

I guess you can take this as an exercise for the future when you can't quite figure out whether you are stuck in a virtual reality or not.

<comment><USER3> When you clear the cache or visit the site for the first time and zoom in, you can see the tiles load. These lines are at the stiching borders, and coming from the stiching algorithm.

Lens/sensor limit moire looks very different when compared to this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Prototype concept car spotted:

[https://imgur.com/a/LhAyUF9](https://imgur.com/a/LhAyUF9)

<comment><USER5> Haha, I don't know what I was expecting but that made me chuckle.

I wonder if anyone's put together a collection of amusing "inadvertent Photoshops" from botched panorama stitching.

Nothing I've seen yet tops this specimen of neural net weirdness:

[https://i.imgur.com/60fTgCg](https://i.imgur.com/60fTgCg)

<comment><USER4> That is awesome. Maybe even frameworthy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Police officers contemplating ice cream, the simple things in life

[https://imgur.com/a/0jF5JzN](https://imgur.com/a/0jF5JzN)

</comment><comment><USER7> Find this toilet paper

[https://imgur.com/a/GTnzYvo](https://imgur.com/a/GTnzYvo)

<comment><USER8> [https://imgur.com/a/NCPHqIr](https://imgur.com/a/NCPHqIr)

<comment><USER7> that was quick

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Am I the only one who gets a "FATAL ERROR: 404" message? I tried from different browsers on different devices. Wonder if they just block some countries?

<comment><USER10> Try adding a ? at the end of the url, for some reason that makes it work for me

<comment><USER11> Probably the CDN was dead. With ? in the end you invalidate the cache and goes directly to the backend server.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> That's incredible. If you zoom in on the tippy top of huge building under construction across the river and then follow the crane cable down to the hook, you can see a construction worker in sufficient detail that you can tell what clothes he's wearing.

<comment><USER13> It's like one of those cop show computer lab scenes where the detectives find a vital clue from a witness' blurry 5 megapixel cell phone photo.

"Wait a minute. Why didn't I see it earlier? _Zoom and enhance_ on that smudge!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> That is the most performant and responsive panorama I have ever seen!

<comment><USER15> It really puts map websites loading for around a second or more after panning/zooming into perspective.

<comment><USER14> It really does!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The next generation of where's Waldo is going to be incredible

</comment><comment><USER17> It's interesting seeing how they dealt with moving objects like the boats.

If you scan anti-clockwise until the river is hidden behind the buildings you should see two tour boats with "China Bohai Bank" on the side. One appears to be pulling in and one pull out. If you look at the passengers - it's actually the same boat. If you follow the river clockwise, you'll see two barges carrying dark material. Again, these are the same boat.

I could be mistaken, but it seems in both cases that some 'manual effort' would have been involved to make the picture look natural by placing the duplicates slightly out of position as if they were two individual boats.

<comment><USER18> People too, unless this lady has an identical twin with the same umbrella [https://imgur.com/NQ5keHY](https://imgur.com/NQ5keHY)

I haven't seen any ugly merges between the frames yet, but they can't have been done manually

<comment><USER19> [https://imgur.com/a/hgBdkJJ](https://imgur.com/a/hgBdkJJ)

This one looks a bit dodgy

<comment><USER20> Nah, that's just how it looks there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> How are pictures like these taken? What kind of equipment would you need?

<comment><USER22> They are shot with a dSLR and a very long lens. This one was likely shot with a 300mm lens. The camera is mounted on a programmable robot, and a mosaic of photos is created. They are then stitched together with software such as PTGui or kolor Autopano Giga. I've shot a number of images like this, in fact some of them over 4x bigger than this one. My largest one, of Prague, was released 2 weeks ago: [http://360gigapixels.com/prague_gigapixel_panorama_900K_2018...](http://360gigapixels.com/prague_gigapixel_panorama_900K_2018..).

you can see more about my gigapixel images here: [http://www.jeffrey- martin.com/gigapixel-photography](http://www.jeffrey-martin.com/gigapixel- photography)

<comment><USER23> Prague link fix: [http://360gigapixels.com/prague_gigapixel_panorama_900K_2018...](http://360gigapixels.com/prague_gigapixel_panorama_900K_2018/)

How long it takes for robot to take all the pictures and how many pictures there is?

<comment><USER22> Prague was 3 hours per dataset. I was there for 3 days in the cold and rain, shooting multiple datasets, from 8am to 4pm last year in November.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Phenomenal. Can clearly read the text on the billboards on the tennis court. "Twosome apply together second enjoy discount".

