Microsoft releases Security Advisory  - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.technet.com/b/msrc/archive/2012/06/03/microsoft-releases-security-advisory-2718704.aspx <comment><USER2> I'm not sure those steps will be that effective without Windows boxes everywhere being updated. Shouldn't the certificate be blacklisted?

Will removing the signing function from Remote Desktop disable the exploit in current installations? I don't think anyone using it to sign malware will want this upgrade.

Can anyone give an explanation on what happens?

<comment><USER3> See steps 1 and 2 from the linked article:

We are taking several steps to remove this risk:

• First, today we released a Security Advisory outlining steps our customers can take to block software signed by these unauthorized certificates.

• Second, we released an update that automatically takes this step for our customers.

• Third, the Terminal Server Licensing Service no longer issues certificates that allow code to be signed.

<comment><USER2> Thanks, @recoiledsnake, but I did read the article.

> we released a Security Advisory

So sysadmins will have to do something. What about machines that are managed by their own users?

> Second, we released an update that automatically takes this step for our > customers.

What happens to machines that aren't updated (such as machines controlling industrial/flight/medical systems?

> Third, the Terminal Server Licensing Service no longer issues certificates > that allow code to be signed.

Doesn't it run on the Windows machines themselves? Why would someone who's using it for signing malware upgrade to the new, non-signing, version?</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best place to publish programming articles - <AUTHOR>

Recently, i've been looking for a place on the web to publish my articles, but i'm curious about HN opinion.<p>Should i look for something like developerWorks, SitePoint, InfoQ, or publish myself? Which websites do you think are the best for independent authors to write for? <comment><USER2> I think publishing for yourself is the best way you can have it. When you're publishing on your own blog, you can be covered on other blogs as well, but at the same time you can stay with your own image. When you link your blog on HN you get plenty of feedback and at the same time you're able to build your own audience as well. Good luck with your writings!

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd say get something up on your own gh-pages (<http://pages.github.com/>) using Jekyll. It may be difficult to garner readership at first, but if you have an abundance of material and you own the copyright to it, why not put it up _somewhere_ and then take paid writing gigs when they come along?

The Tuts+ folks are quite good about bringing in outside authors (they've long been blacklisted here on HN for some reason, even though folks like Rey Bango write over there), but I'd check that out as well.</comment>


What are symbols and how they can be useful to you - <AUTHOR> https://wanago.io/2019/07/01/what-are-symbols-and-how-they-can-be-useful-to-you/ <comment><USER2> Super interesting feature, despite I find the name "Symbol" a bit unfortunate. Maybe should be called "unique identifier" or so.</comment>


Ask HN: What do you after bad day? - <AUTHOR> Founder here of reasonably successful company curious to hear the advice of others. Of course, creating a startup is an exercise in letdowns. It takes 100 "no"s to get to every "yes". I'm familiar with that.
I'm not depressed or someone to worry about, but earlier today lost a deal that was important.
I'm curious how others deal with big let downs. Part of me wants to take a break and go get drinks with friends, part of me wants to double down and work late into the night, part of me just wants to lay on the couch and sleep.
Just a bad day and curious how others deal with it. Cheers. <comment><USER3> This is more applicable for a "normal" type of bad day that might occur a bit more frequently, rather than something on a much larger scale like what was experienced above.

If you have something planned after work (or later in the day), but because of your "bad day" you don't feel motivated to do it when the time arises, it's important to _still do it_. It could be anything from working on a side project, doing some exercise, cooking a nice elaborate meal, etc.

If you don't then will suffer two blows: (a) have a bad day, and (b) not enrich your day by doing what you had planned.

e.g. Your plan might have been to do some exercise, but you get home, feel like crap and decide to have a few beers to help yourself feel better. Or you planned on cooking something nice, but feel like getting takeaway instead.

Sure, sometimes you might need to concede (especially for a big let down). But it should not become the norm.

Furthermore, if by doing your planned after-work activity you manage to overcome the negative vibe from your bad day, you're more likely to go to bed feeling better about yourself, what you have achieved lately, and be more optimistic about what lies ahead tomorrow (and how to deal with it).

</comment><comment><USER4> I usually look at where I am and be grateful, regardless of a great disappointment. The optimized approach here is the find what will change your mindset the most and since working may motivate you for a bit, it won't really change your mindset.

A break is good and probably optimable since alcohol and friends will change the scene and definitely change your mindset (as long as you don't bring it up).

Regardless, we always fear of being back where we started - disappointment. Sometimes it's like a date with someone promising that went wrong. There's tons of things you could have done, but she or he didn't want to go on - <USER2> doesn't make it your fault, nor the other person's. Sometimes it's just not meant to be, perhaps for the better.

</comment><comment><USER5> Music! Build playlists that help you get through tough times. My personal favorites are classic rock like _Stairway to Heaven_ ("If there's a bustle in your hedgegrow, don't be alarmed now / It's just a spring clean for the May queen"), Bach (in particular, WTC pieces), and instrumental jazz (Miles Davis is really uplifting). Find songs where the lyrics mean something special to you, and listen to them. Sometimes it helps you look at the big picture, and sometimes it makes you feel like you're not alone. Either way, it's uplifting. :-)

</comment><comment><USER6> I like to buy a quality cut of meat or fish, and seasonal produce, with a couple of recipes in mind. Then I spend the next hour or so (depending on the recipes) preparing and cooking a delicious meal. Cutting vegetables. Trimming meat. Making a fricassee (or learning that it's between a sauté and a stew). Broiling. Frying. It's all more visceral than my day to day work. It let's me empty my mind and focus on creating something that I will enjoy that evening, without worrying about tomorrows or next weeks.

</comment><comment><USER7> Other comments cover it well, all highly recommended ways to deal with a bad day I think.

What I would personally do is sit down and clear my mind for 10 or 20 minutes. Meditate, breathe slowly and deeply. Let your thoughts race and get out of your mind. Think of all the things you have achieved, all the great people in your life. Let that remind you that it is "just" a lost deal.

Then, go out and drink a few with the guys.

</comment><comment><USER8> If I have had a stressful day, I go run a 5K loop around the Rose Bowl. If I had a good day, I do the same thing. "Meh" days, the same.

</comment><comment><USER9> I find that on a bad day I spend more time with the kids. Take them out for a trike ride before sunset, let them spend more time playing in the bath, watch a DVD with them before bedtime. I suppose I'm unconsciously compensating to make sure I don't spread my bad moods to them.

I guess this strategy will have to evolve when they're teenagers and they become the _source_ of my bad moods.

</comment><comment><USER10> Be kind. Smile. Be grateful for the life I have. Make a donation on Watsi.

Life can be beautiful, even in dark days.

Stay positive!

</comment><comment><USER11> run 5 miles, clears up the head. Then have a hot bath and a wonderful dinner. Call my best friend. simple things</comment>


The Linux Virtual Server Project: Was This an Early Botnet? - <AUTHOR> http://www.advogato.org/proj/LinuxVirtualServer/ <comment><USER2> WTF? No, it is a load balancing project for servers, as its homepage clearly explains.</comment>


Show HN: Send Anonymous Mail – Simplified - <AUTHOR> https://sendanonymousmail.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi all,

Send unlimited anonymous emails for free using sendanonymousmail.com. No registration required, use it to make a joke/prank to your friends and have fun.

Please let us know your feedback. :)

</comment><comment><USER2> Hey,

Mail just goes to the junk folder. I was wondering how would you work around this, but I guess you didn't (yet?) :)

Cheers

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, We tested our mail service with different subjects & email contents, and we noticed that with some particular email contents, the mails were sent to the junk folder. But otherwise all other mails were delivered straight to the inbox. Thus, I'm assuming that your email content might have included something that triggered the filters of your receiving mail service, which in turn marked it as junk. Unfortunately, we are not aware of any workaround for this. :)

<comment><USER2> It was a bit short and sent to an outook.com address, maybe it was that!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Neat. Any ideas on how people could use this for serious applications?

<comment><AUTHOR> We have created this application with the intention of people having fun with it. But, it can be used for serious stuff like sending feedback anonymously.</comment></comment>


New elevation data triple sea-level vulnerability rise estimates - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12808-z <comment><USER2> Related Discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21393837](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21393837)

<comment><USER3> Comments moved thither. Thanks!</comment></comment>


Quantum Computer is 10^80 faster than a conventional computer - <AUTHOR> http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=9081

<comment><USER2> 10^80 faster at _what_?

<comment><USER3> At simulating the quantum mechanics of simple 2D spin systems, from what I gather from the Nature article.

The press release sounds like they've developed a quantum computer, but this is not borne out by that article. While there is lots of promising work in quantum computing as a whole, this as I understand it can't be used for that, because you can't tune the qubit interactions individually but you can only tell the whole lot to do the same thing. (At least, the abstract doesn't seem to discuss anything more complicated than giving them all a ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic coupling.)

If that's correct, then this article seems overstated. At the very least, I know there are now "optical lattices" of qubits made from atoms supercooled into a Bose-Einstein condensate and then relaxed into a very pure square lattice. You don't have to know what that means, just know that with some method which is now reasonably well known, you can get much much more than 300 atoms interacting via quantum mechanics. Like, optical lattices get hundreds of thousands, if my memory serves me correctly. So this isn't, like, the biggest entangled system ever demonstrated of this form -- not by far. It _might_ be the biggest which has this level of tunable Ising interaction, that I don't know. But there are now tons of approaches to quantum computing, and yes, some of them can throw much larger numbers at the problem than just 300.

