Show HN: Duolingo like app for programming - <AUTHOR> https://programminghub.io/ <comment><USER2> Looks nice and I like the concepts couple of on-boarding notes on IOS:

\- Sign up wasn't super clear that I had successfully registered and I needed to login after I had entered my registration credentials.

\- Loading progress (loading awesomeness) took a long while forced a restart in the end

\- Enrolling on a course requires content to load but the content itself looks out of place compared to the rest of the look and feel

\- Content selection looks great but would it be better to offer a subset based on a bit of an on-boarding walk through?</comment>


Blackbird: the browser for African Americans - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/08/blackbird-is-a-custom-browser-for-african-americans-built-on-top-of-mozilla/

<comment><USER2> That's really stupid. This sounds like an advert for 'positive segregation' or some other silly concept. Making software for specific ethnic groups will lead to increased segregation between the ethnic groups and is a terrible thing socially.

<comment><USER3> Does seem a tad bit condescending.</comment></comment>


The Brachistochrone: The Problem of Quickest Descent - <AUTHOR> http://fermatslibrary.com/s/brachistochrone-curve-the-problem-of-quickest-descent <comment><USER2> Calculus of variations is one of those things you learn in undergrad classical mechanics that still blows my mind. The derivation is some hand-wavey thing that involves pooping a little epsilon in front of the space _of all the damn functions in the world with all the properties you could ever want_ and now we just exteremize like calculus 101? But then it works. And it works amazingly well. And it works with constraints. And it works with whatever god awful brewed in the deepest cauldrons of hell coordinates you find useful. Pretty fun stuff!

Are there any mathematical treatments that get at calculus of variations in a more principled way than the standard physics class that are still accessible to one with a physicsy background?

<comment><USER3> There's two basic approaches to calculus of variations. One is based around the Gateaux Variation which basically is an extension of the normal derivative. So the vector x becomes x + epsilon*v and you take the limit as epsilon goes to zero. The second is due to Lagrange and uses the symbol lower case delta. The both amount to the same thing, but the notation is different. There's epsilon in the Lagrange approach, it's just buried.

For Lagrange's approach, I recommend Lanczos' "The Variational Principles of Mechanics". It's published by Dover so if you can't find it in a library, it's only about $10 last I checked. For the other approach, we used John Troutman's "Variational Calculus and Optimal Control: Optimization with Elementary Convexity" in my Applied Math course on calculus of variations. It's good, but I don't think it's too approachable if you haven't had the lectures to go with it.

I've done a lot of work with calculus of variations including working out the math for volume integration of variational gradients which is something that appears in beam deformation problems.

One day I'll sit down and write books on calculus of variations, finite element analysis, and mechanics of deformable bodies. I was very unsatisfied with the texts I used for all of these in my undergrad and grad programs.

<comment><USER4> Gelfand and Fomin's 1963 book also seems pretty highly recommended: [http://amzn.com/0486414485/](http://amzn.com/0486414485/)

<comment><USER3> Hmm, it's a Dover book. That alone makes me think it's probably a good one as they have a habit of reprinting some excellent books that would otherwise be out of print. I'll have to check it out. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is so cool! I used to read and recap one academic article per week. Was going to do it for a year, but I fell off the wagon pretty quickly.

Fermat's library looks like the perfect excuse to get back into it.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wrote a program to let a ball roll down the brachistochrone and compare it to other curves as my final school project some years ago. Might help some to get a better idea of it.

[http://tobiasgurdan.de/facharbeit/Brachistochrone/Brachistoc...](http://tobiasgurdan.de/facharbeit/Brachistochrone/Brachistochrone.html)

<comment><USER7> I like that you also have the ball sliding when the initial part of the track is near vertical. My German isn't good enough to read easily - is there a way of varying the coefficient of friction? Setting that 0 simulates the traditional problem where the falling object slides, and setting it to a very high value gets closer to the situation where some of the energy is taken into the rolling, and not into the speed of the ball.

But nice work - thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's to be noticed that this paper is considering the classic Brachistochrone problem where the "ball" is _sliding_ , not rolling. In other circumstances this makes a _huge_ difference - I'd be interested in seeing a treatment of the Brachistochrone problem that takes that very real, physical difference into account.

