Books for people in the software business - <AUTHOR> http://www.dextronet.com/micro-isv-insights/2012/01/30-books-everyone-in-software-business-should-read-and-why/ <comment><USER2> I'm surprised The Mythical Man-Month didn't make the 30 (only the afterthought section). Given the harm that clumsy estimation, and naieve subdivision of labour from disinterested managers causes to the software industry it should be required reading.

<comment><USER3> Maybe the author hasn't read it. He only included the ones he had read.

I'm more surprised that under the title "everyone should read" are three Joel Spolsky books.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I started reading "Paypal Wars" ([http://www.amazon.com/PayPal-Wars-Battles- Media-Planet/dp/09...](http://www.amazon.com/PayPal-Wars-Battles-Media- Planet/dp/0974670103)) which is quite a fascinating read with lots of insight.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Akash. I've added it to the list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Here's the old SO thread on the same topic, though I think this list might amount to a more well rounded person.

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the- single-m...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-single-most- influential-book-every-programmer-should-read)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, that's a good list as well. I actually went through that whole SO thread and bought many of the books, but the SO thread is just for programmers. This list is for people in software business in general, especially people in small companies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not that these are bad books (I've read a lot of them and they are quite interesting), but I think there's more value in compiling a list of the _5_ most important books we should read, rather than the 30.

Of course we can learn _something_ from reading 30 books. It'd almost be hard not to (if you chose the right genre). The problem is that, while entertaining, I'm sure a lot of us are looking at these books not just for fun, but because we want to figure out how to run our software business.

To take every software book that's imparted some little bit of insight and put it in a huge list only gives you a huge list of books to read, with no indication of which 20% of those books will give you 80% of the insight. And while some of us can digest this list in two weeks, for others it's a huge time commitment they don't have the ability to make.

I apologize for ranting, and this list does have some useful information (especially in the commentary on each book). But I get uncomfortable when I see a "Top X design articles" or "Top Y books" and the X or Y is >10\. I feel like we are feeding our desire to gorge on numerically delimited information without necessarily getting substance out of it.

<comment><USER7> I don't agree. Giving 30 books vastly increases the chance that any given reader can find the "right" 20%. Your 20% might not be mine; although I would find it interesting if you posted your top 5 books, I'd rather see the 30 that you read, so that I can read them all and find my own top 5.

My reaction tends to be opposite yours: when someone gives me the "top 5", I consider it only a trailhead; it's unlikely my top 5 would be the same.

<comment><USER6> > when someone gives me the "top 5", I consider it only a trailhead; it's > unlikely my top 5 would be the same.

That's a fair point. The important part, it seems, is identifying not just which books to read but why. That information would help you and I find our 20%.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I did not see it on the list but Showstopper is an very good book([http://www.amazon.com/Showstopper-Breakneck-Windows- Generati...](http://www.amazon.com/Showstopper-Breakneck-Windows-Generation- Microsoft/dp/0759285780/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327229009&sr=8-1)) It tells the story of the Windows NT team's couple years of major ups and downs developing the windows. It starts from the hiring of Dave Cutler from DEC to the release of the project. If you want a good view into how large software projects go I think you can't go wrong with this book. You get an idea for why the Windows team made some tradeoff (like security ;p) made in those days to finish the product and how a strong project leader was a must to keep the project on track.

I can't recommend the book enough I've read it a few times already.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I've added it to the list. Looks like a hot candidate for a book that I am going to read next.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> But please do not forget doing actual work and reflecting on it regularly :)

</comment><comment><USER10> I'd add _Business @ The Speed of Thought_ by Bill Gates. Yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh if you want.... It's a seriously interesting book. And this is coming from a guy who's a huge F/OSS ideologue and who really isn't a fan of Microsoft or billg. But I can give the Devil his due when necessary, and B@TSOT is a worthwhile read.

Of course, you might ask "Why, mindcrime, why do you recommend a billg book so highly?" Fair question... I find it interesting for the vision that Gates lays out regarding how organizations should use technology to operate more efficiently. He leaned heavily on the analogy with the human autonomic nervous system back in those days, and was throwing around the term "Digital Nervous System[1]" a lot... and I think that that concept A. makes and lot of sense, and B. is _still_ \- after all these years - largely unfulfilled.

If you're in the business of software (at least the business of _business software_ ) I think the Gates book is still very inspirational and could seed some very interesting ideas, vis-a-vis technology in organizations.

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Nervous_System>

Other than that, my own list would include:

 _The Art of the Start_ \- Guy Kawasaki

 _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_ \- Steve Blank

 _The Lean Startup_ \- Eric Ries

 _Blue Ocean Strategy_ \- W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

 _Crossing the Chasm_ \- Geoffrey Moore

 _The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing_ \- Al Ries & Jack Trout

 _Positioning_ \- Al Ries & Jack Trout

 _Repositioning_ \- Jack Trout (with Steve Rivkin)

 _Differentiate or Die_ \- Jack Trout (with Steve Rivkin)

</comment><comment><USER11> I knew a programmer on the Chandler team. When I read the wiki and tried it out, I remember thinking, "This is Mitch's doomed vanity project." (Of course I had the usual doubts on whether I understood what was going on, but simply I couldn't see it living up to its hype.)

I haven't yet read the book on it (_Dreaming in Code_), but the question in my mind wasn't how it failed, but how it couldn't fail...

</comment><comment><USER12> I just finished _Dreaming in Code_ Friday night. A deep dive into <http://chandlerproject.org/> afterward was one of the more depressing experiences I've had in recent memory: all that effort, abandoned.

</comment><comment><USER13> Unfortunately I succumbed to several dozen of these mass business books before realizing how utterly insipid this industry is... Just learn to write a business plan and get busy already. Great free articles (& some paid) on both hbr.org and score.org.

</comment><comment><USER14> "Outliers"? Malcolm Gladwell is an entertaining writer, but I really wouldn't take it too serious... extrapolating way too much, and then reaching faux- unexpected conclusions that resonate nicely with what people like to believe.

</comment><comment><USER15> just 30.</comment>


Ask HN: Why do people search for a resume builder? - <AUTHOR> Hi there,
I'm currently looking at some tools that the monthly search traffic of "resume builder" is 400k. And I'm trying to learn what's right before that. I want to find answers to 2 main questions.
1. What's the main reason people start looking for resume builder?
2. What should it include to they feel comfortable choosing it to make their resume?
I'll be really happy to discuss that with you in the comments below. <comment><USER2> As a resume editor and owner of a professional services in Shanghai, the "resume building" world is fractured along the lines of MS Word oriented and everything else (LaTex, Markdown, pdf) IMHO. There have been some valiant attempts to provide good final products in multiple formats but still the problem seems challenging. The biz world works on MS Word regrettably even though there are beautiful layout formats found elsewhere.

I for one would dearly like to keep all client work in markdown and then have perfect docs created whether in pdf or .doc/.docx. There is still too much tweaking required to get there which doesn't save time vs. pure MS Word use which I despise. My $.02. Thanks for this thread!

</comment><comment><USER3> I guess HR looks more on the actual design and structure on the resume, rather then what's in it. Because that's their specialty. They don't know what C,D,C++,Java means anyway. Ten years of Java experience must mean the applicant have worked in a coffee shop !? C and D are not good grades ... We want someone with an A in AI. But the resume looks professional, so lets pass him on for an interview.

/rant</comment>


Ask HN: Does anyone use the iOS Story Board functionality for non-trivial apps? - <AUTHOR>

I've been mucking around with it and it seems pretty cool. Has anyone used it for anything more complex than just "trivial" apps with 1 or 2 UIView's? <comment><USER2> we have used it extensively in our applications, some of them with over 20 different views. The real power of the storyboard is to give you a visual guide to the flow of your application, and also a quick and easy way to get an overall picture of whats going where. We havent had any issues with it so far (but i know that some people have), but i am unable to offer a good reason why we havent had any issues, apart from maybe just dumb luck.

Our coders are now totaly in love with the storyboard view and i doubt i could get them to change easily. They are now producing code and apps 20%-30% faster than before simply due to the ability to see what is going on globally.

Another great feature is that you can easily demonstrate and allow non technical people to see the flow of screens and interactions.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the info. I guess I'll look into it more.</comment></comment>


License plate recognition tools led to abduction arrest - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/13/MNJFSO1NM.DTL <comment><USER2> I have produced license plate recognition software, at least enough to extract the plate text for subsequent OCR'ing.

Paul Graham/Ycombinator weren't interested, so I gave up on trying to sell it.

In theory, you could setup a webcam in a back garden and scan all the traffic going past in realtime.

I am now working on other software, which is a shame, as Pretext is pretty nifty.

<http://www.sanfransys.co.uk/> (not a US company)

<comment><USER3> Surely this technology is fairly well-known and widely deployed these days (for example, to enforce the London congestion-charging zone). What did your software do over and above what's currently being used?

<comment><USER2> It runs easily on personal computers, and because the development costs were low, it's cheap. So I was trying to compete on price and accessibility.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Call me sentimental, but this technology sounds like something right out of Bladerunner. In the wrong hands, this could get scary (ie. if a govt. was looking for a fleeing political prisoner, etc.)

</comment><comment><USER4> Some things that are technical possible and even cool are still "evil". I realize someone is probably going to do them any way, but it's sure as hell not going to be me.

This thing would be a great bomb trigger too by the way.</comment>


Spooked: What do we learn about science from a controversy in physics? - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/30/spooked-books-adam-gopnik <comment><USER2> The media is basically to blame for the pervasive myth that there exists some magic science box you just crank long enough to pop out "correct universal truths."

Scientists very rarely use the end-all-be-all language of the news reports. I still hear people saying that the accelerating universe (a nobel prize discovery) is 'quite probable' not 'didn't you know, we solved that, stop thinking about it.'

