Treating children for worms yields long-term benefits, says new study - <AUTHOR> https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/08/03/treating-children-for-worms-yields-long-term-benefits-says-new-study/ <comment><USER3> Parasite load seems to affect negatively cognitive abilities.

Decreased Parasite Load and Improved Cognitive Outcomes Caused by Deworming and Consumption of Multi-Micronutrient Fortified Biscuits in Rural Vietnamese Schoolchildren [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3144834/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3144834/)

Parasite load explains 67% of the worldwide variation in intelligence: "Parasite prevalence and the worldwide distribution of cognitive ability" [https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2010...](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2010.0973)

<comment><USER4> From the scond paper:

"Templer & Arikawa (2006) also found that average IQ correlated significantly with average skin darkness (r = −0.92). The authors offered little explanation of why this trend exists, except that they believed skin colour was related to exposure to certain climates over evolutionary time."

I doubt that scientists today would dare to make such statements, for the fear of being "cancelled".

<comment><USER5> It is very hard to create unbiased IQ tests. There will always be cultural differences and differences in opportunity.

IQ tests should be taken with a grain of salt.

It also depends on what you think is important. Smart people are not always wise people.

<comment><USER4> I certainly agree with that. Nonetheless, being myself one of the "darker" skinned ethnicities, I see no offence in the statement that as a whole, darker nations seem to have lower IQ, there might be thousands of reasons for that; for some nations, colonial opressions, for some it might inherent biological reasons.

<comment><USER6> The problem with saying it, is even if you mean IQ is academically the average result on a particular test design, people understand it in common English to mean something more like 'value as a member of society'.

<comment><USER4> Science should not be concerned with the interpretation of its discoveries.

<comment><USER7> Interpretation is an inseparable part of science. Take the issue of race for example. People since the 30s have repeatedly pointed out that there's no consistent biological basis for race. The concept is just flat out not biologically rooted. Yet scientists kept using it because it was convenient and they came from a worldview where race was very much a reality. Thus studies were (and continue to be) done on the basis of biological racial categories.

<comment><USER4> Not sure about races, but one can certainly tell the difference between ethnicities; I can tell apart a Russian and an Armenian for example, with more than 75% success rate. Therefore there certainly is difference between people in different geographic areas. If people have differences in their outer appearances, there might be differences (not very large, obviously) in the way their neural systems work;denying that, IMO is a very ideological position.

<comment><USER7> It's the consensus of the vast majority of relevant professionals that "humans cannot be divided into biologically distinct categories", i.e. races. That quote comes from the ASHG [1], but another relevant field is anthropology where again, the largest professional organization (the AAAS) says the same thing [2]. The AAPA concurs [3]. If you think these associations might be a little biased, someone published a national survey of anthropologists a couple years ago confirming these views [4].

Some technical caveats: So yes, on some level you can approximately group sets of people into things roughly matching modern broad racial categories on the basis of genetics. This isn't because of anything real (i.e. there's nothing all members of a group share that doesn't exist "outside" them), but simply because you can broadly categorize any large set of things, regardless of whether those categories are actualized. Race as a social construct (e.g. identifying someone as "black" or "caucasian") is absolutely, undeniably a thing. It's simply not reflecting an underlying biological reality. There are also people in the community who argue that even if racial categories aren't biologically actualized, they're still useful (or that the definition I gave previously doesn't apply), but that's a much more complicated matter for which entire libraries' worth of debate exist.

[1] [https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(18)30363-X](https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297\(18\)30363-X) [2] [https://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Content.aspx?I...](https://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2583) [3] [https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa- statemen...](https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement- race-and-racism-2019/) [4] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5299519/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5299519/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> At an earlier stage, this work attracted a fair bit of methodological controversy, e.g.

[https://www.vox.com/2015/7/24/9031909/worm-wars- explained](https://www.vox.com/2015/7/24/9031909/worm-wars-explained)

[https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2015/08/18/macartan-h...](https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2015/08/18/macartan- humphreys-on-the-worm-wars/)

<comment><USER9> Presumably the 2019 _Nobel Prize_ committee had seen that criticism?

Frankly I'm appalled that intestinal worms still plague _so many_ human beings. I happily spend about $50 a year to worm a herd of horses, a herd of cattle, and a dog. Surely as a species we can find the resources to buy these children some pills, at least until we cowboy up and eradicate these worms from our planet entirely.

<comment><USER10> How do you spend so little? My dog's monthly heartworm medicine alone costs $5/dose.

<comment><USER11> Dog heartworm pills are a MASSIVE rip-off. The active ingredient - <USER2> - can be purchased without prescription at any farm supply shop in sufficient quantity to last several dogs' lifetimes with plenty to spare. The maintenance dosage is miniscule.

Pet prescription meds are only slightly less of a scam than human prescription meds.

<comment><USER12> I'm a retired DVM. What you say is true, but I just want to caution anyone reading this that ivermectin is deadly for collies and many herding breeds. Rule of thumb is "white feet, do not treat."

<comment><USER13> Please don't be offended, but I find this absolutely fascinating. Abstractly I know veterinary science is at least as complex as anything involving humans. But somehow I tend to dismiss just how much variability a veterinarian is expected to be able to account for.

<comment><USER14> please don't be offended but if you find yourself saying "please, don't be offended", LPT, you can generally reword what you are about to say so it's simply a compliment instead of containing the negative messsage.

You are impressed by how much variation a veterinarian must account for in a single species, and they handle multiple species.

<comment><USER15> The "offended" would be "sometimes, I dismiss" – there's no way to re-word that to be less offensive (even though it isn't _particularly_ offensive, I wouldn't think) without omitting it entirely.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Deworming may also bring long term detriment [1].

[1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1618732/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1618732/)

Deworming increases response of immune system [2] and can lead to higher inflammation, more allergies and autoimmune diseases.

[2] [https://www.pnas.org/content/113/44/12526.full](https://www.pnas.org/content/113/44/12526.full)

Right now I think we have to eat better.

<comment><USER17> When I was a kid, I remember being dewormed about 3 times and I still remember the medicine, Vermox. The first time I freaked out because I saw the long worms come out And then some in my stool, but after that I was used to it. Now, as an adult I have crazy seasonal allergies, hopefully that wasn't the cause.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> If this had only been known and treatable 200 years ago, who knows how U.S. history could have been changed.

[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the- so...](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad- name/)

<comment><USER19> >While the South eventually rid itself of hookworms

The article is incorrect. Hookworm was never eradicated in the US. It was just confined to poor, black folks. [0]

[0][https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/05/hookworm- low...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/05/hookworm-lowndes- county-alabama-water-waste-treatment-poverty)

<comment><USER20> anonAndOn says:>"The article is incorrect. Hookworm was never eradicated in the US. It was just confined to poor, black folks...

That is incorrect. Worms are endemic to the USA. See the CDC's posting "Parasites - Hookworm" at [https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/hookworm/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/hookworm/index.html)

As a child I was treated regularly for worms, including but not limited to hookworms. Worms infest whites as well as blacks, Hispanics, and everyone else. Both rich and poor get worms. As the CDC posting states: "Hookworm infection is mainly acquired by walking barefoot on contaminated soil. One kind of hookworm can also be transmitted through the ingestion of larvae." And what kind of child _doesn 't_ walk barefoot in the mud or eat dirt?

The answer possibly is _sickly_ children! Some hypothesize that exposure to worms may be _necessary_ for a child to develop a proper immune response:

"Are Worms Key to Health?"

[https://www.nhs.uk/news/heart-and-lungs/are-worms-key-to- hea...](https://www.nhs.uk/news/heart-and-lungs/are-worms-key-to-health/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I think it's worth mentioning that almost _any_ public health, education, welfare program for children gives excellent returns on investment, compared to trying to apply that same money to people later in life (unemployment benefits, job retraining, etc).

The amount you can positively change a child's life for the better means that reasonable expenditures on known problems should almost be a no-brainer.

( I'll see if I can dig up an article link about the difference in outcomes per $ spent, versus age of recipient.)

Edit: here are multiple links within the article about the above: [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/business/social- programs-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/business/social-programs- profit.html)

<comment><USER22> Some educational programs have excellent results in short term, but the effect disappears in long term. For example, do some extra activities with kids during the first grade, and they will have measurably better outcomes in the second grade, but will be indistinguishable from their peers by the fifth grade.

<comment><USER23> Education is a ball being rolled up a hill. It's not a bucket being filled with water.

Super oversimplified but I've found it tells the general story: you can't just come back to it later and expect to find the same progress. Constant nurturing, whether from yourself or a caregiver or an education system, is what has an impact. And I believe this is true for almost any age.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Hasn't GiveWell known this for awhile? More study is always good, of course!

Evidence Action "Deworm the World Initiative" is one of GiveWell's top charities [https://www.givewell.org/charities/top- charities](https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities)

<comment><USER25> Givewell decided to make this recommendation despite ongoing disputes in the literature. There was so much uncertainty about the long-term effects that at least as of 2016, they actually discounted the expected benefit by 100x. See [https://blog.givewell.org/2016/12/06/why-i-mostly-believe- in...](https://blog.givewell.org/2016/12/06/why-i-mostly-believe-in-worms/)

<comment><USER24> mea culpa! That's fascinating, thanks for the link.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> There is a charity doing this I learned about through GiveWell.

