My Venezuela Nightmare: A 30-Day Hunt for Food in a Starving Land - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-venezuela-diary/ <comment><USER5> I highly recommend reading Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng [0]. It's a factual, first-hand account of the China's Cultural Revolution and what living in a communist / socialist society is really like from an educated person's perspective. My inlaws escaped Saigon when it fell and say the picture is very accurate.

The socialist downfall of countries are all unique, but follow similar paths. I encourage people to understand the causes of them and how brutal and arbitrary these governments are.

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

<comment><USER6> I think we need to be more careful with our terminology than using the terms "communist" and "socialist" interchangeably. Presumably, the real problem we're talking about is state-controlled economies, regardless of the ideologies that set them up.

<comment><USER7> Several countries that are fairly socialist have higher living standards than the U.S., where "socialism" is an epithet for some reason. McCarthy lives on I suppose.

Venezuela's problem is _totalitarianism_. In a socialist country, it is possible for the government to be governed by law and have limits placed on its power. That is not what's been going in in Venezuala.

<comment><AUTHOR> > countries that are fairly socialist

Please describe the ways in which some countries are "fairly" socialist but aren't actually socialist. I'm not aware of a single example of a socialist nation succeeding in any regard towards creating prosperity for its people. Nor am I aware of a successful national experiment in socialism in the last two centuries of various attempts. Every historical attempt has ended extraordinarily badly, universally failing to accomplish high living standards.

None of the Scandinavian nations are even remotely close to being socialist. They all rely on the market economy, they all embrace Capitalism to significant degrees, they all have property rights enshrined into the core of their economies, they all allow for the vast accumulation of wealth without forced redistribution, they all allow for the private ownership of production, they all allow for the accumulation of and investment of capital privately, they all utilize equity and bond markets that can be bought and traded freely (another critical point to Capitalism), and on it goes. They're all substantially closer to Capitalism than Socialism, which is course why they're able to pay for their large welfare states and other actual Socialist nations universally fail at that. Sweden for example famously had drifted too far toward being an over-burdened welfare state - circa the 1970s and 1980s - <USER2> had to de-regulate and de-tax their economy, which then resulted in boom courtesy of increased Capitalism. The nations you refer to, are actually welfare states, not Socialist - there is a very big difference.

<comment><USER8> Is this why IKEA, which is one of the largest non-state owned Swedish companies is set up as Netherlands-based entity (INGKA Holding), ostensibly for tax evasion purposes?

Sweden does have a lower corporate tax rate than the U.S., though the U.S. tax code offsets this by providing a multitude of different deductions for business expenses. Among other things, government imposed fines are tax deductible as per the U.S. Tax Code. When it comes to personal tax rates, Sweden's rate is much higher than the rate in the U.S. ([http://taxfoundation.org/blog/how-scandinavian-countries- pay...](http://taxfoundation.org/blog/how-scandinavian-countries-pay-their- government-spending))

Not debating the validity of your larger point here, but your assertion re Sweden being economically free as compared to the U.S. isn't that accurate. It is a very much a socialist nation that is also very prosperous.

<comment><AUTHOR> I never argued that Sweden was more economically free than the US (although frankly they may be at this point, US federal regulations have increased drastically in the last 40 years, the regulatory burden is far larger than it used to be). I said that Sweden was in a two decade long economic slump, and only climbed out of it courtesy of de-regulation and de-taxation of their economy. I'd be happy to link to several articles covering this historical fact; the Swedish architects of that event have talked openly about how and why they did it.

Can you name the ways in which Sweden is a Socialist nation? I'm aware of very few things that can even be argued to define them as such. Quite the opposite, their overwhelming characteristics economically are that they heavily rely on the market economy determined by individual business owners and investors rather than a command economy dictated by the State.

\- Do they allow private ownership of property, including the means of production? Yes, Sweden's economy is almost entirely driven by private businesses.

\- Does nearly all of their economy function around private business ownership? Yes.

\- Do they allow the existence of so called capital classes? People whose wealth is primarily existent in capital, investment, real estate, etc.? Yes.

\- Do they force the redistribution of wealth, so as to attempt to prevent the existence of rich and poor classes? No.

\- Do they allow the private ownership of real estate, farm land, etc? Yes.

\- May the government arbitrarily nationalize your wealth, investments, or business? No, that would be a rare event in Sweden.

\- Do they primarily function via the free market economy of non-coerced trade? Or is all trade primarily dictated by the State? Right, almost entirely free trade.

\- Does the State determine all investment priorities for all businesses? No, quite the opposite, businesses are free to set their own priorities, build new products at will, choose how they allocate capital.

\- Does the State dictate most allocations of capital? No, the opposite.

Things like healthcare, slightly heavy economic regulation, education - <USER3> the primarily arguments I'm aware of regarding Sweden, however those define them as a welfare state, not a Socialist state. The US for example has vast free healthcare, housing, and food systems, along with a massive entitlement system, which is why the US is also a welfare state (and not primarily a Capitalist nation as it was a hundred years ago).

<comment><USER8> > \- Do they allow private ownership of property, including the means of > production? Yes, Sweden's economy is almost entirely driven by private > businesses.

Government spending as % of GDP is an excellent metric re size of the government relative to the private economy. This assumes that as a nation is more socialist, the size of the government will increase.

Sweden slightly over 50% ([http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sweden/government- spending-t...](http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sweden/government-spending-to- gdp)) U.S. 20% ([https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S))

I don't doubt that private property ownership is permissible in Sweden, but the government dominates GDP as compared to any single private sector.

> \- Do they force the redistribution of wealth, so as to attempt to prevent > the existence of rich and poor classes? No.

Sweden has higher personal tax rates than the U.S. I dispute your "No." here.

> \- May the government arbitrarily nationalize your wealth, investments, or > business? No, that would be a rare event in Sweden.

It depends. The Swedish government is a highly functional one and will not act capriciously. I believe they will step in and nationalize wealth/real property if doing so was important to the wellbeing of the nation, whereas the U.S. even during the bailouts of 2008 went through great pains to avoid direct government ownership / control, even to the point of handing private equity firms free risk-adjusted money.

> \- Does the State determine all investment priorities for all businesses? > No, quite the opposite, businesses are free to set their own priorities, > build new products at will, choose how they allocate capital.

Given the GDP % stated above, this is debatable.

> \- Does the State dictate most allocations of capital? No, the opposite.

Same as the previous point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm reading a lot of comments exclusively blaming communism, but when I lived in Caracas during the first years of the Chavez presidency, I witnessed an overwhelming public support in his favor.

Elections were won with ~70% of the votes, and I also recall various referendum-like votes which Chavez won easily as well. Another fact that surprised me was that every Sunday he would give these 4h long speeches, and a crowd would invariably go to the streets/TV to watch him speak.

Later on I am aware that this scenario changed drastically, but in my layman's eyes the first years of Chavismo seemed very democratic, and of course also very populist (e.g. housing for the poor), which only made the governments approval rates soar.

I'm not saying I'm pro-communism, but before pointing a finger at communism, maybe the democratically elected Venezuelan government's incompetence, especially regarding spending all the revenue from it's single main natural resource on unsustainable populist programs with little ROI, should be blamed.

[Edit] Typo

<comment><USER10> Chavez was immensely popular. A coup by the army was overturned by mass protests.

His government was very successful by most economic metrics during his time in his office. It is his successor that has dropped the ball with his bungling of the currency mess. And that's the root cause of all this suffering, a bad currency system, and low oil prices.

You call them populist programs with little ROI, but they were investments and initiatives that were improving the lives of giant swathes of the nation's citizens.

If the price of oil was still $100 per barrel the country wouldn't be in this situation, and we wouldn't have all this gnashing of teeth over the inevitable downfall of socialism.

From my position, capitalist economies shouldn't be so arrogant right now. Instead of blaming the economic system of the country, take it as a warning for what happens when natural resource assets stop producing bounty, or currency exchange moves against being in your favor.

American Capitalism would not be immune from an ecological recession caused by plausible threats like warming and ocean acidification and biodiversity loss, and America might not always have the subsidy of the petrodollar. The dollar's status as reserve currency is equal to a finger on the scale in all American's economic favor.

Venezuela's present could be our future.

<comment><USER9> Maybe I didn't express myself clearly. I am not against populist programs to aid humans in deplorable life conditions. But these have to be sustainable, and in 3rd world South American countries, this probably and unfortunately involves not being able to help everyone on the short term. Otherwise, you end up inflating government spending leaving little space for maneuvering when facing an economical crisis.

My point originally was intended at NOT blaming communism, or capitalism as well. IMHO this seems more like a problem involving a government spending all of it's USD100-a-barrel income like a lottery winner, and when the prices fall to less than half of that (which by the way, most countries would welcome happily the amount of petro Venezuela has even at USD40 a barrel) and no other significant investments were made in alternative sources of revenue, they act as if it was solely a natural disaster and absolve themselves of all responsibility.

