Writer-in-Residence at a Homeless Shelter - <AUTHOR> https://www.guernicamag.com/homeless-and-nowhere/ <comment><USER2> Makes me feel so much better about refusing to stay in a shelter during the years I was homeless. A tent and control over my life were vastly more humane than what I am reading here.

 _Homelessness traumatizes its victims. We might even call it a triple trauma. First, your life falls apart: family and friends shut their doors; your belongings disappear. This is a kind of living death. Then you're traumatized again, separately but relatedly, by the stress of living in danger. Shelters are lousy with drugs and violence; streets are cold and your last possessions are imperiled. You're disdained by your fellow man. You're lucky if the despair doesn't drive you to addiction, but addiction is a third kind of trauma when it arrives._

And this is why we need to solve affordable housing. It is unconscionable that we do this to so many Americans.

<comment><USER3> I had a few friends who were (occasionally) homeless, and they avoided shelters at all cost. I've heard the same from friends who had experience with or worked in mental hospitals.

Conversely, one of my best experiences was helping with organizing a massive Christmas party for the homeless. It was... surreal and confusing and confronting to see some very 'stereotypically' homeless people dancing and flirting and getting drinks and snacks at the bar like, well, 'normal' people.

I feel that often best things we can do for the homeless and those with mental health issues is to ensure that they feel like full human beings, rather than at best objects of charity or pity. And, as you say, a core part of that is making sure they have as much 'normal' in their life as possible. Having a place to call your own is pretty fundamental to that, I'd say.

<comment><USER4> This! A million times this! We seem exceptionally good at marginalising those in society that need normality the most. It boggles the mind that in the year 2017 we seem to still not be able to strike a balance between our humanity and profit.

You cannot treat someone like an outcast and sub human and expect them to recover into being fully functioning human beings again after such trauma.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That was a good article. After coming to US for college I decided to help in a soup kitchen on Saturdays for a while. Well it was more of a breakfast pancake and coffee kitchen but same idea.

It was eye opening how rampant mental disease is among the homeless. It seems addiction for many was a way to self-medicate and or just get away from the constant stress. One person I remember was a former community college professor and he would come regularly. He was calm, intelligent, well read, I forgot what he taught maybe history or literature. But then I also heard stories from people who were there longer to be careful, sometimes he would snap, see daemons and yell obscenities and so on.

Some people were always cheery and happy, that was surprising. Most were quiet, looked down just took the food and left. Some would come for seconds and would tell us they have a family, a child or someone else waiting for it.

Anyway the point was that it was a very good experience and taught me a few things. It definitely dispelled the often repeated myth how homeless people are just lazy and don't know how to manage their money and so on. It is a pretty complex problem. I understand that a while back there used to be state mental institutions. Those closed down and states just let the homeless out onto the streets. Why don't they open them again, was a budget issue?

There was talk about YC trying out basic income, wonder if there is any space there having a non-for-profit startup which provides a shelter like that with psychological help and counseling. If it is worth disrupting coffee making, or nutrition or taxi monopolies, maybe it is also worth seeing if there is something to be done for those who need help the most.

<comment><USER6> >It was eye opening how rampant mental disease is among the homeless

Something I read some time ago that really resonated and I'll (badly) paraphrase:

We think that a person becomes homeless when they spend their last dollar and have none left for housing. But that's not true, and in fact they become homeless when they spend their last social connection and have none left for housing.

Framing it this way, for me, it became easier to understand why, in societies without strong safety nets for those with mental illnesses, homelessness and mental illness is so strongly correlated. Such people run out of doorways they can darken, couches they can surf, and then have no further fallback option short of being out on the street.

This isn't the only situation someone becomes homeless, of course. But it seems a common one.

<comment><USER7> This is an important point.

And weak ties get broken, too. (I've never been homeless, but I've seen it happen to friends and acquaintances).

Things like going to church, browsing in a bookstore or stopping by the corner bar to watch the game or Game of Thrones are doable when you're just poor: go light on the collection plate, read a book and put it back, or nurse a $1 Coke all night.

Walking in with all your possessions and in need of a shower is a different story. You might have friends who will let you wash up and drop off your bag, but can you get to them easily? Are they going to be home?

Maybe you should just head to your campsite early and save that favor for when you really need it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Zoning is the major cause of homelessness. There are almost no cities where you can set up a SRO or tiny houses and actually help people. If Bezos is still looking for a cause I hope he considers setting up a free city, some place probably in the desert where anyone can come to live for free.

<comment><USER9> There are tons of barely-zoned counties across the country. Places with dirt- cheap land one could just set up trailers and campsites on.

The problem is that often those communities already have poverty problems. What is the path to employment, permanent shelter, and (if needed) treatment?

<comment><USER8> >The problem is that often those communities already have poverty problems. What is the path to employment, permanent shelter, and (if needed) treatment?

Exactly, if you put them far enough away with no economy you will still have to provide the resources for them to survive. At least in a dense city per capita living expense goes down.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Sounds positively Victorian. Like the poorer class of workhouses.</comment>


Webify Me - <AUTHOR> https://webifyme.org/en-US/quiz/ <comment><USER2> I just took the whole effing quiz and when I submitted it threw an error, losing all my answers in the process. Great

 _Forbidden (403)

CSRF verification failed. Request aborted._

<comment><USER3> Same here. First few questions were interesting, but my interest waned quickly and I only finished it because I had already invested 45 seconds.

The message also includes "More information is available with DEBUG=True."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Doesn't work for me either. What do you guys think about the collage layout though? I'm interested, as it's very similar to what we are trying to achieve at bindle: <http://www.bindle.me/bindles/2>

</comment><comment><USER5> Well, that sucked. Go through the whole process then ask for an email address? Waste of time.</comment>


If Craigslist cost $1 - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/if-craigslist-cost-1.html

<comment><USER2> _The number of scam artists using the site would go down, because it's more difficult to be anonymous when money changes hands._

Only slightly more difficult. The reality is that stolen credit card numbers are easily available to anyone who really wants to find and buy them (in bulk) and so using "ability to pay money" as a criteria for detecting non-scammers is weak. That's precisely because what scammers are good at is illegal acts, like getting stolen credit card numbers.

<comment><USER3> I think the point is it would become much less worthwhile to spam the site, at least with 'simple' spam. Stolen credit card numbers are easily available but using them just to spam Craigslist is probably a poor return on investment. Ironically, more complex scams could become more worthwhile if users start to show a higher level of trust in ads because they've been paid for.

<comment><USER2> You are probably right that increased trust because of payments could make the scams work better, but bear in mind that a typical stolen credit card can be bought for a few cents. They are almost free.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> From what I've read around the Internet, Craigslist is perfectly happy being one of the worlds largest websites run by 32 people. I don't think they want to grow to a huge marketplace, or want to make billions. They sound like a company that's perfectly happy with their place on the 'Net and thats that.