[https://www.evidenceaction.org/dewormtheworld-2/](https://www.evidenceaction.org/dewormtheworld-2/)

</comment><comment><USER27> Does this coincide well with research on the symbiotic relationship between host and parasite? In general: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3140032/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3140032/)

Novel treatment of Multiple Sclerosis with parasitic worms: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5666823/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5666823/)

</comment><comment><USER28> How common are worms in western societies?

<comment><USER29> Extremely... but unfortunately most Western doctors won't test for it, won't prescribe meds for it and are convinced that it's not possible in 1st world countries. In other words, utter quackery.

<comment><USER30> Can you just take meds for every worm there is or how do you know what kind of worms to test for?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> And probably side effects as asthma and allergy

[https://www.nhs.uk/news/heart-and-lungs/are-worms-key-to- hea...](https://www.nhs.uk/news/heart-and-lungs/are-worms-key-to-health/)

<comment><USER32> Old K5 article on hayfever/asthma self medication using hookworms:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20080108063512/kuro5hin.org/stor...](https://web.archive.org/web/20080108063512/kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/30/91945/8971)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> It should not really surprise, that there are benefits from removing parasites. The only potential downside I see is, that the childa body does not learn to deal with them on its own.

<comment><USER34> Is it really not a surprise? If someone told me that there was a magic, 50-cent-a-year pill that would increase my wage by 15% for the next _20 years_ , I would be skeptical.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> The fact that many poor children have worms does not mean the worms cause the poor outcomes. Deworming is cheap and ubiquitous in primary care clinics in poor communities in Africa. Correlation does not imply causation.

<comment><USER34> In this case, the deworming treatment was allocated randomly (see the paper [0]). Giving the deworming treatment to children make them less poor than those who did not get the treatment, and there should be no baseline differences on average between the two group of children since the allocation was random.

Is going from "deworming children make less poor" to "the worms cause poor outcomes" such a stretch?

[0] [http://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/research/twenty-year- econom...](http://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/research/twenty-year-economic- impacts-of-deworming)

<comment><USER35> There are so many factors here, poor health can exacerbate worm infestations and healthy individuals with a good diet can live with parasites for many years with no adverse symptoms. Then there are the visits to clinics that give default deworming pills as part of any consultation.

Is going from "deworming children make less poor" to "the worms cause poor outcomes" such a stretch?

Sure, it is likely.

<comment><USER34> All those many factors equally affect both groups, that's the point of running a randomized trial. I am not sure how they are relevant to the claims that worms cause poor outcomes or that deworming children make them less poor adults. Could you please explain?

<comment><USER35> My problem is how do you run a randomized trial with something as common as a deworming pill that is handed out in clinics by nurses and can be bought over the counter? I am just curious.

<comment><USER34> I don't see how that would be a problem: even if it was common, handing out pill to one group but not the other would still lead to one group being more "dewormed" than the other, all others things being equal.

Anyway, in this case, I do not believe deworming was as common as you assume:

> Baseline parasitological surveys indicated that helminth infection rates > were over 90%, and over a third had a moderate-heavy infection according to > a modified WHO infection criteria (Miguel and Kremer 2004)

> Drug take-up rates were high, at approximately 75% in the treatment group, > and under 5% in the control group (Miguel and Kremer 2004).

5% of the population taking the drug when >90% should means the drug is not "common".

<comment><USER35> In South Africa it has always been the default to deworm all children. In schools, clinics. [https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/government- launches-d...](https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/government-launches- deworming-programme-learners)

<comment><USER34> This trial was done in Kenya, not South Africa.

<comment><USER35> I know that, I was relating my own experience of African healthcare since I live in South Africa. Kenya is not that different I imagine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I thought we were supposed to be encouraging gut flora and fauna, and that deworming and antibiotics was causing all sorts of allergies and disorders.

I mean, faecal transplants are a thing now.

As a species, we spend trillions of dollars a year on armaments and the machinery of war, and can't even definitively answer simple questions about our own bodies. What a disappointment we are.

<comment><USER37> There is a drug called ivermectin that will kill all invertebrate without harming gut bacteria. I'm not sure what gave you the idea [ ... assumption] that treatment against invertebrate parasites automatically is detrimental to our gut biome. And I definitely don't follow your logic towards the end, but have a look at ivermectin it is a hell of a drug.

<comment><USER38> Ivermectin is known to have a negative impact on biodiversity: [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00489...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969717330498)

<comment><USER37> Consider the fact that it obliterates any and all invertebrate it encounters, of course that is going to lower lower biodiversity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Must be wonderful having the entire "third world" for researchers to test out their pet hypotheses, or at least to trial medications that might not otherwise be worth paying to have put through FDA scrutiny until you've dosed several thousands of innocent children. And who says colonialism is dead?

<comment><USER34> My understanding is that this is not a clinical trial at all - the question is not whether the treatment works for health purposes, but whether this medicine, that was already tested for its medical effects, also has long lasting economic impact. Hence the FDA is completely irrelevant here.</comment></comment>


Running PHP with Caddy Server on Mac OS X – Simone Carletti - <AUTHOR> https://simonecarletti.com/blog/2016/05/caddy-server-php-macosx/ <comment><AUTHOR> On OS X, it needs `php-fpm` to be started with homebrew service. Otherwise, PHP pages will not be interpreted by PHP interpreter: brew services start php71

</comment><comment><USER2> Or just run:

docker run -d -p 2015:2015 abiosoft/caddy:php</comment>


Javascript: The Open Source Solution for Multiple Mobile Platforms - <AUTHOR> http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7436/1.html <comment><USER2> What was wrong with Java, may I ask? It's what's been on phones since 2000, and it's what Android is throwing it's weight behind.</comment>


Boeing 777X's fuselage split dramatically during September stress test - <AUTHOR> https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-777xs-fuselage-split-dramatically-during-september-stress-test/ <comment><USER2> >The relatively good news for Boeing is that because the test failed so explosively at just 1% shy of meeting federal requirements, it will almost certainly not have to do a retest. Regulators will likely allow it to prove by analysis that it's enough to reinforce the fuselage in the localized area where it failed.

That actually sounds scary and somewhat broken process. You either pass a test or not.</comment>


RabbitMQ: What I'll Tell You About Using Rabbitmq Before It's Too Late - <AUTHOR> https://ryanrodemoyer.github.io/what-i-wish-someone-would-have-told-me-about-using-rabbitmq-before-it-was-too-late/ <comment><AUTHOR> Yesterday there was a popular post about RabbitMQ. I added a comment about some RabbitMQ topics that you should absolutely know about before you decide to use RabbitMQ. That comment got the juices flowing again and I needed to write something longer to more specifically address these items because I absolutely believe it's relevant to everyone using this tool.</comment>


Facebook introduces 15-second video ads that auto-play without sound - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/03/13/facebook-introduces-15-second-premium-video-ads-auto-play-without-sound-stop-scroll-past/ <comment><USER2> "Facebook says it is taking steps to ensure video ads that appear on its site "are as good as other content people see in their News Feeds.""

My buttocks randomly bouncing up and down the keyboard could produce better content than most of the stuff I saw on my news feed when I was on facebook, so that's not exactly going to be difficult...

More seriously and with (slightly) less snark, I'm always shocked when I surf the internet at work with no ad-blocker. Pop-ups, irritating garish backgrounds, "content" plastered everywhere, and of course, annoying video ads. Its like a bad episode of Futurama; some horrible dystopian disfigurement of the internet.

I honestly don't know how people put up with it.

And the other thing that gets me is why don't government/private business install ad-blockers by default? For these large corporations or institutions, I imagine a significant percentage of bandwidth is wasted on "content" (and i use that word in its loosest possible sense) no one really wants to access...

<comment><USER3> |More seriously and with (slightly) less snark, I'm always shocked when I surf the internet at work with no ad-blocker. Pop-ups, irritating garish backgrounds, "content" plastered everywhere, and of course, annoying video ads. Its like a bad episode of Futurama; some horrible dystopian disfigurement of the internet.

As the CPM (money you receive per thousand views of an ad) of internet ads has plummeted over the years, sites are resorting to larger and more annoying ads because they pay better.

|And the other thing that gets me is why don't government/private business install ad-blockers by default?

Ad-blockers are a legal grey area. You are costing the service provider valuable resources without giving back anything in return.

<comment><USER4> > Ad-blockers are a legal grey area. You are costing the service provider > valuable resources without giving back anything in return.

You could turn that argument on the head. When you're blocking ads, you're preventing advertisers from wasting money on you, as you wouldn't have bought anything anyways (for me, annoying online advertising actually lowers the perception of the brand). So, you're doing advertisers a favour by blocking the ads.

<comment><USER5> The counter to that argument is that an advertiser may not care that you will click the ad, they just want you to be exposed to the product.