</comment><comment><USER25> I think we hugged it to death based on the 404... :(

</comment><comment><USER26> There's a lot to explore. I love that circular crosswalk. It also makes me smile to see the potted houseplants on the blue-roofed barge. Can't quite read the QR codes on the Disney fence, though.

</comment><comment><USER27> Better version: [http://www.bigpixel.cn/t/5834170785f26b37002af46d](http://www.bigpixel.cn/t/5834170785f26b37002af46d)

And from the other side of the river: [http://www.bigpixel.cn/t/57ecedae64b1bf2050ab00c1](http://www.bigpixel.cn/t/57ecedae64b1bf2050ab00c1)

</comment><comment><USER28> Find the ghost: [https://ibb.co/1bkxxG6](https://ibb.co/1bkxxG6)

</comment><comment><USER29> You can see the amphibious warfare ship, Wuzhi Shan, being fitted out at the Hudong–Zhonghua shipyard.

</comment><comment><USER30> I spy Mickey mouse

<comment><USER30> [https://photos.app.goo.gl/kc3vGpHfX8HRoenH8](https://photos.app.goo.gl/kc3vGpHfX8HRoenH8)

<comment><USER31> Top of the HSBC building.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'm really surprised by how few people there are walking around on the street. You can see the people on the observation deck of World Financial Tower pretty clearly though.

</comment><comment><USER33> This is my favorite photo now. I can relate my recent trip to Shanghai now. But these photos are very old I think because I'm missing tower inside the lawns of Disney store.

</comment><comment><USER30> Person without a head [https://photos.app.goo.gl/RyP2dwJ13S2Lv6Zh9](https://photos.app.goo.gl/RyP2dwJ13S2Lv6Zh9)

</comment><comment><USER34> I sadly get:

This site can't be reached. sh-meet.bigpixel.cn's server IP address could not be found.

I'm using CloudFlare DNS.

<comment><USER35> I had similar issue. If you had adblock on, turning it off helped me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> The streets seem quite empty btw

</comment><comment><USER37> Let's look into others' perceived privacy from a viewpoint several km away.

<comment><USER38> you have no expectation of privacy in a public place, even when you're NOT in China.

<comment><USER37> Being IN China (should be clear from comment history, don't understand that capitalisation of 'NOT'), I do indeed get the idea a public space is a public space, a Public Security place. And there's lots of observation, indeed, though mainly passive.

Buying a high-rise apartment includes many incentives, not just the colour of the plaster of the wall and compound security, which many of these Shanghai high-rises over on Bund side have, but, for many friends and colleagues that purchase one, that is is indeed a private space that should not have someone's camera pointed at them.

Anecdote is anecdote though. As is assumption.

<comment><USER3> These gigapixel images are an extreme kind of landscape photography. None of these people are directly targeted in this photography.

Even street photography doesn't target people as-is. They become objects, they are stripped from their identity. They are part of the picture only.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> [https://i.imgur.com/iaKNFrd.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/iaKNFrd.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER40> Wow, this is a lot of visual information! I wonder how it was done?

<comment><USER41> hundreds or thousands of pictures stitched together. they use a motorised "tripod" to move the camera.

<comment> King-Aaron Yep, I was wondering the same thing until I noticed that the traffic was a bit off... You'll notice the same cars appearing in multiple sections of the image

[https://i.imgur.com/Jz4JmZM.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Jz4JmZM.jpg)

<comment><USER42> Could the car have moved at the same time as the camera, such that it appeared in two different pictures which were later stitched together?

<comment><USER43> Yep, that's usually the giveaway of these types of panorama shots. Sometimes you can even find the same person in multiple places depending on how far apart the pics are taken.

<comment><USER44> Here's a quick screenshot I made of that very problem:

[https://i.imgur.com/C6Vzoc8.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/C6Vzoc8.jpg)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I see a black screen on Firefox on Windows 10

<comment><USER46> Disable adblocker.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> This is really cool! But the ad is annoying

</comment><comment><USER48> I wonder which camera/lens they used?!

<comment><USER3> It's a high end, full frame, high resolution (36+ MP) SLR or mirrorless. Nikon d850, Sony A7R3, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> There has to be someone naked. Let's find him/her.

</comment><comment><USER50> That water looks so inviting I want to jump in... not.

</comment><comment><USER51> Ballari

</comment><comment><USER52> Someone hide Waldo in there

<comment><USER41> I would actually love to find a game that uses one of these "gigapixel" images.

