What is it like working at a company after releasing a negatively-received game? - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/ax9uyj/what_is_it_like_working_at_a_company_during_and/ <comment><USER2> This is exactly the kind of post where I'd love to engage in the discussion, but I end up not doing so because I just feel exhausted and demotivated once I consider the necessary disclaimers (not a spokesperson, my opinion is my own, ...), what I am allowed to say and how sure of that am I, what if I make a misstep and it blows up, will I be able to engage in follow-up questions...

EA has a surprisingly open social media policy which encourages employees to engage in discussions as long as they are clear about whether they're an official spokesperson and don't divulge anything they're not allowed to.

Still, every time I see something like this I become really excited, start thinking of what I can say and what not, how I should say it so it's within acceptable .. You know what, never mind. And this is without even considering that what I'm considering is saying "Hi, I'm from EA" in a forum where people generally express nothing but vitriol towards that company.

<comment><USER3> Not to mention that you'll probably end up with death threats or worse if you say something that one gamer group dislikes. The behaviour of gamers on social media has been awful beyond belief these last few years.

<comment><USER4> At Amazon I was friends with a very talented woman who had finally gotten a well-deserved promotion to product management, which she had worked on for well over 4 years. It was a pretty big deal: she was the product manager over video games, specifically new console releases, right around the time that a new console was going to be released.

I still remember her crying to me over coffee about how much her new job sucked. In her words: video gamers are monsters. Apparently they had tracked her down because she had her job title on her facebook page, and even though her facebook page was private, they were able to get some insider at facebook to do the search for them. Once they found her name, they made her life a living hell. Why? Because one of the manufacturers ended up shipping fewer units than they initially promised, and so she had to delay a couple dozen preorders by a week.

Even if I were an avid gamer, there is no way I would work in the industry.

<comment><USER5> "They got some Facebook insider to do the search for them"

She should report it, with the timeline of events. People I know at Facebook say there is zero tolerance for this kind of thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The awful comments and attitude that fans of games leave also seems to correlate with the type of game. Violent, competitive games will have fans with a similar attitude toward the game. There's a great article where creators of 'cozy' games talk about their nice interaction with fans.

"The others on the panel also echoed that practical sentiment, and pointed out that developing kinder, cozier games had led to more positive fan interactions. The group jovially argued over who had the best group of fans. "We break their save files every update," said Saltsman, referring to Overland. "No one complains."" [0]

[0] [https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-11-05-how-to- des...](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-11-05-how-to-design-for- coziness-and-kindness)

<comment><USER7> Or major the violent/ competitive games just entice more hardcore gamers who care more about the games they play.

<comment><USER8> If they care so much, why do they play games they hate made by companies they hate? Why equate hardcore with caring? Do hardcore heroin users care the most about their dope and dealers?

<comment><USER9> well because they don't actually hate those games / companies and are just showing their frustration with stuff. I remember when fortnite was released and updates every week and their pro community stance. everyone was happy on them, now you go to their discord and is mostly negative

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I rather wonder what it's like to work at Facebook.

Do people still readily tell that they work at FB? With more and more shit coming to light and no impression that Facebook is seriously interested in fixing things, I suspect people would question ones judgement to keep working there? At least I do, to be honest.

<comment><USER11> Maybe they feel they're building products that are actually adding value to people's lives? A decade ago, we hardly kept in touch or were aware of lives of people beyond the immediate circle but now we do? Maybe their products gave self expression to millions of teens and twenties who found a way they could share their opinions and shape conversations without political or high society connections FOR FREE? Maybe they feel they've rescued people from watching unskippable ads on TV and replaced with far less intrusive ads on the feed?

While I neither work for nor really use Facebook products beyond WhatsApp, I do think they have added tremendous value to the world and would encourage you to also explore viewpoints different from the standard narratives.

<comment><USER12> This isn't facebook's fault but for me SMS and then social media after I feel as worked the opposite. I maybe keep mildly aware of people I haven't seen in months or year because of social media but close friends I used to call daily or weekly and have long talks. Now it feels like bad manners to call someone which might disrupt their time when I could have messaged, emailed, slacked, tweeted instead. The result is I get/have no talks. Just a few short messages over a week or month.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Well the good thing about so-called "AAA" is that there will be so many hundreds of people in the building that responsibility will feel so dispersed that you'll effectively be an observer of the spectacle, despite being on the inside.

The AAA term in gamedev makes me laugh. As if it's some kind of status symbol. Just call it industrial-scale or factory-farming.

<comment><USER14> No raindrop feels responsible for the flood

<comment><USER15> And most of them shouldn't, the raindrops on the art team didn't create always online DRM for a single player game.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I don't think this discussion will be as interesting as people think.

When a game or piece of software you write is shit, you know it's shit, unless you are completely delusional. Thus once it's actually released you'll probably feel some relief that at least it's finally done and you can move on with your life, putting it behind you. Negative reviews aren't a surprise, they are expected. And in large companies there must be some satisfaction being able to say "I told you so" to fools who thought otherwise.

I think it'd be more interesting to find out what it's like being a small indie developer who banks it all on one game they've been working on for years, and then when it finally releases it's mediocre and mostly ignored, making little to no money.

<comment><USER17> But I don't think it has to be necessarily _shit_. It can be a good game, and you can be proud of it, but at some point a manager comes in and says "upper floors want to add microtransactions and DLCs here and there". You know as a gamer that it's (or it will be perceived as) a _shitty practice_ and will be negatively received.

That could be for example a nice anecdote to tell (maybe the EA developer in the upper comments?).

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> As a angry and cynical gamer I want to take a moment to thank Game Developers of negatively received publishers, specifically EA and Blizzard who I am most familiar with.

First of all, I have never seen a triple A game in recent years that did not exhibit the passion of its developers somewhere in the game. Even the most rushed, MTX-riddled, poorly architected, games in recent memory would always have something that made me think, as a fellow developer/product manager, "Damn somebody worked their ass off to make that cool". Whether its extra effort put into a 3d model/animation, a unique UI enhancement, a piece of well thought out dialogue, something is always there and I appreciate it because it reflects nothing but extra effort - the game could have shipped without it but somebody did it anyways.

Second, gamers need to stop expecting infinite replayability. No game can be played 10 hours a day and stay fresh, engaging, and new. This is a particular problem with multiplayer and competitive games such as Battlefield or Overwatch. It prompts a vocal minority to complain and negatively impacts perception of a game which, if played a couple hours a day, would be received much better. It also promotes game types with more replayability, causing fewer RPG and single player games and more BR games that can be binged by streamers and fans to an unhealthy level.