From their Wikipedia article, "Other factors he [Craig Newmark] cites are consistency of down-to-earth values, customer service and simplicity."

To me, those go away if they start charging for posts.

<comment><USER5> _"Other factors he [Craig Newmark] cites are consistency of down-to-earth values, customer service and simplicity." To me, those go away if they start charging for posts._

I'd like you to explain that one. Lots of companies charge money and have exactly those qualities.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> What if publishing a blog post cost $1? Would people spend more time thinking them through?

<comment><USER7> $1 for each Google search..it'll make them billions!

<comment><USER8> everyday...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Gosh, all that sounds amazing. Let me blow your minds, though: what if CL cost _two_ dollars?

This is unbelievably weak. Godin's not exactly on a hot streak right now, is he?

<comment><USER10> > Let me blow your minds, though: what if CL cost two dollars?

It's well understood that the psychological difference between free and $1 is much larger than the difference between $1 and $2.

<comment><USER9> So you're saying your mind isn't blown? Hmm, might have to start shaving my head...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If Craigslist charged $1 dollar I would have a really good Idea for an ad based website.

<comment><USER12> craigslistrefugees.com : For when your listing isn't worth a buck!

Advertisers: Please contact us to be put in touch with our userbase of people who take the castaway things of people who are such tightwads they wouldn't pay $1 to list. They combined the technical savvy of eBay users, the purchasing power of MySpace users, and the commercial tolerance of Slashdot users! Your CPM campaigns have never seen anything like it!

<comment><USER11> Craigslistrefugees.com: Because you don't have to pay a buck!

<comment><USER13> I rather like:

Craigslistrefugees.com: Because you don't have to give a buck!

<comment><USER14> No one gives a buck!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> eBay is a great example of how charging money does not curve bogus, repetitive listings or fraud for that matter. A reputation system might go a long way and make people more accountable.

<comment><USER16> eBay is a great example of how a reputation system does not curb bogus, repetitive listings, or fraud for that matter.

<comment><USER17> Well, of how _their_ reputation system... There's a lot of room for experimentation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It seems of late everyone is trying to improve on something that is obviously working. ie. Craigslist

Love it or hate it, it's working for them.

Why not examine why it is working so well and take some lessons, and build better products?

<comment><USER19> If you have nothing to say, say it anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> No objection to the usability assertions, but there's a huge problem with this idea that Craigslist will now always control the classifieds market no matter what they charge. This meme has caught on recently and it's time for it to die. It's not Craigslist's responsibility to provide journalism or to use their large size to extract profit and solve the world's problems.

If Craigslist charged $1, users would immediately flee to any new competing sites that only charged for job and real estate listings, just like Craigslist does now. Then Seth Godin and Joel Spolsky could complain about those sites' margins instead, and those sites could take those complaints all the way to the bank.

<comment><USER21> Yeah... the fundamental cost of classified ads isn't zero, but is so close to it that anybody who tries to charge $1 will have trouble with the ones who do it for free. That's the way to think about it, really. Running classified ads for even a medium-sized city is something that quite a lot of us could toss together in a weekend, and with the correct choice of framework, we could get it to scale fairly well in another couple of weekends. There's not much challenge.

And per some conversations from a few months ago about how hard it is to replicate a full site like Stack Overflow, replicating Craigslist from a features point of view really does seem to be pretty easy. What you can't replicate overnight is the _ubiquity_ of Craigslist; the fact that they cover the country, and that everyone, even very non-technical friends of mine, know what it is. Both of these could be overcome if Craigslist started charging too much. (Though if they stay the course I'm not sure how they could be defeated in any reasonable period of time.)

<comment><USER22> >the fact that they cover the country, and that everyone, even very non- technical friends of mine, know what it is

That's why after you build the free version, you name it something similar, eg: freelist or joeslist. Now people get the gist of what it is just from the name, you can't be sued for copyright and you're a valid competitor.

Craigslist is undoubtedly a useful service but it's trivial to implement and the only reason to use craigslist over some competitor is because everyone _else_ uses craigslist. If you place a barrier to entry, you lose customers unwilling to pay. If you lose customers, you lose other customers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> He's completely ignoring the fact that some people (a lot of people actually) won't pay any price. Changing the price from free to $1 would probably have more effect than a site changing its price from $1 to $10.

<comment><USER24> Isn't that exactly the point he's making

<comment><USER25> He's saying making it a buck will make CL a lot of money.

OP is saying that may not happen. People might move to another classifieds website in mass. CL might end up making a lot less money because less traffic = less price for paid sections of their site(ie. job sections in certain cities).

<comment><USER24> I think seth is saying a lot less ads will be placed, which will make the site nicer to use.

Combine that added usability with the critical mass it already has and CL stay dominant and will make more money than it does currently.

<comment><USER26> I think he's wrong about it though. Honestly, craigslist hasn't failed me much. I rarely get spam or ads. When I need to sell something, it has always worked out. Part of the wonder of craigslist is that everyone has access to it. If they charged to post, some people wouldn't pay, and the community would suffer

<comment><USER25> Yeah I saw his post more as a HUGE hypothetical fantasy.

The premise of it is based on making money. While that is usually the end pursued by most commercial ventures, Craig Newmark has made it abundantly clear that optimizing money is never the goal at Craigslist.

<comment><USER5> _The premise of it is based on making money_

That's not what I read it as. I think the key paragraph is:

 _Money creates a sort of friction. In the digital economy, magical things can happen when there is no friction. You can scale to infinity. On the other hand, sometimes you want friction._

Especially the last line. By charging a small amount, you remove the ability to scale to infinity. I would charge far less than a dollar per ad, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Or maybe it would become just like ebay.

<comment><USER10> Hugely successful to the point that they can buy Skype for $billions just for the hell of it?

<comment><USER28> I don't think that's Craig Newark's metric for success.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> _The revenue of the site would soar, which means that the people running the site could ... change the economy of an emerging nation._

I find that whenever I say things like this, people either look at me funny or laugh. I wish more people shared this kind of naive optimism.

</comment><comment><USER30> this reminds me of the "if email cost a penny" arguments. I think i agree, but I haven't thought about it enough to see the likely ramifications.

<comment><USER31> The only thing that would likely happen in both cases, craigslist and email, is people would set up free alternatives instantly. Everything needed for that is out there for free already, ready to run.

<comment><USER24> I agree the free alternatives would be set up, but in the case of Craigslist I think it probably has enough critical mass to keep its dominant position.

A free email provider would still let you send and receive messages from anyone. A free classified listings site doesn't give you access to traffic on the paid classified listings site.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> He's really using money as a proxy for identity/reputation/culpability. If you have something at stake, you are less likely to act like a jackass. Craigslist's propensity for scamming (and positive frictionless interaction) is because of its anonymity more than its cost.