</comment><comment><USER8> A nice paper on the Brachistochrone which dwelves a little more on J. Bernoulli's approach is:

[http://www.math.umt.edu/tmme/vol5no2and3/tmme_vol5nos2and3_a...](http://www.math.umt.edu/tmme/vol5no2and3/tmme_vol5nos2and3_a1_pp.169_184.pdf)</comment>


Selenium's Page Object Pattern: The Key to Maintainable Tests - <AUTHOR> http://justin.abrah.ms/python/selenium-page-object-pattern--the-key-to-maintainable-tests.html

<comment><USER2> Having done a decent bit of testing using Selenium, especially with splinter[1], this is quite a fantastic design pattern. Thanks for posting, I'm going to give it a go.

[1] [http://splinter.cobrateam.info](http://splinter.cobrateam.info)</comment>


Show HN: Free Chat UI Kit for Sketch - <AUTHOR> https://www.cometchat.com/chat-ui-kit <comment><AUTHOR> Hi! We've launched a new Chat UI Kit for Sketch. We've included 36+ screens for the most popular features like one-on-one chat, group chat, settings and more. As you may already know, chat is now an integral part of nearly every popular mobile app and site, in one form or another. We have designed this messaging UI kit using Sketch, but have also provided it in other formats incase you do not have Sketch. We truly recommend Sketch to every designer/developer out there!

</comment><comment><USER2> Please don't break my back button and hijack my scroll. It is very annoying.

Looks nice otherwise.</comment>


With 100k beta users in 2 weeks we launch TakeOff - <AUTHOR> http://www.justunfollow.com/takeoff

<comment><USER2>
       function redirectFunction() {
            if (navigator.userAgent.match(/(iPod|iPhone|iPad)/)) {
                setTimeout(function() {
                    window.location = "itms://itunes.apple.com/app/justunfollow/id528626975?mt=8";
                }, 25);

No.

<comment><USER3> Hi, I am the lead developer behind TakeOff. Looks like we goofed up here. Sorry about that.</comment></comment>


JavaScript is doing black magic - <AUTHOR> http://jsfiddle.net/4jyv99o6/

<comment><USER2> See the W3C Spec: [http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM- Level-2-HTML/html.html#ID-75708506](http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM- Level-2-HTML/html.html#ID-75708506)

</comment><comment><USER3> An HTMLCollection in the HTML DOM is live; it is automatically updated when the underlying document is changed.

<comment><USER4> A good example of a "dead collection" is the NodeList returned by `querySelectorAll` [http://jsfiddle.net/4jyv99o6/14/](http://jsfiddle.net/4jyv99o6/14/)</comment></comment>


Interviewing SUCKS - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkCYp_2AS14&t=48m35s <comment><USER2> If I were asked to write code on a white board, I would just say, "That would be like asking me to bench press in my business suit. I can do it, but the context is wrong and it won't be pleasant or productive. So, no. Let's do something else.".

If I were asked to write a bubble sort algo (I think I saw this last week on HN)...

var sortedArray = [1,3,2].sort();

Because, at the level I operate at, it's more important to know how to use your tools than to know how to make your tools.

I would also explain, "Building software is a lot like building a house. You need an architect, a foundation guy, carpenters, maybe an interior designer to make it look nice. I can be your architect, build your foundation, frame and finish, and even some basic interior design work and you want to ask me how to build a hammer?"

Then, they either respect you for saying no or the interview is over. Either way you're better off.

Of course, if you're a low level programmer, that's not the right answer.

<comment><AUTHOR> You'd think people would get that, but the white-board algo interviews continue on.</comment></comment>


College or UnCollege? - <AUTHOR> http://hacksandthoughts.posterous.com/college-or-uncollege

<comment><USER2> _I find it particularly amusing that two of the most vocal advocates of dropping out of college are Peter Thiel and Mike Arrington—both of whom completed Stanford Law degrees. College dropouts Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are strong proponents of finishing your degrees. Even Steve Jobs talks about the importance of liberal arts education._

The funny part is, I would be more apt to take the advice of those that did finish. They attained a degree and experienced first hand the lack of advantage. By completing their degree they are the only ones in the position to fully evaluate whether it was worth it or not.

As someone who left school and then went back later in life because I fell prey to the "I need a degree mentality", I can certainly say that only after I finished school, that I am in a position to evaluate fully whether it was worth it or not. Only after I finished my degree, was I able to state unequivocally, that attaining the degree did nothing to further my career.

