GoDaddy general counsel blogs about SOPA - <AUTHOR> http://rudysyndrome.com/2011/10/28/online-copyright-laws-wont-prevent-a-flourishing-internet.aspx

<comment><USER2> The best part about this is the refreshing level of discourse in the comments. Can you even imagine what the world would be like if political discussion sounded like THAT instead of what you get when you Google 'SOPA'. It brings a tear to my eye.

Also, respect for frankydp and the appropriate title of this link. No spin at all. This is how I imagine the internet when I'm dreaming.</comment>


Facebook Gave Data Access to Huawei - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/technology/facebook-device-partnerships-china.html <comment><USER2> Considering that real, verified information about people and their social network is so valuable, it seems so weird that FB gave it all away so easily. If you have 50,000 users in America and can get the entire list of friends and friends of friends, and the personal / political information about them, you basically have the entire country.

Now wait until someone gets this information and dumps it in a torrent. Will be abused for decades.

<comment><USER3> I wonder if this is because FB is trying really hard to get into China. IIRC Zuckerberg offered Xi to name his first born child.

[https://mashable.com/2017/09/18/zuckerberg-chinese- president...](https://mashable.com/2017/09/18/zuckerberg-chinese-president- baby-names/)

My cringe muscles are getting such a workout these days.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, Xi turned down the offer too. Probably the most bizarre Zuckerberg story I've read yet, which is saying quite a bit.

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/119106...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/11910668/Chinese- president-snubs-Mark-Zuckerbergs-request-for-baby-name.html)

<comment><USER5> Can you imagine asking Adolph Hitler or Stalin for the name for your child?

"It was an honour to meet President Xi [...]"

I threw up a little...

<comment><USER3> They need them clicks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > Facebook officials said that the data shared with Huawei stayed on its > phone, not the company's servers.

Can they prove this, though?

<comment><USER7> No. But could they prove it with the standard FB app either? I mean, you are typing your user name and password on that phone, if you assume the manufacturer is outright malicious, then official API access doesn't really matter one way or the other. An API used to create a third party client is generally a good thing and doesn't actually change this (unless I am missing something here).

You could, however, with some trouble, check which data is going where on your own device, as long as that API isn't meant for direct connection between FB servers and those of a third party.

<comment><USER8> Not only could you check which data is going where on your own device, the journalists behind this reporting did in fact do this with a Blackberry for their previous story: [https://twitter.com/laforgia_/status/1003619319736143872](https://twitter.com/laforgia_/status/1003619319736143872)

They sniffed the network access of the Blackberry as they logged into Facebook via the built-in support, saw it pulling down a bunch of information direct from Facebook to the local device and nothing else, and wrote it up as though it were somehow scandalous and a breach of privacy that Facebook didn't see this as giving a third party access to that information. They didn't let the fact that they knew the third party wasn't receiving that data get in the way of fearmongering then, and I doubt they would here either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Non-developer here. Can someone check my understanding of this situation for me please.

Facebook or any other website has information that ideally only I should have access to. I don't visit Facebook hq with my id in hand to get it, I use a computing device to talk to their computing device. they don't _really_ know if it's me using that device, just that it knows information only I should have (password). The device is also my choice, they just provide general instructions for talking to theirs, or rather just comply with standards. Meaning html or whatever the total information sent from browsers and back again is called. Some browsers being difficult, they even have some code in there for them specifically. Mostly css for ie and mobile safari.

Because me visiting the Facebook building every time I want to see something or like something is ridiculous and something no one thinks happens, when these browsers request information as me they're then referred to as me, or my agent. So if data goes from Facebook to a macbook with chrome on it that knows my password, it's for all intents and purposes a two party relatiinship. No one sees that chrome, osx, my ISP, my router, my whatever; and goes "Facebook is giving data access to third parties!"

Enter mobile devices, or more accurately old mobile devices. Complying with those standards I mentioned above /html /building a quality full functionality browser is hard given their tech. They still want you to be able to use facebook, facebook still wants you using it, and you want to use it. So the device manufacturer and Facebook come up with a communication method they _can_ use. Basically the same information sent and received as if you were using a browser and facebooks standard html, facebooks still just assuming you're on the other end because the device knows your password, but the syntax of their messages is different. Basically a more extreme version of having some funky css in there to make old IE work.

Terminology aside, am I on the right track? If so, what exactly is newsworthy about this? Is there a practical difference from a data security viewpoint between Facebook -> my Huawei phone -> me, and Facebook -> my Huawei phone -> chrome -> me?

If my user agent - the hardware /software I choose to use to talk to facebook - is hostile to me, I'm fucked either way aren't I?

<comment><USER8> You're exactly right, and there is no practical difference from a data security viewpoint. Except web access is probably worse in practice: many of the older mobile devices funnelled all web browsing through manufacturer- provided or third party servers, this is still an option in Chrome on Android, and desktop browsers are plagued by malicious extensions.

The New York Times is arguing that allowing users to access Facebook with third-party apps running on hardware the users own is the same as giving those third parties access to the data, that the setting which blocked third parties like Zynga and Cambridge Analytica from accessing this data should block those apps too, and that not doing so is a betrayal of user privacy. There's a Twitter thread by one of the journalists behind this that's even more clear about this: [https://twitter.com/laforgia_/status/1003619629355413504](https://twitter.com/laforgia_/status/1003619629355413504)

Like, I'm not exaggerating here, the journalist who's writing this series of articles really does think that if Facebook respected user privacy they should've made the setting which blocks every random quiz and game your friends use from scraping your data also force your friends to install the Facebook app to interact with you. (I don't think he's grasped that web browsers are third-party software though.)

<comment><USER9> Thanks! Pretty concerning that a lot of hn commenters seem to be with the nytimes on this.

 _I 'm_ the filthy saas salesman that should be tainting this place with their ignorance. Everyone else is meant to be more informed on these things so I can get a more educated perspective!

<comment><USER10> As a software developer who is familiar with Facebook's APIs I have not been happy at all with the recent NYT coverage. It's mostly been the kind of coverage I'd expect from the National Enquirer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Haha, is this treason yet?

<comment><USER11> I my opinion, it's very close. Providing data to a foreign intelligence service certainly meets the definition. Arguing that Huawei is not part of Chinese intelligence is like saying Air America was an airline for package tourists.

<comment><USER12> To meet the definition of treason they would have to share it with an entity we are in open conflict with. It would be tough/impossible to prove that China meets the criteria. With all of the colluding with foreign governments going on lately there should probably be some law against providing information to a foreign intelligence agency. Maybe that falls in the category of "undeclared foreign agent".

<comment><USER11> I stand corrected. Thus, under that same standard, the claim that Donald Trump committed treason is also bogus since we aren't in open conflict with Russia.

<comment><USER12> True, but I don't think anyone is making a legal case against Trump and his campaign for treason. The case being made is for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to "obstruct the lawful functions of the United States government through fraud and deceit".

Fortunately no one is above the law and Trump can't pardon himself for shooting Comey or commiting fraud and obstruction.

We'll see what evidence Mueller has at the end of his investigation. The whole thing -- all the Russians and campaign members indicted may have nothing to do with Trump. But considering how much the Trump campaign has already lied about Russian contacts and how loudly Trump is squealing like a cowardly pig, I expect the result of the investigation will not be favorable for him.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Give it a rest already NYT.

1\. they are mischaracterizing the nature of that "access".

2\. they could've reported this tidbit in yesterday's story, clearly they are trying to squeeze every last drop from that pebble.

<comment><USER14> Give it a rest already Facebook.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is so overblown. Its not a far leap by NYT standards here to say that Facebook also "gave data access" to every screen manufacturer that ever displayed a Facebook page.

The bottom line is when people have data on FB and they have hundreds (in some cases thousands) of friends who all have the privilege to view their data, then the data is really not all that private to begin with.

</comment><comment><USER11> There are Huawei facilities outside of Suzhou that are inside military restricted areas. Basically if you use Huawei, assume the MSS has access to anything touching their hardware. That may not be 100% true all the time, but it's definitely true at least much of the time.

We can cue up the obligatory whataboutisn with the NSA as well, however, NSA isn't stealing data from American companies and providing it to competitors, while China absolutely engages in industrial espionage against US and European companies.

[https://www.thecipherbrief.com/chinese-industrial-spies- cast...](https://www.thecipherbrief.com/chinese-industrial-spies-cast-a-wider- net)

<comment><USER4> >NSA isn't stealing data from _ _American_ _ companies and providing it to competitors

That's quite the qualification, since the NSA _has_ been accused of industrial espionage against foreign companies, including German companies.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_espionage#Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_espionage#Germany)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Man, there's a massive war about to go down between the press and tech and other tech companies.

Apple is starting to reign in the attention-grabbing machine that is Facebook and it's properties. Now the press, particularly, the NYT is pushing story after story of FB's nearly total lack of policy around consumer data protections. I'm sure they'll have their sights set on Apple/Google very soon.

Facebook fires back by shutting down the trending widget which I'm sure is a huge source of traffic for the NYT.

Elon nearly shuts down an earnings call because the questions are too pointed; he acquires the Onion. Thiel shuts down Gawker.

Bezos takes WaPo to protect Amazon.

Samsung and Apple have been at it forever.

