Why the Controversial Airbnb Ads Might Be a Work of Marketing Genius - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jhreha/why-the-tone-deaf-airbnb-ads-might-be-a-work-of-marketing-genius-84d6693dfbee?source=tw-444597d4f7be-1445629308259 <comment><USER2> Wow - great points. Didn't look at it this way.

I still think that this was mainly due to stupidity rather than cleverness.</comment>


Benchmark Backs Bitcoin Secure Storage Provider Xapo - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-13/benchmark-backs-bitcoin-storage-provider-xapo.html

<comment><USER2> This article lacks so much information that it could just be said in one Tweet. Are the 'reporters' at Bloomberg so scared to attempt getting into the technical details ? A big of tech-insight would have been a nice read.

It's definitely interesting to note the phenomenal increase of money being thrown at those innovating on the edges of bitcoin. The financial world are starting to grasp the disruptiveness of the invention and now they want in.

</comment><comment><USER3> From looking at their security, they're really going to need that insurance.

<comment><USER4> Care to elaborate?

<comment><USER3> The 4-digit PIN is pretty ridiculous, but just a quick look at their SSL Ciphers and their HTTP headers shows they're less than what would be considered best industry practice. Bitcoin-handling sites should exceed industry standards when it comes to security. They also mention when explaining how their vault works that they first receive Bitcoins and then take the computer offline. The computer with the private keys should never be online in the first place.

<comment><USER5> Well, I think the strategy is: Invest in insurance, not in solid security.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Inside sources: they only have $15m or so of insurance and it's all self insured. Not nearly enough to cover what they claim as "fully insured".

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm curious how "xapo" is pronounced. Is it "zappo"?

<comment><USER8> think so</comment></comment>


The oddly beautiful artistic talent of the nation's drug cops - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/20/the-oddly-beautiful-and-sometimes-disturbing-artistic-talent-of-the-nations-drug-cops/

<comment><USER2> I'd be more inclined to appreciate this art if I didn't think the "war on drugs" was such a misguided failure.

<comment><USER3> The grim reaper could be fitting on some kind of edgy pro-drug patch, but as a serious reference to eg cocaine it's just ridiculous. These patches really illustrate what is going through the thugs' heads as they go about ruining people's lives.

Propaganda is the worst drug of them all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Heraldry will never go out of style. It will just get updated. We love showing our tribal affiliations.

</comment><comment><USER5> I wonder whether they put as much information into the patches as the US military does. For instance, many programs operating out of a certain base incorporate some variation of the number 51 into their patches. Patches for space launch have even been known to leak classified information. But the badges in the OP seem far less creative.

[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/creepy- kitschy-...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/creepy-kitschy-and- geeky-patches-us-spy-satellites-180953562/)

Example "51" badge: [http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Patches/0...](http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Patches/015.png)

</comment><comment><USER6> With so many skulls, someone working at the DEA should ponder, "are we the baddies?"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU)

<comment><USER7> Fun fact: Those skulls originate not with the SS, but with a regiment that rose to fight off Napoleon. [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Brunswickers](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Brunswickers)

Also, this painting: [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Brunswicker_%28Mill...](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Brunswicker_%28Millais%29#/media/File:John_Everett_Millais_The_Black_Brunswicker.jpg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Real hard hitting journalism there, WaPo.

</comment><comment><USER9> The ironic point is that the art looks to be a product of drug-influenced creativity.</comment>


Free app developed in 3 hours hits #1 and makes $20000. What we learned so far. - <AUTHOR> http://blog.burstly.com/2010/06/08/free-app-hits-1-and-makes-20000-what-we-learned-so-far/

<comment><USER2> This is not a sarcastic question: who pays for advertising in iPhone apps? (I've never held an iPhone long enough to see an ad, and I'm drawing blanks as to who would pay $2 CPMs for mobile traffic.)

<comment><USER3> It is a pretty diverse group. In 3 page refreshes on my mobile site, Google has delivered a online radio ad, a mobile virus scanning ad, and a Gastric ByPass Attorney Ad.

And, the CPM rates are huge, and people actually do click these ads (based on my revenue numbers)

<comment><USER4> Has anyone done any studies on the number of people who click on mobile ads by mistake?

Based on my experience and observation of others it seems to occur fairly regularly.

(Also, I know my 4yo clicks on in-game ads by mistake all the time on my iPod, and I know I'm not the only parent who has discovered the miracle of iPhone/iPod gaming for kids.)

<comment><USER5> I wouldn't doubt that the majority of in-app ad clicks are kids. Sometimes I just let my 3-yr-old play with my phone, and he thinks the farting app is pretty funny, but he ALWAYS touches the ads.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The app mentioned: Air Horn by Sympaddico

App page: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-horn- free/id348184873?mt=...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-horn- free/id348184873?mt=8) (tries to open iTunes, sorry! don't know a link that doesn't do that)

Content link: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://blog.burstly.com/2010/06/08/free- app-hits-1-and-makes-20000-what-we-learned-so-far/&hl=en&strip=1) (from eperfa, give them points! <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1418841>)

</comment><comment><USER7> website does not load. anyone have a reliable mirro?

<comment><USER8> only the text-only version works, sorry

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://blog.burstly.com/2010/06/08/free- app-hits-1-and-makes-20000-what-we-learned-so-far/&hl=en&strip=1)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Takeaways: just keep going no matter what. It may take a while to reach that goal, but someway somehow, you are going to make it.

<comment><USER10> Also another takeaway would be that advertising revenue can work pretty well.

<comment><USER11> I'm afraid that, for a significant number of developers, the takeaway will be: "see, the app quality doesn't matter, it's a matter of luck! So I'd better crank out a _lot_ of apps to have a better chance to win big".

<comment><USER10> Definitely. That's what I would do if I was doing apps. Crank out as many low quality novelty apps as you can. Make one a day for a year.

That's giving people what they want. For many, the whole point of an app-store is to find fun novelty apps like light-sabers fun noise things, etc etc. It's just a way of personalizing your phone like ringtones used to be. Something 'cool'/'lame' you can show your friends.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "Error establishing a database connection"

That's certainly a lesson I haven't heard before!

:)

edit: I was just teasing</comment>


How Fred Smith Saved Fedex at the Blackjack Table - <AUTHOR> http://warstory.co/how-fred-smith-saved-fedex-at-the-blackjack-table/ <comment><USER2> The way I heard the story, and I was at FedEx in Memphis at the time, Fred went to Vegas to see Howard Hughes and pitch for an investment and won the $27 K while waiting to see Hughes.

That week the company asked employees to delay cashing their paychecks if they could.

At the time, I was doing operations research working on fleet scheduling, etc. Likely there was a lot of money to be saved with better scheduling of the fleet.

I'd written the first software for scheduling the fleet, and one evening Roger Frock (mentioned in the article) and I used my software to do a schedule for all planned 33 airplanes and all planned 90 cities. Our two representatives from Board Member General Dynamics checked the 'feasibility' of the schedule and announced "It's a little tight in a few places but it's flyable". Some members of the board had been concerned or even convinced that a schedule would not be possible. So, the schedule Roger and I did alleviated the concerns and, as I was told, enabled $55 million in funding, i.e., loans, on the airplanes.

At a senior staff meeting, Fred's remark on the schedule was "An amazing document. Solved the most important problem facing the start of Federal Express.". Yup, it had been six weeks in my living room in Maryland connected to a time sharing computer for 80 hours a week writing PL/I code while finishing teaching two computer science courses at Georgetown U.

That FedEx was close to going under didn't bother me much, but the stock I'd been promised "within two weeks" with my offer to join still was not there 18 months later and bothered me a lot.

If I couldn't get the promised stock when the company was close to folding, then staying around and helping to save the company would get me what? With no stock, I was going to graduate school to have a better career in operations research.

Then Fred called me to his office and said: "You know, if you stay, then you are in line for $500,000 in Federal Express stock." But he wasn't giving me that statement on paper with a signature. My manager, Mike Basch, SVP Planning, was there with me with Fred. My office was next to Fred's with Mike's across the hall. No, given that the promised stock was already 18 months late, the company was close to going under, and Fred was not putting his statement in writing, I didn't know I was in line for any stock at all.

Apparently none of Fred's talk about stock meant anything: With the original copy of the offer letter, all the promises, all my records from then, when I contacted Fred with all the information, he and his FedEx lawyer refused to pay me anything, and a lawyer told me that legally FedEx owed me nothing.

The work I was doing would likely have saved FedEx a LOT of money soon. E.g., a good first shot would have been to modify the scheduling software to include some accurate costing and then just use it to develop schedules with the least cost by just intuitive methods. For a second cut, generate and cost out many possible individual airplane trips from Memphis to the cities and back. Then use that data for integer linear programming (ILP) set covering with one column for each possible trip and one row for each city to be served, say, a few dozen cities growing to the planned 90. Then use some column generation (Gilmore and Gomory) and some branch and bound. Easily should have saved millions a year in fuel and other operational costs quickly. I had world expert in integer linear programming George Nemhauser lined up as a consultant, and I was writing software in PL/I on an IBM CP67/CMS system.

Actually, well into the start of FedEx, Fred had planned to do the first schedules himself. When he tried, for just a few cities, just by hand, from his office, when FedEx was still in Little Rock, at the end of the afternoon he came out of his office saying "We need a computer". A guy I had known in college heard that and gave me a call.

Yes, ILP set covering is in NP-complete. So, no one has a guaranteed polynomial algorithm for worst case examples. But that doesn't mean that can't save a lot of money fairly easily in cases of interest. Sure, might have trouble guaranteeing to save the last 10 cents, but if save $5 million a month over the best solution otherwise, then just saved, let me see here, right, $5 million a month.