Coke has done this for years and many claim this is their key to their globally recognizable brand.

<comment><USER3> Funny that we both mentioned coke... that's the power of advertising.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> FB is clearly gasping for every last bit of money lately. Other day I saw nearly every ad on right of my page like it was a porn website. Each ad features scantly naked women with captions like "She wants you now". When you click on those links you land of completely irrelevant websites trying to push some maleware.

<comment><USER7> I've run a lot of Facebook ads before and I keep very close attention to the ads that are shown on Facebook. In their defense, they have over a million advertisers, they can't catch everything. Many scammy advertisers will be on one day and banned the next, I would hope. Though, it's definitely possible they are more lenient on certain advertisers now that money is even more important.

The more things you 'like' on Facebook, the better the targeting will be. Considering I work in marketing and visit a lot of sites at the office, I'm constantly getting retargeting ads. Less so the scammy dating ones (though it happens).

<comment><USER8> Did you find your Facebook ads profitable? We've experimented with them a lot, and have never been able to get a reasonable return on them. However, our goal has been driving actual sales of a product, not just getting Likes (as many ads seem to be doing).

<comment><USER7> @zippergz: I do ads at a performance based marketing company. For some clients Facebook is great at driving tons of volume with good performance. I've also seen clients who pay a bunch for user-signups and it doesn't back out to sales for their particular product. Buying likes is something people do more for brand awareness (not so different than say McDonalds buying a TV commercial but can't measure the exact ROI).

I think the difference often comes down to how well you set up your campaign. There is often a razor thin line between profitability and losing money in a performance-based campaign you're tying directly to sales.

If you'd like to ping me at email@example.com or let me know through here what your product is, I might be able to guess at whether it seems feasible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Yeah, I called it as soon as they started auto-playing friends' videos in our news feeds. They were clearly just getting us accustomed to the idea of stopping scrolling so they know we'll see these ads.

</comment><comment><USER10> Facebook is slowly becoming more like Myspace when it lost the lead.

<comment><USER11> Except they have the money the buy any latest hyped app.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> So this means mobile users get to pay the data costs for ad bandwidth?

<comment><USER13> _On mobile devices, all videos that begin playing as they appear on the screen will have been downloaded in advance when the device was connected to WiFi — meaning this content will not consume data plans, even if you're not connected to WiFi at the time of playback_

[https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Testing-a-New-Way- for...](https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Testing-a-New-Way-for- Marketers-to-Tell-Stories-in-News-Feed)

<comment><USER14> Which can royally screw people who are tethering via Wifi to a mobile device or mobile hotspot.

<comment><USER15> Android, anyways, has a way to mark a WiFi AP as mobile so apps can avoid this.

<comment><USER16> Oh, cool! Instructions [http://www.androidcentral.com/how-tag-wifi-access- points-hot...](http://www.androidcentral.com/how-tag-wifi-access-points- hotspots-your-android-device)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Seen on the Register:

Phase 3: Increasingly desperate attempts to monetize the user base. A short but pivotal phase of the social network lifespan that quickly slides into:

Phase 4: The vicious spiral of lame.

</comment><comment><USER18> So how is facebook going to show value to advertisers from this ad format ?. I could scroll beyond the ad and it might even play to completion.

</comment><comment><USER19> Just uninstalled FB from my phone to make space for 7.1. I think I'll just keep it off.

</comment><comment><USER20> In related news, I've introduced FB Purity, NoScript, ABP, and Ghostery to Facebook.

</comment><comment><USER21> Facebook introduces me blocking its crap.

</comment><comment><USER22> Hey, that's great, because I can close the tab or even the browser in less than three seconds, and make a noise like "fuck you farcebook"!

<comment><USER23> I often wonder if the less emotionally developed among us ever ask themselves: "Could I be the one with the problem?"

Sure, it's definitely tough growing up but if we could hack emotional development so we could gain a decade or two of experience, we'd all be a little better off. This quote comes to mind.

"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."

― Muhammad Ali

<comment><USER22> There there, we don't mind, and all had excused your emotional development issues. Nurse will be around soon to help out.

<comment><USER24> Watch out for the hellban son.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Energizing Atom with V8's custom startup snapshot - <AUTHOR> https://v8project.blogspot.com/2017/05/energizing-atom-with-v8s-custom-start.html <comment><USER2> So this is basically the emacs startup hack? Ugh.

<comment><USER3> for those of us who aren't familiar - what's the emacs startup hack, and why is is detrimental?

<comment><USER4> The emacs startup hack is in it's use of a glibc function called "unexec", which essentially serializes the program's state into a single binary which can later be executed normally.

One of the big downsides (and the reason it became well known) is it's lack of portability, as it requires in-depth knowledge of the system's memory structures.

LWN article and previous HN discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11001796](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11001796) Somewhat lower-level article that shines some light: [http://emacshorrors.com/posts/unexecute.html](http://emacshorrors.com/posts/unexecute.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Can we just compile js to bytecode? It's silly making huge apps in a language that has to be parsed and compiled on the fly

<comment><USER6> Get to work on a Webassembly compiler and your wish might be granted.

[http://webassembly.org](http://webassembly.org)

<comment><USER7> The Tanks demo makes my CPU hurt (15" rMBP, Firefox).

Why is WebGL still so heavy on the CPU?

<comment><USER8> It works fine on my 2011 15" macbook pro with Firefox 54.0b4. I wonder if it is the high retina resolution thats the problem for you?

<comment><USER7> It might be because the macbook is also driving a 4k display at the same time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Sorry, but what an incredible kludge.

</comment><comment><USER10> There are only so many brain cells on earth, can we stop using them to make javascript things on the desktop slightly less slow? Let's just not use it.

<comment><USER11> You think that's a waste of brain power? By 2014 humans had collectively spent 200,000 years playing angry birds. That was 3 years ago, and I'm sure pokemon go has at least tripled that record by now. Between than and all other video games we've probably spent in the tens of millions of years button mashing, if not the hundreds.

But yeah lets stop people trying to make JavaScript faster</comment></comment>


Interface abusers - <AUTHOR> http://scraps.benkuhn.net/2015/09/17/ui.html <comment><USER2> The takeaway from this is that affordances are still important in UI design. Many sites/apps nowadays try to get away without it. Even having a tutorial during onboarding isn't really enough. Users often disregard them, so you need to make sure things are intuitive.

As a UX guy, this is why you do user testing. Just yesterday I was conducting a test, and one user was getting upset at our onboarding tutorial "Just get me to the app, I don't care about this." Not a moment later, "Oh wait, how do I do this? Haha guess I should have read the tutorial." It was a lighthearted moment given the circumstance, but in the real world and in aggregate, it shows how to lose users.

<comment><USER3> It's not just mobile apps, it's everything. I write demo software and libraries to control sensors that are used in everything from university lab benchtop research to heavy automation. You can never trust that the user reads a word of the manual (well the heavy automation guys probably do, because there's real danger involved), so I do my best to make it so in the demo software, there's one button you need to press to start communicating with the sensor, and very clear options from there to change the sample rate, save data to a file, etc.

In the APIs we provide for them to do their own programming, ideally they only have to declare a new instance of a single object, with the necessary configuration data passed in as explicit arguments to the constructors, and all the communication methods are immediately accessible from that class' API. There's not a lot of extra new classes to hold configuration data, etc., because then the user doesn't know which fields are necessary to set in those objects. Sometimes that means you get more parameters than you might like in a constructor, but it makes it a lot easier for the user because they know exactly what you require from them.

<comment><USER4> It seems that any documentation for software is useful more as a reference or as an FAQ or after you messed something up. This is why it's important to make tasks reversible or to make dangerous tasks take longer. We need UX/UI cues and your example of keeping the UI simple is great.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not ten minutes ago I had the same experience in a web browser on my desktop; it turns out that on this site, which I've been visiting regularly for years, there is a button (unlabelled) which brings up extra content related to that day's content. I only discovered this from a passing comment on a forum.

My point is, it's not just touch interfaces that suffer from this assumption that the user will "just get" the thing you thought up in the shower this morning.

Even a console application needs that moment of sanity checking - more than once I've sent out a script to users and found out weeks later that the one cool timesaving feature I was proud of just hadn't been used, because I hadn't _told_ them about it, assuming instead that they'd connect the dots for themselves.

<comment><USER6> Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal?

I think everyone who reads it had that experience at some point. Going back through the archive for the bonuses you missed is half the fun!

<comment><USER5> Spot on, yep :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There is a special place in hell for the flat-design folks who decided to remove drop-shadows/gradients from clickable elements on a screen.

<comment><USER8> First we couldn't have 3d widgets, then we got them and designers took it away during the flat ui craze. These designers surely don't use what they design. What's worse is that everybody (KDE and GNOME) went with it drinking the kool- aid. Add on top of that that GNOME doesn't want you to use your own theme and do everything to unsupport or stifle custom themes. GNOME is following Apple's lead of "we know best". It's a sad day to be a GUI user. Look at the wasted vertical space in GNOME3 and tell me how that makes sense with widescreen displays that shrank in vertical size. Designers do not understand that 3d widgets serve a purpose. I wait for the day that designers make everyday tools all totally flat but at least there we have people without sight who will object. I remember when people complained Linux desktops were didn't have UI designers. If this is what it means to have designers, then I'd rather have my OS/2 GUI theme please. Designers gave us square toilet seats and rectangle table ware but our sitting organs and spoons do not match.