It's only going to get uglier.

<comment><USER17> > _Bezos takes WaPo to protect Amazon_

What?

<comment><USER16> [http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos- bought-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-bought- washington-post-with-no-due-diligence-2016-3)

<comment><USER17> Non sequitur. You claimed "Bezos [acquired the] WaPo to protect Amazon." The article you link to [1] comments on his light pre-transaction diligence. Warren Buffett, too, is known for high light DD and simple acquisition paperwork. For a well-known brand purchased to have "a political watchdog for the public's good," the diligence makes sense without resorting to harebrained conspiracy.

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos- bought-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-bought- washington-post-with-no-due-diligence-2016-3)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Referral Platform Zferral Acquires SaaS App Store Cloudomatic - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/28/referral-platform-zferral-acquires-saas-app-store-cloudomatic#/

<comment><USER2> so does this get credited as a startup weekend miami exit success story?

congrats btw!

<comment><AUTHOR> yes sir!!!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Interesting to see one startup acquiring another startup!

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup. Basic story is this:

We built out all the technology to flow. It was/is launch ready. We had decided to pursue padpressed, no onswipe 500% full time. We became friendly with Jeff and he wanted to acquire the technology + bring us on as advisors. There was a good amount of cash that changed hands, not a ton by any means either. Equity was more than happy. We still believe in this vision and the zferral team is the one to do it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> From one of the comments on the post:

 _A quick search on Google shows Zferral has less than 40 customers ([http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Azferral.com+%22powered...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Azferral.com+%22powered+by+zferral%22)). Where are they getting the cash for the acquisition from? Is there something I'm missing?_

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, definitely not the case. Looking at that now. (I know the numbers.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> congrats to you all. really excited to watch your companies blossom.

</comment><comment><USER6> Congratulations Jason!

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you! We're excited to see zferral continue on with an awesome vision.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Congrats Jason!

</comment><comment><USER8> yer a busy man :)</comment>


Google's policy never to settle with patent trolls to discourage frivolous claims. - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=atc1CvWy4ANw&refer=home

<comment><USER2> Well duh, if you were the 800lb gorilla you'd be a fool to "settle".

<comment><USER3> Justice is blind my friend. RIM decided not to settle, and it cost them ~ $612,500,000.

<http://telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_rim_settlement_few/></comment></comment>


Ask HN: License Manager in Ruby/RoR - <AUTHOR>

Hi Rubists,
I am going to ship one RoR application, and come up the question: how can protect the application? In Java there are some license managers, so how about Ruby? or what's your solution?
Regards /Jack <comment><USER2> you'd need a code obfuscator that can turn it into an executable, otherwise the source code could just be modified to disable the licensing checks.

<http://www.rubyencoder.com/> is one such product, but i've never used it.</comment>


Kalashnikov's new autonomous weapons and the "Terminator conundrum" - <AUTHOR> http://newatlas.com/kalashnikov-ai-weapon-terminator-conundrum/50576/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget <comment> chroem- I'm curious if the author would also refer to the M4 carbine as an "infamous killing machine," given the opportunity.

The fact of the matter is that the US is also developing these systems, albeit with more focus on autonomous air combat vehicles. To say that this is a Russia-only problem vastly understates how serious of an issue this is.

<comment><USER4> The M4 isn't infamous though? I don't even know which one that is. The M-16 is famous but associated more with militaries than with guerillas or terrorists. I can't really think of a US-made weapon with a reputation for disreputable uses - maybe the "Tommy Gun" (associated with gangsters, at least in the popular imagination)?

<comment><USER5> The M4 and M16 are both versions of Eugene Stoner's AR-15 design. You know which one that is, even if you don't know you know it. Think about the last movie you saw that was made since 1980 and included American soldiers. What rifle were they carrying? There you go.

There also exist many AR-15-pattern rifles in the civilian market - <USER2> without the full-auto and burst-fire modes one finds in military models, but otherwise quite similar. They're generally satisfactory firearms - cheap to feed, not unpleasant to use or overly difficult to maintain.

They're also a longstanding _bête noire_ of the anti-guns crowd, among whom the type is infamous because people have used them in a few mass shootings, and also because if you're afraid of firearms already then this type looks super extra scary - dressed in full tacticool ribs and Picatinny, it looks like something a Terminator might carry, and they're usually finished in black.

<comment><USER4> > You know which one that is, even if you don't know you know it. Think about > the last movie you saw that was made since 1980 and included American > soldiers. What rifle were they carrying? There you go.

See I thought that was the M-16; I could even have told you "the civilian version is the AR-15 and doesn't have full auto" but I'd never heard it called an M4 before. (Speaking as someone from a non-gun country whose only exposure to any of this is popular culture).

<comment><USER5> That's not too far off base - just that the AR-15 came first, followed by the M16 and later M4 variants on the military side, and any number of manufacturers' and homebrewers' variants on the civilian side.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There are two significant parts (IMO) to the trend towards autonomous weapons. They're very different.

This article seems mostly concerned with autonomous/AI controlled decision making: picking targets and firing on them.

The 2nd part taking combatants out of the battlefield. This is more significant, IMO. This applies equally to autonomous & remote operated weapons. For thousands of years, fighting wars meant endangering soldiers. As this changes, all sorts of dynamics change, and conflicts may become more

Think of drones. Whatever the tactical implications, I think the strategic implications have been more important. The US is willing to deploy remote operated drones in scenarios where they would not have committed troops, even airforce only.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sad truth: it WILL be secretly developed with or without ban... We just discovered yet another self-destruction method... In Smalltalk you could destroy everything with: "Smalltalk become: nil"

</comment><comment><USER8> Application of unrefined AI in the context of deadly machinery is a real and immediate AI-danger. Self-refining, wolrd-dominating AI is at present time just a distraction from this.

<comment><USER9> It can be worrying to think that aowrson could right now mount a gun to a drone and have it point at things it thinks look like people and shoot.

Then I remember that with any amount of technology they could just kill me themselves. Getting hit by a car is a much bigger risk, and the application of AI to prevent that is a much larger positive than the negatives AI introduces.

<comment><USER10> That must mean you are not in a middle eastern country. It's self centered to only have concern for your own well-being and myopic to think that, in a world full of self-centered people, with this tech being mass produced, that you'll continue living in a northern-atlantic utopia, where the probable causes of untimely death remain unchanged.

<comment><USER11> As an American I'm going to go out on a limb and say a big part of this is: Americans in particular are absolutely insulated from mass death. Why wouldn't we be? We've never fought major wars on our own soil in over a century. We haven't had major disease outbreaks killing mass people in like 100 years. We cannot comprehend it; the idea that mass amounts of people die (1,000,000 iraqis, 100,000s of people in warzones like Syria) in relatively short time spans is impossible for us to comprehend.

This is the same reason why after 9/11, where a few thousand people died, people all over the country were literally having shared hysteria -- to the point of microwaving mail envelopes (Anthrax attacks!) or buying duct tape and plastic wrap to seal windows (Gas attacks!) They told _kids in school about this shit_ and to prepare for it. It was hysteria, it was not isolated.

I think most people willingly choose to believe it doesn't happen at all. A few bombings here and tactical strikes there, twice (or ten) times a day, in a war for 15 years. "Not that bad".

Meanwhile we sit around and dream up AI scenarios where they're either A) Sci- Fi novel hellmachines who are bent on total domination of reality unless we "Fight the Machines" or B) useful, peaceful Roombas and car services that run us around and do all our chores and can never do any wrong. Look, my car can get my groceries for me! How fantastic is that! (provided your grocery store was not blown up by a Hellfire missile last week, of course)

The third possibility, C, that hostile, unrefined AI will be used to continue to enforce colonial and imperial desires around the world, killing huge amounts of people? Not possible. It's not fanciful or fantastic enough to _want_ to believe, so people don't. It's not a Steven King novel or an Elon Musk jerk-off fantasy. It's just boring old poor people dying.

You only need to watch any discussion on Hacker News about "The threat of AI" to see how quickly people start talking about self-imposed God-machines, or talking about Ultra Roombas that do all your earthly chores -- while ignoring murder-robots in 3rd world countries, manned by massive armies. One of those is a fantasy dreamt up by 10 year olds, the other is a reality that already happens today with drone warfare.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Today, an opponent would try to fire back at the killing machine's "pilot," is that right?

With these weapons, the only defense is shooting at the machine itself, breaking it.

That reduces your chance of stealing the killing machine after taking out its pilot.

<comment><USER5> > Today, an opponent would try to fire back at the killing machine's "pilot," > is that right?

If you're dealing with an armored vehicle, you're shooting at the vehicle. You can't shoot at the people operating it, because the armor is in the way. If you don't have anything to hand that can deal with the armor, you find something else to do instead. If you do have something that fits the bill, it's not going to leave the vehicle in an operable state after you use it.

Killing the crew of an IFV or tank during a combat engagement, and then stealing the vehicle, is something that happens in movies and video games - <USER3> real life, not so much.

<comment><USER13> I read that there have been cases of poorly briefed Ukrainian tank crews escaping and leaving behind tanks that had huge holes in armor despite the armor working as intended and preventing damage to anything important and tank still being fully operational.

Separatists took these over and patched/replaced the broken armor piece and used them.