</comment><comment><USER33> I wonder how much those spammers make per bogus listing. If it's more than what legit advertisers make per listing then charging per listing will only drive out the good guys or, at best, do nothing. If it's not, charge somewhere in the middle and, voila, problem solved.

I guess the reality is, you can only have a spamerless site when all your users are more lucrative than spammers.

Anyway, even if it _would_ result in higher profits, CL would not be interested. Because they're not interested in driving up their profits.

</comment><comment><USER34> Bad idea.

As a classified ad owner (2nd largest in my country), doing so would only give a chance to a newcomer.

The problem is to charge for the first penny... <http://redeye.firstround.com/2007/03/the_first_penny.html>

</comment><comment><USER35> Craigslist does need to start charging for personals. $1 would be pretty appropriate - enough to make spam unprofitable, but not enough to drive legit users to a better deal (at least I'm not aware of any).

</comment><comment><USER36> Well, sometimes friction is good, sometimes friction is bad. So let some sites have friction, and let Craigslist be Craigsilst.

</comment><comment><USER37> In response: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850380>

</comment><comment><USER38> Well, I don't think it is a bad idea.

I'm implementing a similar idea. But the adv will cost $5,00.</comment>


Babel in Khan Academy's Internationalization Toolchain - <AUTHOR> http://engineering.khanacademy.org/posts/i18n-babel-plugin.htm

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I appreciate the irony of a post on internationalisation that hard-codes "first" and "last" names. Not that I have any better ideas!

(Note for any iOS devs, iOS 9 introduces a cool NSPersonNameComponentsFormatter that tries to help with this sort of thing.)

<comment><AUTHOR> The example was adapted from internal documentation as an example of how templating works with our i18n component. There's still lots I have to learn about i18n. "familyName" and "givenName" would be more general, but there might still be some edges cases that doesn't cover.

<comment><USER3> [http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods- programmers-b...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers- believe-about-names/) is a fun read.</comment></comment></comment>


Yii 1.1.14 release candidate is available - <AUTHOR> http://www.yiiframework.com/news/72/yii-1-1-14-release-candidate-is-available/

<comment><USER2> I've used Yii in a few projects and it's probably the most underrated and least known mature PHP framework out there. Amazingly well organized, documented and powerful. I'm always a little disappointed when a new PHP framework pops up and gets all the attention while not even achieving 20% of Yii's feature set.

<comment><USER3> I agree there; somehow I got the feeling that mostly Chinese and Russian folks are using it, meaning that up-to-date resources/tutorials in English are limited.

One of the major things in v1.x that put me off from feeling too comfortable with it was the lack of coding standards - naming conventions, spacing etc. This might be personal, but to me that was one of the little annoying things that didn't really let me make the switch completely.

v2[1] addressed these things which may lead to a better adoption. It looks pretty promising, but it will need more time to become stable.

[1] [https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2](https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2)

<comment><USER4> I'm a bit puzzled by your post to be honest;

While there are significant numbers of Chinese and Russian Yii developers, it's always been an English first project, all documentation is in English (as well as other languages) and almost all 3rd party extensions are written in English too.

Regarding coding standards, Yii 1.x code does indeed have quite a cramped style and this (afaik) was never documented, it was more of an informal agreement between contributors to maintain a consistent feel. But why did you find this a barrier for entry when writing applications on top of it? It's only whitespace and of course, you're free to use your own conventions in your own code.

<comment><USER3> The best example is the fact that the first (and the only AFAIK) conference was held in Ukraine and most of the coverage was available in either Russian or Ukrainian. There were slides in English, but noone was writing additionally about it in other languages.

Also, while the site and official docs are in English, adoption of a framework is greatly influenced by the people who are blogging about it. I found many devs actively writing about Yii in Russian/Chinese, while the English sources were either outdated or ended up on "Let's build a helloworld app with Yii" or comparing Yii's performance with Cake/CI/Symfony/potato.

Regarding coding standards - this is personal and of course you can change it, but to me it was a sign of ignorance and reminded me of sloppy coding. Whenever I do something through gii (code generator) I had to do a few rounds of replaces to format everything the way I want. Doesn't influence anything directly, but is damn annoying.

Hope this makes sense.

<comment><USER4> Ok I see your point regarding the conference, that was a bit annoying for me too.

I'm still confused about your coding standards point, considering that the core framework _is_ pretty consistent, just that those standards are mostly not written down. Also, for future reference, you can copy the Gii templates and edit them for your needs, the default templates are simply meant as reasonably sensible defaults.

<comment><USER3> Regarding the coding standards - I meant on these things: no spaces after/before '=>'/ or dots for concatenating strings, mixing camel and snake cases sometimes, naming of certain classes/methods weren't so clear etc.

Thanks for the Gii templates; will definitely have a look at that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yii is cool, it's one of the most mature and opiniated PHP frameworks out there. I wish their Active Record implementation was available elsewhere as well.

</comment><comment><USER6> Yii is an amazing Framework all-round, well documented and has a fairly active community.

I just finished my first Yii extension which can come in handy when mixing Yii URL creation and Javascript: [https://github.com/Ainsleh/Yii- JSUrlManager](https://github.com/Ainsleh/Yii-JSUrlManager)

</comment><comment><USER7> We are using this for our web and backend at Lifebit and i can confirm this makes PHP development so much more enjoyable. We have tried Code Igniter, CakePHP and a bunch of others. Has the right mix of community, documentation, weight, speed and code commits activity.

</comment><comment><USER8> Some time ago I wrote why Yii is much better than CodeIgniter:

[http://www.backwardcompatible.net/123-7-reasons-why-yii- fram...](http://www.backwardcompatible.net/123-7-reasons-why-yii-framework-is- better-than-codeigniter)

</comment><comment><USER9> Why is a dot release on the homepage of hacker news? Not saying that to be snarky but is there any specific reason.

<comment><USER4> Because people upvoted it. Also this is a relatively significant release with some important new features, e.g. redis cache support and password helpers</comment></comment>


Recruiting and growing talent - The disciplined approach of the Baltimore Ravens. - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/sports/football/19ravens.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print

<comment><USER2> I'm a bit biased (Ravens fan), but I suspect this would be an interesting read for non-fans alike.</comment>


Ask HN: What tools do you use for SEO? - <AUTHOR>

Learning and working on SEO may not be the best use of a startup's time, but is often important for the long run.<p>What tools do you use in your startup that help you with your SEO? <comment><USER2> I worked at a small e-commerce site doing in-house SEO. Eventually I transitioned to doing web development. I could make lots of recommendations for SEO to my employers but it basically boiled down to making the best possible website for users. They needed much more help implementing those changes than "doing SEO." For example, our site was slow. Improving the site load time would improve user experience and improve SEO. So my point is, don't let SEO distract you. There are arguments about whether SEO is even separable from good web design/development.