<comment><USER10> I didn't express myself clearly, running on very low sleep, I was trying to agree with you and elaborate on your point, except for the one statement about the low ROI of the programs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> And Chavez's daughter is now reported to be the Richest person in Venezuela:

[http://www.latinpost.com/articles/71424/20150812/maria- gabri...](http://www.latinpost.com/articles/71424/20150812/maria-gabriela- ch%C3%A1vez-net-worth-hugo-ch%C3%A1vezs-daughter-richest-woman-in-venezuela- worth-4-2-billion.htm)

<comment><USER12> Florencia, Cristina Kirchner's Argentinian former president daughter, had 5 million dollars in its bank account. Being daughter of a former president seems to be the more rewarding job in our countries. [http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/218148/florencia- ki...](http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/218148/florencia- kirchner%E2%80%99s-money-frozen)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Actually, this somehow reminds me of my childhood here in ex-USSR.

No groceries (deficit on everything worth buying), no money to by anything in reasonable quantities, extreme inflation, state-issued coupons for different amounts of items (you still had to pay for them, these were used for rationing).

We were large family, so we got a right to stand for a few hours in line every few weeks at a distant shop where families with four or more children could shop for items not available elsewhere.

Crime rates were through the roof, but not kidnappings. Muggings, burglaries, extortion, plain and simple beating up because you looked the wrong way. These were the days when gangs started forming, so old rules (stand up and fight even if you'll lose) did not work.

This story gives me shivers. It was extremely hard to provide for your children back then. I cannot imagine how people from countries with much worse conditions can manage.

Edit adds this paragraph. I was a child then. I thought that everything around was a norm. I, actually, did not care much. Now I do.

</comment><comment><USER14> I grow-up in similar conditions. It is always funny when some spoiled kid with $500 handbag calls me privileged cis-gender white male.

<comment><USER15> That's an odd turn... care to elaborate on the connection between government caused economic crises in South America and identity politics among (what I assume are) North American urbanites?

<comment><USER16> Marxism, Frankfurt School.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> As someone who lives next door to Venezuela, it seems to me the situation over there has really hit the proverbial fan.

Venezuela has been in a disastrous economic situation for years, but nowhere as bad what we are seeing these days.

Just yesterday their government opened the border with Colombia for 12 hours (they have kept it closed for a year) and about 125 thousand people crossed into Colombia to buy basic groceries and medicines. 30% did not cross back.

<comment><USER18> Are people in Venezuela allowed to leave. Can you explain ?

> 30% did not cross back.

Not surprisingly. It can easily become a humanitarian problem for Colombia. What is the political sentiment in Colombia about this ?

<comment><USER17> Venezuelans have been leaving the country for the last decade or so. There are huge numbers of them here already.

It's not easy for them to leave because their currency is basically worthless and access to hard currency is restricted to the well-connected.

Also the Venezuelan government closed the border about one year ago. They also kicked out all Colombians from Venezuela. According to the Venezuelan government everything bad that happens there is consequence of the vast Colombian-American right wing conspiracy.

Colombians are generally cool about Venezuelans, as the two countries are very similar to each other and have a long history together (at one point they were part of the same country). Neither the people nor the government opposes Venezuelan immigration, as far as I can tell.

But Colombia ain't exactly the land of milk and honey and Venezuelans know it. If they are not rushing in greater numbers to the border is because they know that, while there may not be any shortages or blackouts here, jobs are also few and far between.

<comment><USER19> A little late to comment on my part but all but a handful of my Venezuelan cousins have emigrated and ended up in Miami, Colombia and Argentina. And I know its not only them who have left. Venezuela has lost an entire generation of young professionals to their neighbors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Venezuela is on the brink. It has a socialist majority because previously the rich bleed them dry. Now the boot is on the other foot and the socialists are starving out the middle and upper classes who traditionally voted for the elite that controlled the media in Venezuela.

So sad. At some point it will flip again and the cycle will repeat itself.

Meanwhile the US continues to pressure the socialist government through sanctions in order to break a government that they don't approve of. Whilst the oil price remains low, the socialist government can't profit enough to get back on track.

The innocents, including children are going to starve, because the USA refuses have any kind of socialist leaning government in its back yard. it's been going on for decades. Rinse and repeat. Meanwhile the socialist "elite" make sure that they have good on their tables and punish the middle classes for their refusal to accept their ideology, happily lining their own bank accounts.

It is somewhat ironic that their neighbour Colombia, that for years was the black sheep of the region, has swapped roles with its previously rich sibling.

<comment><USER16> >It has a socialist majority because previously the rich bleed them dry

BS. The system was always open enough that you could make something of yourself.

>Now the boot is on the other foot and the socialists are starving out the middle and upper classes.

Except the upper and middle classes still have money to buy products at exorbitant prices. Who do you think are the people who are starving to death, having to kill wild dogs and pigeons to be able to eat something?

>Meanwhile the US continues to pressure the socialist government through sanctions in order to break a government that they don't approve of. Whilst the oil price remains low, the socialist government can't profit enough to get back on track.

There is no track to get back to, Chavez,his XXI century revolution and his cronies have always been about stealing as much as they can.

>The innocents, including children are going to starve.

Pero tienen "Patria" (but they have "Homeland").

<comment><USER20> I suggest you read these for an shedding viewpoint. I'd hazard a guess that the truth lies somewhere in between the propaganda from both sides.

[http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/13-years-after- foi...](http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/13-years-after-foiled-us- backed-coup-right-wing-opposition-wins-venezuela-election)

[http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/20/venezuelas- opposition...](http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/20/venezuelas-opposition- attacking-its-own-people/)

<comment><USER21> As someone born, raised and currently living in Venezuela, I can tell you that, yes, previously the elites ruled the country and created massive amounts of poor people.

But 40 years ago, someone like my father,who came from a very modest and tiny town in the east of the country managed to go to school, study and buy a house and a car with my mom who also came from modest upbringing.

They managed to buy an apartment with their salary and put my sister and I through school and college. And just like them, thousands of venezuelans had some hope to get ahead through work.

Right now, I'm an electrical engineer thanks to them and I could work my whole life and never be able to afford the tiniest house. I'm scraping by with less than $100 a month and I already make more money than most people.

Why do you think most young people here have plans or have left the country? Because they have ZERO hope of ever moving out of their parent's house or buying a car. That was not a reality before Chavez came to power.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> That's similar to how it was in 90's Yugoslavia during international sanctions.

We didn't have so much crime (definitely no violent stuff like kidnaping), and cellphone was still big grey brick Fox Mulder would pull out of his jacket ... So sharing knowledge you've found bread or milk was spreading slower.

For those asking how come farmers aren't making huge money in such cases - they still need to buy other stuff and that's equally/proportionally expensive.

In case of Yugoslavia, I think pretty much all petrol/gas was smuggled in (because international sanctions) from nearby countries.

Once you consider that mass producing food means you need to power machines (like tractor) and ultimately transport it somehow to consumers ... Imagine how many jerry cans had to be smuggled ...

And IMHO you're mixing cause and effect when you mention state-controlled economies as a cause of this. It mostly fails because (for one reason or another) country is effectively blocked from trading with the rest of the world, and doesn't have enough variety in materials/resources to be on it's own.

<comment><USER22> Instead of "And IMHO you're mixing cause and effect ..." I meant "And IMHO you're mixing causation and correlation ..." making final paragraph:

And IMHO you're mixing causation and correlation when you mention state- controlled economies as a cause of this. It mostly fails because (for one reason or another) country is effectively blocked from trading with the rest of the world, and doesn't have enough variety in materials/resources to be on it's own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm curious about the pictures of stores with "good selections at high prices". Is there split market like the former USSR where stores without price constraints are selling at higher prices but have a wider selection? One of the challenges there was that suppliers would divert their supplies to the "open price" stores because it made them more money, is that what is going on in Venezula?

<comment><USER24> One of the captions says:

 _Store shelves that are well-stocked, like those in this bakery near Zerpa's house, are typically full of non-essential items set at sky-high prices_

<comment><USER23> Yes that is the caption but the picture shows a store with ample bread products, cereals, meat selections, canned vegetables, oils and other cooking supplies. When the discussion of the article is a "hunt for food" those things all seem like stuff you'd consider "prey".

My question is whether or not that store is accessible to everyone (as described by my father, in the USSR the 'diplomatic' stores were not open to regular citizens) and if the prices are extortionate or merely market priced.

The root of those questions are whether or not an actual economy could be bootstrapped underneath the current mess or if it is too late for that. It is a sad story either way.

<comment><USER25> In Poland you could exchange hard currency like US Dollars and German Marks for PeKaO bony (like coupons from national bank) and then use those in stores like Pewex to buy everything. Later it was streamlined like all at one window in the same store or even at check-out. I suspect that is what your father meant by diplomatic stores. The gov wanted hard currency so that it could import from outside the iron curtain, regular folk had no means outside of black market and family and friends living in the west to gain hard currency, so the stores were for tourists, foreign scholars, and diplomats essentially.

Another interesting situation in Poland was fuel rationing. Many things were rationed, but if you were a foreigner entering the the country in the mid '80s you could by coupons for X liters of gasoline. Then you did not even have to wait in the long lines at fuel stations. It was not unheard of people buying stolen fuel under a bridge or in a forest.