Third, like the airline industry consumers force policy with their spending habits. They want to pay once for a game that gets constant updates, has progressive updates, and quality customer support. On paper I suppose this is fine but for large titles involves retaining large amounts of staff that have to be paid for somewhere in the process. Collectively we've by and large rejected most monetization strategies, leaving us with the current "game-as- service" model which I don't think anyone is truly happy of.

Finally, and again, thank you for your work. Gamers are vocal and often unreasonable, but we still think you are good developers and good people. So are gamers, we need to find a better way to support each other. I am not a fan of the oligarchy of modern triple A game developement (with EA, Activision- Blizzard, and 2k) hold all the cards. Hopefully with the democratization of Unity and Indie game development we can break the painful cycle soon.

<comment><USER2> From a passionate programmer at EA: thank you!

I really needed that, because it's far too rare. It's really tough spending so much time and effort trying to make something fun and only ever hearing complaints about how your company is evil and don't care.

<comment><USER19> I second this, also as a developer at EA.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The point about 'getting used' to poor features, or indeed even bugs, applies not just to video games but any type of software you work on for a long time (especially personal projects, where you don't have a QA team).

This will no doubt be familiar to many of us on HN.

<comment><USER13> That's my understanding of what "Hallway usability testing" from the classic 'Joel Test' meant. Having fresh eyes on a thing vs. the same people 'testing' it forever.

There's a similar phenomenon when looking at an electronic todo list. You get used to reading it top-to-bottom and skipping over certain uncompleted items every time. It's nice if there is a feature to randomise the order of the list, to give you a jolt into properly considering each item individually again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> This comment from accpi jumped out...

Engineers take the Kondo approach to Jira. The ticket doesn't spark joy, so they discard it.

</comment><comment><USER22> It's sad that "We all know it's bad, but we'll keep doing what we're doing, and then release it and all get laid off" is still a common thread. Most of us have worked in places like this, too, and not just in game software. Totally demotivating. I guess I'd just say there are companies that don't have this attitude--look for them instead.

</comment><comment><USER23> Back in 2011 I was a game tester on Hasbro Family Game Night 4. Definitely not an official spokesman here. It was so bad that we opted out of even having public reviews for the game from the large review sites.

Morale went way up once we released the game because everyone was so sick of working on it and knew the game was terrible. It was a product of having a low budget and tight deadlines. Sounds like my experience lines up with most of this Reddit discussion.

I think it may be different if, for some reason, the team is convinced their game is amazing before shipping. But in my experience game developers usually know if their game sucks.

</comment><comment><USER24> Surprising lack of actually qualified respondents but I'm not about to make a Reddit account to help out. Instead HN gets my reply. Worked at Zynga during "the good years" as both a programmer and a designer.

Launched game after game for our target audience, casual gamers. These are players who don't identify as gamers but probably play games for as many hours or more as those who do. These games were well-received. 4-5 star ratings, letters and gifts from players thanking us for making them feel less lonely at home or have a new way to connect with their grandkids or whatever.

On the flip side you are universally hated by self-identifying gamers who aren't even your target audience. And worse, you're hated by other professional devs in the industry. For a couple years at GDC I would walk around with my badge flipped or my employer obscured cuz it was better to make a first impression and _then_ reveal you worked for the dog. Eventually I would rep my employer proudly, even wearing obnoxious internally-gifted whatever-Ville shirts, just to ruffle feathers. This was the start of my growing resentment for self-identifying gamers, be they players or developers, which eventually led me to leave the industry.

Zynga was a "clone shop" because they understood that their target audience doesn't trade in mechanical novelty. Find something that already works, polish it, and extend it. That was the strategy. Game ideas are meaningless, literally every employee has a dozen good ones. Execution is all that matters. Your feathers are probably ruffled by now but we adopted this strategy from EA and the rest of AAA who do exactly this year after year for the very audience that condemned Zynga for it. You think all those open world games aren't really clones of Assassin's Creed? Cuz that's how they're all pitched. It's the game industry equivalent of "Uber for X". Everything is Assassin's Creed or Halo. Open world or on-rails. Chocolate or vanilla. Then you add the sprinkles ("this time they're toffee!") and ship it. Would you criticize Ben & Jerry's as a clone shop? I mean all they're doing is releasing the same ice cream over and over!

That should be enough pretext to answer the question. Obviously it feels like shit to work somewhere where people have decided you're cancer. But deep down you know they're wrong. There are plenty of ppl out there who enjoy your game, but they aren't the loudest ppl who write the public narrative. You're on your own to reconcile that. How I did it was to accept that self-identifying gamers are entitled brats who have no idea how the things they're critiquing actually work. I use the term 'self-identifying' so often because it's an important piece of the puzzle. These are ppl who consider playing games to be their thing, in the way that a Hot Topic shopper might consider dark clothes and Jack Skellington to be their thing. When you disrupt their internal reality, say by releasing a clone of Scrabble with more power-up tiles and a chat box, they feel like you are offending them and will now spend hours online spreading hate and misinformation. It's a little like politics.

I was pitching in on a mobile design for a game about collecting and raising dragons, cuz that was a hot mobile thing at the time, right around when the Tiny Tower debacle happened. To catch everyone up, Tiny Tower was a successful mobile game by a small indie studio. Zynga had released a clone called Dream Heights and the devs decided to weaponize the frothing self-identifying gamers in a FUD campaign to protect their game from a competitor. Pretty soon the Zynga version, which previously enjoyed 4 star rating and had a growing following of fans, got inundated with negative reviews from ppl who had no interest in the game at all. The company dropped the game because the target audience can't tell this is what happened. They just think the game is bad. Zynga actually winced pretty hard internally from this. It started cancelling other clones out of fear of a trend starting. In my opinion this was Zynga listening to the haters which is never the right thing to do. That dragon breeding game I was telling you about though; it was a clone so after nearly two years of development by a team of 40+ it was cancelled. When a game is cancelled before launch you can't really put it on your resume. If you're an artist you have to smuggle the art out of the company to use it in your portfolio, labeled as concept art or something. Obviously it would be better if two years of your life amounted to a name you could drop on your resume.

And ultimately that's what it feels like to work at a company after releasing a negatively received game. The frustration of being burned alive by a witch hunt mixed with the suffocating feeling that your career has stalled.