But to literally answer your question, the tools I would use are all free and from Google: Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Trends

You can spend the $5,000 on Google AdWords to drive traffic to your site.

</comment><comment><USER3> we are using SEOMOZ premium</comment>


Ask HN: Who is hiring winter internships/coop - <AUTHOR> Available winter 2018 internships/coops for undergrad students <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15151627](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15151627)</comment>


Protesters In Baltimore Pulled Down a Columbus Statue And Into The Harbor - <AUTHOR> https://www.buzzfeednews.com/skbaer/baltimore-christopher-columbus-statue-toppled <comment><AUTHOR> Shortened buzzfeed's title. I'm glad a group did this. San Franciscans failed to get Columbus in the water on Juneteenth because the city of San Francisco took the statue down after the nose had already been cut off the morning before protestors were going to.</comment>


Shuttleworth Invests $1 Million in Ceph Storage Startup Inktank - <AUTHOR> http://www.inktank.com/news-events/new/shuttleworth-invests-1-million-in-ceph-storage-startup-inktank/

<comment><USER2> Some interesting background - Ceph and Inktank have roots in DreamHost.

<http://blog.dreamhost.com/2012/05/04/our-babys-all-grown-up/></comment>


AnyBar: OS X menubar status indicator - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tonsky/AnyBar <comment><USER2> I'll be that guy on this thread that points out Hammerspoon. It's an OS X automation tool that replaces pretty much every OS X 'tweak' style application out there. [http://www.hammerspoon.org/go/#simplemenubar](http://www.hammerspoon.org/go/#simplemenubar)

I think it's the best of these type of projects, and would love to see more people using it / developing and sharing scripts.

<comment><USER3> Care to share your implementation of your favorite feature? I'm finding it hard to picture what the workflow/result will be like.

<comment><USER4> If one likes being cheap, it's fun to mute Spotify if there's an Ad. Yeah...

        function muteSpotifyOnAd()
          if (hs.spotify.isRunning()) then
            if (hs.spotify.getCurrentTrack():lower() == 'spotify') then
              hs.spotify.setVolume(0)
            else
              hs.spotify.setVolume(100)
            end
          end
        end
        hs.timer.doEvery(10, muteSpotifyOnAd)

<comment><USER5> No thanks, one likes earning a few cents from their published music.

<comment><USER6> Spotify still gets paid by the advertiser, and so does the artist.

It's like switching TV channels when the ad plays.

In analog media, close to no one ever listened to / watched ads, due to exactly that – many VHS recorders would even automatically skip them.

<comment><USER7> > close to no one ever listened to / watched ads

I can still sing jingles I learned from watching TV ads in the 70s.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Bitbar feels much better imo and allowing not just dots - any stuff

[https://github.com/matryer/bitbar](https://github.com/matryer/bitbar)

<comment><USER9> My BitBar script to display my current free drive space:

        #!/bin/bash
        df -h | awk '{print $4}' | head -n2 | tail -n1

(There has to be a neater way to do this...)

<comment><USER10> There is, of course. :)

        df -h | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'

<comment><USER9> Thanks :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I created a fork of AnyBar with added support for specifying an icon id for any icon from icons8.com and the status icon will change to it. [https://github.com/niklasberglund/AnyBar- icons](https://github.com/niklasberglund/AnyBar-icons)

Just now quickly whipped it together. Needs improvement(error handling and asynchronous downloading) and packages.

HN submission: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13051347](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13051347)

</comment><comment><USER12> I woulde like to point out the awesome PowerPro for Windows, something like an Swiss army knife of desktop automation in Windows --that seems to be under active development: [http://powerpro.cresadu.com/xfeatures.htm](http://powerpro.cresadu.com/xfeatures.htm)

<comment><USER13> Never was the cultural differences between the windows and OSX platforms more striking than when looking at the PowerPro page [http://powerpro.cresadu.com/xfeatures.htm](http://powerpro.cresadu.com/xfeatures.htm) and the HammerSpoon page [http://www.hammerspoon.org/](http://www.hammerspoon.org/)

<comment><USER14> Well the PowerPro website was done nearly 20 years ago, while the HammerSpoon one two years ago, so that's mostly where the difference comes from. Also it seems the PowerPro website makes more sense if viewed on a good old 1024x768 resolution.

<comment><USER12> This. PowerPro is an amazing tool, although somewhat esoteric. What surprises me is that successive Windows releases have not ended making the development impossible. I submitted a pair of plugins _more than 10 years ago_. I've been surprised to see development is still active, and for what I understand is pretty equivalent to Hammerspoon, including window management, shortcuts, menubars & desktop scripting support.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is there anything similar for Linux? Closest I can find is [https://github.com/abgoyal/ShellToolsApplet](https://github.com/abgoyal/ShellToolsApplet)

<comment><USER16> For Unity: [https://github.com/limpbrains/somebar](https://github.com/limpbrains/somebar)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Does anyone think this could be used to query the desktop Slack app to mirror the information in the dock icon, i.e. "no messages", "messages", "direct messages"?

<comment><USER18> Unread status is managed remotely (sync'd between devices), so you should be able to query it with an API like [https://api.slack.com/methods/channels.history](https://api.slack.com/methods/channels.history)

I wouldn't want such a distraction on screen at all time though.

</comment></comment><comment> aaron-santos Great single-purpose tool that does exactly what it advertises. I found AnyBar when searching for a programable menubar indicator. I use it at the end of a particle.io -> ifttt -> node/express/socket.io -> go-lang middleware -> AnyBar pipeline so I don't have to get up to check the only single occupancy restroom at the office.

</comment><comment><USER19> I like Bitbar more. It gives you direct text output in the bar, and extra lines when clicked..

</comment><comment><USER20> Thank you for this! Simple and small. I use bitbar and like it very much, but this is a nice add on. I'm all in. Keep developing.

</comment><comment><USER21> My absolute favorite part of this is exposing controls as a localhost tcp listener, making it easy to control from any tool.

<comment><USER22> And -- incidentally -- any other computer on your network.

But hey, security schemurity.

<comment><USER23> Listening on 127.0.0.1 will not make it available it in the network.

<comment><USER24> This app is not listening on 127.0.0.1 — it binds to _all_ interfaces (and on both IPv4 and IPv6 too), and the parent's comment is completely valid. Anyone who can get a UDP packet to your machine can control this.

