Summer Internship in Seattle doing computational biology - <AUTHOR>

Are you a hacker and interested in experimenting with computational biology?  I work at a mid-sized biotech in Seattle (ZymoGenetics) and I need a summer intern (undergrad) to help me out.  You can pick a project and have lots of freedom.  Contact me via my about page and I can tell you more. <comment><AUTHOR> Yikes... front page.

Please be sure to contact me if you are interested (bfox at zgi dot com). Here are the potential projects (vague enough so as to not disclose anything):

1\. make a nicer interface and better code base for a data viewer I wrote which integrates a bunch of different biological databases.

2\. Follow through on an ambitious project which involves some stats, validation, and making a nicer web interface to a big database that I have (about 200 million rows).

3\. Totally new project with AI/machine learning that I know nothing about and need to learn from you.

We use linux, mysql, php, perl, python.

</comment><comment><USER2> You're right down the street from one of the best CS programs in the nation, which also happens to have one of the strongest bioinformatics programs. Have you tried posting this there?

Just curious. Contact me, if you'd like, and I can put you in touch with some people.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point! I'm not a CS guy, just (barely) a hacker, so I always forget about that, and I don't have any contacts there. I just thought this would be the laziest option, and since this morning, I already have a couple good people who replied. 3 cheers for news.yc!

edit: I went to the UW CSE dept website and I can't find an easy way to post a summer internship position. Everything there is so formal and structured, and I'm not in HR, so I can't really make an official job posting.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, unfortunately, the CSE department website isn't necessarily the best way to do it. The bioinformatics resarchers at UW are loosely organized across a number of different departments. Backchannel me, and I'll put you in touch with some people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm not interested in the internship, but I have to say that the building and location is seriously cool. Always see it on my way downtown on the bus or to REI :-)</comment>


Postmates courier beaten by SFPD while delivering burrito - <AUTHOR> http://sfist.com/2016/01/14/black_bicyclist_says_he_was_stopped.php <comment><USER2> I think officers must be coached to yell "Stop Resisting" while beating people (who aren't resisting). I've noted it a few of these incidents.

[https://www.facebook.com/CopBlock/posts/10153729801870507](https://www.facebook.com/CopBlock/posts/10153729801870507)

[https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/06/california- cops-c...](https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/06/california-cops-caught- on-video-beating-non-resisting-man/)

[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/police-dash-cam- video-...](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/police-dash-cam-video- exonerates-nj-man-implicates-cops-article-1.1701763)

<comment><USER3> This is _exactly_ the case. It also turns up in shootings, when there's footage.

<comment><USER4> The purpose is to create evidence to support their affirmative defense that the victim was resisting arrest.

Pretty much the definition of pre-meditation and also the very definition of corruption.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Body cams would tell this entire story pretty well especially since 2 officers were involved. Are we supposed to believe that San Fransicso doesn't collect enough taxes to have working body cams on all officers running for the whole shift?

Everyone wants more body cams. let's get them to stop the speculation all the time.

on the police side though, more people need to understand that the cops ask people all the time for ID and they say they don't have it. In WAY TOO MANY cases they don't want to produce it because they have warrants for other things. Cops get people night after night on small offenses and they have warrants for bigger ones. Constantly. That's why he called in, because his experience is the guy is likely hiding something.

I can't imagine not carrying my ID around if I'm an adult. I have to produce it to make transactions.

<comment><USER6> Do you live in the United States? In the U.S., despite what officers tell you, you do not have to identify yourself when asked. The only exceptions are if you're in a vehicle or in an airplane. And in some states they can demand if you they believe you are connected to a crime (California is not such a state)

I am assuming SF considers a bike a vehicle so fair game I guess. But you cannot just beat up or arrest someone just because they refuse to show their ID. You cannot assume suspicion because they won't tell you who they are. You're essentially saying if you got nothing to hide, you shouldn't worry about telling police who you are.

One time I found a wallet on a sidewalk, I picked it up, saw there was ID. The police station was nearby so I drove to turn it in. When a cop showed up (the station was closed for the night), I explained to him that I found a wallet and was turning it in. He asked me a couple questions and asked me if I wanted to leave contact information, I hesitated, and eventually after the officer assured me he didn't care, I said, "no." But during that moment I seriously considered whether or not I had to assert my right to remain anonymous/not show ID, especially since I was just trying to be a good Samaritan, and didn't want to deal with any possible accusation of stealing money from the wallet (it was empty).

<comment><USER7> I think it's questionable to have an analysis or perspective of the law that principally considers the letter of the law. What people can or can't do follows another kind of law, a subtle law, a subtle calculus.

That's the real law everywhere in the world. It's the law in China and it's the law in the US.

Can you refuse to show your ID to the cops? Can you say to the officer, "Am I being detained?" Don't just regard what the letter of some document says. Regard the subtle law with the subtle calculus.

<comment><USER8> _Can you refuse to show your ID to the cops?_

Probably no (in practice), if you're black or Latino or lower class white. Or anybody, in a drug-dealing neighborhood.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Confusing title. I was expecting an article about a race to deliver a burrito between a courier and a police car. What I found was a shocking story about the abuse of police authority.

I know how this will sound, but I'm going to say it anyway; if this had happened in almost any other western country there would be genuine surprise. But this is the US, so although people are upset there is no real sense of surprise. The US really needs to get its law and order officers to respect the people they are paid to serve.

</comment><comment><USER10> Hmm... gofundme says "campaign not found"?

<comment><USER11> Yea I'm worried about this guy. Remember how Aaron Schwartz couldn't request help because it was against the law to do so?

<comment><USER12> This appears to be the correct link: [https://www.gofundme.com/pedal](https://www.gofundme.com/pedal)

edit: actually, this campaign seems to have been retired, linking to a non functioning campaign.

> This page will no longer recieve donations. All donations from this campagn > will go towards the the overall goal of the new campaign. Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Another downside of the "gig economy". If he were a Postmates employee, this would be a work-related injury and they'd be paying.

<comment><USER14> It seems like it should be the police who should be paying (out of their own founds) and not his employer.

<comment><USER15> Getting the police to pay out takes time and money, though. If this really would count as a work-related injury (I'm skeptical) then this fellow would collect from the employer, and the employer (or their insurance) could then go after the police to recover the funds.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've looked at the video and I honestly do not see anything that would support the events that this person is claiming to have happened.

I'm just curious, but does anyone else here have the same opinion?

I mean ... only 8 or 9 out of the last 10 of these types of stories turned out to be everything but what the perpetrator + media claimed them to be initially.

</comment><comment><USER17> Foreign perspective: I thought all of these corrupt racist police officers were in the south (states). In SF? Really?

<comment><USER18> Most Americans would name large northern cities like Chicago, NYC and Philadelphia as hotbeds of police corruption. San Fransisco's police force is pretty bad, though. They were just filmed shooting a slowly-walking man a couple months ago, and it wasn't too surprising an incident.

Southern states have corrupt police but tend to be known for using drug trade suspicion to confiscate cash and vehicles from immigrants. This is especially the case in Texas.

Generally, the view of police in any state is dim, though. Only the very smallest/low-density states seem to have few issues that make the news.

<comment><USER19> The Portland police force is also notoriously Not Great: [http://www.portlandcopwatch.org/shootings.html](http://www.portlandcopwatch.org/shootings.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Found this cyclists full youtube video, it has some extra recording that's not in the news broadcast - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf- ia2QhVU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf-ia2QhVU)

I definitely have complaints on both sides of this. Mostly toward the cop. Where I understand the cops strong desire to get ID from people, vet them, they really need to pick their battles wisely when they can't get what they want, especially for piddly shit. When you're in a big city, this piddly shit is worthless. You just know that at that same time, a 911 call came in for something significant such as a stolen vehicle and the dispatch probably said "we'll have somebody there in an hour" while 3 cop cars roll up for a biker using a cell phone and refusing to identify.

In the audio the cop is talking about taking the guy to jail for using his phone on a bike. Even if it were illegal, it's a misdemeanor traffic infraction at best. A traffic violation isn't something you go to jail for. And the cop is willing to do an unlawful search. I guess I see the cops point of view. Sometimes these stops yield people with warrants. Letting go a guy who might have a felony warrant is not good either. But nobody with a felony warrant is going to make an easy time for you.

My complaint about the delivery guy is why doesn't he give his name and get it all over with? And later why does he resist the cops, kicking his feet etc. Clearly he's getting detained at that point. Why would he put up a fight, like he's going to win? Does anyone ever really get away from the cops? Not so much. Heck these days you risk getting shot in the back too. If the cops were more evil, all they'd have to do is shoot the kid and say the he was going for their gun.

Once the other cops get the cyclist wrangled, Out of breath, the cop runs to the cyclists delivery partner friend across the street. The friend asks the cop why he did that and the cop said "All I wanted was his name, Do you know his name" and the friend says "yes" After that brief exchange the cop goes back across the street saying "everything I did was lawful"

Hmm, not sure about that. If I were his chief, he'd be on 2 week unpaid leave and in 16 hours of scenario training paid out of his own pocket. Of course the union would fuck that up somehow, because that's what unions do.

<comment><USER20> > Found this cyclists full youtube video, it has some extra recording that's > not in the news broadcast - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf- > ia2QhVU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf-ia2QhVU)

> I definitely have complaints on both sides of this.

I don't know which video you're watching (I'm watching the very one that you linked).

But I'm listening a guy screaming in pain on the ground held down by three officers, while a third is hitting him with a baton. There is no absolutely no reasonable complaint on the other side of this. This is assault and battery of a defenseless man.

<comment><USER21> Agreed. I would caution against taking the poster seriously.