Most stores were bare because when inventory came-in it was quickly purchased. Since the prices were controlled people had enough zloty but not enough to spend it on so buying items like paper was desirable because later you could barter it for items you needed on the black market.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Venezuela tries to impose price controls on items below market prices. According to the book Economics in one lesson chapter 17 government price fixing does not work in the long run and leads to shortages of goods.

Economics in one lesson is available for free from the Ludwig von Mises institute. [https://mises.org/files/henry-hazlitt-economics-one- lessonpd...](https://mises.org/files/henry-hazlitt-economics-one- lessonpdf/download?token=xBmgeDG7)

</comment><comment><USER27> Looking at this disaster, I have to wonder why most people regard "preppers" as crazy.

<comment><USER28> I agree, keeping 'food insurance' is far from crazy.

You can buy MREs that last five to ten years.

They won't solve all problems but they will certainly give you time to react appropriately e.g. escaping an area or growing food for the following year.

Does anybody remember James Burke's Connections? The very first episode on how to live in a global downturn?

<comment><USER29> I agree, but that doesn't really require being part of the whole "prepper" subculture, which seems to focus more on scenarios where you're surviving a complete breakdown of society for decades in a bunker. In countries where infrastructure has historically been prone to interruptions, it's fairly common for people to store a good amount of preserved food, but they aren't seen as preppers, just people with a storehouse (which is basically an oversized pantry). My Greek grandparents always had a fairly large supply of food, for example.

I do think many Americans are too far to the unprepared extreme, where a two- day interruption of normal services caused by e.g. a tropical storm sends everyone panicking, because they in some cases literally don't even have one day's worth of food in their house.

<comment><USER28> Yeah I think that Hollywood has done a number on some people. Surviving isn't that glamorous in real life.

I think for most people having 1 to 3 months of food is ample but if you're in a political troublespot you should triple or quintuple that. It's all about using your wits while not going over the top.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Suffering from the disease of central government. We need a telethon to stamp this disease out. Look how many were killed in the 20th century because of it. Ideology infects a people then gets turned to government implementation, and when things go badly wrong, it can't be fixed until it collapses and the people finally start to learn their lesson.

</comment><comment><USER31> Sounds like communist Romania in the 80's. The main difference there was that the state had a near monopoly on violence, which they used constantly. Even people who were starving were mostly too scared of the government to contemplate violence.

Sounds like it's time for new elections or executions of the assholes in power.

</comment><comment><USER32> Venezuelan here. Feel Free to ask me anything.

I am in a privileged position, though, I understand the situation of 'common people' as I work closely with them as a local business owner.

This journal is really close to the reality.

To those wondering about 'side markets' and 'farmers marking a killing', let me explain.

There is a black market for food and any other good. Shortages are real, especially when it comes to medicines. It's easy to find pasta or rice comparatively. People with chronic diseases are dying - the patients that have the medicines they need require foreign help either from family or friends.

About 5 years ago the minimum wage was about $300. Today it's $40. You can find in any major city people looking for food in the dumpsters. [1]

Why are farmers and producers not making a killing? It's not that simple, but there's definitely people making a killing: black market traffickers which are mostly politicians and military men in strategic positions.

I know a few farmers, so I will speak from experience. This farmer friend I have - let's call him Jose, produces milk and his family has been doing so for more than 40 years.

Jose is the vet in the farm. Venezuela was suffering a long drought due "El Nino" that also affected the electric service. Cows were producing less milk due this - medicines for cows are really hard to get (probiotics, antibiotics, etc), food for animals is mostly imported - just like medicines. The biggest problem, though, is what's brought us here: The government economic policies.

The market for foreign currencies is regulated. Only the government and through the government currencies can be exchanged. Since the government depends heavily on oil for foreign currency we've seen quite a dip in imports. In other words, the government lacks liquidity. Which is why it's really hard to legally obtain imported goods, so if you produce in Venezuela and sell your product in Bolivares (local currency) you would have to get Dollars (foreign currency) to import anything - the government is basically saying no to 95% of requests for currency exchange.

The market for [most] producers is highly regulated. No milk producer can produce milk higher than the fixed price given by the government. For most, there's no incentive.

The government is printing money like crazy making inflation soar (we have the highest inflation in the world! [2])

As you can see, most producers have no incentive as they will not see profit in their ventures since they have a cap for what they can sell the product for.

Imagine that the U.S government says by law "1 pound of rice will cost $1 or less" and anyone selling for more is breaking the law. If the cost of producing rice is $0.1c this would be fine, however, for the rice producer each pound of rice costs $1.5 - how many people do you think are going to produce rice? This happens in Venezuela in almost all product categories (milk, coffee, beans, rice, pasta, flour, and I could keep going, the list is really long).

What has the government done to fix the issue? Basically, nothing since their policy "fixes" is to control more and more our economy.

The government solution to the food shortages and I must say, this is really hard to explain, is to give out bags of food with goods distributed by the "own people in the community". I don't see how will this ever work, since while it's not free they're giving out a bag for $1 that in the black market can easily go for $10, a golden goose for the corrupt. The government is completely ignoring, what in my opinion is far worse, which is, the lack of medicines of any kind for the most part.

The government controls the media, the military, and all forces but one - <USER4> legislative power, though through political tricks they've found ways to mostly neutralize it. This year - 2016 - we could potentially have a referendum, though the government is making everything it can to avoid it and I must, sadly say, I believe they're succeeding.

[1] [http://www.el-nacional.com/sucesos/Venezolanos- desesperados-...](http://www.el-nacional.com/sucesos/Venezolanos-desesperados- buscan-comida-basura_0_850715221.html)

[2] [http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/12/news/economy/venezuela- imf-e...](http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/12/news/economy/venezuela-imf-economy/)

<comment><USER28> This will sound like a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway.

Why can't they just drop the price controls?

I expect it is ideological, but surely being alive trumps ideology (in that you'll starve or else people who have decided to become more flexible will kill you).

<comment><USER32> I have given a lot of thought to this question. It seems fairly simple but given that they've taken the other route, that is, force more controls, the government would look bad.

I think there's a lot of internal problems within the ruling party in regards to what should be done. Unfortunately, the president is the one unwilling to see differently or "betray" his ideology (or so it seems).

There are also subsidies to most products (as the government solution to some of the price caps) and last thing that has been said (in an informal setting by the VP) was that "the subsidies have been a mistake" and that they will try to fix it with some sort of "basic income" but only for the poor rather than for everyone - which opens another HUGE opportunity for white collar corruption - something the government seems to love and cherish.

In short, the president preaches a radicalism that would go against taking "neo-liberal economic policies" and by doing so he (I assume), perceives that the public will find him weak. Which, paradoxically, he already is. In my view, Nicolas Maduro (our president) is in an impossible situation in which the best he can do is to step away - but this opens another pandora box that he seems unwilling to go for, as such he's doing everything in his power to avoid a referendum or any sort of democratic solution.

<comment><USER28> If yourself or rafaelm could do with a food supply package and the postal system is working correctly, then email me with an address and list of hard to source foodstuffs. My email is my HN username AT fastmail.fm

<comment><USER21> Thanks a lot I really appreciate it! If you want to help, I'll see if I can find a trustworthy organization that is helping kids that need food and medicine. They are the most vulnerable right now.

In their sick political games, the venezuelan government is not receiving any foreign aid because they say we don't need it. I'm not sure if there are any private organizations receiving donations. I know some of the door-to-door shipping companies the_vzlan mentions are receiving medicine and food packages but I really don't know if they are to be trusted.

<comment><USER28> > I'll see if I can find a trustworthy organization that is helping kids that > need food and medicine.

Sure, just pass on some information to my email address.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Why is it that all the ex Spanish colonies are pretty much 3rd world shit holes and all the ex British colonies are doing pretty well. Any causality??

<comment><USER34> Since both countries "owned" a good part of the world real estate at some point in their history, it seems pretty easy to cherry-pick and find something to support whatever point you're trying to make.

The only real insight I've found is that colonialism is a bad idea and you shouldn't do it anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> There is another article that mentions Venezuela is fully making their debt payments rather then defaulting. This crisis could be avoided

[http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/29/venezuela-is-making- surreal-s...](http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/29/venezuela-is-making-surreal- suicidal-debt-payments.html)

</comment><comment><USER36> Shouldn't rural farmers be making a killing in these conditions? (eg. give me USD or your old iPhone/car and I'll deliver you homemade milk and bread for X months)

<comment><USER37> They probably have ways to divert some supplies to the black market, but most is seized by the military or outright stolen.

[http://www.breitbart.com/national- security/2016/07/13/venezu...](http://www.breitbart.com/national- security/2016/07/13/venezuela-deploys-army-keep-people-limited-food-supply/)

[http://www.wsj.com/articles/crime-wave-lashes-venezuelas- alr...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/crime-wave-lashes-venezuelas-already- battered-farms-1456871545)

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Sometimes I wonder if all of the online computers, internet, apps and other stuff makes any sense. We have complicated our lives unnecessarily and multiplied beyond the capacity of our plant to hold us meaningfully or have a life with any semblance of contemplation.

