Willow Garage and the Making of the Robot Operating System - <AUTHOR> https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/wizards-of-ros-willow-garage-and-the-making-of-the-robot-operating-system <comment><USER2> It's not exactly encouraging to see, on the Willow Garage ROS website, that the page seems to have been last updated in 2013 ([http://www.willowgarage.com/pages/software/ros- platform](http://www.willowgarage.com/pages/software/ros-platform)). You'll instead want to try [http://www.ros.org/](http://www.ros.org/) or go directly to the installers, located at: [http://wiki.ros.org/lunar/Installation](http://wiki.ros.org/lunar/Installation)

However, the latest version (Lunar) on OSX is described "This is a work in progress! It really won't work right now... " and I've verified their instructions don't work. Instead, you'll want to use this shim: [https://github.com/mikepurvis/ros-install- osx](https://github.com/mikepurvis/ros-install-osx)

Hope this saves some folks time.

<comment><USER3> The Willow Garage page is dead because the company went out of business.

Trying to run ROS on anything but Linux is a waste of time.

<comment><USER4> It works well under Windows via the Linux Subsystem, at least the transport layer (which is what most people I've talked to use it for anyway.)

<comment><USER3> Ah, OK. I checked, and while transport is fine, it didn't seem to support cameras or other hardware.

I'd prefer it to be Windows-native, rather than WSL.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I used the ROS a few years ago with Professor Jenkins at Brown University. It was great, I sat in my wheelchair in the UK and flew a drone remotely in the Lab. in Rhode Island using just my head and right index finger. It was great :-)

It was easy to set up and use and pretty reliable at the time. In a similar vein I used NodeCopter to do something similar between Yorkshire and London at a Wired conference as well. That used a web interface and lots of JavaScript goodness to achieve roughly the same affect. It was loads of fun, but a very high pressure thing to do to try not to hit journalists in the head with a drone!

My next big step is to go for the whole FPV experience with my set of limitations, I started trying to do just that last year but with one thing and another (read: hospitals and stupid quadriplegic stuff) it didn't come to pass. It definitely looks like fun though as I had some really cool advice from Kevin and a few other people. I'm really hoping to get back off the ground again at some point soon. (See what I did there!)

Here's the video of the nearly hitting the editor of Wired magazine in the head with a drone in case you're interested:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XM97VvRSRM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XM97VvRSRM)

Edited to add: if anybody from ROS needs a quadriplegic geek to help test anything, get in touch. :-)

</comment><comment><USER6> Most of my life is figuring out how to get people who've made a whole bunch of stuff on ROS a way to migrate that stuff, and a platform to migrate it to, when they get to a point where all that cobbled together R&D work needs to turn into something safety-critical.

<comment><USER7> I've always thought ROS was largely meant for prototyping. An http transport layer for all nodes (even on the same machine) doesn't seem like the right choice for a production system.

<comment><USER8> Kind of. I've seen the approach of building on top of ROS and incrementally replacing the weakest link work well. You end up with something that feels academically wrong to be in production spaces, but you also end up with something that actually sold and shipped. Establishing a product feedback loop sooner is more valuable than selling a technically "correct" product.

Also it's TCP (or UDP if you want) not HTTP. ROS2 does one better with DDS.</comment></comment></comment>


Source Map Proposal - Mapping generated/minified JavaScript to its source - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U1RGAehQwRypUTovF1KRlpiOFze0b-_2gc6fAH0KY0k/edit <comment><AUTHOR> Some basic support for this landed in WebKit recently: [http://peter.sh/2012/01/css-selector-profiler-source- mapping...](http://peter.sh/2012/01/css-selector-profiler-source-mapping-and- software-rendering/)

I'd like to see this hooked up to the Rails asset pipeline!</comment>


The problem with America is not Donald Trump - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/the-problem-with-america-is-not-donald-trump/ <comment><USER2> Abject nonsense.

The problem with America is not JUST Donald Trump, but he is the white blister at the middle of the infection.</comment>


Why Your Stitches Cost $1,500 - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664427/infographic-of-the-day-why-your-stitches-cost-1500

<comment><USER2> My father always said Engineers and Doctors (at the same experience level) get roughly the same salary in Germany and France. Not true in the US or Canada.</comment>


Ask HN: You wake up tomorrow, it's 1997 again. What would you do? - <AUTHOR>

Just a bit of day dreaming fun for all us solo hackers struggling to get any serious work done today while everyone else is on holiday...
3 Rules:
- When you wake up, you're the same age and in the same situation as the first time 1997 came around but you retain everything your future self knows.
- When you went to sleep you didn't know you would wake up the following morning to find yourself back in 1997. It just happened with no prior warning (and thus no time to make plans for such an eventuality).
- Tech and the world in general follow the exact same path as before (the only thing that's different is that you've seen the future up to 1st April 2013).
What would you do? <comment><AUTHOR> OP here, this is what I'd do:

\- Drop everything and convince my parents to re-mortgage their house

\- Use the money to start a domain reselling business

\- Buy a handful of great un-registered domain names that could be sold later if things turned sour and I lost my parent's investment

\- Build my business in to a global player over the next decade and in parallel start buying up as many AAPL shares as I could afford

\- Sell the business and any personal property I accumulated before the 2007/8 financial crash arrives

\- Profit!!

\- Get in early with bitcoin mining

\- Sell all my AAPL stock during 2012

\- Profit!!

\- Sell all my mined bitcoins on 1st Apri 2013

\- Profit!!

\- Retire at 30, start a family and buy a load of SpaceX shares whenever they IPO.

The best bit... it's not entirely mad to imagine someone, somewhere might have already pulled all this off (without the need for a second trip to 1997!)</comment>


Ask HN: Where should I post to get reviews for my product - <AUTHOR>

What communities/forums will you recommend to post your idea and get some reviews/feedback on it? <comment><USER2> That's a pretty generic question. Depends on the product, the type of review/feedback you are looking for, etc... Some options include ProductHunt or here for a Show HN.

</comment><comment><USER3> Community at SideProjectors will gladly review it. :) [http://sideprojectors.com](http://sideprojectors.com)

</comment><comment><USER4> Maybe producthunt.com, although I think you need to get an invite to actually post a product.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, but no Producthunt would be a place where one would go after they have launched the product. I am at the IDEA stage, and want to discuss the idea. See what other people think about it.

<comment><USER5> Why not posting your idea here? It might pique some interest here.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great point. Its on HN for last 3 days, but nobody responded there. Here it is [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10094694](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10094694)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) - <AUTHOR> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3641067/ <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22583594](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22583594)

Dupe: 17 days ago

</comment><comment><USER3> This is junk. Possibly even a case study exemplar of spurious correlations. Take a small set of units (high false positive rate, inter alia). Take some vaguely relevant sounding metrics (entry point for p-hacking). Does a bunch of regressions.

Here's the next paper from the group:

Distance from equator is predictive of authoritarianism. The more constant daily cycle causes a yearning for rigid routines, predisposing populations to authoritarian rule.

If you think I'm merely taking the piss, is it more or less plausible than the proposed causal mechanism here:

"Because many disease-causing parasites are invisible, and their actions mysterious, disease control has historically depended substantially on adherence to ritualized behavioral practices that reduced infection risk [9]."

Or maybe it's because we've already seen the data our whole lives, know which countries are authoritarian and can select any variable which separates democracies from authoritarian countries and bang, you've got p < 0.05.

<comment><USER4> Yup, or maybe it's the same "Global North" vs "Global South" thing where the rich countries of the world are predominantly in the temperate north. There's just not that much land in the temperate south.

In the middle you have the Caribbean/Northern Latin America, Central Africa and then like Indonesia out in Asia. A lot of warm, wet places with lots of history of malaria, other parasites, and terrible economic development.

What's interesting and cuts the other way right now is the small evidence that warmer and wetter makes COVID less infectious/effective. Have yet to see a good reason 'why' that's the case here, but it would be the first time you kinda want to be near the equator in order to avoid an infectious disease.

<comment><USER5> > What's interesting and cuts the other way right now is the small evidence > that warmer and wetter makes COVID less infectious/effective. Have yet to > see a good reason 'why' that's the case here

My understanding is that coronaviruses such as the SARS-CoV family or influenza die more quickly in warmer, more humid conditions. Some sources:

[http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2014/the-reason-for-the- se...](http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2014/the-reason-for-the-season-why- flu-strikes-in-winter/)

[https://www.hindawi.com/journals/av/2011/734690/](https://www.hindawi.com/journals/av/2011/734690/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I believe it's not just parasites -- it's also things like diseases and famine as well.

The reason it's called "parasite-stress theory" is not because parasites are so important for the selection of government, but because it's a reference to parasite-stress theory in biology.

It makes sense. If you don't even have basic healthcare or security, a strongman willing to swoop in and take decisive action does sound appealing. Unfortunately, though, they usually just make things worse.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite- stress_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite-stress_theory)

<comment><USER7> It would seem to me that if you are sick or your health is suffering, several things can result: 1) you dont have the time or energy to consider what the (authoritarian) leader is doing as carefully (cognitive) 2) you may just be too tired/sick to do anything about it (physical)

<comment><USER6> You're lower on the hierarchy of needs. If you're afraid you're going to get killed or starve you don't care about abstract things like freedom of artistic expression.

<comment><USER8> Whole history of the Soviet Union is a living proof that theory of hierarchy of needs is bs.

<comment><USER9> Like so many ideas that persist, the "strong" form is wrong, and the "weak" form is useful. The parent's point stands.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't think psychology is trustworthy in this area after the "authoritarian parenting" fiasco.