>... A traffic violation isn't something you go to jail for. And the cop is willing to do an unlawful search. I guess I see the cops point of view. Sometimes these stops yield people with warrants. Letting go a guy who might have a felony warrant is not good either. But nobody with a felony warrant is going to make an easy time for you

The incoherency of this statement is a classic example of trying to introduce doubt where none exists.

> If I were his chief, he'd be on 2 week unpaid leave and in 16 hours of > scenario training paid out of his own pocket. Of course the union would fuck > that up somehow, because that's what unions do.

A handslap for beating people to a pulp. How quaint.

The mental gymnastics for excusing cruelty are pretty rote. Start by saying that X was slightly less culpable for a crime against Q, X's victims, even though 99% of historians or experts say X was completely culpable for it. Keep chiseling away at everything about and surrounding the crime. Perhaps by saying that X was under the influence of Y, or that maybe there was Z situation that caused X to do it... and once your audience agrees with every small twist logic along the way: say X did nothing wrong. And then say Q, the victims, deserved what X did. And then say that we should all do what X did to Q, again. And again. And again...

This is the mentality of an apologist, a revisionist, and of course, a monster.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> "They should be terminated."

If only the governator were still running things.</comment>


Show HN: Best database admin interface for startups? - <AUTHOR> We are looking for an out-of-the-box admin interface that helps our team to easily manage database records without having to write any SQL queries. It should be something like phpmyadmin just more intuitive for non-tech-focussed people. One example use case would be: We have customers that place orders through our website and our team has to manually change some properties of those orders in the database. <comment><USER2> I think you meant to post this as an Ask HN...</comment>


Japan Is Running Diagnostic Tests on Its First Real Gundam - <AUTHOR> https://www.iflscience.com/technology/a-60foot-robot-just-took-its-first-steps/ <comment><USER2> Is this actually real and if it is, anyone knows why/what for? Is it only because they are "cool"?

<comment><USER3> It's part of a clandestine plan to remilitarize japan without arousing the world's suspicions</comment></comment>


How Heap Works: 10M PostgreSQL Indexes and Counting - <AUTHOR> http://blog.heapanalytics.com/how-heap-works-part-1-10-million-indexes-and-counting/ <comment><USER2> Author here. Feel free to ask me about any questions you have about our indexing strategy.</comment>


Why it's so hard for Toyota to find out what's wrong - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/06/AR2010030602448_pf.html

<comment><USER3> I've had a Toyota suddenly accelerate while I was driving it: [http://blog.m104.us/2010/03/07/my-toyota-suddenly- accelerate...](http://blog.m104.us/2010/03/07/my-toyota-suddenly-accelerated)

Bottom line, this isn't an engineering issue or some big coverup in need of Senate hearings. This is a whole group of interests wanting to put Toyota on the stand for something that, while quite random and frightening, is very mundane and embarrassing. What you're witnessing is a modern day witch hunt where Toyota is the accused and has no way of clearing its name or even addressing the possible problems with integrity. The way we (US media and federal government) are treating Toyota is _shameful_.

Hacker News readers, especially, should be very worried that the mechanical and computer engineers of Toyota are being told that they must only make systems with 0% chance of failure, even if the driver could be at fault. Entrepreneurs should be scared to death of the kind of liability that the US Senate is laying at the feet of Toyota's management. Zero risk is acceptable, that is the message.

<comment><USER4> I had an automatic 2000 Chevy Cavalier that I drove lightly around my second home when I visited it every few weeks. About 2 years in I came to red light and, in applying the brake, it fought as though I was stomping on the gas pedal. I regularly drive stick so I popped it in neutral as I brought it to the side of the road and the engine kept revving despite neither of my feet being on any pedal.

I turned off the car and re-started it without any problems so I took it to my mechanic down the street and had a friend pick me up. The mechanic gave a full run-through and basically didn't believe me.

I drove the car around for another few months without incident until I was taking a longer drive at night on I-95. The car started unexpectedly accelerating so I removed both feet from the pedals and it kept speeding up.

Long story short, this happened several more times (I have low risk-aversion) despite having the electrical system replaced and having numerous mechanics that I know and trust look at it. Before I just gave up on it (annoyed - <USER2> like to know what is wrong) one of my mechanics took it out for a drive just to try it out and had it got away from him as well. We never did figure out what caused it.

<comment><USER3> Right, I want to be clear: I'm not saying cars don't accelerate on their own. In your case, you had an actual mechanical problem and did the right thing which prevented a tragedy. I knew a Ford Taurus owner with that sort of problem, as well. My point was that the big-story cases with Toyota (and Audi of the past) focus on these harrowing "I was pressing the brake as so hard that I hurt my ankle" kind of stories where we're not allowed to second guess the driver's actions.

There was a case in Minneapolis some years back where a police van accelerated, from a stop, and killed at least one person during some festival of lights thing. What they found, eventually, was that the police department wiring modifications from the stock van (to get the cherries and strobes working correctly) could cause the police vans to accelerate on their own. It wasn't a manufacturer issue, but it was still scary stuff.

<comment><USER4> That's fair enough. I've driven long enough to see that we all do plenty of stupid-enough things in a fully-functioning car.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This looks like it could be a combination of on one hand some people that aren't good at operating a car. Accidentally pressing the wrong pedal. Failing to use the clutch or shift into neutral.

Like this 68 year old woman who said "And I can't remember if I had my foot on the gas pedal … the brake or the gas, I can't remember" <http://cbs3.com/local/Montgomery.County.Toyota.2.1454021.htm>

And on the other a government that wants to hurt a competitor to their Government Motors.

</comment><comment><USER6> "It is well-known in our community that there is no scientific, firm way of actually completely verifying and validating software".

Mr Rizzoni, "expert in failure analysis" must have never heard of Ada before. Or, of its use in Airbag steering computers, where the code is mathematically proven to be running correctly.

<comment><USER7> There is a difference between proving a small amount of code that controls airbag (and you just prove the written code, not the compiler, not the os, not the hardware) and millions of lines of code running in a complex machine that run in arbitrary conditions (the car).

<comment><USER8> In a computer that critical and that simple, there is no OS, and the compiler (or assembler) is tested for the program in question. The hardware design can be demonstrated to correctly execute every permutation of every instruction.

<comment><USER9> _The hardware design can be demonstrated to correctly execute every permutation of every instruction._

Isn't that impossible vis-a-vis the halting problem?

<comment><USER8> I should rephrase that "every permutation of every instruction executed by the program". I'm not trying to prove that every program is correct, only that my program is correct. That is possible by using a well-defined and fully-proven subset of the available features of the language and processor.

For example, designing your program and CPU as a set of state machines allows you to define all possible states of the system (which are deliberately limited), define all the state transitions, then verify that every input condition for each state results in the correct state transition. Even if you simply brute force your way through every state and every transition instead of using mathematical generalizations, you've still proven that the program is correct.

<comment><USER10> As it turns out, this doesn't actually work. State derived program analysis has been shown to not be provable for all cases. Particularly when the state- space is very large, and when state transitions are non-atomic in the code, e.g. two or more state transitions in a code block.

The best research I've seen on this was done with Access Control Matrices in the Computer Security field. e.g. can you prove in a general sense that a sequence of atomic state changes to an ACM result in no violations of access control? The answer is, for atomic state changes you can prove that they are internally consistent, but not that they do not introduce a flaw in the ACM.

In other words, because proving software reduces to proving correctness, it only proves that the software is internally consistent. Basically it's a circular proof. It doesn't prove that the software is without flaw.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I realize some cars have a type of 'black box' already, but it seems that with the potential for software problems, a expanded black box that stores vastly greater amounts of data would make sense.

In this case, the computer controls the throttle (no direct mechancial linkage) so it is crazy that the software does not give the brake priority if it believes both are being engaged. A simple 'high braking pressure' sensor that overrides the throttle would be simple enough to be almost immune to any software glitch.

<comment><USER8> I hope that it is a "high braking pressure" rather than "foot glances the brake pedal" sensor, as I was looking forward to one day learning to heel-toe.

<comment><USER12> It's not that hard. Give it a go somewhere quiet and out of the way, and then just take it easy and practice, I was a few weeks before it was second nature. Just make sure you can actually pull it off in your car before trying it near traffic/children/animals/police.

<comment><USER13> His point is that you can't heel-toe if brakes kills or misfires the engine (as it often does in karts)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Super-summary, which is also completely self-evident (IMO), which means the article is superfluous:

Multiple possibilities mean multiple sources, all of which have to be traced for multiple things. Things are also layered pretty deeply.

I still say "sudden acceleration" is different than "pedal was stuck". When the pedal sticks, people _say_ the pedal is sticking, because it's an extremely easy thing to identify (you feel it immediately). Also, intermittent problems are inherently pretty hard to solve.

<comment><USER15> The article might be superfluous for engineers and programmers, but there are plenty of people who read the Washington Post that don't understand engineering processes. I suspect most people figure that Toyota is just hiding something, and that's why they don't have answers.

<comment><USER14> And most of those wouldn't be reading articles on it anyway, they're often happy simply thinking the world / governments / corporations / "they" are out to get them. It gives them reason to stay where they are, because they now have proof that it's out of their hands.

It's why smear campaigns _work_. It's not because the content is accurate, it's because so few people actually _look_ at the content, and instead take what they're told and don't look into it further. Articles like this are mostly meant for the few edge-cases who are actually looking for more information, and they'd find it anyway, and to make the people who know better feel good for educating those poor people who don't.