I didn't get the stock, and Fred didn't get the savings.

Fred has been very successful, but he didn't do it alone, and some promises about stock were not kept.

One lesson is, from what my wife told me as I joined FedEx, "Get it in writing". Well, my offer letter said I'd be in the stock plan, but apparently that was meaningless legally. Better still, get a lawyer. Better still, start and own your own company. Back to it.

<comment><USER3> Sorry to hear that you didn't get the stock. I've been in a similar scenario where promises of stock were made and later not kept by a very small startup. In my case, the company didn't end up going anywhere, so there was not much regret on my part at the end. I also did get a salary during that time, which helped.

Joining as a low-numbered employee is a really big act of trust, bigger in some ways than being a founder. You ought to find out everything you can about whom you'll be working with, and what they think of you, before you consider it. It helps to have the ability to read people. Getting things in writing definitely is a must-do, but it's not a silver bullet.

<comment><USER4> regarding, >"Joining as a low-numbered employee is a really big act of trust, bigger in some ways than being a founder.

The reason it's not a "bigger in some ways than being a founder" is precisely because you CAN follow the suggestions you then list

>You ought to find out everything you can about whom you'll be working with, and what they think of you, before you consider it. Getting things in writing definitely is a must-do, but it's not a silver bullet.

There is simply NO way to do that as a cofounder! The paperwork SIMPLY DOESNT EXIST. As an early employee, you can view our patents, trademarks, etch stack, talk with other employees, see our level of funding.

As a cofounder, you get to see an idea.

There is no guarantee whatsoever of ANYTHING as a cofounder, EVEN if you get it in writing. The only thing you can be guaranteed is 50% of nothing.

So in some ways you could say that joining as a low-numbered employee is for people who want to make it rich but don't have the balls not take any salary, not to have any paperwork, anything in place whatsoever that they can do due dilligence on except the person of the their cofounder and the ideas and work that they personally bring to the table with their own two hands.

<comment><USER5> The parent is talking about trust. You're talking about risk.

<comment><USER4> I just don't see that. Where's the trust - as an early employee you have an employment contract that will be enforced by law, you get cash coming in every two weeks or monthly that is also enforced by law, and your employer owes you a bunch of other rights.

as a cofounder, you're not owed shit. (except 50% of nothing).

the same thing applies to options contracts or anything else.

What I mean is as an early employee you can SEE all this in writing. As a cofounder, you also get to have your equity agreement on paper. If it's 50% it even means something. As a minority cofounder (e.g. if you're the 10% guy with the other two having 45-45) that would mean considerably less.

I just don't see how you can anywhere NEAR approach the level of trust as an early employee, that you need as a cofounder. It's not even within three orders of magnitude of each other.

And that's part of why there are so many fewer cofounders than employees in the world.

I mean think about it!! What can I say over IRC and Skype that would convince you to be my cofounder without meeeting? What kind of paperwork can I produce? What kind of documentation?

Now compare that with being a remote early employee.

The level of trust required is literally 3 orders of magnitude less. Not risk: trust. But risk too.

<comment><USER3> Have you actually been an early employee, or are you just speculating? I can tell you that in a lot of cases the paperwork you love so much often simply doesn't exist. Even if it did, it might not be worth the paper it was written on.

There are a lot of ways to lose out. If you're not a lawyer, there is almost certainly something in the contract you overlooked. The contract might not even be valid if two non-lawyers came up with it after a few beers. You could be fired right before your options vest. (This happened to a lot of people at Skype, for example.) Or you could be diluted down to nothing after a few rounds of financing.

Sure, you can sue, but is that really going to help? If the company goes out of business you're trying to get blood from a stone. If the company succeeds, they'll have a legal budget 1000x yours.

Ultimately, the founders are going to set the direction of the company. You have to trust them, and also trust that you will be useful to them over the long term. Any other strategy is just a losing bet.

<comment><USER4> Hi,

I'm specifically comparing to the trust required to be a cofounder. I've been both an early employee and a cofounder. The level of trust I needed in my cofounder to enter the business on the terms we did is simply 1000x bigger than the level of trust I needed to start working as an early employee.

I mean think about it: you're talking about losing out on the upside as an early-employee, but the salary still comes (or you just leave after 2 weeks) and so does the experience.

As a cofounder, nothing "comes". There _IS_ no business.

Your assertion that a salary agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on is ridiculous. Even paper isn't necessary: if an early employee didn't get paid at all they would leave almost immediately.

it just doesn't require anywhere near the same amt of trust.

<comment><USER3> Well, first of all, your assertion that "if an early employee didn't get paid at all they would leave almost immediately" is just false. I mean if you read the post that started this thread, it's about a guy who went without any salary for 18 months. Admittedly, he did have another source of income at the time from the college, but that's still a long time to go. Personally, I have known employees to go a few months without pay in the hope of seeing the company through a rough time.

If you read the article itself, it talks about pilots using their own credit cards to pay for landing fees in a pinch, and couriers selling their watches to pay for fuel. So basically, I would urge you to read the article and the posts you're replying to.

I admit that co-founders usually put more money into the business than early employees. But time is also worth money, and early employees put a lot of that in, for not much money up front.

I agree with you that the experienced gained as an early employee is valuable. Some of that experience might be getting a better idea for whom to trust in the future :) And with that, I think we've come full circle...

<comment><USER4> well, you're not ''wrong''. I hope you will agree though that working for 18 months without pay at a startup very much stretches the definition of "employee". (as opposed to "cofounder" or "unpaid intern").

most people who can claim the title of "early employee but not cofounder" here at HN would not say they have gone 18 months without pay in that title or would do so. so yes it's a data point but it's a pathological one.

On the other hand, 18 months without pay doesn't scratch the surface of what a cofounder can expect: it's one of the best-case scenarios that anyone could possibly expect!

A cofounder would jump at a chance to see liquidity within 18 months of founding a new startup. More typical is more like 24 months absolute minimum, 36-72 months average, and often longer is the norm.

And during that time you don't just hock a watch or pay for fuel: most cofounders pay tens of thousands of dollars of their own money, often every month and putting every source of liquidity they can into the business as it ramps up.

and more often than not, as sad as all this is, most cofounders do lose 100% of their investment and have nobody to blame, nobody to even ask for a break. they have cliffs, and CANNOT jump ship. WHen a cofounder jumps ship they lose 100% of the entire equity they have in the company.

But at the same time, most startups simply don't go anywhere.

I would be hard-pressed to find a metric by which the average early employee gets absolutely nothing for his time and has to pay for all the infrastructure used to employ him.

it's just not the same planet.

of course there are pathological cases that are the worst of both worlds: early employees who should be called cofounders, are paid nothing, and do not get meaningful equity.

you don't need much trust to be an unpaid intern though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is the flip side to the Cooper Union story [1] that's gracing the front page right now—a reckless strategy that is only lauded because it paid off in this one high-profile instance.

I'm not sure where the line between reckless gamble and calculated risk is, but this feels like it's over the line. Yes, the company would have likely folded either way had the founder not gambled and won, but this strategy together with the "never give up on a particular business" cockroach mentality feels akin to winning a lottery and subsequently advising people that lottery tickets are a viable way to prepare for retirement.

Also, I'm quite sure that the founder would have found himself in a lot of personal trouble for gambling company funds on a blackjack table had he lost.

[1] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5599385>

<comment><USER7> I agree it would have been over the line, if it hadn't been so desperate. It sounds like it was do or die - in that sense, it shouldn't be interpreted as a strategy, reckless or not. Everyone involved admits it was a gamble.

I get the feeling the Cooper Union situation was, although bad, not as bad as what Fedex was in. Cooper Union made a gamble, failed, and was still able to continue to run (2 years of debate, plus funds to run until the 2014 school year when the fees actually kick in). That tells me it wasn't a do or die situation; they still had rope left. Even now, I'm not convinced they exhausted all available, smarter avenues. I'm also kinda surprised their books aren't open if they've been debating for 2 years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'd always heard the blackjack story was cover for a new silent partner--the kind you don't break your promises to. And those deals aren't in writing either.

</comment><comment><USER9> An entrepreneur's character is truly tested only when his company is failing. You can take one of two options: 1) pay your employees and suppliers everything you owe, return any money that's left to investors and close up shop, or 2) take all the cash from the till and go to Vegas (or some other equivalent of betting the farm).

If this story is true I wouldn't want to have anything to do with Mr. Smith.

</comment><comment><USER10> I heard this store more than 20 years ago. I had always assumed "won the money in Vegas at Blackjack" was a euphemism for getting a loan from the Mob.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is a story I've always loved and it's good to hear it with a little more background. I had no idea they had raised so much money already. The smarter thing to do would have probably been to go to one of his investors for a small bridge loan knowing the new round was in the works.

I put myself in some pretty tight personal financial spots for the success of my first company and just seeing my employees happy and at work was enough for me to never regret it. After selling the company they all got an even more stable foundation for their lives and I got the "reward" that comes to those too dumb to give up.

Here's to guys like Fred for giving me the inspiration to do whatever it took for my company!

<comment><USER12> This is a story that I've always hated because I think it is very very unlikely to be true. If he actually did play blackjack, I'm curious to know how many hands he played, how much he was betting per hand, what casino he was playing at, etc. If he bet it all on one hand, what if he was dealt A-A and didn't have the money to split?

I think somebody who is reckless enough to gamble the remaining funds of the company, is not disciplined enough to walk away from the blackjack table after having won just enough for the fuel payment.

If he actually did play blackjack, it would be more likely that he started out winning, won enough to pay for the fuel, but then continued gambling and gave it all back.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> As presented, that sounds like an extremely good bet. Look at the stakes. If he didn't gamble, they had a 100% chance of going bankrupt immediately. If he did, they had a ~50% chance of going bankrupt immediately.