The very nice thing here seems to be the quantum entanglements getting done over a spacing of 30 microns. That might not mean much to you, but the optical lattice work is done at tiny spacings, and it becomes extremely difficult to do any sort of individual readout. 30 microns means that you have a lot of leverage to address individual atoms. If you could get them all to entangle with each other and then you could manipulate them individually with some gates, you might be able to get some good quantum error correction set up.

That probably also doesn't mean anything to you. The important fact about quantum error correction is this: once your QEC is reliably set up, you have passed the critical barrier and you can scale up arbitrarily to a quantum computer by just throwing more atoms at the problem.

<comment><USER4> It sounds like this bodes well for measurement-based (aka one-way) quantum computers. a) We can make a massive amount of entangled qubits and b) each can be manipulated and measured separately.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Holy fluff piece batman!

Sure is a lot of text with almost no detail

Edit. Ah, there's more info in the video

<comment><USER6> Not much, though -- seems like he's basically paraphrasing the press release :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I want one of these in/as my GPU.</comment>


'Mark of the beast' pupil loses case [RFID] - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20957587

<comment><USER2> That was a poorly written article. It left out a key fact: the school offered to let her wear a badge WITHOUT the RFID tag. Her parents still objected that this violated the word of God, and would condemn the family to Hell if they complied.

</comment><comment><USER3> The fact that all the attention has moved from the original privacy concerns to simply a religious debate, I think, is very telling of why they lost the case.

<comment> jack-r-abbit Perhaps they thought a religious angle would fair better since religion gets a pretty wide blanket of protection these days as we are all forced to tread lightly when talking about other people's religious freedoms. But the risk in that is people seeing them as nut-jobs. The "mark of the beast" argument was really, really stretching things so it makes sense that they lost. Privacy _might_ have been a issue, but even that is pretty weak.</comment></comment>


The Journalist and the Troll - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-benjamin-wey/ <comment><USER2> >The site's former editor-in-chief testified that all Wey really cared about were the pieces on his enemies and that he tacked on comments under fake names to push the articles further up in search results.

Is this true? Why would articles with more comments have higher rankings? Google checks for that?

<comment><USER3> He way be adding other search terms. Or perhaps the person in question meant comments from other sites (like reddit) which would increase the number of links to the content (which is exactly what google looks for).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Well, here is the flip side of European businessmen and celebrities getting Google to take down stories about scandals they were involved in, I guess.</comment>


Awesome design methods set for solving problems from IDEO - <AUTHOR> http://www.designkit.org/ <comment><AUTHOR> This link have been posted on HN 2 years ago but only gets few points. I have repost it, the quality of the methods are very good. It's a very good reference from my point of view</comment>


Why do students find Mathematics difficult? - <AUTHOR> http://akshar.co.in/blog/archives/455

<comment><USER2> Mathematics is not any more difficult than any other subject. Everything takes practice to be good at it.

I'll take a stab at guessing why mathematics is VIEWED as difficult. It's the abstract portion of it that many people tend to think about when you bring up the term "mathematics".

Many people have no difficulty with mathematics when it comes to adding up dollar bills and coins to pay for something. It's only when you remove mathematics from the real world that people start to get flustered. Basically, mathematics at this point is not difficult, but merely foreign. Think about something you find difficult. Is is really difficult, or it is just foreign to you?

</comment><comment><USER3> Because it's hard.</comment>


Show HN: Looking for group tool for Gamers - <AUTHOR> http://www.lookingforgroup.com

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm a long time gamer, back to the dig dug & paratrooper games. As luck would have it, while looking at some domain auctions I happened to come across www.lookingforgroup.com. Being a gamer & dev hobbyist I felt this would be a fun project - and it has been! I'm starting out with two of my current favorite games, but will be expanding soon to LoL, SC2 & Diablo.

If you have any game requests shoot me a line at firstname.lastname@example.com

I wrote it in js using the meteor framework and hosting it on Modulus.io.</comment>


Why Learn Basic Electronics? [video] - <AUTHOR> http://www.eevblog.com/2015/05/27/eevblab-10-why-learn-basic-electronics <comment><USER2> Once upon a time, there was a huge hobby interest in Electronics. Kids were building Radios and Stereos, and then studying for their Ham license and building Transmitters, etc. Many of those kids went on to a professional career in Electronics.

For a while there was huge interest in building small microprocessor systems, but then along came the desktop PC revolution and this attracted a completely different crowd. A distinct separation developed between homebrew electronics and computer hacking.

The saying, "Beware computer programmers carrying a screwdriver" was only half in jest.

So today the Hacker movement is starting all over again, but they seem completely unaware that a generation or two of Hardware Hackers already exists.

Me, I'm retired now. I started out as a Ham radio enthusiast, later became an RF Engineer, then went on to Circuit design and PC layout, then DSP and Assembler language in Embedded systems. But towards the end of my career I found it harder and harder to find employment as manufacturing dried up. Eventually I just gave up and retired.

Bottom line is that Electronics is an interesting hobby, but I wouldn't recommend it for a career.

Just one further note: Lately I've been spending time in Asia: If you go into the smallest bookshop (eg in rural Thailand) you'll see local electronic magazines, complete with free kits and PCBs etc stapled on the cover. In Asia, Electronics is now a very trendy subject with schoolkids.

Here, kids are labelled as "nerds" if they show an interest in any science based hobby. Perhaps that is beginning to change. I do hope so.

<comment><USER3> I think "nerd" no longer has a negative connotation, at least not as impactful. The coolest kid in school is the kid who can get past the browser filters.

<comment><USER4> Haha, true. Computers are so mainstream now versus the 60s-90s that being a nerd (or rather, geek) is a positive benefit in the right circumstances. They provide a service that is basically the hottest commodity around these days.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Discrete electronic components (resistors, capacitors, transistors, simple ICs and sensors, etc) are sort of the "assembly language" of electronics, but the vast majority of programmers never touch assembly.

There have been attempts to create higher level abstractions (like Arduino "shields", etc) but the cost (time and money) to produce reusable modules is huge relative to the cost of the components, whereas CPUs are so fast the overhead of higher level languages and function calls is usually insignificant.

I'm not sure what the solution is. Maybe better software, and methods of manufacturing small runs of boards?

<comment><USER6> > Discrete electronic components are sort of the "assembly language" of > electronics

Yes, but to make the analogy more realistic, it is an assembly language for a relatively simple and very slow and inefficient, power-consuming processor.

Nowadays, with discrete electronics components, one unfortunately cannot make fast and lean electronics like any of the big companies are making.

<comment><USER7> If you're using discrete components for digital processor, sure.

However they still have a very real application in the analog domain(along with a strong understanding of discrete ICs like Opamps and Transistors).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Dave Jones is great.

I've found that learning about FPGAs and DDR access timings/commands was really a crystallizing in understanding why there are pipelines, cache misses and how to wring out real performance from a system.

</comment><comment><USER8> I feel another reason why discrete electronics isn't as 'trendy' now as it was before, is because of how products seem to be 'seamlessly integrated' nowadays. There is nothing to take apart or repair.

A side benefit of hobbyist electronics was the ability to repair broken electronics lying around the house (simple radios, alarms and what-not). With stuff increasingly becoming a single 'product' instead of an assembly of discrete pieced together parts - both in terms of their circuits and their mechanical construction, there is little incentive for that kind of exploratory learning.

</comment><comment><USER9> He forgot about one thing though: "How to learn this stuff?" I did some very basic electronics in my CS class, but since then I didn't touch anything hardware-like. I would love to see a widely accepted and relatively short introduction to this.

To me the difference between electronics and programming is that with code I can do something that works very quickly. Whereas in electronics I would have to go through the whole 900 pages book before making something that works.

I might be wrong - maybe there is some path that I would take - I didn't look up very closely. And please don't say hardware is hard - General relativity theory is hard, but I manage to understand it because It is simply explained in many places over the internet.

<comment><USER10> It's not hard to get started. Pick up Make: Electronics to learn the basics by example. Each chapter walks you through a project that teaches some important concepts. [http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles- Pla...](http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles- Platt/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434448925&sr=8-1&keywords=make+electronics)

And to get started with Arduino, you can simply buy a starter kit: [http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Starter-Official-170-page- Proj...](http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Starter-Official-170-page- Projects/dp/B009UKZV0A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434448980&sr=8-1&keywords=arduino+kit)

I actually think it's easier for most people to get started with electronics than with code. This is coming from someone with 13 years coding experience and who has only been working on hobby electronics for the past 2 years.

Electronics projects don't have the same amount of boilerplate you see with writing code today. Development tools, frameworks, dependency management, the commandline, polyglot projects etc hinder a lot of beginners at the start. I would say you need to read 900 pages before you can fully understand everything that goes into developing a trivial CRUD website. With electronics, you just plug in and start learning. Learn the functions of a lot of different components and then come up with something that uses them together. Ohm's law is most of what you /need/ to know to design a basic circuit. You can derive what you need with the help of V=IR e.g. voltage dividers, components in series, parallel. And you need to learn how to read schematics and datasheets.