<comment><USER6> Who needs 1200 vertical pixels? 1080 should be enough for everyone!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to see timestamps in iMessage on my phone.

<comment><USER10> Many of iOS' "flat" design choices have taken me an embarrassingly long time to figure out. Timestamps in iMessage are definitely one of them.

<comment><USER11> I really don't think that has anything to do with flat design whatever that means.

Apple is all about hiding non-essential information and functionality. Always has been. This is a consistent pattern you will be able to find in all their software if you pay a little attention. Basically, if Apple thinks something is a power user feature most users will not need then they have no qualms about not making it discoverable. They tend to even go a step further: they may outright hide it, making it impossible for users to ever be confused by it.

I don't think that's a bad design pattern (depending on context and circumstances, obviously, as always), you just have to make the right judgement calls about what's important and has to be discoverable and what's not. This allows the software to be simple to most users while also having some depth for more advanced users. Like always in design it's all about making the right trade offs, though. The devil is in the details.

<comment><USER12> How about putting the advanced options into a menu or make them somehow discoverable? I hate it when after years I found out that something was possible but I didn't know that I had to press option+shift+ctrl while standing on one foot. It's OK to make advanced features less prominent but don't hide them.

On mobile apps it's even worse. Swipe up, left or right? Nobody knows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Am I missing something, or does "turning off" a thermostat not really make that much sense? And therefore, a UI that made that easy and obvious, wouldn't really be that good a UI?

<comment><USER14> When a thermostat is on, it controls the temperature. If you don't want to control the temperature, would you not want to turn the thermostat off?

<comment><USER15> The post said he/she wanted to turn it off because they were too cold, which seems a strange response. Surely what they wanted was to adjust the thermostat temperature?

<comment><USER16> I think it was meant as 'turn off the AC' which would allow the room temp to equalize with the outside world. I'm used to stand alone AC units so I think in terms of 'turn it off to allow room temp to rise'.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Read this the other day, relevant too; from an Apple UI/UX guy who just doesn't get it anymore either [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-apples- products-so-confus...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-apples-products-so- confusing-ignore-design-don-norman)

<comment><USER18> "An apple UI/UX guy"

Cthulhu_ was likely understating on purpose, but this "Apple UI/UX guy" is Don Norman.

<comment><USER19> With all due respect to Don (and I do have a lot of respect, he built the foundation upon which my career rests). He misses the larger picture. I'll simply point at Apple's market cap as to why Apple can afford to get away with form over function.

<comment><USER18> Absolutely, I didn't mean to issue an appeal to authority. I just thought there might be people who'd be interested in Don Norman's take, who wouldn't otherwise click through to Yet Another Apple Critique.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is something that happens with HN, by the way. Links are not underscored, so it is not immediately obvious that you have to click on someone's name, the domain, the timestamp, or the comment count. I personally had this problem when the "link" link to a subthread disappeared.

<comment><USER6> HN shows underscores on hover, which at least lets you _check_ if something is a link by mousing over it. But it falls apart on touch devices where hover doesn't exist.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> And this is going to get even more fun with "3D touch"

</comment><comment><USER22> I dunno, pushing the Nest was pretty obvious to me. Also I can't see why you'd want to turn it off totally. If you want the heating on permanently or off permanently just turn the temperature to an extreme value.

<comment><USER23> This was my take...the interface for turning it off is difficult to find because it was _designed_ to be thus. The _last_ thing most thermostat users want to do is to turn it off _completely_. Instead, they want to "turn it off" or "on" relative to local environmental conditions...and that's the dead-easy interface mentioned in the link: turning the big dial ring and having it respond both numerically and by color: I am going to get hotter or I am going to get colder. The click side of the interface is deliberately more obscure and meant for the administrator (for lack of a better term) and not the random temperature adjuster.

TFA seems to be complaining that it's too difficult to find a feature that most thermostats elide completely. Every other model I've owned in the past could only be turned off by unplugging, which requires un-mounting the entire thing or powering down the furnace (or similar).

<comment><USER24> Not being able to turn off the device is a problem if it controls both AC and heating (not sure if the Nest does). What if you just want the room to be whatever temperature it is outside?

<comment><USER22> Nest only controls heating. If you want it unheated you just turn the temperature down.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> "the way you bring up the main menu is by _pushing on the screen_ "

I've never used one before, but does pushing the edge also work? Having used other devices with turn/push/pull knobs (like washing machines), that's what I'd probably try next.

<comment><USER26> Yes, you can hold the outside as if you're about to turn it, and push it in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Maybe be need a way of tells apps / devices / applications that I am trying do something exceptional so please show me the advanced menu. Perhaps a special "expert" icon is always visible or a convention like clicking in the bottom- left corner.

</comment><comment><USER28> This is why I can't wait for Apple to introduce Force Touch. Do I press this lightly to do something completely different - does this app have that? Do I press it harder to do something else? Did I press it hard enough / lightly enough?

<comment><USER29> Yeah, even on the Apple watch it's pretty inconsistent. Things that should have a force touch option don't, and things that do, don't tell you.

Apple's slipping _way_ behind on this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Some of this is going to shake itself out with time.

</comment><comment><USER31> The company he refers to in the beginning is for cheaply sending remittances. [http://www.sendwave.com/](http://www.sendwave.com/)</comment>


The "Amen Break" and the Golden Ratio - <AUTHOR> http://www.constructingtheuniverse.com/Amen%20Break%20and%20GR.html

<comment><USER2> You can find the 'golden' ratio, as well as any other ratio you fancy, within any complex dataset, such as the waveforms of an audio file or the spirals on a sea shell. The golden ratio meme is like numerology, once you know what it is, you will see it pop up everywhere.

</comment><comment><USER3> Cool!</comment>


Russia is building their own internet - <AUTHOR>

Russia is building their own satellite-based internet in order to break free from US dominance. The system will involve a grouping of 130 satellites that will be launched within the period of next 5 years. Project codename is "Cheburashka" - a well-known Soviet cartoon character known for its big ears.
The news in Russian: http://nsn.fm/2014/06/24/rossijskij-cheburashka-ob-edinit-unikal-ny-e-otechestvenny-e-internet-razrabotki/
Video of the press conference (in Russian): http://nsn.fm/2014/06/20/chto-my-poluchim-v-rezul-tate-realizatsii-idei-rossijskogo-interneta-cheburashka/ <comment><USER2> To me it reads more like they are building their own global satellite network backbones. This will allow them to have a faster (and cheaper once they cover costs) internet access.

</comment><comment><USER3> A Google Images search for "Cheburaksha" returns this awesome guy: [http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig13/10130946a5.jpg](http://www.1999.co.jp/itbig13/10130946a5.jpg)

He's apparently a famous soviet cartoon character: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheburashka](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheburashka)

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm curious if they are attempting to make a push for connecting Siberia, or if this is also due to an increasing userbase in Russia as well:

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2013/05/18/russias-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2013/05/18/russias- internet-use-is-exploding/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Is this a network only for Russian organizations to communicate with each other or _regular users_ too?

</comment><comment><USER6> This idea maybe born when E.Snowden revealed some secrets, as you know USA spectates everyone everywhere

</comment><comment><USER7> As long as they don't ban regular Internet, I see this as a very good thing.</comment>


What Cockroaches with Backpacks Can Do - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2015/03/16/393403190/what-cockroaches-with-backpacks-can-do-ah-mazing?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150316 <comment><USER2> Why stop at roaches? We could do this to dogs or small children! There's sometimes a tightrope between science and ethics, and this is just plain unethical.

I'll start with the argument just about everyone can relate to. We all know this isn't going to actually help people in collapsed buildings or find lost wedding rings. It's going to be used by government spy agencies and military goons to control people in one way or another.

Secondly, "it's just a cockroach" doesn't work for me. At what point do we say it's ok to essentially torture a living being into doing what we want? You could argue a cockroach doesn't have feelings or consciousness, but I could also argue that _I_ am the only living being with feelings or consciousness. "I have no way of telling if another person or creature has feelings, therefor they must not."

Third, for those who don't give a shit about anybody but humans, _how long until this is used in humans_? They are sending signals directly into a living being's brain that controls its motor functions. Could that tech not be applied to a person eventually? Why put people in prisons when we can just force them into building signs all day? Why give soldiers a battle plan when you can just safely control them with a joystick from 3000 miles away?

This isn't just about making a cockroach do simple things. We're trading our humanity for science that will only do us harm.

<comment><USER3> > Third, for those who don't give a shit about anybody but humans, how long > until this is used in humans?

I hear people are eating chickens and even cattle! How long until this is done to humans?!?!

<comment><USER2> Why eat people when we have chicken already? Good question.

