256-bit GDDR5 in Polaris 10 - <AUTHOR> http://semiaccurate.com/forums/showpost.php?p=258453&postcount=513 <comment><USER2> Polaris 10 being the code-name for AMD's next-generation GPUs[0] - I had to Google, wanted to save you.

[0]: [http://wccftech.com/amd-unveils- polaris-11-10-gpu/](http://wccftech.com/amd-unveils-polaris-11-10-gpu/)

<comment><USER3> Thanks. It's semi-ok when the title doesn't explain the subject, but here it's not even explained by clicking the link...

</comment></comment><comment> ju-st This means that it won't have HBM2?

<comment><USER4> No, the next generation of HBM is expected for Vega, which should be released by the end of 2016 or more likely beginning of 2017. It seems AMD and Nvidias first 14nm GPUs will only use gddr5 and gddr5x.

<comment><USER5> Pascal will definitely use HBM in it's initial release, the cut down mid range versions later might come with GDDR5/GDDR5X.

Anyhow atm HBM doesn't seem to offer much other than increase the cost and thermal envelope of the package.

Nvidia for 3 generations now have been continuously shipping cards with lower memory bandwidth (with heavy focus on compression) than AMD even without HBM and continuously not only remaining competitive but managing in most cases to be the top performer.

Memory bandwidth is already not being saturated even with GDDR5/4 @ 256bits, HBM has some other benefits than raw bandwidth but those for the most part aren't very noticeable as far as gaming goes.

For compute the memory performance is almost completely irrelevant as you are working with very small batches and the biggest latency is in the compute operations them selves most people that build compute setups tend to under clock the memory considerably in order to save power (which can be used to further overclock the GPU) and to reduce the thermal output by as much as possible as they usually stack multiple cards into a single machine.

<comment><USER4> > Pascal will definitely use HBM in it's initial release, the cut down mid > range versions later might come with GDDR5/GDDR5X.

The newest rumors I'm aware of (from around GDC) suggest Nvidia will realease the samller GP104 with GDDR5/GDDR5X to consumers before the bigger GP100 with HBM2. This sounds reasonable since Sk Hynx (which developed HBM together with AMD) will only start mass production in Q2/Q3 of 2016 - but maybe Nvidia has more luck with Samsung. Do you know of newer rumors? Maybe we know more after GTCs opening keynote from Nvidias CEO. [1]

> Anyhow atm HBM doesn't seem to offer much other than increase the cost and > thermal envelope of the package.

Yeah, and HBM allows for much smaller high end gpus (like AMD Nano) and is much more power efficient, which means AMD and Nvidia could use the energy savings to clock the cards higher (but I have my doubts, AMDs Fury had not the best clocks, and overclocking was bad compared to cards with gddr).

> Nvidia for 3 generations now have been continuously shipping cards with > lower memory bandwidth (with heavy focus on compression) than AMD even > without HBM and continuously not only remaining competitive but managing in > most cases to be the top performer.

That's why I'm looking forward to DirectX12 and Vulkan. AMDs drivers couldn't bring out the full power of their cards but that seems to change thanks to the new APIs if newest benchmarks are an indicator. Nvidia on the other hand doesn't gain much because their Dx11 drivers were already really good.

[1] [https://mygtc.gputechconf.com/form/session-listing&do- search...](https://mygtc.gputechconf.com/form/session-listing&do- search=true&filter-type=complete&schedule-day-filters=Tuesday&session-keyword- filter=&session-keyword-filter-field=&session-level-filters=&session-tag- filters=&session-type-filters=Keynote)

<comment><USER5> Nvidia tends not to release cut down versions first when they already have a mid-range card with the 960 and 970 in play there is very little reason to release a new core (like they did with the 770ti).

They do sometimes tend to release a new gen as a mobile GPU fist like they've done with the GTX800 series but it looks now that they are no longer will make dedicated GPU SKU's but rather let OEM's use desktop cards like they've done with the 980.

As far as HBM goes it doesn't really reduces power consumption, the R9 Fury Nano has a higher power consumption than a GTX 980 and the Nano is quite a bit underclocked compared to the Fury and the Fury X.

Also Vulkan and DX12 performance boosts for AMD are well kinda meh, Vulkan is currently a performance loss and DX12 more or less depends on the game Ashens which is less DX12 and more Mantle spec allows them to remain competitive against Nvidia however the Fable benchmarks showed a different picture.

The easiest way to sum it up currently is that Ashens uses compute shaders which are more or less designed around the specs for Mantle so they are optimized for lots of small batches rather than fewer bigger ones, the whole idea that DX12 some how takes out optimization out of the picture is nonsense it only shifts the optimization from driver to the game developer.

Both Vulkan and DX12 eventually will get driver optimizations, game developers are incapable for shipping functional code even with DX10/11 managed profiles which have quite good validation. But in any case both in any DX12 benchmark overclocking the memory does absolutely squat as far as performance goes while GPU overclocking gives almost 1 to 1 increase in performance, on most modern GPU's you can underclock the memory by upto 30% before you notice any performance drops as far as most games go.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> How can they tell that it is GDDR5 and not GDDR5X ?

<comment><USER5> 32Bit wide memory access per channel which is GDDR5, GDDR5X uses 64bits.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Could Ibuprofen worsen Covid-19? - <AUTHOR> Sorry for the clickbaity title but this is currently being discussed in Europe.
SARS-CoV-2 accesses host cells via the enzyme ACE2[1][2]
On March 11 a correspondence[3] in the Lancet claimed that "the increased expression of ACE2 would facilitate infection with COVID-19" and "ACE2 can also be increased by thiazolidinediones and ibuprofen"
While the first claim seems sensical the authors did not provide a reference for the second claim.
I am not an expert in this area and a search if ibuprofen or NSAIDs[4] really increase ACE2 expression revealed just articles like [5] "Ibuprofen could ameliorate the cardiac fibrosis in diabetic rats by reduction of the ACE/AngII/AT1-R axis and enhancement of the ACE2/Ang(1-7)/Mas-R axis …" which does not really answer my question.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019
[2] https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30229-4
[3] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30116-8/
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonsteroidal_anti-inflammatory_drug
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25896805 <comment><USER2> I saw conflicting news. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/anti- inflammat...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/anti-inflammatory- drugs-may-aggravate-coronavirus-infection) which I regard as trustworthy says yes.

On the other hand in Germany there were several articles, e.g. [https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/covid-19-coronavirus- warnunge...](https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/covid-19-coronavirus-warnungen- vor-fakenews-auf-whatsapp.1939.de.html?drn:news_id=1110612) warning about fake whatapp messages (seems it was forwarded voice messages) regarding Ibuprofen.

If your research points to University of Vienna, they issued a denial [https://twitter.com/MedUni_Wien/status/1238782938344554496](https://twitter.com/MedUni_Wien/status/1238782938344554496)

</comment><comment><USER3> The original source for this scaremongering story is the report which you linked in #3 above. This supposed association has received wide coverage in Germany and is being debunked by official sources.

There has simply been a correlation between hypertensive/diabetic patients and graver Covid-19 symptoms. The article speculates that ACE2 inhibitors could be the cause. And Ibuprofen is not an ACE2 inhibitor in the real sense of the term.

If there really were a link, then common blood pressure and diabetes medication would be far more risky than ibuprofen.

However, it should also be noted that women express ACE2 more than men do. And yet women are known to have a lower mortality rate than me with respect to SARS-COV-2.

Correlation does not imply causality and the article is simply an unconfirmed hypothesis.

<comment><USER4> None of what you just said is responsive to OP's question, which is simply wondering to what extent ibuprofen increases expression of ACE2.

When you say that a supposed association is being debunked, do you mean to say that the debunkers are citing research that ibuprofen does _not_ increase ACE2 expression? Because that is the kind of debunking that would answer OP's question.

If the debunking is instead "people are spreading unfounded rumors, pay no attention", then maybe that's useful as a default posture to hold regarding unsubstantiated rumors, but it doesn't help anyone arrive at the truth of the matter.

<comment><USER5> > None of what you just said is responsive to OP's question, which is simply > wondering to what extent ibuprofen increases expression of ACE2.

I had the same confusion. I eventually found a quote here (published today, not available at time of up-thread comments):

[https://kvia.com/health/2020/03/17/france-says-ibuprofen- may...](https://kvia.com/health/2020/03/17/france-says-ibuprofen-may- aggravate-coronavirus-experts-say-more-evidence-is-needed/)

> NSAIDs might affect how Covid-19 binds to human cells, according to Dr. > Yogen Kanthi, assistant professor of cardiology at the University of > Michigan, who studies inflammation. > > "There is data from basic science > studies that have shown that Covid-19 itself binds to a protein at the > surface of cells called ACE2," he said. "There is a hypothetical risk that > giving NSAIDs like ibuprofen could increase levels of ACE2 shown in animal > models, but not in patients."