      AnyBar  32770 ---   14u    IPv4 0x</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>----       0t0      UDP *:1738
      AnyBar  32770 ---   15u    IPv6 0x</comment><comment></comment><comment>----       0t0      UDP *:1738

(The `nc` command in the example is directed at localhost, but that doesn't imply that the app is bound to localhost only, just that it's bound to _at least_ that.)

Unix sockets are a better fit for this sort of thing, as they can be by default restricted to your user, and optionally opened up to others. (i.e., Unix sockets are authenticated) You can always do both (implement Unix sockets and Internet sockets).

Even binding to localhost in general is not _completely_ safe, if a webpage or other apps can be fooled into making the right request. (I _think_ UDP is safe here, but who knows.)

</comment><comment><USER25> I'm curious why UDP and not just a small HTTP server? Honestly the overhead is tiny particularly in this use case.

<comment><USER26> I believe it's still easier to write a string to a socket than do a full-blown HTTP request. It was designed to be accessible from _anywhere_: bash scripts, build tools plugins, etc. To me single UDP packed seemed like a lowest common denominator

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> This looks super handy for having a simple status!

Out of curiosity, anyone know what the hammer and sickle icon is for in the screenshot?

*edit for grammar

<comment><USER26> It's a keyboard layout indicator (RU/EN). I'm using non-standard layout [http://ilyabirman.ru/projects/typography- layout/](http://ilyabirman.ru/projects/typography-layout/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is neat, but the complete lack of access control (UDP) just doesn't seem prudent in 2016.

<comment><USER29> I assume it binds to the loop back interface so that other hosts can't send messages. Regardless UDP interface does seem odd for this sort of tool.

Edit: nope. It listens on all interfaces. At least an attack can only maliciously change your menubar colour.

<comment><USER30> Well, assuming the syntax for calling local files isn't breakable by using "../square" to open executables with JPEG extensions too... ;)</comment></comment></comment>


How to become a programmer - <AUTHOR> Hello, I have been doing some web programming during the last few months and I'd like to become much better at it. I am trying to learn by reading programming (php) books and doing the practice exercises. I have also tried to write my own code for fun. The problem is that the stuff I do from books are really, really boring! The stuff I do on my own is more fun, but I get stuck quite a bit. Last week I spent an entire day trying to debug why php was not connecting to the mysql db. Once I figured it out, it was great, but I was beat. Is there a better way to learn programming? <comment><USER2> "Once I figured it out, it was great, but I was beat. Is there a better way to learn programming?"

No. You found it.

<comment><USER3> Think of it this way: learning a programming language is learning a completely arbitrary and made up language that is used to talk to a hunk of 80 million silicon switches and try to convince those switches to do something complicated. It's going to take a little while to learn that language.

When I first started studying CS at school, I thought that there was some secret knowledge that the true hackers had that allowed them to program without thinking about it. And alas, I must not have had the hacker gene because I worked at it and worked at it and worked at it until I solved a problem, only to move on to the next problem.

Then, it hit me: That's the secret knowledge. You just have to keep chipping away at it. Eventually you'll become good at it. There's no free ride; it's a lot of hard work.

<comment><USER4> Actually your analogy is very accurate and just as after you reach a certain level of fluency in a new language you stop thinking about what you are going to say and how to compose the sentence you want, and just say it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The way I learned PHP is by developing two apps that I really wanted to build. I set aside three weeks for each app and coded PHP day and night.

One thing I realized was the importance of rhythm. If I code for a day and then come back to it after a week, it was almost like I was starting from zero.

Coding for sometime continuously is a good way to pickup a new language.

<comment><AUTHOR> This makes sense! Think I will take the 3 days off between the Christmas and NYE holidays and do this! Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Find someone around you who can program, and somehow get them to mentor you. It's less intimidating, but rather equivalent, if you ask them if they could be available for questions every now and then. I think many people who really like to program will be happy to help you out, as long as you do your homework and show respect for their time.

Ideally, you'd work in the same room as your mentor, but it should be enough if you can meet once a day or so. A longer feedback cycle, or mentoring remotely through the net, is less than ideal, but anything you can get is better than being on your own.

Ask them what language they'd be more comfortable helping you out with. Start playing with that language. For that, follow other advice in this thread. Don't expect to be spoonfed.

If you get stuck in something after giving it a honest try, ask. Every now and then, show them what you are doing, even if you have no immediate problems. Chances are that they can steer you into better ways to think about problems, simplify your code, etc. These are insights that only come through experience. They are often hard to explain out of the blue, and hard to internalize so that you can put them to use later, when explained in abstract terms. They are best communicated in little doses, while commenting on actual code that addresses actual problems. Ideally, _your_ code and _your_ problems.

</comment><comment><USER7> I think the route to success with programming is much like maths, medicine or indeed any discipline, go for breadth first then depth. Don't spend all your time mastering one aspect, try to learn many different things at once even if you are actually only interested one specific thing. Once you have even just basic knowledge and familiarity with most facets of a field then you will be better equipped to approach any specialization.

So in your case its fine to learn PHP but I would encourage you to look at many different things that are unlike or even the antithesis of PHP. It will help you understand where general computing nomenclature comes from, what the limits of your chosen technology are, how best to implement it in a given environment and ultimately it will give you a much better understanding of the technology itself.

</comment><comment><USER8> It's always exciting to hear someone eager starting out. The only secret is to keep being interested and not give up on yourself. If you're looking for a fun problem to solve, try writing a brute-force sudoku solver. That could be fun in the context of a webapp. I'd also recommend getting a solid grounding in SQL and designing schemas. You can do a lot of this by brainstorming applications and then working out how you'd design the schema. You don't actually have to write it, and the process can be a good way to get a feel for whether an application will be simple or hard.

</comment><comment><USER9> There is only one way. You need to pick a problem and then try to solve it. The problem needs to have depth and should require some gumption on your part.

Unfortunately, days when you try and solve one problem for a long time can be common. When you think you are getting into something like that you need to take a 5 minute quite break. Something that gives your concious brain quite time, I find ideas and answers flood in then.

</comment><comment><USER10> Don't be turned off by the fact that this is geared towards kids more than adults:

<http://hacketyhack.net/>

It's a pretty decent introduction to Ruby.

<comment><USER11> There is also "Learn to Program" by Chris Pine [<http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/>]. The book is an easy read, moves along well, and best of all, the entire book in one huge Ruby script, so you can dig in there after you are done reading the book for some real work examples...:D

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm not sure PHP is the best first language.

<comment><USER13> There is one thing that PHP has going for it as a first language: You can do "cool" things with it almost immediately. It is like making an animated drawing back in the day in [whatever version of] Basic.

Most into tutorials start "this is an int, this is a char, this is a variable, etc." Before you even get to anything interesting you are already dozing off.

With PHP, however, you can hack together your own blog/website show it to your friends and say "I made this." The ability to say "I made this" is the best feature of any language, but usually it is a pretty inaccessible feature for the beginner.