It might all have been bullshit though and I can't find that article from years ago(and it wasn't in English anyway).

<comment><USER5> Closest I can find is the claim that an IS-3 from late World War II has been reactivated from a war memorial and possibly sent into combat - where it would be unlikely to survive the modern environment for very long, I hasten to note, despite being apparently pretty good for its day.

It's not implausible that a modern weapon could punch a hole in tank armor and nonetheless not only fail to achieve even a mission kill, but leave the crew alive. It is really, _really_ improbable, though. I could buy that it'd happened once, although I'd like to see some kind of cite for that. I'd have a hard time believing it had happened twice in the same, as yet rather short, conflict.

<comment><USER13> I have found the article but it's in Polish. I also have no idea how reputable source this is, they seem very good on the first glance. There are some website writing about 'military' that are basically right wing trash or propaganda or conspiracies (or all of the above).

The hole was apparently _not_ clean through because the original armor and extra layer and reactive armor installed during 'modernisations' did it job and protected the tank and the crew, it just now has this horribly looking hole in it so the Ukrainian crew abandoned it and separatists took it. This is a tank from the 60s, modernised in the 80s, by the way.

[http://dziennikzbrojny.pl/artykuly/art,3,8,8725,pole- bitwy,1...](http://dziennikzbrojny.pl/artykuly/art,3,8,8725,pole- bitwy,1,twardy-pancerz-czyli-czy-czolg-zawsze-wybucha-po-trafieniu-cz- ii-t-64bw-wolki)

English Wikipedia also mentions 65 T-64s variants have been captured in Donbas (but the link is to a Russian website and I read Russian way too slowly and need a dictionary to do it so I can't confirm the citation): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equipment_of_the_Ukrainian_Gro...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equipment_of_the_Ukrainian_Ground_Forces#Tanks)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> >we have NEVER caught the Russians doing ANYTHING beneficial for the Human Race. EVER.

These comments though.

<comment><USER13> Many Russians did plenty of good but their governments are always so awful.

<comment><USER14> Not always. See Peter I or Alexander II. Anyways - bad governments have nothing to do with the contribution of the nation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I guess there will be a market soon for adversarial camouflage clothing in order to hide from roboweapons.

In fact I should be writing a business plan for that business now.

<comment><USER16> It's hard to hide from IR using insulating clothes, because of the heat building up inside. But an insulating suit with active cooling might be an interesting idea to explore.

<comment><USER17> You don't need to hide, you just need to look like something other than a human.

<comment><USER18> If you know where the sensors are, you only need to disguise on that side.

<comment><USER15> In fact you need no disguise: Just the precise amount of interference for the neural network to see something different.

[https://blog.openai.com/adversarial-example- research/](https://blog.openai.com/adversarial-example-research/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Fully automatic shoot-to-kill sentry guns are nothing new, and were used at least since eighties. Patent in Russian [http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/237/2373483.html](http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/237/2373483.html)

</comment><comment><USER20> There is a certain inevitability about this. It will and should make many uneasy but like everything else autonomous weapons will advance.

Constraints have only worked so far for bio-chemical weapons and even there we don't know who is doing what. Nuclear weapons are easier to restrict because some sort of control can be effected on the underlying technology.

The only thing with both the above is the cost of using them is too high, only one country has used nuclear weapons against a population and it remains an unconscionable blot for many of us.

Autonomous weapons are much more accessible and will be integrated into modern conflict and law enforcement, shifting the balance in many scenarios.

</comment><comment><USER21> Reading the article:

> In the imminent future, the Group will unveil a range of products based on > neural networks," said Sofiya Ivanova, the Group's Director for > Communications. "A fully automated combat module featuring this technology > is planned to be demonstrated at the Army-2017 forum,

So there's no actual product yet, and there's nothing known about the future one except that there are "neural networks" involved, whatever it means. Clearly, there's enough information to make wide-ranging speculations!

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm not sure what I find more worrying, this, or the other end of the scale: the inevitability that it becomes technically easier and easier to turn cheap small autonomous drones into killing machines.

<comment><USER23> Maybe man will inadvertently create its own predators ..

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> instead of WWII films with people hiding in mud for a tank to pass by so they could stick a bomb on it, we'll get WWIII films with people hiding in mud with an ethernet cable

<comment><USER25> Oh, you reminded me of that horrible horrible TV Series "Scorpion". Could not get past the second episode and watched the second only too see how much more stupid can it get.

<comment><USER26> I haven't seen it.

But it couldn't be worse than the Independence Day movie from 1996. In that one, the aliens have huge ships; the mothership has one fourth the mass of the moon. Fortunately, Jeff Goldblum figures out how to upload a computer virus into the mothership. My memory of the plot is kind of sketchy, since I certainly wasn't tempted to see it again. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(1996_film)#P...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_\(1996_film\)#Plot)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> In what tactical scenarios would an autonomous mobile heavy machine gun make sense? Urban warfare against lightly armed opponents?

<comment><USER28> From the pics it looks like some of these are HMG mounts I could see Tanks and EVFs having an Ai controlled secondary turrets to reduce crew size. The Soviets did like multi turreted tanks see the T35

<comment><USER27> So like a progression of the protection systems that some MBTs already have?

That doesn't sound _quite_ as bad or threatening - although probably very bad news for anyone trying to take on such a vehicle at close range!

<comment><USER28> Which would have to face the accompanying infantry as well Tanks don't do very well in FIBA or Fish And Chips (Fighting In Someone's House, and Causing Havoc In Public Spaces)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Why would Kalashnikov choose to do a dog and pony show? Is it like the North Korean missle parades and a show of power for Russia? Do they just plain up sell these to certain countries and it's just like any other product launch? Does Kalashnikov have competitors that they are trying to look better than?

<comment><USER30> Because they're a business and appearing on a trade show is one of the ways they do marketing?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> We're moving a bit too fast... three years ago this was still science fiction: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e9xqdoDc3oI](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e9xqdoDc3oI)

<comment><USER22> I was expecting this classic scene from Robocop:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzlt7IbTp6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzlt7IbTp6M)

<comment><USER26> I'm sure it's only a glitch: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFvqDaFpXeM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFvqDaFpXeM)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> To put some context: we Russians always preferred automated systems to having humans in the loop — we have a lot of history with particularly prominent examples of less than fully sane humans in the loop, without proper checks and balances to restrain them.

So I am absolutely not surprised of the development, and we'll see much more instances of these systems soon. The only good part is that Russians strongly dislike complicated control systems, so the "AI" in question will be much simpler than what would Americans do.

<comment><USER33> Can't wait for the new "hot updates from the cloud feature"

<comment><USER32> No need. We have first-year privates with USB sticks instead. (And our USB sticks are, of course, plug-in incompatible with Western USB sticks, and weigh at least 15 kilograms, which greatly aids security).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> building something like that with rubber bullets would be cheaper than THE wall

</comment><comment><USER35> This cannot end well.

</comment><comment><USER36> I cant help but feel that the military and its money sucking contractors are in for HUGE disruption.

Why even have a military. Just keep a few special forces and augment the rest with Autonomous/AI gadgets such as these.

Sell your defense shares.

</comment><comment><USER37> Look, you have to understand something: in Russia, human life has no intrinsic value at all, so it's not a conundrum in any way. New weapon can kill more people, all by itself? Great, bring more of those!

If you don't believe me, just read up on Russian history. Maybe start with Ukrainian genocide in 1932-33.

<comment><USER38> And other arms manufacturing countries are different from this how..?

<comment><USER39> For starters, they're not trying to kill their own citizens by millions. Except North Korea maybe.</comment></comment></comment>


Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core - <AUTHOR> https://shiftyjelly.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/amazon-app-store-rotten-to-the-core/

<comment><USER2> <edited to remove the unintended snarky tone and clean up some points>

What I got from this blog post is that they made an uninformed decision, and ended up with an unexpected result that pissed them off from the perspective of "lost sales".

The email from Amazon clarified there were no money to made and sure enough, no money was made.

The added costs of the server is unfortunate and justifiably something to be upset about (especially if you weren't accounting for it), but I have to point out that the sales before the free-app-of-the-day listing[1] were slow: 2, 4, 14, 20 sales... then 101k copies given away in one day.

For an app selling 10-20 copies a day, how much would it have cost that company, paying a PR firm, to get it infront of 101k new users (forget about payment)... how many tweets would you have to get out or blog posts written to make 101k people aware of your app?

Amazon gave that company an incredibly aggressive marketing campaign for 1 day and from where I'm standing, gave that company an enormous opportunity to be successful with a future app or future subscription services for their existing app.

I think things like what Amazon are doing certainly don't fit in the old model of software sales and if you are betting the company on that model, it is going to be a painful trip for you.

Something to consider is that if this app offered a subscription-based premium mode or some in-app micro transactions and just 5% of people that downloaded the app engaged in that, I think the tone of this entire blog post would have been completely flipped about how awesome the Amazon model is. Even if that app could simply be used to announce the release of a _new_ app in the app store from the same company when the time comes that would be a huge amount of people seeing that announcement that would not have otherwise seen it (not the full 100k, but whoever is still using the app).

Given that, I would assert that the Amazon App Store model isn't broken, it is just different and requires some planning to take advantage of.