I achieved the status of CTO 3 times before ever completing it. After that, I became my own worst enemy and started to convince myself that I needed to return and seek the completion of a degree. So at the point before the degree, I most certainly would have been in the you need to finish camp. Only after completing and the removal of that insecurity, was I able to see that it had no effect and offered no advantage to where I was before.

Now I am not saying that individuals like Bill Gates are insecure about their lack of degree. but I do question whether they can truly make an evaluation the pro's and con's given that they have not completed the experience required to make a full evaluation.

<comment><AUTHOR> I exactly understand your point. It is for that reason that I mention that I graduated from college. I have a degree but it did not take me to where I wanted to be. I remain a critic of the education system and I see that UnCollege addresses some valid issues about traditional colleges.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> My main issue with this "Get my Piece of Paper" mentally is it seems that College is more about vanity than education. Which in my opinion it is. People go to College to have a degree not learn.

I understand that if you don't go to College in most industries then you won't get a job. But i'm not so convinced that if you want to start a tech startup or work for one that College is the most important thing. Most startup jobs pages are open to College degrees or experience/portfolio. Which UnCollege is vastly about, building experience and learning. I think those which are savvy are able to get opportunities to build experience, even early on when building experience. Such as internships, freelance work, etc.

I don't believe College is in any shape a bad choice, but for many it slows their progress (or wastes time) rather than accelerating them on their path. But I see the appeal, it'd be very easy for me to get through those years of College and apply for a job at one of the big names.

But i'm happy to face the possible risks. This issue is something i'm contemplating at the moment, as i've experienced education wasting my time and it's not a very enjoyable situation. I know i've still got a lot to learn but would rather do so on my own time.

</comment><comment><USER4> College was awesome.

Every time I read a critique of college education, my thought is this: you paid too much to do too little because you were focused on "getting a piece of paper". A better strategy is to use that time trying to know everything and probably not going to the most selective--and thus generally most expensive-- school you can find.

<comment><AUTHOR> I checked you HN profile and found your about section interesting:

 _I am unemployed and possibly unemployable._

<comment><USER4> It's snark from the earlier debates about structural unemployment.

If I'm unemployable, it's because I really don't have the patience to work for most employers at this point. They can DIAF for what it's worth.</comment></comment></comment>


Researchers say they know what happened to 'Lost Colony' - <AUTHOR> https://www.pilotonline.com/news/vp-nw-not-lost-20200817-qgmblubzt5dyjm3jrcop25ssoq-story.html <comment><USER2> Summary - moved to join a nearby friendly native American tribe, already suggested by others.

There are endless different stories about the lost colony. This explanation sounds simple and compelling (they moved in with a friendly tribe, the Croatoans). Wikipedia [1] discusses this in more detail and points out that there was a smallpox infection that killed a lot of the Croatoans a few years later. I'd think there might be the possibility of genetic testing to connect any present day people with the group from England.

The speculation was the people from England moved to Hatteras Island and joined that tribe, but the original explorer didn't come back for three years and never went to that Island. Hatteras is about 50 miles away, not that far by sailing, especially if you crossed the ocean.

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

<comment><USER3> Not far by sailing but home to dangerous shoals and treacherous currents, although in this time period I am unsure if that was known or not.

Covered a bit here - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Shoal_Light](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Shoal_Light)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> __Lost Colony of Roanoke, in present-day North Carolina.

Terrible title. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony)

</comment><comment><USER5> A great video on the different theories of the Lost Colony: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTOKRWgjOlg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTOKRWgjOlg)

</comment><comment><USER6> Archive copy for people blocked due to GDPR:

[http://archive.is/Va3MA](http://archive.is/Va3MA)</comment>


macOS Catalina Preview - <AUTHOR> https://www.apple.com/macos/catalina-preview/ <comment><USER2> The iPad as a tablet feature is pretty amazing. Curious to see what impact that will have on the tablet market.

Always nice to see Apple push further on both the privacy and accessibility front too.

The limits functionality is new to me. As a parent (with children too young for devices) it is appealing to have services like this by default, so that we can set the expectations early when we do introduce them. Even if it's not Apple, this will drive it into other manufacturers etc.