The theory behind everything you do is deep if you want to venture into electromagnetism, which is IMO deeper than what you would expect from college level CS. But it's not necessary to have a deep understanding of it in practice. Though you could say the same about a lot of software engineering and its relation to CS. :)

<comment><USER10> BTW if you are interested in learning some of the theory, check out Practical Electronics for Inventors:

[http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors- Paul-S...](http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul- Scherz/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1434450499&sr=8-2&keywords=practical+electronics)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I've been working with [http://www.snapcircuits.net/](http://www.snapcircuits.net/) Snap Circuits with my kids since they were 4years old. The lessons they learned there are used to this date and i think invaluable, especially now that they are trying to get things to move and light up using an arduino. I recommend checking out their kits, they can be used all the way up to HS level, heck I still like using them and showing them off to other parents.

</comment><comment><USER12> As a programmer, I find electronic circuits insanely hard to reason about. It's like looking at a computer program where every single line runs concurrently. Maybe I need to approach it from a different angle.

But I love it, and I learned a ton when I was hacking away on my microwave [1].

[1] [http://madebynathan.com/2013/07/10/raspberry-pi-powered- micr...](http://madebynathan.com/2013/07/10/raspberry-pi-powered-microwave/)

<comment><USER6> In my experience, electronics is usually much simpler than software, because every component only talks to a few other components, you can put probes into it pretty easily, the "data" you are working with is incredibly simple (you only have voltages, currents and power). Sure, it gets more complicated with things like processor design where you have pipelines that can be flushed, and branch prediction and that kind of stuff. But that is more software than hardware anyway.

<comment><USER13> In software, you're guaranteed that 2 + 2 is perfectly 4 in an int32. It's a very clean abstraction. In hardware, operational amplifiers are affected by thermal noise, magnetic fields, parasitic capacitance, etc. It is not "incredibly simple", and although there are only a handful of inputs you /want/ to care about in that operational amplifier, the actual number of inputs you have to worry about increases dramatically as you chase performance, higher frequencies, and compactness.

Processors must implement logic that can be represented by software, yes. However, when you're trying to push multiple GHz on nanometer technology, that implementation becomes especially difficult. I recommend picking up an RF engineering book, as it will only begin to describe the noise and side-effects that must be accounted for in those circumstances. There's a reason that Intel has physicists on staff. If hardware was truly easier than software, then we'd probably be building our web and mobile apps in that.

<comment><USER6> You are right that there are different problems. But designing high-frequency amplifiers, mixers, and such can now even be done by computers using optimization techniques such as genetic algorithms. The design space is quite limited, compared to software.

> If hardware was truly easier than software, then we'd probably be building > our web and mobile apps in that.

I think this is more a matter of cost and flexibility.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Agree with Johnythree. I used to be an electronics technician over 12 years ago. What happened is that it became cheaper to replace a board than to pay a skilled technician to debug components on a board.

You also had to pretty much learn whatever setup a company's products had on the job, as typically this was proprietary information.

There are great boards/kits out today but yes, it's mostly a hobbyist thing unless you decide to go embedded, then boards such as the MSP-430 from Texas Instruments can be a good choice (especially in the Medical Devices field).

</comment><comment><USER15> This is a great blog about electronics! I remember I needed to solder something and wasn't sure I can do it, so I searched for some tutorials on Youtube and came across this guy's series about soldering. He shows very well how easy it is to solder once you get to know a few techniques of dealing with solder and tools. And Australian accent adds an entertaining bit to it, so it's never boring.

</comment><comment><USER16> I took electronics classes during high school and loved it. I remember tinkering around and making blinkers and noise generators. But after I got into making websites for fun, I completely abandoned electronics as an academic route. There's part of me that wish I didn't, maybe I should get back to it as a hobby.

<comment><USER17> You should get back into it! Since you've left the hobby, a revolution has taken place in PCB manufacturing which allows for minimum quantities as low as 3 for the cost of a pizza or two. PCB design has truly become a hobbyist activity in the past 5 years or so.

<comment><USER18> Would you mind pointing me to something that explains what has happened in the last 5 years that made PCB design so much cheaper? It's quite surprising to read.

<comment><USER17> Years ago, if you wanted a small PCB manufactured, your only option was to deal directly with the board manufacturer and the minimum order was 100's or 1000's of boards. Prototyping a one-off hobbyist design was totally out of the question.

About 5 years ago a few startups figured out that if you played a large game of Tetris by combining the board designs of many hobbyists, you could submit the order as a single, giant PCB in a quantity of 10, or 5, or even 3. When the manufactured boards arrived, you break up the individual designs and mail them out individually to all of the hobbyists.

<comment><USER18> Whoa, interesting, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Electronics are something I've been interested in for a while, but I'm not really sure where to start. I have an arduino uno and some LEDs, but does anyone know of any good resources for beginners?

<comment><USER20> Make: Electronics is a great introduction and a lot of fun. [http://www.makershed.com/products/make-electronics- book](http://www.makershed.com/products/make-electronics-book)

<comment><USER21> I liked reading it but I think I made a mistake getting it for Kindle instead the paper version; I'm not good using the ebook reader for reference material.

The projects are OK-ish, though. Still a good book.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Growing up in the 80s I had those silly "electronics kits" from Radio Shack where you ran wires between various components to do things. At the same time I was learning BASIC and LOGO and stuff -- I think they were fairly complementary. I wonder if they still make those things?

<comment><USER10> There are, but now they usually bundle a microcontroller like Arduino. There are tons of them on Sparkfun, Adafruit, and Jameco.</comment></comment>


Hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track - <AUTHOR> http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/04/08/1418878112.long <comment><USER2> Obviously this is anecdotal, but I'm not ashamed to say that I was a bit ticked last semester when I came across a girl in one of my classes that had only taken one CS course, the intro class, and the past summer had interned at Microsoft. After her freshman year.

As I sat next to her, watching her draw on her free Surface Pro and text on her free Lumia, I was thinking about the projects I was working on, the weekends upon weekends I had spent in highschool tinkering around in a shell, and yeah, it pissed me off. I'm not by any means claiming that women can't code, that's ridiculous. I've coded with with women that are incredible thinkers. I just think this is a problem, is all. Meritocracy over everything.

A relevant blog post by weev (and i'll note, here's a trigger warning if you can't deal with his white victim complex and some name calling): [http://weev.livejournal.com/409913.html](http://weev.livejournal.com/409913.html)

<comment><USER3> Are you upset that you didn't get an internship, and if so have you considered the possibility that you aren't as good as you think you are.

<comment><USER2> > Are you upset that you didn't get an internship,

No.

> have you considered the possibility that you aren't as good as you think you > are.

Every day, more than you can imagine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So... this isn't sexist?

A non-sexist world would have 1:1, or no preference based on gender, declared or perceived.

<comment><USER5> Well, perhaps it depends on the context; if you average that rate over the whole history of STEM tenure-tracked faculties, males might still be more than females...

<comment><USER4> Still, preference should be 1:1.

The whole point is weeding out sexism. A non-sexist world is 1:1 in terms of preference.

<comment><USER5> what are the real benefits and downsides of this sexism (or of the ideal sex- fairness) for our society, besides the "social justice"?

I mean, if this practice is not beneficial to anyone (except the girls, [EDIT:and also perhaps the utterly smart guys in the world as the valuation of this asset for them increases due to this hiring preference]), they probably would just drop it in the end...

<comment><USER4> > what are the real benefits and downsides of this sexism (or of the ideal > sex-fairness) for our society, besides the "social justice"?

Aside from the obvious, the bias, and people's knowledge of the bias, creates a perception that women are only there due to an unfair bias in their favor. This is toxic, and it damages the cause of reducing such biases, because it brings conversations back to gender equality when they should be about individual merit.

And that's what this is about: Individuals. Individuals with their own merits and qualities, not "individuals" as proxies for whatever group they've been assigned to. Fighting bias is all about making everyone see everyone else as _just_ an individual, _just_ someone _just like them_ in most respects, not as some instance of a class to be treated identically to all other instances of that class.

Going for numerical equality is metric-based thinking, and it relegates individuals to being instances of a class. It's like saying "Oh, you'll have so much in common! You're both women, after all!"

(Metric-based thinking: Optimize for what's easy to measure.)

> I mean, if this practice is not beneficial to anyone (except the girls, > [EDIT:and also perhaps the utterly smart guys in the world as the valuation > of this asset for them increases due to this hiring preference]), they > probably would just drop it in the end...

Not if it becomes ingrained, or if it has benefits to the organization which the leadership thinks outweigh the detriments to the workforce.

<comment><USER5>
      >Aside from the obvious, the bias, and people's knowledge of the bias,
      >creates a perception that women are only there due to an unfair bias
      >in their favor. This is toxic, and it damages the cause of reducing
      >such biases, because it brings conversations back to gender equality
      >when they should be about individual merit.

Just to diverge a bit, "bias" itself is not always a bad ass...It has its own merits such as reducing the decision making cost (just consider all the Bayesian methods out there, they are all about how to "bias")...

And the process of un-biasing, is also the process of finding new properties or attributes to bias to (such as the "merits" you mentioned), with more accurate prediction power...

But back to the question of gender bias, I feel one of the reasons the industry hiring process starts to favor women than men, is to add more feminine elements in the product/service they sell, through increasing the women ratio in their team, and hence to attract more women consumers and also perhaps the feminine side of straight and gay men.