If there needs to be a moral to the story, it's to not let the entertainment you consume become your identity. It will make you a worse person.

<comment><USER25> Interesting insight. But saying "all games are clones," and using that as justification to take an indie studio's idea doesn't come across very well.

Yes, a lot of the games but studio's churn out are all very similar. It's by design. Games are so expensive to produce that if you have a formula that works, you follow it.

Conversely, small games are a labour of love from studios. Devs often quit their jobs to work on them. And frequently, the large studios/producers will eventually buy the fresh idea though an acquisition, since they don't want to gamble on new IP themselves.

By appropriating another's idea, the freshness is lost for whoever plays whichever game first, and in this case, the company with marketing dollars is going to win. I can see the Injustice there. The player banks are at least probably separated but not mutually exclusive. If Zynga successfully cloned Minecraft, do you think it would have been the cultural phenomenon it is today?

Anyhow, you are certainly right that gamers frequently drag whatever they love to hate at the time through the mud. Sometimes I feel it's justified, sometimes I don't. I have a hard time rushing to defence of a company that rips off games because "everyone does it."

I think it's wise Zynga's leadership pulled back, but curious that they didn't see it coming to begin with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I worked at the two companies that made the two most important games I ever played. My experience at the first directly led to me keeping a bit of detachment the second time.

At the first, the company made some decisions that were unpopular with players. I was young and got caught up in frustration over those decisions on behalf of players, as a player myself, and over the damage to the company's image.

The second time was years later and I was able to advocate on behalf of players while not getting so emotionally caught up in the outcome of those decisions to affect my career there.

</comment><comment><USER27> It's depressing, but keep in mind for a lot of people in game development that do not have a lot of credits - they just want to complete a game to add it to their CV. It used to be (back in the 90's/2000's not sure how true this is now) that companies would not even look at your resume if you had not worked on a game that shipped for a lot of positions. I can remember being surprised at my first job in game development how passionate the arguments were in team meetings about how people were listed in the credits.

Also, I've worked separately at a publisher and company that contracted development of work to smaller development studios and I can remember it was much more common in my experience for the publisher or primary company looking at the milestone work and deciding it was not good enough and to terminate the contract and then having to look at the source code/assets and trying to assess the state and resurrect those games and that was no fun either, just sad to think about the opportunity cost for those involved and people who were probably going to get laid off, though usually one could look at the code and see the big picture problems in a day or two.

</comment><comment><USER28> The atmosphere feels exactly the same as in this thread.

The discussion isn't about the game. The discussion is about the discussion about the game.

It's not "Should we do loot boxes?"; it's "Reddit trolls are being toxic about loot boxes. How can we deal with toxicity?"

</comment><comment><USER29> A little bit late to the party, but this article about a prematurely released game seems like a good addition to this thread, as an example how the releases are rushed by executives:

[https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/03/05/left-alive- suffe...](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/03/05/left-alive-suffers-from- a-rough-launch-on-consoles-and-pc/)

</comment><comment><USER30> I would suggest to read Jason Schreier's book: "blood sweat and pixels" \- it opened my eyes about the process of building AAA games - which sometimes is soo chaotic that is hard to believe they could build anything.

</comment><comment><USER31> From the comments: "Engineers take the Kondo approach to Jira. The ticket doesn't spark joy, so they discard it."

</comment><comment><USER32> The worst part isn't when the game launches and does poorly, but during development.

Most devs are passionate gamers themselves, and even if our own priduct doesn't turn out great, doesn't mean we don't know what makes a good game. So most of us know that the product we're working on isn't gonna be a GOTY.

There's a few stages to it, similar to the stages of grief:

        Denial: "If I pull extra hours, I can fix this feature. We can turn this around."

        Anger: Frustration and anger that's usually directed towards upper management ("why did we have to make this decision? why don't we have enough staff? why are we launching in three months?"

        Acceptance: "Whatever, you can't always bat 1000. As long as my job is secure after all this, I'm fine."

And worst of all, apathy, where the passion you once had has been sapped from you, and what you thought was a dream job, has turned into just another routine motion you go through.

<comment><USER33> While you can still edit, please use a different style for your quotes. Using code formatting makes them a pain to read. Just make them cursive with the star characters. Thanks! :)

<comment><USER34> It's mysterious that people think this (fixed width for anything other than a short code listing) is a rational formatting decision on HN. Does _anyone_ use a wide enough screen to accommodate that "anger" line above?

<comment><USER8> One of HN design principles is that usability is irrelevant because people come here for the community and minimizing software development effort is a point of pride.

People use the code identuse there is no way to create a blockquote

<comment><USER34> As GP said:

 _Just make them cursive with the star characters._

That's a block quote!

<comment> 52-6F-62 For even further clarity, I like the very prescient '>' in combination with italics:

> _this is a block quote right here_

It's very clearly a distinct block

<comment><USER34> In a sense, this is right back to the original problem, because there is no natural beginning to lines in prose.

> _This line looks fine._

> _How about this line? It 's quite a bit longer so it may wrap around to the > beginning of the line, depending on screen size and other factors... where > would one place additional ">"s?_

<comment> 52-6F-62 I think it makes sense just to wrap it. The block ends when the contiguous text ends, no?

> _Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus non > sagittis sapien. Fusce ut lacinia ligula. In accumsan efficitur eros, ac > ullamcorper mauris. Fusce consequat, magna id lobortis convallis, ante nibh > tristique dui, sed laoreet elit tellus non augue. Pellentesque a vulputate > mauris. Donec ac nunc venenatis, ultrices nibh nec, congue urna. Duis justo > leo, auctor ac tempor at, faucibus id felis. Cras et neque in dui commodo > faucibus eget eu erat. Donec tempus sapien felis, ac tristique est dapibus > ac. Donec sed suscipit velit. Praesent leo ante, volutpat nec aliquam ac, > tempor eu magna. In blandit purus a enim molestie posuere. Sed suscipit > suscipit nulla a pharetra. Vivamus fringilla id neque accumsan sollicitudin. > Nulla rhoncus fermentum lorem eget iaculis._

Though you might use multiple '>' for multiple paragraphs, eg:

