Where are all the high-resolution desktop displays? - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/computing/130605-where-are-all-the-high-resolution-desktop-displays

<comment><USER2> I current use three 3840x2160 monitors (4K displays) (55" each) which in my opinion is a huge upgrade to my previous six 30" Apple cinema display configuration.

I got mine from IDT (<http://toshibadisplays.com>) for around 30k USD each a couple years ago. I think they might be considerably less now especially with the new 32" 4K displays coming out in 2013.

The resolution is split so every display is basically 1920x2160 x2. The hard part is driving these since each one is considered two monitors by the host OS. I use a Quadro Plex 7000 to power two of them and just use my third one with Synergy on a second machine.

Nvidia has a tool called Mosiac which allows you to turn the screens into one big screen. I also think the ATI Eyeinfinity cards are an option but I personally never tried those.

<comment><USER3> I, too, would like to learn more about a) why you are using such a setup, and b) how having so much screen real estate affects how you work.

<comment><USER2> I consider my line of work a general technologist. I find I have to consume huge amounts of information so I can advise the people I work with. Though for programming or reverse engineering its amazing. I love the fact I can run Visual Studio on one screen and still have the ability to have WinDbg and IDA Pro as well as the app I am working on all running and visible as well as keep whatever dashboards open at the same time. I also like to have at least one Linux virtual machine open simply because I prefer Linux for quick tasks so I always have a terminal open and ready to go (VMs really are awesome for compartmentalizing but its a whole another topic).

Its really hard to describe the effect of this size of screen and resolution. You can consume information at a much faster and natural rate as compared to a smaller display that is high resolution (ie: a 2880x1800 retina). I think your brain has to use extra processing power to scale the fonts up or something or maybe the patterns your brain uses to build the letters and words just work better when its clearly visible without any thinking. Who knows... I just know it increases my productivity leaps and bounds.

I figure for something that I spend over a third of my life in front of I want them to make me as efficient as possible. Some people like to buy cars. I like to buy things to be more efficient and these monitors help me do this.

BTW, All of these mount nicely on a geek desk without the top (the smaller of the two versions they sell). They just fit perfectly. So I use four Geek desks.. 3 for the monitors and one in the center. If you want an amazing desk setup that is the way to do it. That way you can sit or stand when you work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Because the demand for HiDPI desktop displays isn't there yet. You would buy one, and so would I, but overall they wouldn't sell much, compared to the standard 1080p panels. We have to wait another year until Apple introduces Retina iMacs, tells everybody how awesome they are and why people absolutely need Retina displays. Then suddenly there will be steep increase in the demand of HiDPI panels, and a few month later every manufaturer starts offering them. If I learned anything the last few years, it's that's how it works.

<comment><USER5> So, we all agree that "Retina" displays are better? The problem is that it won't become popular until a company, which tends to be Apple, comes along with the right marketing so the average consumer feels the need to spend the extra money on the technology. Personally, I wouldn't mind if Microsoft joined in and promoted HiDPI, for example, with Windows 8.

Apple introduced USB in the later 90's. It took forever before the PC industry adopted it. I don't think anyone has to pay licensing fees for Thunderbolt connectors. How long do we have to wait before every PC ships with a port?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Also, bring back 16:10! Stop putting 1366x768 screens on laptops that are 14, 15 and even 17 inches and saying it's HD! Get off my lawn!

<comment><USER7> 16:10? Let's just go all the way - 16:12!

<comment><USER8> I see what you did there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Where are all the high resolution desktop displays? They are stuck in the 90s. Back then I had a 21" CRT that could run at something like 2400x1800. Not all the way to retina but still in a different league than todays screens. It could also run at something like 120Hz refresh rate, but then you had to turn down the resolution to more like 1280x1024.

<comment><USER10> exactly. I loved those displays, running at at least 90Hz. That in a dual moitor setup was hard on your desk becasue of the weight, but awesome for programming. Being so used to the vast amount of vertical space, I felt sort of let down by the 'now let's make all widescreen displays' movement. 1080 pixels vertically really doesn't do it for me. But maybe it's just me? Sometimes I see people programming, with the editor taking up only half of the screen and the rest all IDE windows and toolbars and whatnot. That's like 15 lines of code on one screen. I don't get it.

<comment><USER11> Yep, this is why I try to avoid IDEs whenever I can. The best "IDE" is Vim running in Screen in urxvt.

<comment><USER10> I hope that is not the sole reason you avoid IDE's? Cause any decent IDE can be configured to behave properly and get out of your way on the screen. The example I gave was just to clarify that apparently some people do not seem to bother about vertical space (or don't know any better)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Also; there's been an international LCD price fixing conspiracy,

That... makes the most sense compared to the other arguments [http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/november/lcd-price- fixi...](http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/november/lcd-price-fixing- conspiracy/lcd-price-fixing-conspiracy)

</comment><comment><USER7> This is old, and includes an update mentioning Apple's Retina Macbook Pro, introduced after the article was published.

I think a better question is why nobody else is offering high-res panels on laptops. The Nexus 10 tablet has more pixels than any non-Apple laptop ever produced.

<comment><USER13> I just bought a $500 laptop for my father and was surprised at how laptop displays haven't gotten much better since I last shopped over 3 years ago. They're all x768, even on 15.6" notebooks. The pixels are easily noticeable on the 15" Samsung I bought for him. I would have thought displays improved over all these years, even on low end laptops, but I guess other than the shift to LED-lit screens a few years ago, not much else has happened outside of MacBooks and some Ultrabooks.

<comment><USER14> At 500$ I wouldn't be surprised at all. Did you read the article? That's just 200$ over the _manufacturing_ cost of a retina iphone. I'm rather surprised that lenovos retailed at 2500$ are still stuck at low resolutions - and they still have quality control issues like overheating GPUs. People that call out rMBPs as expensive clearly don't get what they're about, there are simply no comparable alternatives at that price point.

Note: Other points critizised such as repairability are very valid however.

<comment><USER8> Its a good strategy, make the best first impression and the best of everything visible.

Repairability and upgrade costs are hard to SEE at purchase.

<comment><USER14> Well to be honest - was upgradeability ever a big deal with laptops? At least this time around they have offered sane maxed out Ram options, so those who know they'll need that in the future can buy it that way - which is what I did. Yes the 16GB option is expensive, but it's still a reasonable price for the value you get (a high chance of plus 2-3 years in lifetime since the build quality is very solid plus the comforting feeling to never care about Ram - fire up your VMs as you like).

<comment><USER7> _Well to be honest - was upgradeability ever a big deal with laptops?_

For most people, I imagine not.

I have upgraded the RAM in every laptop I've owned in the past decade, and either upgraded the hard drive, or moved an old one over in most. In my current laptop, I also upgraded the motherboard to one that wasn't quite intended to work so that I could have a UXGA IPS panel and 8GB of RAM in the same machine. I also upgraded the CPU on that board, and will upgrade to a QXGA panel if I can find a good price.

I'm not sure I'd care much about upgradeability if I was selling laptops, but it matters a great deal to me when I'm buying them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm quite pleased with the el cheapo 2560x1440 Korean 27" IPS panel I bought on eBay a few months back. Set me back less than $300 including shipping to Europe.

It's nowhere near the pixel density of the small devices of course, but it's quite adequate for my use.

</comment><comment><USER16> Typing this on a 27" 2560×1440 I don't see myself needing much more.

Text remains crisp down to sizes much smaller than what I can comfortably read at a normal viewing distance, so there's little I could do with even more pixel estate.

That is not to say that I wouldn't _like_ a display with even higher resolution, but the returns diminish really rapidly from here.

I'm definitely looking forward more to panels improving on other metrics such as contrast, color reproduction and viewing angles (IPS glow).

</comment><comment><USER17> If monitors are stuck at 2560x1600 forever because it's "good enough", I'm going to be very disappointed. I'm sure I'm not the only one who sits 10 inches away from his screen.

<comment><USER18> I don't think you'll need to worry about that. At least a couple manufacturers are working on 4k (3840x2160) monitors. The most promising one I've seen is Sharp's PN-K321, expected to be about $5500 when it comes out [1].

[1] [http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/27/sharp-pn-k321-4k-igzo- lcd...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/27/sharp-pn-k321-4k-igzo-lcd-monitor/)

<comment><USER19> Why are 4k monitors and TV's so much more expensive than 1080p ones? If it's priced per pixel, they still should be only around 4x more expensive, but the current prices are much higher. I mean we're even seeing 10" 2560x1600 (2x the pixels) very high quality IPS displays in sub $500 devices, where the 10" display itself is probably $100 at most. So what's going on? Is it just the "rip off the earlier adopter with a 10x-the-cost price tag" strategy at play here?

<comment><USER20> It's not as simple as charging per pixel. First of all, raising the resolution that high is still fairly new compared to 1080p. Lots of screens are going to come out not 100% perfect. See Catleap as evidence that lots of panels come out with defects even at non-4k resolution.

Second of all, because the screens are harder to make and prices are high because of that, adoption is lower too. With lower adoption comes lower economies of scale which mean higher prices again. So two factors at least that push prices up.

We won't see low prices until they can improve the manufacturing process enough to drop the price, which will increase adoption, which will drop the price, which will increase adoption, etc..