Why control people as automatons when we already have cockroaches? Because of the reasons I listed above.

<comment><USER4> > Why eat people when we have chicken already? Good question.

Why eat cattle, horses, fish and fruit when we have chicken already? Your original argument is nothing but a slippery slope fallacy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yeah, to go into collapse earthquake buildings.

Right.

<comment><USER6> It cracks me up how that is the go to 'application' for all robots, drones and swarm-bots. It is used so often it has become a cliche.

<comment><USER7> Well, what else can you do with a bionic cockroach?

An organic competitor to the Roomba?

<comment><USER8> Strap spy equipment and bio/chemical weapons to them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> >What Cockroaches with Backpacks Can Do

well, they can slowly introduce people to the acceptance of the idea of physical abuse and torture of another live being. With meat plants being hidden from public view and with nicely packaged meat in the stores not causing any association with horrors of how that meat was produced, the human species may start to lose the taste for abuse and torture.

</comment><comment><USER10> Also [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9144771](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9144771).

</comment><comment><USER11> blue-cross on the way.

Never felt pity on cockroaches until today, it was really heavy, overweight.

</comment><comment><USER12> Put off college for a year going to Europe to "find themselves"?</comment>


Show HN: UR Browser – Optimized for Privacy - <AUTHOR> https://www.ur-browser.com/en-US <comment><USER2> There doesn't seem to be much information obviously available about the underlying technologies here -- is this based on chromium?

How do users know what your lag will be behind chrome for pushing out new security updates?</comment>


Legal Update and Getting a Bike Camera for Peace of Mind - <AUTHOR> https://sf.streetsblog.org/2017/01/30/legal-update-and-getting-a-bike-camera-for-peace-of-mind/ <comment><USER2> The worst accident I've had on my bike involved another cyclist, who passed close on the right and knocked me off my bike, face first into the pavement. I've wanted a bike camera, but have dithered over which limitations and compromises I want to live with.</comment>


Drug Shortages at All-Time High - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/10/news/economy/drug_shortages_fda/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

<comment><AUTHOR> So how does this get hacked? More regulation? Enticing drug makers to make off patent drugs? Less regulation? Allowing foreign drug manufacturers to import supply?

All I know is that this is absolutely unacceptable.

<comment><USER2> Some hacks:

Getting healthier so people don't need so many drugs. Non-drug alternatives.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm... I dunno about that. People get cancer. Shit happens. There are many, many cases where the only way you are gonna live is if you get the right drug at the right time.

<comment><USER2> There's an awful lot of stuff where making dietary and lifestyle changes makes a difference. This is well established. For example, diabetes is significantly impacted by diet. In many cases, people would rather take a drug than substantially change their diet. However, if that isn't an option because the drug is unavailable, changing your diet is still an option.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, and there's an awful lot of stuff where you die without the right medication. Your comment seems especially flippant given the list of drugs listed in this article: things like anesthetics used in surgery, drugs used in emergency treatments, etc.

<comment><USER2> It's not intended as flippant at all. If you check my profile, there's a website where I talk about the fact that I have a very deadly medical condition and have gotten off like 8 or 9 prescription drugs. My remark was intended to be a sincere reply to the question asked: If you are concerned about drug shortages, one "hack" is to live differently so you are less likely to need those drugs (including anesthetic for surgery). Some of the drugs that there are shortages of have shown up in conversation on lists I belong to for my medical condition. I pay little attention to it because I am drug free for the last two years.

I get treated like a quack by much of the CF community. So it's hardly shocking that people here should think I am being flippant. However, in another thread on HN yesterday, there was a story about a $20 fan solving a problem better than the $8 million dollar solution that outside consultants were paid to design. "Hacks" often sound flippant, which is perhaps the reason it annoys me that my remarks on such topics are so routinely interpreted as "flippant" on this board and not a sincere attempt to contribute something meaningful to the conversation.

Peace.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Note that these companies are not failing to profit, it's just that older drugs are "not as profitable". It's a business decision to stop making a smaller profit, and maybe having to compete with Fougera.

Big Pharma, going out of its way to earn its bad reputation.</comment>


Ask HN:Why should I read science fiction? - <AUTHOR>

I read a lot:Good books as well as trash.However, the older I get the more I need to justify the content of my library.So,what would be a good reason to read(or continue reading) science fiction? <comment><USER2> Because it's fun. Seriously, if you don't like it, don't read it. If you do like it, that's all the justification you should need.

You don't need to justify your library to anyone but yourself.

Not every book needs to teach you some fundamental life lesson for it to be worth your time. Thinking like that is a quick and easy way to burning yourself out. Let your hair down and relax with it. Take it to bed with you and loose your imaginations. Have fun they way you want to.

</comment><comment><USER3> Because you enjoy it.

I find the idea that you need some other "justification", or that some justification might lead you to continue to read science fiction when you don't enjoy it – to be a "wait, what?" kind of question.

</comment><comment><USER4> "There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it."

― Bertrand Russell

\--

If you don't enjoy science fiction then don't read it. If you are a looking for a reason to do so, then stop - it's wrong.

</comment><comment><USER5> Science fiction allows you to view a situation without the biases of your upbringing, culture, or anecdotal experience. It can take a controversial scenario and place it in a foreign environment but still allow you to draw enough analogs to relate it back to the real scenario.

<comment><USER6> You should definitely read translated literature from foreign cultures.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Because Sci-Fiction throws a lot of insight into the future, into a life influenced by different dimensions, into a life with various social and economic alternatives. Over the years many innovations have been influenced by Sci-Fi novels. Incidents from books like 1984 have come totally true in various countries.

</comment><comment><USER8> I think science fiction is not only fantasy plus science, I think, this type of books is an open door to the future, is the type of books that open your mind to think about the future. Also, when you read old science fiction books, you realize you are in the future, this is the future.

</comment><comment><USER6> You can feel kinship with the writer. It can be like meeting and talking with some really smart and imaginative and funny person - the likes you might not have around where you are right now in your life.

</comment><comment><USER9> From a productivity based perspective: The older you get the more it would seem to make sense to use the knowledge you have, rather than to invest heavily in acquiring new knowledge. So what you read would become less important.

#

As for why read sci-fi? Well, there's a lot of bad sci-fi out there. At its best it represents interesting explorations of the effects that changes in science, context, and or very other social structures can have when they interact with human societies - and in that much perhaps tells us something about ourselves and where we might be going. Accelerando probably falls into that category, Blindsight would be another, Dune.</comment>


Is HN missing what Douyin is? - <AUTHOR> Also known as tiktok, it is on most of my white-collar workers' phones (we are living in China).
WeChat was the elephant in the room 4 years ago, now with mobile payment in China everywhere, yet almost nothing on HN for a couple of years while it was storming China.
From anecdotal observation Douyin seems to be cutting into the social media thing WeChat did with microblogs, while WeChat micro-blogging has enveloped to limited duration posts and closing viewing to friends/contacts only.
Looks interesting.  Duoyin is huge.  Surprised HN doesn't have tentacles into interest in this.
If I'm the first tentacle sucker, just ask. <comment><USER2> A link to an article explaining what's interesting about it would be better than a meta question.

</comment><comment><USER3> The company behind Douyin showed up in HN though. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15458720](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15458720)

</comment><comment><USER4> how is Douyin different from [https://imgur.com](https://imgur.com) ?

Or vine? Or instagram ?</comment>


The Challenge of Proximity Apps for Covid-19 Contact Tracing - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/challenge-proximity-apps-covid-19-contact-tracing <comment><USER2> The mere fact of getting an alert of a possible positive contact would lead to stigmatization. Under a de-escalation scenario with social distancing measures, it is not difficult to find out who was the source of contagion, no matter the privacy protection scheme of the app. This is a faulty design of any contact tracing app.

The goal of a contact tracing app is to incentive self-quarantine of new contagions. But the possible outcome taking into account social effects is stigmatization. The error of this approach could be letting positives being out of confinement spreading alert events and virus at will.

An immunology passport app is the resource needed to avoid this situation, guarantying social environments are free of potential sources of contagion.

Massive testing and immunity passport is the tool to find out and isolate infected people while avoiding stigmatization and privacy violations. Turning neighbors into prosecutors is not a good idea.</comment>


Ask HN: Why is Markdown so difficult to work with? - <AUTHOR> I find it's inconsistent across services at best, and a complete pain at worst.
Github is one of the few places that render it beautifully. There are a few services that do this, but they never work with each other. They all decided to add their own niche things to it, completely breaking compatibility.
Also, has anyone ever tried to export markdown to a more portable format? If you're extremely lucky, your PDF will have only a few rendering faults and your HTML, nah allow talking about the HTML.
I mean it's a really elegant thing in itself, I just wish it'd play well outside of Github's walled garden.
Has anyone else come across any of these problems? How did you solve them? <comment><USER2> Markdown was intended to be simple enough that everybody could roll their own code to translate to their "real" markup language of choice. Everyone did, but because markdown was a hack in the first place, the quality of implementations is pretty inconsistent. (Which is fine, because rolling your own markdown -> html translator is easy -- much easier than writing your own html -> anything translator -- and well within the reach of even beginner programmers.)