Who can find this person? :) [https://ibb.co/5Y72GGG](https://ibb.co/5Y72GGG)

<comment><USER53> [https://ibb.co/6WrgD2h](https://ibb.co/6WrgD2h) [https://ibb.co/0hmLbcK](https://ibb.co/0hmLbcK) [https://ibb.co/0fKXfY0](https://ibb.co/0fKXfY0) [https://ibb.co/WGSZj8S](https://ibb.co/WGSZj8S)

I spent far too long finding that. Great game, haha

<comment><USER41> haha, nice find :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> vim-guru This is quite creepy

<comment><USER54> I agree. And if even that is not a permissible reaction to have, I'm sure my observation, that this is to photography what a million monkeys banging on a typewriter is to writing, won't fly either ^^

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> I love how clearly you can see the smog. Really cool pic though.

</comment><comment><USER56> Holy cow the pixels!!!! Sooo mannyyyy. Zoom in!</comment>


The story of Vatler's shutdown - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/startup-study-group/inside-story-of-vatler-s-shut-down-8c42bad83f09#.924xpnwfc <comment><USER2> > "Suddenly, two months ago, we received a phone call from the city explaining > that traditional parking companies were not happy with the way we were > poaching business from them and that we had to slow down our growth. We > ignored this warning."

This was the mistake (and strongly reminiscent of the mistake they made with sweetch) they ignored the people who set rules for their business. Overcoming the incumbent competitors is a challenge because they've existed for quite some time, a less idealistic (more mature?) businessman could've identified this and started conversations with the appropriate people in power before they were forced to seek their assistance as an unknown.

If things operated like they were supposed to, Vatler would've stood a chance, in most cities there is a complex web of politics to navigate and these guys ignored that twice. Airbnb has gotten by because it's impossible for hoteliers to identify the residences that are taking their business, valets are on the street and labeled so they have to address the issue much sooner.

These guys are super talented and I want them to succeed but I hope they finally learnt their lesson about getting ahead of the politics, otherwise their next business will end the same way as the last two.

</comment><comment><USER3> That almost sounds like a case of criminally corrupt city officials and police department? Shows how important it is to separate PDs from politicians to enable them act as independently as possible to just uphold the law.

"Suddenly, two months ago, we received a phone call from the city explaining that traditional parking companies were not happy with the way we were poaching business from them and that we had to slow down our growth. We ignored this warning. Ten days later, we received a phone call from the police department telling us that our permits had not been granted and they gave us a warning because we were operating illegally in most of our locations."

<comment><USER4> Did these people not have lawyers? That's what I don't understand. The job of the police is not to help you understand the law. I suspect that the other valet companies had their lawyers send a letter to the police explaining the law and how Vatler violated it. If you'r going to operate in a regulated environment you can complain about it, or bring lawyers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The concept did not work in San Francisco, therefore shut it down? How entrepreneurial is that? Answer: none. Is there an assumption that if it cannot work in SFO, it won't work anywhere? I completely disagree. Take your MVP to a more friendly town and try again.

</comment><comment><USER6> Interested to hear from people inside of VATLER about Luxe ([http://luxe.com](http://luxe.com)). I see people in Luxe hoodies and scooters all over San Francisco. Seems like Luxe is doing awesome and taking over. What did they do different from VATLER?

<comment><USER7> AFAICT: It looks like it might possibly that VATLER was working as a valet provider for the locations, instead of a general valet provider to the end- customer. Luxe has no specific valet locations, but is more widely available. Not quite sure if that is enough to side-step the permitting process, but it looks like it's a possibility.

      [0]> This permit is required for any valet parking
      operator who performs parking services at a restaurant
      or any place that regularly uses valet services.

[0]: [http://businessportal.sfgov.org/node/2979](http://businessportal.sfgov.org/node/2979)</comment></comment>


The 3 Most Common Topics You Hear as a Lyft Driver - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/rideshare-journal/the-3-most-common-topics-you-hear-as-a-lyft-driver-14de5ba064dc <comment><USER2> As a lyft rider, I am surprised to have had 3 lyft drivers who moved to the bay area in the 80s, own several houses and have a net worth of several million.

The conversations I have had with lyft drivers have been very interesting. Besides the convenience of not having to drive myself, meeting the drivers has been a wonderful experience. I've learned a lot.

Just today a driver told me: if you are sad, you are too focused in the past, stressed ... too focused on the present, anxious ... too focused on the future.

<comment><USER3> I've had a few rides with such drivers. Generally they are older and want to continually experience the world, so they drive so they can talk to people about their life experiences. It's one of the cooler and more positive byproducts of this rapid change in the transport economy that has had much media coverage of negatives.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> >Liked this article? Please subscribe to the newsletter above and recommend the article below!