<comment><USER8> Good point 4x the pixels = 4x more defective pixels, given the same manufacturing.

<comment><USER21> Given that we're talking about components where more precision is needed, the odds of a defect aren't necessarily the same either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Prices are insane because monitor manufacturers are the scum of the earth. They are constantly getting in trouble for price fixing.

It's ridiculous that in today's day and age we still have inferior monitors compared to the mid/late 90s. The korean 27" S-IPS 1440 monitors are $275-300ish US.</comment>


OSX Dock in CSS3 - <AUTHOR> http://michaelhue.com/cssdock/#dock-addressbook

<comment><USER2> I would not call this an OSX Dock; at most it is a Dock that is remotely inspired by the one in OS X. The transitions are really different (Mac OS X uses more of a fish-eye zoom). Nonetheless cool that this works using only CSS :)

edit: I now read that Chrome doesn't handle it that well on Windows (which is currently all I have access to). Maybe it's me :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Very nice, I wonder if there is a way to keep the base plate the icons sit on a consistent size? It appears to grow and shrink as I mouse over them...

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm pretty sure that's how the OSX dock functions as well when the magnification option is toggled.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The transitions aren't smooth. I don't know if CSS3 can do that. JS certainly can when you sprinkle some jQuery love on it.

</comment><comment><USER5> A few scroll-overs get my Safari (Mac) pumping. Worse than flash.</comment>


A machine to replace fast food burger flippers - <AUTHOR> http://momentummachines.com/ <comment><USER2> I've predicted this for years. Now automate the ordering and delivery. Imagine a drive-up fast-food joint with no people inside at all! Just swipe your card, get a history of your orders and today's specials, speak or touch and drive up to the chute to get your hot, custom burger and fries!

Talk about social impact is inevitable. I would just mention that far more people are affected by timely safe food preparation, than are 'put out of a job'. Maybe 10X?

</comment><comment><USER3> For mass production of burgers, restaurants will also benefit from the consistency in toppings.

Tough to believe, but places that sell a LOT of burgers have to calculate how many slices they get out of a tomato and how many tomatoes go on each burger. But the people making the burgers are not as consistent. This all comes into effect in ordering and budgeting which won't be as much of an issue if a machine is doing the work.

I've never had to do it, but a friend ran the food ordering for a large group of restaurants that sold millions of burgers a year, and it was there job to figure out how many tomatoes to buy in a quarter.

</comment><comment><USER4> Fantastic! So I assume with this revolutionary advancement in human technology, all the burger flippers can retire comfortably now that machines can do their job for them. No?

<comment><USER5> Well to be fair to the company, I really like the "We want to help" bit at the bottom of their main page. Seeing that they had even just given that issue some thought gave me a very positive first impression of the company... But I still think it is somewhat naive to believe that all of this automation coming in the next 20 years is going to create more jobs just because it did during the first industrial revolution.</comment></comment>


Using Tensorflow to Recognize Saimaa Ringed Seals from Webcam - <AUTHOR> https://blog.emblica.fi/how-to-catch-the-saimaa-ringed-seal-7198d423e7f3 <comment><USER2> Here is a tutorial on the easiest way to run Tensorflow: [https://dcos.io/blog/2017/tutorial-deep-learning-with- tensor...](https://dcos.io/blog/2017/tutorial-deep-learning-with-tensorflow- nvidia-and-apache-mesos-dc-os-part-1/)

</comment><comment><USER3> In case anyone is watching, the live stream is over :( [0].

Twitter account is located here [1].

[0] [https://wwf.fi/en/norppalive/](https://wwf.fi/en/norppalive/)

[1] [https://twitter.com/NorppaVahti](https://twitter.com/NorppaVahti)

<comment><USER4> It was a good run while it lasted!

In case you guys have ideas for other similar ML/AI projects - we could take a look!

(shameless plug, I'm a partner at Emblica.fi)

<comment><USER3> Any idea where to find a database of birds? I've been kicking around with the idea of using transfer learning and then a database of bird images to fine tune a classifier to tell people what a bird they take a picture of is (EDIT, similar approach: [0]).

Would help with research. I know some people in finland that had participated in a crowdsourced census of birdlife in their area and thought it could be easier with an app that captures bird images and automatically classifies them (tells the user, I've often wondered what kind of bird something I've seen is) and provides the data to researchers.

I asked a friend of mine who works at a bird life charity if he knew of any data sets, but he didn't.

[0] [https://jeffxtang.github.io/deep/learning,/tensorflow,/mobil...](https://jeffxtang.github.io/deep/learning,/tensorflow,/mobile,/ai/2016/09/23/mobile- tensorflow.html)

<comment><USER5> Is this related to that xkcd where he calls that task virtually impossible?

<comment><USER6> [https://xkcd.com/1425/](https://xkcd.com/1425/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Does anyone know if there is any equivalent to a pre-trained network like Inception, but for text classification instead of image classification?

<comment><USER8> The closest is to use an LSTM with pretrained word embeddings like GloVe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'd love to see some sample code. I've tried something similar to detect the postman in my security camera stream, but failed over lots of small technical details.

Does anyone know a good tutorial on reinforcement learning that describes a practical application like this?

<comment><USER10> Yeah, the author of this article likely just followed these TensorFlow tutorials. You don't even have to touch code.

Follow this to retrain the Inception network: [https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/image_retraining](https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/image_retraining)

Follow this to run an image through your model for classification: [https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/image_recognition](https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/image_recognition)

<comment><AUTHOR> I wanted to try out different types of final layers (SVM, Logistic Reg.) so the direct example didn't suit very well for that kind of testing out. For starters that good though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> OP said the following about AI SaaS providers:

 _You are using a "ready" product and so everyone gets the updates to model but your own modifications for the model are impossible with current providers._

I think this may not be true about Azure. In Build conference this year, they demoed cognitive service APIs where one can use transfer learning techniques, and train models and use them.

<comment><AUTHOR> That sounds interesting, it's funny if you really can use their own models as base and do that. For the platform sake, Google offers also SaaS where you can train and evaluate your own models but then the base model is something you have to provide yourself

EDIT: I tried to google that up but couldn't find anything. Could you provide a link for that

<comment><USER12> I assume it's the following link: [https://azure.microsoft.com/en- us/services/cognitive-service...](https://azure.microsoft.com/en- us/services/cognitive-services/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm ok, yeah apparently you can leverage their API's and teach new labels for your own data.

[https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive- service...](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive- services/custom-vision-service/)

That is great and will definetly help with problems where your task isn't just to recognize cats and dogs the only downside is that you are giving your data away and it will also help your competitors.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


What Will Another Decade of Climate Crisis Bring? - <AUTHOR> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/13/what-will-another-decade-of-climate-crisis-bring <comment><USER2> Maybe crop yields will increase even more than they already have over the past couple decades (over 100%)? Maybe deaths from natural disasters will continue their decline from over 1 million people a year in the 1930s to less than 11,000 people last year? Maybe the third world will continue to modernize and bring more and more of humanity out of poverty? Maybe sea levels will continue to rise at a marginal 2-3mm a year?

<comment><USER3> Or maybe none of that will happen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Last decade we woke up to climate change. This one we will wake up to positive reinforcement. The warming is not even in all the world, is getting concentrated near the poles, where you have a lot of frozen buried/sunk methane ready to be released into the atmosphere.

If you think that things were going fast, wait till it press the accelerator.

</comment><comment><USER3> The basic assumption of conservative environmental policy is that the natural world is such that it is impossible for unregulated modern industry to change it in ways that in turn would be bad for the human race.</comment>


The leading cause of death in the US on Apr 6 was Covid-19 - <AUTHOR> https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1830480/ <comment><USER2> >> Disclaimer: COVID-19 data is the number of ACTUAL US deaths since March 15th, 2020 as reported on Worldometer against the backdrop of the EXTRAPOLATED DAILY number of deaths for top 15 causes of death in the US based on the latest (2018) data from the CDC. This chart is not meant to represent statistical analysis of any kind, it is meant for visual purposes only to help raise public awareness of the exponentially increasing COVID-19 deaths in the US

This is a really awful chart. The number of deaths from Covid-19 is animated as they increase day-by-day, but the numbers of deaths from all other causes remain constant. These numbers (the blue bars) are stated to be the "EXTRAPOLATED DAILY numbers of deaths from the top 15 causes of death in the US" (other than Covid-19), but if they are "DAILY" numbers, why aren't they changing _daily_?

The last sentence in the disclaimer is at least honest about it: this graph has no real information content. I for one find this graph to only serve the purpose of sensationalising a situation that is already dramatic enough without the need of animations and special effects. Really. The only thing missing is epic music in the background. Something from Carmina Burana, perhaps.

<comment><AUTHOR> The "extrapolated daily" seems to be a weird way of saying "on average". And I think it's reasonable enough to do, because I don't think this data exists at daily granularity, and even if it did the daily variation would not be particularly meaningful.

The chart's really only making a single point, which is that yesterday, more people in the US (probably) died of COVID than anything else. And the figures are likely to get worse before they get better.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Since the other causes of death remain static in this chart, its hard to tell if Covid-19 are new cases or "take away from other causes" (and by what percentage).