That's the best I can find searching for '"ibuprofen" "ace2"' or 'NSAID' or 'COX2' in place of 'ibuprofen', so maybe take it with a pinch of salt, and it's not even saying 'yes definite link'.</comment></comment></comment>


Common Lisp OS Mezzano – Demo 4 - phoe-krk https://github.com/froggey/Mezzano/releases/tag/demo4 <comment> phoe-krk The newest demo features McCLIM, Quicklisp, FAT32, a generational GC, and a new compiler backend.</comment>


Conway's Game of Life – Bill Gosper's Remarkable Demo - <AUTHOR> https://youtu.be/BpgA2oCQj9o?t=327 <comment><AUTHOR> I'm astounded every time I come back to these videos, and I know HN will appreciate them. Nowhere else have I seen this level of Life hacking.

If you know a way to access the software or patterns used in this demo, please let me know.

Youtube description:

"Bill Gosper's LIFE and MACSYMA presentation from November 4th, 2007 at the Computer History Museum during VCF 10."

Part 1: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpgA2oCQj9o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpgA2oCQj9o)

Part 2: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFxEyoujzxw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFxEyoujzxw)

Part 3: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppnadmuDRIs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppnadmuDRIs)

Part 4: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wmg7xZLtjU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wmg7xZLtjU)

Part 5: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_AXix3ALeM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_AXix3ALeM)

Part 6: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cplgw4h_zgk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cplgw4h_zgk)

Bill Gosper: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gosper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gosper)

Hashlife: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashlife](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashlife)

<comment><USER2> The software used is Golly [http://golly.sourceforge.net](http://golly.sourceforge.net). It comes with many of examples to play with.</comment></comment>


Driving Range for the Tesla Model S Family - <AUTHOR> http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/driving-range-model-s-family <comment><USER2> The most under-reported aspect of driving a Tesla is how severely topography impacts range.

Under normal conditions, I use 350 Wh/mi (watt-hours per mile). This is 17% more than "rated range" because -- and this is a technical term -- I drive like a madman.

However, when driving to Tahoe (7000 feet higher), I end up using _850_ Wh/mi: over 2x higher electricity consumption, because mountains.

All this talk of tires and wind resistance is a red herring for topography, which does more to limit/extend range than any other factor.

What's more, this could be so easily addressed with software: when I input my destination into GPS, the car should tell me my expected range. It knows the topography. Use the force, car!

Taken one step further, since Tesla is constantly transmitting telemetry to home base, Tesla HQ likely knows the average battery consumption of __all other drivers __who have ever driven that route. This would allow non- topographical variables (traffic lights, potholes, road conditions) to be factored into the range calculation as well.

Edit: Mistakenly used kWh/mi instead of Wh/mi units. Hat tip to Tarrosion for the correction.

<comment><USER3> > Under normal conditions, I use 350 kWh/mi (kilowatt-hours per mile).

Say you get a good rate and pay $0.10 per kilowatt hour for electricity. That means if you charge your car at home, you're paying $35 per mile to drive. That doesn't seem right.

Possibly it's watt-hours? That'd be a per mile price of 3.5 cents, which seems about the right order of magnitude.

<comment><USER4> That sounds about right - the 85 kWh battery of the Tesla would then get you about 240 miles range.

Another interesting way of looking at this then, is that the amount of power required to power s _single_ 100 Watt Light bulb for 3 1/2 hours could move an _entire_ Tesla + person inside 1 mile. Wowsa.

<comment><USER5> "could move an _entire_ Tesla + person inside 1 mile"... on level ground.

If you've ever had to push a car manually in that situation, you'll notice that it's very easy to keep it moving once you get started, as you only have to overcome the rolling resistance. I've never pushed a Tesla before but I'd bet that it's far easier than a regular car, and a regular car isn't that hard to push already.

According to this page:

[http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/11/mpg-of-a- human/](http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/11/mpg-of-a-human/)

A human walking takes between 100-200Wh/mi, so the Tesla isn't that far off.

<comment><USER6> > I've never pushed a Tesla before but I'd bet that it's far easier than a > regular car

Based on what exactly? A Tesla Model S weighs at least 1000 lbs more than similarly sized cars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Quick note: These ranges probably assume a 100% charge. Although this should be obvious, _it should be noted that the Model S does not charge to 100% by default._

By default it charges to 80%. This can be overridden by the user (in preparation for long trips), though after a few days it reverts back to the 80%. This is the improve the overall durability of the battery -- that is, the maximum capacity remains higher for longer if the battery is not fully charged every cycle.

</comment><comment><USER8> I tried the range calculator but it doesn't let me compute expected range for driving 75 mph on a highway on a 120 degree F Arizona summer day.....

Not to mention the 85 mph most people actually sit on.

<comment><USER9> Driving any car at 85mph will nuke the mileage.. DOE figures for 80mph vs. 55mph show a 30% reduction in mileage, so I'd imagine 85mpg is more like a 35% reduction. Given that MPG isn't a direct linkage, it's worth noting that this will roughly double your driving cost per mile depending on the car..

[http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.jsp](http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.jsp)

<comment><USER10> You don't have to guess. The linked article has two graphs showing the range obtained at speeds ranging from 40 mph to 85 mph for different models.

For the 85 KWh battery pack going at 55 mph you'll get about 350 miles of range. Going at 85 mph you'll just over 200 miles of range. That's slightly more than a 40% reduction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "the dual motor Model S will quickly torque sleep a drive unit when torque is not needed and instantly wake it up as the accelerator is pressed to command more torque."

I can't understand this, is first torque meant to be toggle?

<comment> TD-Linux Tesla cars use induction motors. The rotors of an induction motor don't supply their own field, but need to be excited by current in the stator, which requires power. In addition, once there is a field, it produces hysteresis losses proportional to the speed of the motor. If the motor is completely off, the losses from freewheeling are very small.

Cars based on permanent magnet motors do not need to use power to maintain the rotor's magnetic field. On the downside, the field cannot be shut off, so they always have hysteresis loss and cannot freewheel as nicely as induction motors can.</comment></comment>


ASK HN: Are there cryptographical flaws in this e2ee website chat widget? - <AUTHOR> https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/80071/are-there-cryptographical-flaws-in-this-e2ee-website-chat-widget <comment><AUTHOR> Hi Hacker News,

I want to build a e2ee chat widget service. would it be wise to encrypt it like I explained in the crypto.stackexchange.com question?

[https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/80071/are- there-c...](https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/80071/are-there- cryptographical-flaws-in-this-e2ee-website-chat-widget)</comment>


Report: Apple is working on e-ink keyboard for future MacBooks - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/10/report-apple-is-working-on-e-ink-keyboard-for-future-macbooks/ <comment><USER2> Would be interesting. I thought when the touch bar came out that it would go well with something like the Optimus Maximus keyboard (colour display in every key):

[http://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/](http://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/)

That was fiendishly expensive though, so e-ink could be a good way to lower the price.</comment>


Ask HN: Who's Hiring? (Jan '11 H1b/International Edition) - <AUTHOR>

I honestly didn't want to add to the clutter on the frontpage, but once again, I didn't see anything specific for those in need of visa sponsorship (H1b).
So if you're hiring (and sponsoring H1b), perhaps you could say so in this thread, or simply add on or edit your response in the other "Who's Hiring?" thread.
Thanks. <comment><USER2> Yelp is hiring engineers, sys admins, product managers and more --- <http://www.yelp.com/careers> (+ h1b sponsorships)

</comment><comment><USER3> We need an experienced iPhone developer in LA to work on a project for us. Send an email to phil [at] ipplex.com

</comment><comment><USER4> imo.im is hiring software engineers, operations engineers, visual designers, marketers, and software engineering interns. H1b sponsorships all around.

<https://imo.im/jobs.html>

</comment><comment><USER5> We have an open linux admin position in LA. Send resumes to jobs[at]venarc[dot]com

</comment><comment><USER6> For foreigners I'd like to mention that hiring Mexicans and Canadians is pretty easy with the TN visa.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TN_status>

<comment><USER7> Can anyone share their experiences with this? My understanding is that the TN will let someone with a CS degree take a "Computer System Analyst" job, but you have to show that the job consists of requirements analysis and architecture rather than coding.

Is this true in practice? Have any hackers here worked on TN visas?

<comment><USER8> If you don't have a computer engineering degree I'd forget about trying to obtain a TN. I'm Canadian and was working in the US for many years as a web developer under the TN "scientific technologist" category. I don't have a CE degree, and it was generally very iffy whether they'd extend the TN each year, but they did... until 2008 when they started coming down really hard.

I don't know if they started cracking down on TN's in general, but long story short... even while working _legally_ in the United States and holding a valid TN I ended up getting flagged in the US customs database as an illegal immigrant and will probably have trouble if I even try to visit the country again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm hiring hackers,mobile developers, a crisis team, and PR people to work with me on my Maryland based start-up. If your intersted send me an email firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment><comment><USER10> We are hiring web 2.0 product managers with experience in B2C fashion business and crack UI/UX designers. My email is knandyal at stylewok dot calm.</comment>


Most sex workers have had jobs in health, education or charities - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/27/most-sex-workers-jobs-health-education-charities-survey <comment><USER2> "Eight out of 10 of the men I see don't actually want to have sex with me, some just want affection and someone to talk to."