EDIT: I don't know why the gender bias in the recent tenure-tracked professorship awarding process in STEM...Is it because the academia would receive more government or corporate funding if they get more woman professors? Or perhaps they want to attract more women students to the department? Or simply they just want to show their political correctness?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is great! This is exactly what needs to be happening, and what needs to get more broadly publicized if we're to see a more representative ratio in STEM faculty.

It's a long road from here to there, but this is encouraging.

<comment><USER7> How is this good? Isn't it a clear case of unfair gender discrimination? I get that people want to correct a perceived injustice, but isn't overcompensating just as bad?

<comment><USER6> It is indeed gender discrimination by definition.

But it's not clear how you distinguish between what's an appropriate correction to historical discrimination and what's overcompensation. If the bias were in favor of an over-represented group, it would be more clear -- but that's not what we're seeing. Women are grossly underrepresented in STEM faculty, and the only way to correct that is to hire a greater share of them and to use their gender as a positive discriminating factor in hiring.

I don't believe either of us are in a position to judge whether that should best manifest as a 2:1 ratio during resume reviews, a 1.1:1 ratio in finalized hires, or a 5:1 ratio in outreach, or some other arbitrary number during some other arbitrary phase.

<comment><USER7> > the only way to correct that is to hire a greater share of them

This is affirmative action, which has the following problem: How do it eventually end? This is especially true when the desired quota is impossible (It may or may not be in the case of gender rep in STEM). In the real world, affirmative action policies never end due to social/political pressure, and eventually just inflict the converse problem.

Affirmative action is _not_ the only way to correct imbalances (it may not even do that). The better way, at least in my view, is to correct the cause(s) of the imbalance, then wait. Of course if there's no discernible correctable cause, then the imbalance is clearly natural, and should not be disturbed. This may be slower, but its stable and infallible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Check your priviledge!</comment>


Share with HN: Bookmarklet to graph HN polls - <AUTHOR>

I made a bookmarklet that makes a simple bar graph for HN polls. Nothing fancy, but it makes interpreting polls here way easier for me.
Tested in Safari and Firefox.
Make a new bookmark with the following location:

  javascript:(function(cells){var%20totalPoints=0;for(var%20i=0;i<cells.length;i++){if(cells[i].className==%22default%22){totalPoints+=parseInt(cells[i].textContent.match(/^[0-9]+/),10);}}for(i=0;i<cells.length;i++){if(cells[i].className==%22default%22){var%20optionPoints=parseInt(cells[i].textContent.match(/^[0-9]+/),10);cells[i].setAttribute(%22style%22,%22padding-left:.25em;border-left:%22+(optionPoints/totalPoints)*500+%22px%20solid%20#dcb;%22);}}})(document.getElementsByTagName(%22table%22)[3].getElementsByTagName(%22td%22));
 <comment><USER2> Wow, this is awesome! Tested it on <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=692672> if you need a quick test subject. Worked really well. (+1 for fitting in with the color scheme.)

</comment><comment><USER3> screenshot for the unmotivated: <http://timfreeman.org/pollgraph.png>

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice work. Should be the default IMO.

</comment><comment><USER4> Good job. This would also work well as a Greasemonkey script.</comment>


Opioids May Interfere with Parenting Instincts, Study Finds - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/well/family/opioids-may-interfere-with-parenting-instincts-study-finds.html?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0 <comment><USER2> Big surprise.</comment>


Should you wear a mask when exercising outdoors? Experts weigh in - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/should-you-wear-a-mask-when-exercising-outdoors-11588079594 <comment><AUTHOR> [https://archive.vn/aVloF](https://archive.vn/aVloF)</comment>


Voatz urges Supreme Court to place limits on security research - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/online-voting-vendor-voatz-urges-supreme-court-to-limit-security-research/ <comment><USER2> Now we know for certain that their voting system in untrustworthy.</comment>


"There are more mobile phones in Uganda than light bulbs" - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/video/2012/08/28/mark/

<comment><USER2> People keep underestimating how important communication is between humans. It _can_ be more important than stuff like lightbulbs or hot water, which may seem counter-intuitive, but lightbulbs and hot water are mostly recent inventions, while phone calling is just an extension of communication between 2 or more people, just over longer distances.

<comment><USER3> Hot water is a recent invention? Gas and electric water heaters may be, but there are bath tubs and hot baths in the Homeric epics, which were composed about 750 BCE. And if we can count phone calling as an extension of ocmmunication, how are light bulbs not an extension of artificial lighting, which goes back to simple torches.</comment></comment>


Thank You HN for Feedback - Tomonotomo - Social Dating - <AUTHOR>

I published a Show HN post on HN a couple of days back https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6326989 - and it made the front page. Thanks to the critical feedback and suggestions by smart people on HN, I am sure I have improved my product, a social dating website, tomo no tomo - http://www.tomonotomo.com - significantly.
I have responded to almost each comment individually.
Just wanted to give a warm thanks to everyone for the review. God Bless! <comment><USER2> I like the japanese title 友達の友でしょう? (tomo-no-tomo roughly translating to "Friend of a friend")

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks :)</comment></comment>


The death of the paper ticket for sporting events - <AUTHOR> https://www.axios.com/sports-tickets-paper-digital-19d71f8d-c146-4873-8a83-50de1fbbb25e.html <comment><USER2> Do mobile tickets put resale capability exclusively in the hands of the issuer? How does one take a mobile ticket from Ticketmaster and sell it on Stubhub?

Seems like that's the end goal here, to capture 100% of the market _and_ aftermarket. Imagine being able to collect service fees on the same ticket multiple times!

<comment><USER3>
      Seems like that's the end goal here, to capture 100% of the market and aftermarket.

Exactly.

But the reality is that the added friction in buying and using the tickets often results in _not attending at all_.

Mobile-only ticketing is toxic. It makes transacting on eBay and Craigslist impossible, or at best unsafe.

You have no souvenir.

Going as a group? _Everyone_ has to install the app and each ticket be forwarded individually... and the apps are almost always privacy sucks with aggressive permission demands.

Going to/from a pricier concourse? Better have your phone to show you are eligible!

Giving tickets to a group or charity auction becomes impossible.

Major event like playoffs, tournament or top concert? Better hope your mobile provider added capacity at the venue (this was a HUGE problem for World Series games in SF, for example).

The 49ers went to mobile only ticketing in 2014. Then they went 5 full years without a single sellout. The 2018 home opener was 60% empty.

The Sharks went mobile only for awhile and haven't had a genuine sellout since (including the Stanley Cup Finals!)</comment></comment>


Qubes - run all your programs in domains - <AUTHOR> http://qubes-os.org/

<comment><USER2> Seems similar to [http://www.bromium.com/](http://www.bromium.com/)</comment>


California Supreme Court grants law license to undocumented citizen - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25583019

<comment><AUTHOR> IANAL, legal or otherwise:

US perspective: A frmr roommate and his family came here illegally but then later hired immigration attys that somehow acquired citizenship for the whole family. Not sure how that happened: one could speculate at loophole exploitation on one hand but discount the productivenes of the family of 7 children. They grew up with nothing and ended up as university-educated, UHNWIs paying taxes. All 7. (And most have a huge house each that must cost a fortune to maintain.)</comment>


Doctorow: The coming war on general-purpose computation - <AUTHOR> http://lwn.net/Articles/473794/ <comment><USER2> This is exactly the sort of stuff RMS was saying decades ago, but most people wrote it off as "unrealistic" and "paranoid". Its looking more like the right to read every day.

Control of Computers/information systems is going to become one of the only real ways to exercise control over people in the future, because it will encompass everything else.

Its sad to see people welcome locked down shit like apple products, here with open arms.

<comment><USER3> The critical difference between what Doctorow is saying and people buying Apple products is _choice_. Now you can choose an open solution without being a criminal.

<comment><USER4> If Mac OS X goes awry in the future, I'll abandon it. For now, it's my favourite platform. Unless there's a transactional instant where evil descends and alternatives go poof, I'm not too worried.

<comment><USER2> its never like that, somebody doesn't just decide to flip the evil switch, and from that day forward everything is horrible.

Its a long process of acclimatization, don't believe me? Take a look at android, which in most respects is far more locked down than any desktop operating system, yet is hailed as "open".

<comment><USER4> These "appliance-like" computers are a new category, and the ongoing topic of their ease-of-use vs. flexibility is not black and white.

As long as I also have a proper computer, I welcome the simplicity of the tablet. If it looks like I will no longer have the option of buying or owning a proper computer, I'll join you with the pitchforks.

<comment><USER5> ease-of-use vs. flexibility is a false dichotomy, at least in the way we're using "flexibility" here. Apple made it seem like ease of use and crippling software for lock-in and DRM reasons are in some way related because they did both of those things so well but they are independent decisions.

It's a great argument for the anti-technology side because it seems to make sense to those that aren't technical, but let's not start spouting that fallacy on hacker news like it's actually true.

<comment><USER4> Ease-of-use wasn't the best phrase for what I meant. Perhaps fully coherent experience is better. But I still believe the gist of it, so proceed to pity me. I think a more containable example of this balance is the iPad having no removable storage (like an SD card). On one hand it means fat margins on selling higher capacity models, but it also eliminates a whole class of issues around not being able to rely on apps (or their data/media) always being present.