<comment><USER39> What makes online computers & etc different? You could say that about many technologies, even about agriculture. Life was much simpler and sustainable when we were hunter-gatherers (I'm being sincere, not facetious).

In my opinion, whether they are "necessary" is irrelevant (by objective measures, most things aren't) and simplicity is not a meaningful goal in itself.

<comment><USER40> Simpler, yes. But everyone lived near subsistence, and maximum population density was enforced by war, human sacrifice, and starvation.

<comment><USER39> Yet, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho- primitivism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-primitivism)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> But this isn't real socialism ... _obviously_.

</comment><comment><USER42> Wow, reads like Atlas Shrugged. Could easily happen in this country. I feel bad for the 45% that didn't support the socialists.

<comment><USER43> Well, not exactly like Atlas Shrugged, because the article is well written and coherent.

<comment><USER44> And short.

<comment><USER45> All of which goes to show that a novel can be highly influential and immensely successful albeit that it's badly written, incoherent, very long and subject to scathing critiques as in:

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." \- John Rogers.

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

<comment><USER46> That's not a scathing critique, it's a joke. It resonates well with people who already dislike Atlas Shrugged (including myself), but it doesn't convince anyone. Those who like Atlas Shrugged will read it, maybe laugh, then correctly point out that it's not a well-reasoned argument, it's a joke.

<comment><USER47> True enough. Plenty of legitimate criticisms are available... The main character is apparently great though she built nothing; her father did all the work. The complete discounting of the workers who do the actual laying of rails and running of trains. Galt steals IP that rightfully belongs to his employer (and was developed with his employer's resources). The fact that they'd all die of starvation or be reduced to subsistence farmers in Galt's Gulch.

The book is a hilarious caricature of reality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> This is of course getting a ton of press in Commie hating USA, but how much worse is this than narcostates or right-wing deathsquad-enforced regimes set up by the US?

And of course since the US/CIA loved to plot overthrows and juntas, how could the country trust aid offers? And the wire recordings of Henry Kissinger trying to deliberately collapse the Argentinian economy before their takeover...

I get that this is site is often a huge capitalistic libertarian O-jerk, and I'm not naive to the logistical failings of authoritarian socialism, but I wonder what the full story is here...

<comment><USER49> The people didn't starve under the US-backed dictatorships, so those regimes have that much going for them. But they didn't starve under Castro either, and living conditions were probably better under Castro than in any country in the Warsaw Pact (see Anthony Daniels' _Utopias Elsewhere_); so I'd guess that most of the story is that Chavez was just that dumb.

<comment><USER50> An Island like Cuba is just small enough to make actual communism possibly work - it has just slightly less people that the Los Angeles Metro area does - it also has a very homogeneous cultural background. Cuba however isn't quite rich enough in natural resources to actually reach autarky however, if it was, Cuba might be a very different story.

I'm not a proponent of anything Authoritarian, but communism on a small scale does fascinate me.

<comment><USER51> _just small enough to make actual communism possibly work_

This is an important distinction. Humans evolved in tribes, and many of our instinctual responses to how we _think_ we should work together are optimized for such a setting. But these things just can't scale upwards. There are many things that work well at a community level that fall apart with larger groups. So when we see a problem in the world and feel our heart-strings tugged, we should be suspicious that our emotional response is something that can really make sense in the big picture.

I do agree that such things might be able to work at small scales. But I suspect that the threshold is well below the size that you're citing here.

<comment><USER50> I suspect the threshold is actually about 450 people - but if you scale that up, and have multiple units of 450 people each - then you start to have something workable. The long term problem with planned economies is the inherent inflexibility and immovability in the face of changing realities.

Markets work because they are irrational, and move with people as situations change - like a subconscious reflex - planned economies require conscious effort to reapportion their efforts in the face of change.

The solution to socialism is collectives - lots of little ones from 50-500 people, which then interact with each other using market settlement and price adjustment mechanisms.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


FBI recommends that you keep your IoT devices on a separate network - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-recommends-that-you-keep-your-iot-devices-on-a-separate-network/ <comment><USER2> Until there are criminal penalties for data leaks and badly architected or insecure devices, there will be no IoT devices in my home. When the incentives are purely to lower costs, of course security will be neglected. And using a separate network is a very poor stopgap that might help, but is not really a solution in any sense of the word.

</comment><comment><USER3> As soon as my family expressed an interest in IoT devices, my compromise was the devices had to be on a separate network. I bought an inexpensive managed switch and set up a vlan specifically for our IoT devices. Our firewall segregates the IoT traffic from our LAN. Although I'm still not crazy about the potential privacy implications of Alexa devices and the like, I sleep a bit better knowing they do not have access to anything but the internet.

Until ISPs ship a modem/router combo that makes it easy for the average consumer to set up segregated networks, I don't think too many people are going to heed the FBI's advice.

</comment><comment><USER4> There could be a business opportunity here in selling router that ease the gap between consumers who know nothing about networking and implementing better iot security -- if they can sell the fear.</comment>


VFX, Amiga and Babylon 5 [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn3UraChY0c&feature=youtu.be <comment><USER2> Wow, I'll have to add this to my set of "how can I show people, especially my Apple zealot friends who obsess about the original Mac 128k, just how advanced the Amiga was" videos. This video, is one of my favorites ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7rKj0DU8Xs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7rKj0DU8Xs)), it shows just how advanced the Amiga was in 1985, let alone after 1987 when the 2000 was introduced.

I learned to code on a Vic-20 and C64 (basic and assembly), but the Amiga was my first exposure to C, and LaTeX, and 3D modeling / video editing. I grew up relatively poor in Baltimore City, and this was an astonishing amount of capability for something so affordable. (I also learned soldering because I only had 512k of chip ram on my A500, and Commodore's official RAM upgrade was too expensive, so I bought my own RAM chips and soldered them directly to the mainboard)

I have an unlimited amount of nostalgia for this machine (and Babylon-5!)

<comment><USER2> This is another one of my favorites, the JobsNote-like launch of the Amiga [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3x00Pbs2K8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3x00Pbs2K8)

Compare this to the 1984 launch of the Mac which cost $2485 MSRP, all of these capabilities came for only $1285 ($1595 with monitor), or the A500 ($699 MSRP)

As you can tell, I'm still bitter and annoyed at how Commodore mismanaged and squandered the marketing and sales of this machine. The Amiga was so advanced, it wasn't until PCs arrived with SuperVGA cards and SoundBlaster audio that I was enticed to leave the Amiga platform. The Mac128k at school seemed like a toy in comparison to my Amiga and what it could do, but somehow all of the media attention was on it. It's as if someone launched an iPhone in 1985, and no one cared.

<comment><USER3> I used AMAX II with my Amiga 500 to run Mac programs while at College. That was an example of how brilliant it was given the native speed of the Mac under emulation.

The Amiga platform is an era which I wouldn't trade for anything. I feel sad for people who didn't have the opportunity to experience and live it first hand.

<comment><USER4> I used Shapeshifter to bring my Amiga up as a Mac but way faster, if I recall the author (a German?) included a special thanks to Apple for making their firmware so trivially reversable

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> JMS, the creator of this show, was way ahead of his time, and did some amazing tricks to get this show produced.

He drew heavily from technology culture, and found innovative ways to save money on production.

He was able to get consultation from the NASA JPL (and credited them), and he pioneered early CGI; season 1 supposedly built a rendering cluster out of 486 computers.

Another way this show was trailblazing was that it was the first network television show shot in 16:9.

You can read more about it on the Lurker's Guide[1] (That is a usenet reference), which contains excerpts from the newsgroups where he gave feedback to fans after each episode.

[1]: [http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/](http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/)

<comment><USER6> More than just being the first shot in 16:9, it was the first network show shot targeting HD television, before the networks fully agreed on what HD would be. It just never got the final HD treatment that it should have.

It's still a huge shame that Warner Brothers supposedly lost all the digital originals for the special effects shots, because they should have easily had a chance to recompose the show for true DVD quality and then again for a decent Blu-Ray rerelease. Some alternate universe has amazing Babylon 5 remasters today on Blu-Ray versus the letterboxed no-worse-than-SD DVD copies ours is left with.

(Another weird twist to the story here is that one tale has it that Warner Brothers blames French company Vivendi for losing the digital SFX archives, which WB loaned to Vivendi for a B5 game under development under the old Sierra games brand that was eventually cancelled. Which also isn't the only property that WB seems to have "lost" to Vivendi, as WB should _probably_ be the owner of the No One Lives Forever videogame IP, by way of buying developer Monolith into WB Games, but Vivendi lost the publishing contract somewhere and no one seems to know in this timeline if WB actually does own it or not.)

<comment><USER7> Wait, you said "digital". That means super easy to copy. The only way Vivendi could have "lost all the digital originals" is if only one physical copy existed (no backups??) and Warner simply handed that over to them instead of making them a copy. There is absolutely no way Vivendi can be blamed for that level of WTF negligence from Warner. It would be completely reasonable for anyone at Vivendi to simply assume that any media they got from Warner was just one copy of many, and had no intrinsic value.