I've seen this misleading kind of statement before. She means eight out of ten men want affection and conversation after the act.</comment>


Going Dark (a response to Jeff Atwood) - <AUTHOR> http://tech.rommelhok.com/2008/06/15/going-dark/

<comment><USER2> I'm always skeptical when people equate elegant or clever algorithms with convoluted, unmaintainable trash. One reason is that the terms "elegant" and "clever" are so ambiguous and are frequently defined as "code that I cannot understand" by people that can't tell a closure from a case statement. Cleverness doesn't imply unnecessary obfuscation and complexity. In my own experience I'm constantly exposed to code that is completely lacking in cleverness, which makes it unnecessarily bloated, complex, unorganized, and redundant. Much of it can be deleted and rewritten with just a few lines of a little bit more "cleverly" crafted code, making it much easier on the mind and eyes. If it requires some developers to learn what "pattern matching" means, then this is a good thing.

It's just that I haven't had any experiences where some developer pulled out an obfuscated hack that he/she was proud of, calling it "clever", and having it cause maintenance problems. All of the maintenance problems I've come across have been from code that was decidedly not clever or elegant and not something I could imagine anyone being particularly proud of. Has anyone else run into this "cleverness" problem that I hear so much about yet never experienced? I read a lot of the "your hack may be clever but it doesn't make us money" fist-shaking from developer blogs. Maybe I just hang around the wrong developers. I do work for BigCo (only a month and a half left!), and so this is certainly a possibility. The words "enjoy" and "coding" are never used in the same sentence here.

</comment><comment><USER3> hardly a response - more like a 'yeah, i agree'. i downvoted in my mind...</comment>


Ask HN: Process Echecks? - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN,<p>I know platforms like braintree and stripe let you process credit cards with ease. Does anyone know any companies doing the same thing for echecks? <comment><USER2> Sure. Try www.checkbook.io for Digital Checks. Digital Checks are better than echecks because the provide instant verification and better confirmation of funds thus avoiding NSFs

Disclaimer: I'm the founder of Checkbook.io</comment>


Ask HN: Who created Metro theme? - <AUTHOR>

I feel there must be one person behind it and I am curious to know who. <comment><USER2> I believe it evolved over time and it involved multiple people's ideas. You could see bits and pieces of Metro forming over the years. Glimpses are in Windows Media Center, the old Zune (iPod competitor) interface (where most of the inspiration came from), etc.

Only after the first public showing of Windows Phone 7 and the subsequent critical praise was "Metro" solidified as a singular concept.</comment>


How to Hack Your Way to a Great Title - <AUTHOR> http://onboardly.com/content-marketing/how-to-hack-your-way-to-a-great-title/ <comment><USER2> Is this really just "How to A/B test your way into getting clickthroughs"?</comment>


Ask HN: Do you still use RSS if not what else? - <AUTHOR> I am working on this side project where people can blog and it's very simple. I was just wondering if I should implement RSS for people to follow their favourite blogger. My audience is mostly Hacker news type of people (<3 ) . So do you still use RSS to follow your favourite blogs? <comment><USER2> Oh yeah.

And it's not just people with RSS readers. New initiatives like [http://micro.blog](http://micro.blog) read your RSS feed to allow people to follow you, favorite particular blog entries, share them etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes, and if a blog doesn't have a feed I generally don't keep track of it – only very few resources are important enough to follow by going there individually.

<comment><USER4> So much this. I don't have time to remember your website and see what you're up to - just ping my feed reader when you've got something to say

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Yes, Not only does it allow people that use RSS readers, but people who use readers that build on RSS.

Also allow email syndication. A non-insignificant number of people use email syndication as a fallback from RSS, or simply a solution in itself. Pre-ramen plans should be cost-free.

</comment><comment><USER6> I subscribe to around sixty RSS feeds. I check them daily using NetNewsWire 3.3. It's my belief that any site publishing original static content, such as a blog or a news publication, should make their new content available via one or more RSS/Atom feeds. If you're concerned that readers won't visit your website and see your ads, then provide the first paragraph in the feed and give readers a link to the entire post.

</comment><comment><USER7> Too bad there isn't a great RSS software company. It seems like someone should have created a ubiquitous RSS app. Maybe I should go do that... brb

<comment><USER3> Are you missing something from existing offerings, or do you mean more a visibility thing – many people don't know about feeds and how to use them?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I use RSS with Blogtrottr to get updates by email. But I prefer it when the blog has its own newsletter. Saves me the trip to Blogtrottr and receiving their ads on each email.

<comment><USER9> I'm on the opposite end, I don't want several different newsletters that are all formatted with too much space wasted and designed to look appealing. Just give me a list of all the content and titles and I'll decide what I want to read. To each their own I guess.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Yes, I still use RSS to remember the sites I want to check regularly. I use feedly.com.

</comment><comment><USER4> I subscribe to quite a few RSS feeds with feedly

</comment><comment><USER11> Yes. RSS with the Feeder Chrome extension.

</comment><comment><USER12> absolutly, I'm building my own rss reader app inspired by google reader, jachtzee.com

</comment><comment><USER13> yes, via the gwene rss to nntp/usenet gateway.

</comment><comment><USER14> Yes, feedly</comment>


Fire tornado captured on film in Australia - video - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/sep/19/fire-tornado-australia-video

<comment><USER2> and that is how the bible started...</comment>


"the Zune strategy": everything that's wrong at Microsoft - <AUTHOR> http://seekingalpha.com/article/270964-salesforce-com-s-ceo-discusses-q1-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript

<comment><AUTHOR> "Our flagship, Sales Cloud, continued to crush the competition in the quarter. Microsoft's desperate strategy of underfunding, pricing with undifferentiated and highly proprietary products basically has had the same impact on our business as the Windows tablet and Zune did against the iPad and iPod. We call Microsoft's strategy, "the Zune strategy".

It's the concept that they can take a proprietary, undifferentiated offering at a lower price and somehow make an impact on a high-value, highly differentiated product that's loved by customers. Microsoft has not changed our exceptional win rates or affected our average selling price with this Zune strategy."</comment>


The phenotypic legacy of admixture between modern humans and Neandertals [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/2016-simonti.pdf <comment><USER2> >Neandertal SNPs explained a significant [likelihood ratio test; false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05 over all phenotype tests] percent of the risk in three traits in the E1 discovery cohort (Table 1): depression (2.03%,P = 0.0036), myocardial infarction (1.39%,P =0.0026), and corns and callosities (1.26%,P= 0.01). Neandertal SNPs also explained a nom-inally significant (P< 0.1) percent of risk for nine additional traits, including actinic and seborrheic keratosis, coronary atherosclerosis, and obesity (Table 1).

sounds like only obese/depressed/ill Neandertals agreed to interbreed with Cro-Magnons. May be being that picky is what did them?

<comment><USER3> It could also be an emergent property of the inter-breeding. Maybe those particular genes are fine in Neandertals, but combined with some Cro-Magnon genes leads to depression. I know that if you interbreed a lion and a tiger to make a "liger" the resulting hybrid grows to be larger than either lions or tigers; something similar could be happening here.

<comment><USER4> Take this in the spirit of fun facts, but the liger largeness phenomenon is not well described by the analogy "Maybe those particular genes are fine in Neandertals, but combined with some Cro-Magnon genes leads to depression".

Liger largeness (and the word "liger") is specific to the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger; the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion (a "tiglon" or "tigon") doesn't grow so large. What's going on is that lions _rely_ on their mates being other lions -- male lions imprint their sperm in a way that promotes growth of the cub (which is a drain on the lioness's milk production) and female lions imprint their eggs so as to inhibit growth. It's not an interaction between lion genes and tiger genes that produces excessive growth, it is the male-imprinted lion genes failing to meet the female- imprinted genes they've evolved to rely on.

The same phenomenon (in terms of genetic arms race between the sexes -- it's phenotypically different) occurs in humans under the names Prader-Willi syndrome (maternal genes fail to meet paternal resistance) and Angelman Syndrome (other way around).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This high-profile publication is interesting because it combines an evolutionary perspective with new approaches to analyzing electronic health records.</comment>


MyProfil.es - <AUTHOR> http://www.myprofil.es/ <comment><AUTHOR> Multiple networks = Multiple profile links MyProfil.es creates you one good- looking link which contains it all.

</comment><comment><USER2> Without looking, how is this different from about.me, which has a much more easy to remember domain name?</comment>


Image to image translation (textual) - <AUTHOR> https://www.imgtranslate.com/ <comment><USER2> This link doesn't tell us anything. It just goes to a landing page that leads to a sign-up page. This submission seems more like an advertisement than an interesting article.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like to fool around with things on the internet, but I'm pretty lazy about signing up for things. Particularly things that want my email.

This might get more attention if you didn't need to sign up to find out about the product.

<comment><AUTHOR> Working on it! Thanks :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is the pipeline, OCR->Translate->MCGAN/DeepFont?</comment>


How to Be a C.E.O., From a Decade's Worth of Them - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/business/how-to-be-a-ceo.html <comment><USER2> My last CEO was a great leader, except he showed up at 10am most days. Employees saw him get to work 90 minutes after they did. They didn't see that he stayed until 9p most nights since most of them were gone by 530. He lost the respect of the employees because he never understood that the example he set was visual. And he got fired despite the executives who worked closely with him all thinking he did a great job.

<comment><USER3> I am sure the respect of his employees had nothing to do with why he was fired.