> _Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus non > sagittis sapien. Fusce ut lacinia ligula. In accumsan efficitur eros, ac > ullamcorper mauris. Fusce consequat, magna id lobortis convallis, ante nibh > tristique dui, sed laoreet elit tellus non augue. Pellentesque a vulputate > mauris. Donec ac nunc venenatis, ultrices nibh nec, congue urna. Duis justo > leo, auctor ac tempor at, faucibus id felis. Cras et neque in dui commodo > faucibus eget eu erat. Donec tempus sapien felis, ac tristique est dapibus > ac. Donec sed suscipit velit. Praesent leo ante, volutpat nec aliquam ac, > tempor eu magna. In blandit purus a enim molestie posuere. Sed suscipit > suscipit nulla a pharetra. Vivamus fringilla id neque accumsan sollicitudin. > Nulla rhoncus fermentum lorem eget iaculis._

> _Vivamus cursus mi diam, a euismod augue tincidunt quis. Ut et arcu feugiat > turpis luctus dignissim. Morbi ornare, leo ut porttitor euismod, leo urna > suscipit neque, ut lacinia metus velit ut ipsum. Duis ac lorem interdum, > congue magna sit amet, accumsan odio. Nam eu tempus metus. Praesent > venenatis tortor lacinia dapibus blandit. Mauris semper odio in faucibus > feugiat. Praesent id nibh nulla. Phasellus fringilla risus vitae lacus > sollicitudin, et pharetra odio ullamcorper. Phasellus at lacus in nulla > egestas maximus a eu libero. Nulla sodales nulla vitae ipsum laoreet varius. > Donec quis gravida erat._

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Of course, none of the mentioned AAA developers are taking part in this conversation. "What's it like?" \- "Dunno, not in the AAA business, but it sucks, at least in the indie business!"

I'm not sure what the question aims at. Should developers avoid AAA publishing studios altogether? Or should they leave AAA development for indie? The problems of shitty games mostly stem from the business/investment and management part of development, not exactly due to lack of talent. But, without good management even the most talented artists are prone to failure. Rare exceptions confirm the rule.

<comment><USER36> It's quite common in AskReddit threads especially if the target of the question is too specific. If it's asking for people of type X, comments will often start: "I'm not X, but..." or the self-aware version: "Obligatory 'not X but'..."

Checking AskReddit for a specific one that is there at the moment: [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ax7cfl/folks_wit...](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ax7cfl/folks_with_a_blind_parents_what_are_habits_you/)

2nd top comment (sorted by best), starts "I don't have a blind parent, but I taught a child who did." There are a lot of responses that fit the wording of the question but a lot of others that have specific examples addressing the general topic.

Sounds like you're thinking the question must have an agenda. I think it's just opening up the topic of what is it like to work on a technical product that gets bad reviews.</comment></comment>


I will build Facebook chatbot with 3 API integration for free - <AUTHOR> I will build a Facebook or Slackbot chatbot that uses NLP and performs a transaction integrating up to 3 REST APIs.
The chatbot requirements must be clearly explained in a document with necessary REST API details.
I will develop and hand over the source code to you. You should take care of hosting it.
I have over 14+ years of experience in software development. I have been working in chatbot industry actively for about 2.5 years now.
Only organizations from startups to big companies can approach, not individuals. Sorry about that.
I will do all this for free. What do I expect in return? Your testimonial for my website after the project completion. I want to build my portfolio.
Interested organizations/ startups leave your email address and company name with brief summary of what you want me to build for you. I will contact you via email for more details. <comment><USER2> Hi - We're a small bootstraped startup, but based in the Cayman Islands, and just coming out of core development phase - We'd love to talk with you about how we can help each other. Contact me at email@example.com if you're still available. - Thx.Stephen [https://www.yam.exchange](https://www.yam.exchange)

<comment><AUTHOR> I have responded to you in email</comment></comment>


Tor's Branding Pivot Is Going to Get Someone Killed - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@virgilgr/tors-branding-pivot-is-going-to-get-someone-killed-6ee45313b559#.z1vs8xyjz <comment><USER2> Tor is no longer secure; the U.S. government paid Carnegie Mellon (CMU) to research ways of de-anonymizing users by inserting specially designed packets into Tor user data at controlled nodes. [1]

Nearly a year-and-a-half after CMU canceled a Black Hat presentation, hints were dropped that CMU's Tor-related efforts may not have been for research purposes only. An anonymous tipster claimed the FBI had paid CMU $1 million to unmask Tor users. A quasi-confirmation popped up during the DOJ's prosecution of Brian Ferrell, who was allegedly assisting Blake Benthall in running Silk Road 2.0. Ferrell and Benthall were both swept up in the wake of a Tor-related FBI raid known as "Operation Onymous," which began a few months after the hastily-cancelled Black Hat talk.

Included in the information handed over to Farrell's legal representative was the following:

On October 13, 2015, the government provided defense counsel a letter indicating that Mr. Farrell's involvement with Silk Road 2.0 was identified based on information obtained by a "university-based research institute" that operated its own computers on the anonymous network used by Silk Road 2.0.

[1] [https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160225/07295633707/silk-...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160225/07295633707/silk- road-20-court-docs-show-us-government-paid-carnegie-mellon-researchers-to- unmask-tor-users.shtml)

<comment><USER3> This was covered by Motherboard[1]. The Tor Project put out the following statement in response: "the Tor network is secure and has only rarely been compromised. The Software Engineering Institute ("SEI") of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) compromised the network in early 2014 by operating relays and tampering with user traffic. That vulnerability, like all other vulnerabilities, was patched as soon as we learned about it. The Tor network remains the best way for users to protect their privacy and security when communicating online."

[1] [http://motherboard.vice.com/en_au/read/carnegie-mellon- unive...](http://motherboard.vice.com/en_au/read/carnegie-mellon-university- attacked-tor-was-subpoenaed-by-feds)

<comment><USER2> I think that Tor, like Bitcoin, will always be vulnerable if a particularly powerful entity is able to obtain a majority of nodes. (Or, in the case of Bitcoin, a majority of hashing power).

And the more troubling aspect is that the courts have accepted the government's arguments that no warrant is required to disclose IP addresses:

> ... Tor users clearly lack a reasonable expectation of privacy in their IP > addresses while using the Tor network. In other words, they are taking a > significant gamble on any real expectation of privacy under those > circumstances.

If both of these statements are true (that the government could easily run a majority of Tor relays, and that the government does not need a subpoena), then any particular vulnerability being patched is irrelevant to the inherent insecurity of the network.

<comment><USER4> Though note that Tor is _also_ vulnerable to someone who doesn't control a majority of nodes, but can monitor the traffic of a majority of nodes from upstream. This is probably easier to achieve for a global adversary than actual control of the nodes' computation.