Which article?

For once the title is not click-baity and it is actually true and accurate, a list of three most common topics heard (and nothing else).</comment>


How Growth Will Burst the Tech Bubble - <AUTHOR> https://www.theinformation.com/how-growth-will-burst-the-tech-bubble <comment><USER2> requires paid login</comment>


Customer service, not Ruby on Rails - <AUTHOR> http://www.zeldman.com/2009/05/12/customer-service-not-ruby-on-rails/ <comment><USER2> woopdidoo!! As if allowing the customer to close their account is really so 'above and beyond'. We all know that the primary reason for 37Signals' success is RoR.</comment>


Readers' Choice for TIME's Person of the Year 2010: Julian Assange - <AUTHOR> http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2028734_2029036,00.html

<comment><USER2> Dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1990612></comment>


Emerging Best Practices in Swift - <AUTHOR> https://realm.io/news/gotocph-ash-furrow-best-practices-swift/ <comment><USER2> The second code example ("if you were doing this before ARC") is completely wrong. "alloc" is a class method that allocates memory for an instance, on which "init" is then called. Calling it on an instance returned by a factory method is nonsensical.

The error is made consistently all three times, so it's clear that the author is genuinely confused about Objective-C. Maybe he's better at Swift, but it doesn't look good.

<comment><USER3> The code samples were weird. Why injected property has to be optional, we can inject it using the constructor.

<comment><USER4> I think the DI was for a view controller in this case. In normal usage I would agree. DI -> use the constructor. Even in languages like Java and C# I would advocate constructor injection. View controllers and where they get instantiated with storyboards, xibs, etc? Not so much.

<comment><USER5> Yup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm a bit curious as to why people talk about "protocol oriented" as something new. It seems to me to be just a way of doing interface-oriented programming, like people coding in java have been doing for the last ten years, as well as golang dev, and many other languages... Am i missing a difference, or is it just not to confuse people that only develop in objective-c ?

</comment><comment><USER7> Is the currying example even currying? It looks like it's just a function returning a function to me. I thought currying it's some thing like func contains(subString: String, string: String) -> Bool, and calling contains("a") would automatically return a func(x: String) -> Bool.

<comment><USER8> Currying refers to the process of taking a function that accepts multiple arguments, and turning it into a sequence of functions, each accepting a single argument. The example you provide would be more aptly described as partial application, which is the process of fixing a number of arguments to a function, producing a function of smaller arity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yeah, sorry for the typos in the slides – I missed them while proofreading and unfortunately can't correct them now.

I think the people in this thread discussing how my stylistic choices are "wrong" may have missed my point. Too bad.

</comment><comment><USER9> Why is this explicitly testing for false:

      if defaults.boolForKey("launchBefore") == false {

rather than:

      if !defaults.boolForKey("launchBefore") {

<comment><USER10> I use this style myself. It is way easier to read than `!condition`. If you are scanning the code, a single `!` at the beginning of the condition won't stand out that much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Unrelated: Is there a plugin syncing speaker deck and the video? Or something custom?

<comment><USER8> Its based on [http://presentz.org](http://presentz.org), which sadly appears to no longer be maintained.</comment></comment>


How Money Moves Around The Banking System - <AUTHOR> http://gendal.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/a-simple-explanation-of-how-money-moves-around-the-banking-system/ <comment><USER2> No mention of cross-currency payments/settlement which, given how Bitcoin is currently being used, is more relevant than bank transfers within the same country.

An overview of CLS is a good starting point: [http://www.snb.ch/en/mmr/reference/continuous_linked_settlem...](http://www.snb.ch/en/mmr/reference/continuous_linked_settlement/source)

<comment><USER3> Hi there,

Richard Brown here - the author of the linked article.

Very good point re FX and CLS. I wanted to make the article as simple as possible so as to bring out the fundamental concepts (correspondent banking, deferred net settlement, real-time gross settlement, etc).

In so doing, I had to make some gross simplifications and omissions - the most obvious being ignoring FX but I also made a sleight of hand by implying that banks _within a country_ use the correspondent arrangement I outlined.

However, I hope - even with these simplifications - the concepts came across clearly.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Richard

<comment><USER2> I am instinctively against over-simplification of this sort of thing because, in my experience, the devil is in the detail and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

<comment><USER3> Well, I certainly hope nobody tries to build a system off the back of that blogpost!

But I think there is a lot to be said for helping people build useful mental models. My experience is that people either have _no_ mental model for how money moves or have models that are just _wrong_.