Would be interesting to see daily chart of Covid-19 deaths as % of total deaths and daily total deaths.

PS. Extra points - number of deaths due to lockdowns (suicides, unaccessible healthcare, etc)

<comment><USER4> Indeed, this is the key question, what are the number of excess deaths compared with this time last year. Are mortality statistics available to that sort of granularity and speed (e.g. "number of deaths registered last week") for any country or region in the world?

If you die of heart failure and happen to be covid infected (which is likely given how widespread it is) do you go down as a covid death rather than a heart failure?

<comment><USER4> > Are mortality statistics available to that sort of granularity and speed

To answer my own question, yes

[https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-all-cause- mo...](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-all-cause-mortality- surveillance-2019-to-2020)

I love gov.uk

Week 9 commences March 2nd (I'm assuming the weeks are the same as ISO weeks)

      Week | Total dead(E+W) | Covid (UK) | Excess mortality
      8  Feb24-Mar1 | 10,841 | 0    | ...
      9  Mar 2-8    | 10,816 | 3    | no
      10 Mar 9-15   | 10,895 | 32   | no
      11 Mar 16-22  | 11,019 | 300  | no
      12 Mar 23-29  | 10,645 | 1073 | no
      13 Mar30-Apr5 | n/a    | 3965 | yes -- England overall and 65+. not in Wales/Scotland/NI. Specific England regions - London, South East, E+W Midlands, North West

Note the graph showing the recent increase: [https://i.imgur.com/McBopJql.png](https://i.imgur.com/McBopJql.png)

The next weekly report is out tomorrow, which should have the total death figures for week 13.

It looks like in week 12 though, 10% of deaths in the UK were put down to COVID, but the total increase on the year before wasn't that high.

Next week will be englightening

Covid death figures from wikipedia.

GovUK also have this, hospital admissions. Look at the massive fall over the last few weeks.

[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877600/EDSSSBulletin2020wk13.pdf.pdf)

<comment><USER5> Ah great find. I was looking for UK hospital admissions data.

That's pretty shocking. Pneumonia and respiratory has hardly moved (where is the wave???) yet there's a huge fall in emergency cardiac patients. That's worrying. It implies people having heart attacks are choosing not to go to hospital fast enough, even though they could.

<comment><USER4> I'm assuming that half those attendances aren't because of heart attacks, but are to do with routine follow up appointments?

<comment><USER5> Isn't this data for emergency admissions only?

<comment><USER4> True, "Emergency departments"

[https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/369/bmj.m1406.full.pdf](https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/369/bmj.m1406.full.pdf)

People are ignoring stroke symptoms and failing to ring 999 because they fear being a burden on the NHS in England duringthe covid-19 pandemic, the national clinical director for stroke has warned. Deb Lowe, consultant stroke physician at Wirral University Teaching Hospital, said that doctors across the country were seeing "quite striking reductions" in the number of people coming into hospital with symptoms of stroke. She said, "It appears that people aren't seeking emergency help or going to hospital when they suspect a stroke, possibly due to fear of the virus or not wanting to be a burden on the NHS."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> From the disclaimer: _COVID-19 data is the number of ACTUAL US deaths since March 15th, 2020 as reported on Worldometer against the backdrop of the EXTRAPOLATED DAILY number of deaths for top 15 causes of death in the US based on the latest (2018) data from the CDC._

<comment><USER4> And crucially ignores the reduction in deaths from heart failure, road traffic, etc. at this time

<comment><USER6> Heart failure sure

but road traffic related deaths? Really? COVID-19 is not causing a decrease in road traffic deaths, the reaction to COVID-19 is. So, why would that data ever be relevant when talking about the disease?

<comment><USER4> Because that also needs to be factored in when trying to determine causes

If total deaths doesn't change, but road traffic deaths are down by 500, that means non-road-traffic deaths are up 500

You need a complete picture to draw conclusions

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Take a look at [https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus](https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus)

This chart in particular:

[https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-deaths- covid-19?cou...](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-deaths- covid-19?country=USA+OWID_WRL)

It's showing a doubling of daily confirmed deaths since last week. This is a lagging statistic, of course, but it's one of the more firm ones.

The total confirmed deaths can be seen here:

[https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-deaths- covid-19?cou...](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-deaths- covid-19?country=OWID_WRL+USA)

To put this into perspective, we're about halfway to the 23,000 flu deaths in the US for the entire flu season this year. At the current rate, though, we'll be past that by next week.

For more perspective, the 1957 Asian Flu killed about 70,000 people in the US (1 - 2 million worldwide), and our population at that time was 177 million (about half of today).

According to this chart:

[https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-confirmed-daily- dea...](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-confirmed-daily-deaths- epidemiological-trajectory)

we may be just at the start of bending the curve.

We're a much larger country than some of the others shown in our group (add Italy, France, UK, Spain, and Germany, and we still have more people).

EDIT:

According to: [https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic- resources/1957-1958-pandemi...](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic- resources/1957-1958-pandemic.html)

The number of deaths for the 1957 Asian Flu in the US was 116,000, at a time when we had half the population of today.

</comment><comment><USER8> the link to the data for the CDC does not seem to match the graph...perhaps im reading this wrong?

[https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm)

if we're mapping based on the 2018 numbers the CDC provide then 49925 per month or ~12k per week is the cancer rate...

Diabetes is around 1700, not 200.

<comment><USER9> The chart is showing deaths per day

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> CDC guidelines appear to ask medical professional, to over-report COVID as a cause of death, if there is reasonable suspicion, but not a definite diagnosis.

I am not sure if this right/wrong, and how different it is from guidelines relating, to say, flu as a cause of death.

> "... In cases where a definite diagnosis of COVID–19 cannot be made, but it > is suspected or likely (e.g., the circumstances are compelling within a > reasonable degree of certainty), it is acceptable to report COVID–19 on a > death certificate as "probable" or "presumed." In these instances, > certifiers should use their best clinical judgement in determining if a > COVID–19 infection was likely. However, please note that testing for > COVID–19 should be conducted whenever possible. ..." [1]

As an hypothetical example, if a deceased was in a contact with covid-positive person, but the deceased was not tested for Covid, should the cause of death be noted as 'presumed covid-19'?

[1] [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/vsrg/vsrg03-508.pd](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/vsrg/vsrg03-508.pd)

</comment><comment><USER11> It would be interesting to see the same chart but limited to just deaths that occur in hospitals.

</comment><comment><USER12> A version that removes "one week average" as the latest value: [https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1852838](https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1852838)

</comment><comment><USER13> At least the Covid-19 deaths have a limit, whereas many of the others will remain constant for a much longer time. The sadness of this disease is for many countries it did not need to be so bad. I wonder if we as a country (US) will learn anything from this.

<comment><USER14> What is the limit for Covid-19 deaths? We don't know yet if we'll get a working vaccine or if immunity from antibodies lasts long enough. What we have at the moment are educated guesses. If Covid-19 becomes endemic, it could be a death cause that is always present like influenza.

This might be a bit morbid, but every death cause has a limit, the whole population..

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > This chart is not meant to represent statistical analysis of any kind

Okay.

<comment><USER15> Longer comment: "I'm admitting that my chart is totally meaningless, but it sure does look scary!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> How do you know that this was the cause of death when all we know is that these people were tested positive on Covid19 before they died? Not denying that Covid19 is a thing and measures are necessary but I think this question is valid when reading such headlines.

<comment><USER17> A positive test is not even necessary to report them as Covid-19 deaths in the US.

> Should "COVID-19" be reported on the death certificate only with a confirmed > test?

> COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where > the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death.

[https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/coronavirus/Alert-2-New-I...](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/coronavirus/Alert-2-New- ICD-code-introduced-for-COVID-19-deaths.pdf)

<comment><USER18> > A positive test is not even necessary to report them as Covid-19 deaths in > the US.

But this applies to other forms of death. We count flu deaths in the same way, so the data is equally skewed.

> > > COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents > where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to > death.

People can only put it on the death certificate if they can make that assumption to the best of their knowledge or belief. It's not doctors guessing.

<comment> _-___________-_ > We count flu deaths in the same way, so the data is equally skewed.

We actually don't, because flu is not routinely tested for the way that COVID-19 currently is among suspected cases.

<comment><USER19> I think the comment claims that both flu and corona deaths are assigned almost solely based on symptoms and medical history (eg. if someone comes in with a fever, develops a pneumonia and dies then they look at signs to tell apart the diseases - did the patient have runny nose and joint aches? yes? then flu. no? but had shortness of breath? corona.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Wow, the rapid increase is definitely alarming.

Side note: gun violence would average number 3 or 4, if not for the tireless lobbying from the NRA to block health impact research. [https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/](https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/)

<comment><USER21> What we've learned from this Corona scare is the best way to protect people is to incarcerate them in their own homes. Take guns and hard instruments from people. Isolate everyone into their own cell would reduce the murder rate to zero. All communication would go through the Internet. No chance for physical abuse any more. No more transmission of disease since we've shutdown direct human interactions. It would be the perfectly safe world. Of course agency gets thrown out the window.</comment></comment>


In Santa Cruz, a graduate student strike grows out of a housing crisis - <AUTHOR> https://newrepublic.com/article/156591/wildcat-strike-grows-housing-crisis <comment><USER2> UC Berkeley CS PhD student here. I can definitely empathize with the UCSC strikers---housing costs are also insane here, although we get payed a bit more.