This doesn't make it bad software; it's the best we have, and being able to monitor traffic across the entire Internet is a huge ask of an attacker.

<comment><USER5> Also, remember that the NSA has had that kind of capabilities for a while, yet what came out of the Snowden leaks was "Tor stinks" (read: "We don't know how to break it in any practical sense").

<comment><USER6> yup. Though apparently they could deanonymize some folks, but couldn't target the users they wanted.

But I'd expect that to change, a low-latency network like tor that also doesn't create cover traffic just architecturally isn't equipped to deal with something approaching a global passive adversary. Though networks for even that can be built..

<comment><USER5> The takeaway was indeed that they could deanonymise individual users, but they couldn't target it and it required significant amounts of human effort (i.e. it did not scale).

AFAIK, Tor developers are willing to implement cover traffic; the main reason it hasn't happened so far is that there is no known way to do this that clearly helps against that kind of threat. Until we have this (either from academic research, the Tor Project's own efforts or something else), it would be at best a placebo.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> From the article:

> You propose running a Tor node or using Tor internally. Before, this was > just something you could do. After Tor's pivot, you now have to justify why > the company should explicitly associate itself with banned HR activism and > draw the government's ire. Using Tor is now an additional mild liability for > all of its non-HR users.

Using Tor already marks you as suspicious depending on who's looking, regardless of why you use it. The ideals or mission statement of the Tor project don't change this.

Tor suffers from the same impediment as the Bittorrent protocol; it is used a lot for illegal purposes, so a stigma of illegality surrounds the tool itself. By focusing on the legitimate use of Tor (e.g., as a human rights facilitating tool) the Tor project might actually improve adoption rather than frustrate it.

<comment><USER8> Sure, Tor traffic has always been suspicious, but that suspicious traffic has traditionally been without an attached political label. By branding Tor as a tool specifically for HR campaigns, you risk drawing additional ire from regimes considered to have a poor HR record.

<comment><USER9> Governments that have a reason to be concerned about Tor are already concerned about Tor. And governments that are concerned about Tor won't be more or less concerned because of its mission statement.

<comment><USER10> I don't think so. You are probably from the west. Image what your government would do against tor if tor changed it's missions statement to be about circumventing drug laws. I'm very sure serveral liberal democracies where hell-bend to ban tor.

/edit: We had a massshooting in germany recently. We currently have a debate about police tool against the "dark web" as a source of firearms. Before that the goverment was not concerned about tor at all. After that it was very. The narrative about tor changed only slightly, and the governments stance changed rapidly. And the missions statment is a very strong source of narrative.

Goverments are not either good (supporting Freedom) or evil (supressing it's people), but do both things to some extend. It's not like Singapore wants a little freedom as possible for it's citizens. It just has very un-western values. If it though that tor does not get to much in the way it won't do much. OTOH German goverment might attac tor.

<comment><USER11> Thank you 1ris! Yes, that is _exactly_ the point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > Imagine Tor published a policy document stating: "The Tor Project proudly > advances drug-use by creating and deploying usable anonymity and privacy > technologies so people around the world can circumvent local drug laws."

"Imagine"? If you think this is hypothetical, bub, I have some bad news for you about the current perception of Tor.

When I think "Tor user" I think of illicit pornography, black market drugs, and human rights activists. Those are pretty much your options. What nation is okay with the first two, but not the third?

"Oh shit, we knew he was moving $2m USD in heroin, but we had no idea he was documenting human rights abuses! Apprehend him!" Please.

<comment><USER13> That may indeed be the public perception of Tor, but the project never publicly aligned itself with the distribution of child porn or illicit drugs. The author's point is that the explicit public alignment with Western notions of human rights is likely to harm the Tor project in countries where "human rights" are perceived as Western imperialism. The extent to which Tor's adoption of the human rights marquee might make a difference in the way these countries treat Tor is unclear, but it is at least a valid concern.

Frankly, there are a lot of better reasons -- mostly technical -- to doubt the efficacy and long-term future of Tor. But the recent politicization and drama certainly doesn't help it.

<comment><USER14> Those countries aren't stupid. Surely they already know of Tor's applications here. Certainly China puts significant effort into blocking it, for one example I'm familiar with.

<comment><USER13> I agree with you. But I was surprised that the author was able to run a Tor relay in Singapore without significant interference. That tells me that at least one authoritarian country was willing to turn a blind eye on Tor and some of its shadier uses. Will the new greater emphasis on human rights cause Singapore's authorities to give it greater scrutiny? Maybe, maybe not. But it certainly won't help.

<comment><USER11> You can run relays in Singapore. But you'll first want to leave your cellphone number with the police so they give you a call before visiting you at home.

After the pivot there remain two Singapore relays run by brave operators.

[https://atlas.torproject.org/#search/SG](https://atlas.torproject.org/#search/SG)

> Will the new greater emphasis on human rights cause Singapore's authorities > to give it greater scrutiny? Maybe, maybe not. But it certainly won't help.

Yep. That's the argument. Their pivot is not the _end of the world_ , but it definitely hurts.

<comment><USER11> relays:

* [https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/46022AFBB0B1A771EE3CB3...](https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/46022AFBB0B1A771EE3CB35AD337543A63210467)

* [https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/AD00FAC2AB97E310ECAB25...](https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/AD00FAC2AB97E310ECAB25E6A154FAEED345922E)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I long for the good old, tech-first days of Tor. This invasion of talkers and lobbyists (even if for the good cause) is ruining it.

<comment><USER16> Jacob Appelbaum, the guy they kicked out, was already more a talker than a technologist.

<comment><USER17> They kicked or forced out more than Jacob Appelbaum.

<comment><USER16> Who else was kicked or forced out?

<comment><USER17> The entire governing board.

Multiple Major Exit Node operators

The old bridge node operator

Those are just the people that have spoken publicly about their exit. Many others (given the nature of Tor) are not going to come forward publicly. They simply stop contributing and disappear.

Jacob was a distraction and excuse.

A Distraction so people would focus on that instead of what was happening with the project

A excuse to implement massive Social Justice and what I believe to be long term Pro Government reforms/policies within the project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> These types of issues come up a lot in well-meaning organizations. What they don't realize is: "You an include the most people by having the narrowest platform."

So if you're a "privacy technology" group, anything not related to privacy technology should not be part of your focus.

Ever Civil War, for example, has two (or more sides). Now the Tor group has to pick one. If they were simply interested in privacy technology, they wouldn't have to.