So anything we can do to impart some insight has to be a good thing.... but you're right: a little knowledge can be very dangerous :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting how payments work in different countries. For example, in Australia when dealing in AUD, banks can participate in end-of-day multilateral netting. That is, all the banks' inflows and outflows to all other banks are netted and sent to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

The RBA is the banks' bank which holds bank's AUD denominated deposits in their separate accounts. Once the bank-to-bank net amounts have been calculated the RBA shuffles around a few numbers in databases to execute all the interbank transfers.

It sounds like in the USA banks have to have accounts with each other in order to affect transfers. The RBA effectively adds a layer of indirection and in some ways ensures banks are meeting their capital requirements.

 _Edit_ : I didn't read far enough. The UK has an impressive implementation of a Real-Time Gross Settlement system. My thoughts on the US interbank transfer system were coloured by a recent NPR Planet Money podcast ([http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-489-the- invisible-plumbing-of-our-economy)) where they compare the US and UK systems.

<comment><USER5> Isn't it the same as the original article description of deferred net settlement? I believe most country-local-currency systems are (or used to) run this way.

<comment><USER6> > This thought process motivated the creation of deferred net settlement > systems. In the UK, BACS is such a system and equivalents exist all over the > world.

Also, I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't do it this way.

<comment><USER7> > Also, I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't do it this way.

Credit risk and liquidity risk, as well as systemic risk exasperated by asynchronous transfers and time lag.

Banks do sometimes go bankrupt. While MFGlobal was not a bank, it did demonstrate difficulty in unwinding client funds. LCFIs [2] usually cross regulatory environments, and failures of financial institutions are numerous, the combination quite unsettling. Herstatt [3] in 1974 led to continuous settlement in FX, having received DEM but not paying out USD. There's quite a reason for sometimes not netting things.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MF_Global](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MF_Global) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_and_complex_financial_in...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_and_complex_financial_institutions) [3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herstatt_Bank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herstatt_Bank)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Interesting ! An excellent introduction is also available as a coursera class (by Perry Mehrling from Columbia U) at [https://www.coursera.org/course/money](https://www.coursera.org/course/money) and [https://www.coursera.org/course/money2](https://www.coursera.org/course/money2) !

<comment><USER9> +1 on the coursera classes, Mr. Mehrling is an amazing teacher and really knows the subject well. I finished part 1 of his course and am close to finishing part 2.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Bitcoin resembles a lot more a one bank operation where accounts are settled immediately and at zero cost. Not an interbank, expensive, RTGS system.

I would also rather ask not how Bitcoin can squeeze into the banking system jigsaw puzzle, but how this puzzle can be optimized to be as effective as Bitcoin.

<comment><USER11> But transfering bitcoin is not instant and not free is it? Please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I understood you will have to wait for your transaction to be included in a (few steps of the?) chain, and unless you pay a fee you might not get included for a while?

And is there not possible that in the future, if the amount of transaction increase as bitcoin becomes more popular, and the money you get from mining goes to zero, that transactions with fees will be the only ones accepted (at a reasonable rate)?

<comment><USER12> The transaction is propagated through the network in a few seconds. The bitcoin wallet will allow you to spend the funds received, even if they are not confirmed by the network[1]. You simply add the risk of a double-spend attack against your balance, if an attacker also sent coins to someone else.

It is up to miner discretion which transactions to include in blocks. If the fee included is zero, then many miners will pass on your transaction, and it may take longer to confirm the original transaction.

[1] [https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3288#issuecomment-...](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3288#issuecomment-28923237)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> What would also be interesting would be an explanation of how this then ties in to the "headline" short term interest rate that the Fed, ECB, Bank of England etc. set.

All the ground work has been laid - and I think many people would be interested to know the mechanics behind what happens when the Bank of England "cuts rates" or "raises rates".

The only other place I've seen this explained well is at the start of the book "Pricing Money" by J.D.A Wiseman - but that's not available online.

<comment><USER14> In summary \- banks' liabilities to you (your deposits) are backed by assets. One of these is cash, but this doesn't earn the bank any return. Banks therefore prefer to hold much larger quantities of interest-earning assets like loans made to other parties, or government bonds (these are assets to a bank because they are promises by third parties to pay _the bank_ money in the long term).

\- For the same reasons as the payment clearing system is "netted-out" at the end of the day, the balancing of these banks' assets and liabilities is netted-out at the end of the day. If the risk-weighted assets of one bank doesn't match its liabilities - particularly if it doesn't have enough cash - it needs to borrow from another bank. If a bank has _too much_ non-interest earning cash at the end of the day, on the other hand it will prefer to earn a low risk return by lending to another bank. This is the "base interest rate" we're talking about; the minimum amount of return a bank expects from making a very safe loan.