<comment><USER15> But this isn't the point you made your initial comment. Sure, most of us here understand the engineering processes of figuring out how and why things break, but that doesn't mean an article in a nationally-read newspaper is superfluous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> WP is behind a paywall? That sucks.

What's Frank Ahrens like as a reporter generally? If this is the quality of his usual stuff I'd be tempted to pay up.

</comment><comment><USER13> An idea:

Motorcycles and racing cars have had kill switches to fight the problem of stuck pedals etc for ages now. Why not do the same in cars?

It's true, you have the ignition switch, but what about a simple ON/OFF switch right under the driver's thumb? This solves the potential complexity of the key in strange places, the many positions for the key, and the start button. Educate drivers, same as you do bikers and racing drivers.

What about power steering and power brakes? Well, since modern cars are drive by wire, build in an override that forces the engine into idle mode, perhaps with a second override that actually kills the engine (or disengages the transmission) if the engine is still revving high (this could only happen due to a stuck throttle plate, which software can't fix)

</comment><comment><USER17> If you don't know what to do when your car accelerates outside of your control (i.e., turn the ignition OFF) then you shouldn't be behind the wheel.

There are dozens if not hundreds of reasons a throttle might stick or an engine might suddenly surge and if you can't handle this situation you're a threat to everyone within striking distance of your vehicle.

Whether Toyota is to blame for these cases or not, I think anyone who testifies to losing control of their vehicle for these reasons should have their license revoked on the spot.

<comment><USER18> Turning off the ignition will kill your power brakes and power steering, and may lock the steering column. Not good if you're in traffic or generally not on a straight, flat road.

Shifting into neutral while standing on the brake pedal (and clutch if you have one) seems to be the consensus on what's safest.

<comment><USER17> I've never driven a car that locks the steering wheel when the ignition is turned off (you have to turn it to "lock").

Shifting into neutral is good, except that a racing engine presents dangers of it's own. Killing the ignition removes this risk as well.

I'll go on to say that if you can't steer or stop your car without power assist you have yet another strike against you as a operator of an automobile.

<comment><USER18> When you're in an unintended acceleration situation, you don't want the only solution to be one that introduces several other sudden, unintended changes in the behavior of the car.

And in a panic situation, you're not going to be able to reliably turn the key only one click counterclockwise to the off position instead of two clicks to the lock position.

<comment><USER17> _And in a panic situation, you're not going to be able to reliably turn the key only one click counterclockwise to the off position instead of two clicks to the lock position._

As I stated originally, if you are incapable of handling a vehicle in an emergency situation then you should be relieved of the responsibility.

For the record I have performed this "complex" operation under these conditions (and on a motorcycle as well) and I've met more than one other person who has done the same.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Apple's Making Its Own GPU to Control Its Own Destiny - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/2017/04/apples-making-gpu-control-destiny/ <comment><USER2> Why doesn't Apple buy AMD? I know there's a perennial dance around their buying Intel, but that would probably raise some pretty gnarly questions (antitrust, for a start).

But AMD has solid GPU experience, solid x86 and chipset experience, and with Ryzen is (finally) making some headway against Intel's CPU lead. What's not to love?</comment>


Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equity - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case-study-gender-equity.html?hp&_r=0

<comment><AUTHOR> What a great article. I posted the mobile link because the full version was falling off the new page. Here's the full version, complete with nice D3 illustrations from our fellow hackers at the NYT:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case- stu...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case-study-gender- equity.html)

The article happens to be about HBS, but I think some of the same lessons can be applied to our startups too.</comment>


Ask HN: Remote team video chat suggestions? - <AUTHOR> Google Hangouts is OK but what out there is better? Use cases:<p>- small meetings of 3-6 participants all in different places, with one person presenting<p>- larger meetings of 7-20 participants, a subset of which are together in one room at headquarters, during which multiple people present<p>Wishlist:<p>- reasonable CPU usage -- doesn't make doing anything else during a meeting feel sluggish<p>- high-quality audio<p>- adjustable-quality video<p>- hardware solution for headquarters so no one person has to host the meeting, and setup can be done once overall, not once per meeting<p>- ability to choose which video feed to maximize (as opposed to always maximizing, say, the presenter) <comment><USER2> Take a look at Skype Enterprise (formerly Lync)... it has a lot of what you're looking for... I feel that hangout's 3rd party plugins/integration is often better though.

I can say that working in an environment with proper outlook+lync setup tends to be _VERY_ nice... though I've worked in plenty that haven't had that integration.

For smaller orgs, combined with an Office365 sub is probably the more cost effective solution. Also, the mac integration is not as good as on windows, but getting better.

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool, thanks for the rec!</comment></comment>


Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder and CEO of Twitter, has been Suspended from his own site - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/nisconi/status/801245635236143104 <comment><USER2> > just setting up my twttr…again (account suspension was an internal mistake)

[https://twitter.com/jack/status/801270269184647168](https://twitter.com/jack/status/801270269184647168)

<comment><USER3> I know twttr was the original name, but does he always refer to it that way?

<comment><USER4> I think it was a reference his first tweet.

([https://twitter.com/jack/status/20](https://twitter.com/jack/status/20))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Coup averted

</comment><comment><USER6> He isn't at least anymore.</comment>


New York City Installs 1 Million Square Feet of Cool Roofs - <AUTHOR> http://www.solarfeeds.com/sustainable-businesscom/14802-new-york-city-installs-1-million-sqft-of-cool-roofs

<comment><USER2> So, what happens in the winter when you want that ambient heat?</comment>


How To Build Utterly Reliable Systems  - <AUTHOR> http://www.imatix.com/articles:how-to-build-utterly-reliable-systems

<comment><USER2> "The Unix model is so successful that it's been adopted by FreeBSD and Linux and is arguably the most successful operating system design ever1.

Windows, on the other hand, remains stubbornly expensive to develop, weak in terms of security, reliability and performance"

I work every day with Linux & Solaris, and much prefer them to Windows. However, one should probably start Googling for terms such as "Morris Worm" before one goes too far down this road.

</comment><comment><USER3> I want the followup...

How To Build Utterly Rediculous Systems</comment>


UCLA Mathematicians Discover 13-Million-Digit Prime Number - <AUTHOR> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,429201,00.html

<comment><USER2> I don't believe anything FOX News publishes. Any reliable news source verify this?

<comment><USER3> [http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-sci- prime27-2008sep27,0...](http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-sci- prime27-2008sep27,0,6744437.story) has the original news story.

<comment><USER4> The original original story is at <http://mersenne.org/m45and46.htm>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Was running on grid XP.

Wonder what it did to say it found it - Messagebox? Beep?</comment>


Try EtherPad Now With Other HN Users - <AUTHOR> http://etherpad.com/a4jtHYAoF9

<comment><USER2> "Sorry, only 8 people are allowed to edit a single pad at the same time. In the future, we could work to increase this limit."

<comment><USER3> I created more pads just for news.yc users here: <http://etherpad.com/ep/newsyc>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Realtime chat where you can edit other people's comments as they type them - brilliant!

</comment><comment><USER5> Results in an error in Safari+fx3 "new raw text must end with newline"</comment>


Are You Developing Skills That Won't Be Automated? - <AUTHOR> https://hbr.org/2019/09/are-you-developing-skills-that-wont-be-automated <comment><USER2> What about dev jobs? Are they going to be extinct in the next decade?</comment>


Test your idea with only one person - <AUTHOR> http://www.thefailingpoint.com/2009/07/gettingstarted/test-your-idea-with-only-one-person/ <comment><USER2> His blog post is a bit long, but do at least read the end of it, which is great. Silicon Valley is rife with stories of coulda, woulda, shoulda, nd this is one of the better ones.</comment>


Yahoo aquires Tumblr - <AUTHOR> http://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/50902274591/im-delighted-to-announce-that-weve-reached-an

<comment><USER2> This is great. I see many important points in this declaration:

* animated gif and posted on tumblr : Yahoo gets it. Its CEO as well.

* "We will operate Tumblr independently" : I think this is exactly what everyone hoped, and what all big acquisition should be like (Facebook did that with Instagram and it's great!). That means NSFW will stay NSFW.

* "David Karp will remain CEO." The most qualified people to grow Tumblr are the people already in place. This is great, everyone's relieved.

I really think Yahoo's back in the game now. I would never have used yahoo before. Now hundred thousands of people are. And they are from the new generation.

<comment><USER3> ' animated gif and posted on tumblr : Yahoo gets it. Its CEO as well' Why is this such a big thing, what is so hard to grasp about tumblr.

<comment><USER4> What's (allegedly) hard to grasp is that Tumblr is Tumblr, not a generic money-engine that eats X dollars worth of fuel and puts out $Y worth of value. Mayer is acknowledging that part of Tumblr's recipe for spitting out that $Y is the culture that the users and the team have made, and that approaching it as if that didn't matter will not work.

Whether that's how Tumblr's integration into Yahoo! will actually be treated remains to be seen.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Aside from the infrastructure and potential monetization capabilities Yahoo brings to Tumblr, I suspect the major undercurrent here is Mayer becoming a mentor to Dave Karp. I don't see this deal happening w/ just any other pair of CEO's; I don't think the crew running the show before MM could really tell you what Tumblr was. Maybe Jerry Yang, but certainly not the interim team.

</comment><comment><USER6> First ever acquisition announced by animated gif :) <https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336453536298717184>

<comment><USER7> Well, at least she seems to "get" Tumblr.

[http://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/50907453679/the-great- wor...](http://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/50907453679/the-great-workplace- dilemmas-of-our-time)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Did anyone tell Marissa that Tumblr is free?

Spending $1.1 billion just to post a single post, seems just like a huge waste of cash...