> macOS Catalina runs in its own read-only volume, so it's separate from all > other data on your Mac, and nothing can accidentally overwrite your system > files. And Gatekeeper ensures that new apps you install have been checked > for known security issues before you run them, so you're always using good > software.

This is particularly interesting too. I can definitely see the support implications here, but it will be interesting to see how tools like homebrew etc. play in this read-only world.

<comment><USER3> Homebrew has always kept itself separate from the OS (using /usr/local as a prefix), and SIP has already prevented you from modifying OS files for several years, unless you turn it off. So I think nothing happens to Homebrew at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Without proper Nvidia support, I'm effectively stuck at High Sierra.

<comment><USER5> Probably the biggest blow of them all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm just astonished by the sheer amount of changes.

On Linux it seems there's maybe 1% of this in each major update (not their fault of course)

<comment><USER7> Well in some ways it is 'their fault' in that there's split development between many competing designs, which means lots of wheel reinvention that increases overall fiction, as well as burnout.

It's too bad -- if things were easier and more advanced I would expect people like UX professionals to want to contribute to build up their portfolio.

<comment><USER6> Sure, but I was referring to the amount of money being spent to develop Linux, Apple obviously has infinitely more cash and developers.

And Linux has to compete with that.

It's really more astonishingly impressive that Linux gets what it does, when you compare their resources to that of the absurdly wealthy and powerful Microsoft, Google, and Apple.</comment></comment></comment>


America owes China $1tn. That's a problem for Beijing, and Trump knows it - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/09/us-owes-china-billion-dollars-problem-beijing-trump-knows <comment><USER2> I just had a shudder seeing a headline like this on HN. This is the crap you see on /r/politics.

The article itself isn't that bad either but I guess even the Guardian has to compete with eye catching headlines now too.

<comment><USER3> What headline would you prefer? This one seems to me to accurately describe the thesis of the article.

<comment><USER2> The contents vs. the headline aren't that off in this case but the general trend of phrasing all headlines in a gossip style is off-putting. If you replace the names and amounts in the headline with celebrities it reads like a Hollywood divorce article from the National Enquirer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> X-Istence The US consumer is the one that will be paying for the tariffs if they ever come.

Which country would US consumers even purchase from instead? Mexico? Who even manufacturers stuff cheap enough for most US consumers?

<comment><USER4> The idea is for Trump to encourage manufacturing to grow in the US.

There are regulatory hurdles to making a manufacturing plant in the US however: minimum wage, safety regulations, etc. etc. So it will be more expensive if made in the USA.

Alternatively, things can become like the Car industry. Where certain parts are manufactured outside the US, while the final car is manufactured inside of the US. Toyota has a major presence in the US.

I'm not saying I necessarily agree with it, but it helps to understand at least why Trump's supporters support Trump.

<comment><USER5> 'Q:What does China's competitive edge look like in practice?'

'A: One example from The Times article: When Jobs decided just a month before the iPhone hit markets to replace a scratch-prone plastic screen with a glass one, a Foxconn factory in China woke up about 8,000 workers when the glass screens arrived at midnight, and the workers were assembling 10,000 iPhones a day within 96 hours.

'Another example: Apple had originally estimated that it would take nine months to hire the 8,700 qualified industrial engineers needed to oversee production of the iPhone; in China, it took 15 days. Anecdotes like that leave you "feeling almost impressed by the no-holds-barred capabilities of these manufacturing plants," says Edward Moyer at CNET News, "impressed and queasy at the same time."'

From: [https://theweek.com/articles/478705/why-apple-builds- iphones...](https://theweek.com/articles/478705/why-apple-builds-iphones- everything-else-china)

<comment><USER6> Don't forget that changes has a billion more people.

<comment><USER6> s/changes/china/

For some reason I can't edit the obvious mistake I made.

<comment><USER7> Likely you unfortunately just missed the end of the two-hour edit window.

<comment><USER6> Shucks. TIL.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you owe the bank 10,000, you have a problem.

If you owe the bank 1,000,000,000, they have a problem.

<comment><USER9> Yes, we read the article.

<comment><USER10> no i didn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> if there was ever a president experienced at playing chicken with a large creditor and coming out alive, it's Trump.

of course, giving the US a reputation for something resembling default probably won't be a good thing in the long run.

and i'm sure there are ways any large creditor could "encourage" the election of US politicians which favor the return on capital above other priorities.