<comment><USER11> Can you say more about this? Google isn't helping me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> does it also show that authoritarianism predicts parasite prevalence?

<comment><USER13> How about hidden variables?

      var allFactor = @[poverty, authoritarianism, bad_health];
      foreach(var factor in allFactor)
      {
         var otherFactors = allFactor.arrayByRemoving(theFactor);
         print($"{factor} predicts {otherFactors}");
        }
      }

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I read the title and assumed they were talking about the existence of a parasitic socio-economic class. Seems plausible...

I stopped reading when I realized they meant microbiology.

</comment><comment><USER15> I find it curious that in our current political climate / party system, liberals seem to be more okay with mandatory lockdown procedures, whereas conservatives are pushing back. The latter may be partially due to prior ideological commitments [0], but it's also somewhat counter-intuitive considering the known correlation between authoritarianism and germaphobia.

It may be that our two-party dynamic, being focused primarily around left vs. right, largely ignores the authoritarian/libertarian axis of the political compass [1], meaning both parties have authoritarian wings internally. In times of stress/shock, real and/or perceived, it seems that each political tribe is willing to cede power to its authoritarians, based on its values: currently, the left does so for health and the environment, and the right for border security and violence from the "other". And of course, these values can shift based on political winds and alliances of convenience; I'm watching HBO's "The Plot Against America", and from a modern perspective, it's strange to see the FDR economic progressives be the hawks, while the (original) America First-ers are the doves.

(While I lean libertarian on the political compass, I'm not a-priori judging all authoritarianism to be evil; there are arguably times such as a pandemic or a world war where some amount may be necessary.)

[0] [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/opinion/coronavirus- trump...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/opinion/coronavirus-trump- response.html)

[1] [https://www.politicalcompass.org/](https://www.politicalcompass.org/)

<comment><USER16> restating a prior sentiment: such dichotomies--left/right, authoritarian/libertarian--and their cross-products are cognitive traps. they inhibit understanding and obscure solution pathways.

so don't worry about the axis affiliations and critique the ideas themselves (as you imply you already do by not judging _a priori_ ).

fear-driven decision environments (as with the current pandemic) are ripe for power seizures (even if just incrementally). we should remain vigilant against that.

afaict, most US residents are following governmental requests (like physical distancing, washing hands, and self-quarantining when sick) because it's a reasonable and prudent response to a virus that's still relatively unknown but has the potential to be bad, not because we're coerced by said government. those admonitions provide (sometimes sparse) evidence, information, and rationale for doing so, rather than mainly relying on force.

that force is held back by governmental units because of the threat of backlash by residents. this keeps their power in check. don't give that up.

<comment><USER17> >that force is held back by governmental units because of the threat of backlash by residents. this keeps their power in check. don't give that up.

You seem to be implying that, absent such a threat, the government would be employing force against citizens regardless of their compliance, simply because they could get away with it. If so, is it not more likely that restraint is due to the purpose of the state's monopoly on force being to coerce compliance, and as such is simply not necessary when the public is already compliant?

In other words, that the government is holding itself in check far more than the public is?

<comment><USER16> for sure, it's the dynamic that matters to keep coercion in check, which is broader than any one constituency. but that constituency is important to the dynamic too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> (2013)

</comment><comment><USER19> Missing quotes around evidence.

</comment><comment><USER20> While this is all very interesting, there's a pretty deeply embedded bias on display here.

"authoritarian governance is defined by highly concentrated power structures that repress dissent and emphasize submission to authority, social conformity, and hostility towards outgroups"

... is a very problematic way of articulating this - to the point of promoting ignorance, because it's frankly how someone with a Liberal Democratic mindset would describe the system, but not others. I would argue that it's not objective because it may not capture the essence of such systems, rather, it just highlights the 'downsides' as seen from the other side.

Others might describe systems as possibly more collective or communitarian wherein legitimate central authorities have considerably better ability to manage affairs, particularly wherein such controls can have a material effect, i.e. 'pandemic', 'war' and maybe even things like infrastructure or other national challenges.

What people in 'liberal democracy' might see as 'individual choice', others might see as 'selfish, self-interested' possibly 'greedy' behaviour, actions that show little regard for others, only the self. The natural result of such behaviours might be 'inability to respond in a coherent manner to collective problems'.

Of course, where there is centralised power, there's an opportunity for it to be corrupt wherein you might have arbitrary and bad acting here and there, but I don't think to describe a system by its downsides is right.

This is especially important because the correlation may not be with authoritarianism as described, but possibly with group unity, collectivism or something else.

Edit: I should add, systems with strong 'central control' that some might describe as 'authoritarian' like Singapore, South Korea etc., have tamed and controlled Coronavirus and have exemplary responses. Their economies are not collapsing, they are in school, they are not dying en masse.

Meanwhile, 'Liberal Democracies' economies are collapsing, facing massive casualties, dying in hordes.

Imagine how stupid we must look to them? They literally showed us 'how to do it' but we're either too self-focused or possibly 'don't understand' how they are organized.

<comment><USER21> I think it's beyond reasonable dispute that freedom and democracy work better than authoritarianism on pretty much every dimension. If there's one thing that both right and left agree on, it's this.

<comment><USER22> Yeah slam that overton window shut, you never know what dangerous ideas are floating around these days</comment></comment></comment>


Crev: dependency vetting with a web of trust - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/dpc/crev <comment><USER2> Some background on this:

Cargo makes it very easy to add dependencies. Rust has the same culture of small, single-purpose libraries as npm (there is [https://crates.io/crates/left_pad](https://crates.io/crates/left_pad) if you're wondering).

This of course raises the question: what if someone puts some malware in a crate? Cargo itself has an OK security (and working on more end-to-end integrity checks), so it's unlikely that someone will inject malware into existing crates, but that still leaves question of trusting the original crate authors.

Rust is not a sandbox language. Even the "safe" subset of the language is still just about preventing bugs, but nowhere near a watertight sandbox required to protect programmers and users from straight-up malware running in their own program. It's not clear if that is even possible in an efficient, low-level systems programming language.

So the most reasonable way forward is to ensure that all code you use is either from people you trust, or has been verified by you or someone you trust.

Turning code reviews into a shareable artifact is a pretty cool addition here, as it reduces duplication of work across the community (you don't have to review everything personally), and helps you pick and choose who you trust.

<comment><USER3> I'm pretty sure the left-pad crate is a joke. That functionality is in the standard library...

<comment><USER4> The only dependency of left_pad:

[https://crates.io/crates/kik](https://crates.io/crates/kik)

"waiting for a takedown notice :P"

<comment><USER5> That's not a dependent on left pad, that's something which depends on left pad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > crev is scalable, distributed and social. Users publish and circulate > results of their reviews: potentially warning about problems, malicious > code, or just encuraging high quality by peer review.

I like this. It would be nice to flag questionable areas outside of the maintainer's control, for other experts to look at. Sometime's I've seen something fishy that I share with a friend/colleague who might know how to interpret it, but often times it's in a language/framework that I might not have a friend to ask.

The open source saying "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" has always been a faux pas, because there has never been enough eyeballs, especially on small projects. However, something like this could begin to close the gap. +1 from me

<comment><USER7> "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" is a reasonable theory but it includes some dubious assumptions like the distribution of eyeballs over code being or uniform (or proportional to use), frictionless planes, and spherical cows. We may be stuck with spherical cows, but hopefully something like this can help smooth over the eyeball distribution assumption.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Imo this is the missing puzzle piece (and the more important one for me personally) for software supply chain security, the other ones being deterministic builds and signed binaries.

And the real problem aren't even people trying to steal your bitcoins [1], you notice that and hopefully had not all your eggs in one basket, it's a (sometimes expensive) lesson in IT security. The much more serious threat are state level actors trying to backdoor secure communication channels, the breach will happen without your knowledge. One shouldn't expect that every nation will take the obvious and public route like the Australian government [2], simply demanding access. With enough resources it seems totally viable to backdoor just one deep dependency of some UI framework and circumvent all end to end encryption used by affected apps.

I hope distributed code review will get some traction not only in the Rust world, but in the whole open source universe.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18534392](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18534392)

[2] [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/signal-to- austra...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/signal-to-australia- good-luck-with-that-crypto-ban/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> There's some more background and vision for this software in this blog post talking specifically about the Rust ecosystem: [https://dpc.pw/cargo-crev-and- rust-2019-fearless-code-reuse](https://dpc.pw/cargo-crev-and- rust-2019-fearless-code-reuse)

It also has some nicer narrative examples.

</comment><comment><USER9> Pretty cool. Long way to go, but great idea.

I like this:

> Design is open for supporting PGP, Salty, Keybase, and whatever else in the > future.

> Note: Systems like that don't carry enough information. Just because you > verified that someones PGP really belong to them, doesn't mean you trust > their code review judgment. But the identity/singing system could be reused.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a great effort. I hope this takes off and some organizations become vetting entities. It's a lot easier to trust eg Lyft Engineering vetting than Joe Xyz at a glance.

</comment><comment><USER10> > Trust is fundamentally about people and community

This is so important. We souldn't trust packages but the people that assume responsibility for them.

</comment><comment><USER11> This doesnt prevent trusted people from doing stupid things like this [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18534392](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18534392)

We need to trust the code not the programmer

<comment><USER12> It doesn't prevent anyone from doing anything. It increases the likelihood that if someone does something like that, that it will be detected.