<comment><USER9> Facebook is free. Google is free. LinkedIn is free. In fact Yahoo is free. Why would the freeness of tumblr have any negative effect on your analysis of this deal?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Yahoo!'s personalization technology and search infrastructure"

What exactly is this 'personalization technology' ?

And could you just do <http://google.com?q=site:tumblr.com> and save a quick billion ?

<comment><USER11> They will probably force users to merge their tumblr and yahoo identity into one (similar to flickr).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> She's got a great sense of humour. Love the missing "e" in "mayr".

<comment> brown9-2 Seems like her full name was taken.

<comment><USER13> She could have reserved it to stop squatters, and used the "mayr" version.

Edit: She just confirmed it: <https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/336483778153295872>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I hope they're not forced to use Yahoo's awful login system the way Flickr was.

</comment><comment><USER15> _We will operate Tumblr independently._

This might be the way for Yahoo to succeed - operate as a holding company, plus optionally provide core services (identity management) to their independent properties.

<comment><USER16> So, no synergies other than ... authentication services? Then what's the point of buying them? Remember, Tumblr is barely making any money and was running out of cash. If Yahoo has nothing to offer them other than "identity management" and bureaucracy, then this is yet another failed Yahoo acquisition.

<comment><USER15> My (unspoken) assumption is that Yahoo management can successfully monetize Tumblr. Is Tumblr going to continue to bleed dollars? Yes, in the short term. But the Yahoo board is willing to invest 1.1B in them, and obviously think that in the future the Tumblr services will be a complementary product offering and will become profitable. Hopefully Marissa & the board have a roadmap for fixing & growing the firm, and that this wasn't a spur-of-the- moment decision.

There are other likely synergies - back office functions (accounting, HR, etc), but also ad serving. I don't personally know how good the Yahoo ad network is, but by all accounts, it has got to be better than Tumblr's.

I think the key change that has to happen is that acquisitions have to have the choice in picking a Yahoo technology to adopt (or not..) and that it can't be forced down their throat. And if Marissa is smart, she'll block any Yahoo people asking questions like "So, why _aren't_ you using our fabulous tech?", because merely asking the question takes away valuable time.

<comment><USER17> The great contradiction being that if "Yahoo management" are monetizing Tumblr, it's hardly independent in a strict sense. I know where you're coming from, but it was only last year David admitted he was an idiot to say ads made him sick - he didn't push them very hard and I think that's going to be a tough balance. Oh and Tumblr claimed their roadmap isn't changing, which if true means Yahoo's board's roadmap is irrelevant. It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

<comment><USER15> David was likely approaching the subject from the standpoint of a user -- no one likes ads that are too in-your-face and irrelevant. But as a Division Head (no longer CEO...), he has to ensure that he is profitable. Like I said, I don't know how good Yahoo's ad-serving network is, and hopefully they have a broad & deep enough pool of content to show visitors, so that Tumblr remains a viable publishing platform.

Given Marissa's previous stint at Google, I expect her to focus her attention next on their ad-serving. A large & strong revenue stream will keep the board off her back and give her time to fix other things there that need fixing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Dog food, eaten.

Very clever of her to use Tumblr to comment on the acquisition. Now I am curious enough to get a Tumblr account and play with it.

</comment><comment><USER19> Marissa Mayer's blog post about Yahoo! having acquired Tumblr leads with the "Keep Calm and Carry On" propaganda image that the British government generated during the war but never used because it was only meant to be rolled out as a very last resort in the emergency situation that Nazis had occupied England.

<comment><USER20> I'm assuming you don't live or visit the UK often, as that poster is _everywhere_ and is used in various forms by huge numbers of companies. There is absolutely no political subtext to its use anymore.

It's a meme, the equivalent to using a cat image.

<comment><USER19> I live and work in central London.

Having seen the poster _everywhere_ for a while now, it has been hard to avoid learning a bit about the image's history, including the recent hilarity with the EU trademark ( [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8785585/Battle-rages-over- Ke...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8785585/Battle-rages-over-Keep-Calm- and-Carry-On-souvenirs.html) ) and the image's organic growth in popularity from 2005 ( <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7869458.stm> ).

I think it's funny to see people use things in apparent ignorance of their historical context; for example I was totally bummed that <http://www.gophercon.com/> wasn't about the protocol.

<comment><USER21>
        people use things in apparent ignorance of their
        historical context

The people behind the Go language are definitely aware of the gopher protocol.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> > We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO.

What this really says is that even though Yahoo! acquired all of the Tumblr stock it will remain an independent company and Yahoo will not ask for favours or influence Tumblr in any way.

So Tumblr will not be absorbed or coerced to do things it would not otherwise do.

But then, a few lines down:

> The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! could grow Yahoo!'s audience by 50% to more > than a billion monthly visitors, and could grow traffic by approximately > 20%.

If Tumblr is still independent how does this grow Yahoo!'s audience?

> Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!'s personalization technology and search > infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content > they'll love.

If Tumblr so far saw no reason to require a Yahoo! login and their first move (the ink on the agreement is not even dry yet) is to go for a Yahoo! ID (any other interpretation of that line?) and Yahoo! search then clearly they are not as independent as suggested in the first few lines.

I put _very_ little faith in promises made by executives of companies being acquired or the ones doing the acquiring around the time of a major deal. See:

[http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/may/myOneTalkWithMarissaM...](http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/may/myOneTalkWithMarissaMayer)

</comment><comment><USER23> I have mixed feelings about this. Looking at Yahoo's balance sheet, it's 100% of its cash equivalents and 25% of its current assets.

On one other hand, the strategic value could be valuable: * Product team that understands the uniqueness of creative community (focus on reblogging, photo blogging, media focus) * Retention of creator community/teen community and its long term SEO potential * An audience that probably provides augmentation to Yahoo's total sites and probably adds unique users on a de-dup basis * There's also the viability of monetizing it the way Twitter/YouTube has monetized by carefully monetizing the users will not pissing off the community

On the other hand: * Yahoo doesn't have a good track record of internal executives working with acquisitions * They are still at the stage where their M&A integration is probably nascent (sales/marketing integration, executive alignment, OKR alignment)

Hard for me to make an opinion of this, but it is risky give Yahoo's balance sheet.

</comment><comment><USER24> "We promise not to screw it up."

<comment><USER25> Like a race car driver saying, "don't hit the wall... don't hit the wall" then bang, into the wall. Not being in Yahoo's shoes I don't know what I'd say. But I don't think that anything could be said to ease the concerns of the acquired customers. Actions speak louder than words and words can sometimes cloud actions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I never, ever would have predicted that Tumblr would beat Posterous in the blogging platform wars.

<comment><USER27> Care to elaborate?

<comment><USER26> There was a point a couple years ago when Posterous was really innovating and Tumblr seemed dead-- the Tumblr staff (CEO?) were ranting at their users and there were technical problems.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Is there any reason that Tumblr couldn't take the freemium route? It has high engagement, and a passionate audience that might well be willing to pay to keep the same Tumblr they always had, as opposed to a sanitised ad-friendly one.

Of course, there's the possibility that its audience won't have the means to pay up, or that people will just go elsewhere.

</comment><comment><USER29> Did someone squat marissamayer.tumblr.com? Why would she not just take it? It seems to be empty.

<comment><USER30> I think it's supposed to be disemvoweled as "tumblr" is.

<comment><USER31> I thoroughly enjoy your use of "disemvoweled". Did you coin this?

<comment><USER32> I was curious, too, but no: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Seems like a good time to sell to Yahoo! You get a lot of money and you can negotiate dream terms. Yahoo! is very desperate to get an audience and they need one.

If you exclude Flickr which Yahoo! service did you use in the last years, for myself none.

<comment><USER34> I use their email. I prefer it to gmail and it is not subject to Google's robo-shutdowns.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> These promises don't matter at all, once they are acquired they are owned by Yahoo and their fate is at the hands of the owner - flickr went through it , many others did, it's a predictable story

</comment><comment><USER36> Has tumblr tumbled ? Shall the cool kids seek a new indie alternative ? Surely this acquisition creates such an opportunity for some Nu upstart ?

</comment><comment><USER37> You've got to hand it to her, the 'NSFW?' 'WFH!' image is near genius!

</comment><comment><USER38> The blog heading is too apt. Marissa Mayer's tumblr :)

</comment><comment><USER39> From the notes on the post:

"somethingcatchyhere reblogged this from marissamayr and added:

        you better not fuck this one up "marissa mayer," if that's even your real name"

Stay classy, tumblr. (Or "stay uninformed," more like.)

</comment><comment><USER40> acquires or aquires?

</comment><comment><USER41> Tumblr+Yahoo!

<comment><USER42> Yahoomblr?

<comment><USER43> I like "Tumblroo!"</comment></comment></comment>


Google's Voice Assistant Could Talk Its Way Into Call Centers - <AUTHOR> https://www.theinformation.com/articles/googles-controversial-voice-assistant-could-talk-its-way-into-call-centers <comment><USER2> I, like everyone, hate telephone support. I don't like it mostly because of it's lack of effectiveness, and the very strong impression it leaves that the company doesn't care at all. I'm also one of the people that finds Duplex deeply disturbing (Does anyone _not_ find it disturbing?! That's even _more_ disturbing!)

However, I can see this working quite well for help desk services if the paradigm is flipped. That is if I end up speaking with _my_ electronic assistant who then appears to negotiate on my behalf with the company. As apposed to me calling an unknown entity. It may in reality be the companies service, or even infrastructure that my electronic assistant is running in, but the impression to me would be I'm speaking to my already familiar electronic assistant.