I avoid markdown because I don't like markup in general (and because I think styling of text is rarely useful), but if I need to work with it, I will whip something up to do the translation. A couple lines of sed is sufficient for handling whatever tiny subset of markdown is actually present.

</comment><comment><USER3> If you restrict yourself to the original ... "spec" then it generally works fine. There are efforts afoot to standardize, but until everyone settles on the one true markdown, there are a bunch of options.

The easiest solution is to move away from Markdown, of course, and pick something that's been formalized. Which leads to the opposite issue, of course.

Tools like Pandoc can eliminate some of those issues.</comment>


Dedicated PostGIS/CartoDB Hosting - <AUTHOR> https://getgeodb.com/ <comment><USER2> great work, I would save $ by using one of those instances, does it support auto sync from google drive?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> really excited at the beta release of dedicated cloud hosted PostGIS and CartoDB [https://getgeodb.com](https://getgeodb.com) a lot of intense work went into making this happen - it's running bleeding edge PostgreSQL12/PostGIS3 - feedback welcome <3</comment>


How to Move Doom Characters in WebGL in 50 lines of JS - <AUTHOR> http://learningthreejs.com/blog/2012/05/04/tquery-md2character-a-plugin-for-doom-characters/

<comment><USER2> This. This is why we can have nice things.

I've been thinking about the old programming saying, "There is no problem that cannot be solved by adding a layer of abstraction, except for having too many layers of abstraction." How many layers is too many? The trends I see are (1) computers keep getting faster; (2) compilers keep getting smarter; and (3) we keep learning how to better design and manage and debug abstraction layers. Which means the number of abstraction layers that is "too many" to solve any given problem is much higher than it used to be. I think a lot of the "check out this neat thing" posts on HN are a product of that -- we can now stand on the shoulders of shoulders of shoulders of shoulders of shoulders of shoulders of shoulders of shoulders of shoulders of giants without things getting too tippy.

What did "var world = tQuery.createWorld().boilerplate().start()" look like back in 1997, when this Quake 2 model was first released? What will it look like in another 15 years?

<comment><USER3> This is why Unity3D is so much more of a pleasure to work with than Unreal. Playing a new animation on a skinned mesh really can be as simple as Animation.Crossfade(). With a little creative thinking, power and simplicity don't have to be playing tug-of-war, they can actually complement each other.

<comment><USER4> As opposed to the Unreal equivalent, PlayCustomAnim()? :). There are things that Unity does better than Unreal but animation isn't a great example.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Oh man, every time we see this kind of thing it makes life that much harder. :)

How can we not suffer with only 24 hours in the day. We have children and jobs and projects already under way. Every week we seem to have something so exciting land in our laps that it is hard to sit still.

Roll on the future.

It was a little disappointing to see frames drop to 35ps on fullscreen (my colleague got the full 60fps). But it can only get better and faster from here.

<comment><USER6> If you want something that will really blow your mind, check out the webgl demo of Cube 2: Sauerbraten (a Quake clone).

It's by far the most advanced WebGL FPS shooter I've seen so far - <http://www.webgl.com/2012/05/webgl-game-cube-2-sauerbraten/>

<comment> mike-cardwell Mind blown. It's time to learn how to use WebGL.

<comment><USER7> Except it was written in C++ then converted to Javascript/WebGL.

<comment><USER8> The mere fact that even that is possible is pretty mind-blowing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What the hell, what Doom is that. Maybe I missed it?

<comment><USER10> it says Quake2 in the body

<comment><USER11> Its not a Doom or Quake2 model/skin but it does use the Quake2 model format (MD2). I think it's just a custom model/skin downloaded from the planetquake site he linked to.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD2_%28file_format%29>

[http://planetquake.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Quake2.Detail&#...</a></comment></comment></comment>


$31.71: The hourly pay it now takes to afford Silicon Valley rent - <AUTHOR> http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2014/03/26/31-71-the-hourly-pay-it-now-takes-to-afford.html <comment><USER2> San Francisco is insanely expensive, and despite SF having a minimum wage that's $3 higher than the federal minimum, minimum wage isn't meant to pay for a two bedroom apartment in any major city. It never has been, and unfortunately can't ever be.

Studio apartments, roommates, spouse, living outside the city limits, living in a smaller apartment, aid (for single/low income parents), etc -- there's a lot of options, and it's disingenuous to frame it like this.

Even if we did raise minimum wage to $30 (and for the record, I'm for raising minimum wage to keep pace with inflation.. just not to $30), what does that solve? Techies will just get a raise, too (why be a programmer when you can make the same at a dead end job?), and we'll be back where we started.

<comment><USER3> _there 's a lot of options, and it's disingenuous to frame it like this._

I do not think it's a disingenuous way to frame the challenge facing people who live in the area. Two-bedroom apartments should not be the privilege of those in a certain stratum of society and above. They should be something that is within reach of nearly everyone. Nor should housing in the San Jose area become the domain of a privileged minority.

<comment><USER4> Not sure why you're getting downvoted, its totally doable if not for crazy- backwards zoning/building regulations.

Either buildings can go up, or prices. They're not making any more land.

<comment><USER5> SF is actually pretty dense (2nd densest city in the US after NYC).

<comment><USER4> I'm not saying its not dense. I'm saying its typically difficult to build a building taller than ~4 stories in SF.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Actually San Francisco is building up; they will have thousands of new apartments coming out in the next 5-10 years. There's a ton of high rise development going on in SOMA[0] (the business/metropolitan area) along with less commercial areas like hayes valley.

The problem is that those units will probably still be ridiculously expensive. The best solution is fixing public transportation between SF and the cheaper suburbs to the south. Right now commuting to San Francisco is a nightmare just because getting in out of the city by car is a huge bottleneck. Also, the train only goes about half a mile into the most southern part of the city.. [1]

0: [http://vimeo.com/70447799](http://vimeo.com/70447799)

1: [https://www.google.com/maps/search/san+francisco+cal+train/@...](https://firstname.lastname@example.com,-122.3940995,15z/data=!3m1!4b1)

<comment><USER7> 1\. The population of reasonably close southern suburbs (let's say the entire San Mateo County) is actually less than that of San Francisco proper by ~100k people.

2\. Caltrain is linked to Muni metro at 4th/King as well as many bus lines. It isn't that hard to get in.

3\. Bart goes straight into downtown and offers stations closer than Caltrain for at least a third of San Mateo County's people.

4\. The southern and western parts of San Francisco are just as cheap, if not cheaper, than San Mateo county's average. (indeed if you check padmapper, you can see that there is more "cheap housing" available in SF than in San Mateo County.

5\. The density of much of San Francisco, especially the outer Western and Southern areas remains low. (somewhere between San Mateo County suburban cities and Brooklyn)

<comment><USER6> "2\. Caltrain is linked to Muni metro at 4th/King as well as many bus lines. It isn't that hard to get in"

I've never heard anyone defend Bay Area public transportation before. I'd say the amount of busses going from SF to silicon valley/the peninsula are evidence that going in and out of san francisco is NOT easy. I've lived in both the peninsula and SF for years and the consensus is that you're better off living in SF if you work in SF and living in the peninsula if you work in the peninsula (unless you work for a company that busses their employees). I myself drive from SF to the Peninsula. I don't recommend it. Public transportation is not an option for most people purely because of the lack of geographical coverage they offer. For instance, I can't use caltrain or bart because I don't live downtown and it takes 40-50 minutes to get to the train by bus. The fact that caltrain is situated at the most southern point of the city doesn't make it any better when a 2-3 mile muni metro line goes along the most western point of the city where few people live.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The collective delusion on this problem is not only that the rent is expensive, its that the housing you get is of low quality. For all the "High salaries" in tech, it's insane to see people in their 30's sharing apartments like if it were a college dorm.

</comment><comment><USER9> Nerds were cute when they started getting big paychecks. Now they are using their money to buy things that other people want. That's not fair!

<comment><USER10> My mother will every so often remark to me how people seem to think rich people should be kept from unfairly buying things with their money. It's all right for them to _have_ money as long as it's never used for any purpose, I guess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> In Cupertino I have seen the minimum wage which is actually $8/hour for the part time job like a cacher in the store. The the rent average is $2,000 for one bedroom apartment there. It's totally unfair to low income people. They sacrifice the time to stay with their family and have to work even weekend for bills.

</comment><comment><USER12> Two words. "Build Up". San Francisco needs high rise apartments.

<comment><USER13> Not when it is in a high risk zone with respect to earthquakes.

<comment><USER14> Tokyo's been doing it for a while

<comment><USER7> I've never thought of Tokyo as a tall city. The city-scape is generally max 6 story buildings. The tallest building in Tokyo is shorter than the tallest in San Francisco!

<comment><USER15> Tokyo achieves more density than San Francisco because the average street width is about 14 feet. San Francisco's is about 90 feet. That creates a lot more buildable land per block and less traffic.