Crev seems interesting because it not only has the web-of-trust mechanic going on, but also because it creates an incentive to actually do code reviews on existing code. There's now a whole open frontier of "code that hasn't been reviewed in crev", which people might feel compelled to jump on. "Hey, my favorite crate isn't reviewed, I'll can do it". etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> YES! Please let this or something like this take off!

I've been saying for years that webs-of-trust are the solution for so many problems, including this one.

</comment><comment><USER14> YANWOT. Webs of trust are so obviously good, and yet so obviously have never really been implemented usefully.

</comment><comment><USER15> How does Crev's web of trust work !? What if the malicious user creates a bunch of fake id's to sign the compromised code ?

<comment><USER16> Who would trust those?

<comment><USER15> Then the question becomes, how do you know who to trust ? Are you supposed to also vet the id-hashes of the signers ?

<comment><USER8> I guess you will trust coworkers, people you know irl, well known developers, companies you pay for review subscriptions. You don't have to trust all of them 100%if you require multiple reviews per dependency.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> How do these reviews and signatures get published? I'd love the ability to search by this extra metadata.

<comment><AUTHOR> They get published per reviewer as a git repository on e.g. github, which is fine since you're not really supposed to be putting any value whatsoever on joe-random's reviews.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> If something's malicious, shouldn't we just flag and remove it? Why is a concept of trust needed here?

<comment><USER19> You would, but that doesn't help you until someone figures out that it is malicious. This lets you track who has actually _verified_ that the package is not malicious.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> It would be really cool if this could express claims about copyright and license, as well as code quality.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you elaborate on what you mean by this? Were you wanting people to be able to publish proofs that they've reviewed the legal standing of the code as well as the code itself for problems?

<comment><USER21> It would be useful to know if the MIT library you're depending on pulls in a AGPL transitive dependency.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't see how a cryptographic WoT system is necessary for that kind of concern. That sounds like more tooling needed around the language's basic packaging system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> awinter-py trust networks for software supply chain, love it</comment>


Zika spraying kills millions of honeybees - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/01/health/zika-spraying-honeybees/index.html <comment><USER2> I heard of a very effective technique that involves releasing millions of sterile males into the ecosystem. It takes a little longer to see results but the results are devastatingly effective and don't directly affect other species like pesticides.

<comment><AUTHOR> Some time ago there were discussions on whether those engineered mosquitos would lead to drawbacks in the future, and that fuming was safe and kept mosquitos under control.

Some years ago, there were also discussions on bees disappearing from the wild on from the farms.

Then this news. It surprised me because fuming (at least, with some components) isn't safe for other species, after all. And, perhaps, some bees that disappeared from the nature suffered the same fate of these ones.

But I don't know whether the cost/benefit of killing bees x having zika around x other products.</comment></comment>


Chinese 'Web addicts' get boot camp, therapy - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/internet/70777/chinese-web-addicts-get-boot-camp-therapy <comment> onreact-com "antisocial" in China probably means they visited the wrong websites, those the dictatorship does not approve of. Especially Chinese "students" tend to thought crime.</comment>


Come do mechanical design at SpaceX - <AUTHOR> http://www.spacex.com/careers/position/2447

<comment><AUTHOR> Who here can do this?</comment>


Show HN: Pure fun(ction) HTTP server in Node.js, written in TypeScript - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/d6u/fun-http <comment><AUTHOR> This is my experiment, partly because I want a simpler way to return a request. Let me know what you think :)</comment>


Ask HN: Re-sending job application - <AUTHOR> Hi,
I'm seeing job postings by some of the companies I applied say last month, hiring for the same position.
I guess they didn't find a suitable candidate. If they didn't reply the first time I applied, does it make sense to re-apply? I mean they (should) already have my CV and everything.
What would you do?
thanks <comment><USER2> My past 4 jobs begun like this. I managed to get the jobs in the end.

In all cases, I applied as you have done. But received no response, and continued to see adverts. So I did the following..

1\. I was honest with myself and considered whether or not this was a role I could really do. If I had any doubt, it may be showing in my application.

2\. I researched their recruitment process and highlighted every individual that may be involved in the recruitment process. I compiled a list of their e-mails, addresses and phone numbers.

3\. I compiled an application pack that consisted of the following. And when writing this, I would look back over ads.. company statements.. etc.. and use the same sorts of keywords to back up my points.

a) An introduction letter that told them I was interested and why (think about evocative words like 'passion', 'ambition' and 'commitment').

b) A CV (ask 10 people about what to do here and you'll get 10 opinions..)

c) A 'requirement fulfillment' document in which you go through every requirement in the job ad, and provide a short paragraph about why you can fulfill it.

d) Include examples of whatever the job is, from real life previous role experience. Project Management? Show a real life RAID. Coder? Show some code. Product Manager? Show them a launch plan

e) Include an example of something that relates to the role, that you did in your own personal time.

4\. I would send a copy CCd and addressed to all the parties via e-mail.

5\. I would hand deliver a paper copy to parties I thought were particularly important (team leaders/managers etc.) and if I couldn't see them, I would insist the reception let them know I had hand delivered it in an attempt to demonstrate how keen I was.

6\. I would follow up with a phone call to the first party in the application stage (recruitment manager.. hr.. etc.) to see what they thought?

..Every time I've done this, I've been offered an interview. As long as I've been honest with myself that I can do the job, I'm always offered the role.

Good luck! :)

<comment><USER3> That's amazing! But how did you do step 2? That seems impossible to me.

And the one time I tried emailing someone directly they just write back to apply through their website.

<comment><USER2> Depends who the business is! You can find out about some from googling.

Sometimes you just have to take a chance. For example, if you're working as a project manager then their will probably be a 'Director of x' then a 'head of x' > 'team leader of x' > member of team and so on. I say, why not send an e-mail to them all?

Some will discard the e-mail. But one may pass it on. If you have the resources, hand deliver this stuff to someone 'senior enough'. A director may ignore it, but a 'head of' or 'team leader' may take it more seriously.

I'm not talking about harassing people frequently. Just playing a numbers game.

In terms of what their e-mails are.. it, again, is a guessing game. However, most businesses use the same format. So start by looking for one individuals e-mail. For example, if you can find email@example.com you can guess that firstname.lastname@example.com will also work.

Just remember that the team you will be working in, probably has people who hate being there. Managers of these people would kill to have someone as enthusiastic as you may be.

Good luck!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > I'm seeing job postings by some of the companies I applied say last month, > hiring for the same position.

Basic rule of thumb-- the bigger the company, the dumber they are... and less likely to care about job applicant experience. Imagine treating paying customers this way, it's tremendously shortsighted.

Job board postings can automatically renew month-to-month. The flunky HR Admin in charge might be sloppy or forgetful. And sometimes a position is considered 'open' until the new hire actually starts. The delay can take weeks, even months. Meanwhile, stuff happens.

What to do?

If you're keen about the job and certain it's a solid match, meaning you've got the skills & experience they require. Look up the Hiring Manager (Linkedin's advanced search feature is a great tool for this) - send them a brief note. Pro-Tip, using their actual business email is best. InMails have a dismal open rate.

Incidentally, here's good read on job searching during the holidays> [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/ask-the- headhunter-...](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/ask-the- headhunter-8-reasons-you-shouldnt-lay-off-your-job-search-for-the-holidays/).

<comment><USER5> >Basic rule of thumb-- the bigger the company, the dumber they are... and less likely to care about job applicant experience.

One strong signifier that a company cares little about job applicant experience is requiring you to use BrassRing or a similar recruiting portal. I'm sure BR makes things easier on HR professionals but it's clunky and frustrating for applicants.

The best way I've ever applied for a job online was with a small company that just had a simple list (nothing flashy, basic HTML) of their current job openings with an invitation to submit your resume to their recruiter (who was actually specified by name!). Brutally simple and effective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am a bit torn here. As an employer please don't send your CV in again, but as a realist that many employers are hopeless I would say apply again.

What I would suggest is apply again, but change your cover letter - try to show that you are super, super keen.

</comment><comment><USER7> Often the reason you see the same job posted continuously is due to the company hiring multiple people for the same role.

If you got no response the last time, the best thing you can do is identify a relevant member of the hiring team on LinkedIn and send them a polite email asking if they had an opportunity to review your application (include a copy of your CV again just in case).

If you hear nothing back from that follow-up then you've successfully identified a company you don't want to work for!

</comment><comment><USER8> In French they call it "lettre de relance", try sending an email enquiring about the status of your application and re-confirming your interest.</comment>


How Twitter's Ban on 'Deadnaming' Promotes Free Speech - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/opinion/twitter-deadnaming-ban-free-speech.html <comment><USER2> I agree this is an opinion that i've held for a long time. making the space of conversation more welcoming promotes free speech, however i'm slightly skeptical of the trans example simply because i think there are more people who are transphobic than trans. (although that's just people who i know, it's possible that demographics are different in other places.)</comment>


US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware - <AUTHOR> https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/12/russia-malware-ip-hack/ <comment><USER2> The conclusions are of particular note:

"The IP addresses that DHS provided may have been used for an attack by a state actor like Russia. But they don't appear to provide any association with Russia. They are probably used by a wide range of other malicious actors, especially the 15% of IP addresses that are Tor exit nodes.

The malware sample is old, widely used and appears to be Ukrainian. It has no apparent relationship with Russian intelligence and it would be an indicator of compromise for any website."

<comment><USER3> That's the conclusion anyone working in the security/network area was bound to arrive at.