There are whole branches devoted to disproving big bang cosmology. Are they right? Probably not, but their presence and arguments are extremely valuable. Disagreement is the founding, basic principle of science! It's what separates scientific faith from religious faith. Seeing scientists argue and debate each other in a public forum is the best possible evidence that the process is in fact working properly.

<comment><USER3> Media might be part of it, but I think it's a little deeper than that, it's an issue with society and norms. I've learned as a scientist a bit more about giving presentations than I thought I ever would, and something I've been told time and time again is that you act with confidence; the smallest hint you might doubt what you're presenting can be damaging to how people will receive your message in the first place. This is a bit general in society, people often equate confidence with truth and accuracy, which is not necessarily a good correlation.

Because of that, scientists are under pressure when presenting to the public to downplay their doubts or not mention particular points they are unsure of. That's why issues in science don't get airplay even though most scientists are aware of issues in their own field.

The reality is that reality is complicated, and people's perception of reality is even more complicated, so it's no surprise that science is a very hairy thing with a tinge of uncertainty at times. However, the outsider's reaction to that is to respond to it with binary reasoning, saying that, "this means they're wrong because it isn't 100% true" instead of how scientists really see is, as "85% true, so,almost right."

<comment><USER2> That's interesting. To me an overconfident presentation / paper is a huge red flag and I start to look even more carefully for things that are elided or brushed under the rug. In the PhD we would have rip sessions, where we take new publications from big names and just rip the analysis to shreds (with some post doc help)-- it was an important lesson on "no experiment is anywhere near perfect."

I vastly prefer presentations and articles where both sides of an argument are presented. "We are in agreement with camp A, however camp B using procedure 2 find ... in the future experiment X will help solve this discrepancy"

My impression of scientific presentations to the community is that it's mostly about _funding_. So they are want to make as bold a statement as possible then -- but then "these stars may have actually come from another galaxy!" turns into "Scientists find alien stars visiting the Milky Way from Andromeda!" I actually remember a group issuing a counter press release to their own press release when some reporter completely misinterpreted something and all of a sudden bbc news was reporting that the sun was from the Sagittarius galaxy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you want to know which parts of science are real, look to the engineers.

</comment><comment><USER5> As the article addresses, if the boundary between science and non-science is fuzzy, then in a way it ironically mirrors the uncertainty so intrinsic to development of quantum theory itself and echoed across the broader landscape of disciplines.

Hardly a surprise that human activity, even one as exalted as real science, reflects human nature which is a subset of all nature. What science has taught and made us so much more aware of, is how much uncertainty is a central, inescapable feature of the human condition, yet it is the fact of life we resist most strongly.

So it's unsurprising scientists (and the progress of science) have often stumbled on the merely human side of things, we are social creatures, and such attributes are not removed just because we are "doing science", much less when individuals become celebrities on account of it.

Seems to me the essence of the scientific approach is the willingness to say "I don't know" when we don't know, and to own up to mistakes or wrong conclusions when conclusions turn out to be incomplete or misguided. Well maybe it would be better not to be so firm about conclusions anyway, as the article points out, history has shown that whatever we regard as "facts" at a particular time are at best temporary rest stops on the path of increasing knowledge.

</comment><comment><USER6> Ive read yhe whole article but I can't make heads or tails of what it is _arguing_ (for lack of a better word). The article connects a lot of disparate facts about science as an industry (academia/grants, journals, etc) to how specific theories evolved to speculation about the nature of the scientific method without ever connecting how those are related or even placing them in the right chronological frame of reference. Renaissance "science" != 18th-19th century "science" != first half of 20th century "science" != post WWII modern "science" and I say "science" in scare quotes because the article entirely fails to separate the scientific mindset, which has arguably been in play from the beginning of human civilization as a logical extension of the natural selection of ideas, from the infrastructure meant to support science as a field, from funding to publication. The latter has changed drastically at least once a century since the Renaissance and you can't understand the former without knowing what that change looked like.

 _》One way or another, science really happens. The claim that basic research is valuable because it leads to applied technology may be true but perhaps is not at the heart of the social use of the enterprise. The way scientists do think makes us aware of how we can think. Samuel Johnson said that a performer riding on three horses may not accomplish anything, but he increases our respect for the faculties of man. The scientists who show that nature rides three horses at once—or even two horses, on opposite sides of the universe—also widen our respect for what we are capable of imagining, and it is this action, at its own spooky distance, that really entangles our minds._

What in the world does this even mean? Science is revered as much as it is today simply because it has proven over and over again that it is the only field and/or industry and/or intellectual pursuit that is capable of producing truth that is independent of race, religion, or socioeconomic status. THAT is the true utility of science: demonstrating that there is a frame of reference that the vast majority of human beings can participate in and get the exact same results as anyone else. Riding three horses at once is pointless but providing a common language for the _epistemology of human civilization_ isnt just for the warm fuzzies.

I think I have very much misunderstood the author and am butchering his argument for the sake of a straw man, but I can't help but feel that every other paragraph has yet another assertion that is too vague to be wrong but too specific to be right, all without a central premise other than "science works" and "fallible humans do science so science is fallible."

</comment><comment><USER3> _Where once logical criteria between science and non-science (or pseudo- science) were sought and taken seriously—Karl Popper's criterion of "falsifiability" was perhaps the most famous, insisting that a sound theory could, in principle, be proved wrong by one test or another—many historians and philosophers of science have come to think that this is a naïve view of how the scientific enterprise actually works. They see a muddle of coercion, old magical ideas, occasional experiment, hushed-up failures—all coming together in a social practice that gets results but rarely follows a definable logic._

Ugh, that "many historians or philosophers of science" comes off as the "informed sources" that conspiracy theorists claim have evidence of chemtrails or the reptilian brotherhood. Who exactly are these people and what is precisely their argument? In my opinion, this is the single greatest thing that distinguishes science from other fields, it is inductive reasoning[0] taken to an extreme. Therefore, if anyone has reason to doubt Popper's criterion, then that should be of heavy focus in the article. The author is almost guilty of "argument by inaccessible literature"[1] for what I would think is the most important part of his argument.

However, he does make an important point. Science is a human endeavour, and given that, it has issues that human institutions have. However, assuming uniformity of cognitive biases across both scientists and magicians[2], this just puts them on equal footing, while scientists have their experimental criterion, which then puts them ahead of magicians anyway.

With regards to the entanglement saga, I think the reason no one heard about it is much more mundane...there simply was no way to test it until Bell's inequality, so scientists didn't think about it. So yes, "just ignore it" was the solution because without a testable hypothesis, and may be some interesting math, scientists just don't pursue it. In that way, science might suffer due it being performed by human scientists who do have moods, but once experiment entered the picture, boy did the field blow up! I don't think it had much to do with changing attitudes as much as it came with the ability to test Bell's inequality. The same could be said about GR, with the current advances in numeric GR in the last decade spurring interest in it. It is because our moods change, but I think it has a lot more to do with the feasibility of advancement in a field that it does with external influences like the internet or cultural changes.

There are many other interesting problems with established physics, like Godel's metric[3], but, as you guessed it, you don't hear about it because there is no experimental evidence of it, so physicists look elsewhere.

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

[1] [http://staffhome.ecm.uwa.edu.au/~00043886/humour/invalid.pro...](http://staffhome.ecm.uwa.edu.au/~00043886/humour/invalid.proofs.html#1.13Proofbyreferencetoinaccessibleliterature)

[2] (which is a scientifically testable hypothesis! but I am unqualified to give evidence for it either way

[3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel_metric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel_metric)</comment>


Apple's Product Event Will Be Held the Week of March 21 - <AUTHOR> http://recode.net/2016/02/27/remark-your-calendars-apples-product-event-will-week-of-march-21/ <comment><USER2> They're coming out with a cheaper phone now so they can develop two iPhone cycle updates. One in the spring and one in the fall.

They need to protect against the inevitable, missing the holiday season due to technical delays.

refreshing the iPhone every fall is an amazing feat.

They won't be able to keep that schedule forever.</comment>


Three Questions You Need to Ask About Your Brand (2008 reprint from 9/2002) - <AUTHOR> http://kuldej.blogspot.com/2008/12/three-questions-you-need-to-ask-about.html

<comment><USER2> Good article, but horrible formatting. I know some people are advocating for removing paragraph indents, but then you're supposed to have whitespace between each paragraph, right?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it is horrible formatting. The PDF version of the original article can be had at

[https://danpetre.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/kevin-lane- kell...](https://danpetre.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/kevin-lane- keller-2002-three-questions-you-need-to-ask-about-your-brand-harvard-business- review-3questions.pdf)</comment></comment>


This Chrome extension blocks audio and video autoplay on any website - <AUTHOR> https://thenextweb.com/apps/2017/02/20/chrome-autoplay-facebook-audio-video/#.tnw_o6DsYJtq <comment><USER2> This would be really nice for Safari.

I tried to block auto-playing video on CNN but it's pretty obvious some scabs have latched onto a fake metric that assigns fraudulent value to a video starting, it's actually difficult to prevent the videos embedding or playing.

Makes sense that that would be the next fake metric for Facebook to pursue given their other fake metrics got outed as worthless over the last few months.

[http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/10/facebook-to-audit- advertising...](http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/10/facebook-to-audit-advertising- metrics.html)

That link refers to de-faking their fake metrics with even more fake stuff like "milliseconds that an ad was on the screen" LOL.

</comment><comment><USER3> Firefox has the setting 'media.autoplay.enabled'. Which does the same afaik (no exceptions though). But I hate to install extensions/plugins for IMO basic functionality, especially when it concerns something as annoying as autoplay.</comment>


Method Invocation Formatting Styles in Objective-C - <AUTHOR> http://cocoawithlove.com/2008/11/method-invocation-formatting-styles-in.html

<comment><USER2> Personally I kind of like aligning the colons, but as he mentions it's not very common.