<comment><USER4> I've never worked for an executive who _didn 't_ take note of how they and their superiors were viewed by their employees. The bad ones don't care, but they all at least follow it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One CEO says when hiring he asks if the applicant thinks she is smart or hard working. The only correct answer is hard working. Later in the article another CEO at a college job fair looks at a plain resume and asks what the kid has been doing with his time. The kid says he drives home and works Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at his family's diner all weekend returning to school on Monday morning.

I used to work on a massive private yacht. I'm cleaning and polishing the outside making it look pretty for all the passerby's to admire after we arrived at the marina at Atlantis in the Bahamas. A tourist perhaps in his early 40s with a family stops me to ask "How do I achieve getting my own yacht?" I said what everyone says, hard work. He scoffed at me and replied that he works very hard in technology in Vegas. He works 50+ hours a week and that he will never realize a yacht like this.

It's not hard work. That's not the answer. It's something else. After working 6 years on private yachts my best guess is that the people who own the yachts hire people who know what they are doing, they provide those people with the resources they need, and they stay out of their way. They do not micromanage.

The writer mentions Ray Dalio and his hundreds of principles for working at his firm, Bridgewater Associates. Maybe, but the big thing to take away from Dalio's principles is not to micromanage. He has built an algorithm to make decisions based on merit of each employee's history of making the correct decision. [0] "In order to be an effective investor, one has to bet against the consensus and be right." He has established a way to quantify merit, which I think is similar the democratization of the stock market itself.

[0] [https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_dalio_how_to_build_a_company_w...](https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_dalio_how_to_build_a_company_where_the_best_ideas_win)

<comment><USER6> I'd add "take risks, then do everything you can to reduce the risks."

Other than possibly in finance, working 100 hours a week _for someone else_ is not going to lead to owning a mega yacht. One needs to actually take the risk and accept the consequences. "Risk" usually is working for no compensation for a while, sometimes years.

(Tech is unique for not absolutely requiring this, in that a VC may be willing to absorb most of the founding risk. The founders receive salaries long before cashflow would support them. In almost any other industry, "owning the means of production" actually means taking that risk yourself.)

<comment><USER7> Venture capital exists in every industry.

<comment><USER6> Of course, but it's almost always after a company at least has a product and usually after revenue is funding salaries. Using PG's phrase, it's after the company is "default alive." By that point, the founding risk is pretty low.

A first-time entrepreneur raising capital without a product or revenue is, for all intents and purposes, unique to tech and biotech. The very few exceptions aren't common enough that an entrepreneur could plan around them.

For anyone considering a non-tech business, the podcast "How I Built This" covers it well: [http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built- this](http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "Both of my great occasions in life happened by accident simply because I showed up." Loving this quote. It´s so true actually. If you don´t put yourself out there and go network or go to events, it´s quite difficult to stumble upon new opportunities. You might just get the chance to get your foot in the door somewhere. This can also be referred to the "online and social media space" \- if you don´t put yourself out there (eg.on Linkedin) people are never going to recognize you and your work. In my opinion, you can work as hard as you want, if no one actually sees it and values it, it´s still a waste of time.

<comment><USER9> All of my job opportunities have come about because I just happened to be in the right place, working with the right people at the right time.

Luck is an _enormous_ part of success, despite how much people would like to think it's all hard work and determination.

<comment><USER10> Yes, but it's about 'making' luck or, more accurately, taking advantage of luck when it does come. If you don't get out there then you can't be in the right place at the right time!

<comment><USER8> Yeah, exactly. That´s what I meant. If you don´t put yourself out there, stumbling across a great opportunity becomes rather unlikely. What I always ask myself is, if that phenomenon should really be called luck. I mean, if you´re at an event already that a lot of interesting people attend, then it´s very likely you´re gonna get to know someone "interesting". Like you´re already better than "the ones on the couch". Because I guess luck is something you don´t really get to have an influence on. Do you understand what I mean?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> CEO = Communal Evangelist + door-Opener

</comment><comment><USER12> The article never really explains why you'd want to be a CEO. Are most CEOs satisfied with their job?

<comment><USER13> Money, power and prestige is a pretty attractive triumvirate of reasons to be a CEO.

<comment><USER14> "To serve people" \- is a far more attractive reason to be a CEO and a far more likely reason to succeed massively as a CEO. Most business books focus on the "how", but the "why" is critical for a CEO.

Money, power and prestige are byproducts and make very poor motivators in themselves. A CEO motivated by money, power and prestige (even those who naively pretend second order effects) will likely make suboptimal decisions.

"If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."

<comment><USER15> Have you heard of Larry Ellison?

<comment><USER16> Cue the ever amazing Bryan Cantrill Oracle rant: [https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=33m8s](https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=33m8s)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Our CEO is strictly a 9 to 5 dude. CTO, too. And this is at a startup, I imagine if this was an established company, they wouldn't even show up. In general they just push the responsibility onto the people who are willing to take it, and then claim credit for their success. That, in short, is how to be a C*O.

<comment><USER18> It can be different in a very early stage startup but generally a CxO's job isn't to do the grunt work. It's to set direction/vision, create opportunity and ensure there is money in the bank. That's why you have a job. If you don't like it you could always do what they did and go out on your own. If you do that be prepared to live with daily existential dread and possibly a realisation that you don't have the skills to do what they are doing. Desk time is a very bad indicator of performance.

<comment><USER19> > It's to set direction/vision, create opportunity and ensure there is money > in the bank.

Getting funding I understand, but the other 2 are so nebulous and/or trivial sounding it's no wonder people sometimes make fun of those roles.

<comment><USER18> I take it you've never had that weight of expectation? If it were so trivial everyone would be a billionaire. Deciding what to do and what not to do is no easy task.

<comment><USER19> That's quite a claim. Maybe it's other things preventing people from being billionaires, like the fact that there are so few CEO positions, for starters.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Thanks for this.

<comment><USER20> Downvoted, only commented as a way to reference this later.

Has HN considered a bookmark or favorites feature like dBforums?

<comment><USER21> HN does have a "favorite" feature. Click on the timestamp of the comment and you should see a "favorite" link. There's a similar link for submissions. Favorites can be referenced via your profile page. Or are you thinking of something other than this?

</comment></comment></comment><comment> crush-n-spread Lots of comments here about how to be a successful CEO. We should all be looking at Elon Musk as the prime example. Work 120 hour work weeks when the going is tough, 100 hour weeks when the going's good, and if you're just starting out, spend every waking hour on your product/company.

If you do this, people will tell you you're insane, and you'll eventually stop. That's why Elon is different, because he cannot stop. I feel that this alone explains 90% of the CEO question - who can choose to stop and who cannot choose to stop.

<comment><USER22> So are you saying this is an inherent quality of certain individuals? If so, what can we learn from Musk in that case? I hope there are things he does that I can implement in my life, and that I'm not relegated to wishing I was born more "Muskian".

<comment><USER23> I think this is why it's far more important to try to find your own path to success than to emulate others' paths.

People are inherently different. In the physical realm this is completely self evident. It's far from controversial to acknowledge that you could train day in day out for years at a sport and never be even remotely comparable to even a middling professional in one of those sports. And whilst we try to ignore it in the mental domains, the same is no doubt true. So ultimately I think the key to success is to find what you personally do well at and leverage that into your own path to success. While keeping with the one constant in advice - the first time you fall, which you will, get up and try again.</comment></comment></comment>


EasyVision: Computer Vision with Haskell - <AUTHOR> http://covector.blogspot.com/2011/05/metric-rectification-from-circles.html <comment><AUTHOR> Check out the video demo of image rectification here.

<http://bit.ly/jnFGVw>

<comment><USER2> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT_N5zzO32c>

FTFY

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I was going to tweet the link so I shortened it. Is shortening deprecated on HN?

<comment><USER2> Not deprecated, but frowned upon. Youtube has more stable URIs than any link shortener, but by using an intermediary, there are now two opportunities for the link to die.

If YouTube changes the URI, the shortened link will no longer work, and if the shortener goes out of business, again the link will no longer work.

Moral of the story: just use the URI for the actual resource. Shortening amounts to obfuscation and brittle-ness, and most HNers are opposed to their use in the comments section.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Autonomous Weapons Need Autonomous Lawyers - <AUTHOR> https://reporter.dodlive.mil/2019/04/autonomous-weapons_law/ <comment><USER2> I disagree with the premise. There are no autonomous robots on their own, there are autonomous robots that someone decided to deploy and target on something. That's just too easy to say that oh, the robots are autonomous so nobody's really responsible for them. "Only robots can judge other robots" ... no, humans judge the actions of other humans. If we don't hold the decision- makers accountable, the descent towards global totalitarian rule seems inevitable.

</comment><comment><USER3> Or better yet, autonomous weapons need to be prevented:

[https://www.stopkillerrobots.org](https://www.stopkillerrobots.org)

<comment><USER4> Unfortunately that is impossible as much as I wish it was possible. Russia, US and China will never risk falling behind in the field.

Maybe we are about to hit the great filter...

<comment><USER5> It would also be trivial to build one; you can find plenty of homebuilds for airsoft versions of autonomous weapons from the last decade or so.

Pretty sure the day the terrorists (specifically the domestic ones) start building this kind of crap is the day public spaces stop being a thing.