<comment><USER14> It's a little more complicated but still an excellent bet. In poker terms, he had good pot odds.

Say I'm an investor and get $10K if he goes bankrupt. If bets and wins, I have, say, a 52% chance of getting nothing, and a 48% chance of getting a million, for an expected value of $480K. The rational decision, in the best interest of investors, is to make the bet.

Even more so if he was counting cards, improving his odds slightly over 50%. Counting cards isn't all that difficult, the hard part is just doing it over time without being detected, which in this situation wasn't necessary. It's interesting that he chose blackjack, a game that punishes you badly if you're not skilled, instead of roulette.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Discussion from a month ago (hit the front page): <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5405371></comment>


The Inverse Power Of Praise - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sokanu.com/the-inverse-power-of-praise

<comment><USER2> I think this is a point worth considering, even if it is a little off topic.

I hear about this 'disadvantage' of being intelligent often, and I won't disagree that it can be crippling to learn to avoid challenges, but when discussing intelligent children in school, I think there is a much bigger pitfall. The picture of gifted children breezing through school is often painted without a second thought. From following the popular narrative of the elementary school and middle school classroom, you'd think that every above average student is a carbon copy of Lisa Simpson. The greater hurdle in my mind is that school caters to the average student. The most successful student in many cases is probably the very average child. Being excessively inquisitive and driven makes the classroom hell, because the system seeks efficiency, and that means punishing the margins for not fitting in with the crowd.

Sorry, but when I read "[s]chool work is a breeze, resulting in a little to no stress ..." it hits a nerve! :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I could not agree more. I had the exact same experience going through school. I would always ask for more work in order to be challenged. I would constantly be looking to do more, because you are correct, school is extremely catered to the average student.

Also, about that quote, because I wrote it, I don't get the readers experience. But looking at it now I can completely get your frustration. I would feel the same thing, since I was frustrated going through school, even though I did fine. I wrote that line as more of a generalization.

"The most successful student in many cases is probably the very average child. Being excessively inquisitive and driven makes the classroom hell, because the system seeks efficiency, and that means punishing the margins for not fitting in with the crowd." This is bang on. Thanks so much for the great comment.

<comment><USER2> No problem, thanks for the article. I signed up for the Sokanu alpha, although I can't quite figure out what the product is.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for signing up. Hopefully you received our email which explained it a little better.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


IPv4 Census - Port scanning /0 using insecure embedded devices  - <AUTHOR> http://internetcensus2012.github.com/InternetCensus2012/paper.html

<comment><USER2> This is pretty amazing if true. A census - not a sample! - of the entire IPv4 address space tells us a lot about the internet.

</comment><comment><USER3> Where is the source code to his bot? I don't see it. Maybe I over-looked it. Without seeing source code, I find this story hard to believe.

Also, who is the person behind it? The PGP key published is to an anon Gmail account firstname.lastname@example.com.

If the story is true, the legal liability of doing this may be the reason the author is hiding his/her identity.

<comment><USER4> "We will not release any source code of the bot or the backend because we consider the risk of abuse as too high"

A great deal of raw data is available for download over BitTorrent. It shouldn't be too hard to test the validity of the census results by verifying a random sample of the results.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's pretty rad. That's an effectively big botnet. I wonder if it's possible to have a breakdown of residential vs enterprise for the boxes he's connected to. Maybe a sample of the local subnet? Or doing port scanning on the internal network too, and judging based on network size?

</comment><comment><USER6> What I really wanted to see is whether anyone has found the readme file and contacted the author. Unfortunately the author doesn't mention this.

I'd expect that a couple of hosts he got into were honeypots.</comment>


Google AI Challenge 2011 (Ants) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki

<comment><USER2> I followed the last Google AI challenge pretty closely, and enjoyed it, but how does the organizer Jeff Cameron keep getting away with invoking Google in the competition's name? He has basically zero affiliation to Google, and the last round of the competition had some pretty embarrassing snafus. (For instance, registration was broken for quite a while because he was using the Google SMTP server to send out messages, and when the competition opened and his registration script starting sending out huge numbers of registration emails, Google shut him down as a probable spammer.)

<comment><USER3> As read on the IRC channel (#aichallenge on freenode) some time ago, someone involved worked at Google and managed to get an OK to use the name, even though Google has nothing to do with it. Don't ask me how that happened.

Go to the IRC channel for a while and you are sure to hear this story, since new people constantly ask why Google doesn't put more resources into the challenge.

<comment><USER4> That explains why it's hosted on Github instead of Google Code.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In the past, the google challenge results were unfair:

Your bot was ranking based on a single game against a minority of other bots and on a random map.

At least they should have let the top 100 ranked bots played against other multiple times.

<comment><USER6> Not unfair, exactly; but not at all certain to pick the best algorithm instead of the luckiest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Here's a better page which gives a good overview: [https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki/Ants-Game- Sp...](https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki/Ants-Game- Specification)

</comment><comment><USER8> I did a git clone last night and carefully read through the starter kits for Common Lisp, Java, and Python. A long time ago, in my book "C++ Power Paradigms" the last example was using a genetic algorithm to train a recurrent neural net for the Sante Fe Ant Trail problem. My original idea was starting with weights represented with relatively few bits, and adding less significant bits slowly during training. My hope was that I would quickly find reasonable areas of weight values so the search for good values with a reasonable number of bits per weight would not take too long. After I wrote that John Koza told me that I had an interesting idea but probably not useful. That said, I am tempted to brush off my old idea and try it again.

<comment><USER9> That makes two of us :-) I'm going to try a genetic programming bot this time.

Any comments on the CL starter kit? It still needs work and I'm not the world's best programmer. (see my profile for my e-mail address)

<comment><USER8> The Common Lisp starter kit was implemented quite differently that the Python and Java kits (who I think were designed and written by the same person). The Common Lisp kit just had one example bot, so maybe it is still being worked on.

<comment><USER9> I started working on it a couple of weeks ago using this wiki page: [https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki/Ants- Strateg...](https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki/Ants-Strategy- Guide) Later on I found a more extensive wiki page about the same thing: [https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki/Ants- Starter...](https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki/Ants-Starter-Pack- Guide)

Perhaps the Python and Java kits used the latter (as I should have done).

More example bots with probably not be added to the CL package by me (but feel free to do so!). I agree with the description on one of the wiki pages that the starter packages should be pretty minimal so that users will see improvements quickly when they start tinkering with it.

I've just taken care of the plumbing so the participants can get started with the fun things right away :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Choosing Ants as the next challenge is a bit of a bet. I'm a bit afraid that the game is too random to get really interesting AIs. Fog of war + food spawning at random places can bring early advantage to those players that explored the map 'just right'.

Disclaimer: I really enjoyed playing the Tron and PlanetWars challenges. Although I was a bit disappointed with my final ranking in PlanetWars (~80), I think that game was close to perfect.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm planning on building a ruby bot. I'll be putting at least my "non- proprietary" logic code up on github.

Anyone interested in working together?

</comment><comment><USER12> The battle rules look a little problematic. Seems like you'll be coding up formations and counter formations rather than overall strategy.

[https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki/Ants-Game- Sp...](https://github.com/aichallenge/aichallenge/wiki/Ants-Game- Specification)

</comment><comment><USER13> Is anyone else going to build a bot? I'm going to make one in Python or Javascript. Looking for co-commander.

<comment><USER14> I was going to build a bot in Python. (Javascript is also a possiblity) Care to team up?

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> What is the deadline?

<comment><USER9> The official start is still a couple of weeks away, although you are free to start working on a bot already. Don't complain if the specifications (or the whole game!) changes though.

My guess is this time the challenge will last about two months. Three months like the last one (Planet Wars) was felt to be a little long by most participants and the one before that (Tron) was a little short in its duration of three or four weeks.</comment></comment>


What is your weekend hack for this weekend? - <AUTHOR> What interesting are you making this weekend? <comment><AUTHOR> I am going to create an iPhone app "meditation radio". Since long planning to do it but this weekend I am going to finish it :)</comment>


[On writing] John Gruber, Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky, and Judge Judy - <AUTHOR> http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/865-on-writing-john-gruber-paul-graham-joel-spolsky-and-judge-judy

<comment><USER2> I read DF and i have found that i have to agree with Gruber as well. He doesn't write nearly as much as he used to and when he does they aren't nearly as philosophical as the used to be. I do enjoy the content still, however, i don't find myself going through the archive re-reading things like i used to.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining."</comment>


Caring about storage space again - <AUTHOR> http://alexknight.net/blog/2011/3/28/caring-about-storage-space-again.html

<comment><USER2> I'm hoping you'll try "striped Raid 0" in your next endeavor ... Not "stripped" :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ooops. Thanks for catching that. I corrected it now.</comment></comment>


Murder suspect asks Siri where to hide a dead body - <AUTHOR> http://www.networkworld.com/article/2464546/smartphones/murder-suspect-asks-siri-where-to-hide-a-dead-body.html

<comment><USER2> If this is indeed a true story, and if the question is correctly quoted in the article, I really wonder why and how it happened that a "hiding" question returned dumps and swamps...

<comment><USER3> Asking where to hide a dead body was mentioned in articles about Siri since the beginning: [http://blog.laptopmag.com/10-most-controversial-siri- respons...](http://blog.laptopmag.com/10-most-controversial-siri-responses)

> Apple endowed Siri with a mischievous temper and a few Easter eggs–for > instance, ask her where you can hide a dead body and she happily complies > with a helpful list of hard-to-find locations.

It was only a matter of time until statistically you have a murder suspect that knew about / used that easter egg.