It's really interesting FBI/DHS would make those claims publicly when the chance of having any hard evidence of that would be minimal. But they still did it. Why?

<comment><USER4> To me the ongoing 'Russia rigged elections' smells like propaganda from the other side. And maybe russia did release the DNC emails, but Assange said that wasn't the case and I feel he's more likely to be telling the truth than state players. And even if they did release these emails it's hardly rigging an election. Comneys email announcement at the 11th hour about reopening email investigation was probably a deciding variable and that was hardly Russian lead.

Your question of 'why' seems to be the scariest. US lead activities have been encircling Russia and pressing influence right to their borders for some time. For me I feel its too far and they are cornering the bear. Probably there is too much resource in the 'spy' world and they have to do something to justify their position, hence the older generation keep the pressure on Russia from their cold war agenda or they are looking to pick a fight. The latter being very scary.

...but really I'm no expert and just wonder why countries can put more effort to looking after their own populations needs. All this spy/military expenditure seems so wasteful.

<comment><USER5> Nobody said Russia rigged the election. The issue was the attempts to influence the election which Russia has a long, documented history of doing so. And the US had an obligation to respond which they did with minimal effect. So claiming all of this was about propaganda really makes no sense given the facts on the ground.

And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world deteriorated in the first place. It's because they annexed Crimea (unprecedented for our generation) and allowed soldiers and weapons to flood into Ukraine which then resulted in Flight 117 being shot down.

Nobody is looking for a fight with Russia but capitulating and doing nothing is not an answer either. Diplomatic sanctions have been the correct response and I don't see anyone asking for an escalation of that.

<comment><USER6> > So claiming all of this was about propaganda really makes no sense given the > facts on the ground.

Where are those facts? please show hard evidence. So far I haven't seen any hard evidence that proves it was the state of Russia who orchestrated the hacks.

> And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world > deteriorated in the first place. It's because they annexed Crimea > (unprecedented for our generation) and allowed soldiers and weapons to flood > into Ukraine which then resulted in Flight 117 being shot down.

If you believe that Russia is absolutely bad and the US and Ukraine are infinitely good and righteous, then you might want to look at what the other side says: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KHCNk9BYy4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KHCNk9BYy4)

The fact that the majority of the Crimean population is Russian, should give you a hint that maybe there is more to this story than what the Western media says.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimea#Demographics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimea#Demographics)

I have yet to see Putin making an aggressive announcement, however US officials continuously keep making threats and sanctions.

> Nobody is looking for a fight with Russia but capitulating and doing nothing > is not an answer either. Diplomatic sanctions have been the correct response > and I don't see anyone asking for an escalation of that.

Destroying diplomatic relations and throwing sanctions sound like looking for a fight to me. I fail to see anything good coming out of this.

<comment><USER7> "You don't understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a state. What is Ukraine? Part of its territories is Eastern Europe, but the greater part is a gift from us." Said by Putin in 2008, Boekarest -> 2014, Crimea annexation and Ukraine in war.

Polish president in 2008 was saying "Today Gorgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after Baltic States and then maybe even Poland". He died in Russia in airplane accident in 2010 when going for anniversary of the Katyn massacre, a mass murder of Polish intellectuals, politicians, and military officers by the Soviets during World War II. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre)

I'm from Poland and I can tell you that having USA military bases in Poland is a big win for every political force in my country. Left, right, liberal, socialists agree - we want to keep Russians as far as possible. Last Russian tanks left Poland in 1993 and I don't want to see them back. Not in my life time nor after I'm gone. I'm happy to go with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush or whoever will be elected by the American nation, just to stay as far as possible from Russians. And it's not that we are that big fans of Americans, we just know the history way too well - we are affected by it till this day.

If you want to see what happens when a person like Putin starts to say that the last peace agreements are bad and borders need to be changed then look at the second world war and the Polish history. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement)

<comment><USER8> > If you want to see what happens when a person like Putin starts to say that > the last peace agreements are bad and borders need to be changed then look > at the second world war and the Polish history. > [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement)

So is that a fear in Poland? That peace with russia would involve handing over parts of your country to Russia?

<comment><USER9> More likely that a war with or annexation by Russia would begin by handing over parts of your country to Russia.

Which is largely how World War II started in Europe: Stalin and Hitler agreed on a partition of the lands in between, and together started a war to implement that agreement, so that their armies could shake hands in the middle of Poland.

<comment><USER10> Your understanding of WW2 is lacking. It wasn't 2 bad guys who wanted to split Europe. Britain and France were totally on board with Hitler at first:

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

"The agreement was signed in the early hours of 30 September 1938 (but dated 29 September) after being negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe, excluding the Soviet Union."

The German-Soviet Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed in August 1939, almost a year later.

<comment><USER9> I'm very well aware of that history, thank you. But the two guys with mustache were the ones actually going ahead with big time conquest in Europe.

Sure, Chamberlain was wrong with that peace in our time and handing Bohemia to Hitler. But obviously he had difficulty in going to war over it, as well.

And Arthur Harris would have hung as a war criminal if Britain had been on the losing side against Germany. But that's a different story. The two dictators and systems in their countries were the ones most responsible for bloodshed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I don't know how much of the HN community is old enough to remember Colin Powell just prior to the first Iraq war, getting up in front of the UN and the whole world for that matter, and asserting that there was ironclad proof that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (which we came to know as WMD). Different parts of the government had the same talking points and it was all presented as irrefutable facts. But the evidence General Powell laid out was not convincing to me at all, or to many other people. Grainy photos, reports of known arms dealers appearing in coffee shops or hotel lobbies at the same time as other key people.. it was all circumstantial and ended up being utter and complete bullshit.

This wave of claims with "incontrovertible" (but secret!) evidence that "Russia hacked the US" seems like the same kind of thing. I doubt they have proof, even if they say they do... even if their claims are made in good faith, they could be dead wrong. And more importantly I doubt the underlying premise, that Russia would even be so stupid as to try such a thing. The American people are stupid enough to vote ourselves into this situation; we didn't need any help from the outside for it to happen. There may have been hacks, but I doubt they were orchestrated by the Russian government and I REALLY doubt the credibility of the US government making claims about this kind of thing after their past record with things like the Iraq WMD.

<comment><USER12> I think it is reasonable to be skeptical of government claims but it is also important to clearly distinguish between these two cases. In the WMD situation the government was analyzing the actions of two third parties (the Hussein government and arms dealers) engaged in activities outside of the US. In this hacking situation these are actions being taken against US entities.

I don't believe anyone disputes that the DNC and other agencies "were compromised" (I'm sure John Podesta did not release all of his email voluntarily for example). So unlike the WMD scenario it seems incontrovertibly clear that some actor did do this.

A number of non-government people have identified the servers, malware, and techniques as originating either in Russia or the Ukraine. Krebs has written several times on gangs that have stolen credentials this way.

Finally people have signatures in their actions, they learn things in one way and they do things in that way. That has been true since the beginning of time. I remember identifying other Amateur Radio operators by the way in which they keyed code.

As a result, unlike the alleged WMD development efforts, I don't think anyone disagrees that various people were hacked, or that the groups that hacked them are associated with Russian and Ukrainian interests. The only question is whether or not they did so at the behest of their government or just for the lulz.

If anonymous were still around I expect they could get away with what ever pranks they wanted to play on Russian interests at the moment. The interesting question is whether the government would shield them from any Russian retaliation.

<comment><USER11> The level of gullibility displayed here is stunning. I completely agree that the fact of a hack existing is undisputed. However, electronic records, perhaps more than any records, lend themselves to being faked.

It's amusing that you would cite the example of the style of code keying of amateur radio operators. In WWII this was know as the "fist" of the operator. I refer you to appendix one of Leo Marks' excellent book "Between Silk and Cyanide" for just one account of how the opposing sides were able to study and fake each others' styles to create subterfuge. (You can thank me later for turning you on to a fantastic read.)

There may not be actual "fists" involved here but the point is more general: if an MO can be studied and understood, it can also be faked. For whatever reason. It could be part of a false flag operation. Alternatively, maybe it's not fake, but is done by rogue actors who carry their signature activities with them whether they are working for one interest or another.

Even with direct access to all the actual purported evidence, which we do not have, I still doubt we would know. And without seeing the evidence, I have to fall back on what I have learned about people in the US government, which is that they are often interested in saving face and finding scapegoats, even if it means inflicting collateral damage.

<comment><USER12> Hmm, I don't nominally think of my self as "stunningly gullible."

lets unpack this statement though: _However, electronic records, perhaps more than any records, lend themselves to being faked._

It is certainly true that someone can edit and change electronic records and the tampering of such records, unless explicitly protected against, can be made indistinguishable from untampered records. But what is much more difficult is to tamper with records from a wide variety of unrelated sources to show the same thing.

For example, it is certainly possible for me to construct a record that says my "source IP" is KREMVAX[1] and to even have the source IP "logged" at the destination site as the origination point. But it is not possible for me to easily alter the s-flow records at Cogent which shows that the packet originated on a port on a router which is sitting in California. Yes, I can by a VPS in the Ukraine using bitcoin that has gone through several mixers but I cannot completely erase all of the packet sources that lead to that VPS. Yes, I can build an "IP over DNS" tunnel to disguise my traffic to the VPS as "harmless" DNS traffic but I cannot disguise how those DNS packets are propagated in the larger web.