<comment><USER6> The reason public spaces are safe is not because it's hard to randomly kill people in public spaces, but because most people don't want to randomly kill people in public spaces.

This is unlikely to change much, even as autonomous weapons get easier and cheaper to make.

<comment><USER7> That's not correct.

The reason public spaces are safe is because it's hard to randomly kill people in public spaces _and get away with it_

While you are correct that most people don't want to randomly kill people in public spaces a non trivial amount of people do.

It's only the thin slice of that small group that want to kill people and don't care if they live after that we've had to worry about to date, and we see them in the form of suicide bombers or that Las Vegas shooter from last year.

We will have much bigger problems when it's possible for people to kill large swathes of innocent people and have a high probability of getting away with it.

<comment><USER8> >We will have much bigger problems when it's possible for people to kill large swathes of innocent people and have a high probability of getting away with it.

You have just described every war and oppressive dictatorship in human history.

<comment><USER7> In case it wasn't obvious from my comment when I used the term 'people' there I was referring to individual non-state actors.

A drone or a drone swarm is an incredible force multiplier that will allow individuals to commit atrocities and have a significant chance of not getting caught which will make enforcement and prevention exceedingly difficult if not impossible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There is a bit of a positive side to this - if our side uses murderbots, and their side uses murderbots...why bother with humans?

I hope, far in the future but not too far, wars are held among the stars with remotely operated or even autonomous starships battling over resources such as meteors or comets. It is in every nation state's best interest to reduce the human and property cost of every battle.

The need for conflict will likely be forever a part of humanity. The need for death or injury, however, is quickly withering away.

<comment><USER10> Because the first party that cheats and starts killing other side's people wins. Settling wars by game (whether a robot conflict, or a videogame) is an unstable equilibrium, because it requires all participants to obey the rules. "War" is generally what we call when a faction throws out the rulebook.

<comment><USER11> ...no? Modern warfare very much has rules and laws governing what is permitted in international conflict violence, and what constitues a war crime, and how severe that war crime is. War is absolutely not "one or more parties throwing out the rulebook". As easy as it is to just murder a city in civ 6, in real life any power that wishes to still be sat at any relevant table during future treaties and negotiations will over those rules and laws unless they are truly desperate. I.e. they have already lost the war, and now it's a reign of terror on their way out.

<comment><USER12> > _Modern warfare very much has rules and laws_

I have said this before, and this looks like a prime spot to say it again:

The only people who play fair are those who don't know how to cheat well enough.

<comment><USER10> Or those who care more about the game than about winning. Which, in war, is only the case for the side that's so sure of its victory it doesn't matter whether they cheat or not, so they can play the virtuous party for good internal and external PR.

<comment><USER12> Funny thing, that.

If you are in a war and are in the lucky a situation that you can _prolong_ the conflict without much negative effects, "keeping the game going" is in fact waging a war of attrition.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is interesting, but there are difficult conceptual problems with imagining that supervised learning can just be plunked into legal reasoning. I have a draft chapter on this, if folks are curious (or have feedback!): [https://osf.io/preprints/lawarxiv/gk2ms](https://osf.io/preprints/lawarxiv/gk2ms)

</comment><comment><USER14> If we can't keep up with our killing machine's actions, maybe we shouldn't have them?

</comment><comment><USER15> How dystopian - our murderbots will be held accountable by our lawyerbots.

<comment><USER16> It's sorta like AdTech, where machines carefully optimize the ads shown to other machines and blocked by humans, with each layer charging humans for the privilege.

<comment><USER14> Most humans don't block ads though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> bloody-crow Interestingly enough, dangerous technology has a negative bias towards morality, meaning that an actor less concerned with moral aspects of advancing such technology incurs less resistance in doing so.

If US military succumbs to public pressure and stops developing autonomous weapons (purely hypothetical, never gonna happen), Russia or China will not, and we end up in a situation where the least moral actor has the most powerful and advanced drones.

There's a similar situation in eugenics/genetics and other morally dubious research areas.

</comment><comment><USER17> Man, the references to AWS threw me off</comment>


GPL and Javascript - <AUTHOR> http://www.planetmysql.org/entry.php?id=11940

<comment><USER2> So is it better to GPL your Javascript across the board?

</comment><comment><USER3> should i include a 17997 bytes COPYING file as comment in my js ... and call it GNU/Javascript?</comment>


Linux Mint 19.1: The better-than-ever Linux desktop - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-mint-19-1-the-better-than-ever-linux-desktop/ <comment><USER2> Mostly off-topic, but since the comments have < 10 posts, I will do my part to engage discussion until the superior comments arrive.

I want to have the Year of the Linux desktop on my primary machine. I haven't yet. I will admit to severe analysis paralysis that is keeping me on Windows 7.

After Windows 7 goes out of support, I have to leave Windows on my primary desktop behind. Windows 10 has made it clear that it wants me bent over a barrel and to submit to its will for ads, telemetry, etc. On top of that, MS force-feeds me beta updates for the businesses so I can be cannon fodder to any new plagues before it affects the businesses. I am not Microsoft's animal. I refuse to become it after my chosen (and still beloved next to Win2k) OS is out of date and no longer secure.

But! I don't know if I can go with Debian KDE (+ non-free), KDE NeonOS, Mint + Cinnamon, Mint + Xfce, Debian Xfce, Debian Lxde

I know I want 'I-cant-believe-its-not-Win2k-DE' and that some Linux distros have old versions of desktop environments like Kubuntu or old kernels, but I don't know which OS to pick and stick with (not wanting to get on the grand tour of Linux distros), so here I sit.

Eventually I will just have to pick one, but if I can minimize the combination of [losing MS OneNote 2010, SysInternals, RCT2, Visio, and NoteWiki (to name a few long-used rando Windows apps with few drop-dead obvious Linux equivalents)] and [removing the 3-month worn in shoe of A distribution for B distribution] I will be gratified.

/rant?

</comment><comment><USER3> What a vapid article.

> Mint, as ever, out of the box is more secure than macOS or Windows ever > dreamed of being. On my Mac and Windows boxes, I'm always tinkering with > patches and security software. On Mint? It's a none issue. I have never had > a single security problem.

OK then..

</comment><comment><USER4> No screenshots?

<comment><USER2> I ended up clicking the links to Cinnamon, Xfce and so on.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Does anyone still use flash or is it truly dead? - <AUTHOR> Are there any holdout communities that still use flash for some purpose? <comment><USER2> Newgrounds.com [0] is a community of artists, creatives and game devs that still use Flash for their content and they are still alive and well today.

[0] - [https://newgrounds.com](https://newgrounds.com)

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://homestarrunner.com/](https://homestarrunner.com/)

maybe but they are working on a new site I see</comment>


Late YC application question. - <AUTHOR>

If you apply late for YC w2012 and dont get accepted can you apply again with the same idea for YC summer 2012? or would it be dismissed because it was already looked at? <comment><USER2> Airbnb applied late too but they got in. They might have been an exception though. Here's the video where Brian talks about his story. Truly inspiring. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOytubycHOg> Can't wait for the next Startup School at Stanford :)

<comment><USER3> I am not sure on the accuracy of the story but I believe Airbnb applied after the deadline had already been passed and got in because they were recommended by a friend. If so, the conditions/scenario is different.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm sure you could apply again but the hope would probably be that you are further along in your path towards executing the startup idea.

</comment><comment><USER5> Yes.</comment>


Death By Regulation: FaceCash Is Shutting Down in California - <AUTHOR> https://www.facecash.com/legal/ca.html <comment><USER2> The law specifically states that the tangible net worth requirement is a floor, not a ceiling; like the surety bond requirement, it scales up with transaction volume and net receivables. The DFI FAQ basically says that in practice the minimum is more like $1MM.

There is a reasonable-seeming concern in this post: the California DFI has effectively unpublished tangible net worth requirements, and ostensibly the only way to find out what they are is to apply for a license and be rejected --- which is something you have to disclose on all future applications even in other states.

The notion of "tangible net worth" requirements is the flip side to the 2008 complaint about banks being able to overleverage and thus create "too big to fail" scenarios. The subtext, I think, of the DFI's fuzzy requirements is: if you meet the tangible equity requirements, you know you do. For the types of businesses we're talking about, $500k is a joke (can you imagine Paypal being backed by sums denominated in the single-or-double-digit hundreds of thousands?) It's simply very expensive to be a money transmitter in a state as big and dynamic as California.

<comment><USER3> This seems to be the same sort of thing people were[0] complaining about with Apple's app store policies; that it was effectively impossible to know the outcome of the approval process without having to invest a large amount of time and money in advance.

[0] It is my impression that the process has been improved to the satisfaction of most people who can be satisfied with such a process.

<comment><USER2> The public interest in regulating funds transfer companies seems to outweigh --- by, like, a lot --- our interest in a well-orded iOS App Store.

<comment><USER4> How is the public interest served by obscure, unpublished requirements for permission to do business?

<comment><USER2> Nobody here thinks it is.

<comment><USER4> So would you mind expanding on your comment? In what way is the public's interest served by these requirements?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Walmart has been trying to get into banking in the U.S for a number of years. They have had to deal with a lot of regulatory hurdles. They already have banking operations in Mexico and Canada. If Walmart is having a hard time getting past the regulators to disrupt this space, it's probably much harder for a startup.