<comment><USER2> Seems you are right. A video uploaded in 2011 showing the answers : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B78kmg9xPP8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B78kmg9xPP8)

I am still not totally convinced that the linked article is not a hoax, or an urban legend in the making.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't know whether to laugh or cry.</comment>


Ask HN: What are some poorly written but very successful open source software? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Have you ever read the man-page for telnet? On my Debian system the last two lines read:

       BUGS
         The source code is not comprehensible.

That's probably one of the dividing lines. There are many programs that have "bad" source code, but which are still essential.

Another measure of "badness" could be how extensible, or not a program might be. Or even how many security-holes. With regard to security holes some projects such as Wordpress or Wireshark crop up too often.

But honestly? Most of the badly written programs aren't so bad, if you ignore a couple of outliers. If the benefits outweigh the drawbacks then the software leaves the world a better place.

</comment><comment><USER3> WordPress, phpNuke, phpBB, most of the old PHP CMSes and E-Commerce systems. The code is dirty and hacky, but the software is useful for millions of people.

<comment><USER4> Last time I looked PHPNuke was horrifying, PHPBB was just outdated, and WordPress was pretty damn good.

A lot of people assume WordPress is poorly written because it got a reputation for being insecure. But modern WordPress is pretty well written and in part due to its automatic update mechanism pretty secure.

When was the last time you looked at WordPress?

<comment><USER5> > WordPress was pretty damn good

Building your own userland SQL Prepared Statements 'replacement' using string replacement is not "pretty damn good".

WordPress is _notorious_ for refusing to drop support for ancient, unsupported versions of PHP.

WordPress is a fucking terrible solution to _any_ problem, from a technical point of view.

<comment><USER6> It seems to be solving 25% of all the problems [https://martechtoday.com/wordpress-used-on-25-percent-of- all...](https://martechtoday.com/wordpress-used-on-25-percent-of-all-websites- report-151115)

<comment><USER5> I said it's technically a piece of garbage, confirming that it fits very much in the topic of "poorly written but very successful"

That 25% of sites use it just proves the successful part, and says nothing about how appropriate it is technically.

<comment><USER6> Haven't looked at the code in a long time and it's probably as you say, not very nice code, and you are right that indeed WP fits this thread, BUT, i take issue with this phrasing "terrible solution to any problem" leading the reader to think that whatever he is trying to do, WP is not the answer. If it was such a terrible solution it wouldn't be were it is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Browsing the source of games like Nethack and Battle for Wesnoth (around a decade ago) opened my eyes - sometimes code quality can seem poor but the product can be great.

Blender is another one that seems very ramshackle and complex. I won't go as far as saying it's poorly written, but it's a product of many contributors, including students, and yet it's an amazing piece of software.

This thread is not meant to be a criticism of projects, but a celebration that code quality is not the be all and end all.

<comment><USER7> Nethack has great code! It's very easy to follow and has tons of comments.

<comment><AUTHOR> The comments are great but for me it's old-style c makes it hard to follow, it uses lots of short var names that are forward declared, doesn't pass length with char* arrays, etc. But I don't want to criticise any particular thing, because it works amazingly well. It's one of my top 10 games.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Joomla - both code and UI were beyond horrible, but I still turn down random Joomla projects on a yearly basis.

</comment><comment><USER9> Though I live and breathe it, emacs C source base is amazingly nasty. The fact that it still uses redisplay and memory dumps after integrating so many improvements over the years...

</comment><comment><USER10> If you consider:

1) Most of Linux source code is composed of drivers;

2) Most drivers for Linux have really bad quality code, with very few exceptions;

Then Linux is a perfect example.

</comment><comment><USER11> Any Java plugin for Minecraft written by teenagers looks like a heresy for Enterprise Java developers...

</comment><comment><USER12> I don't know the details but i've read sth similar regarding Calibre.

<comment><USER13> knowing the frontend I can imagine how it looks beneath

<comment><USER14> It does OK being able to get stuff out of Calibre.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The source code of procmail is terrifying

</comment><comment><USER16> Vim.

<comment><USER17> As a long-time cheerleader for Vim, I totally agree. Vim is a paradoxical beast: incredibly convoluted code _almost_ (but not quite) rescued by extremely great documentation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> vTiger CRM. The worst code I have ever seen but still used by lots of businesses.

<comment><USER19> Yes, that's 200% true. After few customization, my programming skills goes down by 50%. I forgot some basic syntax.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I heard OpenOffice was a mess years back though I don't know about now.

</comment><comment><USER21> I wouldn't touch OpenSSL with a ten foot pole.

</comment><comment><USER22> Sendmail.

<comment><USER23> The chapter about Sendmail in Architecture of Open Source Applications[1] gives an explanations as to why it is so convoluted. Sendmail was originally written when TCP/IP and SMTP did not even exist.

[1] [http://aosabook.org/en/sendmail.html](http://aosabook.org/en/sendmail.html)

<comment><USER22> That's not the real problem. Sendmail was written when databases didn't exist in the UNIX world and before UNIX had locking mechanisms. Many of the legacy problems with UNIX/Linux come from components which maintain a database with special purpose code. Sendmail, BIND, login/passwd, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Drupal, wordpress, docker, xamarin, unity. and mono

</comment><comment><USER25> openssl!

</comment><comment><USER26> Docker.</comment>


Most Popular Google Chrome Extensions - <AUTHOR> http://www.danwolch.com/2015/11/most-popular-chrome-extensions-november-2015/ <comment><USER2> How can some plugin reach million of installs but only few comments left?

What can install/comment ratio tell us?

<comment><AUTHOR> Distribution deals, I am guessing. If you bundle your chrome extension with an installer (Ask Jeeves, when you install Java or Adobe) it's a lot easier to get distribution.

I assume the larger the number of reviews, the higher the engagement of users with the plugin (if they don't think it's part of the browser).</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where can I find salespeople to market to? - <AUTHOR>

I have a couple of SAAS ideas for salespeople to help them improve their selling skills. However other than blogging to build an email list and PPC I'm struggling to think up ways to target salespeople.<p>Does anyone have any ideas? <comment><USER2> Create a new email account. Sign up on every form you come across on websites selling various products and services. Get ready to be spammed. When the sales guys get in touch, get them on the phone using a blocked number or a temp. While they are trying to make a sale, instead try to ask questions to get them to admit they have the problem you are solving and you can instead pitch them your solution.

<comment><USER3> This is creative, I like it. It made me think of how many problems that sales people have that go unsolved, this sounds like one good way to address them directly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Narrow the field.

Don't just say "salespeople," define what they're selling. Car salesmen? Go to a dealership and talk to the sales manager, or get him on the phone; Real Estate? Call the local offices, go to real estate seminars, etc. You get the picture; if you focus on a subgroup, it's easier to target who you want.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed. I do need to look at a niche before I try and grow the business.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Find a conference near your area. Pay for an exhibitor hall only pass. Then walk around the exhibit hall talking to the vendors. They are all sales people. IRCE in Chicago last year was $175 and access to endless sales people. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a good shout, however it isn't a very scalable way to get in front of sales people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> LinkedIn is the obvious answer. SellerCrowd may not be a bad idea if you don't mind anonymous sources Conferences are easy finds for sales people in the exhibit halls.

</comment><comment><USER7> Realtors and maybe insurance agents are usually easy to target. You can get free lists easily and they often include direct phone numbers.

</comment><comment><USER8> Salespeople that need to improve their skills are often found listening to motivational speakers. Try being Tony Robbins.

</comment><comment><USER9> Are you a salesperson yourself? Have you ever sold anything?

<comment><AUTHOR> I am yes in my day job. I've been ranked as the top sales person in both the organisations I've worked in since graduating.

<comment><USER9> Good. Have you succesfully used your ideas to improve your numbers?

<comment><AUTHOR> For sure?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> dav-id LinkedIn would be an obvious choice to find people

<comment><AUTHOR> I included this in PPC. Unless you're suggesting spamming people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Try sellercrowd.com. Also, are you a salesperson?</comment>


Starting and Sustaining - <AUTHOR> http://startingandsustaining.com/

<comment><USER2> This is the first book in a very, very long time that I've really looked forward to.

Garrett's successfully bootstrapped a SaaS that now sustains him and his family, and he's taken everything he's learned over the last few years and condensed it into a 50k word guidebook.

I read an early draft and was blown away. And the spreadsheet it comes with is easily worth the sticker price (and then some.)

</comment><comment><USER3> I looked forward to this book. Here's what puts me off for now. One price option only. I want to read the book. I'm not the interested in the spreadsheets and other stuff. Am I gonna pay $79USD for a book? No.

Table of content is missing. I don't really know what's inside. Makes me nervous. The money back guarantee is not that appealing although it should set some of the stress aside.

Hopefully these will be fixed quickly.

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the feedback. I'm sorry to hear that you're disappointed about the price. We've considered selling the book separately, but it's all really a package deal as there are quite a few references to the spreadsheet throughout the book.

Ultimately, we chose to price the book based on value. It's less about whether you're paying $79 for a book than it is about paying $79 to cut hours, days, or even weeks of pain and mistakes from the process of launching an application.

As far as the money back guarantee. I stand by it, and fully plan on processing those requests immediately should any come in.

<comment><USER5> Garrett has earned a solid reputation with me in how he has run Sifter. I've been a customer on-and-off, and he's always treated me fairly and promptly, even when I was "churn." I agree the price feels a little stiff, but I see his argument about the value. If confidence in the money-back guarantee is all you need to pull the trigger, I wouldn't hesitate.

Note: I don't know Garrett, we're not friends, just wanted to add another voice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm the co-founder of a successful SaaS (<http://letsfreckle.com/>) and would easily have paid $300 for the spreadsheet alone.

I wish I had had the spreadsheet back when we started. Garrett seriously got your back on the finances of a bootstrapped SaaS.