</comment><comment><USER12> Default is not an option for the US. Most economic growth the last decade has been from deficit spending. State and local pensions are headed to catastrophic ends soon, and will need bailouts with federal dollars. Losing deficit spending would bring the US to its knees. This is all rubbish.</comment>


Hong Kongers Break Beijing's Delusions of Victory - <AUTHOR> https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/25/hong-kong-election-beijing-media-delusions-victory/ <comment><USER2> I wonder what sort of government the mainlanders would elect if they were ever given the opportunity to do so.</comment>


DynoSRC - Eliminate HTTP requests for JavaScript files - <AUTHOR> http://dinosrc.it/

<comment><USER2> Ilya Grigorik talks about how the Gmail devs keep all their JS modular, so that when a change really needs to be made on the live web-app; only one small file needs to be affected. Another huge JS file does not need to be sent down the wire. If you modify a massive file, you inadvertently DDOS your own server.

He talks about it here → [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9FxNzv1Tr8#t=600](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9FxNzv1Tr8#t=600)

</comment><comment><USER3> My first instinct is "how bad is the motivating problem, really?". How often do you have a single massive JS file where a small number of lines change?

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but starting with a case study would be nice rather than jumping in with "we've completely changed everything about how script files are delivered, it's amazing and we have cool graphics to prove it". The dinosaur looks a bit hand-wavy.

There are a lot more moving parts, a lost more surface area for things to go wrong, etc. Yes, downloading huge JS files is a problem, but you're going to have to download them one way or another.

<comment><USER4> I imagine its probably fairly common. Lots of sites will minify and concatenate their JS, after all.

<comment><USER5> > Lots of sites will minify and concatenate their JS, after all.

Most with absolutely zero data to back up that it provides any sort of useful improvements to justify the difficulties it introduces in debugging.

Considering how almost all web-servers and browsers support HTTP compression, minification is mostly a cargo-cult ritual.

<comment><USER6> As much as I would like your statement to be true:

        jquery-2.0.3.js       236K
        jquery-2.0.3.js.gz     70K
        jquery-2.0.3.min.js    82K
        jquery-2.0.3.min.js.gz 29K

Minification pay off a lot even with compression.

<comment><USER7> To be fair, this doesn't show a performance improvement, it shows a file size reduction. Of course you can assume one leads to the other, but it doesn't fully prove the point.

<comment><USER6>
        time curl http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.0.3.js > /dev/null
        real	0m0.433s

        time curl http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.0.3.min.js > /dev/null
        real	0m0.210s

Is it proved now ?

Edit: Off course I didn't ran these requests only once.

<comment><USER8> The obvious next question is "can't you achieve the same thing with gzip":

        time curl http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.0.3.js > /dev/null
        236k bytes
        real	0m0.432s

        time curl http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.0.3.min.js > /dev/null
        83612 bytes
        real	0m0.323s

        time curl http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.0.3.js --compressed > /dev/null
        87509 bytes
        real	0m0.273s

        time curl http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.0.3.min.js --compressed > /dev/null
        34066 bytes
        real	0m0.215s

I think that people should be more skeptical of the complexity introduced by things like minification, but the advantages are pretty clear, even with compression.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> How well will "Differential Updates" work for minified files?

<comment><USER10> Good question, definitely needed to know before using.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I see the repo the Github Docs points to is a fork of [https://github.com/DynoSRC/dynosrc](https://github.com/DynoSRC/dynosrc), which one is actually the canonical repo?

BTW, how does differential updates do under minification? Don't the differences usually end up replacing the entire functions?

<comment><USER12> > BTW, how does differential updates do under minification

Don't minify. Minifying is a kludge. This (and gzip) actually looks like a properly engineered solution.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> isn't that what's browser cache is for ?

<comment><USER14> mabye they use the localstorage for incremental updates

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This seems like it would really complicate use of a CDN given that page content is now different based on what users have cached. You could look at cookie values and still get some caching, but this would hurt your cache hit rate. It also bars you from using a lot of the cheaper CDNs which won't let you inspect the request deeply enough to efficiently cached based on the cookie.

So if you can't use a CDN or your cache hit rates are much lower, you might end up with slower page loads with technique. But of course I have no data to back this up.

</comment><comment><USER15> What does this mean to local storage requirements if every site does this?