Also, I like how he refers to Wil Shipley as a Penny Arcade character, as if that were the most important thing about him.

Anyway, this is a great new Cocoa blog. Lots of quality posts.

<comment><USER3> I recently rewatched a WWDC session video about designing user interfaces where it was mentioned that right-aligning labels allows users to scan through and fill out forms quite a bit faster.

Aligning the colons seems like the same kind of idea, just for code instead of forms. I wonder if it yields the same kind of increases in comprehension as right-aligning labels does.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> With the little code i've done on objective-c, I have to say that I prefer method 4. It kinda goes with the (unwritten) convension that a method's first parameter is always the longest so that the rest of the parameters align well with the colon character.

And I don't think you can always rely on code-formatters. There are always cases when you need to manually format a piece of code to make it look more sensible.</comment>


Germany urges global minimum tax for digital tech giants - <AUTHOR> https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-urges-global-minimum-tax-digital-giants-220405598.html <comment><USER2> Need a global minimum for all industries indexed similar to Amazon marketplace. Tech 30%. Farming 10-15%. Public service 10%. Etc. Something that can't be dodged. Even a revenue tax, however that could work. The biggest companies have to much of an advantage. They pay no tax, follow no regulations apart from paying fines. Simply cannot continue.

</comment><comment><USER3> What is the justification for treating tech companies differently to other exporters?

Tech companies add VAT to their prices already.

<comment><USER4> Easier for them to bypass the taxation system a la Dutch Irish sandwich?

Same should apply to Fin svcs or other highly fungible products.

<comment><USER5> Isn't that a problem the EU created though?

Isn't this a pull the beam out of your own eye first situation?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Auto manufacturing seems to have more bad affect on environment which in turn has bad effect on Humans. You'll need to provide infra and healthcare to deal with those issues.

Should tech companies be really taxed differently when most of them have very minute fingerprint on nature and humans?</comment>


An Incremental Approach to Content Management Using Git - <AUTHOR> http://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/incremental-approach-content-management-using-git <comment><USER2> This makes me think of [http://decoupledcms.org/](http://decoupledcms.org/)

I don't know who is behind that org, and whether all the technology they reference is completely valid, but the point is that a CMS that is made up of parts is far easier to deal with in the long run than a monolithic entity.

We're already seeing this decoupling happen a lot in practice with static site generators, but there is a long way to go (static sites are rather limited).

</comment><comment><USER3> If this interest you guys, you will most likely be interested by what we do over at prismic.io too. Basically, we're a service too, we output content as JSON too, and are very focused on versioning too; but we also have what we call the "writing-room", a very user-friendly UI to let non-technical content writers write comfortably without needing tech tools such as Git; and we come up with our own content query API.

It works with most technologies (we have kits in JS, Ruby, PHP, Java, Scala, Python, ...), and we did release a static website generator based on a JS engine which we called baked.js.

Check us out if you're interested in tech-flexible, design-flexible content management where content is nicely versioned.

</comment><comment><USER4> People interested in this article could also take a look at `coisas`, a tool I'm using for publishing my personal website using GitHub pages:

[https://github.com/fiatjaf/fiatjaf.github.io](https://github.com/fiatjaf/fiatjaf.github.io)

It is tangled with the website files, because it runs on pure Javascript, at the browser. And, yes, it only works on GitHub pages because when you click "Publish" it renders the content and commits to GitHub. Later I will make it more presentable, but for now it is working.

The goal is to make a tool that can publish any kind of data you want in almost any kind of format you want. It works with hierarchical documents (which are used for the paths of the URLs) with `kinds` (a markdown article, a table of data, a chart, a list of children documents -- for a list of blog posts, for example). To customize you just have to modify/add templates.

All the working code resides at `/edit` while the published pages themselves reside on the top directory. To create/update/delete documents just go to `/edit`:

[http://fiatjaf.github.io/edit/](http://fiatjaf.github.io/edit/)

</comment><comment><USER5> The filesystem, backed up by git, ought to be perfectly fine for serving text content.

It will be interesting to see what happens if they add a lot of images and videos and git starts choking.

The main benefit of adding a RDBMS in this scenario would be being able to run indexed queries using SQL. The text content itself wouldn't benefit much, of course, and would be better off with something like SOLR for search. But there will probably be dates and other loose metadata that is ideal for a RDBMS. If the content in the filesystem ends up with associated metadata in a RDBMS, they may wish they had just put everything in the RDBMS to keep it simple.

</comment><comment><USER6> In this talk Robert C. Martin describes a similar situation:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asLUTiJJqdE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asLUTiJJqdE)

They refrain from committing to a database server early on so they create an interface to storage and start saving data in files. He contrasts putting the database in the center of design vs. putting the application logic in the center of design.

Then he goes on to talk about hexagonal architecture. A very good talk if you haven't seen it.

</comment><comment><USER7> "frameworks usually enforce their view of the world upon their developers, and trying to choose correctly at the point where you understand the least about the project is nigh-on impossible."

Spot on.

</comment><comment><USER8> Have a look at GatherContent.com as well :)

[http://www.gathercontent.com](http://www.gathercontent.com)

</comment><comment><USER9> Who is the genius whom devised such an horrible way to mark up hyperlinks?

</comment><comment><USER10> Well, this is one way to solve the problem of database version-control... just store your data as flat text files. I can't help but think there's got to be a better solution.</comment>


How to Earn a Technical Co-Founder - <AUTHOR> http://humbledmba.com/please-please-please-stop-asking-how-to-find <comment><USER2> > _Go spend some money on offshore coders and get a prototype built._

But please, PLEASE know that that is a prototype and that your technical cofounder will likely want to throw it out the door on day 1.

Nothing is a worse conversation than "okay, so I have the v0 built offshore, but it just needs X, Y, and Z". Great start, but let me pick the stack, framework, etc. so I can do my job quickly. I'm here to make decisions WITH you, not be your code monkey.

<comment><USER3> If you are a cofounder and your #1 priority is to rewrite the application then you are their code monkey.

If the offshore team works just stick with it so you can focus on technology strategy.

<comment><USER4> > If the offshore team works just stick with it

That is a big "if". A good technical cofounder will identify the latent technical debt that exists in an outsourced prototype and if that number is too high, a rewrite can be justified.

<comment><USER5> I worked at a company where the founder had started with some local contractors to build an initial version of the product.

He hired a CTO, who took a look at the current code, list of bugs, and new features desired, and made the call to do a complete rewrite.

In retrospect, this was absolutely the right call. It can definitely be wasteful, but sometimes starting with a completely new design is the right thing to do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As a flip side to this, I wish programmers who want to be founders would _stop_ trying to come up with ideas on their own, and instead start looking for non-technical co-founders who have practical experience with a specific type of customer and a specific problem to solve for those customers. There are so, so many people out there who deeply understand a valuable real-world problem, but lack the skill to bring it to life.

The worst part of going to any sort of pitch events is hearing just how bad so many of the startup ideas are.

<comment><USER7> I totally agree with you. I would love to meet some non-technical people who have practical experience. However, most of my friends are technical and I don't even know where to start looking.

<comment><USER8> Go to any Hackers/Founders meetup, and you'll be _swamped_ with non-technical people trying to meet you.

<comment><USER9> This can end up being quite awkward. You end up being the 'belle of the ball' and end up having to weed through a _lot_ of, well, not so great ideas. Remember when everyone had their own idea about the 'uber of x'? That.

I can't speak from experience (or I'd have my own startup) but I think the best non-technical cofounder is found while working a technical job with someone of like mind. Or at Uni it seems.

<comment><USER6> A disciplined sort of triage can work for this. First, do they have real business experience? Ideally, have they started successful businesses before? A lot of the learning curve of startups is the learning curve of just being an entrepreneur.

Also, does their idea make intuitive sense to you, especially in terms of _how can this be monetized_? Vague, handwavy social apps that don't charge directly are a common problem. Apps for customers _who don 't have money_ is another popular antipattern. Apps that seem trivial are generally bad. Apps that respond Boolean true to "Can I already do this with Yelp?" are toxic.

But you find someone who has a couple of businesses already under their belt, who has some specific customers in mind who have a specific problem that person already understands... then you're getting somewhere. And it may be an entirely unsexy problem. One of my favorite startups locally is a company that has built a system for detecting excessive water use/leakage in toilets - something that can be repaired at cost savings if you have a large building (say, apartment complexes). Totally unsexy. Great market.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Nothing I hate more than the "I'm an idea guy" meme. I spend a few weeks trying to meet with potential co-founders who were looking for a tech co- founders. They _all_ gave me this "I'm the idea guy" shit. And the idea was just "Let's do X for Y".

They didn't put any thoughts into how to monetize, what is the short term goal, which customers they would target first, how to gain traction, how to validate the idea, what was the advantage over the competition, etc etc

And when I started pointing out all these things to think about they got either panicked or angry, "why are you not excited?" "Why are you trying to destroy the idea?"

For me, it's actually really hard to do the opposite and find a true non- technical co-founder. Someone who would actually produce something, bring something to the table other than their "idea" of "Uber for puppies" or "An awesome merge of Facebook and AirBnB".

<comment><USER11> Yea as an Idea guy who knows how to code but isn't the best at it, let me apologize for taking things too sensitively. Those are def. questions every idea guy should have already thought of. And you bringing them up should not be taken as an attack. I think those are really constructive questions that would help a business succeed.

PS if you want to discuss startup ideas let me know

<comment><USER10> The thing is these people are _not_ idea guys. Throwing a tagline is not an idea, an idea should include the whole plan, or at least a first version to be refined, augmented and improved.