The point I'm trying to make is that if you _are_ a state actor (like the 17 intelligence agencies of the US) and the events leave traces (which they do), it is entirely feasible to unwind packet traces, money paths, and network events to the exact origin point. I was at Google when they Chinese did it to Google and got to watch on the sidelines the amazing amount of resource that could be brought to bear on the problem. And what it more, _that_ incident and others less well publicized have lead to still more infrastructure which is completely passive and observational and captures all packet flows and meta data.

As a result, I find it completely believable that the origin of those attacks can be identified with certainty.

I believe it is reasonable to be skeptical about motivations and or command chain that lead to the attacks.

[1] A stand in for some IP Block allocated to Russia

<comment><USER11> I wasn't just thinking of records tampered after the fact. There is also the problem of genuine records created by the orchestrated actions of an imposter conducting a ruse. This would be the false flag possibility. I'm not saying I believe this is a likely scenario; just that it's a possible one.

And yes it would be hard for an imposter to leave all the right evidence. But if there is a hunt for a scapegoat and easy evidence is left in plain sight, there's a great temptation to just cherry pick that evidence, even if it's incomplete.

I don't know that the US isn't cherry picking and distorting whatever evidence they have. Sometimes the interests of multiple entities in government all align such that they put all their weight behind promoting one particular scapegoat. What you saw at Google must have been fascinating... is there a writeup? I was in the courtroom for the Wen Ho Lee hearings and got to watch (and privy to some behind the scenes stuff) the amazing amount of resources that could be brought to bear against an innocent scapegoat, and the contortions government actors would bend to in order to omit countervailing evidence and advance their false narrative.

False narratives have happened in other cases too... example, compare the New Yorker account of the killing of Osama bin Laden: [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/08/08/getting-bin- lad...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/08/08/getting-bin-laden) with Seymour Hersh's revisiting of the same episode, which tells a completely different story: [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing- of-...](http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin- laden) \-- sometimes political expediency drives the investigation, more so than analysis of real facts.

>As a result, I find it completely believable that the origin of those attacks can be identified with certainty.

Strong statement. I was under the impression that TAO had tools which allowed them to hack many routers (potentially then rewriting the logs you speak of?) And I would expect they would not be alone in this. But even if you're right that they (on the inside of the investigation) can know with certainty, and even if going a step farther they DO know with certainty, we (on the outside) probably never will know. Too bad, because it would be nice to be able to trust our own government.

Edit: >have lead to still more infrastructure which is completely passive and observational and captures all packet flows and meta data.

OK that is kind of cool... or scary... depending on whether you are a black hat or not in whatever realm you're living under.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Anyone who has run a wordpress or vbulletin site has probably seen this at some point in time. Got tonnes of logs from IPs in Ukraine, Russian, China, etc that crawl for holes and if they find one you will find something like this somewhere. VBulletin is the worst - executable code is stored in the database so that's where you'll likely find it.

I find it hard to believe this is what a state sponsored attack would look like - in business, we see this all the time.

I would love to see some action taken on this, there's probably tonnes of time and post business spent on these attacks. I just don't want to see that solution in the form of slanderous claims that paint it as more than it is.

</comment><comment><USER14> It is ridiculous to think that the Russkies planed and executed these hacks as a deliberate operation with a clear objective to derail the election or whatever it might me.

Some guys routinely spreading primitive phishing spam got lucky and got a password or two and gained the access to emails. Just this. No super spy hacking operations. It does not even work that way - chance is the main factor.

How the emails turned up on Wikileaks is another questions, but, again, they have been published because they have been _already_ hacked by some primitive phishing gang, not super-intelligent top-tier mega-hackers paid by the evil KGB.

The whole idea of deliberate planed KGB operation is an utter nonsense. It were kids with PHP crap. One should look for the brokers. They could have been among the 35 kicked out guys.

<comment><USER15> Plus it seems clear that many of the leaks were leaks, not hacks. RIP Seth Rich

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is the type of amateur analysis I would expect from a "Wordpress security" professional, certainly not front page worthy.

He completely ignored what this malware was used for. The attack was a spearphishing campaign by APT29 that used hosts compromised with this malware to send emails from legitimate government domains to targeted individuals in the DNC and the US Government. The emails themselves contained malware that has _only ever been used by APT29_.

Separately, APT28 ran a spearphishing campaign that directed recipients to a webmail domain _hosted on APT28 operational infrastructure_ to change their passwords.

This Joint Analysis Report is telling the government agencies whose infrastructure was used to send the spearphishing emails to secure their Wordpress installations to help reduce the risk of government infrastructure being used to send legitimate-looking spearphishing emails.

</comment><comment><USER17> The php malware is the least interesting piece of all the alleged activity. Being a version behind isnt significant. Its a simple common hacker tool. My postgresql is a few versions behind. So what ? If RIS had used obvious elite tools with impressive functionality then it would point straight to them. Its much smarter to look amateur.

The JAR should have declassified something juicy. They put out this weak report, revealed nothing and now critics will attack and win. Maybe its the US that are a bunch of amateurs.

<comment><USER18> The USA puts "hackers" in jail, and the ones they hire might not even get a job if they admit to smoking weed in college. This is a country where you can get prison time for using someone's open wireless network. There's hostility towards hackers here from ignorant judges and lawmakers who come down hard on things they don't understand.

They win by pressuring US companies with incentives/contracts (Juniper) or jail time (Qwest) to weaken or backdoor their products for US and foreign buyers.

Their own citizens are kept in the dark with secret court orders with dubious constitutionality. "Amateur" is being generous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I posted most of this stuff earlier, incl. the actual samples which someone here might be interested in.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13280068](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13280068)

Based on the conclusions the authors of the article don't seem to understand the purpose of these IoCs. Individually they aren't all intended to be 100% solid indicators that you were targetted in this campaign, but to be used as a whole.

</comment><comment><USER20> This website has no political affiliation; completely unbiased research. Their conclusion:

"The IP addresses that DHS provided may have been used for an attack by a state actor like Russia. But they don't appear to provide any association with Russia. They are probably used by a wide range of other malicious actors, especially the 15% of IP addresses that are Tor exit nodes. The malware sample is old, widely used and appears to be Ukrainian. It has no apparent relationship with Russian intelligence and it would be an indicator of compromise for any website."

</comment><comment><USER21> Someone around the GOP could merely have hired a hacker from Eastern Europe or Russia specifically to do the hacking.

I find it troubling that this avenue was not explored.

<comment><AUTHOR> If we're going to speculate, I'd say Kim Dotcom is more suspicious based on his tweets. I thought he tweeted some statements indicating foreknowledge of certain leaks, but I never investigated it carefully.

EDIT: I'm certainly not claiming he did anything, I read this as just sour grapes, but look for yourself at a sample - [http://imgur.com/a/zv174](http://imgur.com/a/zv174)

EDIT 2: This is more like it - [https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-14/kim-d...](https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-14/kim- dotcom-julian-assange-will-be-hillary-clinton-s-worst-nightmare-in-2016)

<comment><USER22> I don't know why OP is being down voted. Kim Dotcom tweeted he had early access to the leaks. It feels like a more plausible theory to me than the one the Obama administration is pushing. He announced his attention to be "an Internet Freedom fighter" and "Hillary's worse nightmare in 2016" back in 2014.

Look at this tweet from 10 hours ago: "My old hacker firm Data Protect hacked 100% of its clients." [https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/815373371001028608](https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/815373371001028608)

Another tweet from a few days ago claiming: "I know with 100% certainty that @Russia & @PutinRF_Eng had nothing to do with Clinton related election hacks!" [https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/814593453963083776](https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/814593453963083776)

It surely seems like Kim Dotcom wants people to think he is involved.

<comment><AUTHOR> There's always heavy downvoting in these threads. Look for interesting discussion to upvote to counter.

Thanks for those tweets, yes, he has done a lot of things that make him at least suspicious. I wouldn't take him seriously at all if not for the fact that he predicted some of this.

Incidentally, for those mentioning McAfee, I see no reason to take that guy seriously, nor am I presently aware of him displaying any foreknowledge of any of this.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Doomed Effort to Make Videos Go Vinyl - <AUTHOR> http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-doomed-effort-to-make-videos-go-vinyl <comment><USER2> Didn't even know these things existed, even though our family had the first vhs and cd players in our neighborhood. Amazing that they actually got this to somewhat work, persistent fellows :)

<comment><USER3> In the summer of 1982, I remember watching a movie from one in the dorm commons building. I don't remember the movie, but my bias is toward _2001_. Anyway, I suspect they lost out because the \R in VCR is for "recording". There's a bit of compact cassette versus 8-track in the way things worked out.

<comment><USER4> Eh, I think the success of the DVD and now Blu-ray formats show recording isn't essential. As the article notes, this format, and I'll note another format in Japan using a stylus over a bunch of holes, failed in the face of VHS and Laserdiscs.

Cassettes won in part because they were a _lot_ smaller and could eventually play stereo, and 8-track tapes are a terrible, fragile kludge (my family used to make them back when pirating them was legal, as long as you paid ASCAP ... or tried to pay them, they never accepted the money my father set aside).

<comment><USER5> I would guess that recording was essential for VHS's success. By the time DVD became successful, ca. 2000, there was a infrastructure of video rentals available and hard disk recording of movies became possible/was just around the corner. So the killer app for VHS was recoding TV, while the killer app for DvD was rentals and somewhat ambitious home video creators would go digital.

<comment><USER4> I guess it depends on how much of a success you consider Laserdisc to be. It wasn't a blowout success like DVD, but it was a healthy niche.

I got the strong impression that DVDs were sell-through, a market I think Disney pioneered. So maybe video rental wasn't so important for DVDs, but I don't know.