The benefits of this are many, and only possible with something like Duplex. In addition to familiarity, technical support can be delivered at the right customer knowledge level skipping past insulting time wasting support like "is it plugged in?". Also a "continuity of care" model can be adopted by companies to provide a continuation of the relationship in the context of prior interactions. The list goes on.

This might in fact be the one service that is a bad enough experience, that I would gladly welcome our new robotic overlords.

<comment><USER3> > This might in fact be the one service that is a bad enough experience, that > I would gladly welcome our new robotic overlords.

I think this does not solve the underlying problem. Sorry if this is out of scope but lets talk about the recent blender on YouTube thing. Often, it is not that the person answering the phone is an idiot but rather the person answering the phone does not have the authority to do anything. I've received bad bills from T-Mobile where the process goes like:

1\. see bad bill in the mail 2. Call T-Mobile and wait 3. Get a person and explain the situation 4. Person looks and agrees that line item shouldn't be there and removes it. Person also says they put a note to prevent this from happening again. 5. Rinse and repeat.

I refuse to believe that multiple people over the course of a year are all incompetent. I must conclude there was either something intentional (bill stuffing?) or the staff was not empowered to fix the situation. Will we empower our new robotic overlords to "fix" the situation? How far will business capitulate on business rules? What happens when something is not right and needs an override? Previously on HN [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17350645](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17350645)

<comment><USER4> > I refuse to believe that multiple people over the course of a year are all > incompetent

Those are your words, homie. The parent simply called out call-centers for being ineffective, which I would agree, given my own experience with them. I would contend that the workers are generally skilled and agreeable, rather the hop-skip-dance that needs to take place every time a call-center is used, is painful and ancient. Imagine a situation where your own digital PA already knows your account number, address, phone, etc., allowing you to simply provide a courteous hello before asking your question.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >> Some folks found the Duplex demo was scary as hell and worried about the ethical concerns of AI basically faking people out by pretending to be human.

This is interesting. Putting aside the Automation/Job Replacement fears -- if the bot is so good its indistinguishable from regular call center employees (which a majority of the time aren't that great to begin with) it could be a big leap for customer satisfaction.

There's nothing more frustrating than calling into a call center to resolve an issue and waste time due to worker incompetence, language barriers, or lack of empathy.

<comment><USER6> The funny thing about call centers is that customers hate them, even when you are good at providing the service. Well regarded, customer focused companies like American Express offer best in class service -- but something like 60% of customers still don't want to talk to them and prefer email or web.

I think Google has an opportunity to do something interesting here, where you basically offer a voice API for humans to interact with. If they can scale it from conversational interactions down to "shortcut" command interfaces and drop the stupid dance that you do when initially calling, that would be an amazing thing.

<comment><USER7> The problem with call centers, as an ex-IT guy for several of them, is not the people, but the interface they have to the company behind them.

People expect call centers to be able to do anything. Companies hiring call centers give them 2 or 3 options in a clunky web interface. Or worse, access to a ticketing system. Management does not want the call center to be able to do things, or wants certain metrics (no more than 10 unsubscribings per month - that sort of thing), and this then gets translated in "incentives" for the people answering the calls.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Perhaps instead of replacing the call center itself, it could eliminate long IVR sequences, gather better and more pertinent data from the customer and make the humans on either side more productive. As an example, in India you are often asked to press 1 for language X, 2 for language Y. But a smart assistant can just listen to the customer and decide this automatically. This can be a huge win by itself.

<comment><USER9> Many call center calls have a negative or zero financial value to the company, which is why the experience can be so horrible now. In the future, rather than wearing down the patience of a human in India to cancel service, you'll have to wear down the patience of "ok google" or "alexa"... good luck with that.

A not entirely sci fi book plot would revolve around indentured servitude (to put it nicely) what does society and the economy look like after a few generations of only being able to cancel a service if you have more patience and more computing cycles than "the cloud"? As a sci fi plot, what does the world look like when its easier and more likely to kick a heroin addiction than to cancel an old gym membership or cut the cable TV service, or request a credit card chargeback?

<comment><USER10> In that scenario people wouldn't sign up for recurring services, or it would end up being like the new law in Cali where they have to let you unsubscribe on the internet.

Also having a robot repeating: "my customer number is blabla and I would like to cancel my account", "has my account been canceled yet" doesn't exactly take a lot of cycles.

In fact it might be worth it to create cancelation as a service bot, where for a small fee, you can get the bot to call and cancel for you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Does anybody _not_ get a bit angry when they call a support or helpline and discover they're not talking to an actual human?

I know I do.

Let's hope Duplex understands the (high volume, distorted) phrase "just let me talk to a human being!!" and transfers the call accordingly.

<comment><USER12> You get angry because the robot suck. It doesn't have to suck.

<comment><USER13> I get angry when I'm forced to speak to anyone/anything to do something that I could have done via a form on a website. Customer service should not be a gatekeeper to changes on my account.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This would be terrible. I can just about get by with my Google Home now that I know the subset of commands it'll reply to coherently, but I can't imagine the frustration of it being my only option for actually getting something done.

Also, I know this is a tedious point, but if all the call center employees lose their jobs we'll have a mini crisis on our hands.

<comment><USER15> First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

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

<comment><USER16> I struggle to think of a less applicable situation for that quote.

<comment><USER17> I can. Just imagine someone talking about getting icecream and giving them the quote in response.

After all we're talking about job loss, which can and probably will hit most of professions at some point in the future. The gp seems to want us to speak out about that? Maybe like this:

> First they came for the Loom Weavers, and I did not speak out —

> Because I was not a Loom Weavers.

> Then they came for the Factory Line Assemblers, and I did not speak out —

> Because I was not a Factory Line Assemblers.

> Then they came for the Truck Drivers, and I did not speak out —

> Because I was not a Truck Driver.

> Then they came for me — and there was no one with Work (Influence) left to > speak for me.

where 'they' is either the robots themselves or the ones controlling the robots, and work is inherently worthy or necessary for a human to live. (and without work you are without influence on what happens)

<comment><USER15> This is pretty spot on what I was thinking when I posted that quote.

Not being able to work is a disenfranchisement. Today it's the call center employees, tomorrow it's the truck drivers, and perhaps in 20 years it's the software engineers.

Yes, we survived the industrial revolution and a tiny single digit percentage of the population works on farms and maybe this shift is similar. I suppose we will find out one way or the other.

There's a really good sibling comment to your's that is now marked dead and hidden by default. Unfortunately disagreement on HN leads quickly to censorship.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I imagine using a bot to call another bot. While they chat, they will joke on the fact than an API call would be much faster than mimicking monkeys with agile fingers and tongues.

</comment><comment><USER19> Inevitable.

Call centers are a $310B industry ripe for disruption.[a]

This looks like a classic case of Christensen-style disruption.[b] The technology will be used at first only for calls that are easy to handle, but over time will be used to replace more and more human beings handling increasingly more difficult calls.

Besides the cost saving, a motivation is probably that people may feel more comfortable talking to something that seems genuinely human instead of something that is evidently robotic ("press 2 for..."). It remains to be seen if this is true.

No matter what, you will still have to jump over lots of made-up hurdles to cancel your subscription.

[a] [https://www.quora.com/How-many-call-centers-are-there-in- the...](https://www.quora.com/How-many-call-centers-are-there-in-the-world)

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

<comment><USER20> >people may feel more comfortable talking to something that seems genuinely human instead of something that is evidently robotic ("press 2 for...")

People probably do feel more comfortable when they think they're talking to a person. But will they appreciate being forced to talk to a robot designed to reap the benefits of a human-like interaction from the caller while providing none of the same to the caller?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> If I got a call from Duplex and I asked

        Are you a robot?

Is it required to tell me the truth?

<comment><USER22> Required by what/whom?

<comment><USER21> You know that's a good question. I feel like I would want to know though. Another thought I had was some sort of Machine learning Caller ID/CAPTCHA that just emits some garbage that only a bot would be able to dissect. I just don't want to spend my time talking to an API.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> People are mentioning that they'd be angry to find out they were talking to an AI. I see people interacting with Google Assistant and Siri in a positive way all the time though, acting amused or amazed when good responses are given. As long as the person knows it's an AI and the responses are good, I think most people will act positively with this.

</comment><comment><USER9> I immediately expected the logical extension of Google Firebase App Indexing, so theoretically having an "OK Google" conversation would have API hooks into the back end of call centers such that I could "OK Google" my way thru reporting a cable TV outage or disconnecting my cable TV or making a doctor appointment or whatever. Instead, its almost the logical reverse of giving the call center a "OK Google" instead of what I expected of giving my "OK Google" a call center, or access to the back end of a call center.

I'd be more interested in the latter.

</comment><comment><USER24> I can imagine it being very frustrating interacting with an AI for most support issues, but I see a real use case in replacing those gigantic options trees with a semi-interactive AI.

Just a voice saying "Hi, I'm a bot, can you describe your issue?", followed by "Okay, sounds like a whizmo issue, can I transfer you to our whizmo department?" seems potentially both faster and more accurate than a huge options tree. That's a win even if the AI can't directly resolve your issue.

</comment><comment><USER25> Even if we assume that the assistance would be so good that a customers question/needs could be satisfied with it, there still comes the whole job of actually doing actions in various tools (CRM, Logistics, Refunds, writing emails to supervisors etc.). Although very interesting, this take-over of call centers is as much reality nowadays as are flying cars for the mass.