Unfortunately, it seems like calling yourself "an idea guy" is a sign that you actually have no clue. I can't imagine a real idea guy calling himself like that :)

If you know how to code you're already so far ahead :) I remember talking to a guy who told me "and then we'll add the API", I asked "why an API? What is it gonna do?", his answer: "Everybody has an API, we need it if we're serious", he had no clue what an API even was.

In a way, it makes me sad. Most of these people I "interviewed" (for lack of better words) were working full time on their project (or so they claimed) but still had no clue what they were really trying to accomplish.

<comment><USER11> The reason I argue against the "idea guys have no worth" is the exact reason you mentioned: real idea guys have a vision, which includes an implementation strategy, understanding of what the tech is gonna do to solve the problem, how to market and sell the product, who to target, a realistic plan to build and scale, a good name for the product, an idea of what the logo and slogans should be ,etc.

An idea is way more than just one line (uber for X). My idea of an idea is insights into the market, designs for the MVP, and marketing strategy all in one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I used to think "Learn to Code" was the best advice out there to find a technical co-founder. That's what I did and it worked great.

But honestly, if I went back I wouldn't have learned to code. I would have learned enough to put up a basic lead capture page using unbounce or leadpages or some other landing page out-the-box product and started marketing.

Most good businesses can get some traction without any code. And people are always willing to talk if you have a product that already has some traction - even if it's very minimal.

The key is to figure out some super scaled down version of your product and use it to get some initial traction.

<comment><USER13> You don't "Learn to Code" so you can do it yourself. You do it to understand your business. Code will affect what your business can do, and when, more than you realize.

<comment><USER12> For sure, I still think there are definite benefits from learning to code. Especially, if your company is heavily tech focused. But, in the context of finding a tech co-founder, I think there are more optimal things you can do with limited time and resources.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I don't see how there could be anything wrong with asking around. Sure, it's all on you to solve the problem, and nobody can figure it out for you, but asking other people for advice is one of about two or three ways to work toward a solution to a problem you don't yet know how to solve, and it would be foolish not to do it.

Speaking as a technical person, what I'm interested in is your or your team's ability to excel at the things I am not good at doing, or don't enjoy doing. Mainly what I would care to see is the ability to do market and business model validation, marketing (in its many forms), sales, and fundraising. That stuff can be demonstrated with the sort of legwork discussed in this article, or (preferably) with past success in those areas.

I don't care if you know how to code, and I might even worry that you'll have learned enough to be in a Dunning-Kruger zone where I'll have to worry about you meddling.

Just my two cents!

</comment><comment><USER15> I don't understand why developers put themselves on such a pedestal here. I have very few real world problems which require deep non-technical knowledge. That deep non-technical knowledge is worth something far more than, perhaps, the ability to scale out an app to 300k users. I'd say it's right on par with the ability to quickly iterate a solution for product match. Knowing the domain reduces market fit risks faster than figuring out the domain while searching for fit.

What I think the real underlying issue is all the "I need a technical founder who is willing to build my idea but only share in 1% of the upside" people. They're equivalent to the spam mail recruiters which plague our industry.

<comment><USER16> You forgot eg the person I just met, the "willing to pay $75k/year [proposed pay cut] to build my idea but only share in a tiny percent of the upside".

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The author recommends 99designs to get your site designed... but in looking at it, it looks like a site that lets you run a design contest for your site, with only one designer actually getting paid for their work at the end. While I can see some benefit to the occasional contest, for special sites where just having their work exposed helps the designers... I do not think this sounds ethical as a standard practice for initial startup site designs.

<comment><USER18> > _I do not think this sounds ethical as a standard practice for initial > startup site designs_

Why is it unethical? No one is forcing designers to go onto 99designs. They only do it if they think it's worth it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I feel like I have the opposite problem. Most of the people I know are technical. What is the best way in SF to meet non-technical business minded people?

<comment><USER19> Friends of friends, meetups, apps like Weave or FounderDating...

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the suggestions, but damn, I just headed to FounderDating to try it out. The linkedin permissions they demand for sign up are ridiculous. Access to 1st and 2nd degree connections, read/write on your timeline, etc. And of course, it's the only way to join.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The best way IMHO is have a good/interesting problem for them to solve. Something they could potentially care about from a developer/tech perspective.

I "earned" my technical co-founder exactly by finding a smaller problem to solve from the really big one I had in mind.

Paid him to do it and made him realize that this was an interesting problem to solve while still a good business to be in.

The smaller problem he helped me solve has turned out to a pretty good business so I can't wait for what the bigger problem will do for it.

Now we are building some really great stuff.

</comment><comment><USER21> Are there a lot of non-technical founders that do this? It would seem to me there'd be no shortage of engineers who would raise their hand and say "me, me! I'll do it!" Is that not the case? Or are these non-technical founders filtering those people out?

If I were still young, single, and childless, I'd happily give that a shot if someone approached me with a halfway interesting idea.

<comment><USER22> I'm slightly curious as to your geographic location, as I suspect this is hugely influential in attitude.

Here is Orlando the mantra seems to be "I need to pay my bills, do that and I'll help you".

<comment><USER21> Chicago. It would be easier to live on peanuts here than in SV for sure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm in the opposite situation, technical have solved problem looking for business/sales oriented cofounder. Guess what, that's extremely difficult too.

<comment><USER24> Do you have a product associated with the technical solution? If so, then you are much farther toward attracting a business/sales co-founder. If not, then you need one. Just like business co-founders need something presentable to show the technical co-founder the technical co-founder needs the same to show the business side. If you say "oh I have solved problem X, but I can't show you the solution", then it is not much closer to attracting a partner than "I have a great idea for X, but I have no idea how to implement it."

tl;dr - the advice is the same regardless of whether you are on the business or technical side : you need a presentable proof of concept.

<comment><USER23> Yep have product which was successfully used by a (arguably) customer at a high profile institution years ago . I think most people think they are very good, most people aren't, and most of the tiny minority of people who actually are good at starting business have their own things to work on.

<comment><USER24> > most of the tiny minority of people who actually are good at starting > business have their own things to work on.

This is definitely insightful. Finding a person that is both good and available looking for a new project is a double rarity. All the more reason it is a sales pitch regardless of what side you fall on (tech or business). Good luck to you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> How about getting a BD founder that doesn't just want to shove a new idea down your throat.

</comment><comment><USER26> Posted almost 5 years go, please add 2011 to the title.

Original HN discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2714304](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2714304)

</comment><comment><USER27> This is such a one sided article. I'm sure that technical co-founders make the exact same mistakes when looking for a co-founder, and the solution would not be "learn to be a business guy, and appreciate the business guy more"

Co-founders are a team and should have complimentary skills. There are far more roles in building a startup that just "idea guy" and "tech guy", so if you are a non tech founder certain that you need a tech founder i would strongly suggest learning other skills that as a team you think you might not possess.

Also asking someone if they know anyhow is not a bad solution to a problem. Maybe it doesn't always work and you have to explore other avenues, but it rarely hurts to ask people as a first move.

<comment><USER28> I disagree. If you're a technical co-founder, go sell customers on your vision and get them to buy.

Then you have a lot more leverage when going to "business guys" and saying: "Hey, look, I've sold 30k of ARR in the last few months, but I don't see myself as amazing on the business side and I'm curious how you think you'd be able to accelerate this growth."

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I have to say as technical person, it goes the other way around as well. We, the technical people, _earn_ a good business side co founder, as it can make or break the business.

</comment><comment><USER30> completely agree on learning to code. i have this conversation all the time with non technical entrepreneurs. it's about controlling your destiny. you have more of that when you can at least build an MVP. these days, its easier than ever - you just have to be naturally curious.

<comment><USER14> If your goal is to be able to build something without needing a technical cofounder, then definitely, being able to do both sides of the business is invaluable. But if your goal is to focus on the business side and find someone you can trust to lead technology, then I think you're better off spending that learning-to-code time sharpening your business tools.

<comment><USER31> Make sure your partner knows it up front.

This will sound like a goofy analogy but my wife and I have been together for twenty years and its more important that we agree on the theory of boundaries than on the actual boundaries themselves. Although when we cooperate by having at least a minimal understanding of each other, things do go much better than working separately. Thinking back on observations of divorced people, the signals started very early with arguments about the very concept of boys night out or the only correct way (LOL) to organize household finances. May have been a divorce immediately after someone slept with someone else, or whatever, but the problem didn't initiate when the third party magically appeared in bed one night.

Anyway the analogy is obviously two founders will go further the more they can productively cooperate, but disaster is absolutely certain if they can't even agree on what level to cooperate at. And inflexibility there is going to limit the possible matching talent pool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> "You get the cofounder that you deserve". Time to get to work.</comment>


The Tempest Prognosticator - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_prognosticator <comment><AUTHOR> This is a 19th century machine that predicts storms using leeches that pull hammers to strike a bell when the air pressure changes.</comment>


A* Search - <AUTHOR> https://kartikkukreja.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/a-star-search/ <comment><USER2> The A* algorithm is a really interesting one. It's conceptually quite simple if you approach it from the right angle, but most of the time I've seen it poorly explained, and as a consequence, people really struggling to "get it".

My little contribution is a very accessible series of articles that derives A* almost from scratch, in a way that is really easy to understand: [http://gabrielgambetta.com/path1.html](http://gabrielgambetta.com/path1.html)

<comment><USER3> That's great; much better than TFA! I really appreciated the very logical division into Parts I-IV.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What I find interesting is that A star, DFS, BFS, Dijkstra's algorithm, JPS, etc are all basically the same algorithm. The only real difference is the queuing priority. (BFS is LIFO, DFS is FIFO, Dijkstra is min-distance-from- start-first, A star is min-distance-from-start- plus-(admissible,ideally)-heuristic-distance-to-end-first )

Most CS courses I've seen teach them as entirely separate algorithms, which I find... frustrating. Or rather, unnecessarily complex.