<comment><USER6> Yup, all part of the fascinating mystique of the story. At the end of the day any stupidity is 100% WB's fault, but _how_ many mistakes they made in the process seems to be a fascinating tale.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've posted this before, but this is my go-to Amiga story to demonstrate how amazing this was at the time where PC was the inferior alpha computer: My dad was a graphic designer/print shop and he was building the panels for an F-16 fighter jet simulator, built by a private company for the Israeli Air Force in the 90s. One saturday he took 14 year old Amiga fanatic me to the company HQ and I had a go flying an F-16 inside a real cockpit, 180 deg. screen, amazing out of this world 3D graphics. The whole shebang. That part was amazing as it is. However, what really blew me away was first getting a demo of the $250K SGI they had to run the whole thing, and then the real nuclear was the next room filled with tens of Amiga workstations they used to actually generate all the visuals and graphic models. Considering just around that time I tried those 90s first attempt virtual reality arcades, which were powered by Amigas but were quite shit because it was the 90s and not some oculus magic, seeing and flying that simulator was an out of body experience for 14 year old me. I can't express what the Amiga gave me in words. It showed me the future before i had to go back into the past and wait until it caught up.

</comment><comment><USER9> I feel like we're still in the uncanny valley for voice synthesis for this type of narration. It's good but just bad enough for people to be unforgiving and have it feel creepy.

<comment><USER10> It took me perhaps an entire minute before I realized something was strange about the voiceover and that it was synthesized, which, in my view, is quite impressive. Once I realized it was generated, though, I became much more attuned to the pitch-shifting artifacts, slight cadence irregularities, and cultural misses (like emphasizing the second syllable of "recall" in the title of the movie Total Recall).

Still, a few more years of progress on neural nets (can GANs be applied to vocal cadence and intonation?) and I won't envy the position of mid-tier voiceover artists.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> My church bought a Amiga 2000 and a Video Toaster because as a teenager they trusted me to get what they needed. It was there till 2004. :) I loved that machine.

<comment><USER12> Did the church actually have a use for that system?

<comment><USER13> Well, he was apparently a member of the church - so, yes! And it was probably bordered on lust in the classical sense (and, more accurately, in the modern one).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Fun Video Toaster fact: The founder of the company Tim Jenison[1] is the same guy that made the documentary 'Tims Vermeer' which if you haven't seen, is absolutely awesome.

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewTek#Tim_Jenison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewTek#Tim_Jenison)

<comment><USER14> True. Another one: The engineer who built the first Toaster for NewTek was Brad Carvey, Dana Carvey's brother. The "Garth" character Dana plays on Wayne's World is Dana's impression of Brad.

<comment><USER15> And I think Garth wears a video toaster t shirt in Wayne's World 2.

<comment><USER16> [https://i.redd.it/1tezuz463poz.jpg](https://i.redd.it/1tezuz463poz.jpg)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> My first exposure to computers was an A1200 — which my father bought in 1994. Now that I have a son, I'm desperately in search for something that could influence him as much as that Amiga did to me.

Seriously, what is the Amiga of the current market? What is that product that fosters creativity and is so futurist?

<comment><USER18> There isn't one. What made the Amiga great was that it was a technically amazing machine that hobbyists could actually use and do great things with. The equivalent today would be Sony allowing completely open use of the PS4 and letting anyone make anything for it that they wished. It wouldn't happen: companies today like their walled gardens. The Amiga flourished by being open.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Babylon 5 really opened the door to using this much CGI on a weekly show. Star Trek TNG and DS9 really didn't embrace it for a long time, even after B5 came out. It wasn't until the sixth season of DS9 that a major CGI effects sequence was used in Star Trek (though individual CGI assets were used prior to this): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoIFUJxJwcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoIFUJxJwcQ)

</comment><comment><USER20> The narrator voice is synthetic?

<comment><USER21> It's a complete mystery to me why certain YouTubers do this. I'll take the worst human voice (even Fran Drescher or Rich Evans) over a synthesized one, particularly for expository narration. It reminds me of phishing phone calls, and instantly draws me away from the actual content.

<comment><USER22> A guess would be quicker production process. If you adjust the script, just rerender it and done. Actually speaking and recording takes tons of time.

<comment><USER23> I guess. But if a human can't be bothered to record it, why should I be bothered to read it?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


"We didn't chase the fad of using every Intel CPU feature" - <AUTHOR> https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=152600018515730&w=2 <comment><USER2> This seems a bit too self-congratulatory to be technically meaningful. What feature did they not use?

From the thread history, it sounds like they provided no way for a userspace debugger to (ask the kernel to) set a hardware breakpoint on a section of memory. That means that when you use gdb and set a single breakpoint on some instruction, gdb must instead fall back on single-stepping the _entire program_ until it gets there, incurring at least four context switches per instruction (program being debugged -> exception to kernel -> switch to gdb -> "nope, not there yet" -> kernel resumes the program for one more instruction). It does avoid the bug by not letting the CPU defer a debug exception until after a syscall (because the only mode you get for debug exceptions is the one that unconditionally delivers it after every instruction), but it also makes breakpoints basically unusable for large software.

First, this isn't an obscure, recent, or Intel-only feature. It's not like avoiding RDRAND or anything. Hardware breakpoints are common on basically all CPUs for exactly this reason.

Second, does anyone actually debug large programs using gdb on OpenBSD? It is hard for me to read this as saying "We're not vulnerable because we have so few production users that we can just not have standard development tools that work reasonably." I know OpenBSD is not the most popular OS, but I didn't think it was _that_ unpopular....

<comment><USER3> OpenBSD just chose not to implement x86 debug register access from userspace.

FYI, Joyent SmartOS/illumos is also similarly not vulnerable, at least by default.

[https://kb.cert.org/vuls/id/631579](https://kb.cert.org/vuls/id/631579)

<comment><USER4> Which is to say, no hardware support for watchpoints in gdb[1]? That seems like not such a great "feature"...

This is Theo being Theo. No one sane believes that if someone had come to OpenBSD with an implementation of this (very useful!) feature that they wouldn't have committed it. They just didn't get around to it.

[1] In which the fallback is, IIRC, to turn off access to the location at the mapping level and take a SIGSEGV on every access to the 4k region containing the address.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Personally, I think it's valuable to take advantage of new features. AVX512 can be dozens of times faster than scalar operations, and clhash is the fastest strongly universal string hash library. There's no good reason to pass on these kinds of performance improvements.

I know these aren't the features in question, but casually dismissing the benefits of CPU improvements doesn't strike me as productive.

<comment> yjftsjthsd-h I like performance. But. OpenBSD supports hardware versions a long way back. So you either break compatibility, ship more versions, or have to detect features on the fly, which works but has costs. On the other hand, if _all_ x86_64 (amd64) supports a feature then it seems like a better bet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> For context see the CVE[0] and HN discussion[1]

[0] [https://cve.mitre.org/cgi- bin/cvename.cgi?name=3DCVE-2018-88...](https://cve.mitre.org/cgi- bin/cvename.cgi?name=3DCVE-2018-8897)

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17037862](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17037862)

</comment><comment><USER7> Right, that most faddiest of fads, "hardware memory breakpoints".

Being proud of this is like being proud of not using an MMU.

</comment><comment><USER8> "We didn't chase the fad of using every tool that was at our disposal". And he's even proud of it, lol

<comment><USER9> Since he was right to do so and also right about the underlying meltdown issue, perhaps deserves more than ridicule?

<comment><USER10> Huh, in what way was Theo right about Meltdown? Did he predict it? (just curious)

<comment><USER11> He predicted similar in 2007: [https://marc.info/?l=openbsd- misc&m=118296441702631&w=2](https://marc.info/?l=openbsd- misc&m=118296441702631&w=2)

<comment><USER12> That's not anywhere close to a prediction of Meltdown. Meltdown is a side- channel attack that can cross the user/kernel boundary. What Theo was predicting is that all chips are getting complex MMUs to the point that there are bugs in corner cases that could be exploited to create infiltration leaks. Side channel attacks aren't bugs, insofar as no one is really promising that you can't observe side channels.

<comment><USER11> But the observable out-of-order execution used by these chips that led to Meltdown is a bug. Proof: AMD chips aren't affected by it:

> The Meltdown vulnerability primarily affects Intel microprocessors,[52] but > some ARM microprocessors are also affected.[53] The vulnerability does not > affect AMD microprocessors.[19][54][55][56] Intel has countered that the > flaws affect all processors,[57] but AMD has denied this, saying "we believe > AMD processors are not susceptible due to our use of privilege level > protections within paging architecture".[58]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltdown_(security_vulnerabili...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltdown_\(security_vulnerability\))</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Seriously, Don't Use Icon Fonts (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://cloudfour.com/thinks/seriously-dont-use-icon-fonts/ <comment><USER2> > Screen Readers Actually Read That Stuff

Not if you follow the font-awesome accessibility guide [0]. Either add a description or hide it for screen readers, just like for any other image.

Other than that, this is spot on. What's missing is that SVGs may improve the performance. I've reduced the page load for my blog by 20% by replacing font- awesome with _inline_ SVG icons.