<comment><USER26> Very true. If something could be automated it would already be offered online in a user portal. Most things left are supposed to require some kind of human judgment... or needs to put extra obstacles between the customer and the action eg cancelling.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> So, the company notorious for "Your account has been banned by AI. No revenue for you. No appeal. No explanation." is going to tell the rest of the world how to improve customer service? This is too rich. The hubris is astounding. Does anyone else see this as totally tone-deaf?

$DIETY save us all.

</comment><comment><USER28> As someone who runs the budget for my company's call center, I can't wait until this actually happens. Huge savings. Although this probably won't happen any time soon.

</comment><comment><USER29> So Google is going to data mine your relationship with your customers, find out what's broken, then go build a tool to compete with you and put you out of business.

</comment><comment><USER30> Actually this is what we do at Dasha.AI: just listen to the calls here [http://dasha.ai/en](http://dasha.ai/en)

</comment><comment><USER31> Paging Adam Selene, Adam Selene, please come to the phone...

</comment><comment><USER32> TellMe 2.0

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

</comment><comment><USER33> Google Voice Assistant will be a true success when can talk its way to Google's own support for a user who has lost access to an account!

</comment><comment><USER34> That will be odd. Before you would be dismayed if you spoke to someone with a thick accent overseas. Now you may be relieved.

</comment><comment><USER35> Thats a lot of job loss. It occured to me that fast food drive thrus might go to.

<comment><USER9> Superficially a high up enough executive would see their business as "accept money, emit 'food'". However that does not work with bartenders or womens hair dressers.

My guess is there's great piles of money to be made in the near future not by automating personality-free transactions, but by convincing people to cough up extra money for personality-added transactions. Note that personality-added transactions are not necessarily in opposition to tech in general, only in opposition to automation. My wife's hair cut lady accepts all sorts of crazy payment processors and social media interaction (I should ask if she takes bitcoin... yet)

Likewise today, getting a fast food burger TODAY is all about turning the personality dial down to zero, if not negative, such that automation is a huge threat, but I suspect in a decade getting anything beyond a glorified vending machine will look like the personality dial is turned up to 10. The future being very unevenly distributed, look forward to the McDonalds dude who flips your burgers in ten years having a similar or larger social media presence in your life than a Food Network celebrity chef has today, or maybe it'll be like "food truck groupies" behave today, but for all prepared food. I'm not sure I want my best social media friend to be the produce manager at my local independent supermarket, but what people get usually has little to do with what they want (and both are usually orthogonal to what they need, LOL).

It's going to be a really weird world when the first thing out of the DMV clerk's mouth is "Have you subscribed to my Instagram yet?"

<comment><USER36> Since when do you actually have to go to the DMV to get anything done? Aside from the first license (which requires a photo) most things that I can think of can be done online?

And if anyone ever asks me if I have subscribed to their Instagram, I will just say "No."

Had an Instagram account. It's useless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> We've updated the link from [https://gizmodo.com/google-is-reportedly-looking- to-take-ove...](https://gizmodo.com/google-is-reportedly-looking-to-take-over- call-centers-1827379911), which points to this.</comment>


The Slave Who Stole the Confederate Codes and a Rebel Warship - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/23/the-slave-who-stole-the-confederate-codes-and-a-rebel-warship.html <comment><USER3> This is the guy we should make a movie, not a documentary, about. It's gets better. He steals the boat, goes North after helping his family, become a Northern army official, comes back with another gun boat and kicks ass. Then he's elected into office. If you ever needed a positive black role model, it's Smalls.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I was standing in Charleston Harbor reading the historical plaque about this guy a few years ago and had the same thought.

This is a movie I want to see made by a real director - it's an incredible story that deserves to be shared with the public.

<comment><USER5> I think this is an important comment to take note of...

"I was standing in Charleston Harbor reading the historical plaque about this guy"

There are a number of people who I think would be shocked to read that.

<comment><USER4> Because they have the plaque? Charleston is all about it's history and was the epicenter of the slave trade, so I wasn't surprised to see it I suppose.

Reading it sure did send a shiver down my spine though. Looking out over the harbor, with the mansion estates of The Battery directly at your back, knowing all the chapters of so many lives that began and ended there, suffering to create the wealth that built them.

It's certainly not your average spot to process a sidewalk history plaque - <USER2> recommend a visit sometime.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > After pulling out of the dock, the Planter stopped at the West Atlantic > Wharf to pick up Hannah and the children along with four other women, three > more men, and another child.

So this guy jacked a warship (without spilling a drop of blood!) to evacuate his friends and family out of slavery. Sounds like a proper hero to me!

<comment><USER7> Why praise not spilling a drop of blood? It was wartime - if he had killed the enemy, that would have been even better.

<comment><USER8> He wasn't a soldier at that time, just a defector with a risky plan. The "enemy" were people he had worked alongside hours earlier.

<comment><USER9> > The "enemy" were people he had worked alongside hours earlier

I think you mean people he had _slaved under_ \- let's call a spade a spade here, they could have talked cordially and all, they did not consider themselves his peers - the only people a chattel slave 'works' alongside with are other slaves

<comment><USER10> No, not always. In many cases - on both sides of the conflict - the "enemy" were slaves as well. Many of those who were free were conscripts.

<comment><USER9> > In many cases - on both sides of the conflict - the "enemy" were slaves as > well. Many of those who were free were conscripts.

Are you seriously equating conscription with chattel slavery? A chattel slave is the _property_ of his master, his children are automatically his master's property at birth, like livestock. How many newly-born were conscripted, on either side? How many women were conscripted? Were entire families conscripted on the basis of the father's conscription?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Excellently dramatized by Nate DiMeo in The Memory Palace earlier this year:

[http://thememorypalace.us/2016/02/the- wheel/](http://thememorypalace.us/2016/02/the-wheel/)

If you want a hundred other brilliant moments from history, beautifully told, that's the podcast.

<comment><USER12> Wow! This is an amazing podcast!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> _We don't know precisely why the three white officers on board a Confederate transport and gunboat called the CSS Planter decided to go ashore in Charleston, South Carolina..._

Shucks, Any sailor can tell you about this! If you're going to work a con, best to use the strongest instincts in your favor, in this case, the prospect of booze and women.

 _Robert's mother would tell him "you may be enslaved, but you are not a slave."...He had trouble accepting a world in which he played with white children during the day, then was forced to quit when curfew came for slaves. "He was, as the story goes, disturbed and angered by having a different set of rules."_

From my experience, this is the takeaway: That being told earnestly of your worth is something very powerful for human beings, especially for children. I've experienced this from both sides on a number of occasions. As someone who grew up Asian in isolation from any kind of Asian community, I got both sides at once. I was respected as an example of intelligence, studiousness, and good behavior. At the same time, I was regarded as somehow less human -- emotionally, spiritually, and sexually inferior. It was so true, it was one of _those_ so-true-its-funny jokes. I grew up supremely bolstered and confident in one way, horribly wounded in another. (It's taken me literally decades to recover, but now find myself in a relationship with someone intelligent and wonderful.) I wonder if Robert experienced the same division of experience, inverted? He knew from direct experience that he was just as smart and precocious as his playmates, yet was subject to arbitrary discrimination.

Sincere feedback given _in the context of risk_ is the most powerful thing for a child. As a teacher of traditional music, I could see parents who didn't themselves play music bring their children, hoping to coddle and encourage them into participating. They _always_ failed. Then, there were other children who grew up in households where the parents were part of a community who took joy in music and pride in excellence. You couldn't stop those kids, even in the face of frank and honest feedback. If there are any missing ingredients from our child-rearing environment, it is risk, undiluted challenge, and sincere passion.

</comment><comment><USER14> Always a classic:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iG2r79jiTE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iG2r79jiTE)

</comment><comment><USER15> Thought I was about to read a Star Wars article.. sigh.</comment>


Project Awesome – List of software/services that have free tiers for developers - <AUTHOR> https://project-awesome.org/ripienaar/free-for-dev <comment><USER2> Should add icc (intel c compiler) to this list, you get it for free for contributing to opensource.

</comment><comment><USER3> Long list!</comment>


Ask HN: If you could go back in time, what would you tell your 20 year old self? - <AUTHOR> What things do you see differently now? <comment><USER3> Don't follow your biggest passion for work, it just kills the passion.

Follow your 2nd biggest passion, so that you enjoy your work but you still have something to enjoy when you aren't working.

</comment><comment><USER4> What do I see differently - just about anything.

What would I tell myself? I wouldn't bother at all. Any advice that I can tell to my younger self was probably also available at the time. And I was really bad at listening to it. Sometimes you have to earn your own experience - <USER2> people's advice only goes so far.

</comment><comment><USER5> Stop hanging out with people who you know aren't good for you.

Start believing in yourself more and more.

Remember no one is watching you because they are too busy with themselves.

<comment><USER6> >Stop hanging out with people who you know aren't good for you. How does one recognize them?

>Start believing in yourself more and more.

I can't because of Dunning-Kruger

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Bitcoin goes to 19665 before crashing.

<comment><USER8> Amazon becomes a trillion dollar company. Google and Apple come close.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I would tell him how I was able to go back in time. It would revolutionize physics.

As to life advice, there's no point — you can't tell 20 year olds anything.

</comment><comment><USER10> If it seems like you can get by in university without too much effort, maybe consider that you'll be happier if you switch up your attitude, seek out professors and older students to work with, or maybe even change your major to something that would get you in a more inspired mood perhaps because it's less familiar. Slacking off and having it easy isn't really all that great for you.

</comment><comment><USER11> Wear a condom, you a __h*le!

<comment><USER6> Elaborate sir. I would become a wizard anyway

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Not joking, I would give myself the winning numbers of a very large Powerball jackpot along with the date associated with those numbers.