<comment><USER2> What you say is absolutely correct, and I really don't understand why this is not the way it's explained by default. I've written some articles, linked from some other comment here, that does exactly what you propose. People generally find them extremely useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you're interested in pathfinding, you might enjoy this video. [http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022094/JPS-Over-100x-Faster- th...](http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022094/JPS-Over-100x-Faster- than%20jps+%20goal%20bounding)

Taken from the description:

In 2011, Harabor and Grastien introduced Jump Point Search (JPS) that achieves up to a 10x speed improvement over A* on uniform cost grids. In the last year, an additional 10x speed improvement to JPS, called JPS+ was independently developed by Steve Rabin as well as Harabor and Grastien. This improved algorithm is over 100x faster than A* on maps with open areas and over 2x faster than A* on worst-case maps. This incredible speed-up is due to pre- computation, eliminating the recursion in JPS and focusing only on touching select relevant nodes during the search.

<comment><USER6> Unfortunately, they require large precompute time and static maps. If your maps change, you can't use it.

<comment><USER7> And if your maps don't change, you can use precomputation with A* , making it even faster than JPS+.

1\. Preprocess the graph to make it smaller. Visibility graphs are a first step, but if you have grid movement you can remove the redundancies (e.g. N-N-W taking you to the same place as W-N-N) to make an even smaller pathfinding graph. Here's a library implementing one of many such algorithms: [http://mikolalysenko.github.io/l1-path- finder/www/](http://mikolalysenko.github.io/l1-path-finder/www/)

2\. Preprocess the graph to get better distance estimates. The closer your A* heuristic is to the actual distance, the faster A* will run. "Differential heuristics" use the triangle inequality: if you have exact distances to one point L, then you can say dist(A, B) >= dist(L, B) - dist(L, A). There are other approaches too.

There's a recent paper [http://www.cs.du.edu/~sturtevant/papers/GPPC-2014.pdf](http://www.cs.du.edu/~sturtevant/papers/GPPC-2014.pdf) that covers some of the optimizations for pathfinding on grids.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Amit Patel has a great series on A* pathfinding: [http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/GameProgramming/AStarCompa...](http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/GameProgramming/AStarComparison.html)

<comment><USER9> Came here to post exactly this. I was once trying to implement A* and his explanation was what helped me understand it properly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I wrote a tutorial for this too which includes c++ source code that's been used in some succcesful video games and thereby tested by millions of people [http://heyes-jones.com/astar.php](http://heyes-jones.com/astar.php)

</comment><comment><USER11> One of the most used in industry approaches to pathfinding in things like RTSes is what's called a flow field. It's a bit like a precalculated pathfinding map.

These are some of the most interesting for what you can accomplish (pathfinding a ton of units at once!).

A great resource for that is this blog:

[https://howtorts.github.io/](https://howtorts.github.io/)

It has working javascript examples and other related topics like flocking behavior.

</comment><comment><USER12> This article was really helpful to me in understanding A*: [http://www.briangrinstead.com/blog/astar-search-algorithm- in...](http://www.briangrinstead.com/blog/astar-search-algorithm-in- javascript-updated)

</comment><comment><USER13> A nice way to visualize A* with different heuristics : [https://qiao.github.io/PathFinding.js/visual](https://qiao.github.io/PathFinding.js/visual). Also supports lots of other algorithms.

</comment><comment><USER14> An example of the A* search algorithm in use: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkMs4ZHHr8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkMs4ZHHr8)

</comment><comment><USER15> Is it really necessary to write so many blog posts explaining this 50 year old algorithm? I would have thought that there is enough material around right now.</comment>


New Planet 4x The Size of Jupiter Found In Our Solar System - <AUTHOR> http://www.gearfuse.com/new-planet-believed-to-have-been-found-at-edge-of-solar-system/

<comment><USER2> Replace "found" with "may exist" and add some "based on persistent statistical anomalies" and "most astronomers disagree with the pair of scientists which first proposed this idea 12 years ago."

<comment><AUTHOR> That would certainly exceed the 80 character limit that HN allows in it's headlines, otherwise I totally would :)

<comment><USER3> How about replacing "Found" with "Presumed", "May Be" or "Possibly Discovered", then? That should fit easily into 80 characters.

The current title is simply wrong.

And why not stick with the original title? It's much more precise and takes 62 characters.

The linked article goes to extreme pains to point out that this is all "unproven", "believed to be", etc. Please don't counter the effort.</comment></comment></comment>


Is Facebook testing a new Tab Bar UI for its iOS app? - <AUTHOR> http://d.pr/i/CBIN

<comment><USER2> I can confirm this is true. The resources are in the binary.

        email@example.com
        email@example.com
        firstname.lastname@example.com
        email@example.com

<http://imgur.com/a/pVyiT>

There's also a bunch of weird new stuff, like QR codes linking to people's profiles. In Messenger.app there's a disabled function that lets you message people that are physically close to you as well.

</comment><comment><USER3> I actually prefer tabs rather than a slide out navigation. Then again, Facebook is so complex and has so many features, it would be interesting to see how they would be able to condense things into 4 or 5 tabs.

</comment><comment><USER4> Highly unlikely. How did you manage to get this screenshot if not made-up in the first place?

<comment><USER2> The images are in the current public Facebook.app, you can confirm this yourself.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you know of a way to make this appear on any Facebook iOS app?

<comment><USER2> There's an internal settings package which, among other things, enables these features.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask Hacker News: CS-related math after college - <AUTHOR>

What series of math courses/books do you recommend to the aspiring programmer already graduated from college?
I'm a professional programmer and I realized a few years ago that the way I was doing things was totally stupid. So I've been slowly working my way up, learned Rails, now going through SICP, with PAIP coming up next.
But I also understand that a lot of math is involved that I never took. Don't get me wrong, I'm reasonably good at math, and took linear algebra and econometrics for fun, but I don't know what to read on my own and in what order for application to CS. The department websites I've looked at suggest four years of Java and maybe one math-ish algorithms class, but I don't think that's the answer.
I'd appreciate your help. Thanks. <comment><AUTHOR> Thanks everyone, those answered it quite well.

</comment><comment><USER2> You might enjoy "Concrete Mathematics" by Don Knuth, et al.

I opine that graph theory and probability are typically-useful branches of math for programmers to study.

</comment><comment><USER3> I asked a similar question a little while ago, here's what I got:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78315>

</comment><comment><USER4> Best answer to your question that I've ever read:

[http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/math-for- programmers...](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/math-for- programmers.html)

And, another good article to spur you on: <http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/math-every-day></comment>


Why Startups Live - <AUTHOR> http://tnw.co/19QUvI1

<comment><USER2> A nit with this... by "ideas", I think they mean "details". The big, sweeping ideas need to be strong and defended against a market that Just Doesn't Get It right away.

There's something to the point a friend once made, that 100 years ago, customers would be asking for better buggy whips.</comment>


The Oncoming Train of Enterprise Container Deployments - <AUTHOR> http://www.juliandunn.net/2015/12/04/the-oncoming-train-of-enterprise-container-deployments/ <comment><USER2> I think the Alpine Linux image for Docker is a good solution to the point about userland bloat. Much better than unikernels, which would entail giving up all the benefits of running containers on a shared, mature OS kernel, particularly with regard to performance, resource pooling, and debuggability. I'm still waiting for bcantrill, who actually has experience with large-scale production systems (unlike me), to expound on why he believes unikernels are a terrible idea, as he said in a brief rant here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya6h2zKlpaQ&t=5110](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya6h2zKlpaQ&t=5110)

<comment><USER3> Even though using Alpine as the base image for a container is a lot beter/cleaner than other base image imho we shouldn't rely on distro package management inside containers.

Not only does running a package manager inside the container mean you'll need to satisfy its dependencies in your image you also increase the image's attack surface compared to an image without a package manager.

Ideally we'd have a simple way of installing stuff into images from the outside so you can always start `FROM scratch` and add the minimum deps you need to run your app. Adding stuff could be as simple as extracting tars with the tar's contents following the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Each tar could be a layer so it matches well with how Docker images work as well.

Since it isn't possible to extend the Dockerfile syntax I started prototyping a static binary written in Go to add to `scratch` to do this. It worked better than I expected :) Only thing I couldn't find was a distro that packaged it's packages this way and it would obviously suck to create another packaging standard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm keen on unikernels too. At work I've argued that we should build a Xen backend for Garden so that Cloud Foundry can drive unikernel apps on equal footing with buildpack staged containers, docker containers and .NET apps. Mind you, I argue for a lot of things at work, very few of which are ever picked up; probably for the best.

But for all the virtues of unikernels, an awful lot of software assumes a linuxy userland. Outside of consciously isolated universes like Java and .NET, it might be tricky to get traction.

As for devops, the missing bit isn't the sexy stuff -- the parts that locate and monitor processes running in containerised environments. Kubernetes, Mesos, Diego and the dozens of others popping up every week are busy solving that.

What seems to be forgotten is that, as this article mentions, you still need a sane build-and-verify pipeline. Tools like Puppet, Chef and the like can be seen as image-building toolkits. Buildpacks already know how to take various stacks and turn them into runnable images (on Heroku or Cloud Foundry). Docker is a step backwards, in some respects.

Disclaimer: I work for Pivotal, the company which donates the majority of engineering effort to Cloud Foundry.

<comment><USER5> My understanding from talking to people working on MirageOS is that a lot of the unikernel users are still deploying inside containers. Just like containers aren't going to "kill" virtualization, unikernels aren't going to "kill" containers.