\- Banks could earn a similarly low-risk and low-return by buying government bonds with their spare cash instead, so the interbank lending rate is closely linked to bond prices. The Fed, ECB or Bank of England can take advantage of this by buying and selling government bonds to keep the interbank lending rate at a target level.

\- Why would they want to do this? Because the interbank lending rate (and bond prices) affects the rates for all other types of lending that banks do (the interbank lending rate _plus_ a usually relatively large risk premium, plus a bit on top for profit).

\- Why would they care so much about the price of lending? Because as the banking system's balance between assets and liabilities is only required to be _eventually_ consistent, banks are given the right to create loans that far exceed the cash (and other banks' liabilities) previously deposited with them, provided they can borrow the funds at the end of the day. And because this credit creation is legal - and essential to financial markets' efficient operation - the only way the government can influence the total quantity of money circulating in the economy is by manipulating the minimum _price_ of credit. As the total amount of credit created by the banking system far exceeds the amount of cash created by the central bank, the economy is _very sensitive_ to the effect of small interest rate changes on demand for credit.

<comment><USER15> Minor quibble: banks do earn interest on reserve balances since 2008. The rate maintenance strategy was changed at that time to address cost instead of quantity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Using todays technology SWIFT (or any other online messaging system for the matter) does not have to be expensive.

I did not study extensively the banking system, but I figured that the central bank was the _missing part_ of the post right away. How did I do it? Because the central bank should do exactly that: CONTROL THE BANKS IN ORDER TO AVOID THEM GOING BURST without anyone noticing (rings a bell?). Now the fact that they NEVER do, is a nice topic for discussion, why exactly to we pay them? Just to guess what the right monetary policy for the next 6 months will be?

This post explains why sending money from a bank's perspective _might be_ expensive. But what it really shows is that _it does not have to be_ if everyone was doing their job right (central bank included) and be held accountable when shit hits the fan.

As of today exchanging BTC (an asset anyway) to currency is expensive and not straight-forward. How exactly is someone going to exchange 150m BTC in USD/EUR without getting noticed? In what amount of time???

BTC is not optimal for this kind of transactions. An inflationary e-currency, widely acceptable and easily exchangeable would be one hell of an option, but good luck persuading people to use it if you re not a government.

</comment><comment><USER17> Very interesting article. I work in writing some financial software (consumer facing) and I have never actually read about how the banking system works. Just the other day I was writing some code to make SWIFT transfers.

</comment><comment><USER18> To quote Liar's Poker: "How does money move around the world...any which way it likes".

</comment><comment><USER19> This was a puzzling diagram: [http://gendal.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/single-bank- settle...](http://gendal.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/single-bank- settlement.png)

Why not put Alice and Bob side by side?

<comment><USER3> You're right - sorry. I drew the whole slide first and then subtracted pieces to support the flow of the story. It meant some parts were a bit squashed.... and you're right that, in isolation, the early diagrams look a bit confusing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Related course on Coursera [https://class.coursera.org/money-001/class](https://class.coursera.org/money-001/class) It changed my vision about the complexity of the banking system.

</comment><comment><USER21> _" in my expecience, almost nobody actually understands how payment systems work"_

This was my experience as well. I can't understand why everybody fell for the hype. Loads of money are transfered every hour.

And we don't know anything about the $150m Bitcoin transaction. Maybe the owner just moved it to one of his other wallets.

<comment><USER22> Indications are that it was Bitstamp shuffling money around.

<comment><USER23> What are the indications?

<comment><USER24> "who has loads of money? Bitstamp? Maybe it was them"

Is basically what the "investigations" I read boiled down to

<comment><USER25> I thought that many of the accounts that funneled into the one big account were known to be bitstamps?

Now, I'm not 100% sure why those were known or thought to be bitstamps in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I doubt if bitcoin really resembles RTGS; for one thing there is no central agency involved. Or may be it does if you consider distributed network of nodes which does "proof of work" for your bitcoin transaction as a Central Bank

<comment><USER3> Exactly. My contention is that you can perhaps regard the _entire_ Bitcoin network (of full nodes) as providing RTGS services for the Bitcoin currency.

The question, then, is: "is this sufficient"? Do we believe _all_ Bitcoin transactions would be transacted over this system (i.e. over the blockchain) in the future or will we see aggregators akin to DNSs?