If you have a flexible business model and can roll with the punches and take advantage of opportunities like these and see them coming you stand to benefit quite a bit from Amazon's free app of the day.

Let's say everything I've typed up until now is garbage and you waved it all away, another reason this was a _good_ thing for the company: reviews.

Out of 101k people that now have this app, how many are going to eventually leave reviews? 20? 30?

How many reviews may be a half to a full star higher because the app was free and there isn't that feeling of _being owed value_ by the reviewer because they got your app for free.

So now let's say in a few weeks (or at some point in the future) this company now has 15, 20 or 30 reviews on this app, all fairly good (4 and above).

Now that the app is no longer free, how much higher in the search results is this app going to show up for people when they are searching for apps like this? How much more likely are people browsing the Amazon App Store to buy this app because it has such good reviews?

I would argue had this guy listened to his co-founder and not flown off the handle, and left his app in the app store, and built off of this success he would have seen sales gradually increase over time, similar to how it was trending before they had the one day give away. All those sales before the give away were people finding the app because (I assume) they wanted an app like that.

The one day give away was likely a bunch of people that just grab every free app they see each day.

Either way, it sounds like he took the gift horse he was given by Amazon, punched it in the horse-face and then let it run off a cliff because it wasn't the exact horse they were expecting.

</end-backseat-internet-business-driving>

[1] [http://shiftyjelly.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/results2.png?...](http://shiftyjelly.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/results2.png?w=497&h=175)

<comment><USER3> Can I just reply here? Here goes. I think you missed the entire point of the article. We agreed to be featured, we stand by that decision. What we take issue with is the public perception that Amazon pays their (publicly stated) 20% of the asking price for developers to be featured. They don't. Simple as that. Everything else is a beef, yes, but not our primary beef. Also we left it a month, we got featured June 27th, it's now August. Virtually no change in sales on Amazon.

<comment><USER2> shifty,

Admittedly, my response was focused more on the other beef than that single point. Given how much other information was in the post, I didn't think the 20% == 0% _was_ the central argument; my apologies for missing that.

My core belief that in the long(er) term that the give away likely would have helped the movement and sales of your app still stands though. I think you leaving it in the store for an extra month _is_ valuable data point, but not quite enough for me to categorically agree with "Yep, totally experiment failure, f Amazon!"

Did any reviews come in from any of those massive downloads? How were the reviews? What was the average score?

I would give up the argument completely at 6 months after a few more update releases if there were 0 reviews and 0 sales, otherwise I stand by my original statement that this was a GOOD thing for you and your company.

It is my feeling that you are focusing too much on this bait and switch. Fine, it happened... but you also have your app on 101k more devices than you did the month before so do something with that, flip your perspective a bit and take advantage of it.

You cannot convince me that having your app on 101k more devices in 1 day is a _bad_ thing (except maybe the server costs). It may be scary/odd/unexpected, but you guys are smart, you will figure out some good way to grow from this.

<comment><USER4> _Fine, it happened... but you also have your app on 101k more devices than you did the month before so do something with that, flip your perspective a bit and take advantage of it._

Hell, before pulling out of the Amazon app store, release a new ad-supported version, and wait until a decent number of people have upgraded. _Then_ pull out of Amazon's store. That should help defray the costs of the new hardware. Users can still do as the author suggested: re-buy on Android Market, and for users who had already paid for the app (not on free-app day), ask for a refund. Any serious user of the app will want to switch over to the Android Market anyway, so they can get later updates.

That feels _slightly_ underhanded, but... eh. Server costs are real.

<comment><USER5> Nobody would buy an app from a developer who did this.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, in hindsight I realize that from the user's perspective, this really sucks. As a user who knows and understands the developer's perspective and how Amazon (intentionally or otherwise) screwed him over, I'd be sympathetic, but the vast majority of purchasers would not know any of that background information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _thanks to Amazon's secret back-door deals, we made $0 on that day._

These secret back-door deals that were so secret that they were written in bold in the email, so secret that they noticed this and wrote back to amazon, and so secret that amazon then confirmed them.

They were offered a crappy deal, realized this and double-checked it, but decided to go for it anyway. When it turned out that the deal really was pretty crappy, they then act surprised and self-righteous and blog about it.

<comment><USER7> He's not saying the 0% price was a secret from his company, he's saying it was a secret to the general public.

I pay pretty close attention, and I thought the free apps of the day were paid at the 20% rate that Amazon warns they may pay you if they unilaterally discount your app.

<comment><USER8> I see no reason to think that's not the case. This was a mutual agreement outside of the general terms. That's hardly unusual.

<comment><USER9> It is amazon's standard policy. Many developers have commented on it.

<comment><USER8> Their standard policy concerns the unilateral decisions. This was a mutual agreement outside of the standard policy. The benefit to the app maker is a guaranteed free-app-of-the-day promotional spot, the benefit to Amazon is not having to pay the 20%. Seems like a (potentially) fair deal.

<comment><USER5> I'm pretty sure this is dramatized to fish for more sales.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> >Amazon gets to set the price of your app to whatever they want, without any input from you, or even the chance to reject their price ... Amazon re-writes your description, and in ours they even made up things ... you can't remove apps from their store

That doesn't seem great.

<comment><USER6> To be honest, this is true of _every_ product that Amazon sells.

<comment><USER7> But it's not true of any other app store with which Amazon competes. Whether or not it's true of Walmart isn't really relevant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I was curious what their developer agreement actually says; I didn't bother signing up us a developer, but their FAQ states:

"What is the payment structure between Amazon and me? Amazon pays developers 70% of the sale price of the app or 20% of the list price, whichever is greater."

<https://developer.amazon.com/help/faq.html#Sales>, Payment and Tax

That's clearly the bit the author was referring to as being deceptive: in public they state that developers will always get at least 20% of the list price (which leads some people to think developers still get paid when their apps are listed as free), but in private they ask developers to take 0% of the list price when they promote the app as the "free app of the day."

</comment><comment><USER12> My worthless 2cents.

> Did the exposure count for much in the days afterwards? That's also a big > no, the day after saw a blip in sales, followed by things going back to > exactly where we started, selling a few apps a day. In fact Amazon decided > to rub salt in the wounds a little further by discounting our app to 99 > cents for a few days after the free promotion.

Well here is the image with sales numbers from the day after.

<http://i.imgur.com/bBovl.png>

What I'm seeing is a a huge sales/profit increase; $300 that day as compared to <$50 before. Full discloser, i.e. sales from the subsequent days, would be very nice to see at this point.

Next logical step? You have a >100,000 user base so push an update to the free app so that it now includes ads.

The tone of the article feels like the author is just upset he didn't get his way- "I was against putting the app on Amazon and my partner was for it"- so now he is trying to make himself appear "right". It's called pivoting.

<comment><USER13> "You have a >100,000 user base so push an update to the free app so that it now includes ads."

The problem is, the users who got it when it was free got the PAID version, so they can't push an update to the people who got it for free without making all the users who ACTUALLY paid also get ads.

They'd also have to add ads to the paid Google Market version, since the Amazon dev agreement requires that you keep app versions synchronized across all app stores. Amazon has basically put them in a position where they can only lose money or piss off their actual paying customers.

<comment><USER12> That makes a lot more sense, however, it's not entirely impossible for them to find out what users downloaded the app on that day and only target updates for them; they want out of amazon any way might as well break the TOS. They should be logging some type of 'first_install' after every user pings the server for the first time... but I'm making excuses for Amazon.

TBH both parties are at fault. Them for not reading the letter Amazon send WORD FOR WORD and not Amazon for discounting their app to 99cents the day after.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've been doing a binge of Kindle buying recently, and I have noticed that a lot of the more expensive books have a price that is set by the publisher.

Now, in the Amazon AppStore, perhaps the larger publishers will eventually be able to set a minimum price. The prices are already so low but better than zero.

I love Amazon's FAAD, and I feel safe downloading any app from Amazon while the Google market is more strip mall than indoor mall. The new Market app is a major improvement though but I am anxious to download let alone buy anything with less than 250k downloads.

</comment><comment><USER15> It seems like a purely promotional placement, Amazon isn't giving you money that neither you nor they received -- that seems perfectly reasonable to me. If you don't want to bear the auxiliary costs like server load or customer service, you don't have to agree to it.

If Amazon is correct, though, this promotion should mean that post-promotion sales are higher than pre-promotion sales. But the chart ends on the day of the promotion. Though there's a little text about it, I'd be curious about more detail on how things are shaping up afterwards.

Either way, up to them of course, but it feels a bit extreme to me to abandon ship because of agreeing to an unsuccessful promotion and because they're behind in features vs. the Google market.

</comment><comment><USER16> Duplicate : <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2836024>

<comment><USER17> It's weird, I tried submitting this story about an hour ago and was taken directly to that thread instead of it going through the system, I wonder why this link made it through?

<comment><USER18> This link is to the https version, the other (and presumably your attempt too) was to the http version.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> There are a lot of points in this - both in the sales pitch that Amazon gave the developers and the outcome of having participated - that are strikingly reminiscent of the Groupon experience for some businesses. (Many, even, based on the links dibarnu posted.)