</comment><comment><USER7> Just bought a copy - I remember reading through the slides and thought there was a lot of good stuff there.

Whilst $79 may seem a lot for a pdf and a spreadsheet, it's really very little to pay for good advice! There really is no way to learn other than to do it and make your own mistakes on the way, but having something like this to hand should help you recover quicker, and if you avoid a few pitfalls because of it, all the better :-)

</comment><comment><USER8> I just finished reading this and it's a goldmine of information.

If anything, it's priced too low ;)

The best part for me was the focus on bootstrapping costs and the lists of things to take into account when budgeting.

</comment><comment><USER9> Garrett, I'm buying your book. Definitely.

Question: How long did it take you to write the book and build the spreadsheets? I don't mean hours. I mean, from the day you started to the day you said "ok, done", how long was that?

<comment><USER4> The short answer is October 25, 2012 to March 18, 2013.

The spreadsheet is something that I've been fine-tuning for the last five years with Sifter. It took me a couple of days to clean it up and make it more user-friendly.

The book was about 1.5 months of full-time writing and editing. But I've been working on it about half-time since October doing research and working out all of the logistics.

We also hired both an illustrator for the cover and an editor to reduce the amount of effort I'd have to put in. So that probably shortened the timeline a bit.

<comment><USER9> That's really helpful. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Is there going to also be a Kindle (or any other e-Reader) version?

<comment><USER4> I may add one if there's incredibly high demand, but my initial attempts to create them left me with the impression that it would be a significant amount of effort for marginal additional benefit.

<comment><USER10> If it is available in some point in the future, would it be available for free to those who have already purchased the PDF version?

<comment><USER4> Definitely. Unfortunately, I won't have a way to push updates, so I'd only be able to send the updated package to people that requested it.

<comment><USER11> +1 kindle version

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> How long will the special launch pricing be available?

<comment><USER4> Not sure yet. I figured I'd give it two or three days to give everyone a good shot at picking it up at the lower price.</comment></comment>


Rust and C++ on Floating-Point Intensive Code - <AUTHOR> https://www.reidatcheson.com/hpc/architecture/performance/rust/c++/2019/10/19/measure-cache.html <comment><USER3> I have some experience with this, ie ensuring LLVM optimizes and codegens the "best"! I have been working to generate _target independent_ "kernels" for the Rav1e AV1 encoder and have had to do a lot of unidiomatic things to get LLVM to generate machine code similar in quality to hand written ASM. Granted, this is on integers and not floats, but the same principles should apply.

What I've found is that you need to ignore most of Rust: use/load raw pointers, don't use slices, unroll manually, vectorize manually, and check preconditions manually. You'll still get the amazing type system, but the code will have to be more C-like than Rust-like.

* raw pointers: LLVM is pretty good at optimizing C code. Rust specific optimization needs some work. (edit: I assumed arrays here, so you'll need the pointer for offsets; references are still okay. You'd also use the pointers for iterating instead of the usual slice iteration patterns)

* no slices: index checking is expensive, not to the CPU, the CPU rarely misses the check branches, but to the optimizer. I've found these are mostly left un-elided, even after inlining.

* no slices: slice indexing uses overflow checking. For Rav1e's case, the block/plane sizes mean that doing the index calculation using `u32` will never overflow, so calculating the offsets using u32 is fine (I'll have to switch to using a pseudo u24 integer for GPUs though, because u32 is still expensive on them).

* unroll manually: LLVM would probably do more of this with profiling info, but I've never found it (this is subjective!) to do any unrolling w/o. Maybe if all the other items here are also done...

* vectorize manually: Similar to unrolling. I've observed only limited automatic vectorization.

* And to get safety back: check, check, and check before calling the fast kernel! Ie wrap the kernel function with one that does all the checks elided in the kernel.

Source: Wrote [https://github.com/xiph/rav1e/pull/1716](https://github.com/xiph/rav1e/pull/1716), which speeds up the non-asm encodes by over 2x!

<comment><USER4> Not sure I understand the part about raw pointers. As far as I understand, Rust references will surely turn into pointers at the LLVM IR level?

<comment><USER5> Rust references should in general optimize better because they give stronger aliasing guarantees.

Even for slices, using get_unchecked(1..) to get a smaller subslice without bounds checking might be better than pointer arithmetic as long as the slice lengths get optimized away (i.e. they are never used and never passed to non- inlined functions).

<comment><USER6> > Rust references should in general optimize better because they give stronger > aliasing guarantees.

AFAIK this does not work atm due to a codegen bug in llvm (which can also affect code using _restrict_ in C in some cases). This bug will get fixed one day, but most likely another bug will be revealed at this point… This part of LLVM was never really used in C as much as in Rust, so they keep finding bugs in it. Hopefully it will get fine in the long run, but I'm not holding my breath.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It looks like what the author was looking for is [1]

        f64::mul_add(self, a: f64, b: f64) -> f64

Adding it to the code indeed allows the LLVM to generate the "vfma" instruction. But it didn't significantly improve performance, on my machine at least.

        $ ./iterators 1000
        Normalized Average time = 0.0000000011943495282455513
        sumb=89259.51980374461

        $ ./mul_add 1000
        Normalized Average time = 0.0000000011861410852805122
        sumb=89259.52037960211

Maybe the performance gap is not due to what the author thought...

[1] [https://doc.rust- lang.org/std/primitive.f64.html#method.mul_...](https://doc.rust- lang.org/std/primitive.f64.html#method.mul_add)

<comment><USER8> Hum, did the program get vectorized?

<comment><USER7> As I said, the compiler did generate FMA instructions. These are SIMD instructions, so yes, the program was vectorized.

<comment><USER9> it isn't always that simple. FMA instructions are tricky to use in a way that actually improves performance, llvm may be doing it right while doing it manually that way may not.

also, sometimes a SIMD instruction is used but only on 1 lane at a time. this is actually common with floating point code.

<comment><USER10> Something I found surprising: Some AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions consume so much power that Intel chose to have their chips dynamically slow their clock frequency when the instructions are executed. So naively switching to SIMD instructions can not only fail to improve performance, but it can also hurt the performance of unaltered code executed after it -- even unrelated code running on other cores.

[https://blog.cloudflare.com/on-the-dangers-of-intels- frequen...](https://blog.cloudflare.com/on-the-dangers-of-intels-frequency- scaling/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So the difference basically boils down to -ffast-math, right? Is there an equivalent in Rust?

Edit: After some search I found these:

[https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/21690](https://github.com/rust- lang/rust/issues/21690)

[https://doc.rust- lang.org/core/intrinsics/fn.fadd_fast.html](https://doc.rust- lang.org/core/intrinsics/fn.fadd_fast.html)

Writing a wrapper around f64 that uses these intrinsics shouldn't be too hard. I don't program in Rust though.

<comment><USER12> It doesn't exist yet and it's not clear it should be replicated as is. The fast-math flag does a bunch of related things that should probably be exposed separately so it's not a footgun in several situations. I'm also partial to exposing it per-function so the control is actually in the hands of the people writing the code that know the context and not subject to someone fiddling with compiler flags and getting incorrect code.

For this example you'd probably want -fassociative-math and not the other stuff that may result in incorrect code. -ffast-math was not actually used in the clang compilation and it's possible that the -fvectorize that was used picks a sensible mix of options.

Here's a preliminary discussion:

[https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/pre-rfc-whats-the-best- way...](https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/pre-rfc-whats-the-best-way-to- implement-ffast-math/5740)

Trying to do an RFC process for this could be useful. The rust development process seems to be pretty good at thinking deeply about these things.

<comment><USER13> > I'm also partial to exposing it per-function so the control is actually in > the hands of the people writing the code that know the context

As a C++ programmer who routinely uses fast-math "until something breaks" with DSP code, I would find that capability very attractive.

<comment><USER14> That's kind of at odds with Rust guarantee that your code never breaks.

<comment><USER15> Technically Rust only guarantees _memory-safety_ (and only outside of unsafe!{}). It has many features that aid in other kinds of safety - <USER2> encouraging you to unwrap Option<> and Result<>, requiring all match cases to be covered, allowing for lots of strategic immutability, etc. But it doesn't _guarantee_ that kind of correctness.

<comment><USER14> That's not correct. Safe Rust is advertised as sound, and Rust defines that as "safe Rust programs do not exhibit undefined behavior". Undefined behavior is a much larger term than just memory safety, and include things like thread safety, const safety, unwind safety, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's very easy to do FMA's using .mul_add() on floats in Rust, which the author didn't seem to know about.

<comment><USER17> Ideally the compiler should be able to do this by itself though, at least with the appropriate flag to enable it.

<comment><USER18> FMA isn't a safe optimization as it can give different results.

C++ compilers have flags to enable it globally. gcc and clang include the optimization in -Ofast.

Rust allows you to choose at a code level (but usually people don't know about it). Perhaps it should also have a global fast-math flag that would automatically optimize it. Pros and cons to that.

<comment><USER19> FMA is "safe" in that if it breaks your code, it was already broken. It can only make the results slightly more accurate, unlike for instance the rsqrt instruction which is less accurate. (and as such is not a safe optimization)

GCC emits FMA instructions at -O2 without -ffast-math.

<comment><USER20> Well, it could "break" your code in that it might make your code produce different results than a separate equivalent implementation that didn't use FMA.

Edit: Ok actually it sounds like it could literally break some algorithms, see [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21342974](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21342974)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is interesting to see. But if I'm going to compare numerical C++ against numerical Rust, then I would be using a higher-level library for the comparision. What is Rust's Other Leading Brand (TM) for the Eigen C++ library?