You are of course right that recording was a killer app for VHS, lots of time shifting ... although, hasn't VHS died without most people replacing it with recording to hard disks? I'm not sure TiVo got big enough, but I don't know.

As brudgers points out in his reply in this subthread, recording got big enough to worry the content holders such that they imposed DRM on DVDs and Blu-ray, but it's not clear their fears are realistic. Certainly the cracking of DVD DRM didn't stop production of them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> We used to rent these discs when I was a teenager. They were terribly unreliable. Skipping, stopping, starting over, my god it was a miracle to reach the end.

And that's just side one; halfway through you gotta get up off the couch and flip it over and do the whole gauntlet again.

</comment><comment><USER7> One of my favorite youtubers has a big collection of CEDs, and he made a video about them and their issues: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7UH9QfcIi0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7UH9QfcIi0)

<comment><USER8> That's a great video. Also, the rugged tablet running Windows XP made me smile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Video on audio tapes was a thing: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PXL-2000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PXL-2000)

</comment><comment><USER10> I always thought CEDs looked so cool. What I really want to see is how they're created though, and what they'd sound like on a turntable...</comment>


Elon Musk: Good Vision, Bad Math on Tesla - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellynch/2015/06/24/elon-musk-good-vision-bad-math/

<comment><USER2> > "In the US, subsidies to the oil and gas industry are equivalent to about a > penny a gallon, or something like 0.33% of the price to consumers. Buy a > Tesla and get $7500 straight from the federal government and $2500 from some > states, or 10-15% of the purchase price."

As if a person only ever puts one gallon of gasoline in their car.</comment>


Oyster is launching an e-book store - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/04/netflix-books-just-invaded-amazons-turf/ <comment><USER2> "The Netflix for books" \- you mean the public library? I'm astounded how few young people seem to have any clue what their libraries offer.

FFS, our local library lets you "borrow" e-books and audiobooks online, you never have to set foot in the building.

<comment><USER3> I'm a big fan of my local library, unfortunately their ebook system is very annoying. They've partnered with some service that only allows you to access books through an iOS app (so I can't read on e-ink) and it seems that each book is just a pdf delivered to the app, so you can't change font size or the way the words flow. On top of that, if they even have the book you want you often have to wait several weeks before it's available for you to actually download.

<comment><USER4> That could be a manufacturer problem - i.e. Amazon being uncooperative with allowing kindle users to read books from sources other than the kindle store.

If you can get an epub or mobi version of the book you borrowed, you can use Calibre [1] to put it on your e-ink device. You can also email books to your kindle, but I've had mixed success with that.

[1] [http://calibre-ebook.com/](http://calibre-ebook.com/)

<comment><USER3> Unfortunately, on this end it's entirely a software issue. No way to get anything downloaded except through the app. I wonder if I had a jailbroken iPad if I could somehow extract the PDFs it downloads, but even then it wouldn't be a pleasant experience on the Kindle.

I do like Calibre, which I've used to get Project Gutenberg books among others onto it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Speaking as someone who is not familiar with Oyster… The journalist (Davey Alba) has left out some critical context to drive home the significance of Oyster's foray into "ebook retail".

After doing some research, here's the part that the Wired article doesn't make explicit:

Yes, the Oyster subscription service is has titles from "all 5 big publishers" and yes, it is "unlimited" but the catch is that the content is mostly the publishers' _back catalogs_. In other words, a brand new book release would not have been available on the $9.95 subscription service on the first day. This is similar to Amazon Prime Instant Video where the old seasons of TV shows are free but the latest/last/current season costs $$$. Spotify for music also works like that for some artists; Adele has her old songs available in the subscription but her brand new song might only be available from iTunes for $1.29.

It looks like a common industry pattern of segmentation whether it's books, videos, or songs: the old stuff can be packaged into cheap subscriptions but the new stuff will command a separate premium.

With Oyster adding the ebook retail component, members can get access to the very latest books without waiting months (or years) for the title to show up as a subscription option. The members simply buy the ebook as a separate additional charge from the $9.95 subscription.

Since Jeff Bezos' seems to have a very antagonistic relationship with the book publishers, it gives Oyster a chance for significant ebook sales.

What's odd is that Jeff Bezos studied Walmart and he surely knows that the brick&morter stores share analytics sales data with their vendors. That way, the vendors can maximize efficiency of their supply chains and in turn, offer lower prices to Walmart. The article implies that amazon.com does not share analytics with the publishers (unlike Oyster) . I don't know why Bezos would be so guarded about it since it can help publishers fine tune their offerings which in turn should help Jeff sell more ebooks and Kindle devices. Maybe he thinks he needs that proprietary data as a comparative advantage for his own publishing house[1]. However, it seems unrealistic to think many major authors would jump to Amazon Publishing because amazon has better analytics.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Publishing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Publishing)

<comment><USER6> Adding to this, from going through their website, it's not as simple as "old" books are free and "new" books are a premium. I did a cursory look through their catalog and it looks like any book that is still selling well and under copyright has a price on top of the subscription fee. The DaVinci Code came out 12 years ago and is still $10 on top of a subscription, Storm Front (15 years old) is still $10 as well, A Game of Thrones (19 years old now) is $10 on top of a subscription fee, etc. Ten, twenty years is a relatively short period of time for a book to have existed, granted, but it's still a lot longer than the one year wait you'd get from Netflix.

<comment><USER7> That's bizarre, since those prices are basically the same as buying them retail.

<comment><USER8> Yes, I don't like that. They should at least be say 20 percent cheaper.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm seeing lots of threads here making the facile "you mean the public library?" comparison, but have any of you ever actually tried using the "digital lending" features at your local library?

It's _nothing at all_ like a Netflix for books! Limited selections that make Netflix's streaming library look vast, tight restrictions on the number of "digital copies" that can be lent out at once, leading to months-long waitlists for popular titles, and lastly, the one thing Netflix abolished at the outset, _due dates._

Public libraries are a great treasure, but they are emphatically _not_ a "Netflix for books."

<comment><USER10> To be fair, it's not like Netflix's digital library is exactly "Netflix for movies" either. That's also true with Oyster and their limited front list titles. For broad access, physical is still where it's at.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Modern russian literature has an interesting phenomenon. There is a huge old- school website where authors post their books before being published chapter by chapter for free to get feedback and corrections. For example this is one of my favourites:

[http://samlib.ru/t/tahion](http://samlib.ru/t/tahion)

[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=h...](https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsamlib.ru%2Ft%2Ftahion)

It's like Steam early access for books. Is there something like that in english-speaking internet?

<comment><USER12> I don't know of any clearinghouse for this, but I know a few authors who do this on their own. One such example: [http://demo.ilona- andrews.com](http://demo.ilona-andrews.com)

<comment><USER13> Another example is Andy Weir's "The Martian", which he originally published chapter-by-chapter on his personal site [http://www.galactanet.com/](http://www.galactanet.com/) .

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> "Netflix for Books" sounds like the perfect description of a library.

<comment><USER15> Except for the digital part. Though actually I've heard rumors of ebook sharing/trading sites similar to a digital library, though I'm unsure exactly how that would work; heavily DRM-based, I would guess

<comment><USER16> Even the digital part. There is a thing called the Sails Library Network ([http://www.sailsinc.org](http://www.sailsinc.org)) that offers full digital catalogs for libraries. They have mobile apps and it works with Kindles or Kindle apps. It's also not back catalog stuff only as is the case with Oyster. Libraries have been the "Netflix for Books" for centuries before there was a "Netflix". Maybe people should use them more, they are wonderful things _and_ you're already paying for them to exist and serve you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Why not the Public Library?

My parents are in their late 70s, they both use a Kindle Paperwhite, and they figured out on their own that US Public Libraries allow you to digitally check out books to your Kindle for FREE.

I had no idea of this, yet my 70+ year old parent figured it out ... and you don't even need to go into the physical library, it's all down over the web or via an app.

Which is why I suspect most companies have not tried this "Netflix for books" business because it already exist for FREE and it's called the US Public Library.

<comment><USER18> I tried my local library for eBooks, but it was enough of a hassle that I went back to buying Kindle books.

My wife uses the library for audio books on CDs, consuming several a month. I spend a little money at Audible and have a more convenient experience.

That said, I really like my local library not only as a source of physical books, but also because of talks and other events.

<comment><USER10> If your library is an Overdrive subscriber I would encourage you to try again, they have improved their service immensely. eBooks on Kindle or tablet devices are now very easy and even include syncing between devices. Audiobooks have switched entirely to the MP3 format for near universal compatibility. The only annoying holdout is if you have an e-ink epub device like a nook or a kobo. You obviously continue to deal with limited availability, but the service has come a long way.

Quick disclaimer: I am a librarian.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Oyster looks like an interesting service, but my interested in them is severely limited until they either come out with an e-ink device of their own or partner up with someone else who has an e-ink device like B&N or Kobo. I can't read books on a phone or tablet display, and I know I'm not the only one (or Kindle sales would've died out years ago).

</comment><comment><USER20> Almost every article I read about this company involves the term "Netflix for Books" in the headline. Very few involve the name of the company, Oyster. I legitimately wonder if that hurts or helps them as a brand. It does imply the depth of library that Netflix has in video, which Oyster does not have given my experience. I also assume if you search for "netflix books", they'll pretty much own the front page of results because of it.

In terms of the company, I have to wonder whether or not a number of the subscriptions are paid for but never used. I could see this falling in line with gym meberships, where you're paying for something you feel like you should be doing, and canceling just admits defeat.