<http://posiescafe.com/wp/?p=316>

<comment><USER5> I guess you're leaving the actual comparison as an exercise for the reader. IIRC, both involved people who had little business savvy and a missed opportunity presented as a regretful decision. no money is exchanged here however, and they never detail the cost occurred to them by the extra load.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> My understanding was that the 20% figure applies only to cases where Amazon changes the pricing of your app without your specific approval (which they can do). There is apparently enough demand for the top spot that they can ask the developer to take the hit. Up to them whether they do or not.

</comment><comment><USER21> Are there any stories of positive experiences (for Developers) with Amazon's App Store? This is the second bad one I've read on here.

</comment><comment><USER22> It seems like small developers could get around this by releasing some kind of trial edition on the free-app-a-day promotion.

<comment><USER2> From what I understand, Amazon won't feature a trial or "lite" version of your app for the Free App of the Day. It doesn't have the same value-proposition for users.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> What this story teaches is a simple business lesson.

If you give an app away, you should build in some monetization.

</comment><comment><USER24> Lots of larger studios actually _pay_ to acquire installs of their app to get an initial placement on the charts and to drive organic growth from there. In that context, 101k new users for free is very valuable.

<comment><USER25> But it didn't get any growth (at least the 5 next days) and it is costing them server money to provide service to these new users

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Remember folks, its 20% after Amazon twists your arm to price all android products not in Amazon store at Amazon's prices..</comment>


10 immutable laws of mistakes - <AUTHOR> http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-immutable-laws-of-mistakes/2633?tag=nl.e101

<comment><USER2> Cool article. In addition to point 9, I would add that mistakes typically have consequences and sometimes those consequences are pretty tough. I think a fear of these consequences is why a lot of folks try to dodge blame. However, like the article says, accepting responsibility with humility and bearing the consequences (sometimes over a period of time) is the right course of action.

</comment><comment><USER3> Odd that the article is missing any of Gordon Moore's quotes on mistakes:

"One thing a leader does is to remove the stigma of mistakes. People who are afraid of making mistakes all the time just don't try anything."

and my fav

"If everything you try works, then you are not trying hard enough."

</comment><comment><USER4> Yes, computers can make mistakes propagate faster. But its also true computers allow you to correct many mistakes very easily and therefore free you to take action because the cost of mistakes is much lower.

In the days before word processing, for example, if you left out a word on a page, you pretty had to retype a document. Now, you can make a thousand changes before you decide to print. And now you don't even have to print most of the time.

Think its tough dealing with a software bug? Fix it and everybody downloads the fix. Make a hardware mistake and millions of machines need to be taken apart one at a time.

</comment><comment><USER5> Good stuff. I've found that there are two kinds of people in the world. Those, like me, who ENJOY making mistakes. And those that are afraid of making mistakes.

If you are not falling down, you're not trying hard enough.

<comment><AUTHOR> I completely agree, Mate. I learned that if you are not hearing "no," you are not taking risks or chances. And we know it takes risks—a leap—to get where you want to be.</comment></comment>


F.A.A. Orders Fix for Possible Power Loss in Boeing 787 - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/business/faa-orders-fix-for-possible-power-loss-in-boeing-787.html

<comment><USER2> "the plane's power control units could shut down power generators if they were powered without interruption for 248 days, or about eight months."

This magic number suggests an int32 overflow: 2^31 centiseconds = 248.56 days

<comment><USER3> "Each generator is linked to a control unit. Boeing found that if the four engine generators were left on continuously for about eight months, a software internal counter would overflow and cause the control units to enter a fail- safe mode."</comment></comment>


6 Steps To Creating A Community - <AUTHOR> http://andersonjr.com/2011/11/28/6-steps-to-creating-a-community/

<comment><USER2> Some excellent points balancing the need for clear simple instruction ("we meet at $TIME on $DATE") and flexibility. I guess that could be tricky for some people.

Have you got any ideas about how you'll deal with disruptive people? (If it happens?) Someone who just comes along to moan, and moan, and moan? Or someone who tries to steer the community along a route it isn't interested in, but who doesn't get it, who doesn't understand that people aren't interested?

<comment><USER3> I find that keeping a clear agenda or format to your meetings helps to keep things on track. You might not have an agenda planned out in the beginning and that's fine, too. It will gradually flesh itself out as meetings progress. And when everyone knows what is going on, there'll be fewer disruptions and diversions.

In the rare scenarios when someone is just trolling, as the event organizer, you have to politely take them aside and explain the purpose of the meeting and theme of discussion. Making sure they're aware might be the only miscommunication. At worst, explain how the diversions take away from the meetup. Hopefully, you won't need to go further than this.

Note: I started running a meetup and supporting my local tech community over the past year. This is one person's observations.</comment></comment>


Realistic Personal Finance Hacks - <AUTHOR> https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/realistic-personal-finance-hacks/ <comment><USER2> It's incredible to me how this stuff needs to be spelled out for people. It seems so normal to me. Yet, I've met enough people who waste their money on multiple media subscription services and who knows what else even tough they have a low income.</comment>


Ask HN: Have you overcome long-term unemployment, depression, addiction? How? - <AUTHOR> Perhaps everyone has some amount of tyranny or injustice in their life and I went through mine; and on the other side of it I've ended up with years of near-unemployment and daily compulsive behaviors which treat my depression, anger. These include: extremely long video game sessions, drinking, phone and web addiction, gambling, wake therapy, pornography and masturbation, and compulsive travelling.
I'm not sure how to manage myself at the moment. My ability to apply myself productively diminished after my traumatic experiences, and it continues to diminish in a negative feedback cycle of the above coping mechanisms.
In other words, I have little gumption at the moment. All my enthusiasm is tied up in escaping my negative traumas and giving myself a pleasurable existence. When I try to get myself to send a resume or study a new skill, all of my traumatic experiences seem to surface and overwhelm me.
If you have been through something similar, what changes did you make which helped you?
By the way I have seen a professional therapist and psychiatrist before. Unfortunately, these were not really productive experiences, and I've come to be inclined to think these suggestions might be helpful but might also be a little bit canned.
I care deeply about necessary virtue in the world, but I don't care about taking care of myself anymore. This has led me to being primed for constant stimulation, therapies and I'm struggling to get back into a pattern of productively applying myself.  Have you been through something similar? <comment><USER2> One action that has helped me immensely is a change of residence and the people I associate with.

Getting away from your present environment will force you to start over. It's amazing how we get used to our daily rituals without giving much thought on how one daily action makes you fall onto the next.

Give it some thought. Think about what you would do if you moved to a new area and found a job that does not stress you, I would suggest a physical job vs a mentally demanding one. Find new friends that focus on things away from drugs, keep you active and keep you away from boredom which will give you a chance to fall back on your old habits.

Also keep your mind busy, I listen to audiobooks constantly. Find a genre you enjoy and listen to them. Your negative thoughts will sink you so it's best you minimise the time available for you to have them.

Also, make sure you believe and understand that you can change your ways. Keep in mind that you will not fix everything at once so face life one day at a time and keep moving forward. You will falter but you pick yourself up and continue with your plan. I can tell you that it's only a matter of time before things get better but you need to keep moving fordward.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been compulsively travelling a lot. Been around the world. I am mostly not unhappy, but the problem is not applying myself and whenever I try to, I get into these gumption traps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Two things I find help me...

Number 1: Stop being a victim, its far too easy to blame things that occured in the past for causing your current situation. You cant change what happend, accept it and move on, I know it sounds like im saying just get over it but thats not what I mean. Your trauma will probably stay with you for the rest of your life, it sucks and I feel for you, but no matter what it was, it only has the ability to affect your future life if you let it. Start by dealing with the addiction, dont use the trauma as an excuse to feed it, if you have cravings accept them for what they are. Lots of people deal with addictions, you dont need any reason why, just be aware that you are addicted and take real action to deal with it.

Number 2: Get your hands in some dirt asap, plant a bean, start a herb garden it doest matter just grow something. The act of raising a living thing and caring for it is extremely therapeutic. It will bring purpose to your life. I cant stress this enough, buy an amaryllis bulb if your worried about not having a green thumb. Grow something and your soul will heal. Trust me!!

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yea I really should be careful about presenting a victimhood personality, as well as in the way I perceive myself.

My intention here was to explain myself honestly and I didn't expect it to come across so strongly that way. However, I think there is middle ground here. For example, I wouldn't want to hear you tell a rape victim the same thing.

Anyways, before these things I was very successful in both career and personal pursuits, and after I wasn't. So it is important, but I will be careful about giving the perception of a victimhood mentality -- I know people dislike that -- as well as consider if I am treating myself that way, though presently I wasn't aware of this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Something I've ended up repeating more than I ever thought I would is that journaling is about 70% as effective as therapy. Therapy would be better, both ideal, but when you're in a pinch and need to start making changes, this was what did the most for me.

Another thing that's an attitude that's been a bit of a carryover from my old religion, is that when your struggling, help someone else. Often in the process of helping someone you will figure out how to help yourself. You still care about the world but not yourself, perfect, find a cause worthy of your time and do something about it.