CS PhDs here have it relatively good, at about $55K / year before taxes, but it's still common for us to spend more than 30-50% of income on rent. (Even in shared housing, it's very difficult to find anything cheaper than $1.3K / month.)

I do know that for students in other departments, money is extremely tight, and they often have very limited options and periods of housing insecurity. As a side note, the homelessness problem in Berkeley has gone from bad to insane over the past few years that I've lived here. I essentially never leave my house, in a pretty posh part of Berkeley, without an uncomfortable interaction (homeless people in various states of undress, under the influence of drugs, talking to themselves, or screaming).

Meanwhile, the UCs (and UC Berkeley in particular) continue to expand a very expensive bureaucracy (I question how many $500K/year vice provosts we really need). It's not that they don't have the money to pay grad students more, but that they're not incentivized to allocate it towards making grad students' lives better.

Unfortunately, there's an apathetic attitude among many students on campus of, essentially, "doing your time and getting out," since they know, at least in STEM, that there's a pile of money waiting on the other side.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months and whether the COLA campaign expands to other UCs. The UC administration is very fearful of union organizing (as evidenced by the many weird anti-union emails the university sent out in 2018, during the last contract negotiation).

<comment><USER3> It is also interesting to read the first sentence of the article: _The 33-year-old single mother and third-year anthropology graduate student_

30-year olds should not be starting anthro PhDs in almost any circumstances.

Many grad students and adjuncts have made and are making bad life choices: [https://jakeseliger.com/2016/02/25/universities-treat- adjunc...](https://jakeseliger.com/2016/02/25/universities-treat-adjuncts- like-they-do-because-they-can)

<comment><USER4> Sometimes women choose to postpone their academic careers until after they start a family. Some of my best friends have had success doing that. It's not necessarily a bad life choice.

You know what can be a bad life choice? Trying to get through grad school, and then finding a job, and then getting through tenure, all while your biological clock is ticking, ticking, ticking, waiting for that day when you can settled down and have kids, a day that in the end may never come.

<comment><USER5> But as a single mom or dad? I can see doing grad school on my own or maybe with a kid and the support of a partner, but not with a kid and no supporting partner.

<comment><USER6> Life comes at you and you have to deal with it. However I can say CS grad school was really hard just with me. I don't know how I would have handled a kid. We should support each other in life whenever possible.

<comment><USER7> A few of my female friends were in similar situations.

Don't discount the drive that caring for a child you love can provide.

(They're all superheroes, and I live in awe of the load they've carried, but I think their child definitely helped them get through some rough times)

<comment><USER5> My kid has required more effort than my PhD ever did. I enjoy it, but I can't imagine having to do both.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I lived in Santa Cruz for over 10 years and grew up in the area. The tech industry has had hugely negative effects on Santa Cruz. It's a long but doable commute to the south bay (including Netflix), and there's shuttles to many of the larger tech companies. The job market in Santa Cruz is dismal; the university is a major source of jobs but other than that it's mostly small town service jobs. Trying to live in Santa Cruz AND work in Santa Cruz is very difficult.

Home ownership is out of reach for the vast majority of people who work in the area, and the rental market is dominated by students living off of student loans or family support rather than supported by local jobs.

There is no easy answer, because as others have noted, Santa Cruz is surrounded by ocean and greenspace, and full of NIMBYs who want to limit development. I can't blame them; the city is cute and many of the neighborhoods are lovely. It's just a shame that it's becoming a bedroom community for Silicon Valley rather than a self-sustaining town in its own right.

<comment><USER9> > There is no easy answer, because as others have noted, Santa Cruz is > surrounded by ocean and greenspace

California's coastline is over 800 miles long and most of it is equally as picturesque as Santa Cruz. Driving down the 1 you'll pass through a hundred small towns with relatively affordable homes and plenty of oceanfront scenery. The primary value of SC is that it's close to the Bay Area and that's what it should be optimized for.

<comment><USER10> Most of California's coastline is sheer cliffs. There are reasons why our cities are where they are.

<comment><USER11> The GP is largely correct though. There are tons of incredibly beautiful small coastal towns in California - Crescent City, Fort Bragg, Gualala, the whole Point Reyes region from Bodega Bay to Stinson Beach, Pacifica, Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, Watsonville/Moss Landing, the Carmel/Monterey area, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, etc. Cliffs or not, there are real settlements there, and they're gorgeous, even prettier than Santa Cruz. What they don't have is easy proximity to the jobs and tech wealth in the Bay Area.

<comment><USER12> And exactly how affordable is Morro Bay these days?

<comment><USER11> When it comes to CA real estate it's all relative. You can get a 3BR with ocean views in Morro Bay for about $775K these days, while an equivalent property in Santa Cruz is about $1M. You can also get roughly equivalent (2BR) places in Santa Cruz for about $750-$800K, but they're in the flats, without much of a view.

What I don't understand is why people who aren't tied down to a metro area would buy in CA instead of elsewhere on the Pacific Coast. Equivalent places in Astoria, OR go for $300K. Weather and politics, I guess: you can also get places like that in Crescent City for $300K or even less, but the fog is a lot heavier than the Central CA coastline, it's colder, and the politics are a lot more red-state.

<comment><USER13> I'd guess that many, maybe even most, people _are_ tied down to a metro area.

Job, social circles, family... after you've been in a place for a few years, many people find it hard to leave.

I think about my own situation. I'm happy at my job, but I could feasibly go remote and still work for the same company. I don't have any family in the area (they're all on the east coast). But my social circles are here. I do have good friends who live elsewhere (somewhat scattered, though), but the thought of "starting over" in that regard just sounds like a hill I don't feel like climbing.

I'm not exactly the type of person you're talking about, because I do want to live in a city. But when I look at Seattle, Portland, LA, San Diego, Honolulu, Austin, Chicago, Boston, NYC, DC... while I could see myself living in some of those places, the thought of actually making that leap gives me pause. I'm nearing 40, and I'm not sure I have the appetite to rebuild the relationships I've been building in the bay area over the last 16 years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> MIT CS PhD student here. Pretty similar story in Boston/Cambridge. Every grad student spends most of their income on rent. What's worse is that MIT and Harvard own a lot of the land in Cambridge and literally have thousands of students that live outside campus increasing the rent demand. MIT is trying to do something about it by building new grad dorms with their most recent one opening up next year but guess what...the rent is insane ... 2.6K a month for 1 bedroom and this is a student dorm... The justification is that its 'below market rate' but stipends are not at market rate.

<comment><USER15> $2.6k per month?? where is that? school owned housing in Cambridge? I don't think I've ever seen prices that high for off campus stuff in the mission hill & Fenway area

<comment><USER16> In my experience university housing is almost always more expensive than market rate, NYU and a few other places excluded. This was true even at my moderately sized southern United States school with no land pressure. They know living close to the university is valuable to students and they charge accordingly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> About 5 years ago, I asked a politician about housing. The assemblyman told me that housing is largely controlled at the local level and driven by local city politics. He explained that voters tend to be home owners and property owners. The conundrum then is how to make housing affordable without impacting long term investment of majority of voters. A politician or city council which actually moved the needle on housing would be putting themselves at risk of losing many votes, and thus their political careers.

<comment><USER18> This is the problem. Homes shouldn't be an investment. It should be a depreciating asset like cars at worst and a human right at best. Especially in a country as large as the US with so much resources, we shouldn't have turned homes into an investmens. Productive assets like companies should be investments.

But at this point, we are trapped. The largest retirement asset for most people are their homes. It's political suicide to do anything that would hurt the valuations of homes. If you are an older individual with your home making up a bulk of your retirement nest egg, you aren't going to vote for policies that make homes more affordable. And older folks vote more often and in larger numbers than younger voters.

<comment><USER19> I completely agree. It's not just retirement-age people either. I've noticed many Bay Area peers in their ~early 30s buy their first home and (understandably) swap camps from "very concerned about housing prices" to "happily watching their massive investment grow."

Is there any realistic path (even a very optimistic one) towards the Japanese model of house-as-depreciating-asset in the US?

<comment><USER20> Japan tears down their houses because they're worried about older houses being unsafe due to earthquake damage.

So I guess the most realistic path would be for the big one to hit California and destroy all the housing stock.

<comment><USER21> Also because they get moldy and stink from the humidity, and because many people believe they have ghosts.

The absolute quickest way to kill home value in Japan is have someone die in it. Absolutely nobody will want to live in the place and property owners will warn you before you consider looking at it.

If old people in the US saw their homes as a time-limited investment where they needed to sell them while they still can in order to ensure their spouse/kids have money, prices might drop. Maybe bringing back superstitions is a way millennials can finally take back the housing market.