You see a similar thing with Codes of Conduct, or "inclusiveness" initiatives. Why can't a Python conference be about Python and only about Python?

<comment><USER19> Because human beings write Python code and attend Python conferences.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> It is sad to watch the Tor Project implode. While it in no way impacts the project as I was a very very very very minor user of Tor in the first place, I have removed any and all installations of Tor from my systems, and will no longer donate to or support them in any way

Tor has lost their mission, which should have been Privacy above all else.

Today they seem to be more focused on Social Justice, and less about privacy.

<comment><USER20> > It is sad to watch the Tor Project implode.

I don't see this as an implosion. I am not fond of the majority of SJW rhetoric as a lot of the defenses seen in those circles seem to be constructed as thought-terminating cliché.

I have much respect for Virgil, but I also think Tor is in need of a rebrand at home.

Ancap/cypherpunk messages are not agreeable to the mainstream, and they do not maintain a project when it becomes this close to mainstream. The common Western observer begins to equate the network with the abusive practices inherent in anonymous communication. The average user sees "Tor" and thinks "child porn" or "drug dealers", or "Mr. Robot" hacker types. These are things that economic resources that have to answer to Western political authorities will run from, and if the project needs funding, it needs to have a feel-good message that supporters can parrot to politicians and others that _actually have power_.

I, too, am an anarchocapitalist cypherpunk type. But I'm realistic enough to recognize you can only push that platform so far as an organization scales. Most people still won't care.

Full disclosure: I am not affiliated with Tor, but I have run relays in the past and will likely run more in the future.

<comment><USER11> > I have much respect for Virgil, but I also think Tor is in need of a rebrand > at home.

Thanks! I love you too.

> These are things that economic resources that have to answer to Western > political authorities will run from, and if the project needs funding, it > needs to have a feel-good message that supporters can parrot to politicians > and others that actually have power.

This is a totally reasonable response. I would be delighted if Tor Project could make a pronouncement like this.

As a reply, I saw no indication they were having trouble appeasing western authorities---e.g., they had no trouble getting DARPA money for the big MEMEX project. They are voluntarily cutting themselves off from defense because they dislike the politics of the funders. Instead, they are piloting themselves into a position where they are forced to take money from human-rights funders just to stay afloat. And becoming "Human Rights Watch for Nerds", makes Tor work vastly more difficult in the Asia Pacific.

I agree with you that Tor could use a rebrand, but this is a poor choice of one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I hope Tor Project Inc can resolve the issues it faces.

After a bumpy start, Rotorproject[1] is starting to iron out a plan. It's my hope that Rotorproject can help Tor Inc resolve it's issues while simultaneously providing alternatives to the current (technical) monoculture in terms of easily usable anonymity.

I think advancing human rights are a reasonable goal, but when I've seen political activism as a specific project goal, I've yet to see long term success.

[1] - [https://phab.rotorproject.org/w/general_project_information/](https://phab.rotorproject.org/w/general_project_information/)

<comment><USER13> It's also managed by someone who thinks RC4 is a reasonable choice for a modern crypto application. No thanks.

<comment><USER22> May as well be using ROT13...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is an interesting point I hadn't considered but I'm skeptical the rebranding will substantially change anything for people living in repressive countries. Governments that flag someone as suspicious or arrest someone for using Tor would have done so before the rebranding. These governments don't need to convince a jury or an impartial judge that Tor is a dissident network. They are already well aware of how Tor is used to circumvent the government firewall both by commoners who just want to watch YouTube videos and by activists to communicate.

<comment><USER23> I've been advised to cease using Tor when travelling to certain places.

Previously, I could have a reasonable conversation around "securing sensitive but non-threatening communications". The rebrand makes the tool dangerous to be caught using. The OP's comparison between Western treatment of anything drug related and certain cultures' reactions to the term "human rights" is spot on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> There may be good arguments why not to use Tor, but this doesn't seem to be one of them.

<comment><USER25> I'd never thought of it in the terms that the article author presents, but I think he has a point.

If you are a reporter, you have a very good reason to use Tor. When searched at a border or by some police force, having tools made for privacy and security is going to be expected. Having tools for human rights activists is going to cause trouble.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I keep saying this but we need a working implementation of riffle sooner than later. From what I understand it solves some of the shortcomings of tor.

[http://news.mit.edu/2016/stay-anonymous- online-0711](http://news.mit.edu/2016/stay-anonymous-online-0711)

</comment><comment><USER27> There is something that baffles me in these kind of posts.

Why do you act like it's the west obligation to solve your social problems?

TOR was created in the west, its main contributors are from the west and now - and very rightly so - the people in front of TOR identified the eroding of personal privacy as an eroding of our human rights in the west and they want to change that.

It's good for the west, is good for the TOR creators and main contributors. If it's not good in the Orient or middle East, then instead of complaining you should be creating and contributing to projects that help your purposes and your social advancement.

<comment><USER11> That's a perfectly fine response, and it's completely logical.

However, Tor self-righteously insists it is improving human rights, _especially_ for improving human rights outside the west.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> > _For example, say you're a sysadmin at a local business wishing to further > secure its comms. You propose running a Tor node or using Tor internally._

I had to stifle a giggle at this 'example'. I have to wonder how many 'local businesses' so value their comms that they want to hide their origin at the expense of significantly downgrading their bandwidth... and what do these 'local businesses' look like?

</comment><comment><USER29> Potentially getting people killed shouldn't be news to anyone who's been involved with Tor over the past decade.

</comment><comment><USER30> Virgil seems to be willfully ignorant. Tor needs greater political support in the West because of second crypto wars. Tor also needs more funding that is available for work on privacy and anonymity to support use cases like Securedrop. Too much of Tor's current funding is tied to censorship resistance applications of Tor.

<comment><USER31> People can be wrong without being willfully ignorant. There's no reason to assume bad faith. You could make a perfectly good argument along the lines of what you say without that accusation. Why add it in?

(Note that you haven't actually fully _made_ that argument. We have multiple competing concerns here (as we always do[0]). Virgil has made an argument based on one; you are trying to make an argument based on another. The question then is, which one outweighs the other? Since neither of you are actually responding to the other's arguments, merely expressing different concerns, it is impossible to tell from your arguments alone. (To put it another way, in pg's "Hierarchy of Disagreement"[1], you're purely counterarguing with no attempt at refutation.) Calling Virgil "willfully ignorant" makes it sound like his argument carries no weight or has already been refuted, but this is not the case.)