I'd particularly like to stress the part of the article that mentions containers that bring all of userland with them. I hope this will be fixed once people are using tools like Kubernetes and are forced to think of containers as pieces of a larger system rather than short-sightedly "porting" their applications into a container. At CoreOS, we introduced Clair[0] specifically to show people how much userland is still inside their containers and vulnernable to known CVEs. ~80% of tags (downloadable containers) on Quay.io still contain Heartbleed, for crying out loud.

[0]: [https://github.com/coreos/clair](https://github.com/coreos/clair)

<comment><USER4> > _I hope this will be fixed once people are using tools like Kubernetes and > are forced to think of containers as pieces of a larger system rather than > short-sightedly "porting" their applications into a container._

Could you elaborate a bit? I don't see how the scheduler changes the contents of a container image.

<comment><USER6> I think it's more of people treating their containers like VMs and stuffing it with things like sshd, syslog, a webserver, etc.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Standard Java API for JSON - <AUTHOR> http://www.infoq.com/news/2013/04/standard-java-api-for-json

<comment><AUTHOR> I hate when this sort of stuff happens in the Java world, gives me the feeling of almost "manually" parsing it, the impl could be better, if take as an example other impl as Json.net for .NET

</comment><comment><USER2> Is there something wrong with Jackson that necessitated this?

<comment><AUTHOR> I am a .NET developer, did not know about Jackson, I just saw it and oh man! now I understand you. way way simpler.</comment></comment>


Overview of Text Mining - <AUTHOR> http://www.edupristine.com/blog/text-mining-overview

<comment><AUTHOR> Text mining is an analytical field which derives high quality information from text. Text mining is widely used in the industry when data is unstructured. Derived information can be provided in the form of numbers (indices), categories or clusters, summary of text. This article focusses on applications of text mining, workflow and example.</comment>


The first modern-day marine fish has officially gone extinct - <AUTHOR> https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-first-modern-day-marine-fish-has-officially-gone-extinct-more-may-follow/ <comment><AUTHOR> The loss of this species may seem insignificant, especially since it hasn't been seen for about 200 years, but it's a noteworthy event: the smooth handfish is actually the first marine, bony fish to go extinct in modern times.</comment>


Google blacklists 52 year old magazine - <AUTHOR> https://spectator.org/the-google-blacklisting-of-the-american-spectator/ <comment><USER2> This is, unfortunately, what happens when a nation is ideologically divided. When the level of division is low, these things happen infrequently, when a more extreme person comes into power. Once the divisions get bigger, the deliberate provocations become more common, until the culture of each side starts to shift, viewing the other as really an enemy. Then the abuse becomes unconscious and insidious.

From the few years that I lived in the USA, it was already pretty palpable, the disdain and borderline hostility between conservatives and liberals, with some of the strangest stories of outrage flying from each's lips regularly. TBH I had trouble telling the two apart, other than that one kind I saw in California, and the other next door in Arizona.</comment>


The Types of Data (in Swift) - <AUTHOR> http://tel.github.io/2014/07/26/types_of_data_in_swift/

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a quick follow up to my previous post demonstrating the types of data using Swift. Swift is interestingly a really great language for expressing the types of data (in particular, it has the ability to create true sums).

So if you were a bit turned off by the Haskell examples in the previous post perhaps these examples will be helpful.

(Also, I just started playing with Swift tonight, so feedback on style would be greatly appreciated!)</comment>


In California, Stingy Water Users Are Fined in Drought, While the Rich Soak - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/us/stingy-water-users-in-fined-in-drought-while-the-rich-soak.html <comment><USER2> Another article about water in California that doesn't mention agriculture and uses gallons instead of acre-feet to make the numbers look huge. Pools, even five of them for one house, are a red herring.

<comment><USER3> It does seem there is a serious amount of effort being put into making this some sort of wedge issue while utterly ignoring agricultural use.

<comment><USER4> It seems like the little sibling of 'hey, focus on these gender/race issues, not those class issues'.

<comment><USER5> Except in this case it's explicitly about class issues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Another problem: if you were previously very conservative with your water use, then how do you cut it further? I have a coworker that years ago cut her water use dramatically. Now, she's in a quandary because she's being asked to cut it more. Her solution: family members now take showers at the gym.

<comment><USER7> Second-order effect: Next drought, when asked to conserve, she will do the minimum possible the first time. Allocations based on previous use seems sensible, but if done naively encourage people to push up their resource consumption when they can.

A more familiar instance of this same effect can be seen in the way that any bureaucrat that has even one iota of bureaucratic sense knows that you _never_ leave a financial period with money left in the budget. You want to be seen to have to spend it all, perhaps even a bit overdrafted, and yet still be visibly pressed for resources so that you can get more next year. Efficiency with your resources means you're first on the chopping block next budget period. (I suspect this is one of the larger contributors to why large organizations inevitably become inefficient.)

<comment><USER8> Isn't this short term thinking? If it causes budget shortfalls elsewhere and the pork is exposed they end up unemployable.

<comment><USER9> Do local government solutions ever use long term thinking?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> And yet, Californians still grow rice, a pound of which requires about 300 gallons of water to grow. The 11.8 million gallons the kingpen used is enough to grow about 40 thousand pounds of rice, which is worth about $20,000. That is less than a quarter of the kingpen's water bill of $90,000.

<comment><USER11> To be fair, rice farmers have scaled back their crop by (iirc) 25% this year.

<comment><USER12> The implied question is how they're making any money at all if it costs $90k worth of water to grow $20k worth of rice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There are some questionable comments in this article. It's hard to find real numbers, but swimming pools that are kept covered use very little water. And complaining about "verdant" gardens isn't quite the right metric. We have a few verdant oak trees, and they use no water whatsoever except from rainfall.

We also come in well below 178 interior gallons/person/day, and we're not going to extremes to reduce interior usage.

<comment><USER14> That number seems ridiculously high.

Local figures here suggest much lower rates: [https://www.ec.gc.ca/indicateurs- indicators/default.asp?lang...](https://www.ec.gc.ca/indicateurs- indicators/default.asp?lang=en&n=7E808512-1)

That's about 250L per day, or about 65 gallons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Family of 5, 1,303 gallons a month. Daily showers, clothes washing, dishes, etc. That's 43 gallons a day. How is she using four times that?

<comment><USER16> Seems even more ridiculous actually

> to just 178 gallons per person each day.

which would be ~21000 gallons per month for her family of four. Has to be an error right? Either she is a total idiot or the Times can't do math and it's not per person per day.

<comment><USER17> That seems to mesh with the rest of the facts. Her family use in one month is _still_ 1/3 less than a single Bel Air resident's _daily_ usage.

Edit: love the downmods on this

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> She used 178 gallons (674 litres) per _day_? And that wasn't enough to take a shower every day?! A bathtub is ~80l, and a showering consumes less than that. A washing machine cycle is another ~80l. A dishwasher ~20l/cycle. Cooking maybe 20l. Flush the toilet 5 times/day, 50l. Even such generous estimates get barely to ⅓ of her reported consumption.

<comment><USER19> [http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/2014/01/23/how-much-water-do- cal...](http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/2014/01/23/how-much-water-do-californians- use-each-day-and-what-does-a-20-reduction-look-like/) says "An often-cited 2011 study of California single-family water consumption estimated that the average California household used more than 360 gallons of water per day." They are under 1/2 that water use.

The KQED page continues "... Meanwhile, Indoor use accounted for more than 170 gallons per household per day. Not surprisingly, the most in-home water consumption was in toilet flushes. A more shocking finding, however, was the whopping 18 percent lost to leaks inside homes, the study found." The family is well-aligned with that water use.

Of course, the "per household" in that study is an average. This household has 4 people, while the study uses an average of 2.94 people per household, so we should expect this family to use more water than average.

The study is at [http://water.cityofdavis.org/Media/PublicWorks/Documents/PDF...](http://water.cityofdavis.org/Media/PublicWorks/Documents/PDF/PW/Water/Documents/California- Single-Family-Home-Water-Use-Efficiency-Study-20110420.pdf) . Page 197 gives an estimated water use per household as a function of household size, using various models (old homes, new homes, California homes, and high efficiency homes).

By that benchmark, 178/gallons is well below the 200 gal/day average for California homes, though worse than expected for a high efficiency home, which comes out to 150 gallons per day.

I don't really see the source of your astonishment. By all accounts, the water use in this household is below average for California. If it were an older house, with more wasteful fixtures, then these numbers would be unsurprising even for a family doing its best to conserve.

> Even such generous estimates get barely to ⅓ of her reported consumption.

I lived in Santa Fe, which has some of the lowest water use per capita of any city in the south-west. I had drip irrigation for my garden, and like most in the city, no grass. The city had rebate and other incentive programs in place to promote water conservation. For example, I got my toilets replaced with high efficiency toilets for free, due to a city program which coupled housing growth to water conservation. They now have a rebate for households which install water-free urinals. Even with all that in place, and quoting from [http://savewatersantafe.com/2015/06/santa-fe-2014-gpcd- sets-...](http://savewatersantafe.com/2015/06/santa-fe-2014-gpcd-sets- standard-for-the-west/) "For people in single-family residences, each person within the household uses 51 gallons per person per day."

You can see that that 50 gallons/month is higher than your "generous" expectations of 1/3 of 178 gallons = 45 gallons/capita/day. While it's certainly possible to have a lower water use lifestyle, all evidence is that it's not a quick or cheap change.

Is your astonishment not all the more greater for those using over 25x the district average, as reported in this piece?

<comment><USER18> From the 1st paragraph of the fine article: "She [...] cut her family's water use nearly in half, to just 178 gallons _per person_ each day." [emphasis mine].

I agree with your analysis wholeheartedly.