<comment><USER14> This is so true. The starting developer will feel an immediate response, without (typically) first having to install/configure the webserver, compile code, setup deployment scripts etc.

PHP is definitely not a good language to start programming at first (for that I'd recommend Scheme, ala SICP) but it's definitely a great one for a My First Website project.

<comment><USER13> I just bought "The Little Schemer." It is rocking my world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> First, ignore the language wars. They are all BS. You want to use PHP, use PHP. Just keep in mind that every language was written for a fairly specific task and it's very good at that task. Don't try to use C to write a server- side script. Likewise, it doesn't make sense to use PHP to write an OS. Try to understand what problem you want to solve and then pick the right tool for the job based on performance, libraries available, community support and past projects that are similar to yours.

Now on to becoming a better programmer:

Find a good project and read some theory books on debugging and how to write code in general (check amazon.com and read the reviews). Books like Code Complete 2nd edition and Beautiful Code. If you want to be more serious about it, the Computer Science series by Knuth will give you all you need to know to get a CS degree, but they are boring so you have to be willing to stick with them. Those books, 3 volumes, are the bibles of Computer Science ( yes, someone will disagree) and as such they are theory. However, you need to know a good deal of that theory to write good software. Specifically, you can concentrate on searching/sorting algorithms, algorithm analyses and machine architecture.

In general, you will find that there is a HUGE learning curve to understand what the computer is doing with your program and how to write code that makes sense, which makes you a good developer. However, the time you invest in learning what happens behind the scenes is worth it's weight in gold, independent of the language you use.

Always try to figure out what the tool/language you are using is trying to do and don't blindly trust it.

Never, ever skimp on comments. You don't have to write a novel and explain that you are adding 2 to variable i, but do explain what the function is doing or what a complex bit of code is doing, this will save you hours when trying to find that bug.

Use a version control tool. The simplest one to use would be Subversion and the book for it is free online. There are also free Subversion hosting services such as <http://beanstalkapp.com/>.

Depending on how serious you are, you might want to look at the coursework from colleges like Stanford. Many top schools post their coursework with lectures online.

Google is your best friend. Just paste the compiler error and remove any variable names and you will often find people who had the same exact problem with possible solutions. You might have to play with the search string, but you will often arrive at an answer quite fast in this manner.

Try to find mentors on forums and newsgroups. This will take time as you develop relationships with people, but it's the best way to learn as the software development industry is still, very much, based on the notion of apprenticeship.

Try to study some open source projects. Little ones are best, as they are least complicated usually. Trying to figure out what someone else wrote will make you a better programmer in a hurry, because you will notice mistakes people make and how you would like to do things differently.

Lastly, think about which tool/program/etc. that you would love to have or rewrite an existing project in your own style and do it. The first one will be horrible, full of bugs and many many problems, but it will teach you more than most classes you take in school.

<comment><USER2> "You don't have to write a novel and explain that you are adding 2 to variable i"

Better yet, don't name your variable "i". Name it something like "PartCounter" or "CustCtr". Then you won't have to write many comments. Your code can be largely self-commenting.

As a general rule of thumb (IMO), never name any variable with less than 3 characters and never allow one variable name to be completely contained within another (Ctr & CustCtr). Being able to find every instance of a variable (and nothing else) with a simple editor global search will save you much time and headaches over the next n years. (Oops, I just violated my own rule.)

<comment><USER16> and, as always, take other people's rules (of thumb) and guidelines with a grain of salt. there's almost always someone who will argue the opposite, all, or part of the time.

( i for one will continue to name my counters i :-) )

<comment><USER17> A long time ago I started naming mine 'ii' or some variant of 'index' for exactly the reason mentioned (wouldn't confuse search/replace).

Although I often try to avoid using counters at all via foreach or recursion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> 1\. Read SICP

2\. Do the exercises

3\. In parallel, choose an open source project and join on that

4\. Share with us your experience

</comment><comment><USER19> PHP is probably a pretty good place to start. I built myself a couple web apps with it years back, having never coded anything previously that wasn't on a TI-82. It's a good introductory language to web programming.

I'm now spending my time on RoR, and I don't think it's a very good language for starters. It's just too much to learn at once.

<comment><USER19> I guess I should mention that there may be something to the argument that you'll probably want to end up with RoR or Python/Django at some point, so maybe you should start there. But at the same time, if you're not familiar with OOP or MVC, or even basic DB programming, it might just be overload.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> When I started coding I found a book that spoke to me -- This is very important because if you get a book you don't like or understand you will not want to learn from it.

And I tend to agree you should probably not start with PHP as your first language. I did, and now all I do is Python and Ruby which are significantly better, imho.

<comment><AUTHOR> The reason I picked PHP, is that so many open source web stuff seems to be written in PHP and I want to be able to customize these apps (ex: joomla, wordpress, etc). But ultimately I just want to code without thinking and if python or ruby takes me there faster, so be it.

<comment><USER21> I've been a PHP developer for 6 years and I'm a ZCE. When possible I choose Python over PHP for web related things.

I think the main thing to accept is that if you're going to be coding then you're going to be thinking a lot. If you're not thinking and going on auto pilot then you don't know enough...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Playful Programming [http://books.google.com/books?id=HMvf12TnJQIC&pg=PA381&#...</a>

</comment><comment><USER23> I'd also like to add that becoming an active member of a forum helps a little bit, as long as you only use it as a last resort.

For a first project, I'd say, just don't give up, think of something you want to make and dont stop until it's done.

</comment><comment><USER24> Stand on the shoulders of giants, e.g. use and study good code.

</comment><comment><USER25> Learn many languages as soon as you feel interested. See programing from as many points of view as possible.

</comment><comment><USER26> An argument for learning Python:

<http://xkcd.com/353/>

</comment><comment><USER27> Join some Opensource project at sourceforge.net

<comment><USER28> I think participating in a community like this also requires learning so that might be a bit too overwhelming to learn to program, learn to use sourceforge and learn how to participate effectively in an open-source project...

Also, I think it's important not to rely too much on others for acquiring knowledge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I recommend throwing out the entire field of computers and starting from first principles. Let's put the Ermine back in _determine_ and stop weaseling our way out of deterministic systems.

<comment><USER30> Where would you begin?

<comment><USER29> > _Where would you begin?_

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.</comment></comment></comment>


Scientist says researchers in immigrant-friendly nations can't use his software - <AUTHOR> http://news.sciencemag.org/europe/2015/09/scientist-revokes-software-license-protest-immigration-friendly-policies <comment><USER2> He blocked users in the US for some other inane reason a year or so ago. Treefinder (the software in question) hasn't been updated for several years and has been surpassed by other (better) tools, anyone still using it would be doing so out of habit rather than it providing any insightful edge.