I see the work of Mike Hearn and others on micropayment channels as innovative examples of what a DNS for Bitcoin might look like.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> This was a fantastic read, and very educational. I was most surprised to see it put as we are lending money to our banks. Thought there might be mention of FDIC but didn't see any.

</comment><comment><USER28> Well worth watching the videos on [http://www.positivemoney.org](http://www.positivemoney.org)

<comment><USER29> Looks like a site with an Agenda (with a capital A) rather than something more neutral/academic/created to inform. I'm always wary of those kinds of groups if I'm trying to learn about something.

<comment><USER30> I highly recommend Khan academy as a better set of videos to inform on this topic ([https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core- fi...](https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core- finance/money-and-banking)).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> no mention of DTC/Gray screen?</comment>


The Tiniest Nuclear Plant Is Coming to Idaho - <AUTHOR> https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a31045491/smallest-nuclear-plant-oklo-aurora/ <comment><USER2> I'm the cofounder of Oklo. Thanks for submitting this to HN! Feel free to AMA.</comment>


Google's Latest Acquisition: The perils of licensing to your competitors - <AUTHOR> http://www.asymco.com/2011/08/15/the-perils-of-licensing-to-your-competitors/

<comment><USER2> Is it only me that think's this guy's a nutter that gets by by saying whatever Apple fans want to hear? Here's some of his startlingly wrong predictions about the smartphone market from last year:

[http://www.asymco.com/2010/11/03/what-do-you-have-to- believe...](http://www.asymco.com/2010/11/03/what-do-you-have-to-believe-for- an-android-dominated-future/)

His key arguments where that:

* Android wouldn't grow faster than the average of RIM, Nokia, HP and Apple.

* Nokia wouldn't dump Symbian&Meego for someone else's OS.

* Android wouldn't do a great deal better than Windows Mobile

* Android vendors wouldn't be profitable

So not very good really, in fact a total blowout. Maybe he knows stuff about Apple, to be honest I think he's just like a sports fan during a season when his team is playing well. His elaborate theories of why they are succeeding don't seem to mesh with reality much, except in that Apple is doing very well, and I'm not sure he cares if they do or not.

<comment><USER3> It's just one of many, many websites that makes their money by pandering to a niche.

It's tasteless, but profitable.

<comment><USER4> >It's tasteless, but profitable.

The problem is that they are bandied about as independent opinion and analysis.

Gruber sells ads on his RSS feeds, which seem to cost thousands of dollars each, thanks to advertising by iOS apps. No wonder he plays to his fanbase with the pro-Apple and anti-Google/Android/MS rhetoric. He must be laughing all the way to the bank while thinking up his next 'The precisely perfect placement of the Chair at Macworld' and 'Dirty Percent' article. Also, he gets invited to Apple events, which may quickly disappear if he gets too critical(see Gizmodo).

<comment><USER5> Just because people don't share your opinion doesn't mean that they are purposefully lying. It's a quite common fallacy, really.

<comment><USER4> "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" -Sinclair

Regardless of the above quote, I do not accuse them of lying. But there's a strong elementy of hypocrisy and fanboyism, both in supporting Apple almost all the time, and screaming bloody murder and abject criticism of any moves by Apple's competitors.

Do you seriously think analysis by Asymco, Gruber and Marco regarding Apple are the flawless gospel truth?

The fallacy you mention would apply more to the accusations of commenters being paid MS shills, which happens all the time here on HN too.

<comment><USER5> _Do you seriously think analysis by Asymco, Gruber and Marco regarding Apple are the flawless gospel truth?_

Why would I have to believe that in order to respect their opinions? I'm not going to sink to the level and just attack them without actually engaging with their arguments. They are coherent and they have arguments, they deserve a response and not just blind attacks.

I'm not sure what any accusations (So, when did that happen?) have to do with that.

<comment><USER6> >They are coherent and they have arguments, they deserve a response and not just blind attacks.

The OP is a good example of this. Asymco's wrong many times and whenever it's wrong it's seems to have erred on the side of Apple. Still, the headlines draw interest and page views. What does that tell you?

For example, lets take this post. [http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/08/15/apple-samsung- im...](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/08/15/apple-samsung-images)

If it was Google or MS instead of Apple there, Gruber would be screaming bloody murder about wilful manipulation of the law to further their ends and harm Apple's ascendancy. Am I wrong?

Since it is Apple, it is just 'one image' and 'sloppy lawyering'. Very predictable even before you read it. This is the opinion that we are all supposed to respect?

It's called spin, or a very biased opinion that needs to be taken with a spoon of salt. It's as close to Apple PR as you can get, aimed at a very specific audience.