<comment><USER20> Yeah, I just checked, the per person usage here is ~1050 gallons per month. There's no shortage of water ($3 for 10,000 gallons), and we don't work real hard to conserve (and no kids in the house).

It could be the case that the article got it wrong. You sort of hope so. Otherwise there is probably something wrong with their plumbing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The whole thing with california reminds me of the story about that one civilization in the pacific - "what were they thinking when they cut down the last tree ?"

Water exists until it doesn't.

<comment><USER19> That's a question posed in Diamond's "Collapse", regarding Easter Island.

Of course, the same applies to the last of many things - what were they thinking of when they killed off the passenger pigeons, or the aurochs?

<comment><USER21> Its different though - since water is very basic. A lot like food.

<comment><USER19> Certainly they are different, but you brought up how it reminded you of the person who asked Diamond about cutting down the last tree on Easter Island.

That's neither water nor food either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It's even worse: limits for thee but not for me.

[https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/california- water-o...](https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/california-water- officials-arent-following-own-call-for-conservation/)</comment>


Pure CSS Still Life – Water and Lemons - <AUTHOR> https://codepen.io/ivorjetski/pen/xMJoYO <comment><USER2> Neat, any source how this can be achieved?

<comment><USER3> The source is provided right there in the CSS.</comment></comment>


Startup behind chewable coffee created a performance-enhancing 'superhuman fuel' - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-ketone-ester-ketosis-hvmn-2017-10 <comment><USER2> > The drink comes in a bottle about the size of a 5-Hour Energy shot. It's > clear and has no smell. The taste, however, burns like rubbing alcohol. It > caused our eyes to tear. We gagged, loudly.

> Still, after a few minutes, our stomachs ached. A flavor like nail polish > remover lingered on our lips long after drinking and was only extinguished > with ice water.

Sounds great.

<comment><USER3> Hi, co-founder here.

Yes it does have a kick to it. It's made for performance (is > 98% ketone & water) not to be the most delicious thing ever.

The writer's response here is totally legit -- but we've also demo'd with pro athletes, Navy SEAL's, etc. and they just knock it back, no big deal!

<comment><USER4> So many questions...

Like: when you say "ketone" you mean what kind of ketone/ketone ester...? My first thought when they complained about it tasting like nail polish remover was that if it involves acetone, it _is_ nail polish remover.

Second, I wonder what this would be doing to metabolism of other carbs... I've read that using these ketone esters without decreasing carb intake might actually make things worse from a certain perspective, metabolically speaking...

Not a criticism, just kinda thinkin out loud.

<comment><USER3> It is D-BHB, not acetone. [https://help.hvmn.com/hvmn-ketone/what-is-inside- hvmn-ketone](https://help.hvmn.com/hvmn-ketone/what-is-inside-hvmn-ketone)

When taken with carbs, as was done in the athlete studies, performance output increases because the body has access to both types of energy. The ketones are used first, protecting the glucose for later use.

<comment><USER5> My understanding is that many elite-level athletes can still achieve ketosis while consuming a significant amount of carbs (around what most people would probably consider normal intake) because they're training so much and burning so much glycogen.

What happens when it's an average person who doesn't have the same energy expenditure and metabolic efficiency as an elite athlete?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here is my personal "this will make you an uber human and you'll code like Linus Torvalds" trick: whipped cream. Skip lunch, and instead drink 2.5 dl (adjust according to body mass) of 40% fat whipped cream. You'll kind of feel disgusting and almost nauseous for 10 minutes afterwards but then you'll have amazing energy for eight hours or more. Awesome for times when you need to deep study some complicated topics.

Of course, YOU are not ME. YMMV :)

<comment><USER3> Yes, this is a big part of why people like ketogenic diets and intermittent fasting. Avoiding carbs, and initiating a state of ketosis, means your brain is fueled on ketones -- many people subjectively like the feeling.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> You can already buy KetoKaNa and similar products on amazon, so I don't see how this is any different, nor innovative.

The article hints to studies, but so far I have not heard of anyone combining ketone esters with carb rich diets. Typically they are only used to get you through the slump in ketone production when you first start the keto diet.

It seems this would have been a natural evolutionary path if ketones were meant to co-exist with carbs. Why is it that your body shuts off ketone production with carbs present? Why not keep them both available. Circumventing this without studying the effects first may not be wise.

<comment><USER8> If the graph on their website is to be believed, then it (ketone esters) should be a lot more potent than ketone salts. I have tried KetoCana and I didn't notice any cognitive difference, or much of a difference in ketones as measured by my Ketonix (although that measures breath acetone, not blood BHB, and probably not super accurately).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Seems like this effect can be reproduced by intermittent fasting or a keto diet.

<comment><USER3> Sort of! You can enter ketosis through IF and keto diet (we run WeFast, a big facebook fasting group, and I fast 36 hours every week).

What's special about HVMN Ketone is that you can get into ketosis with just a drink. And it lets you maintain carb levels at the same time, unlike keto diet & IF, which is a big plus for the sports performance gains.

<comment><USER10> Can you provide the research or documentation proving that this drink will immediately get you into ketosis? How long does it last? Are you actually just faking out ketone strips for some period of time?

Can I eat carbs every day but drink this and stay in ketosis? That seems really unlikely.

<comment><USER8> The graph on their website (if to be believed) shows a comparison between their ketone ester and a ketone salt.

Also, if I remember correctly, ketone esters were originally developed for use in rebreather SCUBA diving. The concentration of oxygen makes seizures much more likely. Since ketogenic diets are useful for preventing seizures, the military wanted a "ketogenic diet in a pill".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> A ketogenic diet stimulates your body to produce ketones, which seems preferable to drinking something which tastes like "rubbing alcohol" with a "nail polish" aftertaste.

</comment><comment><USER12> I've done Keto several times, and while the results were always fantastic the hardest thing is that 3-4 day period where you need to watch what you eat to enter ketosis, one false move can reset your progress and really discourage you; however for me once I'm in ketosis I'm pretty disciplined at keeping it up.

If this drink can get me into ketosis quickly and allow me to maintain it by following the regular diet then I'm sold. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out.

<comment><USER3> Good to hear about your experiences with keto. I do cyclic keto, going into ketogenic diet for periods and then coming back to "normal" (still relatively low carb). Cyclic keto has shown benefits, and it doesn't have the trade-offs of going full keto.

For people who struggle with symptoms of keto flu (ie, those ~3 days ramping up to the keto diet, and blood glucose is low but the body is not yet producing ketones in high levels) the drink could help alleviate this as people transition.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I've been going in the opposite direction. Last year I've bought an aeropress coffe device to improve my coffee at work. Last week I've started to use a manual grinder so I can use high quality whole beans. My morning and after lunch coffees are my personal rituals.

A chewable coffee looks completely detestable. :-)

<comment><USER14> I've tried the Go cubes. I wouldn't really think of them as a replacement for a nice cup of coffee. They're more "I need this caffeinated burst and I don't want to deal with going to a coffee shop or grinding/brewing/etc". More like a way to get effects of coffee or an energy drink without coffee.

It's sort of like how Soylent Coffiest is a coffee alternative with other things that reduce the downsides of coffee, but it's "meta coffee", not exactly coffee.

By the way, another alternative to preparing your own coffee by hand that's good is Sudden Coffee. It's an instant coffee that's like a freeze dried pour over.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> As someone who practices IF semi-strictly, is there any benefit to taking this while maintaining a low level of carb intake? Or is it's ideal use case for someone who wants to get carb intake levels higher?

</comment><comment><USER16> Man slow down and drink a cup of coffee.. enjoy life!</comment>


RIAA Boss Tries To Defend SOPA & PIPA To The NY Times - <AUTHOR> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111212/10395817047/riaa-boss-tries-to-defend-sopa-pipa-to-ny-times.shtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter <comment><USER2> "There may be different ways to craft a sensible bill, and we're all for finding the best way, but one thing is clear: the status quo isn't working. These illicit sites are among the culprits behind the music industry's more than 50 percent decline in revenues during the last decade, resulting in 15,000 layoffs and fewer resources to invest in new bands."

To my knowledge that statement is completely false, a study was conducted in 2004 which showed that the effect was "Indistinguishable from Zero".[1] I find it disturbing how often people make up claims and don't have any sources or evidence to back them up.

[1]: "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales." <http://goo.gl/vkDap> (PDF)

</comment><comment><USER3> "dont worry, we will only use our power to shut down websites without due process in the really really bad cases where (insert objectionable internet content here) is so bad that almost nobody would defend it."

I find his justification for creating a great wall of America insufficient.</comment>


The Rise of "No Code" - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@rrhoover/the-rise-of-no-code-e733d7c0944d <comment><USER2> It is a compelling read; especially given that there are so many ideas that never materialize (for better or for worse) because the lack of technical expertise. I really like the idea of accessibility for not so technical dreamers.</comment>


Tutorial: Ordering EAGLE Designed Circuit Boards - <AUTHOR> http://colinkarpfinger.com/blog/2010/ordering-pcbs-designed-with-eagle/

<comment><USER2> I've had a lot of fun just drawing them myself on plain copper boards with fine-tipped sharpies. They sell little bottles of the etcher at some Radio Shacks but recently I've stepped up to ordering "Ammonium Persulfate" online and using a laser printer and an iron to make my designs.

I guess once you've monkeyed with that a while you might want to step up to something like this. It always seemed expensive and slow to me but I guess if you want to use little surface mount stuff you'd have to.

Seems like soldering it all together once you get the boards is the hard part in that scenario though.

<comment><USER3> SMD's are easy if you have tweezers, a magnifying glass and clean soldering iron. Take a look at this link <http://www.infidigm.net/articles/solder/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> While I expect it could take years to get to the level of being able to design an interesting IC, could anyone recommend some good online EE introductory material?