It seems Jobb is ignorant and racist, and this article has no tangible scientific angle - it's just stirring up controversy.

<comment><USER3> It's also totally unenforceable as it violates EU Law and German Law

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder how close his gene sequences are in relation to Hitlers. His TreeFinder tool might need an update.</comment>


Sewage Is Helping Cities Flush Out the Opioid Crisis - <AUTHOR> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sewage-is-helping-cities-flush-out-the-opioid-crisis/ <comment><USER3> Biobot Analytics (YC W18) is possibly the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology–affiliated company" mentioned in the article. They will "scour the waste pipes with robots that suck up sewage, measure drug amounts and remotely report the data". [http://www.biobot.io/](http://www.biobot.io/)

The Techcrunch write up: [https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/these-are- the-64-startups-...](https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/these-are- the-64-startups-unveiled-at-y-combinator-w18-demo-day-2/) mentions "they hope to also measure pharmaceuticals, infectious disease and food consumption".

Infectious disease finding could be really cool. Imagine easily mapping where a zika outbreak was happening an hour after an infected person uses the restroom. That same day you could do mosquito abatement and post flyers to come to the hospital for treatment.

<comment><USER4> I was reading a book[1] on bacteria phages aka viruses that attack bacteria and they mentioned that in countries that used phages (e.g. Soviet Russia due to a lack of antibiotics), the sewage plant is the first place they would go to look for phages to combat intestinal diseases. There were large amounts of the offending bacteria so it was a prime place to find viruses that had evolved to fight them.

[1] Viruses vs Superbugs [https://amzn.to/2IZXZiJ](https://amzn.to/2IZXZiJ)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If prescription opioids were available legally to addicts, there would be much less of an overdose problem.

[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/treating-heroin- ad...](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/treating-heroin-addiction- with-heroin-what-you-need-to-know-w494829)

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/opinion/sunday/portugal-d...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/opinion/sunday/portugal- drug-decriminalization.html)

[https://www.springboardrecovery.com/switzerlands-approach- he...](https://www.springboardrecovery.com/switzerlands-approach-heroin- epidemic/)

<comment><USER6> Yup. Portugal and Prohibition also proved it yet again. Drugs, gambling and prostitution oughta be decriminalized in order to drive out the criminal element from the supply side and drive down the risks on provider & consumer sides.

For-profit prisons, desperate small towns towns and greedy politicians benefiting, plus the revelations of Ehrlichman of the Nixon administration's intent (WoD targeted the admin's enemies: hippies and blacks), make it and outlawing of other vices perversely-corrupt in the extreme. Let's not forget the 13th amendment loophole expressly endorses slavery of prisoners.

[https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman- rich...](https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard- nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html)

[http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/geo-group-earns- over-60...](http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/geo-group-earns- over-600-000-a-year-from-prisoners-phone-calls-644357)

[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/five-reasons-boca- private-...](http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/five-reasons-boca-private- prison-company-geo-group-is-evil-9967258)

<comment><USER7> But a solution that works isn't worth it, if the abusers don't get punished and humiliated for their moral failings. /s

<comment><USER8> also got to keep them prisons full

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Some have claimed the opioid epidemic is merely part of the "epidemic of despair" [1]. I am inclined to agree.

This may sound harsh but I am inclined to say, _instead of sifting shit, cities might consider ways to find to decent jobs, housing and recreation for their citizens_.

What else can be said? All this a product of the redistribution of wealth upward in an ostensibly wealthy society? What could possibly go wrong?

[1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5607670/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5607670/)

<comment><USER10> Some people just enjoy taking opioids.

But the problem with opioids is that they are slightly moreish.

<comment><USER11> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park)

Rats that live in interesting, healthy environments don't get addicted to opiates.

<comment><USER12> Rat Park has serious replication problems:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7743089](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7743089)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Sewage is "the information superhighway under your feet,"

Life imitates art?

[https://youtu.be/DJklHwoYgBQ](https://youtu.be/DJklHwoYgBQ)

<comment><USER14> I was thinking the exact same thing when I read that haha. Part of the genius of that bit is that it's such a believable product in this day and age.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Australia recently proposed (and later shelved) drug-testing welfare recipients in certain localities. These areas were to be chosen partially due to the level of illicit drugs and metabolites in their waste water.

So, welfare recipients may find themselves drug tested not because they use drugs, but because the people around them do. It stinks of collective punishment.

<comment><USER16> To what end?

So they can go from a desperate drug user to a very desperate drug user?

<comment><USER17> Kind of a circle jerk of poor summaries of the conservative positions on welfare.

Generally the conservative argument is that welfare money should be earned in some way, essentially by doing socially constructive things (ie staying off drugs, applying for jobs, not committing crime). The goal is to direct resources to people who can be helped and are actually putting in effort to take care of themselves, on the assumption that those people can take some assistance and really benefit from it, whereas the addict who is sleeping on the street will just use tax money to buy more drugs.

A common liberal argument (not the only one but a common one), is that it's more important to help "those in need," no strings attached, that you can't expect them to get out of the gutter until their basic needs are met and even if giving them money just enables their habit you have to "do something" and giving them clean needles and cash is better than "doing nothing."

One of the problems that manifests all over the world in varying degrees is the tension between doing "something" which can easily harm more than it helps (the conservatives tend to point to this), and doing ENOUGH to actually help someone (or robust social services to rehabilitate people). In the US it used to be common for people to be institutionalized, they'd have all their needs met and in most cases get some semblance of help, albeit at a cost to their freedom. Well, nobody really liked that system since it was very expensive and was prone to human rights problems (if someone is too mentally ill to consent and you try and experimental treatment on them, are you helping or using them as a lab rat?). So now those people are on the street.

At the end of the day it's a very difficult set of economic and moral problems to solve, and demonizing the political party you dislike and labeling them as heartless villains accomplishes exactly nothing.

What arguably would help is sane housing and public health policies so people could afford a roof over their heads and get medical treatment when needed without having to have an upper class job to pay for it.

<comment><USER7> I can respect that we have different views on how to reach the same goal, however I take issue with the conservative propensity to judge people. All too frequently conservatives rate people with some sort of failing as lesser people. There is a propensity to believe more in punishment and threats than positive re-enforcements.

I believe in effective solutions. Often it seems conservatives will refuse to use an effective and proven solution if they deem it had somebody getting something for nothing.

It seems as if conservatives will stay wide awake at night angry about somebody getting something they didn't deserve.

As a liberal I don't care as much about what people deserve as I care about what works as well as human dignity.

<comment><USER17> There may be some of that but I think you're misunderstanding the predominant conservative view, which has two crucial parts:

1\. Most conservatives believe that the government forcibly taking your money via taxes and using it for purposes you do not approve of is undemocratic and immoral. This is the root of the small government argument - that the government should only do the things that are broadly supported by the population and since the population is fragmented the set of things that enjoy near universal support are very small.