<comment><USER22> I think I should move to Japan and buy cheap haunted houses.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm really happy they are doing this. As an anecdote, I got into USC's grad program with a 45k per year salary, which was great! But, the person who was running the lab actually emailed me saying that I really should think about entering a PhD program after working in the industry. The quality of life decrease is so huge when going from 6 figures to sub 50k. I couldn't stomach it and decided to stay in industry, even though it's something I think about everyday. In the end, I'd rather have some amount of stability and comfort taking on the burden of having such a low salary in a high cost of living area. It's especially frustrating because my job in the industry is so much easier but I make so much more money. It's extremely unfair for these students to be paid so little.

</comment><comment><USER24> The last 10-15 years has transformed Santa Cruz into something I barely recognize anymore.

It used to be really great. Abundant free parking, a huge multistory used book store (Logos), and a house turned cozy coffee shop overflowing with college students where you could spend entire days studying/working without going broke (The Perg) and without being a jerk occupying one of the few tables at the Starbucks or Peets.

The last time I went there ~2 years ago I couldn't find any free parking other than the grocery store lot, and the coffee shops were hipster cafes without outlets and overpriced everything on very limited menus. At least there's still the Red Room.

I'd like to know where the students go to study now instead of The Perg. I hope they're not paying through the nose at Verve Coffee.

<comment><USER25> The first thing on your list is "abundant free parking".

Not the coast, or the redwoods, or the cool book store, but the free parking.

<comment><USER24> The free parking had a significant impact on what kind of people you encountered in town.

I lived in a redwood forest near the coast at the time, so what Santa Cruz offered in those areas didn't really affect me. I didn't go to Santa Cruz to see redwoods or the ocean, I went for the quirky town and to hang out around interesting people in a nearby urban center (I lived in Butano SP).

<comment><USER26> Don't live in the redwoods it's why we have fires. And I'm not sure what you're upset about here your nature destroying frontiersman fantasy is still very much alive in Bonny Doon

<comment><USER24> > Don't live in the redwoods it's why we have fires. And I'm not sure what > you're upset about here your nature destroying frontiersman fantasy is still > very much alive in Bonny Doon

It wasn't illicit, the area around the park isn't well defined and there's plenty of private property out there which the park's trails run straight through.

I don't know what you're talking about WRT "frontiersman fantasy", my downtown Santa Cruz complaints have absolutely no relation to a frontiersman fantasy.

<comment><USER26> > illicit

The fires are the result of power lines and infrastructure supporting unnecessary exurban sprawl out into our redwoods. Not to mention the septic leaking from houses into the rivers and springs.

People should not live up there.

<comment><USER24> That's just like, your opinion, man.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> FWIW: [https://www.santacruzyimby.org/](https://www.santacruzyimby.org/)

</comment><comment><USER27> The problem in Santa Cruz is that the city is bordered by greenbelt and the ocean. Student population when I first attended UCSC was sub(or maybe close to) 10k. It has grown to nearly 20k, counting part time, etc. In that time, the university has not built beds to keep up with enrollment. The city certainly hasn't added thousands of rooms to keep up.

UC housing apparently has to be paid through campus funds, not through what the state gives it.

When I lived there, I looked into adding an ADU. The city wanted north of 40k in fees and "improvements" like putting in a sidewalk where one didn't exist (and doesn't on the whole block).

<comment><USER28> This may be apocryphal, but awhile back I heard there hasn't been a permit granted for an ADU within Santa Cruz City Limits since the '89 earthquake.

<comment><USER27> Not true. Many built. Just a lot of red tape around them.

<comment><USER28> Did some research and found an article stating it was 8/year granted pre-2002 and 8/quarter after requirements were eased in 2002.

Gives me some hope for the city :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> As someone with a phd from a Big 10 college and is (happily) teaching at a community college, I think graduate schools are admitting way too many students. The math for universities is simple: more grad students = more cheap labor = fewer tenure track jobs. But ethically, I think it is immoral.

Among the 30 or so people I became friendly with at grad school I think 3 of them have tenure track jobs at research institutions. 3 or so are at private liberal arts colleges. I would say 5 or so are at public liberal arts colleges. I was lucky, after adjuncting for 3 years I finally got a full time job at a community college. There are a number of people I have lost track of but I can think of more than 10 that have left academia because they couldn't find jobs. (I could hit up facebook and track people down to get an accurate count but I need to go jump in the shower so I can finish getting ready to go teach!)

</comment><comment><USER30> From the article: "sparked by West Virginia educators who waged a largely successful wildcat strike in 2018, even though their right to collectively bargain was unrecognized by state law".

So.. implying it isn't a legal position to bargain? So bargaining for wages is therefore ..illegal by default? I don't get this.

<comment><USER31> Yeah, many red states have made it illegal to strike. And of course, this eliminates any possible leverage that employees have over employers to force better treatment and that is precisely the reason why Republicans have done this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> With ever-lengthening PhDs, it's getting hard to see many grad programs as not exploitative.

<comment><USER33> There's a reason that we've all been screeching "Grad workers are _workers_!" as a slogan.

<comment><USER32> Yeah, nowhere else can get away with paying people 20 hrs/week and making them work 50.

<comment><USER34> 50? You must be joking. It's 80+ these days at R1s.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> They have very very very high wages already for PhD students though?

True, their rent costs are also very very very high but based on the current exchange rates the $500 the tag line example person has left over, after rent each month, is comparable to the amount left after rent, food, etc when doing a PhD in the UK 6 years ago in a not London location.

It seems that the PhD wages are very high already to compensate for the very high rent costs.

If the anecdotal evidence given by people in the comments here, concerning TAing and moonlighting at other nearby research institutes (for ~$10K !) are both true and common then what is the problem?

<comment><USER36> During my PhD I received a £1380/month tax-free stipend from EPSRC, and rented a single room in a shared house for £300/month. So after rent, I had £1080 - about $1400 - left over to live on.

To me, $500/month sounds like very little. I wasn't trying to pay for a child either!

<comment><USER35> ah I received £1125 a month and paid £600 in rent, so while it was more than $500 it is pretty close.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I was at UCLA and I had to rake loans to pay my rent because my PhD stipend wasn't enough. Still paying those off. The whole system is foobar. I support the strike. It's been a long time coming.

</comment><comment><USER38> The UC system needs to build and/or create housing for all their non-tenured teaching staff.

</comment><comment><USER39> The PhD wage situation in the US is simply shameful. I applaud the resolution of those who still go through with it.

In Belgium, PhD are paid salaries that are competitive with entry-level programming positions (though under what you can get if you are a little bit discriminate), and that's for all subject matters. Most of these positions are state-funded (directly through tax-exempt scholarships, or indirectly via TA contract with the state-subsidized universities).

I feel like a big reason US universities can get away with this is that they draw a lot of international students who are happy to accept lower wages for a chance to live and work in the US.

<comment><USER40> > The PhD wage situation in the US is simply shameful.

It really isn't. I recently finished my PhD, and now I'm a postdoc. My stipend was $30K, but, crucially, I wasn't living in a place like Santa Cruz. It was very easy to live on such a stipend where I was at. I paid $800/mo for a 2-bedroom apartment all to myself. This was not a CS PhD, it was biomedical, so the stipend was comparable to the normal B.S. salary in that field.

These students' problem is that they chose to do their studies in Santa Cruz. This is not a normal US PhD student situation, it is yet another dysfunctional California situation.

If someone is pursuing a PhD, yet can't do the basic math to determine, before accepting an offer, whether the stipend will allow them to live in the area, I can't summon much sympathy.

<comment><USER39> Well I agree they should think about it before taking the position.

This does not seem to me incompatible with the idea that not paying your TA a living wage is shameful.

I also think most of the strikers did think about it. But if the opportunity comes up to join a movement (which can achieve something, unlike you own solitary actions) to fix a flawed standard... why not joint it? Be prepared to face the consequences if it fails though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Graduate student stipends have remained relatively flat for decades, in part because the size of grants has. When I was a PhD student in San Diego a decade ago, my stipend was $1800 per month for the last 4 years and $2500 per month for the first two years. Everyone had to have roommates and pennypinch to make it work, and every peer who had kids really struggled unless their spouse had a real income. Being a single parent would be very rough under graduate student income constraints.

While increasing dollars allocated to grants is hard and requires changing grant agencies, having TAs make much more than RAs would not really be feasible. I'd like the universities to greatly increase the amount of (greatly) subsidized housing available for graduate students, which would go a long way toward addressing the problem.

</comment><comment><USER42> Id be curious to see a list of cost of living adjusted stipends for PhD ranked across universities. It would be interesting to see what are the top places to go in terms of highest stipend .

</comment><comment><USER43> Eventually the graduate serfs will revolt if you take away their housing.

<comment><USER44> there's showers in the lab

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> There's a lot of things that California gets right. It's too bad housing isn't one of them.

<comment><USER46> What things do they get right? Serious question.

<comment><USER24> Copious and well run state parks, CA is a really great place to spend time outdoors.

The local organic produce is _very_ good too.

<comment><USER47> State parks that cost $10 to visit each one, when there is often nothing in them? Nah, that state is great at getting at your money and wasting it on corrupt government.

<comment><USER48> It's regular park not an amusement park. I don't know what you want "in them" other than hiking paths, picnic tables, parks free of trash/debris, respectable camping grounds, running water and toilets. Maybe you're not a nature person, but that seems worth $10 to me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> There's nothing at that link related to the title.