</comment><comment><USER8> Wake up at 4 or 5 AM. Every preventable bad thing in your life happens because of lack of sleep. Waking up early makes you go to bed early.

<comment><USER13> Does it? I have to wake up early and unfortunately, still go to sleep very late. Granted, its only been a week since I have needed to do that so may adjust over time but I just can't sleep at 9/10.

<comment><USER8> I think it's how you look at it. I'm more like "I can play games and look at Facebook at 4 AM so I'll go to bed now".

If you _have_ to wake up early, you'll still get the late night internal struggles plus deal with being overtired.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I like you and you're alive for a reason.

</comment><comment><USER15> Love and trust are mass hallucinations.

<comment><USER16> What might be detrimental is expecting unconditional and eternal love/trust from someone. If you enter the game with realistic expectations it's a smooth sail.

<comment><USER15> Wanna buy a bridge?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The lottery numbers.</comment>


The Greatest Justification For Messed-Up Video Game Graphics - <AUTHOR> http://kotaku.com/5901905/the-greatest-justification-for-messed+up-video-game-graphics-i-ever-saw <comment><USER3> As an old C64 hacker that implemented several sprite multiplexers I can write more about the difficulties they had.

First, the characters used one multicolored sprite(which gives you double- width pixels), and on top of that sprite they put a black-bordered monochrome(single-pixel widths) sprite to give the characters a cartoony feel.

Maybe the memory savings was from reusing frames from one of these sprites, I don't know.

All the above is for above the waist. Then, when the raster has painted the last line of those sprites, an IRQ occurs and the sprites are moved 21 pixels down and have different frames and perhaps even new colors assigned to them.

This is where the difficulties happen. You have to update 8 sprite y-positions and 8 sprite frame indices. Also up to 4 colors if that is also changed. You only have one scanline(63 cycles) to do this and one update is LDA + STA = 2 + 4 = 6 cycles.

So 8+8+4 moves is 20*6 cycles = 120 cycles. Just less than 2 scanlines.

They could have solves this by spreading out the sprites a bit in the y-direction so they had to do less but one more scanlines. I don't think anyone would even see this.

Most sprite multiplexers sorted the sprites by y-position and then did one IRQ per sprite. If you did this you'd do much less each time and if you could spare the IRQ overhead you'd easily could have 32 sprites on-screen.

<comment><USER4> That's also why Q-Link had the signature "squiggly menus" that acted as the AJAX spinner of the day... it drew the menus by changing the background color at a certain raster line, and the Commodore's serial routines (completely implemented in software) had to disable interrupts while they sent or received data.

I seem to recall Ray Kelm worked around this for the CNet/Image BBS sysop console in his custom high-speed serial routines, but I may be conflating stories. (Commodore's serial routines couldn't go far above 2400bps; Ray managed to get 9600 working reliably.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Without an explanation of why they had to make waistlines transparent to enable multi-player mode, it doesn't look very convincing. Couldn't they just move the torsos down or the legs up one pixel? I'm sure the C64 graphics hardware allowed that.

On an Apple II, I was, once, asked to move something half a pixel to the left. And I did it. ;-)

<comment><USER6> I'm going to sound very stupid, but how did you do it? :-)

<comment><USER5> On the HGR modes, every 7 pixels of a line were packed into one byte - 40x7 = 280 pixels per line. The 8th bit switched the whole byte half a pixel to the left. This was also used to make different colors - the timing change shifted the pixels in relation to the color cycler, making the colors available in that 7-pixel group different (pink and green for off, blue and orange for on). White was done with two contiguous pixels.

I think early IIs didn't have this 8th bit magig, but, from the II+and on, all IIs had it.

<comment><USER6> Wow! I've heard of some neat performance hacks, but that's pretty cool - <USER2> only one better was the hack that was done to get rectangles with circular corners on the Mac.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It was either that or remove Abobo's mustache. Clear choice.

</comment><comment><USER8> Man I wish Capcom had traded glitchy graphics for the ability to swap characters in in PlayStation _X-Men vs. Street Fighter_...</comment>


FileSilo.co.uk Registration Database Compromised – Passwords in Plaintext - <AUTHOR> http://www.grayolson.me/assets/filesilo/future <comment><AUTHOR> Email re-hosted on my website because I couldn't find an official public announcement.</comment>


Fractional Computation - Jason-Andrade http://jasonandrade.ca/MathLibraries <comment> Jason-Andrade The Jason Andrade Math Libraries are the first to perform all Arithmetic and Trigonometric operations on actual fractions consisting of two integers.

Absolutely none of the functions/methods use any floating-point or fixed-point operations. All of the algorithms used by the math libraries are well known and understood, and thus aren't patentable. However, many of them have been more efficiently implemented than any other already existing library. For example, an iterative implementation of the normally recursive Number Theoretic Transform Multiplication algorithm facilitates vector computing optimizations (initially for the iPhone).</comment>


Masks Could Help Stop Coronavirus. So Why Are They Still Controversial? - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/masks-could-help-stop-coronavirus-so-why-are-they-still-controversial-11593336601 <comment><USER2> b/c they are not as effective as many once thought. In fact they are not very effective at all:

[https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/podcasts- webinars/specia...](https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/podcasts- webinars/special-ep-masks)

Transcript at:

[https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/default/files/public/downlo...](https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/default/files/public/downloads/special_episode_masks_6.2.20_0.pdf)

Simplified explanation: when we breathe we exhale tiny _" aerosols"_ and when we cough or sneeze we exhale far larger _" droplets"_. The dust you see in a darkened room when a beam of sunlight enters is an aerosol. Aerosols are like marbles compared to droplets' boulders.

Covid-19 hitches a ride on both aerosols and droplets.

Cloth masks can stop droplets but cannot stop aerosols, which flow in/out a mask's gaps. To stop aerosols you'd have to wear something with an airtight seal, something akin to a swim mask. Cloth masks and even surgical masks do not do this.

Cloth masks don't work against aerosols; even surgical masks won't protect you (indeed they don't protect surgical patients or doctors either). Never trust a mask against Covid-19.

A final note from the interview with Michael Osterholm:

 _" When you wear your cloth mask in public, realize that it may only provide very limited protection. The most important thing that you can do to protect yourself and others is distance."_

\</comment><comment>----

And for God's sake put your goddam nose _under_ the mask - if we can see your nostrils we're doomed, simply doomed!

</comment><comment><USER3> This is blocked by a paywall, so I couldn't read the whole article as I don't have a subscription.

The belief that masks are controversion speaks more to the individual than the disease itself. People don't want to wear a mask because:

1) It infringes on their freedoms 2) They may have conditions such as claustrophobia which makes them very anxious and may trigger panic attacks 3) Ignorance, not keeping up with the news on their effectiveness 4) Belief that they can't get sick 5) May not have enough money or resources to make a mask

While the reasons are varied, I've mostly found #1 to be the case. Speaking to that, if you feel your freedoms are being limited in a pandemic, and that causes you to protest, is more of an emotional response than anything. Best not to argue with people who hold this view because you can't change their emotions on the topic. Better to maintain distance from them like everyone else to keep your family safe.</comment>


Build It With Me (Connects designers and developers) - <AUTHOR> http://www.builditwith.me/ <comment><USER2> Two biggest problems with this:

1\. The interface is awful and terribly slow. I don't feel like you can have filtering as a "coming soon" feature when the entire service is based around filtering. Also, I don't know what sort of awful JS is used to power the site but it really needs to go. It feels extremely sluggish (which after browsing Drew's other sites seems to be a theme).

2\. It's built entirely on trust and very limited amounts of information. I feel like one could waste a lot of time contacting and vetting prospective collaborators.

I really want to like services like this; finding fellow designers/developers is difficult whether you have a project in mind or not and is really stodgy outside the comfort of referrals. Sadly, this isn't looking like a great fix to the problem (though it is a start).

<comment><USER3> Relevant to this, I got this upon loading the site.

        A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue.

        Script: http://www.builditwith.me/js/jquery.js:19

While sexy, it is extremely sluggish here as well. :/

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I like the concept. I'm a developer (web / desktop / mobile / whatever) with minor design skills. If I was to ever do any sort of project on my own, I'd need and want to partner up with a designer. Hell, I actually need an idea too!

But the interface of this site is feels wrong to me. It seems to be assuming that I want to make a really quick (5 minute) decision based on very little information. But choosing to partner with someone is a rather significant event requiring time and research.

<comment><USER5> What I find interesting is that people often seem to feel this way, myself included, but then there are these start-up weekend events where the goal is to build something quickly based on ideas presented in one evening and teams built in a couple hours and people seem to be willing to take that chance without much problem. I wonder what the difference is that people perceive that makes them so cautious in one context but not the other.

<comment><USER4> If you waste a weekend on something (fun), that's not really a significant loss. I'd be more than willing to waste a weekend building something even it doesn't work out. However, most of my partnerships are have lasted much much longer than that. It's very costly work on something for even a few weeks and have the partnership fall apart.

Just recently a friend of mine had a serious break-down with his designer. This wasn't a partnership relationship, he was contracting the designer. But when the designer flaked out, misappropriated other designs, and disappeared for weeks that ended up costing my friend a lot of time and money.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It wasn't snappy, but it was fast enough. The speed non-issue is definitely not the first thing I'd fix.

On sites that you use ten times a day, every day, definitely speed is very important. On something like this that might be used a couple times a year, no.