I dealt with depression almost my whole life, and although it's mostly better now and has been for a couple of years, it still tries to crop up from time to time. For me it was resolving a lot of identity crisis things, the parts that were inconsistent, I ended up losing my religion, moving across the country and pursuing new goals, a new career, a new life. Having a plan helped(especially feeling like there was some forward motion toward my goal), figuring out what I wanted helped, introspection helped, therapy helped(to kickstart it).

Good luck, rooting for you.

</comment><comment><USER5> I've fallen into a similar trap myself over the last few years.

Very similar coping mechanisms to you despite being "employed", down to excessive travel (having driven something like 60 thousand miles in the last year despite living 10 miles from work)

Employed is in quotations because I'm on my way to my 3rd company in 3 years this month, after my last two fired me for being unable to care in a sense (not showing up on time, low output).

Partially due to my depression, but I feel partially due to what you describe struggling to get into applying yourself regularly after abusing those coping mechanisms to feel "something".

It's a little horrifying because each time the transition to the next place is so quick I barely have to stabilize, so I feel like I'm careening towards a cliff.

-

The only thing I can say is different this time is therapeutic drugs, specifically Wellbutrin XL.

I know you mentioned "just do drugs" responses coming across as a bit canned, so I've included my context.

I don't know if it will really change things this time, but it has helped me feel more human. Made doing things from my job search to caring enough to maintain basic hygiene a little easier. It's a little easier to break out of my gaming ruts. There are downsides, sometimes when my depression gets the best of me, I feel like the accompanying anger is more destructive on this medication, like I'm more prone to do something reckless than before.

But I feel like this is what will give me the foothold to move on, so if you're willing to try anything, maybe try going back to a psychiatrist (therapy is good but not for everyone I feel, you can get medications to help without therapy as a start)

</comment><comment><USER6> Psychotherapy is a joke, imagine if you were overweight and the doctor said just hope you will get thinner. The reality is you need the external forces that will make your life better and some people just don't get them. I've had traumatic things happen to me and reason I stayed sane was from learning everything is cause & effect (determinism). How we don't have free will, nobody chooses who they're born into and why does humans think any different for what comes after? Arrogance, ego and society conditions the manmade concept that's an illusion. Anyway my suggestion is understanding the foregoing and you will be more analytical of yourself without being a victim. All the petty things you listed, a person can live a life without and that means you can as well. Confidence is what people care about for employment. Majority of people in this world don't produce anything and are just overprivileged parasites so matter of factly.

<comment><USER7> Why do you think we don't have free will?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> When I went to the lowest point of my life (after bankrupting a startup) was to give up on everything and start travel/move to the beach (yes, without money. Volunteering, selling stuff on the street, getting used to hunger and to not have a shelter). Well, for my surprise, in the lowest point of my life I met real happiness and made lots of great friends (hostels are a great place for that). After that, I got back one step at time, and currently (5 years later) I live the best time of my life (for 5 years).

I'm not sure if my advice can be useful, but to change what I expect to do with my life was the first and most important step.

Also, very important but very personal as it worked for me but can have the opposite effect on others is that at my lowest, I started to smoke weed and started to have long sessions of thinking, meditation and productive time alone, reflecting or studying something new.

</comment><comment><USER9> I would suggest to keep looking for a psychotherapist that can help. Also, try to find a support group like AA, there is no shame in it. Immerse yourself into some activity in a fun relaxed manner, no pushing: like gym, caring of animals, gardening.

People here praised this book recently, maybe worth reading: "The Body Keeps the Score" [https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing- Trauma/dp/01...](https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing- Trauma/dp/0143127748)

</comment><comment><USER10> Talk to a professional. I personally suggest you find a specialist in this: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology)

I have one in my local area and they helped me a lot.

</comment><comment><USER11> I started to get better once I began to understand what had happened to me. It's awesome that you are already aware of your coping habits, how it's affecting you, and what you are trying to avoid. It took me a long time to realize I had even been affected by trauma, and it took even longer to realize how I was coping.

The book 'The Body Keeps the Score' that showed up recently on here[1] has been immensely helpful for me. It explains all of the changes your body and mind go through after trauma. Before reading that book I tried to treat the symptoms and it didn't work. I also didn't realize that a lot of the things I was dealing with were really symptoms of underlying trauma. Reading the book is hard (there are lots of stories of other people's trauma that can be triggering) and I cry a lot and need to take a break to self soothe but it's been my roadmap to getting through this. This is the first paragraph of chapter 13, when the book finally explains how to heal:

> What has happened cannot be undone. But what can be dealt with are the > imprints of trauma on body, mind, and soul: the crushing sensations in your > chest that you may label as anxiety or depression; the fear of losing > control; always being on alert for danger or rejection; the self-loathing; > the nightmares and flashbacks; the fog that keeps you from staying on task > and from engaging fully in what you are doing; being unable to fully open > your heart to another human being.

> Trauma robs you of the feeling of being in charge of yourself...The > challenge of recovery is to reestablish ownership of your body and mind--of > your self. This means feeling free to know what you know and to feel what > you feel without becoming overwhelmed, enraged, ashamed, or collapsed. For > most people this involves 1.) finding a way to become calm and focused 2.) > learning to maintain that calm in response to images, thoughts, sounds, or > physical sensations that remind you of the past, 3.) finding a way to be > fully alive in the present and engaged with the people around you, 4.) not > having to keep secrets from yourself, including secrets about the ways that > you have managed to survive.

For 1.) yoga and meditation have been really helpful for me. Both yoga and meditation have been clinically proven to help PTSD sufferers. For meditation I enjoy using the Headspace app. I've mostly been doing yoga with Youtube videos by 'Yoga with Adriene'. I would suggest starting with the video 'Yoga For Post Traumatic Stress' or the 'Dedicate 30 day Yoga Journey'. All you need is a mat. I've started going to in person yoga classes and it's been really nice but I did yoga on my own for about a month beforehand.

For 2.) I've been learning how to 'ground' which is essentially mindfulness with a focus on your touch points (your feet on the floor, your butt in the chair, etc). The breathwork from yoga and meditation is also super hepful. Your breath is one of the few things under both conscious and autonomic control so you can use it to tap into the part of your body that is losing it when you're triggered.

3.) comes back to mindfulness, and again yoga and meditation are really helpful. After experiencing trauma I started to disassociate all the time. Now I can usually notice when it starts and check back in with myself.

For 4.) therapy, journaling, and self help books have been helpful for me. I would suggest trying multiple therapists until you find one you like. The consensus seems to be that you eventually need to revisit trauma to move past it, but you don't want to do that until you have the tools to revisit it without reliving it. You might be able to do that on your own but I feel a lot safer doing that with a trained professional. I've also realized that the stuff I am dealing with is a little too intense to expect a friend or partner to deal with so my choices are either journaling or therapy.

As I've worked on those 4 things the hold of addictive behaviors and coping mechanisms has started to loosen. It's easier to not drink when I'm actually comfortable being in my own skin and feeling what I feel. I still compulsively check my phone sometimes but I try to acknowledge what I'm doing and ask myself what need I'm trying to fulfill when I do it.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21340636](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21340636)</comment>


Ask HN: What code have you read recently? - <AUTHOR>

Reading code is good right? What pieces of code have people here read through recently? Was it inspirational/educational/helpful? Any code you would recommend to others? <comment><USER2> I have been reading the R base library code, mainly to understand the graphics functions. I'm amazed how simple and ordinary it looks. I have never worked on a big software project and it's exciting for me to see how something powerful is built from small chunks here and there.

Last year I spent some time reading the arc source code. It was a lot of fun. I didn't know any Lisp, so the recursions and macros were hard for me to get my head around, but it was amazing to realise that this site is built on some small core concepts which can be grokked if you spare the time.

I loved Douglas Crockford's book Javascript: The Good Parts. Again, I couldn't understand all of it but it gave me a good feel for well-written Javascript code.

<comment><USER3> That's an awesome book. Anyone interested in Javascript as a _language_ , not just the browser library operations, should definitely read through it.

edit: Disclaimer for any planning on buying it: _it only covers the language_. There's no browser interaction code at all. I've seen a few people surprised / annoyed at that, but it keeps it lean and focused.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I had a look at the Haskell Prelude code: <http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/standard-prelude.html>

Lots of good code in there, especially in regard of simplicity and _beauty_. If you're diving into functional programming, be sure to have a look at it, even if you're a beginner like I am.

<comment><USER5> Alternate Haskell Prelude, for how the Haskell Prelude _should_ have been written: [http://patch-tag.com/r/jmcarthur/alt- stdlib/snapshot/current...](http://patch-tag.com/r/jmcarthur/alt- stdlib/snapshot/current/content/pretty)

Nobody actually likes the standard one in its entirety, particularly Num, Monad, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Tornado web server. It's extremely good code solving hard problems with a great attention to detail and in a minimal way. Highly recommended.

<comment><USER7> Tornado is a really neat project. It was developed by a pile of ex-Googlers who brought us GMail, Google Maps, AdSense, and some other cool stuff.

"Tornado is an open source version of the scalable, non-blocking web server and tools that power FriendFeed."

<http://github.com/facebook/tornado>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've been reading some BSD userland source (awk, sed, trek, and OpenBSD's netcat) parts of Lua and OCaml's VMs, Redis, and Joy. Awk and Lua's source are particularly good, IMHO.