<comment> X-Istence Take a look at the beginners offerings from <http://parallax.com/>. Stuff like the boe-bot and others. They will allow you to get your feet wet with electronics and circuit design.

After you have the basics down, you can start looking at the tutorials that SparkFun has for example to get some basic circuits out, and building them, learn how to solder (screwing up when you have 20 boards made is not that big of a deal, buy SparkFun's broken boards and play with them, I learned how to solder from my professor and have always had extremely neat boards).

Just take your time, and don't rush it. It is an absolutely blast to create your first circuit with an LED and blink it with a microcontroller.

The one thing I will mention is, get ready to decipher all kinds of data sheets to get the information you need so you don't accidentally burn up your electronic parts.

<comment><USER5>
      >> so you don't accidentally burn up your electronic parts

The biggest thing to watch out for is incompatible voltage ranges (lots of parts are 3.3V compatible, most parts are not 5V compatible).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> also, <http://www.ladyada.net/wiki/pcbchecklist> (much less photogenic)</comment>


Official Java account tweets cryptographically insecure AES encryption demo code - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/wlami/status/1234227757363671045 <comment><USER2> It's kind of funny how often people end up using ECB. (Or not using a nonce with stream ciphers.) It's like so obvious that that can't work when you think about it, but I guess most people just don't think about it in the first place.

In this case however, the low quality was easy to identify for everyone. Just go to the website:

>Happy learning and keep coding !!!.

A space in front of three exclamation marks followed by a period. Only psychopaths would be able to write something like that.

<comment><AUTHOR> I totally agree. I would have expected some kind of vetting before content gets posted by an official account with +450k followers.</comment></comment>


How Chrome & Firefox are Winning the Browser War - Cheating with Version Numbers - <AUTHOR> http://www.domain.me/blog/chrome-firefox-browser-wars-cheating-version-numbering-1832 Several weeks ago, Mozilla released its Firefox browser 5.0. Being a techie and a geek that I am, I hurried to download the beta version and try it out. To my surprise, I downloaded the 4.x edition. Or so I thought. <comment><USER2> Normal people, and guess what guys that isn't us, don't care about or even notice version numbers.

Chrome is winning by getting a lot of people to try it, and then being a better experience than the persons old browser. Doesn't sound like cheating to me.

</comment><comment><USER3> This article is beyond useless. Firefox and Chrome are winning the browser wars by making a better browser. Part of that is constantly updating and improving which are the source of version numbers.</comment>


Christmas Bomber: Where Airport Security Worked - <AUTHOR> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/01/christmas_bombe.html <comment><USER2> I think he should stick to writing about cryptography. I read his blog from time to time because of his expertise, but recent posts has just been filled with assumptions and speculations.

<comment><USER3> What specific assumptions or speculation in this article do you find objectionable?

<comment><USER2> Mainly that "detonating PETN is actually very hard" and "no security system [...] on the planet, is designed to catch someone doing this". I remember his analysis to be more detailed than this, but maybe I remember wrong. There were also a post about the predator drone about a week ago, which had some good technical points, but in my opinion was poor from an intelligence perspective.

<comment><USER4> Those statements are both true, and they support his point that the airport security systems have done some good. I don't see the problem.

<comment><USER5> I think it's reasonable to point out that almost anyone could have made the same observations based on media reporting over the past several weeks; it took no particular skill or experience to note that no security system is perfect or to note that liquid explosives are hard to detonate.

<comment><USER4> Perhaps it doesn't take much skill, but that observation doesn't really jive with my not having seen these points in print or on the news since the incident. Bruce's blurb was the first time I heard anything about either aspect of the case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It strikes me that most of the complaints on this issue (ignoring the partisan frothing) center on self-reassurance - a faith that we _can_ stop all terrorists with reasonable security measures, it's just that someone was slack on the job in this case. Blame hard enough, and we'll be safe.

<comment><USER7> You're very right. I think that stems from the 'we're on the right side' feeling that people have somehow.

The truth is a determined enough organization with some money to burn will always, now and forever have the ability to disrupt society to some extent and murder a bunch of people in the process.

To admit that though means that you're going to be lumped in with the fatalists instead of with the realists.

Any fool can break a window, it takes lots of effort and knowledge to make a clear, flat piece of glass. In other words, destruction is so much easier than creation that we should be happy the terrorists are as incompetent as they are.

They'd like to destroy the western world (so we're told) and they've managed to kill < 10,000 people in many years of trying.

They would be more effective if they started cutting brake lines on vehicles at random.

<comment><USER6> "I think that stems from the 'we're on the right side' feeling"

What does that have to do with this?

<comment><USER7> It's linked to 'faith' and it's cousin 'fate', the idea that something strong flows from being on the 'right' side of a conflict and that that in turn can somehow be used to affect the outcome.

Of course all sides think they're on the 'right' side, and besides that there is no deity that will intervene with reality to make a difference.

But that does not seem to stop people from thinking that something will work against the 'bad guys' so that we can 'win' this thing.

As long as the world is structured the way it is there will be an endless supply of 'bad guys', and some of them will be successful no matter how much we destroy our own society in order to try to thwart their plans.

Being on the right side literally does not enter in to the equation, except in the heads of those that believe strongly in good and bad, and most likely in heaven and hell.

Which is a good part of the cause of all this trouble anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Bruce Schneier seems to be very intent to leverage his expertise in computer security in to getting himself associated with the 'war on terror' gravy train, the best thing in the security scene since the red scare and the cold war.

It'll make him a bundle.

<comment><USER6> Or maybe it's just been an interest of his over the time that "security" and associated paranoia have been a part of the public discussion in the US.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Do devices that can detect plastic explosives through clothing exist?

<comment><USER9> There are "sniffer" devices that can detect the minutest traces of target chemicals. Parts-per-million or parts-per-billion detectors are no longer unusual. [http://www.officer.com/web/online/Investigation/Sniffer- Devi...](http://www.officer.com/web/online/Investigation/Sniffer- Devices/18$31675)

<comment><USER7> Yay for false positives. They had/have those in the CN tower in Toronto, major nuisance. But since it is obviously high on the target list of every extremist organization they can't take chances.</comment></comment></comment>


Artists vs. programmers - who works for free? - <AUTHOR> http://imgur.com/gallery/G28a9TW

<comment><USER2> Most people that don't understand the work required to do what you do will underestimate the difficulty/hours involved. Pretty much any profession has this problem.</comment>


Proposal for a Flag of Mars - <AUTHOR> http://www.flagofmars.com <comment><USER2> The way things are currently going, I highly doubt there'll be very many flags on Mars. Corporate logos are another story though.

</comment><comment><USER3> Flags are generally designed to stand out against the background, so I am not convinced that using red on the martian flag is such a good idea. Which is also why there are few green flags in Europe, and also why the white flag of House Stark does not make any sense :-)

<comment><USER4> The majority of the flag is white though, and only a small portion is red. So I wouldn't consider this much of an issue. My understanding is that sandstorms are likely to reduce visibility at great distances anyways.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It looks very similar to the "logo" of Princeton University [1].

[1] [https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eJ6mEvslTq8/AAAAAAAAAAI/A...](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eJ6mEvslTq8/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAJDg/bRLwo2LAdew/photo.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER6> Although the idea of colonising Mars is something really exciting, I doubt we will be able to pull it off any time soon. There are many much more hospitable places that we haven't yet "colonised", despite a long history of human presence -- compared to Mars surface, Antarctica and Greenland interior are practically a paradise.

</comment><comment><USER7> > It represents more. The new flag represents multiple aspects of Mars itself > and of humanity's relationship with Mars.

Did they miss out the part where they explained what it actually represents?

</comment><comment><USER8> Did the authors of this website ever heard of the male sign (♂) which is already for millennia the symbol for Mars? Or is this supposed to be an upgrade?

<comment><USER9> The upward pointing "blade" is also a male symbol (neo-pagan)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pagan_symbol_male_phallus...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pagan_symbol_male_phallus.svg)

but honestly i like neither. Mars isn't a bathroom or a boys only club, and it shouldn't have male symbols on its flag. Roman gods be damned.</comment></comment>


Windows 8 now up to 5.10% market share as it finally passes Windows Vista - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/07/01/windows-8-now-up-to-5-10-market-share-as-it-finally-passes-windows-vista <comment><USER2> I'm not sure what Microsoft calls it, but Windows 8 feels like an absolute flop to me. Microsoft needs to get their shit together.</comment>


QArt – Pictures in QR code with no inherent errors - <AUTHOR> https://research.swtch.com/qart <comment><USER2> Other interesting technique is using halftones/dithering to embed picture in readable QR code:

PDF paper: [http://vecg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/Projects/SmartGeometry/halftone_QR/...](http://vecg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/Projects/SmartGeometry/halftone_QR/paper_docs/halftoneQR_sigga13.pdf)

Javascript demo: [http://jsfiddle.net/lachlan/r8qWV/](http://jsfiddle.net/lachlan/r8qWV/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Excellent post! Months ago when I saw gopher QR code I was wondering how is it possible to encode picture like that but found nothing.

</comment><comment><USER4> It would be interesting to see traffic signs created this way. Readable both by humans and by machines from far away.

</comment><comment><USER5> the article points to google code, is there another source? (gitlab, github, bitbucket, etc)

<comment><USER6> The code was exported to GitHub, to which I assume is the author's account (rsc):

[https://github.com/rsc/qr](https://github.com/rsc/qr)

However, I'm not familiar with go and all I see there, is what looks like a plain QR encoding library.

There is also code for the web server: [https://github.com/rsc/swtch/blob/master/app/blog/qr.go](https://github.com/rsc/swtch/blob/master/app/blog/qr.go)

Again, I don't know how to dig further to find the source of the qrweb module.

Any ideas?</comment></comment>