2\. Most conservatives believe very deeply that human dignity is found in freedom, independence, and meaningful work. Some might say "meaningful life" instead but for many conservatives they believe very literally that _doing something that matters_ is the reason for living and if you aren't doing anything that matters then you will be miserable and have no dignity. It isn't even about making money - though that can help make the work meaningful. For many they would say that what matters is being able to contribute to your community and take care of your friends and family, and if you do a job that sucks but it's what you've got and it gives you the money to contribute and take care of the people who rely on you, then THAT is what is meaningful.

So, suppose the proposal is "shall we give this homeless drug addict a home and food and money so their needs are met and put them in additction counseling and treatment and then hope they recover from their addiction, etc."

Perhaps the liberal argument is "yes that should work for getting most people on their feet, and if it enables some people to just live more comfortably in a drugged stupor then that's okay because overall everyone will be better off."

The conservative argument would generally be, (1) it's immoral to take money from people who work hard and take care of themselves to give it to someone who doesn't work so they can live comfortably on drugs, and (2) by just giving them everything you are actually taking away the satisfaction and dignity that comes from taking care of yourself and knowing that you are independent and free.

Note also that the conservatives tend to worry a lot about the moral hazard: they fear that any kind of "bailout" whether it's for homeless people or for Wall Street etc. takes away the consequences of an individuals actions and therefore incentivizes risky, dangerous, or antisocial activity.

Another way to distill it down is to say that liberals tend toward viewing individuals as inherently good and not responsible for bad things that happen to them, and conservatives tend to view people as inherently bad and mostly responsible for both the good and bad that happens to them.

Conservatives tend to see civilization and civil, productive behavior as something very hard earned and fragile, and worry about how social changes like universal social programs and such may undermine civilization - <USER2> Brave New World.

What I find most interesting is the economic libertarian argument about such things which is just to do whatever costs the least :)

Anyway, this stuff is all interesting but to boil it all down what I've learned over time is that there isn't really an us or them or right or wrong politically, rather there are mostly rational people who have reasonable justifications for how they think about these problems, and significantly different life experiences that result in significantly different beliefs about what works and what doesn't, and therefore what politics they subscribe to.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Spending money on trying to find out who is addicted to opiates is a massive waste compared to offering treatment on demand everywhere. It's a very safe bet to assume that opiate addiction is in every community across the board.

<comment><USER19> Phrase this as a positive rather than pejorative statement, and it seems far less compelling.

"Offering treatment on demand everywhere is massively cheaper than trying to find out who is addicted to opiates."

1\. Why can't you do both?

2\. Treatment on demand can be marketed and tailored based on information about users.

3\. I'm not sure it's a safe bet that opiate addiction is in every community. Seems like a false assumption. To my knowledge there are geographic differences, economic differences, and medical access differences between cohorts that use and those that don't.

The danger of disparaging an idea before it reaches maturity is that criticism may actually be incorrect, and discourage/dissuade positive developments. You can get the same criticism across without being counterproductive.

<comment><USER20> >3\. I'm not sure it's a safe bet that opiate addiction is in every community. Seems like a false assumption. To my knowledge there are geographic differences, economic differences, and medical access differences between cohorts that use and those that don't.

The data is pretty staggering. 1 in 3 Americans have an opiate prescription each year, 1 in 20 had misused or obtained opiates, and 1 in 100 self-reported as an addict:

[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-than-one-third- americans-p...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-than-one-third-americans- prescribed-opioids-in-2015/)

<comment><USER5> > Nearly 92 million U.S. adults, or about 38 percent of the population, took a > legitimately prescribed opioid like OxyContin or Percocet in 2015, according > to results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

That is mind boggling! I had no idea that opioid prescriptions were that common.

So is this a Baby Boomer effect?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> > Flush Out the Opioid Crisis

"Clever" titles are annoying to me, and more so when they degrade the clarity of the message.

What does "flushing out" even mean, in the context of the opioid crisis?

Fixing it?

Measuring the crisis?

Identifying hot spots?

Focusing resources?

Identifying specific types of narcotics?

The author has decided that "I am clever" is a more important message than whatever the point of the article is.

If you exert editorial control over anything, fight the temptation to be clever; especially when it obscures the real message.

</comment><comment><USER22> Opiods use ttacking seem like one of the potentially less reliable uses for it given legitimate users and high tolerances. It brings to mind a squeaky clean high school in the same pipe as retirement homes and veteran's centers where there are plenty of chronic pain patients and concluding the school must have a drug problem. I am aware that there are statistical levels of usage beyond what would be remotely probable without the area literally being designated for chronic pain patients.

Meanwhile you can't go wrong with looking for disease tracking.

<comment><USER23> W.w.w.whaat ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Sewage is "the information superhighway under your feet," says Rolf Halden.

Download has a whole new meaning.

</comment><comment><USER25> are there privacy concerns here?

<comment><USER26> Good question. Well if you mix an entire suburb or city block? Probably not, but I imagine that there could be some issues when those robots become cheap enough that you can get it down to house level. Even if you cannot monitor all houses everywhere you could sample houses.

And you wouldn't want that, because then your sample data becomes useless and people start to shit in their back yards, or in public parks.

That said I am still looking for the toilet that does urin analyses ala The Island, I just only want it to tell me, and let me choose to inform my doctor.

<comment><AUTHOR> > I just only want it to tell me, and let me choose to inform my doctor.

I totally agree. It would be wonderful if there was an inexpensive device (it doesn't need to be a toilet) that could perform thorough health analysis, but inform only the user and not any third party. i.e. no Dr or pharmaceutical companies, the producer or manufacturer, the user's insurance broker, ad / marketing companies etc. Absolutely nobody but the user.

I want to trust technology like this because it could perform a profound public good, but untrustworthy companies keep being identified that have ulterior motives (for all sorts of technology, not this specifically).

<comment><USER27> It's going to have to contact a 3rd party to download the latest health diagnostics/flu of the week/software updates.

And speaking of "public good" it would be extremely beneficial to scientists and doctors if that information was made available to them. And beneficial to you, because that device could be improved to give you a better, more informed diagnosis.

The question is what do you care more about, your health? Or your insurance premium?

EDIT: Of course you would want to anonymize it, but you could only go so far while making it still useful. If you unfocused it to a neighbourhood, insurance premiums would go up for bad areas, and the housing market would fluctuate with the health of it's residence.

On the upside, cities and landowners would be incentivized to now care about the health of their residents. So ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for your input. You brought up some important points.

> On the upside, cities and landowners would be incentivized to now care about > the health of their residents. So ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

That would be an interesting consequence.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>