<comment><USER22> That comparison (I'm not familiar enough with Eigen to truly say) is going to change over time too; once const generics lands (which is proceeding, finally) the APIs for numerics libraries are going to be significantly different in Rust.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> before you look at speed, did you verify you get the exact same math results in Rust and C++ (and for each compiler and platform) ? For C++ code, I have seen the results of calculations vary across compilers (and flags)

</comment><comment><USER24> The authors ends by noting that FMA would probably have improved the performances for the Rust code.

It is interesting to note that, whereas most ffast-math optimization will trade precision for reduced computing time, adding an FMA can only improve the precision of the output (and thus it is a safe optimization).

<comment><USER9> pedantry: ffast-math does not always trade precision. It simply trades the results being the _same_ as if they were not vectorized. A vectorized sum of floats for instance is more accurate, not less.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> What's "almost" algebraic about enum? It can definitely be used to construct sum types, and you can make product types with struct or inline in an enum

<comment><USER26> my best guess is that you can't do recursive enums without _explicit_ boxing [edit: or other forms of indirection, like &T]¹. so you can't do this:

      enum List<T> {
        Nil,
        Cons(T, List<T>)
      }

instead, you have to box/reference-ify the recursive occurrence:

      enum List<T> {
        Nil,
        Cons(T, Box<List<T>>)
      }

so in certain circumstances it doesn't let you "coproduct" two types together, you might need to modify one a bit, which makes it a technically-not-exactly- a-coproduct (i think). a bit of a stretch but it sort of makes sense next to a by-reference-only ML langs where you can (co)product anything as you please

(btw, it's the same for recursive products)

\---

1 - [https://users.rust-lang.org/t/recursive-enum- types/2938/2](https://users.rust-lang.org/t/recursive-enum-types/2938/2)

<comment><USER22> You don't have to box, but you do need some sort of type to make things sized. This is usually a pointer of some kind, but any kind of pointer works. Take references, for example:

      enum List<'a, T> {
        Nil,
        Cons(T, &'a List<'a, T>)
      }

      fn main() {
          let list = List::Cons("hello", &List::Nil);
      }

Box is usually chosen because it's a good default choice.

<comment><USER26> you're right of course! i should've used a more generic term like "indirection" or "reference", didn't mean to put emphasis on Box

<comment><USER22> It's all good, most people say just Box, because it is the majority case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Okay, can someone give an explanation for why Rust does not mimic the -O fast behavior? Is this something they plan to add?

<comment><USER22> It leads to undefined behavior in safe code in the general case.

We may add a wrapping type, similar to what we do for integer behavior. But in general, adding flags to change major behavior is not something we do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is an extremely clear article and apparently well-executed experiment.

</comment><comment><USER29> Excellent

</comment><comment><USER29> Supper</comment>


Ask HN: iPhone App Developers? - <AUTHOR>

Hey Everyone,
I'm UI designer/Beginner Rails guy, looking to build an iPhone app.
I have a pretty good idea for the app and I'm wondering if there are any developers out there looking to partner up 50/50.
Its a financial based app - and the domain name is going to be Costli.com
If you're interested shoot me an e-mail and I'll give you all the details (you can find my e-mail address in my profile).
Also, if anyone knows of any good iphone dev groups/firms, I'd love to know about em!
Thanks! <comment><USER2> there's alot of places to outsource your iphone app development. Honestly, I would just get the app sourced, its alot cheaper.

After you get started, you can hire a programmer for <1% equity + salary. I'd be happy to send you to a few iphone developers.

-Chris

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Chris,

Thanks for the response - I'd love if you could forward over the info?

Best, Elliot

<comment><USER3> If you decide to go this route, I'd build it for you. More about me in my profile.</comment></comment></comment>


An Empire At Risk - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/id/224694

<comment><USER2> America's priorities, on the whole, have shifted in recent decades from embracing risk and ingenuity to seeking safety and security at any cost. For much of the population, education is less important than faith, and "freedom" has been twisted perversely into something that actually means "safety".

Those trends began America's downfall as an empire. It was inevitable, all empires come to an end eventually, supplanted by a new one, full of people willing to explore and take great risks.

<comment><USER3> "For much of the population, education is less important than faith, and "freedom" has been twisted perversely into something that actually means "safety"."

Spot on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It seems like ever since Obama was elected, the three things Newsweek complains about most are the Iraq war, the death of civil liberties, and the fact that fiat money is about to destroy the American empire by making the dollar worthless.

If only there were some presidential candidate who had those as his top three issues before the election, I'm sure Newsweek would have been 100% behind him.

/sarcasm

<comment><USER2> I assume you're talking about Ron Paul.

Much of what Ron Paul said sounds great to armchair economists, armchair social scientists, armchair international political scientists, and so on. Nearly all of his proposals were simple solutions to exceedingly complex problems, and in practice, complex problems more often require complex solutions.

(Disclaimer: I liked Ron Paul a whole lot during the early stages of the primaries, but on later reflection concluded that an RP presidency more likely would have been disastrous.)

<comment><USER5> A Ron Paul presidency would have economically hurt people who make money by relying on the government to enforce anti-market policies. For example, the military spends a lot of money maintaining troops throughout the world. If troop levels were reduced and bases closed, a lot of the people involved, especially military contractors, would suffer, at least until they could find a way to serve private interests.

Also, banks that rely on the ability to create fiat money that the government forces people to use would suffer as people begin to use hard currency.

Also, a lot of government employees would have to transition to private employment.

Since a lot of people are employed by the government, banks, and the military, RP-style changes in these sectors would create a lot of tumult. But this would be temporary until people readjust. The end result would be a richer society because more people would be employed privately and resources would be better distributed. Society would also be more free, which is a quality worth having even if there were no economic benefits.

<comment><USER6> Assuming that by "hard" currency you mean a gold standard or something similar, I'd suspect you've not thought your cunning plan all the way through. I've commented before on the problems with gold, and they generalize to many other things which are proposed to back "hard" currencies:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=629390>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> In one page <http://www.newsweek.com/id/224694/output/print></comment>


Offer HN: get the perfect elevator pitch, free of charge - <AUTHOR>

I recently started a site that creates elevator pitches for startups. I've already gotten a few customers and everything is going well. Here's the link:
http://www.pitchremix.com/
One point of feedback I've gotten is the lack of social proof / testimonials. So, in an effort to improve my site, I'm offering free elevator pitch consulting (to the first 5 people to contact me.) The site explains how it works.
All that I ask in return: when you're satisfied with your pitch, you write a 2-3 sentence testimonial, and let me feature it on the site. This is extra marketing for your site too.
If you're interested, email me at email@example.com with answers to the 4 questions below. Thanks!
<comment>--
- Describe your company, or post a link to your website.
- How big is your market? If you have competitors, why are you better than them?
- What are some impressive metrics about your company? (If you have any). For example, how many users you have, or your total revenue so far.
- Why are you (or your team) perfect for this startup? </comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://www.pitchremix.com/>

</comment><comment><USER2> I'm missing or not seeing on pitchremix who you are and why you are qualified to do this consulting. Obviously that should be on the site.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the heads up. I recently edited out a lot of the text on the site, and must have forgotten to put that back in. (Site's still in construction- mode).

I personally run another business and pitch it to clients all the time. (Nomvilla.com). I've also pitched clients in person and investors at university events, startup events, etc.

In general though, think of this more as an editing service. You'll know more about your business and the people you're pitching to than we can; our job is to help you communicate your message clearly and effectively.

(That's also why I'm offering free services - to get some more experience and social proof)

<comment><USER2> By "university events" I'm assuming you are a student.

Even if that is the case you should reveal more publicly who you are (fn,ln). You are selling a personal service and people will want to know who they are dealing with. You are selling yourself. Even if "yourself" is just starting out.

(Separately you should also get pitchrejig.com and if at all possible remove the whois privacy on your domains some of us check things like that..)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. I'll think about adding my name somewhere on the site, and turning off whois privacy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Most of the information that you are asking on your website is part of the elevator pitch. By answering those questions the user will pretty much create the pitch themselves.

<comment><AUTHOR> Right, but the point of an elevator pitch is to have a polished, 30-second-or- less summary of what you do.

Filling out the questions with any level of detail will get you way over 30 seconds, and it'll probably be poorly organized and unclear. Our job is to take your description of the business and distill it down into an effective pitch.</comment></comment>


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Raising Multilingual Children - <AUTHOR> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/radioStories/2003/02/11/frequentlyAskedQuestionsfaqAboutRaisingMultilingualChildren.html

<comment><USER2> The author's individual experience is interesting but hardly an authoritative basis for a FAQ on this topic. See Judith Rich Harris' book "The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, Revised and Updated" for an informed explanation of language acquisition in a multi-language environment.</comment>


Last.fm launches crowdsourcing experiment for tempo (BPM) detection - <AUTHOR> http://blog.last.fm/2011/05/12/slow-or-fast-please-lend-us-your-ears

<comment><USER2> "We've built a very simple application on our labs website where you can listen to music and help us _improve the state of the art_ in tempo estimation."

No. We are giving you data that you use to improve _your_ tempo estimation algorithm. If you wanted to improve the state of the art, you would _share_ the data you collect.

In particular, you note the MIREX competition (<http://www.music- ir.org/mirex>) earlier in your post. Share your data with the MIREX competition, and make it open for use by others, if you want to improve the state of the art.

<comment><AUTHOR> Don't worry, we _do_ intend to share the data publically once it's all in.

<comment><USER3> given that there is no stated end date to this experiment, when exactly will you post the data? ("once it's all in" doesn't say anything).

will you post all of the data (in its original, unadulterated form) collected for free, unrestricted download by anyone for any purpose, including competing with last.fm?

intending to share, and actually making a public promise to do so, are quite different things.

<comment><AUTHOR> The exact details are out of my hands -- I'm just a tech guy -- but we're active members of the music information retrieval community and always have been.