<comment><USER32> Huh? The entire article is related to the title.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> _> The 33-year-old single mother and third-year anthropology graduate student says she makes around $2,200 a month after taxes as a part-time teaching assistant at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also pays around $1,700 a month for the two-bedroom she shares with her 10-year-old son in student housing. After that, there's little money to spare._

Spending 80% of your income on housing is just poor budgeting no matter how you look at it.

If someone decides that accepting a ~5 year position that pays close to minimum wage in one of the highest COL areas in the country is the right choice for them... then what?

Academia is kind of like the video game industry - plenty of young people with a dream who want to get in, get abused and spat out by the system. Because guess what, it gets even harder after your PhD. You'll be paid barely more, except with even less job stability (you're now looking for a post doc every 1-2 years, or jumping from adjunct contract to adjunct contract) and more stress and responsibility. And of course by that point the sunk cost fallacy has fully set in, you now think of yourself as an Anthropology Professor and there's no way you're going to go back and pick up plumbing or programming.

Ideally grad students would stop pouring in, free labor would dry up at universities, and they'll have to raise grad student salaries to acceptable wages again. Seems unlikely given how badly people want to do anthropology PhDs, and that there'll always be people who can afford to take a poorly paid position like that because their partner or parents are paying the bills. Maybe unions are the right call, but seems like a strong uphill battle.

<comment><USER51> >Ideally grad students would stop pouring in, free labor would dry up at universities, and they'll have to raise grad student salaries to acceptable wages again. Seems unlikely given how badly people want to do anthropology PhDs, and that there'll always be people who can afford to take a poorly paid position like that because their partner or parents are paying the bills.

I like how you phrased that.

One potential solution is some feedback loop telling students how many PhDs in anthropology we really need. We're currently producing way more PhDs in non- STEM disciplines than there are post doctoral academic positions (I mean that broadly; e.g. post-docs, tenure track, full time lectureships).

Instead of giving out 5 PhD spots, maybe a program can give out 1 PhD spot and pay that student 3x more. They'd save money and could focus on creating one really good professor, instead of 5 struggling lecturers.

<comment><USER52> The problem is that having a large body of grad students increases your research output, allowing you to get more grants and raise the prestige of your institution at a relatively low cost. Universities are incentivized to admit more grad students if it leads to these improved outcomes.

<comment><USER50> And more students running your labs/substituting you for teaching/etc. means more time to do non-teaching stuff, which is a net positive for most professors.

How sad was I to realize that I was the only one in my PhD program who had chosen that route because I was as passionate about teaching as I was about research!

Feynman:

 _If you 're teaching a class, you can think about the elementary things that you know very well. These things are kind of fun and delightful. It doesn't do any harm to think them over again. Is there a better way to present them? Are there any new problems associated with them? Are there any new thoughts you can make about them? The elementary things are easy to think about; if you can't think of a new thought, no harm done; what you thought about it before is good enough for the class. If you do think of something new, you're rather pleased that you have a new way of looking at it.

The questions of the students are often the source of new research. They often ask profound questions that I've thought about at times and then given up on, so to speak, for a while. It wouldn't do me any harm to think about them again and see if I can go any further now. The students may not be able to see the thing I want to answer, or the subtleties I want to think about, but they remind me of a problem by asking questions in the neighborhood of that problem. It's not so easy to remind yourself of these things._

[http://www.math.utah.edu/~yplee/teaching/feynman.html](http://www.math.utah.edu/~yplee/teaching/feynman.html)

Well in the end I dropped out (:</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Handling of CPU bugs disclosure 'incredibly bad': OpenBSD's de Raadt - <AUTHOR> https://www.itwire.com/security/81338-handling-of-cpu-bug-disclosure-incredibly-bad-openbsd-s-de-raadt.html <comment><USER2> Even if you don't run OpenBSD, you almost certainly use code written by the OpenBSD project—probably in a security-sensitive context.

Given that I rely on the OpenBSD project for things like secure access to remote systems (OpenSSH), I'd love to think that someone might loop them in on major vulnerabilities... just in the off chance that I might otherwise be adversely impacted.

<comment><USER3> Yeah thx for that OpenBSD, but you patched early when the KRACK ATTACK hit. There is one important rule to follow when using nda: dont sneak! But ofc they should get a new chance.

<comment><USER4> They were given the go-ahead to release the patch by the author of the vulnerability.

<comment><USER5> But isn't the agreement of not releasing early more to do with coordinating with other vulnerable systems? The person who found the vulnerability wouldn't care if one OS releases before another. But if I am Ubuntu, I'm pissed if openbsd released early and publicly reveals a zero day that I'm not ready to patch yet.

<comment><USER4> None of that is OpenBSD's responsibility.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Did Intel really time disclosure of the Meltdown (which is Intel-specific) bug to coincide with disclosure of Spectre?

<comment><USER7> Intel didn't disclose first, Google did (before the agreed upon embargo date). Its a great writeup: [https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2018/01/reading- privi...](https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2018/01/reading-privileged- memory-with-side.html)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: People who are here- are you on Reddit too? - <AUTHOR> Just interested in this <comment><USER2> I am really interested in some of the smaller communities such as /r/datahoarder, /r/homelab and some of the Linux based ones. Other than that, I will just read some of top posts once a week. Contrary to most of HNers I think, I do like some of the comedy and foolishness of reddit. Perhaps I just haven't grown out of it yet.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sort of, but not really. I used to browse reddit quite a lot, but fell out of touch due to the deterioration of general discussion of any topic.

I find HN to be a lot more developed in its discussions, opinions and userbase.

</comment><comment><USER4> Yes. I used to look at /r/all but now I only do my front page with my specific subreddits that way I get rid of most of the crap

</comment><comment><USER5> Nope. The signal to noise ratio on Reddit makes it a far worse time sink, and I've better things to do with my time.

</comment><comment><USER6> yes, but reddit now more for funny stuff or random news. HN is slowly becoming my daily driver for just general reading/topics of interest.</comment>


Show HN: Profile Collage for Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://www.profilecollage.com/ <comment><USER2> Couple of quick things.

1) You don't need permission to post to my wall or get all of my information to sample my images. I, and others, will explicitly not try this specifically for this reason. Only request the minimum of what you need.

2) Your FB Connect implementation appears to be broken. Clicking on the <http://profilecollage.appspot.com/auth/login> takes the user to a mostly empty page with a FB image that you have to click into again, which then takes you to the authentication page.

3) Clicking 'dont allow' on the permissions request button just keeps circling back to the request page. This should redirect somewhere else.

<comment><USER3> I wish I could say this to each and every Facebook app developer.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> A few friends and I made this web app yesterday (our first!) instead of studying for finals. You provide a reasonably high-quality photo, and it helps you make a Facebook profile like the ones shown on the landing page. It's definitely not everything we wish it were (due to limitations in GAE and the python Facebook API library), but we're proud of it for the amount of time it took us to make it and definitely plan to iterate on it. Let us know if you have feedback, or find this useful at all.

Thanks, Nish

<comment><USER4> This looked really exciting before I used it, but has taken me one hour so far, and been fairly frustrating.

First getting my eyes inside the area took a bucketload of image cropping and editing. You don't even have guidelines to help me so it was trial and error.

Then, tagging from 5 to 1 still isn't reproducing the images in order. I've tried multiple times.

<comment><USER5> If this were automated it would be better... I agree. 2 hard to complete.

<comment><USER4> 1\. Yep, if not face recognition, then let me use the arrows to move the picture up and down.

2\. They can fix this with better instructions. I finally un-tagged and re- tagged all my pics without from 5 to 1 without re-uploading them to get the correct order.

3 (new). I forgot to say thank you. I was having trouble with the app and I should have been more gentlemanly. Sorry.

Thank you! This was good for a beta and the results look OK with some fiddling.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, didn't see this post. Glad you finally got it working! Do you think it would have been more clear to suggest that users upload the album, save it, and then proceed to tag themselves?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wish I could say that I've seen a profile like this that looked good...

But I haven't.

Your blood-shot eyes staring back at me just doesn't say "this is an awesome design". It mostly screams you were more excited by realizing you could do this ... than you ever thought about whether I'd want to see your eyes in particular.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>-

Personally, I do wish fb would allow enough customization so people could create _good_ looking like this...

</comment><comment><USER7> Haven't tried it, planning to do so tomorrow.

One quick tip - this is an incredibly easy-to-explain and visual webapp. You have _a lot_ of text on your home page, which can be pretty much replaced with 3 pictures. I don't know what your plan is for this, but if you want it to go viral and get lots of publicity, you'll definitely want to get rid of all the text and replace it with images.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree with you; my co-developers had different opinions. I think we will move to less text, more pictures, though. Thanks for your feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It would be great if you implemented a crop/preview feature, so the user could line things up properly instead of having to manually loop through editing/submiting until a decent result is achieved.

<comment><USER9> This is Jeff from the Profile Collage dev team.

You asked for it HN, so we'll show you a preview of the upcoming UI: <http://fromjeffrey.com/pc/>

Features: \- Live Preview \- Translate (Move) \- Rotate \- Resize

This is 110% an alpha build and the UI def. has to be more intuitive (like rotate is based on mouse drag in X-axis, but how does the user know that??)