[http://www.americanbanker.com/usb_issues/120_9/wal-mart- gets...](http://www.americanbanker.com/usb_issues/120_9/wal-mart-gets- serious-1023966-1.html)

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2006/04...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001594.html)

<comment><USER6> Not really. Walmart's difficulties are because it's a real business. Typically, non-banking entities are not allowed to own banking entities. There are some very good reasons for this, primarily that if the non-banking entity struggles they have a very good incentive to raid the piggybank and/or take it down with them. After the past couple years it is easy to forget that banks are supposed to be more stable and less risky than other industries.

Clarification: Walmart's difficulties are unrelated to a banking startup's difficulties.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I find two things odd about this.

First, in one of his articles he says 43 states already have such laws, and you need to be licensed with them to do business nationwide.

So, why is one more state (California) adding licensing a big deal?

Second, when I Google for more information I come across almost no one complaining about this bill other than this one guy. If the bill is anywhere near as bad as he claims it is, I'd expect to see a lot of discussion.

The last attempt to discuss it here on HN was quickly flagged and killed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Problem 1: California has a tangible net worth requirement and surety bond requirements. Most states have the latter, but not the former. Some states have asset requirements, but that means counting assets on the balance sheet, not shareholder equity. California counts shareholder equity, so essentially you have to have $500,000 in cash in the bank that isn't from a loan.

Problem 2: It's not really $500,000. The DFI uses its own non-published standards which are much higher. This makes it impossible to know how much you really need to raise.

Problem 3: Silicon Valley is in California.

Most of the people who should be complaining about this bill either don't know enough about the law to know what to do, or they're just too small to know that the law even exists. That's precisely the problem, though: sometimes great innovations happen where you least expect them, and by regulating small companies out of existence, they're not very likely to ever come up with anything.

Also, VC-backed payments companies that have recently disappeared (Bling Nation, for example) have no incentive to explain the true reasons behind their disappearing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> For more background from the founder of FaceCash:

[http://www.quora.com/Aaron-Greenspan/Why-Im-Furious-with- Sil...](http://www.quora.com/Aaron-Greenspan/Why-Im-Furious-with-Silicon- Valley) [http://www.quora.com/Aaron-Greenspan/In-Thirty-Days- Payments...](http://www.quora.com/Aaron-Greenspan/In-Thirty-Days-Payments- Innovation-Will-Stop-In-Silicon-Valley)

<comment><USER9> From the first link: "Rather than invest in a productive, useful and frankly unprecedented product such as FaceCash, venture capital and angel investors have focused their time and billions of dollars of their money in companies and entrepreneurs that have, in serial fashion, deceived co-founders, deceived employees, and deceived customers. In many cases, shareholders are next. Meanwhile, they've left companies like my own for dead."

Whining-like typing detected.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Aaron - if a customer shows a shopkeeper a picture of a face that is not them, what happens if the shopkeeper is tired or hungover and can't distinguish up from down? Or, the shop just needs the money? If I was managing a shop, I wouldn't want a hungover teenager "confirming faces." What am I missing here? The only person I'd want confirming faces are customs officials and police officers - where there's a clear need to show the right ID to such a person and a clear disincentive to show the wrong one. At the same time, the checker is compelled not to mess up. As a shopkeeper using facecash, what happens if myself or my staff mess up, is there a liability? Why would I want that liability? And if there's no liability, what's negating a potential fraud? What happens if there is a dispute between a customer and a shopkeeper as to the face in question?

</comment><comment><USER11> It looks as though it's less "regulation" rather than regulatory capture and lack of transparency.

Why can't CA DFI actually state and publish the rules which would guarantee licensing?

</comment><comment><USER12> Something that confuses me is that FaceCash seem to be the only company that is (outwardly) complaining/worrying about this.

Presumably this regulation will affect all of the other payments companies in this space. (e.g., WePay, Venmo, Dwolla etc). It would be interesting to hear their thoughts on this.

<comment><AUTHOR> Rich can confirm this (or not), but WePay is an agent of The Bancorp, Inc. (<http://www.thebancorp.com>), which is a bank, so it's exempt from money transmission regulations. The Bancorp told me this morning that they consider WePay an exception and that they don't do it for anyone else anymore. I'd talked to them a while ago, but they're not so good about returning phone calls or e-mails.

Venmo doesn't have any licenses to the best of my knowledge. Maybe they're an agent of someone, too.

Dwolla thinks that they're exempt but I'm not entirely sure that's true. They have a credit union service provider as one of their investors, but that's not necessarily the same as being an agent of a federally chartered bank or credit union.

Noca, Xipwire, Cimbal, LendingKarma, KoolWallet and others are affected as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I've seen this post, and your other posts on this subject.

I'm sorry to say it, but it seems like regulation is not why you are shutting down, but inability to execute on your business is. WePay managed to not have this be an issue. No VC I know has raised this as an issue of concern.

I'm not trying to troll, but startups are realy hard dude. Shit happens. Move on. Find an alternate path. If you believe in the vision, you'll find a way.

<comment><AUTHOR> David,

I posted this to raise awareness about regulatory issues, not to solicit pity or life advice.

I know that startups are hard; that's why I do them. It's just bullies like you who make them especially so.

Aaron

<comment><USER13> Again, you're focusing on the wrong thing. Being honest (or "sharing my opinion") doesn't make me a bully. You titled your post "Death by regulation" and I think you're doing yourself a disservice by choosing to believe that regulation is the reason why FC hasn't succeeded.

I'm happy to help. I'm a mentor at I/O Ventures where I hold office hours periodically -- please feel free to drop in, or shoot me an email and I'll let you know next time I'll be there. Even if you don't think I'm qualified to mentor, I'm certainly a good person to bounce ideas off of, and you can probably guess, I bring a healthy dose of reality to discussions. ;-)

<comment><AUTHOR> David,

I don't even know what to say. Your point seems to be "Shit happens...but it's all your fault."

Also, I didn't say that FaceCash hasn't succeeded, and I didn't say that regulation is "the" reason why. It's far too early to tell.

When your honest opinion is consistently derogatory toward a single person no matter the circumstances, and you never have the faintest praise to offer, then yes, I think that does make you a bully, albeit an honest one.

If you truly want to help, and you truly believe that I just don't know how to "execute," whatever that means, then fine. E-mail me with what I should have done differently, and I'll be happy to share some reality with you.

Perhaps you can offer some lessons on "execution" to Jeff Bezos as well. Based on what the California legislature did to him today, he's clearly in need of some mentoring.

aarong at thinkcomputer dot com

Aaron

<comment><USER14> Calling somebody a bully always makes you look like an asshole.

Even if you're right.

I did so once, I believe I was and still am right, but looking back I still believe I came across as an asshole by saying it and didn't achieve/gain anything.

Don't waste time dissing people. Evolve, pivot, code around them. It's much more productive, for you _and_ for them.

<comment><AUTHOR> This isn't a case of random, baseless name-calling. If it makes me an asshole to defend my work (which I disagree with you on because I don't think it does), so be it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> It is stuff like this that makes bitcoin look like it has potential.

I agree financial regulation is mostly a good thing, but I am also happy with the concept of a financial wild west in the form of a crypto currency. As long as people know what they are getting in to.

</comment><comment><USER16> So I'm unclear (really - I'm not being obtuse) is the new law actually impacting this or not? It sounds like the DFI has their own terms, how does the law make a difference?

 _If the California DFI were to deny our application for a license, we would be at risk of being denied licenses in every other state in which we apply. (Each state's license application asks whether the applicant has been denied any other kind of license for any reason.)_

If this is a problem why not just get all your applications in now before you've been denied?

<comment><USER17> _If this is a problem why not just get all your applications in now before you've been denied?_

Right, just submit an application now for everything you think you might ever need to apply for in the future, everywhere. Imagine how many denials you will have on your record then.

Not a good strategy.

<comment><USER2> I think the suggestion was, get the license for Rhode Island and North Dakota and Maine before going for California. According to their Legal page, Think is only licensed in Alabama now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> You see all of these small banks and credit unions with 1-5 branches in total, what prevents them from getting into this business? Or facecash doing something similar? Get silicon valley bank involved as an investor/backing bank or some other small bank?

<comment><USER2> Nothing stops them from doing this. What they're upset about is that there is no regulation that says "if you raise _X_ x $1MM, you will receive a money transmitter's license"; they'd like to do it on their own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I still think we're crossing a line where innovation is going to cost more/slow down - like it has for a lot of technologies before the internet (see airplanes). Regulation is one of the two reasons I think this happens (complexity being the other one).</comment>


Suicide drones are here. Will someone finally listen and try to make a defense? - <AUTHOR> I've said this time and time again: Someone is going to make suicide drones and attack people with them.
I couldn't find anyone willing to put time or money into a method to defend ourselves against them. Will someone freaking listen to me now? damnation.
https://www.defenseworld.net/news/24744/China_Unveils_New_Armoured_Vehicle_Capable_Of_Launching_12_Suicide_Drones#.XPYGuy17FE4 <comment><USER2> Americans have killed thousands of unarmed civilians with their drones so far. I don't see how a truck equipped with guided missles is more dangerous. Especially armed americans have a better chance to kill the driver than a drone pilot who is sitting thousands of miles away from you.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's already happened, and people are already well aware of it:

"Venezuela President Maduro survives 'drone assassination attempt'", 5 August 2018

[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin- america-45073385](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45073385)

</comment><comment><USER4> > Will someone finally listen

I count dozens of startups and virtually every big military contractor doing exactly this for nearly 2 decades now.