I also recommend reading why GitHub switched from font icons to SVGs [1]. Also, in Font Awesome 5 [2] all icons were redesigned as SVG.

[0] - [http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/](http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/)

[1] - [https://github.com/blog/2112-delivering-octicons-with- svg](https://github.com/blog/2112-delivering-octicons-with-svg)

[2] - [https://fontawesome.com/](https://fontawesome.com/)</comment>


How to waste time in your startup - <AUTHOR> http://marlowstartup.com/2011/06/29/startup-time-sinks/

<comment><USER2> happens to me all the time. I've found that its very helpful to just turn off my wireless (gasp!) and keep all of my browsers minimized. It is amazing how much my efficiency has improved.</comment>


UA Launches Athlete Recovery Sleepwear at CES - <AUTHOR> https://www.underarmour.com/en-us/tb12 <comment><AUTHOR> Their linked NIH study: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3699878/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3699878/)</comment>


Nue Routing: fast, fault-tolerant, 100% applicable, deadlock-free - <AUTHOR> https://htor.inf.ethz.ch/blog/index.php/2018/09/27/nue-routing-fast-100-fault-tolerant-100-applicable-100-deadlock-free/ <comment><USER3> This sounds really fascinating, but as someone who isn't in that space at all, I'm curious as to why the complexities (time and memory) are considered good given how high they are. I'm also curious as to the algorithm itself - <USER2> didn't note any description in TFA.

<comment><USER4> There's a paper and slides here: [http://htor.inf.ethz.ch/publications/index.php?pub=233](http://htor.inf.ethz.ch/publications/index.php?pub=233)</comment></comment>


Why Other Apple Products Convinced Me To Return My New iPad - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/04/02/why-other-apple-products-convinced-me-to-return-my-new-ipad/

<comment><USER2> Tl/dr: he needs a notebook and a phone, he doesn't need a tablet.</comment>


Freelancember: The Month of Freelance-y goodness - <AUTHOR> http://freelancember.com/

<comment><USER2> Not only is this a brilliant marketing tool for Freckle, it is also _generous_ to freelancers and those interested in becoming freelancers. Well done!</comment>


Google Debuts Classroom, An Education Platform For Teacher-Student Communication - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/06/google-debuts-classroom-an-education-platform-for-teacher-student-communication/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29 <comment><USER2> Like 95% of Google side projects, they will barely support this and it will slowly languish until killed.

<comment><USER3> I feel like I'm watching this happen in slow motion with Google Keep. I've been using it since its release for transient stuff like shopping lists, mostly because it has a nice Android lock screen widget.

It's over a year old now, and it's only received very minor updates. Still can't even reorder notes in the web interface. I won't be devastated if/when it goes away, but it just seems like a huge missed opportunity for Google to actually put some effort into this kind of application.

<comment><USER4> > It's over a year old now, and it's only received very minor updates.

wat. There was a major update less than a month ago, adding:

-Searchable images: Find printed text in images

-List settings: Set where new or checked items go

-Trash: Keep deleted notes just a little longer

-Yellow action bar

-Updated slide-out menu with multi-account selection

-Make copies of notes

-Action bar changes color with notes

A few months before that was:

-Sleek new design: many of your favorite things from the -Android app are now on the web – full color notes, text that scales to fit the note, and a custom font just for Keep

-Rearrange items in lists: keep everything in order, all the time

-Improved search: finding the note you're looking for is easier than ever

-Navigation drawer: quickly switch between your active and archived notes, or get a custom view of all of your notes with reminders

(Apologies for the editorializing, I literally just searched for articles about Keep updates and copied the changelogs over)

> Still can't even reorder notes in the web interface.

I just opened up the Keep web app and clicking and dragging works fine for me to re-order notes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So, how are the student accounts handled and can I call someone when we have a problem?

[if the answer is G+ account, I don't think I can risk it given Google hate for certain types of names]

</comment><comment><USER6> Direct link [http://www.google.com/edu/classroom/](http://www.google.com/edu/classroom/)

</comment><comment><USER7> I need to show this video to some teachers I know, just so I can count how many turn white seeing a room full of kids using laptops with the screens turned away from the teacher's view.

I'm guessing this will be a non-zero value.

</comment><comment><USER8> <<A response from someone who works in education.>>

This actually is a HUGE deal for teachers and schools, and it will provide a LOT of value.

One of the largest frustrations teachers have with going paperless is managing the workflow of assignments. Learning management systems like Blackboard or Moodle were often a feasible solution to this issue, since teachers could share files for download and students could upload finished assignments.

Google Apps for Education products (namely Google Docs) disrupted this. Because Google Docs allows teachers to have access to student work (collaborative editing), it allows him/her to give feedback and support throughout the entire creative process.

That's a very big deal, and it makes the [upload/download] features in Blackboard or Moodle less useful. Plugins that allowed access to Google Drive folders were built for both of those tools (as well as others- like Schoology, Edmodo, Haiku, Canvas, etc.) but they stopped short when it came to managing the workflow of creating, sharing, organizing, and collecting collaborative files in the Google Apps ecosystem.

In 2011, Hapara [ed tech company, graduated iK12 accelerator, [http://hapara.com/](http://hapara.com/)] entered the scene. Their tool laid on top of Google Apps products and streamlined the process of managing classrooms by giving teachers or administrators a bird's eye view of all student work- their files, recent activity, etc. That workflow problem was solved.

However, not every school is willing to pay for the advanced features of Hapara- so there still wasn't a free solution that every teacher could access. Some of the team at the NY-based school charter network New Visions for Public Schools built and released some of the scripts they were using to manage processes [[http://youpd.org](http://youpd.org)]. Some of the more popular scripts included 'Doctopus' [to manage assignment creation/collecting] and 'Flubaroo' [to automate the grading of quizzes created in Google Forms].

Again, the workflow issue was solved. However, a lot of teachers weren't tech- saavy enough (yet!) to utilize all of these scripts of piece-meal all of them together to build a comprehensive solution.

So yes, this is a huge deal, because it allows teachers to easily manage the tools they are already using (and they are definitely using GAFE products- literally tens of millions of students and teachers have access to those tools).

Also, as an aside-- I've noticed comments that say, "teachers do not want to create assignments" or "teachers would go white seeing a room full of kids with their laptops turned away". Please do not assume that most teachers are resistant to learning how to use digital tools. Schools are dealing with a variety of issues related to this shift, including weak infrastructure, broken and outdated equipment, lack of time for training, lack of a shared vision and implementation planning, lack of support, negative media coverage, etc. If any teacher is resistant, it is likely because he/she hasn't had enough support to adapt in a meaningful way yet. This is a BIG change for teachers and it completely changes the fundamentals of how many of them have operated. Think about the last time we went through a shift this dramatic... the closest thing to what the Internet has done for education is probably what the printing press did for education. That's a big deal, and there are going to be growing pains.

</comment><comment><USER9> It's going to be interesting to watch how this competes with Blackboard.

Anecdotally, it definitely looks like Blackboard has an almost monopoly on class room management stuff. Since the education market is so slow to adopt new things, Google definitely has their work cut out for them.

With that being said, Blackboard definitely leaves a lot to be desired, and with classes supposedly going online more and more, the market is definitely ripe for some disruption.

<comment><USER10> "Blackboard's market share among universities slipped to about 45 percent last year, down 26 points from six years before." And I question whether their share was really that high or just that high amongst universities that purchased a commercial LMS (as opposed to having a home-grown one, free & open source one, or no school-wide LMS at all).

[http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2013/09...](http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2013/09/blackboard- layoffs.html?page=all)

</comment></comment><comment> chestnut-tree These tools and services look very promising but Google needs to be clear and transparent about what data it captures when rolling out this service.

Is it tracking and recording the usage and behaviour of teachers and students who use these tools? What does it use this data for? ("we use this data to improve services" says absolutely nothing.)

If you start using these tools in your student years, then continue to use your email and Google apps into adult life, can you imagine the _phenomenal_ amount of data Google will have captured and recorded about you?

<comment><USER11> From the article:

> Google also won't even use the data that moves through the platform or > display ads in Classroom, either, in accordance with its new policy > announced last week.

<comment><USER12> How can we be sure about that?

<comment><USER13> I mean, I guess you can't unless you can a) see the source code yourself and b) deploy it yourself.

<comment><USER12> They say they don't collect information for advertising purposes, that doesn't mean they don't collect the information for tracking purposes, it just a game of words they have there in the privacy statement.

<comment><USER14> Of they're not tracking for advertisement purposes, what would they be tracking for?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Not to mention the potential damage that could be done to Canvas by Instructure, which is competing with the Black Board behemoth at the (currently) higher ed market.

[http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/instructure](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/instructure) $39.10M funding / 2008 startup.

</comment><comment><USER16> Anything that hurts Blackboard can't be ALL bad.