[0] [http://lesswrong.com/lw/gz/policy_debates_should_not_appear_...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/gz/policy_debates_should_not_appear_onesided/) [1] [http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html](http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> The author's argument that the Tor Project is throwing its users under a bus isn't convincing. The Tor tools and the reasons to use them haven't changed with the introduction of the Tor Project's new mission statement and social contract. The profile of a Tor user hasn't changed and nor has the meaning of Tor's traffic on the network. A Tor user confronted by the Authorities is still able to give "privacy" as their reason for its use. An at risk Tor user is still at risk and it is far from clear that the Tor Project's stated mission increases their risk.

I think the author conflates the risk to Tor users with the risk to Tor Project members and volunteers. It may well be true that the latter groups are at greater risk.

<comment><USER33> And yet some mid level autocratic bureaucrats in various totalitarian countries will now label Tor as a threat to state control and hence will treat any users with suspicion regardless of what said users claim to be using Tor for. Mid level bureaucrats largely don't understand the nuances of technology and cryptography but they certainly understand a political statement when they see one.

And so while it might be click bait to say that this will wind up killing someone but at the same time you can say that it is far from impossible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Anyone trusting Tor for anything anymore is asking for trouble. Their new branding and associated bravado is just weak-sauce attempts at projecting technical soundness in the face of getting their tech butt-torn by the CMU hack. You can google the details of the hack yourself.

Anyone, with even an iota of self-preservation in them, is best served staying away from this identity-leaking crapware. There is no gentle way of putting it. Tor is fundamentally and practically compromisable, do not trust it for guarding your anonymity against a determined adversary.

No. I don't have any suggestions for alternatives either.

</comment><comment><USER35> [https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor- project/2016-July...](https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor- project/2016-July/000582.html)

This attitude from someone representing the Tor project is, to put it mildly, terrifying.

But I guess fundraising matters more than lives of actual real human beings.[1]

[1] I'm inclined to believe the author slightly exaggerates the risk, but the reply completely neglects to address that issue. Trying to shift blame on local governments is hardly an option when those are the ones you're trying to defy.

</comment><comment><USER36> I missed the part in the article where it describes how the change in branding will result in someone's death?

</comment><comment><USER37> Tor's response:

[https://medium.com/@virgilgr/tors-branding-pivot-is-going- to...](https://medium.com/@virgilgr/tors-branding-pivot-is-going-to-get- someone-killed-6ee45313b559#.z1vs8xyjz)

</comment><comment><USER38> Quick review of weaknesses listed on the Wikipedia page for Tor make it pretty obvious that Tor is a threat to majority of users that if discovered be face serious, if not life threatening, responses.

Why do people continue to use it?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_\(anonymity_network\))

<comment><USER39> It's common for people to have too much trust in technical solutions, even when the solution includes stark warnings on its download page. It's even worse with VPNs and 'secure' email providers.

Tor can still be useful as a building block of the next thing, but people should start demanding something better than Tor.

<comment><USER40> How terrifying would status quo power holders find a free, universally available and readily usable software tool that provided real and uncrackable anonymity for anyone?</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Late night hack to send out New Years tweet - <AUTHOR> http://newyearstweet.lonnylot.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> If anyone is wondering if it works I am happy to report that it does! The first New Years tweet was sent out about an hour ago in the Asia/Kolkata timezone.

</comment><comment><USER2> Can IFTTT do the same?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure. This was only meant to be a quick little hack - wanted to see if I could get it done in a few hours overnight and launch it. This is just a bit of fun - nothing is planned for after New Years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Buffer anyone?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure what you're asking...Is there something that I need to fix?

<comment><USER3> If you have buffer, you'll see the "add to buffer" on HN itself. Since what you built is so similar to buffer and given Buffer's popularity, was wondering if there's some more info beyond a buffer like app. My comment is somewhat snarky, but I assume if it's on HN, there's a good reason for it to be there.

Not saying you shouldn't build things that already exist, just that generally when someone builds something that already exists there are other reasons for building it. Having had the whole code reuse thing bashed into my head, I typically have to have a good reason for reinventing the wheel.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah - I had no idea this existed. Just thought it would be an enjoyable quick little hack :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> does. not work on mobile.

<comment><AUTHOR> What device are you using? I've tested it from both my iPad Air and 5s and they both work fine.</comment></comment>


The Raspberry Pi - <AUTHOR> https://www.raspberrypi.org/

<comment><USER2> I love my raspberry pi. I turned an old vga lcd into a full computer attaching the rasbperry pi to the back with double sided velcro tape and now i have a workstation where I do most of my development.

Great thing is that because watching youtube and playing videos is not so great on the raspberry pi and heavy websites do not look great, I find that am not getting as distracted as I used to be when i was working on a full media capable computer.

:) I am being more productire.</comment>


How to go SSL: "High Performance, Low Cost, and Strong Security: Pick Any Three" - <AUTHOR> http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2009/public/schedule/detail/5931

<comment><AUTHOR> Disclaimer: I work for iSEC Partners and Chris Palmer has since left to work for Google. That shouldn't change the fact that the slide deck is awesome though.

<comment><USER2> Disclaimer: I work for Google and Chris Palmer has since left to work for the EFF. That shouldn't change the fact that the slide deck is awesome though.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Community nurturing - <AUTHOR>

I help run a moderately popular website, Gamers Unite! (http://gamersunite.com), a forum for Facebook social game lovers. It's a slightly controversial site because we also provide tools for gamers to help them advance more quickly which some view as cheating.
We have a member who was helpful in the beginning in the sense that he very vocal in his support and evangelizing of our site and in defending us against "haters" of our site.
However, once he gained status within our site, he started publicizing his own self-serving pyramid-scheme links (not uncommon on Facebook). When we banned his posts containing such links, he started directing his anger at us, to the point of making personal attacks against our admins and spreading untruths.
Nurturing a vibrant community is clearly essential to our success. Any advice? On this specific issue and community nurturing in general? <comment><USER2> Did you first approach him about the fact that you viewed the content as unfit for the site? If not that should have been your first avenue to deal with the issue. If you did and he persisted, then you did the correct thing. If he continues to call you out in public then I would release a detailed chronology of the events that transpired and let the users be the judge. If you did not approach him before hand, I would extend an olive branch offering his account back with an apology that you may not have pursued the best means to find a common ground along with the understanding that he agrees to not post such content.</comment>


Clicking on a Masterpiece: Surfing for Pollock, de Kooning and Basquiat - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704803604576077843507545246.html

<comment><USER2> I like VIP Art Fairs approach: no virtual shopping cart, just a nice interface for viewing art and making it easy for dealers and collectors to connect via Skype, IM, etc.