The real issue is you need to get more useful information onto the front page. The "number of ideas" column is next to useless. What does it mean that a designer has zero ideas? That their head is completely empty? I doubt it. It probably means they aren't necessarily looking to work on a specific project they have in mind. But then, on the other hand, maybe there are some designers who chose '0' because they really, truly, have absolutely no ideas (and, by implication, no creativity). I would want to avoid those. How do I know which are which? I don't. And if the number of ideas listed is 1, 2, or more, similar opportunities for confusion abound. So that column is useless.

I was excited when I saw this, because it's hinting that it may be a good tool... but please bring more detail to the surface. You may need to gather that detail from the users, then present it, I don't know, maybe as CSS display-on-hover windows next to each name, which is debatable as a UI, but better than having to click through.

</comment><comment><USER7> Actually, unlike other commenters, I found the interface to be pretty fast (I'm on Safari 4.0.4).

I like it. Very cute. We could use some of those fancy GUI tricks on FairSoftware.net, since it's basically the same people finder (with solid legal dealing on top).

</comment><comment><USER6> One interesting thing about this UI is it rules out finding people who are already busy with projects, but who may be looking for people to join their project.

So say I'm a developer with a good ('good' === 'pays the bills') project, and need a designer, and I am not available, because I'm busy with that good project.

Now I can search for a designer, but a designer cannot find me. Maybe this is intentional; I'm sure some people would prefer it this way. Or maybe it's an oversight in the UI design. It seems like the latter.

</comment><comment><USER8> you are presenting way too much useless information on the homepage.

The list is useless from user perspective. It's just a list of names and photos. Doesn't tell you anything about the person's experience without clicking the "view description" link

I think a much better approach would be to let users create a custom subject, to describe their idea. You can still display name + photo in user description, but there is no reason for them to be in results.

<comment><USER7> _a much better approach would be to let users create a custom subject, to describe their idea_

Have you ever looked at <http://fairsoftware.net/publicProjects> ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> IE8 destroys the design: <http://i.imgur.com/qNEW1.jpg>

It looks fine in FF, but as a general rule I won't bother using a site that is untested or doesn't support IE (especially without good reason). You're eliminating 70%+ of your potential market in one fell swoop.

<comment><USER10> I rather not work with a developer or designer who might want to go out of their way to support a browser that is horrible broken, at the expense of his/her creativity. Regardless of how many people who uses that browser.

Remember, the prospective audience for this site are developers/designers who are fairly tech savvy (or should be). Someone who is using IE8 (out of choice) shouldn't be there.

To be on topic. The site looks nice and the interface looks awesome, but not for a website. Maybe for a desktop application (specifically mac). It takes too long to load.

I would suggest a more traditional design front ala linkedin (minus everything that is wrong with linkedin).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> +1 for filter by location. I like this. It's very straight-forward, no fluff.

</comment><comment><USER12> How about a list of all the app ideas on there? It'd be fun to scrape and crunch that data if this takes off.

Ideas have little value, but it'd be interesting to profile them.

</comment><comment><USER6> There are other people besides designers that developers need to work with. Writers and marketers are two that come to mind. But designers are a good place to start.

</comment><comment><USER13> I have this idea, just need someone else to to do all the work for 10% share, really it should be easy so if you can't do it in a few hours I'll find someone else.

<comment><USER10> I have 10+ years of experience with google go and Windows 7, I would be interested in working with you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> There are a lot of good application/web service ideas floating around freely, which gives the site substance and a makes it really interesting. Great work!

</comment><comment><USER15> help me with mine? <http://www.builditwith.me/idea/1VBc>

</comment><comment><USER16> Fast for me (Chrome) but yes the font sort of suxs.

</comment><comment><USER17> have to sign in to see app ideas, contact is via mailo, sort by app ideas?</comment>


Question for web-devs: What types of websites do you normally deploy? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a programmer amateur with hopes of becoming professional. I have dabbled with website since 2000 or so. First I used Microsoft FrontPage but eventually learned HTML, CSS, Wordpress etc.
About 14 months ago I started learning my first programming language - Python. Just recently I managed to create single-page website with contact form at the bottom in Flask (and flask-mail plus flask-wtf). Successfully I deployed the website (or is it an app?) via pythonanywhere.com.
This got me thinking. What kind of websites do professionals in real life? I still find easier to just use HTML directly or perhaps something like Jekyll. On the other hand, once you master something like Django or Flask, I can imagine the creation of websites becomes a thing of habit, plus it seems more expendable without using too much cruft.
Me personally, I was really impressed with the speed. Perhaps pythonanywhere.com just has really good hosting... I'm using the free account. Whereas my shared hosting is sometimes sluggish.
The questions:
1. are frameworks like these actually used for smaller websites?
2. Or are they used only if you need some kind of programmable component/processing done at the web site?
3. Or do you use it for huge projects like wikis, e-commerce etc.?
Also what are your hosting costs like? I believe these "web apps" cannot be run on regular shared hosting, I guess I'd need VPS? (I host just 2-3 websites on 2-3 domains). <comment><USER2> Having managed a VPS yourself is very useful (fun, I think, and definitely educational), and takes you a long way in realizing more of what it takes to put up a website, and makes you a better developer I think.

It's not that the web apps CAN'T be run on regular hosting, but when you try and do more and more ambitious things with the sites you build, you will need/want the control (even if you scale back later when you realize you don't need it).

For example, if you wanted to try using some new database or ORM to build a project, your hosted option might not support it (yet).

<comment><AUTHOR> On that note I'm going to ask specific question. What kind of VPS set-up would I need to comfortably run 3-4 very small websites and still have a little headroom for experimenting with web apps etc.?

The reason I'm asking is I'm thinking of getting rid of web hosting and put everything on VPS.

<comment><USER2> hey sorry for super late response -

I use INIZ.com + Gandi for DNS.

So basically, I point multiple DNS entries to the same server, and setup NGINX accordingly to reverse proxy each different site to a different upstream app</comment></comment></comment>


I Denmark you cant trust the intelligence service, whistle blower reveals - <AUTHOR> https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&pto=aue&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://www.altinget.dk/artikel/chefen-for-forsvarets-efterretningstjeneste-sendes-hjem&usg=ALkJrhiud93xRVkcxHdOqYU5FhLalJW7LQ <comment><USER3> I'm Danish, and nothing in the article supports your headline. All it states is that the head of our Army Intelligence Service and two leading fighters have been sent home, after an investigation by an independent inspectorate authority build to keep watch over our intelligence services have found FE (army intelligence) to withhold information.

The only mention of a whistleblower, is their suggestion that our government sets up the option for whistleblowers to come forward.

The materials that lead to the original investigation may have come from a whistleblower, but right now, there is no information available on that publicly. Likewise, there is no real information on what misdeeds they've done. Maybe they didn't follow up on reports of espionage, maybe they held back info from the watchdog, maybe they even build up files on employees in the watch dog, but nothing is public yet.

FE (army intelligence) isn't what you would call "the intelligence service" either, that would be PET. FE handles foreign military threats and international state-to-state cyber warfare.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's the first line, the heading, of the press release (1).

> PRESS RELEASE The Danish Intelligence Service completes special > investigation of the Defense Intelligence Service (FE) on the basis of > material submitted by one or more whistleblowers In November 2019, the > Danish Intelligence Service came across one or more whistleblowers in > possession of a significant amount of material concerning FE, which the > Authority has not had so far. knowledge of or opportunity to provide. The > material is of such a nature that the Authority decided to focus its control > of the FE in order to carry out an in-depth investigation of the present > circumstances. With this announcement, the Authority publishes the > unclassified results of the investigation. On the basis of the Authority's > investigation of the submitted material, the Authority submitted an analysis > in four volumes to the Minister of Defense on 21 August 2020, containing the > Authority's conclusions and recommendations. Throughout the process of the > special investigation of FE, the Authority has kept the Minister of Defense > informed. The Minister of Defense has regularly expressed support for the > Authority's in-depth examination of the material. The Authority's > assessments and recommendations deal with matters which are wholly or partly > assessed to be within the Authority's legality control in accordance with > the FE Act and rules issued pursuant thereto, as well as matters which the > Minister in the Authority's opinion should be aware of, cf. section 16 of > the FE Act. , PCS. 2. Based on a source-critical approach to the study

Conclusions

> That FE has on several occasions since the Authority's establishment in 2014 > and until the summer of 2020 - in connection with, among other things, the > Authority's specific inspections and meetings with the head of FE - <USER2> > key and crucial information for the Authority and provided the Authority > with incorrect information regarding the service's collection and > disclosure. of information. It is the opinion of the supervisory authority > that the statutory duty to provide information is absolutely necessary for a > functional supervision, and that it rests on the trust of the legislator > that the FE complies with the obligation in all respects. The result of > these repeated breaches of the statutory duty to provide information is that > the legality check which the supervision under the FE Act is required to > carry out and which contributes to the legitimation of FE's business, does > not work as intended.  That at central parts of FE's collection capacities > there are risks that collection can be made unjustifiably against Danish > citizens.  That the submitted material indicates that FE's management has > failed to follow up on or further investigate indications of espionage > within the area of the Ministry of Defense.  That there is an inappropriate > culture of legality in FE's management and parts of the service, where the > service's any unjustified activities or inappropriate conditions are sought > to be shelved, including by failing to inform the supervisor of matters > relevant to its control.  That the submitted material indicates that FE > before the supervision was established in 2014 has initiated operational > activities in violation of Danish law, including by obtaining and passing on > a significant amount of information about Danish citizens.  That the FE has > unjustifiably processed information about an employee in the supervision.

(1): [https://www.tet.dk/wp- content/uploads/2020/08/PRESSEMEDDELEL...](https://www.tet.dk/wp- content/uploads/2020/08/PRESSEMEDDELELSE.pdf)</comment></comment>