</comment><comment><USER6> "to help teachers create and organize assignments"

Teachers do not want to create assignments. I created a similar thing for my wife and discovered this and a lot more

<comment><USER17> Maybe it was how you implemented it? That's also a sample size of one.</comment></comment>


HTTP/3: From root to tip - <AUTHOR> https://blog.cloudflare.com/http-3-from-root-to-tip/ <comment><USER2> TL;DR HTTP over QUIC is now HTTP/3\. "HTTP/3 is just a new HTTP syntax that works on IETF QUIC, a UDP-based multiplexed and secure transport"</comment>


New Internet Explorer 7 Tax - <AUTHOR> http://www.kogan.com/au/blog/new-internet-explorer-7-tax/

<comment><USER2> Silly publicity stunt, obviously. But the heartening thing I'm taking away from this is that it isn't an Internet Explorer 6 tax.</comment>


Ask HN: Speech – text engines for voice control? - <AUTHOR> Other than Wit.AI are there any speech -> text engines you all think are solid?  Hobbyist programmer here looking to introduce voice control  in an iOS app. <comment><USER2> are you looking for speech > text > action ?</comment>


ImGui: Bloat-Free Immediate Mode GUI for C++ with Minimal Dependencies - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ocornut/imgui <comment><USER2> I used this library in a lot of my University assignments. It's a really great way to add controls for 3D renderers, simulations, games, et cetera. I mostly used it for debugging purposes myself, but I could see it growing comfortably into a production-ready UI.</comment>


IDF Developing Sabbath-Friendly Keyboard, Computer Screen - <AUTHOR> http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131725 <comment><USER2> Can anyone enlighten me on why they can't use normal mouse? Writing on a keyboard could be considered "writing two or more letters" which is forbidden according to wiki. Is using mouse "Applying the finishing touch"?</comment>


March Retail Sales Plunged 8.7% as Coronavirus Shutdowns Took Hold - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/march-retail-sales-plunged-8-7-as-coronavirus-shutdowns-took-hold-11586954353 <comment><USER2> Given the reticence of states to encourage social isolation it'll probably be more enlightening to see April's numbers. I'm honestly surprised it's only down that little - in terms of spending, I've only been to the grocery store twice in the last month.

<comment><USER3> Same, I've gone from grocery shopping every week to focusing my meals around non-perishable ingredients so I only have to go every other week. On the other hand, Wal-Mart grocery deliveries have started to become available again, and they added an option to let them leave it on your doorstep the way Amazon does.

<comment><USER4> Any suggestions for non-perishable sources of protein?

As for deliveries - Safeway tends to have more availability and also leaves groceries at the doorstep

<comment><USER5> I think there are many non perishable sources of protein as commented below by others. What I am not able to find is non perishable sources of fibre, to be able to eat less fresh vegetables.

<comment><USER6> Oats, frozen vegetables, frozen rye bread (tastes awesome toasted and buttered), whole wheat, brown rice, beans and legumes.

<comment><USER7> Also, canned vegetables. Not as tasty as fresh or frozen (because they're usually overcooked), but they'd have the same fiber content.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I am surprised it's only 8.7%, shouldn't it be atleast 50% or more? The only businesses making money are grocery stores.

<comment><USER9> These are from March. I would expect April's numbers to be between 8.5% and 50%.

<comment><USER10> April will probably be worse because we only really lost half of March, and panic-buying was at peak. At least in my area, things have seriously calmed down with the panic buying, people have adapted to the new normal. But nobody is out there clothes shopping.

<comment><USER11> I imagine there are a lot of people buying clothes online with their spare time. A lot of brands are pushing big discounts too.

<comment><USER4> Easy returns, a big reason for online shopping being a thing, are not so easy anymore (need to go to the Post office).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I would've expected a bigger drop. But these numbers include online sales.

I suppose some of the drop is countered by people being less price-conscious: e.g. going to 1 grocery store instead of 3 to capture all the sales. Or buying more expensive TP because that's all thats available.

</comment><comment><USER13> Rents have killed many small businesses. The next step in this progression is chain stores. Hopefully, Covid-19 can rein the leveraged real estate.

</comment><comment><USER14> Are we even supposed to be buying stuff right now?

<comment><USER15> Support local businesses if you can. Buy stamps if you can.</comment></comment>


Coding Math - <AUTHOR> http://www.codingmath.com/ <comment><USER2> It appears that this should be "Coding Math for Games and Graphics". I work in the actuarial space and the math I work with is quite a bit different.

<comment><USER3> Were you really expecting a coverage of mathematics broad enough to include actuarial science? I agree there seems to be a large number of topics useful for graphics programming, but of course the site can't hope to cover every application of mathematics.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The site appears to be struggling, but you can view the Coding Math videos on YouTube [1].

These are really useful. Whether we like it or not, mathematics underpins most of computer science and often beginners don't even know what to search for to get started. A resource like this is an excellent way to get somebody going.

[1]: [https://www.youtube.com/user/codingmath/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/codingmath/videos)

<comment><USER2> If the site had a page where they listed all of the videos in order, instead of having to go thru pages of (I'm assuming) Wordpress entries, it wouldn't be struggling.

Not that it's not a great idea, just a poor implementation of an "index".

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> You can encourage Keith to make more videos here

[https://www.patreon.com/codingmath?ty=h](https://www.patreon.com/codingmath?ty=h)

He's helped me immeasurably through the years. I really liked his Sine wave stuff early on in that series.</comment>


Verizon offers New iPad Hotspot Feature Free - <AUTHOR> http://www.macworld.com/article/165781/2012/03/ipad_hotspot_feature_will_be_available_on_verizon_not_atandt.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure how long this will last given the industries history of downgrading plans after launch however for now it's a step forward to be able to use the data you _purchase_ the way you want to.</comment>


FDA Bans Fruit, Mint Flavors in Vaping Cartridges, Exemption for Vape Shops - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-declares-ban-on-fruit-mint-flavors-in-cartridge-based-e-cigarettes-11577989114 <comment><USER2> Supply-side interventions are rarely effective and often increase harm.

If you want to stop kids vaping, you first need to understand why they are vaping. Not just why they SAY they are vaping, but the actual underlying cause.

If a human brain isn't getting its pleasure chemicals from life, it will seek them out anywhere it can get them. Repeat that cycle many times and your brain learns to associate that activity with pleasure. Et voila, addiction.</comment>


Interview with Facebook's Head of AI - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-ai-says-field-hit-wall/ <comment><USER2> Very clickbaity headline. The full quote in the interview makes it obvious he is talking about hitting a wall in terms of simply throwing more compute power (at greater expense) at projects to get better results. He doesn't imply anything about algorithmic improvements in AI hitting a wall.

<comment><USER3> Ok, we'll just make the title say that it's an interview, which it is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting, I thought Yann was still the head of AI at Facebook. Did they just need someone who would tell them that achieving human-level intelligence is coming soon?

<comment><USER5> I think your question implies something that is clearly invalidated by the interview:

> JP: As a lab, our objective is to match human intelligence. We're still > very, very far from that, but we think it's a great objective.

<comment><USER4> Yann is unlikely to say it's a great objective.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> JP: "As a lab, our objective is to match human intelligence."

Also JP: AGI is a "bogus concept".

??? How can you possibly square these comments?

<comment><USER7> He explains in the next paragraph? He doesn't consider human intelligence to be general.

<comment><USER8> Which is an extraordinary statement which he doesn't explain. Sad as it would have been more useful than this whole interview where he only say obvious things.

<comment><USER9> Here's my guess: There are things that humans can figure out and do, there are things that are possible, but that humans haven't yet figured out to do. It seems strange to define AGI as "Machines can do everything we can do, but not more". For AGI should a machine be able to figure out calculus(and everything that came with it)? Because that was beyond human intelligence for millennia.

You can answer the question of "Is this machine as smart as a human" by giving it the same data as a human and asking it questions, how would you ever determine if its intelligence is truly general?

<comment><USER10> AGI is not about knowing how to use some human system (like calculus). It is about having a general reasoning capability that is similar or better than human. One of hard things about AGI is that it is not clear what this entails (ie what exactly IS human general reasoning capability).</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The practice of programming, 18 years later - <AUTHOR> https://blog.kjamistan.com/the-practice-of-programming-18-years-later/ <comment><USER2> People like Pike and Kernighan is the reason I've invested so much of my time in learning Go lately. To some this may seem completely irrational, because you should pick a language based on its merits (e.g. does it support generics, etc), but for me, the books they authored and the software they wrote (e.g. Ken Thompson's contribution to what we now know as unix) says a lot more than a seemingly objective review based on language features. I guess time will show whether I'm right.

<comment><USER3> As someone who is writing Go (and Python) for a living: I don't regret the choice.

The lack of generics is annoying when you come across it, but it's relatively rare to come across. The seemingly foot-shooting flexibility of interface{} and Value are frightening from afar, but seem to "just work" when you use them in practice. Using them introduces just enough natural friction that you don't actually use them unless you need to. GC pauses have yet to cause a problem for me.

Error handling _is_ still a bit of a pain, but I do appreciate being forced to think about error handling, instead of just relying on a global try/catch and runtime tracebacks. Yes, I know I should not be relying on a catch of last resort, but it never seems like the right place to handle errors ever naturally appears.

Good luck!