No-one even knows if it's _possible_ to crowdsource good enough BPM data like this yet, so even demonstrating that it's feasible would be progress :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I sampled enough of the songs to get about 500 points(20-30 minutes) and they really need to increase the variety of samples. Most of the stuff was older pop hits (50's pop), some country, 1 rock song (Disturbed - Ten thousand fists), and a couple of old rap songs.

I'm used to listening to metal, industrial, hardstyle, house, etc. All my answers are going to be biased towards slow because even though the song may be at 120bpm it still feels slow to someone who normally listens to things closer to the 150-200bpm range.

A better sample to test will produce better results.

<comment><USER5> I haven't done the test, since I'm at work, but not having any concrete evidence never stopped me from having an opinion.

It may be that their algorithm is good enough to find highly-periodic "pulses" that are candidates to be considered as a beat. However, believe it or not, the beat is really a matter of individual perception (although people agree in many/most cases).

To me, this is most obvious in music typical of the "power metal" genre. This music frequently is annotated as "double-time feel", and its drumming alone would tend to indicate a beat twice as fast as what would be indicated if you concentrate on the vocals and other instruments. Thus you've got an ambiguity.

Training it so that it can decide whether people tend to perceive the doubled beat or the slower one might be what they're after.

Also, it's common in progressive rock and progressive metal to have frequent changes in time signature. When the beat is _changing_ , what do you say the beat is? They might also be looking for a way to make this choice.

Of course, the genres of music that you mentioned tend not to have those kinds of variations, so maybe I'm just blowing smoke.

<comment><USER6> It would also be interesting to see if people can tell apart very close BPM difference. Like if you play a song that is 110 BPM and then one that is 120 BPM, and and someone can reliably say which is faster, then your actual beat measuring becomes a lot less important. You can just build off a bunch of known values and have everything else relative to that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Even with the app it seems really hard to find the beat. It's really easy to find the bass hit though, so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the tempos are off by 1/2 or 1/4.

<comment><USER5> Yes, definitely. That's part of what I was getting at with my reply elsewhere in this thread (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2540866> ). The _perceived_ beat can actually be different depending on who is listening, and what they're focusing on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> That's pretty nifty. Something to do when you're bored.</comment>


[Russian Internet censorship] I'm fed up with Roskomnadzor - <AUTHOR> https://pastebin.com/Etp2TNBi <comment><AUTHOR> In a diversion from my usual topic, I wrote a post about how a group of mental health activists were detained today in Moscow: [https://pastebin.com/Df9AV2Hf](https://pastebin.com/Df9AV2Hf)

They were a bunch of diverse people, but I really wanted to draw attention to the problem of discrimination in Russia here.

</comment><comment><USER4> Any verification of this? I've googled a little and I've found one or two news articles alluding to it, including meduza.io[0] one in the pastebin.

[0] [https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/04/17/russia-s-federal- censor...](https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/04/17/russia-s-federal-censor- blocks-millions-of-ip-addresses-in-crackdown-on-telegram-disrupting-internet- services-across-the-country)

<comment><USER5> I can vouch since I live here too (sadly), there are barely any news of this worldwide and even internally, but consumer-wise it is complete shitfest - <USER2> is blocked, part of Google is blocked; amazon, akamai, digitalocean - <USER3> blocked and the pool of blocked addresses grows every day.

<comment><AUTHOR> And they almost blocked Google's push services. As of now, they appear to have reverted to point bans, and unbanned almost 3 million of Amazon's addresses.

But some 17 million (!!) is still banned.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I calmed down a little, had the time to explain what really happened, so here's this post. It's a bit long but a lot more structured and detailed this time.

[https://pastebin.com/8RuRyVQT](https://pastebin.com/8RuRyVQT)</comment>


Ask HN: What is the best AI powered product demo you have experienced? - <AUTHOR> Looking for something where the Value of the Product is shown in real time like Grammarly's Text correction. <comment><USER2> Tacotron 2 text-to-audio samples:

[https://google.github.io/tacotron/publications/tacotron2/ind...](https://google.github.io/tacotron/publications/tacotron2/index.html)

Blog post: [https://research.googleblog.com/2017/12/tacotron-2-generatin...](https://research.googleblog.com/2017/12/tacotron-2-generating- human-like-speech.html) Paper: [https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05884](https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05884)

<comment><USER3> GitHub GIT or it doesn't exist ;)

<comment><USER4> Nope! It is available at: [https://github.com/google/tacotron](https://github.com/google/tacotron)

Check it out.

<comment><USER5> That github is the audio files, not code or models.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The latest US presidential election.

<comment><USER7> I know it was artificial - but where was the intelligence?

<comment><USER8> Clinton spent 1.2 _billion_ Dollars in her campaign. Trump spent 30% of that.

Take that as you please.

<comment><USER7> Sure - Trump's allies, domestic and foreign, used Facebook to game the elections, at a bargain price. Smart weapons for a brave new world.

<comment><USER9> What does "game the election" means? What was the purpose of $1.2B that Hillary spent?

Advertising in tv is fine but on fb it is gaming the system??

<comment><USER7> [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war- whistl...](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war- whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump) is good (a bit long..) and [http://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/how- facebook...](http://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/how-facebook- data-helped-trump-win-over-voters) has a great quote that sums it up..

>The output was put to work in what Mr Nix called "behavioural micro- targeting" and "psychographic messaging".

Instead of creating broad messages to talk to the voters in bulk - they could create micro-campaigns that could target particular voters and push their buttons (and that might have raised flags done publicly). Sometime this meant influencing someone borderline towards Trump. Sometimes this meant targeting Clinton supporters in swing-state to influence them not to vote ([https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/27/13434246/donald-trump- ta...](https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/27/13434246/donald-trump-targeted- dark-facebook-ads-black-voters))

This adds up to a far more weaponized media than traditional advertising could be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There was a project [1] on synthesizing photo-realistic textures from labels of an image. There are actually a lot of these projects (Pix2Pix [2] is another famous one) but the thing that made it memorable is one of their demo application.

They took a video of GTA (a car driving game) and reskinned to be photo- realistic and I couldn't even tell that it was an ingame footage instead of a real car driving through a city: [https://youtu.be/0fhUJT21-bs?t=124](https://youtu.be/0fhUJT21-bs?t=124)

[1] [http://cqf.io/ImageSynthesis/](http://cqf.io/ImageSynthesis/) or [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfKrtQur3Lw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfKrtQur3Lw) [2] [https://affinelayer.com/pixsrv/](https://affinelayer.com/pixsrv/)

</comment><comment><USER11> [http://densepose.org/](http://densepose.org/) Which can extract the surface of the human body in real time.

<comment><USER12> Shameless plug, I used it in a human tracking video camera. [https://github.com/GistNoesis/Linn- Photobooth](https://github.com/GistNoesis/Linn-Photobooth) It's actually kind of scary once you realize how hard it is to escape being tracked. It's even more scary once you realize that it can be done by any geek as a week-end project. Just mod it with an AR15, and you have your own Portal turret.

Edit: I misread densepose for deeppose which my project use. Will give densepose a try.

<comment><USER13> Let us know how it goes?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> WordLens blew me away when it launched in 2010 (now part of Google Translate). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_Lens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_Lens)

<comment><USER10> I thought augmented reality with mobile camera was going to take off after seeing that demo. But 8 years later, all we have are snapchat filters (and pokemon go for a brief few weeks).

Hopefully ARKit/ARCore will make it easier to create the next the-future-is- now level of awe-inspiration app.

<comment><USER15> Pokemon Go still has millions of active daily players, more than many games that have e-sports tournaments. It's in active development. New features are added all the time. Sorry it's not for you, but pretending that it was a flash in the pan is just ignorant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> [https://www.deepl.com/translator](https://www.deepl.com/translator)

<comment><USER17> I just tried the french to english. It's better than google translate but not that good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This site uses AI to enhance your low-res photos: [https://letsenhance.io/](https://letsenhance.io/)

</comment><comment><USER19> Google photos

Face and object recognition helped me quite a lot in finding old photos.

</comment><comment><USER20> Microsoft's Skype Real Time Language Translation (2014)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuAp92wW9bg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuAp92wW9bg)

</comment><comment><USER21> Cozmo [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHY5kpGTsDE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHY5kpGTsDE)

<comment><USER22> I personally think the impressive part of cozmo comes from interaction and design, rather than AI.

<comment><USER21> True, it's a union of all these different fields coming together, might not be the best AI toy out there, but it's definitely something we can buy for a reasonable price. Imagine the kids growing up with such toys, they know how machines learn, it becomes part of their growing up process..

<comment><USER22> That is a very interesting idea, how kids interact with AI toys in the long term. I remember when I was little parents alway complain how children would abandon their new toys after a few days. Making a new generation of toy that keep kids interested with AI seems really important for toy companies.

<comment><USER21> Hopefully they end up more intimate and well informed when it comes to tech than us when they grow up :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> DuckDuckGo and Google Search probably.

</comment><comment><USER24> I recently found this one, Deepomatic: [https://www.deepomatic.com/](https://www.deepomatic.com/)

Nice background videos showing some demonstrations of video analysis and detection for safety or other application.

</comment><comment><USER25> Spotify daily mixes

<comment><USER26> would you care to elaborate on what parts of Discover that are powered by AI?

In all honesty, I think the lines are severely blurred at this point.

<comment><USER27> AI has been a moving goalpost since its conception, all the way from

• "it can play tic tac toe";

• to "it can beat people at chess, Jeopardy, Go, DotA";

• to "it can see, understand and physically move around our world";

• to "it solves problems the smartest humans can't begin to fathom"

Spotify's machine learning algorithms are definitely beyond tic tac toe as they can learn from millions of listeners and look at a single listening history to figure out great music suggestions. I would put that under the AI umbrella as it's something people were doing before computers did it.