Your main complaint here seems to be no one giving you money to try what many have failed at?

</comment><comment><USER5> I thought it would come from private or guerrilla orgs first. Swarming interference seems like the obvious countermeasure but this seems like something that would iterate rapidly on the battlefield.

</comment><comment><USER6> Are you afraid of them at a personnal civilian level ? I'm maybe naive but I don't find them more dangerous than a lot of more low tech weapons.

</comment><comment><USER7> provided you are not concerned about protecting specific people, an effective countermeasure is to have a large number `n` of people distributed in space, where `n` is much larger than `d`, where `d` is the number of suicide drones.

similar measures can be used to defend against people driving trucks into crowds, or so on.

<comment><USER8> This is true only if you're talking conventional warfare. What I'm scared of are lone terrorists who want to use drones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> So what will your recommended course of action be? Ban RC toys? Backdoor everything?

</comment><comment><USER10> People seem blissfully unaware how bad news autonomous vehicles are.

</comment><comment><USER11> The future is scary.</comment>


Hiring a sales person... Any advice? - <AUTHOR> My small business (myself and 2 other co-owners) has reached the point where we no longer have the time to run our business and time to sell.  We've grown to the point where all 3 of us have critical jobs handling our existing clients that we just do not have the time to go out and sell anymore.  We've tried this once before and got burned pretty bad.  Our previous sales person sold himself wonderfully in the interviews, but when it came to selling our service he failed miserably.  No self-drive, no motivation, etc.  It's been about 8 months since we let him go, and we're now looking for another sales person.  Does anyone have any advice on hiring sales people so we don't get burned again?  We thought the last guy was going to be great due to the way he presented himself in the interviews.  Also, what do you fellow hn users suggest about pay? Should it be straight salary, or smaller salary plus commission, or just straight commission?<p>Any and all advice is greatly appreciated :) <comment><USER4> The best advice I can give you is to read Inc. Magazine columnist Norm Brodsky's article titled "The Sales Commission Dilemma" at <http://www.inc.com/magazine/20030501/25416.html>

As a top performing - and top earning - sales person for many years in Fortune 500 tech hardware, software, and services businesses, I can attest to the fact that it's the company that usually creates their own problems, namely a coin- operated sales force. I found it laughable when company XYZ paid members of their sales team (including myself) 5X - even 10X - what they paid more experienced engineers, product developers and even executives.

When looking to add a new sales professional, be sure and keep an eye out for Norm's "Group Three" salespeople. They will add immeasurable value, insight and personal equity into your business for many years to come.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree, the "Group Three" people would be the best for us. Now it's just a matter of finding one. One thing that I had never thought about was sales people leaving and taking customers with them. That thought had just never entered my mind before. Great article, thanks for the link.

<comment><USER4> Many sales people will attempt to act as a middle man between their customers and the company they work for. The reason they do this is because the first questions most companies ask a potential sales hire is "who do you know?" or "what's your rolodex look like?"

When the only relationship of trust is between the sales person and customer, s/he is able to bring clients along with them to whatever new company they migrate to...and show immediate success with new employers in doing so.

By creating a relationship of trust between you and your sales team, you are able to break down barriers between the client, and create and more fruitful long term relationship among all parties involved.

The other question you should ask is "why do sales people leave in the first place?" Again, this gets back to the root of the problem, where most companies create their own coin-operated sales teams. "Today's records become tomorrow's quotas" is something that all top performing sales professionals are keenly aware of.

If a sales professional hits 2X of their quota two or three years in a row, and those record sales become next years quota, the resulting book of business is unsustainable in the long term. Because of that, most top sales professionals will stick around just as long as they are able to maximize their earning potential. When the inevitable "down" year comes around, it's time for them to reassess and start looking for a new opportunity.

By setting reasonable expecatations with your sales team year after year - <USER2> that I mean set a quota that provides a reasonable rate of return on your investment in their salary - you will no doubt create an environment that "Group Three" sales professionals want to be a part of. Good luck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From my experience, sales people need to have a large financial incentive to get motivated, therefore small retainer, open ended commission.

Also, I've never liked flashy sales people. They may say all the right things, but to me this isn't sales. Sales is relationships. Anyone can sell something once and be unlikely to sell to the client again. A good salesperson will not only sell the product, but also build the relationship. This is vital.

Finally, most sales people believe they can sell anything, irrespective of what it is and therefore put no effort into learning their product. As mahmud mentioned, product knowledge is key. If they aren't willing to learn your product inside out, they aren't in it for the long run. Ask them about the last product they sold and ask for details on it. If they can only name base specs etc, they don't have the attention to detail required.

</comment><comment><USER6> This thread of mine died a horrible death yesterday :-(

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=772567>

I am on the sales side of things, building a portfolio of luxury products and services to package as an offer for some clients of mine. Let me tell you this, nothing motivates like an open ended commission. Name your base price and tell salespeople they can put their own commission on top.

Last time we _hired_ a sales guy, he was a recently divorced, middle-aged English man who spent the last 20 years selling financial products in Hong Kong and Singapore. We wanted him to sell electronic gadgets: I kid you not, the gray-hair sat down and did his homework, and in 3 weeks he knew the specs of every gadget we had and those of our competition by heart. He did wonders for us, but he pretty managed to self himself back into the financial industry. People like those are easier to get when they're down on their luck. Since I tended to do the sales myself and started delegating the programming, when I had to choose between the two.

Also don't underestimate the power of network marketing. No, not the pyramid schemes, but your network of friends, acquaintances and fellow HN users. If I know you sell product X and you're charging $Y for it; if I like you as a person and trust your ability to deliver, you can bet I will send someone your way who will pay $Y+N dollars for a unit of X, and I expect N to end up in a bank account of mine somewhere :-)

Put an email in your profile, for starters.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the advice, and I just added my email address, I thought I had already entered it, but was mistaken :)

<comment><USER7> You were mistaken this time too, it's not there :) Mine is, and I'd like to know what you're trying to sell. Maybe I can help, maybe I'll just have a few lines of advice, maybe I can only wish you luck, but I won't waste your time.

<comment><AUTHOR> I put it in my profile this time, let me know if it's visible now. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> No one will sell better than you. What about hiring a project manager to help you with your existing clients and you focus on sales?

</comment><comment><USER9> Don't get a senior sales-person. Get someone who can transition into handling existing customers along with one or two of you. Then one or more of you can focus on sales. Then get a junior person who will grow with you. Then once you have two or three junior sales person, hire someone to manage them.

A new guy coming in at a senior level will, in all likelihood, try to sell your service the way he sold whatever he was successful with in the past - <USER3> fail to sell your service.

<comment><USER7> Or worse, sell your company to someone, but make much more on the deal than you do. [/machiavelli]

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> In my opinion, smaller salary (enough to survive, though it's tough to define "survive") plus commission. Check references, look for a track record (if they can sell themselves to you, they should also be able to sell themselves enough to have substantial presence on Google). Lots of people these days hire people initially on a contract basis for a probationary period, that might work for you.

<comment><USER11> Pay a salesman a base big enough to survive, and that's all he'll do. Survive.

You have to get someone who is prepared to sweat a little. Someone who is self-motivated and ready to really thrive, not survive and die.

I'm not sure how coming up first in Google for your name has any bearing on your ability to sell. If anything, it means you spend way too much time online and not enough time with people actually selling.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> My advice would be to put them on a trial period, and then decide to keep them or let them go. Don't wait 8 months to figure out they're not the right fit. Figure it out in 4 weeks, max.

Oh, and watch this before they start: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TROhlThs9qY>

<comment><USER13> This depends on your sales cycle, actually. Some things (especially high tech) take significantly longer that four weeks to sell.

<comment><USER11> Only victims make excuses.

You can close a deal faster, get them to sign and pay, then work out the details.

If you spend your life saying "that's how it's done", you'll never be in the lead, you'll ALWAYS be doing what someone else has done before you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Firstly, understand who you're looking for. This needs to involve 3 key factors - Cultural Match (the most critical - if they probably won't fit in, then they definitely won't fit in), Skills (eg, can they sell, build a sales process, manage a funnel or whatever), and Relationships (do you need them to bring existing relationships or not).

Pay is somewhat dependent on your product and the quality of leads you have or will continue to provide. Comm only won't support a sales person selling enterprise software with a 12 month sales cycle, but may excite the right person if you're providing pre-qualified leads for multiple bite-size products with high profit margins. For the right person, be prepared to discuss their immediate needs (salary) and their wants (how high the comm can realistically go).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> First off I want to thank you all for your responses, I was not expecting so much feedback in such a short amount of time. I will be taking some of these comments into account for our meeting tomorrow, and hopefully will have time to reply accordingly. As for now, I've got to crash so I can be ripe for the meeting! Thanks again :)

</comment><comment><USER15> Understand that money talks. There's nothing that will motivate a good salesperson like cold hard cash.