</comment><comment><USER16> Be nice if it did something about images too

<comment><USER17> And CSS, of course. Cram the entire page in a single HTTP request.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This really looks like the wrong layer to do that... It could be interesting to extend HTTP / etag to do something similar globally. Instead of "tell me nothing changed, or send a new version", browser could request "tell me nothing changed, or send a patch from version XXX".

<comment><USER19> I agree the "send me differences" model is appealing. A version based off rsync was created back in 1999 but patents killed it. I think the patent in question runs out pretty soon though...

The Tragedy of the RProxy: [http://ozlabs.org/~rusty/rproxy.html](http://ozlabs.org/~rusty/rproxy.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Are there any benchmarks? I have a hard time seeing this make any significant improvement over minified concatenated javascript files. And are you really updating your javascript files enough thats it's a problem?

</comment><comment><USER21> > Eliminate HTTP requests for JavaScript files

Great! We already do this manually for mobile sites so I will definitely try it out.

> and serve differential updates

I didn't understand this part.

<comment><USER22> Differential updates means that only line changes in your javascript will have to be downloaded instead of downloading entire files.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> This only works with Git, right?

[https://github.com/DynoSRC/dynosrc#how-does-it- work](https://github.com/DynoSRC/dynosrc#how-does-it-work)

</comment><comment><USER24> Sorry,i'm quite confuse.i reloading the page .seem request for js file still exist ? Shouldn't browser cache javascript file normally upon second time refreshing web page.

<comment><USER25> Yes the browsers do it.

But this is in case you have a bigger JS-File (e.g. for a Web-App) and your customer visit again, so you only have to transfer a small peace of data.

But iam not sure if the performance / traffic advantage is so high, that dyno justify the effort. And you have one more source of possible error, so i did not think many developer will use it.

The idea is good, but the solution should work automatically in background on the transportation layer, between browser and server, not for app developer.

@Jason Anderson: Call google - chrome developer if they implement it in their Browser and write an apache Plugin ! :-)</comment></comment>


If AT&T buys T-Mobile, US back to "Bell East and Bell West" - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/if-att-buys-t-mobile-us-back-to-bell-east-and-bell-west.ars

<comment><USER2> I just want to pay less. Having an iphone is like having ANOTHER car payment. Granted a hyundai car payment, but still a car payment.</comment>


German Government: Stop Using Internet Explorer - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2010/01/15/german-government-stop-using-internet-explorer/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader <comment><USER2> Misleading title, the recommended stop is only until a security fix.

</comment><comment><USER3> These problems are well known, yet enterprise IT management seems to persist in sticking with IE, even spreading disinformation to their employees with claims that FF, Safari, Opera and Chrome are more vulnerable.

One incident still boggles my mind. A friend of mind attended a security conference last year with a corporate IT manager who had been insisting that IE is the better choice from a security model standpoint. One after another speaker stood up and presented a paper or a speech or a lecture or a round- table all saying essentially the same thing:

The security of networked systems is only as good as it's weakest link, and IE has consistently been the weakest link for years. Even with hundreds of security patches since XP was released, it's still such a threat to the network that it's irresponsible to continue using it. Not one presenter used it anymore. They continued that enterprise IT should not only be recommending other browsers, they should be enforcing other browsers as part of their security policy and disabling IE as much as possible on all systems under their control. It was damning.

After we got back to the office, he sent out a corporate wide email reminding everyone that browsers other than IE are vulnerabilities to the network and won't be tolerated.

</comment><comment><USER4> Is IE entirely to blame, really? What about an operating system that allows a web browser sufficient prominence within the system even to allow a susceptibility that enables hackers to "perform reconnaissance and gain complete control over the compromised system."

I understand that a government would be hard-pressed to suggest that a nation forgo using an OS that is so deeply embedded in many organizations' and people's day-to-day operation, but even a brief acknowledgement of what is the underlying problem (worldwide deployment of an out-of-date operating system inextricably and systemically intertwined with the function of an abhorrently insecure electronic portal to the entire world of internet-enabled machines [I'm referring here to Internet Explorer]) would really help the much-needed movement to spread awareness of the more secure, cheaper alternatives (I'm referring here to Linux-based systems).

In any case, it's always great to see organizations with clout holding Microsoft publicly accountable for its indiscretions.