I would welcome more freedom on the iPad. If a switch showed up in the advanced settings that allowed side-loading of unsigned apps, that would be great. But it's not a deal breaker for what is a completely auxiliary device compared to a proper computer.

<comment><USER6> You can always jail break your iPad, which in America is legal, I think :)

<comment><USER4> I know about jailbreaking, but it's incidental.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What Doctorow criticizes is a general problem, not a problem in general- purpose computation; we see the exact same fallacious thinking in the TSA. Terrorists attack the United States with a hijacked aeroplane, so they ramp up security in airports - and mainly _in_ the airports. The hijackers were passengers, so they focus their attention on the passengers, and the passengers only. The target was American buildings by means of hijacked aeroplanes, so they focus their attention on who and what goes on the plane - not what may happen in a crowded airport itself. A nutty attacker hides a bomb in his shoes, later his underwear, so we have to take off our shoes and get patted down or x-ray scanned respectively.

These are people trying to catch the specific perpetrators of yesterday, as if they had a time machine and could go back and stop that individual, not people who are trying to get to the root of the problem and deal with it. When governments impose taxes on optical media, because they "help" people pirate music, they might as well tax shoes and underwear while they are at it. When external hard drives came into vogue, NAS's in particular, Western Digital blacklisted media extensions like .mp3, because that would facilitate piracy; whether the government, lobby groups or they themselves came up with this I don't know. In this digital web age, people have moved their attention from physical media to digital media online, and now "the internet" is the complicit perpetrator.

The good and bad news is that this is a general error in people's line of thought, and it is a good thing that this is a problem that you don't have to be a geek to understand nor care about, because it will affect you whenever you travel, have a darker skin than most people, or use the internet. You can bury your head in the sand, but this will and does affect every person in the Western world you can imagine. Blame the media groups, blame the TSA, but most of all, recognize that we can't just focus our attention at the proverbial shoes and underwear, but have to grasp the scope of the root problem at the core of this, and how people soon enough will find something other to try to regulate and police to no effect and benefit for us all. Today it's the TSA and MPAA; tomorrow we will have to suffer a new organization of fools and another slew of politicians.

<comment><USER8> They are "Fully Prepared for the Past": [http://systems- thinkers.org/resources/resource/the_systems_b...](http://systems- thinkers.org/resources/resource/the_systems_bible_the_beginners_guide_to_systems_large_and_small_3rd_editio)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The _official_ reason for the Iraq war was to prevent 60 year old technology becoming available to a government that our government decided would inevitably use it in a way that would be harmful to us. The war on drugs is a war on the possession and manufacture of even older bio-technology.

The control of and access to technology is one of the main fulcrums of human history. That's because control and access to technology inherently determines control and access to military, economic and political power and often those in power are always looking to consolidate and guard their privilege.

</comment><comment><USER10> General purpose PC's will only disappear if the market for them disappears.

Ultimately it is

1\. the nerds who educate (or fail to educate) the consumer market about what is possible using a general purpose PC and

2\. the consumers who buy electronics, including general purpose PC's,

who are in control of the future production and general availability of them.

Common sense says that factories will only produce what can be sold. They respond to demand.

Touchscreen, keyboardless tablets and "smartphones" that cannot be connected and controlled with a more flexible general purpose computer are limiting not enabling.

This is however not the message being sent to consumers.

<comment><USER11> > General purpose PC's will only disappear if the market for them disappears.

I think this is the key point.

In some sense, the market for them _has_ been disappearing. The rise of web and mobile apps has shown beyond any doubt that a lot of traditional software is far too big and complicated for a typical home user's needs, and that Joe Public can in fact be quite happy sharing his life story on a cloud-hosted blog, keeping up with his friends via Twitter, playing simple puzzle games on Facebook, and watching streaming movies on his iPad. Notice that all of these are just variations on consumption/communication using on-line services. Heavyweight tools like e-mail and word processors just aren't necessary for what most people care about in their daily lives at home. In fact, I suspect that for the average home consumer, open access to data (both their own personal information and multimedia content they have paid for) and the whole walled garden debate are going to be far bigger issues than open access to general purpose hardware and software.

On the flip side, there will always be enthusiasts who do want more flexible hardware and software for their own enjoyment. All of those activities I mentioned above use software written by geeks, running on infrastructure built by geeks and funded in large part by businesses. And businesses themselves have widely diverse requirements and build many software tools both in-house and to sell to the public and/or other businesses. In short, the entire global IT economy is built around geeks and business, and geeks and businesses need general purpose computing. No amount of lobbying by special interest groups is going to beat the combined might of a global economy that now depends fundamentally on progress in IT for its recovery and future success. If a few sites on the scale of Google and Facebook do go dark for a day in protest against SOPA, I think a few politicians, a lot of Big Media executives, and the entire Web-surfing population of the world are going to learn that lesson very quickly.

<comment><USER12> "In some sense, the market for them has been disappearing."

Agreed! That's what I thought the keynote would be about before I began watching. Users cared about general purpose computers before, because the only way you could accomplish a task was to run it on your own computer. Now, the thin clients are essentially here, and the ability to run an arbitrary program is not very important to many people.

Or so they think, anyway. I'm worried about the point where devices at home are _not_ Turing-complete, and they just connect to authorized services. Only certain companies would really have the ability to program anything at all (because they'd be the only ones with real computers), and it would be easy for the government to step in and control them.

<comment><USER13> How about government registration for general-purpose computers? (I do not support that idea. Rather, it is the next step in this line of reasoning.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's worth watching the talk (linked in the article, but special pointing out seems appropriate): <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg>

I like to call it the secret keynote of 28C3.

</comment><comment><USER15> Isn't it already the case that many scanners, printers and image editing software have built-in restrictions to prevent the copying of currency?

How are those restrictions implemented? I don't mean in a technical sense, I understand the dot pattern recognition. But how is it that the vendors build it in? Are there legal requirements? (and if so, how do Open Source implementations manage) Are they purely concerned about liability? Are they paid to by the proprietors of the technology? (so that the can sell it to mints).

</comment><comment><USER16> The funny part is that Apple is not my current worry. I am very scared of Microsoft's new policy for Windows 8 apps using Metro / WinRT. I am not a lawsuit fan, but I hope someone sues them to force open access. I can see app stores on devices (phones / tablets), but not forced on a PC.

The power a forced app store gives the platform provider is too much. Microsoft could delay a competitors approval while they add new features to their own product. Beyond that, the notion that only the platform provider should have a "relationship" with the customer is bogus.

<comment><USER17> The tablet/phone/PC dynamic is artificial. A computer is a computer. We already see the prototypes of the computer of the future, which is a smartphone you can plug into a dock with keyboard/mouse/screen and use as a PC.

<comment><USER18> Why? Computers are really cheap, and everything is in the cloud. Why do I need to plug a smartphone in? Any screen soon will probably have a smartphone class CPU in it. For that matter keyboards could too at little cost... Arguably a tablet is just a prototype screen with a smartphone CPU.

<comment><USER17> In a perfect world every device would sort of be a general-purpose GPU/CPU hybrid that you can chain via an optical link like Intel's Thunderbolt.

In the real world, no two devices are going to be compatible because every manufacturer is shipping an embedded OS with a locked bootloader that doesn't run the program you need to read your data. So you have to plug your smartphone in because you have no idea what OS is running on the monitor.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Previous thread <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3400449>

</comment><comment><USER20> It's already happening now. SOPA is the present day war against general- purpose computation.

Uninstall that program citizen before armed men break down your door and take your device. Drop the device citizen, don't make me taze you. We need to invest hevily on infrastructure and devices that make the war against general purpose computation very difficult to block everything from a central location.

<comment><USER21> Waiting for the day that _publishing software_ would require government approval ...

<comment><USER22> Isn't that the definition of a patent?

<comment><USER23> A patent isn't a restriction on publication, actually the patent itself is publication. It's a restriction on commercial use.

The original intention of patents was that, rather than keeping your trade secrets secret, you can file them with the government. The government will grant you an exclusive monopoly to it for a limited period of time, which is a stronger but more temporary protection than is given to trade secrets, but more importantly it will publish your patent so that once it expires it becomes part of common knowledge. It was essentially intended as a means of open-sourcing technology.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Airbnb Raises Over $100M as It Touts Strong Growth - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-raises-over-100-million-as-it-touts-strong-growth-1448049815?mod=wsj_nview_latest&alg=y <comment><USER2> 1) This is a press release from a PR person in the company. There is no "person familiar with the matter" who is willing to risk their reputation and career to leak internal metrics of the company.

2) This is a follow-on to their last round of funding, not a separate capital raise. The valuation did not change. They likely had an interested party that missed the boat, got nervous about being left out, and agree to the same terms. Little distraction for the company + money at known terms + small stake (.4%) + press = #yes.

3) AirBnB takes a 15% cut on bookings. A stable company might have a price/earnings ratio of 5x. So for them to have a $25 billion valuation, that's $5 billion in revenue or $33 billion in bookings. That means they would need to grow ~24.5x their current size (either without raising again or raising at the same valuation) to justify this.

According to an industry association[1], sales in 2013 for all lodging in the US was $163 billion. Yes international, but that's for the largest GDP in the world and there are non-zero costs in marketing/sales/regulation/data security to entering other markets.