The code that had the biggest impact on me lately was the original J interpreter, though: <http://nsl.com/papers/origins.htm> . It looks like some sort of crazy brainfuck-ish thing, but it's not a joke. I highly recommend printing it out and trying to get in Arthur Whitney's head. (But if you run it, it will probably just segfault. It's rather cavalier with nonportable function pointer casting. It's prototype code from 20 years ago. If you want a working version, look at J (<http://jsoftware.com>) or Q (<http://kx.com>).)

</comment><comment><USER9> This book deals with effective code reading: "Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective" <http://www.spinellis.gr/codereading/>

</comment><comment><USER10> Simcity source code - <http://code.google.com/p/micropolis/>

This has a few different versions (even python) and is pretty solid/concise due to the hardware restrictions of the late 80s.

<comment><USER7> Don Hopkins has a nice history of the various ports of SimCity which includes the Micropolis port linked above. [1]

" _"Micropolis" is the name of the current GPL open source code version of OLPC SimCity. That was the original working title of Will Wright's city simulation game. Since Micropolis is licensed under the GPL, anyone can do anything they want with it that conforms with the GPL, except they can't call it "SimCity" (and a few other limitations to protect EA's trademarks)._ "

[1] <http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/131>

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm currently reading "The Ruby Programming Language" (coming from a C/C++/PHP background). I'm looking forward to write my next web app using RoR.

</comment><comment><USER12> Aside from the spaghetti code that my predecessor wrote, I've been reading a book called "Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship" by Robert C. Martin. The code in the book isn't always interesting for content, but rather for style and craft. He does a great job explaining industry best practices, along with How and Why they are used.

</comment><comment><USER13> Been looking at the MongoDB functions for the past few days. Interesting to see what has changed in them from previous releases.

</comment><comment><USER3> I haven't read through it yet, but CoffeeScript's source is particularly well documented:

<http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/>

I realize it's a _huge_ investment to make, but dammit, _every_ open source project should do something like this.

</comment><comment><USER14> I have read through the modifications made to the Linux kernel by the Xenomai project ( <http://www.xenomai.org/> ) lately. Its interesting to read up on how they work together with Linux in a symbiotic way. Gave me some insight into how they created a dual kernel system.

</comment><comment><USER15> Yaler, a high performance relay server implementing HTTPS with Java non- blocking sockets, hierarchical state machines and design by contract. Written by Marc Frei (Oberon microsystems).

<http://hg.yaler.org/yaler/src>

</comment><comment><USER16> I generally have a quick read through the code of plugins on Github before I used them.

</comment><comment><USER17> Linux kernel for some time. Not the most well documented, but is full of great examples of how to wring every little ounce of performance from the machine. And, inspite of the low level nature of the code, it's beautifully modular.

</comment><comment><USER18> Reddit's source code : <http://code.reddit.com/>

I'm far from being done and don't intend to read all of it, it isn't easy because it's huge !

</comment><comment><USER19> I highly recommend reading through Lamson. Zed Shaw's rants may rub me the wrong way on occasion, but he's a seriously good coder. Lamson is fantastically well-written and documented.

</comment><comment><USER20> The Clojure core is usually a good read, as is a lot of contrib.

</comment><comment><USER21> Spring source code - seeing how the internals connect comes up a lot when figuring out how to inject new functionality

</comment><comment><USER22> The redis source code is very nice to look at. And it compiles without configure, just make...

</comment><comment><USER23> Been reading the OpenCV Python extension samples and writing a couple small apps.

</comment><comment><USER24> lispbuilder-sdl

Hacked together a game while doing laundry the other day with it. Read the source later to get an idea of what was going on under the hood. It's good stuff.

</comment><comment><USER25> Lucene - was extending it to add BM25.

</comment><comment><USER26> Code Complete 2nd edition

<comment><USER3> I see this recommended _everywhere_ , so I nabbed it from a library a while ago. My two cents (for others, not picking on you, rhythmAddict):

Ick. Bloated with manager-speak, light on quality suggestions, and _massive_. Not worth your time. Reading a few coding-suggestion articles here is significantly more likely to improve your code quality.

<comment><USER27> I think on the whole peoples reaction to Code Complete is very much connected to when in their coding career they first come across. If you come across it early in your career while still inexperienced it can completely change your approach to coding for the better. If you come across it later in your career it just seems like a collection of obvious ideas that you already know.

<comment><USER3> I came across it pretty early, though admittedly I'd read quite a few suggestion articles & management articles prior to it. It's still largely obvious, and _super_ management-oriented. Even the little check-lists at the end of each chapter reek of a manager looking over someone's shoulder, tsk- ing, and marking "flaws" in code, rather than actually being a useful metric of any sort to measure quality against.

I can't get past the feeling (as it's a subjective assessment, I can't say "fact") that it's a book for non-programmers who are managing programmers, and it's being mis-applied as something a programmer should read. It's meant to raise the minimum code quality on a project, and it very well could with rather poor programmers, but it does so by sacrificing (nay, _slaughtering_ ) potentially better strategies which a decent programmer should know / be learning.

"Do X, Y, and Z and your code will improve" is something _only_ managers believe, and they all want to find some magic combination which will work that way. Code Complete bills itself as exactly that.

<comment><USER28> ""Do X, Y, and Z and your code will improve" is something only managers believe"

The thing is, it is absolutely correct for some definitions of X, Y and Z. There are plenty of programmers in the workplace who just suck at constructing code. They don't know how to write good comments, format their code logically and consistently, use good variable and function names, etc. It goes even further: they do not understand _why_ these things are important. I still see plenty of code like this:

bool nothingToDo; // Is there anything to do

....

if (nothingToDo) {

        // We don't need to continue

        return;

}

or

if (time.elapsed() > 10) // If ten seconds or more have passed

{...}

Requests to refactor such code are often met with "This is trivial, just step through the code and figure it out", sometimes from senior programmers (at least in title). And these are not necessarily stupid people, they are often good programmers but not very good software engineers. Have you ever read some of the code open sourced by Google and found yourself thinking "Sheetz, this code is ultra clean"? I bet the people responsible for Google's coding guidelines have read Code Complete. I have been involved in writing coding standards a few times and I referred to Code Complete in each of those instances.

I also completely disagree that this book was written for managers. A manager with no technical background is very likely to dismiss refactoring or code layout as wasted time.

<comment><USER3> _A manager with no technical background is very likely to dismiss refactoring or code layout as wasted time._

But they're _very_ likely to throw the biggest "guaranteed to improve code" book they can find, with the biggest company name on it they can find (Microsoft), at all the programmers under them, whether or not it makes sense. And they're more likely to use the book dogmatically, rather than pragmatically, and much of the book seems structured to encourage this use.

<comment><USER28> I don't think the book encourages this. There are several instances where it concedes that consistency should take precedence over using the "bestest" practice for example. Also, the dogmatic manager will be dogmatic regardless of the book or standard they use as a reference.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> hudson ci and apache abdera. Can vouch for both.

</comment><comment><USER30> I have read through dmenu a few times the past couple days.</comment>


On finally learning to program at the age of 40 - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Dhghomon/programming_at_40/ <comment><USER2> The Logo screenshot used in this article was created by me for my own blog post here: [https://susam.in/blog/good-quality-dosbox-video- capture/](https://susam.in/blog/good-quality-dosbox-video-capture/)

I contributed this image to Wikipedia at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_LCSI_Logo_Circles.png](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_LCSI_Logo_Circles.png), so that it could be added to the Wikipedia article on Logo at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_\(programming_language\)).

It is fun to see this image being reused in this article!

By the way, the article mentions that Logo did not provide a very good experience to the author. However, in my life, Logo has had a significant impact on me. I have written a detailed comment about it here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21374341](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21374341).</comment>


Amazon Web Services: New Release of DevPay - Lower Fees and Reduced Risk - <AUTHOR> http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2008/09/new-release-of.html <comment><USER2> Amazon seems to be the Internet giant who's doing the most things right: innovative and focused. A great bookstore, with a great electronics store, a great innovation with the Kindle, and a top-notch cloud computing service which seems to just get better and better. And they listen to their customers! And the handling of customer reviews in their stores is so much better than that in Apple's App Store it's disgusting.

<comment><USER3> Their technology and research is also in my opinion some of the best out there. They're one of the most underestimated brain-centers around in my opinion. It's like a playground for ways to present and monetize a million different kinds of data.</comment></comment>


What's New In Emacs 24 - <AUTHOR> http://www.masteringemacs.org/articles/2011/12/06/what-is-new-in-emacs-24-part-1/ <comment><USER2> I wait for new Emacs versions like I waited for Christmas when I was a small kid. And I don't peek into the development branches, I want to take time and enjoy the changes upon the release of the next major version.

Each new Emacs version shows little on the surface which you might expect from a software suite that has had everything and the kitchen sink since the 90's, but in the inside there's an ongoing morphosis into something greater, that quietly reveals itself version by version if only you take the time to study not only what's new but _how_ the new things work. Then suddenly, say, five years later, a new usage paradigm emerges seemingly out of nothing eventhough Emacs has had the bits and pieces in for many revisions already. This is just fascinating. For example, the various completion subroutines have slowly converged into a more solid, generic completion subsystem. And best of all, you have the source code to play with.