<comment><USER21> > Oyster does not have ... the depth of library that Netflix has in video ... > given my experience.

Given that Netflix's catalog has a reputation for providing frequently underwhelming selection, ouch.

<comment><USER20> The difference is that Netflix selection actually does have quite a bit in my experience, it's just that as time goes on, I've already watched all of the best things. Netflix is a product that people use often and in ways rarely before seen in media consumption. It's like eating at the same restaurant every day for years. No matter how much they offer, you're going to get tired of eating the things you like all the time.

Oyster, on the other hand, just doesn't have the collection to start with. It has a bunch of books that are either public domain (therefore free through many services) or not incredibly well known (which is fine, but hard to find things to read when people tend to already have so many items on their "to read" list). Once again, this was only my experience with the product.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> For what it's worth to anyone interested in Oyster, I've found Scribd to be the better product. I like the UI better, it's cheaper, and the access to audiobooks and comics is nice. Maybe Oyster does those latter things since I've tried it.

</comment><comment><USER23> Another digital service that's only available in the US. Content licensing is just plain broken.

</comment><comment><USER24> There's Kindle Unlimited and FreeTime Unlimited for kids' books by Amazon, but neither Kindle Unlimited, nor Oyster had the books I needed.

</comment><comment><USER25> Wonder how extensive is their tech book collection. Far as I can tell they don't have Real World Haskell.

</comment><comment><USER26> So... it's a library, but you have to pay for it?</comment>


Army discovery opens path to safer batteries - <AUTHOR> https://www.army.mil/article/221700/ <comment><USER2> It's greatest application will be hype articles in popscience magazines</comment>


The SF Chronicle website is almost completely unusable - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/BlockJon/status/958423674964471809 <comment><USER2> with adblocker, I find the page uses 100% cpu and if I open multiple tabs to articles, my computer drags to a halt. No other site I use is this bad.</comment>


Ask HN: Are You Registered to Vote in Your Country? - <AUTHOR> I realize registered to vote may not make sense in all countries.  I believe Australia has mandatory voting, so everyone who is an adult citizen is presumably registered, and I'm not at all sure how china works and how much the votes matter there (I know that there is only indirect national representation).
As well, I know in the United States, where I reside, former felons are disenfranchised in states like Florida where 10% of the adult population are not granted the right to vote even after completing their sentences (though there's an amendment to the constitution, the Voting Restoration Amendment, on the ballot to change that).
In any case, I'm curious if people are registered to vote, and why or why not. <comment><USER2> From a European viewpoint, needing to registering to vote is pretty much only an US and UK concept. Mostly doesn't exist in the rest of Europe.

And same goes prisoners or former prisoners not being able to vote (felony disenfranchisement). As far as I know, most European countries organize voting in prisons, too.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nope. I am kinda of in the same mind set as George Carlin. If voting made any difference it would be illegal.</comment>


Lyft Acquires YesGraph - <AUTHOR> https://www.yesgraph.com/ <comment><USER2> I founded YesGraph, almost exactly 5 years ago. AMA</comment>


Coroutines in C (Simon Tatham, 2000) - <AUTHOR> http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/coroutines.html

<comment><USER2> _This is very nice in theory, but in practice you can only do it in assembly language, because no commonly used high level language supports the coroutine call primitive._

This might have been true when the article was written, but things are slightly different today. JavaScript, Python, and C# have picked up generator primitives that can be abused to provide limited coroutine support. Lua, with actual coroutine support, is gaining in popularity. And it will be interesting to see what happens with PyPy, which has support for the Stackless Python coroutine primitive.

There are apparently lots of uncommonly used languages with coroutine support:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coroutine#Programming_languages...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coroutine#Programming_languages_supporting_coroutines)

<comment><USER3> You can make coroutines in Scheme via continuations, and you can also make one-shot continuations out of coroutines.

"Revisiting Coroutines" by de Moura and Ierusalimschy ([http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.58.4...](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.58.4017)) is a pretty good paper about using coroutines, with Lua as the example language.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Simon is the guy who wrote PuTTY - he generally know his stuff. Some of this is NSFW, in the sense that you don't want it in commercial code for someone less able to have to support.

However, it's beautifully instructive, and a clever hack.

<comment><AUTHOR> His collection of little puzzle programs is very nice too. I don't know how the global productivity cost of the puzzles balances off against the global productivity gain from PuTTY.

For all this and more, see his home page: <http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/> .

<comment><USER5> Also available (free) on Android under Simon Tatham's Puzzles.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Outrageous combination of macrology with Duff's device to create a simple coroutine facility in C. You probably don't want to do this in practice, but it's ingenious and amusing.

</comment><comment><USER6> "This is very nice in theory, but in practice you can only do it in assembly language, because no commonly used high level language supports the coroutine call primitive."

I think you can get a similar effect in a high-level language by transforming the logic inside your normal function into a state machine that effectively runs one line logical line of code per call. You still end up with a call stack, but you don't use it the same way.

I'm currently implementing an approximate search engine this way in a high level language. I've done some proof-of-concepts with this technique and it seems very efficient, because I can just kill the machines without having to run them to completion when I think I've found my answer (or am sure there's no answer to find).

<comment><USER7> yeah but isn't doing this state machine transformation pretty complicated? i know that this is what C# does to implement its iterator blocks, but they have the compiler write the state machine for you. Do you think that this is practical as a general solution in a language that doesn't provide these tools for you?

<comment><USER6> Fair point.

Getting to that "a ha!" moment when I figured out that this would help (a lot) was very hard. Forcing my code to behave that way was definitely non-intuitive and challenging. Having merely gotten it working and proving my theory (it works) that it's a huge efficiency gain, I now get another crack at the next version.

I don't think it's necessary for a compiler to do the work for you, or to have it built in as a fundamental feature of a language (that certainly helps). But I do agree that without a library or (dare I say) framework, it is a bit challenging to code from scratch.

Probably the hardest part (for me), is that it breaks so many fundamental notions of programming.

One obvious feature that I'm making heavy use of is that I can get data out of the state machine on every call (that's almost the whole point for me). I can use that data and determine if I want to call it any more or just kill it (or maybe put it aside to get called later).

Perhaps more interesting, I have the opportunity to pass data into the state machine on every call down to it (not just on the initial call). That seems powerful. I already have an idea on how to utilize that.

I do agree, that at some point this technique would be more efficient if implemented in assembly than in a high-level language. My approach is probably similar to implementing a binary search in a high-level language and comparing it so a linear search in C. At this point I'll take the flexibility of the high-level language. Almost certainly a lower level implementation of the same pattern would kick butt.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Simon's guide on How To Report Bugs is also well worth a read. Circulate to your test team if they haven't already got a copy! <http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html>

</comment><comment><USER5> The C# compiler does something very similar to this when it compiles iterators (the yield return, yield break feature to quickly implement IEnumerable without writing a class), although it takes care of capturing state automatically etc.

</comment><comment><USER9> Adam Dunkels also has some interesting ideas with his protothreads package: <http://www.sics.se/~adam/pt/>

</comment><comment><USER10> My personal favourite is using a simple wrapper around makecontext()/swapcontext() [1]. Allows for some truly mindbending code.

[1] [http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/make...](http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/makecontext.html)

</comment><comment><USER6> A related post:

[http://nathanwiegand.com/wp/2010/04/lessons-i-should-have- le...](http://nathanwiegand.com/wp/2010/04/lessons-i-should-have-learned- episode-4-coroutines-in-c/)

</comment><comment><USER11> Thanks Simon, but I'll use Russ Cox's (co-author of Go)

<http://swtch.com/libtask/></comment>


Lovotics, an update on the science of human-robot love - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/116173-lovotics-an-update-on-the-science-of-human-robot-love

<comment><USER2> The end bit is kind of creepy, in my opinion, but I'm liking the way this is going overall.

I, for one, would love to be able to talk to people over the Internet and still have some sort of physical presence on both ends to make it seem more natural.

Then again, I dislike even having to talk on the telephone, so perhaps I'm alone on that one...

</comment><comment><USER3> At first sight, this looks like a joke. Specially the Kissenger.

However, as the article says, "What if the robot simply used AI to return your kiss?", or "talk with your in-game wife who is back home". Creepy. But also game changer.

These human-to-robot technologies are starting out, but I'm so curious to see how it evolves!</comment>


Ask HN: What are your favourite hard-to-find sites from the "young" Internet? - <AUTHOR> There seems to be a lot of nostalgia in the comments on HN lately, harking back to an earlier era of the Internet from the 1990's and 2000's. The Internet was young, things were simpler, more magical and less commercialised.
According to these commenters, this Internet still exists today, but won't show up on any major search engine (Google seems to be the usual target of this complaint but I assume it's more or less true of other search engines too).
Growing up in a household that didn't get an Internet connection until 2006, I missed this "young internet" almost completely, and so I was wondering: what are some of your favourite examples of niche, eclectic, wholesome, fascinating, magical, quirky, mind-blowing, profound, simple, nostalgic, and/or interesting sites from this young Internet that still exist today? <comment><USER2> Here's one that's not so old, about 2005, but it showed me how people can get riled up over anything. This site was created as part of a contest to see who could get the most page hits starting from 0. I don't know how well it did but it was one of the top sites in the contest. People thought it was real and voiced their displeasure.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20050204224059/http://www.saveto...](https://web.archive.org/web/20050204224059/http://www.savetoby.com/)

You'll need flash.</comment>


Backdoor Account Found in Popular Ship Satellite Communications System - <AUTHOR> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/backdoor-account-found-in-popular-ship-satellite-communications-system/ <comment><AUTHOR> _Researchers spotted the backdoor account when they found a function in the AtmosConnect source code that was named "authenticateBackdoorUser"._</comment>


What do you think about this way of teaching how to code? [video] - <AUTHOR> http://motti.me/y0

<comment><USER2> Not installing Silverlight. Sorry.