[1]: [https://www.ahla.com/content.aspx?id=36332](https://www.ahla.com/content.aspx?id=36332)

EDIT - I was wrong about the fee, thank you richiezc!

<comment><USER3> 1\. "A stable company might have a price/earnings ratio of 5x"

You're way off on PE's.

The Shiller PE is 26* right now. P/E moves inversely with interest rates. With rates around 1% (i.e. driving up P/E's) only distressed companies trade at 5x P/E ratios.

2\. "AirBnB takes a 3% cut on transactions"

You overlooked 2/3 of their revenue.

"Airbnb generates revenue by taking a 3% cut of each booking along with a 6% to 12% service fee from guests"

3\. "for them to have a $25 billion valuation, that's $5 billion in revenue or $167 billion in bookings"

The relevant data is in the article. Note they made $340 on $2.2B of bookings (about %15 of bookings).

"Airbnb generated $340 million of revenue in the third quarter, on bookings of $2.2 billion". You can just annualize that. Current run rate revenue is ~$1.4B. Current run rate bookings are ~$8.8B.

I don't have an opinion on the valuation but I can understand how they could be worth $25B. Airbnb's incremental cost for processing customers is probably close to zero. If they double bookings again, they'd double top line revenue ~$3B. I could easily see $1B of that flowing to the bottom line.

Also there are network effects/customer captivity at play that bode well for the long term. What do I mean? It would be hard to create a competitor to Airbnb because no one wants to establish their reputation on more that 1 platform (same under-appreciated advantage Ebay has).

*[http://www.multpl.com/shiller-pe/](http://www.multpl.com/shiller-pe/)

<comment><USER4> All of that checks out, but:

> It would be hard to create a competitor to Airbnb because no one wants to > establish their reputation on more that 1 platform (same under-appreciated > advantage Ebay has).

Bookings.com is a pretty strong competitor to AirBNB in some market segments.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Raising $100M at a $25B valuation means someone paid $100M for a .4% stake in AirBnB, which is both surprising and amazing to me. This does ignore whatever preference and specialized terms the stakeholders were given. And of course, the buyers aren't necessarily saying they think the company is worth $25B, they are saying they believe the market will value it at more than $25B at some point in the future.

<comment><USER6> Your last statement is not necessarily true.

That's the funny thing about startup valuations; they are not an apples-to- apples comparison to a public market. In fact, a savvy investor may be willing to invest $100M at a $25B valuation knowing full well there will _never_ be a liquidation event worth $25B. It all depends on the deal terms (preferences, ratchets, etc.).

It's entirely rational to invest $XM at $YB valuation when your deal terms stipulate a minimum return of ($XM * 1.25), regardless of valuation.

<comment><USER4> Which leads to the conclusion that without knowledge of the terms of the deal it is a bit of a weird thing to value the entire company based on that deal. Because such a deal should be discounted based on the terms not applying equally to the rest of the shares already created.

<comment><USER7> "AirBnB raises $100m which gives them an unknown valuation due to the complex financial terms of the deal" just doesn't draw as many clicks on your story

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't understand. What would they need that kind of money for at this point? Surely they are raking in lots of revenue?

<comment><USER9> > This year, Airbnb expects an operating loss of about $150 million

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This seems strange. Maybe a single investor wanted to get in pretty badly.

</comment><comment><USER11> No paywall: [http://on.wsj.com/1Ojvrh6](http://on.wsj.com/1Ojvrh6)

<comment><USER12> FWIW also no paywall if you save to Instapaper.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Airbnb is a great company but they seem unnecessarily greedy. They shouldn't allow people to rent out apartments without neighbor consent. They should limit the number of days that people can rent their homes. And they shouldn't allow companies to operate dozens of Airbnb locations as de facto hotels.

These are the kinds of reasonable regulations that will happen to them eventually, if they don't put constraints on themselves.

<comment><USER14> I'm of the view that property rights are an important component of civil rights. I think the constitution is on my side given the fourth amendment.

It's interesting that on HN I see near universal support for the freedom to smoke pot in one's home, or to live with a same-sex partner, or replace a lawn with a rock garden, or to have our communications remain private.

But when it comes to letting someone crash on your couch in exchange for a few bucks, suddenly there are calls for a full-scale invasion of privacy and limitation of what one can do in their own home, in order to protect one's neighbors from... what exactly?

Obviously property rights have reasonable limitations, but is Airbnb really such a case? If you have a neighbor that is hosting a bad guest, then surely the bad behavior is the problem (and probably already illegal).

<comment><USER4> > freedom to smoke pot in one's home, or to live with a same-sex partner, or > replace a lawn with a rock garden, or to have our communications remain > private.

Those affect you.

> when it comes to letting someone crash on your couch in exchange for a few > bucks

That scenario also only affects you, when you add the term 'occasionally'.

But if you live in a residential area and suddenly on four sides you find yourself with low-budget hotels with people coming and going at all hours and partying until 3 am because the owner of the apartment is absent when the guests are there then that is not a nice thing per-se and this is where your 'couch' starts to leak in to the lives of others around you.

So yes, AirBNB really can be such a case.

<comment><USER15> Then enforce noise regulations and other common property laws. If a long term tenant college party house moves in beside you, then you have the exact same problems. But you cannot blame AirBnB or similar in this case.

<comment><USER4> Long term college tenants as a rule are extremely well behaved, mostly because they value quiet as much as the next person (or even more) on account of their studies. They may have a few more parties than any other household but as a rule they don't generate too much of a problem because they are in there for the longer term and so have to be on good terms with the rest of the neighborhood.

And I would not blame AirBNB in that case because they have absolutely nothing to do with that.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Was GitHub Hacked or Me? - <AUTHOR> http://confidencetoexplore.com/
That's my page.  My other github pages are working fine, but that one redirects to a crazy screen with a lighting strike gif, an email address, and something about "muslim cybersecurity".
I changed the A records to put up a parking lot page and that worked, so I think it's something around github.  As soon as I add the A records and CNAME records back to point to github, the hacked page goes back up.
How do I fix this? <comment><USER2> This came up recently in a different HN thread: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19118740](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19118740)

The main gist is that GitHub doesn't require proof of ownership in order to set a custom domain.

This means that if your GitHub Pages configurations are incorrect for any reason (for example, that user switched from a Pro to a regular account and lost the ability to have a GH page on a private repo), another user can come along and claim your page (confidencetoexplore.com) as the custom domain for that repo.

My bet would be that this happened to you. As another user in that thread mentioned, report them: [https://github.com/contact/report- abuse](https://github.com/contact/report-abuse)

<comment><USER3> Yes. This is what I just discovered. OP here's the malicious github account, so we can get it banned:

[https://github.com/OnyonCapitaly](https://github.com/OnyonCapitaly)

I found a repo with your domain:

[https://github.com/OnyonCapitaly/confidencetoexplore.com](https://github.com/OnyonCapitaly/confidencetoexplore.com)

edit: just reported them, but you should too OP.

<comment><USER4> The script kiddie will just signup for another account and "hack" the same sites again.

<comment><USER5> Does GitLab have this issue? Don't they offer all this for free, unlike GitHub?

<comment><USER6> GitLab requires you to put a txt record with a verification code in your custom private domain DNS to verify ownership.

TL;DR no, GitLab does not have that issue.

<comment> gitlab-security Confirming the previous poster's comment on GitLab Pages domain ownership verification functionality, which was rolled out in February of 2018. [https://about.gitlab.com/2018/02/05/gitlab-pages-custom- doma...](https://about.gitlab.com/2018/02/05/gitlab-pages-custom-domain- validation/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> UPDATE: Github responded with the following...

(GitHub Developer Support)

Apr 4, 2:52 AM UTC

Hi Scott,

Thanks for reaching out, and sorry for the trouble!

GitHub Pages doesn't currently have a verification process when configuring a new custom domain. We chose this design due to its low friction, but unfortunately it also means that any GitHub user can claim any custom domain, so long as it isn't already in use on another repository.

When you downgraded your account to GitHub Free, GitHub Pages for your private repository was disabled, and this released your custom domain for potential use by other GitHub users. While the risk of another user accidentally claiming your specific custom domain is low, we've experienced trouble lately with opportunistic ne'er-do-wells strategically claiming custom domains they find to be available.

Our engineering team is currently investigating potential improvements to prevent this in future. In the meantime, we're taking the precaution of performing manual verification in any cases such as yours. A quick way we can verify your ownership of the domain would be for you to add a TXT record to your domain's DNS configuration.

When you create the TXT record, please include the following value:...

and from there gave me a value to put in my DNS to verify ownership.

Not a great experience today but at least they responded and are working to remedy the situation (which I still believe was a huge ball drop on their part in terms of both communication and implementation).

<comment><USER7> I had this exact same problem too on March 26th and my first response was poor, the rep said "I'm sorry to hear that your domain was taking [sic] over by another user" and tried to get me to verify my own domain with them. I told them that I was disappointed with the response and then another support rep wrote a much more helpful and detailed reply:

"Sorry for the trouble you've had with this.

GitHub Pages doesn't currently have a way of linking ownership of a domain to a GitHub account. When you point your domain's DNS records towards GitHub IPs all we can tell on our side is that the domain can be attached to a Pages site—but we can't tell which one, or which account it's owned by, until the domain is linked in the repository settings page.