<comment><USER5> Gruber generally never screams bloody murder. You also should never read him expecting an unbiased opinion of Google. That's not the value proposition and it never was.

It's very weird what you expect of Gruber. It just doesn't make any sense.

<comment><USER6> >It's very weird what you expect of Gruber. It just doesn't make any sense.

Just a little more honesty and less hypocrisy would certainly help. As the OP said, those sites are more like sports team fanboy sites or political mouthpieces tailored to the audience/readers.

To go off on a funny tangent:

Well, maybe I just don't get it unless I am in the RDF myself. [http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/17/bbc-loving-apple-looks- like-a...](http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/17/bbc-loving-apple-looks-like-a- religion-to-an-mri-scan/)

That is why maybe all those sites feels weird to me but seem perfectly fine to many others!

<comment><USER5> Yeah, those crazy lunatics! Let's smile smugly and ignore their incoherent rambling!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _"Symbian was formed to be governed in a way very similar to the original Android via the Open Handset Alliance."_

Riiiiight. I was at an OHA company during the early Android days post-Google. OHA was created by Google to make their subcontractors _look_ like "partners" in Android development. There was no boss other than Google in this project.

</comment><comment><USER8> Google could shut down Motorola Mobility's hardware business, keeping its patents.

<comment><USER6> Are you serious?

<comment><USER8> Yes: it would alleviate the concerns of other other Android licensees, who currently own about 45% of the smartphone market.

<comment><USER6> Sounds very unlikely. If it was that they would've have announced it by now. Or the headline would be 'Google gets joint licensing(and right to sue) for Motorola patents for $6 billion'.

<comment><USER8> I think the way the courts work is that only the patent owner can sue for infringement.

And recent events tend to show that Moto Mobility would not have been able to continue to sell smartphones if they had sold their patents to Google.

<comment><USER6> >I think the way the courts work is that only the patent owner can sue for infringement.

I am not sure about that, companies like Intellectual Ventures/Lodsys do all kinds of manipulations.

>And recent events tend to show that Moto Mobility would not have been able to continue to sell smartphones if they had sold their patents to Google.

That wouldn't work like that. Google would (need to) provide patent indemnification to Android licensees like Microsoft does with their desktop Windows and mobile WP7.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> So, Verizon needs to hire some coders and get cracking? It took Apple and Google _years_ to produce a good modern phone OS. Palm took a shot at their own os, and as near as i can tell, they're gone now.

Phone manufacturers made their choice a decade ago. They picked closed, complex, developer hostile platforms. Now, it seems, that was a mistake. Phone manufacturers get to fund Apple, Google, or Microsoft's, move into their markets.

</comment><comment><USER10> I think two of Google's major aims will be to improve competition among Android manufacturers and use the experience gained from building its own phones to improve Android for all of them.

That's not to say that Google won't make much money off the physical device, but I think Google's aim is to increase revenue from Android (ultimately adverts) by making the platform better.

</comment><comment><USER11> Unimportant. The patent problem needs to be solved Right Now, and it's worth risking a long term complication.

</comment><comment><USER12> "The supplier is also a competitor"

Wasn't there an article recently about how Samsung supplies a large chunk of the components in the iPhone? It's a different department but isn't it the same dilemma?</comment>


PGP Key of Mahmood Khadeer, Pres. Of Muslim Association of Puget Sound, Factored - <AUTHOR> http://qntra.net/2016/08/phuctor-finds-seven-keys-produced-with-null-rng-and-other-curiosities <comment><USER2> I'll probably earn a few more insults from the authors of this, but I had a quick look.

I only skimmed over it, but it seems as before these results are defect keys.

All these keys seem to have an invalid self signature and cannot be imported into gnupg. And looking at the key: [https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x7FB82C851C5F7...](https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x7FB82C851C5F7748) It has a lot of repeating "A"s.

This doesn't really explain what exactly is going on here, but safe to say it's probably not some sophisticated magic attack, because these keys are unusable, therefore nobody will encrypt with them.

</comment><comment><USER3> Always super interested in hearing from sources about cryptography who feel the need to call Hanno Bock a "deceitful shitbag". You all keep having fun with whatever it is you're all doing, now. Sounds exciting!

</comment><comment><USER4> "Phuctor Finds Seven Keys Produced With Null RNG, And Other Curiosities" is the actual title. Why did you change it to point out one specific key, asciilifeform?

This raises an interesting question. The submitter, asciilifeform, also appears to be the author of the submitted article. Does the rule that submitters should use the title from the article still apply when the submitter is the author?</comment>