Uses processingjs to do the heavy lifting with PHP backend - still getting out of memory errors with large pictures, so try to start with something reasonable (IE: not 5 megapixels dimensions 2000px and smaller recommended)

Have fun and please leave comments! =D

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I really think the use of the pictures in the new profile is an interesting "hack", but I wish this was used for more than just spreading your face over them in the same way. It was a good idea to use these smaller pictures for something, now the something needs to be expanded a bit.

That being said, good job on getting something up and running that fast! It's indeed the right time to do it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh yeah, I definitely agree with you. However, we only spent two days on it and didn't have time to come up with more creative uses.

Thanks for the kind words and the feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Nice! Just did it on mine: <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/186198/Screenshots/ekuo.png>

using a cropped version of this photo (had to crop it a few times to get the eyes to align properly) <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/186198/Screenshots/i_kx.png>

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks awesome! =) It's so fulfilling to see my procrastination going to good use!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I made a similar facebook app a couple of days back (<http://apps.facebook.com/collage-frnds/>). It creates a collage of your profile picture using your friends profile pictures. It failed to catch attention as the app itself is very slow since it is hosted on a shared server.

</comment><comment><USER13> On similar lines, I tried out an album hack.

<http://goo.gl/OPNzq>

</comment><comment><USER14> It seems that, depending on the amount of profile info on your profile. (Lives in X, went to school at Y, etc.) The small photos may not be exactly aligned with the main pic. I'm not sure if there is any way to control for that.

</comment><comment><USER15> I build a little website which also lets you create thees kinds of porfile pictures. bonus: \- it has a live preview \- drag & drop \- zoom

<http://picscatter.com/>

</comment><comment><USER16> Cool idea.

a) How robust is this to different screen resolutions? Is my grandma's 800x600 display going to be all wonky?

b) Will my avatar just be a sliver of cheek, then?

<comment><USER17> Facebook use fixed width for profile pages.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep. There are actually a few cases in which our cropping algorithm will fail, but few people have complained about those cases so far. When we have more time we plan to make the algorithm more robust.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Sorry guys, we've exceeded our app engine quota. Check back in three hours!

</comment><comment><USER18> for the more subversive folks out there, check out an automated way to do this to your friends: <http://apps.facebook.com/bannerbuzz>

<comment><AUTHOR> Hm, not sure that I would use this personally, but I can't deny that it is a creative use of the new layout. Thanks for the link, it's interesting to see what others are doing with this!

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> ProfileGen.com is in my opinion a much easier version

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the info! There are many many usability things that we didn't get around to implementing due to restrictions in App Engine's and Facebook's python APIs, but we plan to make the flow more pleasant in future iterations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Sorry but this app is lame compared to <http://apps.facebook.com/beautyprofile/>

<comment><USER21> Constructive comments include details, besides vague adjectives.

Your only two comments on HN are about beautyprofile. Are you involved with it? Not a good way to get PR then.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=huytoan></comment></comment>


Looking for feedback on our product – Spotslet - <AUTHOR> http://spotslet.com

<comment><USER2> Programming side looks nice, but it's overly heavy on copy, you might want to simplify it a bit. Just a tip, I like the idea.

<comment><AUTHOR> We are updating the copy.. made it more visual also. A video is in the works. Thanks again

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Looks interesting. Why do you require Google login?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, Using the domain name from google login to create a group and auto subscribe people. So everyone from the same company automatically becomes a part of the same group.

This simplifies signup process and eliminates the need for someone to be an admin for the group.

I do expct to be more flexible in future, but for now this seems like a good approach for MVP (I think )</comment></comment>


Show HN: Retroshare, a private and secure F2F network - <AUTHOR> http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/downloads.html

<comment><AUTHOR> This is the latest release, which the team as worked very hard to get out and has been a whole year in the making.

Retroshare offers:

* Private Encrypted Instant Messaging / Group Chat.

* Decentralised Forums / Channels.

* Anonymous Turtle File Sharing.

* PGP Authentiation / SSL encryption.

Retroshare has over 100,000 downloads already but is still virtually unknown. Please help me raise awareness.

Thanks, drBob.</comment>


Package.json validator - <AUTHOR> http://package-json-validator.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a great tool I use for validating my package.json files. Think W3C HTML validator for package.json.</comment>


iOS7 Life of Pi Easter Egg - <AUTHOR> http://thehypereview.com/news/apple-ios-7-introduction-video-features-life-of-pi-easter-egg

<comment><USER2> Misleading, the article says it shows up exactly at the 3:14 mark. Which is incorrect. It appears at 3:11, and happens to pass through 3:14. Still an interesting coincidence, but not nearly as amazing as the article makes it sound.</comment>


Ask HN: What are the best STEM toys for kids? - <AUTHOR> Especially interested in reviews from parents who've seen kids playing with these various toys and have a sense of which ones are engaging and which aren't <comment><USER7> My random parenting advice from the internet: if it's not a good toy, it doesn't matter how STEM focused it is. If it's a good toy, then it won't hinder a young STEM oriented mind and it will still be a good choice for a non-STEM oriented mind.

My experience is that most STEM toys are designed to appeal to adult anxiety over their child 'not getting ahead' more than to appeal to children's play instinct. Most educational toys sit in closets unloved. Actually that's true for most toys with an adult agenda.

Part of it is that 'not getting ahead' anxiety encourages buying toys that are more likely to appeal to an older child than the child for which they are purchased: A chemistry set for an eight year old is going to work for a one in a million chemistry prodigy (or maybe as a shared experience for the 1:100,000 kid whose parent is passionate about coplaying with a chemistry set and the passion extends to the child.

Anyway, some children grow up to be artists, authors, insurance adjusters, real-estate brokers, etc. They lead happy productive adult lives without finding much joy in STEM. Like previous generations, a lot of people in STEM come to find they enjoy it all on their own during adolescence and/or early adulthood. A few come into the field as full on adults.

Good luck.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, it needs to be a toy first. Otherwise it will be boring. Toys are meant to be fun. Thats why we play with them.

Ive tried different ones and only those that are actually fun and interesting get used enough to become broken. Then we have more fun fixing them.

Just be open to trying new things and dont force shit on your kids. Sometimes they just dont care about STEM.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9>
      - <USER2>
      - magnifying glass
      - <USER3>
      - chemistry set
      - pocket knife
      - big card board boxes
      - <USER4>
      - a yard
      - <USER5>
      - rock tumbler
      - ant farm
      - breadboard for simple circuits
      - a tent and sleeping bag
      - play-do
      - baking bread or making pasta
      - <USER6>

This is where STEM begins.

Edit: added more STEMy things

<comment><USER10> Great list. To add to this, basic (de)construction tools:

\- screwdrivers \- hammer \- clamps / workbench with vice \- hand saw \- rulers / measuring tape \- hand drill (w/ bits) \- random assortment of screws, nails, bolts & nuts, glue, wood pieces, dowels, string, wheels, whatever. encourage dumpster diving.

Also, some inspiring literature, like: [https://www.amazon.com/American-Boys- Handy-Book-Centennial/d...](https://www.amazon.com/American-Boys-Handy-Book- Centennial/dp/0879234490) and/or [https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boys- Conn-Iggulden/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boys-Conn- Iggulden/dp/0062208977)

Oh, and it helps to have a partner in crime for encouragement, troubleshooting, etc. (siblings/friends/parents)

These days I'm an engineer, but that's how the passion starts, no doubt about it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Very young children: a set of cheap measuring cups and jugs of various sizes. You start with "bigger" or "smaller", and work up to estimating how much water / sand / salt / etc is in this box, and some mental arithmetic of subtracting or adding various quantities together.

See also kitchen balance weigh scales with a set of weights.

You can buy good quality magnifiers very cheaply. You'll want to start with a table loupe style magnifier, and then move on to pocket microscopes.

You can buy Pound o Dice - this is about half a kg of dice of various sizes. These can be used for various games (Button Men is quick and fun [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_Men)) or for probability stuff.

Cuisenaire rods are simple and fun. You can get plastic or wood, and they help with fractions and arithmetic. Watch out for some of the work books. I'm not sure learning "green plus blue equals red" is useful.

Laser pens can be used for water-drop microscopy.

Packets of cress, then radishes, then carrots and potatoes and bell peppers are great.

STEM is everywhere, so really you can build it into any activity. Most importantly is that the parents give the child time to explore things and to ask (and answer) questions for themselves. You can find recipes for a bunch of play-dough like substances, so mixing different batches with different ratios and asking "What will happen?".

</comment><comment><USER12> I know it's really dangerous but, when I was 3yo, a friend of my father bought me the most awesome gift I have ever got: a tiny set of tools. Since I was a really curious kids (about the inner mechanisms of stuff), my toys would always get broken. With my set (and my father's guidance), I begin to fix things up. Three broken gi joes and a horse? Praise Quiron, the three-torso centaur. A broken rc car "engine" is, now, a boat "engine". Today, I'm a mechatronics engineering intern and really thankful for those - dangerous - tools I've got.