When you leave your domain pointing towards GitHub, but don't attach it to a live Pages site, any other GitHub user can link your domain to a Pages site without any further verification. All we can see from your domain are the GitHub IPs listed in the DNS records, so we have no way of linking it to a specific account.

As this domain is now attached to a Pages site, we have to consider that the person currently using it is the legitimate owner, whether that be via a domain ownership transfer, the domain has expired and someone else has purchased it, or other means.

We use this setup to make it quick and easy to get started with GitHub Pages, without having to perform even more complex DNS verification steps or waiting for propagation time. We are aware that it can be abused however and are looking at possible solutions, but we don't have anything to announce at this time.

If you would like to use this domain with GitHub Pages again yourself then you will need to follow the verification process. If you don't want to use this domain with GitHub Pages then you can safely remove any DNS records that point towards GitHub to stop the malicious site displaying at your domain. However you may have to verify it with us again in future if you would like to use GitHub Pages again.

Let us know if you have any further questions, or would like to continue verifying your ownership of your domain with us."

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The same happened to me, I searched my CNAME on github and found that a user was "hijacking" some CNAMEs, pointing these domains to his own repos. This happened to me because I switched from PRO to Free and I didn't notice that the Free plan does not allow us to have a private repository with Github Pages. The end result in my case is that I migrated my blog to Netlify and used Hugo to generate my HTML site from Markdown files. It was very straightforward and I am satisfied with the end result.

<comment><USER3> That's exactly how I found the CNAME takeover in the case of OP. I guess if this happens to anyone, the first mitigation step would be to search all of GitHub for that CNAME.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This reminds me of the awful Cloudfront vulnerability where any jerk can park your domain names in Cloudfront with no verification. One day you'll put one of your domains behind Cloudfront and suddenly they own your website.

Scenario:

1\. Today your DNS records look like this because you aren't using Cloudfront:

      site.com -- A --> 126.96.36.199
      www.site.com -- CNAME --> site.com

2\. Some jerk with an AWS account registers "www.site.com" in Cloudfront.

3\. Tomorrow you create a cloudfront distribution for site.com and change site.com to a CNAME to "d12345abcdef.cloudfront.net". Instantly you're owned on WWW.site.com because it indirectly points to Cloudfront and you forgot to register that alias in AWS. Oh and guess what? The jerk can issue SSL certs for your domain name through Lets Encrypt because all they need to do is put a well-known file off your domain.

4\. You have a bug bounty program (right?!) and pay quick, big money out to some researcher who is, thankfully, not a jerk.

Good times.

</comment><comment><USER10> The real problem here is that they do not notify people that on the Free plan, you can have Pages on a public repo, or a private repo without Pages. But you can't have Pages on a private repo.

<comment><USER5> With GitLab you can have a private repo for your Pages.

<comment><USER11> That's nice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I haven't knew that Pro account is required to host static content for private repos. It's better move to gitlab because my student pro account going to end soon.

</comment><comment><USER13> I am not an expert, but did you checked your domain authoritative DNS servers?

<comment><AUTHOR> I've logged into my DNS provider and confirmed everything is set up the same as my other github pages which are working fine. Is that what you're asking?

<comment><USER13> I checked your's and it is the same as for Aditya, so it might be OK. Weird stuff, I do not understand how it is possible.

host -t ns confidencetoexplore.com confidencetoexplore.com name server dns1.registrar-servers.com. confidencetoexplore.com name server dns2.registrar-servers.com.

<comment><USER3> It's a malicious takeover of a domain due to a process oversight from GH. They should check if a person actually controls the domain before letting any GH user host a GH pages site on that domain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nope. It seems to be just you. My website works [https://adityar.me](https://adityar.me)

<comment><AUTHOR> As stated, it's not all my sites hosted on github. Just that one. But it's configured exactly the same as the others.

<comment><USER3> There's a weird meta tag on that page, Googling it leads to more "hacked" pages:

<meta content="[http://www](http://www) ratiss org/ioport5.htm" property="og:url"> (spaces added to prevent it from linking)</comment></comment></comment>


On SGQR, Singapore's unified QR code payment system - <AUTHOR> https://tongwing.woon.sg/blog/on-sgqr-code/ <comment><USER2> Also on a related note woth mentioning is Poland's BLIK[0] it's a very nice system based on generated one-time codes that are confirmed via your mobile device.

It works for online payments, ATM withdrawals and even in brick & mortar shops.

The flow for online looks like this:

1\. Go to the Payments / billing page.

2\. It is almost prevalent now that you just see a BLIK input box immediately, and the other standard "pick your payment options" box below.

3\. Fire up your bank's mobile app, navigate to the BLIK tab (normally a swipe away), grab the 6 digits (or copy)

4\. Put them in the box (or paste)

5\. Press OK on your mobile device (you can even 'trust' your browser after succesful payment, such that you don't have to confirm the next payments on your mobile device with some monetary limits).

6\. Done.

It usually takes less than 30 seconds to do all of this. No need to put your CC details or anything in.

[0] - [https://polskistandardplatnosci.pl/en/](https://polskistandardplatnosci.pl/en/)

[more-info] - [https://www.ppro.com/wp- content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2018/04/...](https://www.ppro.com/wp- content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2018/04/ps_blik_170808_web.pdf) [https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/71555/blik-becomes- the...](https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/71555/blik-becomes-the-first- non-card-payment-scheme-in-poland)

<comment><USER3> I don't get it.

Paying contactless with my card takes 2 seconds, max.

And I'm not adding an additional layer, introducing yet more possibilities for things going wrong, into the payment process.

Honestly, I don't mean to be snarky. I just don't see the appeal of those apps.

<comment><USER2> Again, it's mainly for online payments, the others are an addition, and a welcomed one at that if you forget your card (or don't have Google / Apple Pay) when you're out somewhere.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> We had/have a similar system in Sweden called SEQR[1] (pronounced secure) which were launched back in 2011 but it never took off widely. However a couple of years later, Swish[2], a similar system by the large banks using phone numbers as the identifier instead (recently launched QR codes as well). Unlike SEQR Swish took off big time in Sweden and is used by roughly 65% of all Swedes.

An interesting side note is that Swish originally focused on easy instant transfers between friends while SEQR focused on mobile payments in stores. The "winner" Swish only started supporting payments in stores officially quite recently and it's still not nearly as widely adopted as SEQR was. Basically, any checkout machine in any large store supported SEQR but very few knew what it was and even the cashiers were often surprised that the feature existed if you tried to use it.

[1] [https://www.seqr.com/](https://www.seqr.com/)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swish_(payment)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swish_\(payment\))

</comment><comment><USER5> > • SCAN the SGQR and check the merchant name

> • PAY the correct amount

Visual verification by users is bad news. Malicious users may register with letters that have similar or identical glyphs to that of a real merchant. E.g. eBay vs еВау. Leaving aside typos, multiple possible transliterations, punctuation; overall it's a shitstream of headaches and possible attacks.

<comment><USER6> Singapore has been using QR codes for a long time, with just one wallet provider having over 1.2 million monthly QR code transactions.

Can you point to news articles of people being scammed via the methods you describe?

<comment><USER5> [https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/technology/scan-or- scam...](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/technology/scan-or-scam-why-you- should-think-before-you-use-a-qr-code-9506310)

<comment><USER6> "In response to queries, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) said SingCERT has not received reports of malicious QR codes in Singapore."

So not a single case in tens of millions transactions. Seems like no point in posting since it isn't actually a problem in practice.

It is also clear that it is only really a problem for the vendor, who doesn't receive the money, not the customer, who already has the service/product.

<comment><USER5> > So not a single case in tens of millions transactions

Citation needed. And I doubt it given that it's working since Monday.

Also to take into account that Singapore is basically a city, so as a sample it's not very representative.

<comment><USER6> Singapore has been using QR codes for years, not just since Monday.

<comment><USER5> The one we're talking about is since Monday. There are others in place, displayed in tablets/screens, dynamically generated and cryptographically secure. This is printed, like the fraud-ridden Chinese codes, so it's vulnerable to the "sticker attack".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I noticed that the QR Code for this payment method is unusually large. The underlying text string is quite long compared to the strings for things like Bitcoin addresses, social media profile URLs, etc.

<comment><USER8> The article observes that there is considerable metadata encoded in the QR code itself, as opposed to, say, a single hash that needs to be xross-checked with a unified database.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The bigger announcement along side the launch of SGQR is the openning up of FAST, electronic inter-bank transfer, to fintech and non-banks companies.

<comment><USER10> I'm currently using NETSPay [1] in Singapore to do e-transactions.

It's a bit cumbersome at the moment; most shops assume I'm using NFC to pay (which I think is the default option) but my cheap Xiaomi android phone doesn't have NFC, so I have to ask them to print out or display the QR code for me to scan using the app.

Other than that, it works: once scanned, the transaction completes within seconds.

[1] [https://www.nets.com.sg/consumer/products/netspay](https://www.nets.com.sg/consumer/products/netspay)

<comment><USER11> You should explicitly say that you wish to pay by "NETS QR". Otherwise they assume you mean by card or NFC.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> On a related note, India's UPI[1] and Australia's NPP[2].

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

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

</comment><comment><USER13> Ideally the merchants only need a bank account, not to sign up with all these apps that try to control the market. The client would use inter-banking payments to send the money and voila.