The average building height is also about 3 stories instead of just over two in SF. The majority of housing is single family houses and owner occupied. And Toyko has much, much less parking.

The result is a comfortable, walkable city at double the density of SF without high-rises and with less traffic.

The key difference is that SF is planned, laid out, regulated, permitted, and platted very badly and Tokyo is planned well.

Also, the peninsula cities are required by law to sprawl at low density, constricting SF's ability to spread medium-density growth that would keep housing affordable. Any upzoning, even around transit stops, is blocked and housing supply remains severely limited.

<comment><USER14> >Also, the peninsula cities are required by law to sprawl at low density

Why is that? To protect people's vacation homes on the beach?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> For a two bedroom apartment. Which implies at least two residents.

<comment><USER17> Two bedrooms does not imply two residents, and certainly not "at least two." Perhaps the title could be improved (by stating "to afford a two-bedroom apartment").

One cool thing about putting it in $/hour like this is that we can easily say what two people would have to make to afford the same apartment. They would each need to make about $16/hour. It's feasible, but there are a lot of careers that don't pay that or that would cut it close.

<comment><USER18> The only reason to live in San Francisco on minimum wage is if you want to break into some line of work that only exist in SF and pays minimum wage for entry level position with significant increase expected in near future. In this case you can live 2 person per room and consider it extension of college experience. Really nothing bad about it and minimum wage can pay for it.

Otherwise you are insane to continue living in one of the most expensive cities on minimum wage. Complaining about it is like complaining that minimum wage does not pay for black caviar.

<comment><USER19> What's your plan when all the minimum wage workers leave SF, because nobody in their right mind should live there for minimum wage? Who will clean your office building's bathrooms? Who will wash dishes at the restaurants? Seems to get those workers back...you'll have to pay more?

<comment><USER20> Presumably the free market will find a wage for which those workers will either live in SF, or be happy to commute into SF.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Rent seekers are sucking every last spendable dollar out of people. This situation is the same in almost every large IT hub. I wonder what stops companies from allowing distributed working environments and just bypass these guys altogether. I'd rather pay for a couple of days hotel charges for face2face time than pay these extortionate rents.

It's time to re-evaluate our work style.

<comment><USER4> > I wonder what stops companies from allowing distributed working environments > and just bypass these guys altogether.

Poor management.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> monthly_wage_to_break_even_by_article = $37.62 * work_hours_per_day * weekdays_per_week * weeks_per_month = $37.62 * 9 * 5 * (52 / 12) = $7335.9. Let assume the tax is 35% of wage. monthly_rent_by_article = $7335.9 * (1 - 35%) = $4768.335

Wow... that is prohibiting. So you have to earn $7335.9 * 12 / 2 = $88030.8 / 2 = $44015.4 a year to break even if you are sharing a 2br apartment... Are rent price in some less urban area of SF much cheaper (say 20 minutes drive from Pacific Heights)?

Could a solution to rising rent price be some brave enough founders migrating tech startups to a new growing area, say rtp? Just like what Eventbrite did when hot startups were all in valley but Eventbrtie chose SF at then.

<comment><USER23> Pro tip. You can ballpark hourly wage to an annual income by multiplying by 2,000 (or doubling then multiplying by 1000).

So $37.62/hr works out roughly to about 75k/year, pre-tax. Not exact, just a rule of thumb. Works out to within a few % usually.

<comment><USER10> It's a fairly precise "rule of thumb", on the theory that you work 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. Parent comment inflates the salary by assuming 45 hours a week 52 weeks a year.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> What's FMR?

"Housing wage for two bedroom FMR"

Also what does this all mean? What percentage of their income is this representing to afford this house?

The article was surprisingly short of this information even though it was 4 pages long.

<comment><USER25> The linked PDF has a detailed explanation of their definitions in the appendix at the back: [http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/OOR2014.pdf](http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/OOR2014.pdf)

The number for "fair market rent" in each market is provided by the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development, and:

> _Out of Reach is consistent with federal housing policy in the assumption > that no more than 30% of a household's gross income should be consumed by > gross housing costs. Spending more than 30% of income on housing is > considered "unaffordable."_

<comment><USER26> Which, in this tax bracket, corresponds to roughly 40% of net income

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Silicon Valley seems cheap compared to London

<comment><USER28> London's affordability problems seem primarily due to rich people from non-UK buying property there (due to stability and ~zero property tax, tiny fixed council tax) to park assets, potentially of dubious origin. They often are left vacant.

That's fairly distinct from SF's problem (lots of people wanting to live there, but artificially constrained supply, both construction limits and rent control)

<comment><USER29> Aryuably so but the equivalent of entire San Francisco has moved/is moving into London in a decade. It's a very rapidly growing city.

While I'm sure a ridiculous proportion of the v high wealth areas are laying vacant, in areas like Hackney (which are the fastest growing) I very much doubt that is the case. These flats don't make up much of the London housing stock, %age wise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Two bed rooms for one person down town in a major city else it's an outrage.

WTF is wrong with western society.

Most of the world lives multiple people to a room.

</comment><comment><USER31> I find the article lacking the most important piece of information: Is this calculation based on a 4, 20, 40 or 60 hour work week?

</comment><comment><USER32> honestly if you cant afford it, get the fuck on the bart and live farther out. coming from a city with no subway, everyone here should be thankful for the bart and how far it reaches.

its a tiny 7x7 grid, this isn't some shelter, you pay to stay. take it as motivation to make more money

</comment><comment><USER33> Hawaii resident here...

In 1996 I was making $27.95 per hour.

I'm not going to say what I earn now, but it's not that great.

</comment><comment><USER34> > _2014, the NLIHC pegged the average two-bedroom rent in Santa Clara County > at $1,649_

$1,649 / 4 = $413/wk

$413 / 40 = $10.30/hr of your income going to rent.

So they're saying you need to make $31.71, which means they're saying you spend $20/hr of your income on things other than rent. Absurd does not cover it.

Obviously I'm not accounting for tax, but I'm also not counting that a two bedroom apartment means two people paying rent. If you only have one person, then rent a one bedroom apartment. It's 2014, not 1964.

<comment><USER35> Tax is pretty important--even at the 15% bracket it's still $3000 a year, not including FICA withholding or state (or for the Bay Area, local) taxes which are easily another $1-2000 more. For someone making $100k a year, that's not much. For someone making $20,000 a year (rounded up) it's a big bite and it definitely changes the affordability calculation.

<comment><USER36> "For someone making $100k a year, that's not much. For someone making $20,000 a year (rounded up) it's a big bite and it definitely changes the affordability calculation."

Taxes don't work like that of course. The $100k a year person is paying a higher percentage than the low income person. That $20k earner you mention will probably have a very low nominal tax rate after calculating down to their AGI.</comment></comment></comment>


Shooting in SF at 888 Brannan. Stay indoors. - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/Emergency_In_SF/status/355798992497557505 <comment><USER2> Looks like a jewelry store robbery.

SFGate article: [http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/2-killed-in-SoMa- jewel...](http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/2-killed-in-SoMa-jewelry- store-robbery-4662510.php)

</comment><comment><USER3> [http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_fran...](http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=9170923)

</comment><comment><USER4> Airbnb's new headquarters? [http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/airbnb- unveils-new-sa...](http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/airbnb-unveils-new- san-francisco-headquarters-at-888-brannan-street/Content?oid=2320654)

</comment><comment><USER5> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off- topic.

<comment><USER6> Considering that a large number of people who frequent HN work near there, I think we can make an exception.

<comment><USER7> HN shouldn't be your only source of information. This site is for technical discussion and other interesting things, not about local crime discussion.

Isn't there a SFBlog.org page where this would be more fitting? If not, why doesn't someone start one?

<comment><USER6> That's fair, though I wonder if it would be more appropriate to level that at the droves of Aaron Schwartz/Ed Snowden/SFO crash posts that have been filling the front page this year.

Unlike all the other off-topic posts that make the front page, this one could have saved somebody who would otherwise be headed that way now. At least in my book, that justifies its presence here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> word is it's a robbery attempt

<comment><USER4> Wow, one block from the police station?

<comment><USER9> It is a dangerous area around there. I seen a shooting 2 years ago around there and the vehicle just drove off. I see windows broken out of cars all the time. Seen a huge wreck on 6th and Brannan when someone stole a car a wrecked it into a Mazda and then started running down the road. Crazy stuff. I avoid 6th street and 5th street the most.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Does airport security take yubikeys? - awinter-py Anyone have an experience holding onto second-factor devices when you fly? (Or having it confiscated?). <comment><AUTHOR> Never been asked about them. (I've got 3) Never heard of it being a problem. People constantly fly with usb drives on their keychain, so don't see how this would be different.