<comment><USER4> _> The lack of generics is annoying when you come across it, but it's relatively rare to come across. The seemingly foot-shooting flexibility of interface{} and Value are frightening from afar, but seem to "just work" when you use them in practice._

...Unless you write code that treats types as things, and not as inconveniencies that the compiler foists upon you. At which point the problems of generics appear immediately.

Like, I'm glad it works for you (well, sort of--the more Go in the world, the more likelihood that I'm going to have to deal with it), but what you're describing really only works from one very particular mindset of software development that isn't super well-shared.

 _> Error handling is still a bit of a pain, but I do appreciate being forced to think about error handling, instead of just relying on a global try/catch and runtime tracebacks._

Go's method of "making you think about error handling" is not just "a bit of a pain" but _really, really weak_ , though, and it ties back to the language itself not being particularly expressive. In a language with expressive generics, you just fold() across anything that can return an error because it returns Result<V, E> and you must handle both cases inline.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Programming has not changed much since the 1960's and 1970's when Unix and C were developed. Modern computer programming languages simply mix and match different features from the "Cambrian explosion" of experimental and production programming languages in the 1960's. Hence it is not surprising that books on general programming concepts and principles are still relevant years later.

C is still in widespread use in operating system internals, embedded software development (think wearables and Internet of Things), complex algorithms like video compression, and miscellaneous other fields.

Version control dates back at least to SCCS in the 1970's and has been in widespread use at least since RCS in the 1980's. I mention this because I occasionally encounter people who seem to think version control either was invented with Git (not true) or rarely used before Git (not true).

Testing software is not new. Testing fanaticism is new.

Things that have improved in programming are:

Optimizing compilers have improved and all but eliminated low level loop optimizations by hand and similar "micro" optimizations by hand. This has also largely eliminated assembly programming.

Computers are much faster than in the 1960's, not much faster than the late 1990's, which means many things can be done with scripting languages that were once too slow. Compiled languages like C and C++ still dominate at the very high end of performance.

Scripting languages play fast and loose with variable types which makes it easier to write code quickly, but makes it harder to achieve the speed of a compiled executable from a relatively strongly typed language (compared to a scripting language -- how strongly typed is C really with its casts, pointers, and other unsafe but useful features?).

Compiler error and warning messages are much clearer than years ago.

There have been some incremental improvements in programming languages like using the plus sign (+) to concatenate strings that have made many new languages a bit easier to read and write. Compare strcat(blatz, " and now") to blatz + " and now"

None of these, or other improvements in the last fifty years, are revolutionary advances that would obsolete an older book on general programming principles.

Computer programming remains labor intensive and often highly compensated because many of the problems and issues remain largely unchanged since the early days (1960's/1970's).

<comment><USER6> > Version control dates back at least to SCCS in the 1970's and has been in > widespread use at least since RCS in the 1980's. I mention this because I > occasionally encounter people who seem to think version control either was > invented with Git (not true) or rarely used before Git (not true).

As someone who works in an svn shop - this annoys the snot out of me - yes, the distributed nature of git brings some decided advantages, but if all of your tooling, and all of your workflow is tied to subversion, the costs to change over perhaps exceed the benefits gained.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The debugging session has always been priceless. And its something that new programmers are especially challenged in because they are taught how to create programs not to fix them. I've helped people on IRC who just write a new program rather than try to figure out what is wrong with their existing code and that is so sad. _Understanding_ why a program is broken is the key to understanding programming.

</comment><comment><USER8> > If you think that you have found a bug in someone else's program, the first > step is to make absolutely sure it is a genuine bug, so you don't waste the > author's time and lose your own credibility.

I am thinking we need to create an open-source "10 commandments" website and this should be on it.

</comment><comment><USER9> Kernighan and Pike (and other books of each author) is IMO almost as relevant today as then. It is short, clean, and even if examples seem obsolete they often contain useful nuggets of wisdom.

The blog post cites a few paragraphs, as examples. Read the book itself, it is a good one.

</comment><comment><USER10> This site is blocked by my ISP's porn filter!

SafeGuard You tried to view kjamistan.com

The account holder has activated SafeGuard and this page is blocked by the category pn_pornography.

The account holder is me - I have children hence the filter

<comment><USER11> is this SafeGuard from safeguardtek.com? is this provided by your ISP directly? do you mind sharing which ISP provides this service to you?

<comment><USER10> I don't know where the ISP gets the service from, they don't say on their product pages. It is plus.net in the UK and they provide the service directly to their subscribers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I had similar experiences with _Programming Pearls_ (1986) by Jon Bentley last year. Most of the principles are still there, although the scales have changed somewhat.</comment>


Nix: The Purely Functional Package Manager - <AUTHOR> https://nixos.org/nix/ <comment><AUTHOR> Also:

[https://nixos.org/nix/about.html](https://nixos.org/nix/about.html)

"Nix is a purely functional package manager. This means that it treats packages like values in purely functional programming languages such as Haskell — they are built by functions that don't have side-effects, and they never change after they have been built. Nix stores packages in the Nix store, usually the directory /nix/store, where each package has its own unique subdirectory such as /nix/store/b6gvzjyb2pg0kjfwrjmg1vfhh54ad73z-firefox-33.1/ where b6gvzjyb2pg0… is a unique identifier for the package that captures all its dependencies (it's a cryptographic hash of the package's build dependency graph). This enables many powerful features.

Multiple versions

You can have multiple versions or variants of a package installed at the same time. This is especially important when different applications have dependencies on different versions of the same package — it prevents the "DLL hell". Because of the hashing scheme, different versions of a package end up in different paths in the Nix store, so they don't interfere with each other.

An important consequence is that operations like upgrading or uninstalling an application cannot break other applications, since these operations never "destructively" update or delete files that are used by other packages.

Complete dependencies

Nix helps you make sure that package dependency specifications are complete. In general, when you're making a package for a package management system like RPM, you have to specify for each package what its dependencies are, but there are no guarantees that this specification is complete. If you forget a dependency, then the component will build and work correctly on your machine if you have the dependency installed, but not on the end user's machine if it's not there.

Since Nix on the other hand doesn't install packages in "global" locations like /usr/bin but in package-specific directories, the risk of incomplete dependencies is greatly reduced. This is because tools such as compilers don't search in per-packages directories such as /nix/store/5lbfaxb722zp…-openssl-0.9.8d/include, so if a package builds correctly on your system, this is because you specified the dependency explicitly.

Runtime dependencies are found by scanning binaries for the hash parts of Nix store paths (such as r8vvq9kq…). This may sound risky, but it works extremely well.

Multi-user support

Starting at version 0.11, Nix has multi-user support. This means that non- privileged users can securely install software. Each user can have a different profile, a set of packages in the Nix store that appear in the user's PATH. If a user installs a package that another user has already installed previously, the package won't be built or downloaded a second time. At the same time, it is not possible for one user to inject a Trojan horse into a package that might be used by another user.

Atomic upgrades and rollbacks

Since package management operations never overwrite packages in the Nix store but just add new versions in different paths, they are atomic. So during a package upgrade, there is no time window in which the package has some files from the old version and some files from the new version — which would be bad because a program might well crash if it's started during that period.

And since packages aren't overwritten, the old versions are still there after an upgrade. This means that you can roll back to the old version..."

There are more features; the ones above are the key ones, in my opinion...</comment>


Ask HN: Creating a Cloud Storage Service - <AUTHOR> Hi everyone,
I want to create my own cloud storage.
For this, I am planning to start with something very simple, a functional frontend to upload/show files and a backend which has the functions to return a file list/specific file(s) and a register/login.
Currently my plan is to use the technologies I am used to working with: Angular/Node.js and for database probably MySQL. Do you think that this would actually make sense or is there something more which I need to (re)consider before I start? <comment><USER2> You need to think of security. If your server gets compromised I don't want any documents that I would have stored with the service to be able to be read by the attacker.

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe just use minio?</comment>


CloudPiercer: Is your cloud-protected website's origin exposed? - <AUTHOR> https://cloudpiercer.org <comment><USER2> It would be nice if I could just get my results without adding my email.

<comment><AUTHOR> The email address is used to send you the link where the results for your domain are shown. If you keep track of this URL yourself, feel free to enter a bogus email.

(domain verification is not related to the email address)</comment></comment>


The BS Bubble: My Response to Peter Thiel - <AUTHOR> http://www.hackeducation.com/2011/04/12/the-bs-bubble/ <comment><USER2> Might this have born from the "you can do anything..." mentality that parents have been telling their kids for the 80's and 90's children? FYI, I am one of those. Though I was fortunate that my parents taught me also how to work hard, think smart, and be a realist.

I agree with you on most points. But what to do about it? It seems that better parenting would be the place to start. Instead of sending kids to college/university when they turn 18, have them: travel, come to work with parents/friends/family, dine on the Khan Academy, start a business, get a job, have kids, volunteer, watch TV, do nothing.

This sounds vaguely familiar with what you do after college and could be better for you. In my current position there are two gents that do the same thing as me, have more experience, and get paid about 30K more, and are 15 years older than me. They never received a BS or similar level education. While I went to school for 4.5 years and spent 120K in the process. Though I feel my education from RIT was well worth it and regret none of it. It is all about how you do with what you have.</comment>