<comment><USER14> except payment apps are not only for payment. With wechat you can order in restaurants as well by sending the qr code of your table. Paiement is only one way the smartphone is entering the shopping experience but it's very likely those apps will enable much much more than what a banking app will.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> A city states, gotta do what city states do: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPQR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPQR)

<comment><AUTHOR> SPQR refers to something totally different.. the article is on SGQR, the newly adopted QR code for e-payment in Singapore

<comment><USER16> gotato, potato</comment></comment></comment>


David Bowie about the Internet - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0-51IkWpFE <comment><AUTHOR> #1 YouTube comment: "The accuracy of his ideas on the internet is so precise and prophetic it's even scary."

10:36 [https://youtu.be/Q0-51IkWpFE?t=10m36s](https://youtu.be/Q0-51IkWpFE?t=10m36s)</comment>


Apple joins the war on Wikileaks, removes app from app store. - <AUTHOR> http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/apple-attacks-wikileaks-yanks-iphone-app-app-store/

<comment><USER2> Not surprising, though removing a problematic app from the app store hardly qualifies as joining the "war" on Wikileaks. It sounds like the app was basically charging people $1.99 to deliver content that was meant to be free.</comment>


Tell HN: HN is now blocked by UAE proxy - <AUTHOR>

I noticed yesterday that HN is now blocked by Etisalat, one of the United Arab Emirates' two telecom companies.  Their proxy server displays a page like this instead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Block_etisalat_3.jpg
Sites usually get blocked because a customer complained to Etisalat about their content, or because they were arbitrarily added to the SmartFilter database.  I think it's the latter in this case.
I will follow up with Etisalat and let you know if I make any progress... <comment><USER2> After reading this: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etisalat#Internet_Censorship>

I'm forced to conclude we all must be doing something right.

<comment><USER3> "Websites criticizing the United Arab Emirates"

I think this is about to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Does <http://apps.ycombinator.com/> work?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes it does from inside the UAE. Thanks for the hint.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think it's added to SmartFilter, I noticed that news.ycombinator.com was blocked at work yesterday. news.ycombinator.net works though.

<comment><USER3> Not very smart then, eh?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I noticed this yesterday at work (who use Etisalat). I emailed then, trying to explain the usual content of HN.

Back at home though (on Du), it's not blocked.

I suspect it is just an automatic block, but we'll see.

</comment><comment><USER7> in the non-english nanny state you really wonder how HACKER news got b& when most americans conflate hacker/cracker?

I think you'll hit a wall pretty quick. Some bureaucrat saw hacker or maybe even realized there IS disruptive info here and ban it went.

<comment><USER8> Either that or it's a clever move to make the country more productive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I get a little bit more scared each time I hear this type of story. Is there any hope for clever technology which makes it impossible to intelligently filter traffic? Some sort of mesh networking something? Surely someone on HN must know the state of the art here.

<comment><USER10> Just proxy/VPN out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> https is a good way to get around the block. Unfortunately https on HN redirects to http.

edit:

@andrewtj : yes, <http://apps.ycombinator.com> works.

</comment><comment><USER12> I liked their old image better: <http://widgetsex.com/uae.png>

(disregard what looks like an NSFW domain, it's just a URL I bought on a whim. If you take off the image, you'll see my friend's dog, widget, winking at you in a suggestive-but-entirely-SFW manner.)

</comment><comment><USER13> Any HN users want to do a meetup in Dubai? My email is in my profile.

</comment><comment><USER14> Only the future will tell if there Non-Smart automatic filters have detected it, or their Smart-Non-automatic filters.

</comment><comment><USER15> also, <http://hackerne.ws> would still work, I guess.</comment>


Show HN: Tongue.js – helps writing multilingual JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/djadmin/tongue.js <comment><USER2> Nice.. it's a simple string replace according to the source[1].

The next improvement I can see is allowing for numbers from the tongue language, and overwriting console.log to replace shown numbers.

I don't see a usecase for this -- this is very interesting nonetheless. :)

[1] [https://github.com/djadmin/tongue.js/blob/master/src/tongue....](https://github.com/djadmin/tongue.js/blob/master/src/tongue.js)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. Currently, tongue.js library tokenizes the code & replaces the JavaScript keywords. I should consider supporting numbers as well. The whole idea behind is that people should learn to program in their native language if they are not comfortable with English. Of course, just this won't make it happen, since there are not enough resources available to achieve that. But I believe using this, many tutorials and resources could be created which would help people learn how to code in their mother tongue :)</comment></comment>


Reddit's new user agreement gives it unlimited power over your content - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2013/12/12/reddit-user-agreement/

<comment> Kilo-byte And one fine day another leaker will reveal Reddit's tie-ins with one of the 3 letter agencies</comment>


Scientists Create Artificial 'Skin' for Prosthetics That Senses Touch - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34539056 <comment><USER2> I've heard you dont have to connect the impulses to nerves near the injured site, but any nerve-rich area of the body does fine. The lower back skin and tongue are popular areas. After a few weeks of training, the brain "zones" the news senses as the old senses. This works for artificial sight, hearing, and hands. Much like how you can become subconsiously "one" with your car while driving.

<comment><USER3> That's true they connect usually to large nerve clusters, the common one is the one in the armpit (circumflex nerve).

They can also fool the brain into thinking that the sensation comes from say your fingers because the brain co-locates the actual nerves that would've sent the signal by basically the transmission delay.</comment></comment>


Zolang – A programming language for sharing code between multiple platforms - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Zolang/Zolang <comment><USER2> I'm a product designer and not a programmer but for what it's worth, I think you're really on to something here. Zolang strikes me as a very powerful coupling with Rust, in particular in GUI development. I'm not judging your programming based on its syntax or standard library but rather by its problem statement.

The most notoriously difficult problem in GUI development is cross-platform. It's a holy grail within software development. Every major company is taking an increasingly larger stake in this race and a few like Qt are selling it directly as their core product.

Zolang sounds like it could be a bit like Elm or Flutter, but one layer above, able to orchestrate a little bit of platform-specific glue code where it's always gonna be necessary.

The programming language landscape is extremely tough. It's very hard to beat any language on language features alone. You also gotta compete with its community, its libraries, the enterprise support and so forth. You gotta carve out a really special niche for yourself, your very own domain. And I think Zolang's domain should be GUI development.

<comment><USER3> OP, this is the comment you should be paying attention to. The (now downvoted to oblivion) counterpart to this comment sounds a lot like the top comment on Dropbox "Show HN" of it's time: a totally engineered reasoning with zero core product value thinking [0]. Instead you should go deep, as in digging a hole or "Well"[1].

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224)

[1] [http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html](http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html) (special emphasis on the the "Well" section)

<comment><USER4> I disagree that it's analogous (surprised that it would be considered so). I made no comment on the merits of Zolang. I responded to an unaffiliated third party about _his_ comment being optimistic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The main issue I see for this is debugging. With transpiled languages (unless you have great tooling) the debug stack is normally in the target language rather than the development language, so there's a lot of cognitive overhead in figuring out how the machine-generated output maps to the code you actually wrote.

Also, since this is essentially metaprogramming, any domain where performance is a concern is going to be problematic to handle.

As far as cross-platform support, the LLVM approach seems like the right one to me.

<comment> irq-1 This would do better as a precise, low-level programming template language. If it generated both strictly typed and safe code, and optimized code, it could do what C often does today -- except it could transpile to the target language instead of being compiled/linked in. Think zlib, base64 or (maybe?) crypto functions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting concept, though I figure this will be leaky abstraction on steroid.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm compelled by others responses to my comment to encourage you and say that you are absolutely solving a real problem.

Many-an-occasion, I have written foo.xml and translated it to Python/JS/Java/C++/Excel/whatever.

This type of thing is very useful in that use case - though in my case, it was generally used to add bindings to C++ code.

</comment><comment><USER7> Interesting idea. In practice how do you isolate/integrate the generated code from/with the handcrafted one? Does it feel natural?

I'm also really curious about the rationale for the cobolish make a be b minus c. Cobol did that because it didn't aim to be used by programmers. How about Zolang?

<comment><AUTHOR> Originally this language was created simply for creating a sharable model layer which can have some embedded logic, so originally I wanted to keep non- programmers in mind while designing this as the model layer is the most basic part of an application and very easy for a non-programmer to understand the concept of.

But you can do (a + (b - c) * d) in Zolang as well, the choice is yours

</comment></comment><comment> V-2

        make i be i plus 1

What's with the verbosity?

<comment><AUTHOR> you can do

make i be (i + 1) * (a / b)

as well as

make i be (i + 1) times (a over b)

make i be (i + 1) times (a divided by b)

The choice is yours :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Do array indexes start at 1?

        let i as number be 1

        while (i < person.friendNames.count) {
          print(person.friendNames[i])
          make i be i plus 1
        }

<comment><AUTHOR> it depends, Zolang doesn't care for this (but it should, and will later on) and just forwards values. So if you're transpiling to languages that have a first index as 1... then yes :'D

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This could be a powerful technique for emitting formal specifications for model checking and have some confidence the state machines are all in sync

</comment><comment><USER10> Funny reading this after the protobuf rant. Seems like serialization would be a nice feature to add as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup! The plan is to have all types easily JSON serializable and let the language generate serialization and deserialization methods

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> That logo/mascot thing must die, though...

<comment><AUTHOR> This is officially my favorite comment</comment></comment>