So make your commissions generous and (allowing your is a service people can believe in) you're going to find your guy. Make your commissions more than generous and you're going to find your superstar.

</comment><comment><USER11> A big commission is a big motivator, but doesn't make for a great salesman.

Finding a salesman YOU like may not be the way to go. But finding the salesman your customer relates to is VERY important.

</comment><comment><USER16> This is also an interesting read: <http://www.ericsink.com/bos/Closing_the_Gap_Part_1.html>

</comment><comment><USER17> put them heavy on commission. Trust them... just enough. A good salesperson you'll never be really comfortable around. They are always scheming. And this, in most cases, is a good thing for you, if they are truly hungry.

Let them make more money than you.. only if they exceed your expectations. Always give a salesperson unlimited potential, after you are taken care of.

Just don't forget - the best salesperson will work you. You won't even know it. That's the predicament.</comment>


Show HN: Validating the email addresses on signup, contact and subscribe forms - <AUTHOR> https://weblegit.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, We are providing a simple to use service to validate the user email addresses at the web doorway for the businesses. We validate the email addresses for more than just the syntax. The goals are three folds, First, give another chance to the real users if they made a typo mistake with their email. Second, Filters the people from entering spam emails with correct syntax. Last, as business/website owner you will have less fake users to chase and waste the monetary and time resources

The service is free to use for the trial period. Thought has been put into making it simple enough to integrate. Integration does not requires any programming skills. We would really appreciate the feedback from the HN community on how we can improve this and make it more usable.

</comment><comment><USER2> I like your service and been looking for something like this to integrate with my website. I will get in touch with you, I might be your first customer :)

</comment><comment><USER3> nice, this is something new I would definitely take this service.</comment>


Fake News from the Left: A Data-Defying Headline - <AUTHOR> http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/poll-shy-voters-trump-230667 <comment><USER2> Still lost the popular vote.</comment>


Show HN: Querying JSON documents using SQL-like language in Scala - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mmalek06/JsonSql <comment><USER2> As people always do in such threads, I'd too like to chime in with alternatives I've been a co-author of, as this is an area I'm very interested in.

The first one, which is definitely close in spirit to this project is OctoSQL[1]. We too are trying to query all the things with SQL, including JSON, though we extended the idea to supporting more data sources and file formats, with the ability to mix and match in joins and subqueries. Curious what direction this project will take though, as we're now heading for streaming sources (like Kafka) in pure SQL!

A totally different one is jql[2] where I've been exploring more of a lispy continuation passing style based approach to a JSON query language, as I didn't really feel like the current ones are ergonomic.

If you like this, make sure to check them out too! (And all the others people will be posting, as I think they all are fascinating! This is a big area with lots of space for innovation left.)

[1]: [https://github.com/cube2222/octosql](https://github.com/cube2222/octosql)

[2]: [https://github.com/cube2222/jql](https://github.com/cube2222/jql)

<comment><AUTHOR> OctoSQL looks very nice and I'll check it out soon. Do you have Scala bindings for it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, I get it - it's an uber ORM!

<comment><USER2> Nah, really just a command line sql query tool. Though could probably be used as an uber orm.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I've been experimenting with the combo of the "jq" JSON query language and SQL via a custom SQLite function. I bundled the result as a plugin for my Datasette project: [https://github.com/simonw/datasette- jq](https://github.com/simonw/datasette-jq)

Here's an example query: [https://datasette-jq- demo.datasette.io/demo?sql=select%0D%0A...](https://datasette-jq- demo.datasette.io/demo?sql=select%0D%0A++package%2C%0D%0A++jq%28%0D%0A++++info%2C%0D%0A++++%22%7Bsummary%3A+.info.summary%2C+author%3A+.info.author%2C+versions%3A+.releases%7Ckeys%7Creverse%7D%22%0D%0A++%29%2C%0D%0A++info%0D%0Afrom%0D%0A++packages)

</comment><comment><USER4> Apache Drill [1] is alternative, using ANSI SQL. Beside json, it support JDBC, csv, parquet, file system traversal, HBase, Mongo, S3... I believe it also support joins across different sources, although I haven't tried that.

EDIT: to add context to the story - Apache Drill is running on JVM and can be embedded, so it can be run from Scala code as well.

[1] [https://drill.apache.org/docs/querying-json- files/](https://drill.apache.org/docs/querying-json-files/)

<comment><AUTHOR> That looks nice. Can it be used in a program? I mean, not from cli, but inside code?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I recently published a github project with the purpose mentioned in the post's title. Obviously if you just want to parse JSON, there are much better Scala libraries, like Circe. However in my case, I had to filter responses from a very dynamic api that I couldn't change in any way (for example to give me prefiltered results). My first choice was to use JsonXPath Java lib, but I didn't like that XPath-like notation, so I figured that some people may benefit from using what most of us already know - SQL - to create them queries. In my project, it was supposed to be configurable - the architect wanted to enable the not so technical business bunch to query json documents almost without programmers help and the easiest way to do it was to put their queries into the database and them allow them to match a query against an api. I left the project some time ago, but the idea I had back them kept me awake at night and here it is. Hopefully not entirely very bad ;) If you like it, I could really appreciate some help with development of the rest of some even cooler functionalities.

</comment><comment><USER5> IMHO nothing beats jq[1]. There's Pyjq[2] for Python.

[1] [https://stedolan.github.io/jq/](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/) [2] [https://github.com/doloopwhile/pyjq](https://github.com/doloopwhile/pyjq)

<comment><USER6> I personally find jq to be extremely complicated once you move beyond simple queries.

<comment><USER7> You could try my Xidel, based on XPath and JSONiq ( [http://www.videlibri.de/xidel.html](http://www.videlibri.de/xidel.html) ).

It is more verbose for simple queries, but with named variables and functions, larger queries do not become complicated

<comment><USER5> Xidel is my immediate pick for querying HTML. I use it in several scripts. Thanks!

I still prefer jq for JSON processing though. I'm hooked to pipelines. EDIT: The great power of jq is in transforming documents, not querying.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I figured, I'll give an update to anyone who's still interested. I managed to fix a few issues and and some major functionalities (eg: * symbol to select all) over the last days. The next thing I'll work on will be type queries, so that the user will be able to use queries as strings but also as a chain of method calls with a type parameter representing the model returned from the query. Something like: from(jsonObject).where(list of filter functions).select[CaseClassType]() . Stay tuned!

</comment><comment><USER8> SQL isn't the good part about relational databases, its the relational model that is the good part. The ability to query your data from multiple different angles.

In saying that, I guess its still better than having yet another custom query language a la mongo.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't agree :). SQL nicely abstracts what would have been more difficult or technical to do otherwise. Yep, it was create in order to enable non strictly technical people to query their data, but does it make it bad? I don't think so. Also authors of great many NoSql databases (and other technologies, ever heard about the widely loved LINQ technology in C#?) think, giving their users the possibility to query data using what they already know. Also: can you honestly, from the bottom of your heart, say that you'd rather filter json documents using some form of XPath? Besides: I'm not trying to criticize relational model, as well as I'm not saying that JSON is the way to go when storing data :D I just wanted to create a tool for people that are trying to implement a very specific business case I described and, due to lack of tools, are having some issues with it.

<comment><USER8> > Also: can you honestly, from the bottom of your heart, say that you'd rather > filter json documents using some form of XPath?

Come one read the second line of my reply before strawmanning.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok, maybe I got too defensive and assigned to much weight to the first part of your first sentence. No strawmanning intended :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This stringified approach loses type safety and IDE assistance for what benefit? Why do we _want_ it to look like SQL? A Slick/Quill-like approach seems much safer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Please read my description (found somewhere in this discussion). That being said: there are scenarios when being able to save a query into a database or config file, then load and run it is useful. In general I agree though and that's why one of the enhabcements I want to implement is to create a method based syntax with projecting selected fields to a case class.

<comment><AUTHOR> As for the "why do we want it to look like sql" - I like the syntax and I think it's much more readable than any other language used to process data. But that's just a matter of taste :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Pretty cool. You can do this in apache spark already but this looks a lot quicker to get going with.

<comment><AUTHOR> Didn't know about it. Is it possible to use only that subset of apache spark lib?

<comment><USER10> Yes, you can run apache spark as a single node really easily. Then once its running you can fire up the Scala or Python shell that it comes with. After that, it is just a matter of issuing the statements to setup the data set then issues queries against it.

<comment><USER11> Not many people know this but Databricks offers [https://community.cloud.databricks.com/](https://community.cloud.databricks.com/) for free which allows you to run simple spark notebooks.

Disclosure: works for Databricks but not on spark</comment></comment></comment></comment>


When 81% Passing Suddenly Becomes 18% - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/education/01schools.html

<comment><USER2> Does NYC school district have enough schools that this kind of a curve makes sense?

I've certainly been in classes that the teacher chose to do a normal-form arrangement of the number of grades, and in a lot of classes, that just didn't fit. Sometimes, such a grade-count gives a lot fewer good grades than are deserved, even on some absolute scale. More often, it gives passing grades that aren't deserved on an absolute scale.

I think an "on-the-curve" grading system just doesn't reflect reality, just like a "zero-tolerance" system doesn't. They're both excuses for not recognizing individual variations.</comment>