Not sure if taste profiling via Pandora will really fit the art market as is Art.sy's goal. Eclecticism tends to win over similarity and some collectors simply obsess over a single artist or period. But they have some superstar backers. Also, they are hiring ;)

This sort of leaves an opportunity somewhere in the middle I think, between Etsy and Art.sy, in the $1000-$10000 range of purchases for young professionals just getting started. Curation will be key for that demo.</comment>


Arduino: The Documentary has been released.  - <AUTHOR> http://arduino.cc/blog/2011/01/07/arduino-the-documentary-now-online/

<comment><USER2> The Arduino is absolutely cool, but the reason I recommend it is that it can be a good start to get introduced to _analog_ electronics, that is even cooler for programmers. As after all the arduino itself for a programmer is just a small computer. Cool but nothing completely different especially if you used to write code in assember or C. But... analog programing, creating an AM receiver or transmitter, amplifying using a transistor, creating an oscillator, well, that is _magic_.

<comment><USER3> I actually feel the opposite -- microcontrollers are exactly why I got back into electronics. Being able to write a few lines of code that interact with the 'real' world -- _that's_ what I find exciting, and analog circuits are tedious necessities in comparison.

Regardless of your ultimate interest Arduino (and the AVR microcontroller family in general) is a decent place to start :)

If you do have previous development experience, you'll probably want to move past Arduino pretty quickly. You can pick up an Atmel STK500 development board for just $79, and either use it with AVR Studio or the open source toolchains (avrdude, avr-gcc, avr-libc, etc): <http://store.atmel.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:1050007>

<comment><USER4> I agree with you. It's the coolest thing ever to control physical things from my computer via programs that I write. The possibilities are endless. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm a student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, so Microcontrollers are bread and butter to me, but what really has amazed me about this platform is the number of non-EE's I see and help use it.

For engineers, the idea of using a wii nunchuck to control color LED's is trivial. For an artist or a design it can be world-changing. And our local arduino group does just that :-)

<comment><USER6> The AVR/GCC library of pre-written routines plus the ability to easily upload "sketches" to the board makes the Arduino environment very approachable for non-propeller types.

They're doing a nice job and deserve the positive recognition.

Here in the U.S., SparkFun and BDMicro have built nice niches in this market.

SparkFun's Pick and Place Machine: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn0EKtLOVx4>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> For those that want to get one or are on the fence, I'd absolutely suggest it. It's only 30 bucks and you can get into playing with LEDs, motors and more exciting things as soon as you get it. Beautiful community, great resources. Hard to go wrong, really.

</comment><comment><USER8> Great movie. I am looking to get into Arduino development myself.

In a way it reminds me of Rails, in that it inspires a world of DIYers to build whatever they are dreaming about.

</comment><comment><USER9> Perhaps worth mentioning that the Arduino project is somewhat related to the <http://processing.org/> programming language (basically sugar coating Java).

I've had the pleasure of introducing many artists to the world of programming via Processing, and am always amazed by the widely creative works that are produced, almost off the bat.

Arduino beautifully extends the same capabilities to analog and digital circuitry. Many artists are greatly appreciative of the new channels of creativity that these two project (as well as others) enable.

</comment><comment><USER10> Sparkfun is a good place to get one. They have lots of other good stuff.

<http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9950>

</comment><comment><USER11> The nice thing about Arduino is that it's open source. Anybody can look at their plans and make their own variant.

The most interesting variants for me are the ones with wireless communication. Great for making remote sensor networks.

</comment><comment><USER12> Is there a mirror/torrent to download the English version?

<comment><USER13> [http://www.archive.org/details/Arduino.TheDocumentary.Englis...](http://www.archive.org/details/Arduino.TheDocumentary.English)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Fascinating. Makes me want to buy one immediately.

<comment><USER4> I highly recommend it. I waited and had my gf buy me one for christmas because I was afraid it would be a gadget I'd never ennd up using, and I get more upset about wasting money than I do about wasting presents.

I had her get me the inventor's kit from sparkfun since it seems to come with a decent # of starter parts, and has a collection of projects you can do with them. I haven't been able to stop playing with my Arduino and I'm alredy ordering more parts and X10 controllers and such, and I only got through the 4th project before I started doing my own thing like having it communicate with the computer.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Unskew My Search, a web extension for peaking into the Google black box - <AUTHOR> https://www.unskewmysearch.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Unskew My Search is an experimental browser extension that seeks to help you discover how your personal search results are being skewed by Google recommendation algorithms.

Problem: Google notoriously collects and leverages an immense amount of user data to better improve ad targeting, click through rates, and ultimately their bottom line. These algorithms are largely a black box, meaning we as users don't have insight into how our personal data is being leveraged within them. Unskew is an attempt to identify how our search results are being impacted by unique data associated with our accounts.

How it works: When a Google search is run with the extension installed, Unskew takes the search term and sends it to our servers. From there, we use a network of proxies to run the same search from a user agent with no connection to you or your account. We scrape these unaffiliated results and return them to your browser where the extension compares them to the results you yourself received.

Hypothesis: By controlling for the variable of user identifying information and removing it from the equation, disparities in search results represent attempts by the recommendation algorithm to personally tailor results. Identifying the extent to which this occurs is vitally important, given Google's near monopoly on the search space. Potential negative impacts could involve users increasingly becoming encased in an echo chamber of their own making in order to maximize click through rates, or could indicate the willingness to engage in even wider scale manipulation of search results across user accounts which are more difficult to detect.

Feedback: We hope to hear and engage with feedback regarding our methodology, UX, and how this tech could be better leveraged to benefit users and the UX, and answer any questions. Outside of our immediate peer network this is our first attempt at gaining wider feedback.

</comment><comment> na-na I tried it on firefox and chromium without another extension, it doesn't seem to work and only shows the message meeasuring skewing...

</comment><comment><USER2> If it's mostly focused at news, why doesn't it work on google's news tab?</comment>


Adobe Releases Original Photoshop Source Code - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/14/3990378/original-adobe-photoshop-source-code-now-available-for-free

<comment><USER2> Fascinating story after the standard AOL-inspired blog spam.

[http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop- source-...](http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code/)</comment>