<comment><USER28> Is that AI from spotify or just smartly compairing lists?

<comment><USER27> What is "smartly comparing lists"? To describe further (as I'm an ex-Spotify employee I have some outdated insight into how it works):

Spotify has historically used machine learning to tweak a predictive engine that can convert a track or artist into an N-dimensional value and then use the distance to other tracks/artists in this N-dimensional space.

Is that AI? Maybe. How does the brain work? Maybe when you see a dog it's converted into an N-dimensional space where cats are pretty close, at least much closer than turtles. So if that is human intelligence, is Spotify's recommendation engine not artificial intelligence?

<comment><USER29> Thanks for the insight, very interesting!

I'm working on project that uses distances in N-dimensional space for determining appropriate human response and face expression; I was also wandering if this falls under AI umbrella.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> The fastest and most accurate way to track time for teams. Automatic time tracking helps you never forget what you worked on. Smart resource scheduling assures everyone's time is utilized. Powerful reporting helps you identify opportunities to improve productivity. The product is "Timely" follow on [https://www.besanttechnologies.com/training-courses/data- war...](https://www.besanttechnologies.com/training-courses/data-warehousing- training/big-data-analytics-training-institute-in-chennai)

</comment><comment><USER31> Eliza

<comment><USER32> This might seem like a flippant comment but for me working in a computer museum watching the way visitors interacted with eliza was fascinating. theres something about how well-crafted responses can charm if used in the right way that some more complicated AI such as alexa seem to lack so far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I'm still impressed by Facebook's LotR demo. Anyone know of further advances in the area of reading comprehension via LSTM?

[https://www.facebook.com/FBAIResearch/posts/362517620591864](https://www.facebook.com/FBAIResearch/posts/362517620591864)

Another impressive example was a Microsoft presentation where a computer would recognize objects in a video in real time and label them, {dog, sun, freebee}

</comment><comment><USER34> I might be biased, but I think Pinterest Lens (visual search) is pretty cool. This is a semi-technical write up with a couple of example gifs: [https://medium.com/@Pinterest_Engineering/introducing-the- fu...](https://medium.com/@Pinterest_Engineering/introducing-the-future-of- visual-discovery-on-pinterest-48fb469b0d67)

</comment><comment><USER35> [https://experiments.withgoogle.com/ai/teachable- machine](https://experiments.withgoogle.com/ai/teachable-machine)

The teachable machine from Google is a great little experiment.

</comment><comment><USER36> Chat bots where it's impossible to tell if it's a human or not.

<comment><USER37> Please provide example URLs (or these don't exist?-).

<comment><USER36> They used to be popular like 10+ years ago, so I don't remember the URL, There's a test called "turing test". I've a vague memory that the bot I tested was called Alice. I tried Google but got flooded with crap. It seems the market has been monetized, the bots I tested 10 years ago where much more impressive then what I can find now. They learned by talking to real humans so it's possible that the public ones have been abused in order to get them to say nasty things.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Google search, translation?

</comment><comment><USER39> Magic!

[https://getmagic.com/](https://getmagic.com/)

It's truly universal; its applications encompass most of the other examples I've seen posted here.

<comment><USER40> > Is Magic a bot or AI? > No, Magic is not AI. Each request is handled by a > trained personal assistant.

<comment><USER41> Wouldn't be surprised in 2040 to see "Humans compete against AI by charging lower fees"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Ambient.ai has a very demonstrative landing page. [https://ambient.ai](https://ambient.ai)

<comment><USER43> There's an object detection library (YOLO[1]) freely available that achieves similar bounding boxes/matches to ambient's homepage demo; Joseph Redmon also gave a TedX[2] about it that describes some of the technical details.

[1]: [https://pjreddie.com/darknet/yolo/](https://pjreddie.com/darknet/yolo/)

[2]: [https://www.ted.com/talks/joseph_redmon_how_a_computer_learn...](https://www.ted.com/talks/joseph_redmon_how_a_computer_learns_to_recognize_objects_instantly)

<comment><USER44> I just saw the YOLO stuff in action at AWS Summit and it was _epic_. Super fast and really really awesome.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Facebook's newsfeed is basically a superimpressive AI that learns from what people click and maximizes ad revenue from that.

<comment><USER46> That same AI drove me away. I subscribe to 3 hobby-related groups and because virtually all of my family and friends no longer post anything on Facebook, I only ever see content related to that hobby.

<comment><USER47> If that description is honest, why do you blame the algorithm for selecting hobby-related content from a set of inputs that only contains hobby-related content? That's like buying a football magazine, then complaining that it's only football, football, football in there.

<comment><USER48> The point is, he wasn't buying a football, he was online to connect with friends and family.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> +1 for Google Translate - Word Lens replace - it's amazing when it can naturally replace the word with the translation

</comment><comment><USER50> "Ok Google. Dial the phone number for the Hoboken police department."

Google Assistant: "Ok. dialing."

</comment><comment><USER51> Both siri and google assistant are very good AI's, but there is lot to explore in the industry of AI.

</comment><comment><USER52> Not Hotdog app

<comment><USER21> Motherfuck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> Google translate.

</comment><comment><USER18> Silly Siri</comment>


Einstein's Desk the Day He Passed Away - <AUTHOR> http://newhive.com/philco/einstein-s-desk

<comment><USER2> Oh L@@K! To the left of the humidor, we see a straight billard briar, with a makeshift DIY(`EDIH') tube stem! Today he'd prefer BIC(tm) ballpoint's durably chewable breakthrough white trade secret high-polymer cylinders. His office is certainly more interesting and inviting than keyboards and laptops.</comment>


Peter Thiel's CS183: Startup - Class 15 Notes Essay - <AUTHOR> http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/24122680868/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-15-notes-essay <comment><USER2> I wish stuff like this was taught in engineering classes when I was an undergraduate. Technical education with a high level perspective and vision of the future.</comment>


Is First-Mover Advantage a Myth? (with graphs) - <AUTHOR> http://savemefrombschool.com/2010/02/is-first-mover-advantage-a-myth-with-graphs/

<comment><USER2> I know one of the guys from Dell's early days (he was in charge of DOS and Windows 3.1) ... he said their strategy was to definitely NOT be "first mover" ; instead they focused on being "fast follower", as soon as a technology was starting to gain adoption in the marketplace Dell would try to come out with an offering for it.

This may not work in all cases, but it sure worked for Dell...

</comment><comment><USER3> A good article, but not a new theory.

Two schools of thought regarding optimal competitive strategy:

(1) "Traditional" economic input/output model: first-mover is a definite advantage, especially if being "first to market" allows a company to put up barriers to entry (or to influence any of the other "five forces") in the traditional economic model. Example would be patenting new technology.

(2) "Hypercompetitive" model: becoming more apparent in the digital age, and especially pertainent to web-only companies. Rather than "reacting" to moves of competitors, firms in a hypercompetitive market must predict and prepare for competitive moves from their rivals.

<comment><AUTHOR> So then, given the current state of software patents (seems like they're difficult to attain and even more difficult to defend) how are you supposed to put up barriers to entry as a consumer web company? Are there examples of web/internet companies in the last 5-10 years that have succeeded by following #1?

<comment><USER3> There's a difference between "first mover" and "first to market". First movers enter a market space first. First to market means that a company has launched an actual product within that market space. Startups all the time get funded with "just an idea," and even generate "buzz" or whatnot, but the real winners tend to be those who have their niche well-planned enough to effectively utilize those traditional market-force "forces" to their advantage. There are five of them: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_forces>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's true, there are no first mover advantages on the web anymore. If you have an idea that doesn't exist already, it's probably for a seriously good reason or it does exist somewhere and is performing poorly enough that you can't even find it after browsing 10 pages deep on a keyword search. What i learned from Ben Horrowitz, was that you need to find something that does work and has current market share (and market size), and make it 10x better. Making things 10x better and going after a defined market is the way to go. Forget the trending discussions of 1995-2005 that consisted of 'finding web concepts that no one had hacked up yet'.

</comment><comment><USER5> Interesting theory, quite plausible in the web industry because everything moves so fast, as well as almost no barriers to competitive entry.

Luck is so much a factor in timing.</comment>


Wikileaks Accidentally Released Dangerous Unredacted Cables - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5835410/wikileaks-accidentally-released-dangerous-unredacted-cables

<comment><USER2> > It's virtually guaranteeing that sources and informants and their families > will be killed and tortured, and have to flee their home countries.

Uhuh. I remember hearing the same things about all the previous Wikileaks. What do you want to bet that we can check back in 6 months and there won't be any reported deaths due to this one either?

</comment><comment><USER3> So it looks like the file is the unredacted diplomatic cables (cablegate), not the insurance file

<https://twitter.com/#!/wikileaks/status/108251897961517056>

Where was it leaked to, has anyone seen this file in the wild? I don't see it on torrent sites.</comment>


Vutool: Stealth Startup of a "Google Earth" from the ground level - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/28/whispers-about-stealth-startup-vutool/ <comment><USER2> Sebastian Thrun is a rockstar in the AI world. He's the guy that won the DARPA Grand Challenge. I got to see him speak at a conference last year. It only strikes me odd that he would found a company doing non-AI stuff.

Ah, maybe this is his first step towards a self-driven car revolution: to drive autonomously through cities, it's helpful to have a map. And a 3-d immersive map is better than a 2-d one.

</comment><comment> A-Merchant FYI this was submitted 6 hours earlier here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=6850>

<comment><AUTHOR> I noticed that too after I submitted. But when you click on their link it doesn't go to the techcrunch article.</comment></comment>