<comment><AUTHOR> I totally understand... It's temporary (working on an HTML 5 version now).</comment></comment>


Ants Are Cool but Teach Us Nothing - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-09-10/ants-are-cool-but-teach-us-nothing

<comment><USER2> A bit off topic to the nature of the article, but regarding the title, ants have inspired the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm.

ftp://iridia.ulb.ac.be/pub/mdorigo/conferences/IC.06-ECAL92.pdf

</comment><comment><USER3> tl;dr Edward O Wilson reports on the alien-ness of ants. He describes the limited role of males, the disposability of elder/injured ants, and their biological differentiation by role. The title is more geared toward "teach us nothing about how to structure our society."</comment>


Introducing Twilio Studio – the fastest way to build Twilio apps - <AUTHOR> https://www.twilio.com/blog/2017/09/introducing-twilio-studio.html <comment><AUTHOR> Hey y'all, Greg from Twilio here with the Studio team at SIGNAL London. Pretty excited about Studio and would love to answer any questions you have.

<comment><USER2> Looks slick. What stack are you using for Studio?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! React and TypeScript.</comment></comment></comment>


Americans, at 12 hours per week online, are goofing off smarter not harder  - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2009/07/28/americans-stabilized-at-12-hours-per-week-online-are-goofing-off-smarter-not-harder/ <comment><USER2> So they thought that internet use would go up if they cut out all the waiting?</comment>


Nude.js: Nudity Detection with JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://davidwalsh.name/nudejs?js=js <comment><USER2> > "I don't have faith in automated nudity detection as a whole (which, as a > programmer, may seem stupid)"

I don't see how this is stupid. Personally, the more I understand how technology works, the more I find myself not trusting big parts of it. In particular, I don't expect nudity detection to work well at this point in time, especially given that typical image processing algorithms are heuristics that feel like smart hacks at best.

</comment><comment><USER3> TL;DR: does OK with light skin tones, not so well with darker skin tones, fails at greyscale and low quality images, will eat CPU like there's no tomorrow.

</comment><comment><USER4> A few years ago, I was in a big box store and overheard a young (~10y/o) child and his mother picking out a new video game. The kid excitedly picked up a box and asked his mom if he could get that one. She checked out the cover, then started reading the rating.

"Rated 'mature' for sexual content? No way!"

"Aw, man! Ok, how about this one?"

"Rated 'mature' for extreme graphic violence? Well... ok."

<comment><USER5> 1\. This has nothing to do with the article. 2\. I doubt that ever happened. Why would she read aloud the rating?

Looks like a post straight from reddit.

<comment><USER4> 1\. The article is about an algorithmic way to try to shield people from the horrifying notion of seeing flesh-colored pixels.

My story is about another perverse way in which puritannical culture considers sex taboo, but violence perfectly acceptable.

2\. I don't know how to respond to being called a liar outright. It doesn't seem likely that I'd be able to convince you that this happened.

3\. I've only been to reddit two or three times and didn't see the value. So I wouldn't be a good judge of that. I take that that's supposed to be derogatory in some way.

4\. I'm not sure how you're trying to add to the discussion. I was making a comment on the societal and moral underpinnings and ramifications of the kind of technology described in TFA. If I may make a suggestion: <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html> <http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html>

<comment><USER6> > My story is about another perverse way in which puritannical culture > considers sex taboo, but violence perfectly acceptable.

It's not really that complicated. Sex is private, violence is public.

No one likes violence but they don't try to shield children because it's a public matter and kids can know about it. People like sex, but it's a private matter and kids shouldn't be watching it.

You are trying to make it about approves vs disapproves, but that's not what it is.

That's also why the same parent would not be OK with a scene of someone on the toilet, even if they arranged their clothes to be fully covered.

<comment><USER4> Wow, that's actually a really interesting analysis. Complicated it may not be, but it is, to me, novel. Thanks!

I'm not sure it obviously follows, though, that because it's private it's inappropriate for children, but not inappropriate for adults. A counterexample would be any private emotional moment between two people. Please enlighten me further.

Orthogonally, I think it _is_ fairly self-evident that extreme graphic violence isn't appropriate for children, though not because it's private. At the very least, I don't understand why it's ok to be so cavalier about it.

<comment><USER6> > but not inappropriate for adults

Plenty of people think it is for adults as well. But adults can choose to override their feeling on the matter (and that's what makes it so exciting). That's why clinical or medical depictions of nudity don't have the same feel.

> any private emotional moment between two people

An emotional moment is not inherently private though. Many moments are, but many are not, so it's diluted.

> it is fairly self-evident that extreme graphic violence isn't appropriate > for children, though not because it's private.

Yup, and since it's a different type of issue, parents will permit a certain degree of violence - it depends of the type of violence. But for sexual material they will veto anything, and not try to determine how sexual it is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I can almost see the jokes about "i want to see the unit tests" and "doesn't work on furries or avatar porn" etc. On a more serious note, this sort of stuff is hard. Google images does a shitty job of it from some slightly unexpected experiences. Good on people for having a go at the problem!

<comment><USER8> _this sort of stuff is hard._ .. _Good on people for having a go_

I see what you did there :-P

<comment><USER7> I upvoted you because you saw it! Other people have less of a sense of humor :(

<comment><USER8> I like to shoot for heavily down-votable comments every now and then. Gives my account a bit more "flavor" ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Did anyone else get annoyed by the use of the word "analyzation"?

"Analysis" is the word that should've been used.

(this is almost as painful a turn-of-phrase as "physicalization")

<comment><USER10> Very much so.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Of the 4 examples provided, only 1 of them returns a correct result

</comment><comment><USER12> I've used a REST service for this from pifilter.com - cost was 0.1 cents per image.

Results were generally good, but notable false positives include a pastrami sandwich.

<comment><USER13> Arguably an open-faced sandwich could be considered nude.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> link to the paper <http://www.scribd.com/doc/79980164>

</comment><comment><USER15> Does anyone know of/used any nudity detection libraries on the backend? This is something I am looking to solve, but haven't found any solid ones for python.

</comment><comment><USER16> I had a similar idea, this might be interesting to use server side with node and a scraper for flickr, imgur, or photobucket.

</comment><comment><USER17> ehm... old?!

<comment><USER17> c'mon everybody was talking about nude.js a year ago. see hn search: [http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=nude.js](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=nude.js) why bringing this all up now in a blog post that really brings not that much new to light?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> You don't beat around the bush, do you ?

(Sorry for this poor joke)

</comment><comment><USER19> Potential HN karma hack: create new account and post stories from Reddit that haven't already appeared.

That's not necessarily what happened here, but I am slightly suspicious.

<comment><USER20> this is the first time I've seen someone even mention 'karma' on HN. It used to be a complete non-issue.

@pg - can we just remove the karma score? People should contribute because they feel they have something to add to the community, not to get points.

<comment><USER21> Karma score is good. I may feel I have something to contribute; karma tells me if I did.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Is it weird that I immediately thought this was coded to help people find more porno?

Only after a minute or so did I consider that its primary purpose might be to help people implement porno-blocking software, ie the exact opposite.

I am such a bro :(</comment>


Apple's App Store schizophrenia driving developers crazy - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080928-apples-app-store-schizophrenia-driving-developers-crazy.html <comment><USER2> Let's all breathe a sigh of relief that something like the App Store isn't necessary to use regular desktop apps on our Macs.. if it were, I'd suspect a mass exodus away from the platform would occur. Thanks to the lock-in / uniqueness of the iPhone platform, they can get away with it for now.</comment>


Google's End Run Around the Wireless Carriers  - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/25/googles-end-run-around-the-wireless-carriers/ <comment><USER2> Too much cognitive overhead from choosing all of these options. I want inexpensive (unlimited) high quality service, ideally with no service contract. Choosing between five service providers every time I want to make a phone call (or even every time I go to a new city or state) is insanity. See e.g.

<http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/03/01/040301crbo_books>

on having too many choices.

</comment><comment><USER3> The days of carriers locking users into 2 year contracts are numbered. It's encouraging that both Google and Apple are considering breaking this uncompetitive market up.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm for this as much as the next guy, but Google filing a patent != end run around the wireless carriers</comment>


Paul M. Romer: Lecture in Economic Sciences 2018 [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZmgZGIZtiM <comment><USER2> I am fascinated by Romer's work in relation to "charter cities" [0], which unfortunately he didn't manage to complete.

[0]: [https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_romer?language=en](https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_romer?language=en)

<comment><USER3> His proposal looks similar to how medieval cities were formed from anew in places like Poland about 700-800 years ago, most of them using the "Magdeburg rights" [1], i.e. the "good rules" he mentions sometime during his talk. What eventually happened to those cities was that the surrounding territory "caught up with them", so to speak, and imposed its own rules which superseded the Magdeburg rules, the same way China is now "superseding" Hong Kong's rules (HK is also mentioned as a "good example" to follow, but the lecture is by now almost 10 years old).

> Named after the German city of Magdeburg, these town charters were perhaps > the most important set of medieval laws in Central Europe thus far.

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdeburg_rights](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdeburg_rights)</comment></comment>