<comment><USER5> I have to ask what this even means. The last time the world started holding Microsoft publicly accountable for its security indiscretions was the "Summer of Worms" in '03. From that point on, starting with WinXP SP 2, Microsoft has put an absolutely huge amount of effort into security, including:

* Training virtually all of their developers on secure coding

* Modifying their core libraries to avoid dangerous idioms

* Spending tens of thousands of dollars per product _per release_ on external security testing

* Slowing down dev cycles with "SDL" measures like threat modeling and code review

* Holding off releases to audit for new bug classes

I'm not saying that Microsoft ships perfect software, because what I'm saying is that it's impossible to ship perfect software.

<comment><USER6> _I'm not saying that Microsoft ships perfect software, because what I'm saying is that it's impossible to ship perfect software._

When you write it in C/C++, anyway.

(I think Microsoft has almost solved this problem, though, with their heavy investment in the CLR and languages like F# on top of the CLR. Even C# is fine, compared to C or C++. You can still write insecure software in managed languages, but it will be because of a careless design, not forgetting to tack a "\0" on the end of a block of memory.)

<comment><USER5> Python, Ruby, and Java web applications are riddled with domain-specific vulnerabilities. I'm sorry, there simply aren't any easy answers here.

<comment><USER6> I think the problem is "web applications" and not Python, Ruby, or Java. Mostly.

(If you were writing your web applications in C, you'd have to worry about memory corruption problems AND cross-site request forgeries.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Seems a bit pre-emptive, as the suggestion is based on _"a critical yet unknown vulnerability"_ that was _"probably exploited"_ in the recent attack on Google & others.

That said, the very fact that a browser is not super-sandboxed in the first place is frightening, and IE has a huge amount of integration compared to other browsers. Mayhaps that's why it's been such a problem?

<comment><USER5> It was probably preemptive when it was written, but it's been borne out by the facts.

The only browser that is "super sandboxed" is Chrome, and nobody knows how effective the process security model in Chrome is going to end up being. The actual vulnerability appears to be a basic object lifespan problem in DOM handling code; in other words, this could happen to any browser.

After Chrome, the browser with the next most involved security model is IE with DEP, and, in fact, when DEP is enabled, the exploit doesn't work (that's no guarantee that it could never work, though).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Cool, didn't know we had something like that: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Office_for_Information_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Office_for_Information_Security)

(Uh, and it's one of those government offices still in Bonn. Just around the corner, for massive 5km amounts of just around the corner.)

<comment><USER9> The "Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik" advised users to avoid IE at least since 2004: [http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&h...](http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2Fnewsticker%2Fmeldung%2FBundesamt- empfiehlt-Browser-Wechsel-104674.html&sl=de&tl=en)

<comment><USER5> Did they advise users to avoid Firefox, too? Their users would have avoided a lot of security pain.

<comment><USER9> No, they just recommend using alternative browsers and to switch often. Although the BSI warned against lots of things in the interest of privacy, mostly Google products (Chrome Beta, Google Wave, ...).

On the other hand they have the power to intercept and analyze the complete data- and phone communication without anonymization. They of course use it not only to find malware and security risks, as was intended in the bill, but to provide 'suspicious' data to the police and intelligence services (<http://www.golem.de/0901/64639.html>).

We also have data retention for all communication data for six months and have planned a nice censorship infrastructure to block domains (against child pornography for now), not unlike Australia or China.

But at least IE has only 40% market share... (<http://www.browser- statistik.de/>)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Seriously, any company still forcing IE6 on their employees should be reported to the government and taxed. These stupid corporate IT decisions are impacting everyone, and there needs to be regulation. Its no different than if the company was pumping toxins into the air.

</comment><comment><USER5> This vulnerability is no longer unknown, though it is (to my knowledge) still unpatched. It is known not to be exploitable on IE7 with DEP enabled, so most IE instances should in fact be easy to lock down.

<comment><USER11> China and the USA both have access to the Windows and IE source code, correct? So presumably they have as many pre-0day vulnerabilities as are ever needed.

<comment><USER5> You're crazy if you think access to IE source code is anything more than a speed bump for vulnerability researchers. Microsoft code is among the easiest to reverse out in a disassembler, and they publish symbols.

In any case, this vulnerability looks remarkably straightforward. You could conceive of the fuzzer that might have found it. It would be an extremely clever fuzzer, but not an unprecedented one.