If Emacs is nearly an operating system then it's kind of nearly a software Lisp machine.

<comment> muuh-gnu > If Emacs is nearly an operating system then it's kind of nearly a software > Lisp machine.

Which is why it is such a pity that they are still putting so much valuable work into fighting Elisp instead of having a full fledged CL with a native compiler under the hood. The FSF even has two own, GPL'ed CL implementations, CLISP and GCL, but because of RMS' hatred of CL, let them bitrot and never really cared to use them for anything.

<comment><USER3> Too much useful work is already done in elisp. If emacs maintainers were going to move to CL, they'd have to make sure that nothing breaks, otherwise it would almost surely result in fork.

<comment><USER4> I wonder if there'd be a way to create an interop mode, which might look something similar to the way they are handling the lexical vs dynamic scoping.

That way authors could transition from elisp to common lisp.

<comment><USER5> There's already an effort to do this using Scheme, it's just not ready for this release.

Is CL really that much better than Scheme?

<comment><USER4> Not from a language-theoretic standpoint.

From a pragmatic standpoint, all standard-conforming Common Lisp code runs on a conformant implementation. Schemes often tend to diverge (and they have 6 different Rn standards). So I think CL is 'better' than Scheme, for that value of better.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Just a note for anyone using 23 and waiting with bated breath:

I've been building emacs from trunk on a regular basis, and using it as my primary editor, for about a year now. It's very stable -- I have so far had to find out about a breakage once, and it was already solved by the time I encountered it.

It's _way_ nicer than the last major release. Give it a go.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sorry about the site outage; my little linode 512 instance took a pounding :) I've moved it to a larger one. I hope that'll do!

<comment><USER8> Just out of curiosity, were you using a caching plugin, such as WP Super Cache?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Adding a package manager to the vanilla distribution is, in my opinion, the biggest change in this release. This is going to make finding and installing great elisp packages so much easier, especially for new users.

<http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ELPA>

</comment><comment><USER10> I'd love to take this opportunity to dive into Emacs, but the past few times I've tried, it's felt like my keyboard was fighting against me. For those of you using Emacs on a Macbook (or an Apple keyboard), which key do you use for 'alt'?

<comment><USER11> I use option like the others have said. I am like you, diving into Emacs; in my case purely for the swank/slime lisping environment.

It's been pretty difficult as I am a dyed in the wool VIM user. Someone on HN recommended the Evil plugin (<http://gitorious.org/evil/pages/Home>) for an approximation of VIM movement and other bindings. It surprisingly works pretty well. It's letting me remain productive while I slowly adapt to the emacs key- bindings over time.

I am using emacs-prelude as well (<https://github.com/bbatsov/emacs-prelude>) which is a startup scripts kit.

I'm still not sold on emacs yet, but I am giving it time.

<comment><USER12> I've been using Evil for a couple of months and love it. I switched from Viper+vimpulse and haven't missed a beat. It works really well and was easier to setup. Any VIM user considering Emacs should give it a shot - the best of both worlds, really.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Sadly one of the things I was most looking forward to didn't make it into 24. Threading T_T

</comment><comment><USER14> I would really like to edit LaTeX in emacs (people always tell me how great the latex emacs packages are).

Given I am on Mac OS X, can someone give me a way to way to get to a "all the shiny bells and whistles" emacs with latex editing?

I tried this a few months ago and got stuck behind packages, package managers, macro packages which are for various versions of emacs. I was never sure if I'd actually got things loaded.

<comment><USER15> My impression is that if you install TexLive and Aquamacs, you are pretty much set. If you also install Skim, you've got a nice synctex setup. You might need to tell aquamacs that you are using skim etc, but this is explained either on the aquamacs or skim faqs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Really wish I could get PCRE search and replace...</comment>


Digging into ShellShock Exploitation attempts - <AUTHOR> http://threatstream.com/blog/shockpot-exploitation-analysis

<comment><USER2> Nice writeup, this article is easy to read yet still covers shellshock in granular detail.

I think this is the same company responsible for MHN [0], and FWIW I've found their distributed honeypot system to be one of the more powerful and by far the easiest to get up and running with.

[0] [https://github.com/threatstream/mhn](https://github.com/threatstream/mhn)

</comment><comment><USER3> Great info!!!!!</comment>


'I want to explain arranged marriage to white people' - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/stories-43376355 <comment><USER2> Pretty amazing to see how it's completely ok to release this kind of incredibly racist headlines on offial state media in the UK.

As if "white people" were some magical group of people who share ways of thinking amongst themselves.

<comment><USER3> BBC is not "official state media": there is no such thing in the UK.

Also, I haven't read the piece yet, and the headline is a bit bait-y, but there is nothing inherently evil in that title. If there is a particularly low correlation between being white and being in (or understanding) an arranged marriage, then the whole thing may be objectively reasonable.

I repeat: I haven't read it yet.

Edit: having read it it's not in the least bit "racist". It's quite interesting and makes a clear distinction between "arranged" and "forced" that I had not thought about clearly before. Facts: it's a whole new world out there.

<comment><USER4> If I don't pay my TV license Ill go to jail eventually and it pays for the BBC so this is as state media as it comes in the West today.

It's also government owned (partially BBC America, World etc. are separate entities and if you are in the UK you can't even access bbc.com)

[https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/bbc](https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/bbc)

<comment><USER3> I don't watch TV and when single, in the face of some rudeness and disbelief from the horrible licensing authorities, did not have nor require a licence.

The BBC World Service has always been a Foreign-Office paid-for propaganda arm, but the rest not so.

I don't believe the UK government owns the BBC: but please show me otherwise.

There are explicitly state-controlled entities in other countries, with an editorial line deferential to the state.

No UK government ever likes the BBC's line much, whatever the government's political colour, which I regard as a GoodThing(TM).

<comment><USER4> BBC is a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

Seriously BBC is as state owned as it gets in the west, to be more specific it's a statutory corporation [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_corporation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_corporation)

BBC world is actually not tied directly to the British government.

And how exactly have you managed to avoid paying a license since any TV monitor and today a device capable of running iPlayer counts for the license.

<comment><USER3> Before I had a family (which was some time ago) I did not watch TV nor own a TV. And iPlayer and its like were not dreamt of, still less a twinkle in the eye of a TV licence law. (I ran one of the first UK ISPs around that time.) I was not required to pay a licence fee and so did not. My family does watch TV and so we do have a licence. I still don't watch TV.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Phrasing should be modern American/European culture. Asians still practice arranged marriage. It was practiced in Europe until quite recently.

And not necessarily forced actually - especially not when royalty did it.

Unfortunately mixing race with culture is really common these days.

<comment><USER6> I think at least in Europe this was common at least as recently as right after WW II.

Both my paternal and maternal grandparents' marriages were essentially arranged.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Meh I don't judge others but I personally don't want an arranged marriage I feel like in most cases it's always focused around the man and not the woman so the woman ends up with a suboptimal match which I think is wrong.

It's interesting (but not surprising) how people of the same race and religion can have very different cultures based on the region of the world they were born or grew up in.

Malaysians like my parents who are Indian genetically/ancestrally (been in Malaysia for multiple generations though) and Hindu by religion date in high school, Pre-marital sex is not uncommon and some speak openly about it just like here in the "West", and usually get love marriages.

Same applies to Malaysian Chinese Buddhists and also to a much much lesser extent Malaysian Malay Muslims.

But in South Asia, Indian Hindus and Pakistani Muslims (not all of course) have this arranged marriage notion (Although I've been told it's less common now) and dating in high school in very rare and I'm guessing Pre-marital sex is either very rare or you can't talk about it openly because of social stigma.

Same race from a genetic point of view, same religion,

But different views of feminism, sexuality, and dating.

Not surprising of course.

As an American myself my views are mostly "Western" since I grew up here and I guess my parents were pretty progressive (at least on this issue my mom went against her parents to marry my dad).

The society in which you grow up in plays a large role in how you end up seeing the world and people around you.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Not really tech but I thought that was an interesting article about cultures that most people here don't necessarily know or understand well..

</comment><comment><USER8> i guess black and latino etc. aren't privileged enough to learn about this, only silly 'white' people

<comment><USER9> yeah title is click bait

<comment><USER3> Title could be better (and the BBC is getting more click-bait-y titles which annoys me) but the content is fine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Oh fuck, here we go again. An idiot thinks they can save the western world.

<comment><USER3> Did you try reading it? That's not AT ALL what the piece is about, and indeed one of the big problems expressed in it is people jumping to entirely unjustified conclusions about motives...</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Unix-like tools for reverse engineering - <AUTHOR> Hi, HN! Do you know of any toolkit for reverse engineering based on the Unix philosophy (i.e., specific tools for specific tasks, instead of a large application)?
While Ghidra and IDA Pro are great, a set of CLI tools for analyzing the shape of the call graph, finding program patterns (e.g., a sequence of instructions that could be a hash function), etc. might be useful, in case there isn't a toolkit yet.
If such a toolkit doesn't exist, is it an actual need in the professional reverse engineering community, or just a nice-to-have? <comment><USER2> radare2 is exactly what you're looking for.

<comment><AUTHOR> Indeed. Thanks a lot!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> binwalk is great</comment>