</comment><comment><USER13> I am against this approach at all cost. You are putting too much pressure on yourself and will doing the same on your kids (assuming this question isn't for market survey). Just leave them as they. You already labeled them as STEM when have no idea what does it even mean. Relax.

You should read biographies like Surely You are joking Mr. Feynman. You will know how Novel prize physicist are brought up.

Just let your kids be what he wants to be. Give him equal of every world. Music instrument, base ball bat, lego, Raspberry Pi, Screw Driver, swimming pool etc. Whatever you can afford. Kids have natural curiosity and they will play with anything which is around them. I used to play with ants and chase them wherever they go. I am physicist now, along with my foot in neuroscience and music.

</comment><comment><USER14> [http://www.hanselman.com/blog/The2016ChristmasListOfBestSTEM...](http://www.hanselman.com/blog/The2016ChristmasListOfBestSTEMToysForYourLittleNerdsAndNerdettes.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER15> Legos. (And not just a single, focused kit, in isolation.)

You inevitably start designing/building/designing (a chicken and egg perspective) your own constructs. You can do it together with others including peers. And it provides strong stimulation in 3D (and even 4D -- zoom... crash!) perspective.

</comment><comment><USER16> Depending on their age and if they are interested in robotics then the VEXIQ robot stuff. Biggest kit is this [http://www.vexrobotics.com/super- kit.html](http://www.vexrobotics.com/super-kit.html) with motors and sensors you can find smaller sets online. Program in C, a version of Scratch or Python. Built robots are more durable than the Lego versions. Plus there is a competition around them for elementary and middle school students (ages 8-14).

Otherwise the list by sheraz is pretty good.

</comment><comment><USER17> Given all the recommendations for Lego bricks (with which I concur), I thought this bit of advice might be useful:

Try to stay away from the themed and/or branded sets. They are full of special parts that exists only to make bricks look like something else, and are not (generally speaking) particularly useful in any other sense (certainly not for developing a kid's imagination).

Instead, try to get the large sets of ordinary bricks, and sets with the special parts that _are_ generally useful. You should start (on Amazon or other retailers) with searches like _" Lego Classic"_, _" Lego Creative"_, and _" Lego Education"_.

If they are interested in progressing to the sort of mechanisms the Technic sets enable, those type of parts can also be found in various _" Lego Education"_ sets as well as using search phrases like _" Lego Simple Machines"_, _" Lego Simple Mechanisms"_, _" Lego WeDo"_, and _" Lego Pneumatics"_ as starting points.

Enjoy!

<comment><USER18> That used to be the case in the nineties, maybe, but today there are virtually no special parts that can only serve one purpose (like the one-piece hull of some ship from years ago).

Creativity isn't solely found in blocky builds. Special pieces are still mostly an abstracted shape that can be many things.

Still, Lego Creative is fantastic (especially those 3 in 1 sets). Also look for Lego Technics if the child is a bit older. I loved my pneumatics set back then.

<comment><USER17> _> today there are virtually no special parts that can only serve one purpose (like the one-piece hull of some ship from years ago)._

Not really true. If you look at the Bionicle line, for example, each set is chock _full_ of custom molded parts. Certainly nothing quite as egregious as a one-piece spaceship hull (since it is possible to mix and match a bit between Bionicle sets), but nevertheless not particularly useful if you want to make anything other than a hybrid Bionicle mash-up.

On the other end of the scale, yes, many current branded sets like 75156 (a Star Wars Imperial Shuttle) are _technically_ built out of general purpose pieces, but how useful are those particular parts (eg. the 2x2 left and right side plates with a 27 degree angle), when trying to build something different? You need to have parts from _many_ different sets to have a _usefully_ broad selection.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Interesting toy to get introduced to Arduino programming: [https://www.amazon.com/Thames-Kosmos-Workshop-Android- Compat...](https://www.amazon.com/Thames-Kosmos-Workshop-Android- Compatible/dp/B01CNT3EGM) using a video game to teach programming. A bit pricey, though at $135.

On the STEM size I would suggest the following:

* A microscope never gets old, I bought this one ([https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NOU54O](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NOU54O)) and was surprised by its quality at a very low price. _Never_ buy these from ToysRUs or similar store, those are junk. To jumpstart the fun, I suggest you also buy a set of prepared slides, e.g. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055DZ3EK](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055DZ3EK)

* An adequate spectroscope ([https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B84DGDA](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B84DGDA)) can be bought for under $10! I bought this for my 9 year old and he had a lots of fun with it.

* My son also loved the Zome kit ([https://www.amazon.com/Zometool-Creator-1-Construction-Kit/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Zometool-Creator-1-Construction-Kit/dp/B005C1HCFS)). We had funs discussing how to build a 4-D cube!

* Walkie Talkies: I would have killed for these when I was a kid. I bought this pair ([https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GH7TKVK](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GH7TKVK)) but in this age of iPads and the like didn't really entice my son much. He likes to take them with him when we hike, though.

* Make your own soma set: Using this supercheap set of cubes ([https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007F0UQR0](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007F0UQR0)) and a glue gun.

</comment><comment><USER8> Ive had good success with the boe bot (basic stamp version). Its like the c64 of robotics and comes with a similarly brilliant user manual. Costs about $150. [https://parallax.com](https://parallax.com)

</comment><comment><USER20> It depends on the age you're looking for, but at around ages 6–10 ours enjoyed Snap Circuits: [https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00CIXVIRQ](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00CIXVIRQ)

</comment><comment><USER21> (1) Another vote for Sphero. I bought Sprk+. I like seeing the innards and doing the simple blocky programming to make it move around the floor. {Hey you can even look at the C code behind the blocks.)

It needs a mobile phone with Bluetooth. There are some example programs already written that allow you to get it moving from the get-go.

(2) Has anyone tried Piper Computer Kit? Would like to know pros & cons. I have never got into minecraft? {Please don't hate me for this.) Is it hard? Am I just too lazy, or is it that I prefer chess?

I'm a teacher. No kids myself, but I like to try out and introduce STEM toys to my class.

</comment><comment><USER22> This isn't answering your question but I think it is much more important for the parents and the people around the child to be interested in STEM than to buy STEM toys.

</comment><comment><USER23> A new product that won't be shipping until March is Play Impossible Gameball: [http://www.playimpossible.com](http://www.playimpossible.com) If you sign up for the email list you will be given a discount in the first shipment.

My boys (7, 9, and 11 yrs) have access to an early version and play with it almost daily. It gets them active and has basic math and physics games.

</comment><comment><USER24> What age are you referring to? A 10 year old needs something different than a 15 year old or a 3 year old.

For young kids, blocks and just letting kids play and build stuff from whatever they find outside is great.

For older kids, Scratch and Coderz ([http://gocoderz.com/](http://gocoderz.com/)) are great.

</comment><comment><USER25> [http://littlebits.cc/](http://littlebits.cc/) is a great start

<comment><USER26> My 4 year old loves assembling these somewhat randomly (usually while I'm playing with them.) For her, the most interesting behaviors are when she seriously stresses a circuit by adding jitter - like forcing a servo to a new position. She'll sit there and I can tell she's trying to figure out _why_ what she's doing has an effect on an unrelated part of the system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Get a foldscope for $20 from their Kickstarter project. [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/276738145/foldscope- the...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/276738145/foldscope-the-origami- paper-microscope)

</comment><comment><USER28> I'll add Flexeez (US name) or Wammy (European name), a geometric construction toy originally from Japan, I think. My 10yo figured out all of the Platonic solids using it, and then moved on to hyperbolic shapes. Also made lots of hats and belts and bandoliers, etc.

</comment><comment><USER29> My wife is starting a stem group at our local primary school and the kids (aged 6-11) got most excited about the vinegar in bottle + balloon + baking soda experiment.

</comment><comment><USER30> try Sphero, its a fun robot to learn with.</comment>


Levels.fyi Salary Stream – Verified salary submissions emailed to you weekly - <AUTHOR> https://www.levels.fyi/verified/ <comment><USER2> Having it verified only solves half the issue(people lying). The bigger half is that people use this as a tool for 'bragging'. Joe Schmo making 90k in OKC isn't going to submit. Nor is the lady who feels severely underpaid even working for FAANG.

<comment><USER3> We cant let perfect be the enemy of better. Especially when dealing with a complex topic</comment></comment>


Is there evidence that dependency injection improves outcomes? - <AUTHOR> https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/362886/is-there-evidence-that-the-use-of-dependency-injection-improves-outcomes-in-soft <comment><USER2> Sad to see that the first response mentions DI frameworks and more code. Dependency injection can - and probably should - be as simple as injecting dependencies in a constructor, period.

DI just means that you inject the functions/objects you'll need in your module. There is no black magic or anything. To me, it's the only way to build decoupled systems with good separation of concerns.

<comment><USER3> > mentions DI frameworks and more code

This seems to me like pushing the the dependency problem somewhere else rather than solving it.</comment></comment>


WhatsApp turns on two-factor authentication for everyone - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.co.uk/article/whatsapp-two-factor-authentication-turn-on <comment><AUTHOR> I just wanted to add that this is more than a nice feature for the security conscious. Attacks duplicating a phone number precisely to take control of a WhatsApp account are very real and somewhat common, and TFA would go a long way on preventing them.</comment>