</comment><comment><USER2> never had a problem flying with one.</comment>


How to Destroy Motivation in IT - <AUTHOR> http://www.infusivesolutions.com/blog/bid/98728/How-To-Destroy-Motivation-in-Information-Technology Not long ago I watched an interesting TEDTalk that explained a behavioral science experiment. The conclusion was that when people see their work has no value, they lose motivation to put their best foot forward.
The presenter then described how a group of engineers expressed feeling this way after a major project was cancelled by their CEO with no rationale.
This inspired me to write an article surrounding motivation for technical professionals, but it would be interesting to see how this idea has materialized in your own lives?
For any engineers, DBAs, developers, admins, architects or otherwise, does a lack of impact hurt your motivation even if the money is right? <comment><USER2> I completely agree with this article. When you notice that your work has no real meaning to the company, it kills your motivation nearly instantly. I just stay because of the money and put my real efforts into some nice open source projects which actually matter.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the reply Tezro. I think it's really unfortunate that leadership doesn't recognize how money might drive retention but that impact drives engagement.

I read a quote somewhere that read like 'passion leads to energy, energy leads to productivity and productivity leads to results.'

What kind of situation were you in/what kind of fruitless work did you find yourself doing?</comment></comment>


Coronavirus: Why Investors Are Wrong to Panic - <AUTHOR> https://www.worth.com/stocks-are-crashing-because-of-coronavirus-heres-why-investors-are-wrong/ <comment><USER2> > Attention seekers include academics vying for the limelight or media vying > for ad revenue.

Classifying the most educated people on the subject as "attention seekers" is so dangerous. I can't believe we're still at this stage.

</comment><comment><USER3> >First of all, the cumulative death toll from all the feared infectious pandemics of the past-quarter century—mad cow disease (1996), SARS (2002), bird flu (2004), swine flu (2009), Ebola (2014), Zika (2016) and the ongoing coronavirus, or COVID-19 (2020)—doesn't add up to the death toll of a single season of influenza.

This is irresponsible journalism. Not all pandemics are created equal. We know the R0 of this virus is at least as high (3-6+) as any of those listed, and the true mortality rate is still unknown, but likely to be high given the >15% critical illness rate, requiring ICU care.

Just look at the unbelievable response by China. To dismiss this as "just another pandemic" is not only foolish but at this point dangerous. China and Iran have been brought to their knees. Government officials are getting sick. Young people are dying. The primary figures we have so far are at least 10x underreported because they come from China.

The disruption to the global economy is just starting and there's a good chance it will last for many months as the pandemic spreads, and with multiple reports of reinfection this pandemic may be impossible to control without a vaccine or drugs or a fortunate series of mutations, though even from the perspective of mutations the virus is already showing to be unusually prone and dangerous.

Literally everything published about this virus is bad news. This is an unprecedented geopolitical event and anyone seriously buying the numbers from China or following the advice of the corrupt and/or incompetent WHO is putting everyone else at risk. But we will know for sure in 1-3 weeks as cases run their courses in Korea and Italy and true R0, critical illness, and CFR rates are reported.

Edit: this article doesn't even question the veracity of the Chinese figures while it bends backwards to explain why the figures we have are overrepresenting severity. While this may be true, again, look at the unheard of response in China, which still has the majority of it's GDP shut down, 2 months later.</comment>


Mondelez sues Zurich in test for cyber hack insurance - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/8db7251c-1411-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e <comment><USER2> The interest behind of state-sponsored attacks like these still puzzle me.</comment>


A scanner: How secure are open source Ruby projects on GitHub? - <AUTHOR> https://hakiri.io/security-watch

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm surprised this isn't getting higher on the HN.

It's a really neat product.

There are _definitely_ false positives, and it could use some more context information on the positives it does report. (For vulnerabilities based on gem specs, identify what version of the dependency it considers okay (not always easily identifiable from the CVE alone), and quote the Gemfile/gemspec line that it didn't like).

It definitely does more than just identify gem specs allowing versions of dependencies with known vulnerabilities. It's also doing some code analysis (like models missing attr_accessible in rails 3.x), and told me about one such vulnerability in my code that I think is legit and I need to fixed (also another couple I think are false positives; there is a 'mark false positive' button to remove them from your report).

It looks like free level account can get reports on open source (public not private) github repos. Great.

This is also potentially a source of information for attackers to identify vulnerable apps, even hypothetically identify and exploit in a totally automated way, especially for public github repos. Security will keep getting harder, that much we can be sure.

</comment><comment><USER2> Pretty neat. Never thought of loose version intervals as potential vulnerabilities...but here we go.</comment>


What, besides phone records, does the NSA collect in bulk? - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/what-besides-phone-records-does-the-nsa-bulk-collect/

<comment><USER2> I've been looking forward to the conversation moving beyond phone records. In California, for example, it's mandatory to collect blood from newborns. Makes you think.</comment>


Apple iPad Pro review 2018: the fastest iPad is still an iPad - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/5/18062612/apple-ipad-pro-review-2018-screen-usb-c-pencil-price-features <comment><USER2> Given theverge's historical tendency to love everything Apple, I can't tell if that headline is supposed to be ironic or not.

So ofcourse I had to go check out the article. Could we be speaking about a new and ultra-subtle form of click-bait? :)</comment>


Typed Redux Reducers in TypeScript 2.0 - <AUTHOR> https://spin.atomicobject.com/2016/09/27/typed-redux-reducers-typescript-2-0/#.V-r2OauZKgM.hackernews <comment><USER2> Tagged unions are indeed pretty helpful for Redux reducers. One thing to note is that you can actually skip some code here as well. Specifically, the constant definitions:

      export type INCREMENT_COUNTER = 'App/INCREMENT_COUNTER';
      export const INCREMENT_COUNTER : INCREMENT_COUNTER = 'App/INCREMENT_COUNTER';

These aren't necessary, you can use those type strings directly:

      export interface IncrementCounterAction = {
          type: 'App/INCREMENT_COUNTER',
          by: number
      };

In vanilla, untyped Redux the constants are a good idea because they give you some safety and IDE-ability. With Typescript they're just a waste of code, since TS is going to check those type strings for you. Cut out the middleman!

<comment><USER3> Could you then do the case statements in the reducer like this?

        switch (action.type) {
        case IncrementCounterAction.type:
            return state.update(...);
        case DeccrementCounterAction.type:
            return state.update(...);
        ....
        }

<comment><USER2> I _believe_ you can, though I haven't tried it. Typescript will actually give you completion support for plain strings inside that switch statement, which is normally what I go with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'll have to try this. I was really interested in using TypeScript with Redux, but gave up because I couldn't figure out a good way to type actions.</comment>


Building an app / company inspired by an old university project - <AUTHOR>

In my final year of university I had to do a group project with three other students. This group was allocated by the tutors and we were supposed to meet up prior to the first workshop to discuss project ideas and then pitch them to the rest of the class. Due to life commitments we didn't have this meeting and one of the members failed to turn up. I was able to quickly come up with an idea that I had thought about before and wing it with the other two (they listened to what I said and then just pitched in). <comment><USER2> So...?

</comment><comment><USER3> \- Shinra, do you need help or something?</comment>


Routing Traveling Salesmen on Random Graphs Using Reinforcement Learning - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/unit8-machine-learning-publication/routing-traveling-salesmen-on-random-graphs-using-reinforcement-learning-in-pytorch-7378e4814980 <comment><USER2> If you are interested in this kind of problems, I encourage you to check out the Flatland competition: [https://www.aicrowd.com/challenges/flatland- challenge](https://www.aicrowd.com/challenges/flatland-challenge)

The idea is to optimize the scheduling of Swiss trains, using either operations research (OR) or reinforcement learning (RL).

Currently, they only use OR, however as the scale of the network and the number of trains keeps growing, the hypothesis is that RL may soon provide better approaches - they won't necessarily be globally optimal, but they will be good enough, and faster to re-calculate if something goes wrong.

The competition is currently in-between rounds but it will re-open soon. The idea is to keep it running "forever" as a long-term OR vs RL benchmark.

Disclaimer: I am currently affiliated with AIcrowd.</comment>


Ask HN: What is a good MOOC to learn multivariable calculus? - <AUTHOR> In college, we were only thought single variable calculus, however for most courses on machine learning and data science knowing multivariable calculus is a prerequisite. So could you guys suggest me a good MOOC? <comment><USER2> Khan academy material is quite good for multivariate calculus. It's taught by the guy behind 3blue1brown. His teaching style is very intuitive.

<comment><USER3> I absolutely love 3blue1brown's youtube channel, but never realized he taught on Khan academy as well.

He even appears to have made his own library for many of the animations on his videos!

<comment><USER4> 3blue1brown is truly amazing!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I remember using the MIT course when I was in college. It's pretty good. Link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxCxlsl_YwY&list=PL4C4C8A7D0...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxCxlsl_YwY&list=PL4C4C8A7D06566F38)

</comment><comment><USER6> Pick up some used college textbooks on differential equations, vector calculus, and multivariate calculus if u can and work through some of the problems at your own pace. These texts are the keys that unlock the entire universe and describes the unifying laws.

</comment><comment><USER7> I just read the book (Stewart) when I had to take it. After Calc 1-2 it was pretty easy in comparison. Can you just pick the few sections you need and do the practice problems? Most of the material in that class is stuff you did already, but for x,y,z instead of just x,y.

</comment><comment><USER8> try betterexplained.com</comment>