<comment><USER11> (I know very little about security research, which is readily apparent... should have phrased the second part of previous question as a comment as well)

<comment><USER5> Maybe, but you shouldn't get downvoted for it. ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Someone ought to edit

       &utm_content=Google+Reader

out of the link so that the visits from HN aren't reported as referrals from Google Reader. By the way, this also tells me that the poster found the article in their reader and copied the link directly from the reader.</comment>


Oracle Java SE 8 Release Updates - <AUTHOR> https://www.java.com/en/download/release_notice.jsp <comment><USER2> The title of the post does not follow HN submission guidelines and is misleading; it's only Java 8, and by that time, Java 11 will be released. "Java will stop issuing patches for old versions of Java except for paying customers" is the real story here and it's a boring story.

<comment><USER3> Right. We changed the title from "Oracle stops Java SE for commercial use starting January 2019".

Submitters: it's against HN's rules to rewrite titles to make them more baity or misleading. Accounts that do that eventually lose submission rights on HN, so please don't do that!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _We are processing the requested change to your cookie preferences._

 _This may take up to a few minutes to process._

</comment><comment><USER5> The Java SE support roadmap linked at the bottom has more information. It looks like if you want to continue using updated Oracle JDK commercially, it'll soon require you to be an Oracle support customer. And if you want to use the latest java and don't want to buy support, there's the OpenJDK. It'd be a good idea to start the approval process to use OpenJDK in production now.

</comment><comment><USER6> But this is only Java 8, right? Or am I misreading?

<comment><USER7> Yup. Oracle is trying to push everyone to their rapid releases of java 10, and 11.

<comment><USER8> Isn't 11 a LTS again?

<comment><USER6> Hmm, Oracle JDK yes, but seems there will be no free version [https://medium.com/codefx-weekly/no-free-java-lts- version-b8...](https://medium.com/codefx-weekly/no-free-java-lts- version-b850192745fb)

Personally, I've been transitioning my stuff to OpenJDK (probably should have a long time ago).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Really pleased with the evolution of the language the language in the last few years (other than the 'var local' gaff). Now the there are several builds available for the jdk I think this will press the evolution of the jvm forward. It's a good time to mention [https://adoptopenjdk.net](https://adoptopenjdk.net) and their builds. Competition breeds excellence, and I look forward to a lot of jdk distributions being available!

<comment><USER10> Don't forget [https://www.azul.com/downloads/zulu/](https://www.azul.com/downloads/zulu/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> FYI: I would avoid use of Oracle products. Azul Zulu has a better concurrent and parallel, nearly-pauseless GC.

</comment><comment><USER12> Similar posts show up here every few weeks on HN, with similar misleading titles. Move on, nothing to see here.

</comment><comment><USER13> Oracle makes me want to avoid Java.</comment>


Ask HN: From programmer to business - <AUTHOR>

Who has made the leap from programmer to running a business? Any tips, advice, good stories?
I am not necessarily talking about a 'start-up' aiming for the moon.
Recently I started looking at selling on eBay and importing goods as a way to build up a small income on the side which I could expand. It is more aimed to be a lifestyle business so I can eventually make more money with fewer hours, work from any location etc. <comment><USER2> It depends on what kind of "business" you want to create, and if you can code, creating a software business is your best bet.

I checked your HN user profile and you're fairly new here, so I'd suggest reading the posts of HN user 'patio11' [1,2] (otherwise known as Patrick McKenzie ;-) and his blog posts [3]. Though his "training" site might seem a bit too promotional [4] the content he sends through email (and archives on the web) is surprisingly good [5]. You can literally take just about any his blog posts or training urls, plug them into the Algolia HN Search at the bottom of HN pages, and you'll find the relevant discussions.

[1] h1ttps://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=patio11](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=patio11)

[3] [http://www.kalzumeus.com/blog/](http://www.kalzumeus.com/blog/)

[4] [https://training.kalzumeus.com/](https://training.kalzumeus.com/)

[5] [https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/enterpris...](https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/enterprise_sales)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you.

I have read a lot of Patrick's stuff. It is very good and I would be happy to create something even half as successful as BCC as the first stepping stone.

I am attracted to doing something away from programming to get into the mindset of finding out what people want. I am too tempted to get hung up on frameworks and shiny objects on a programming project. Maybe I just need to change that.

Also it seems more like something I can get up an running more easy in the spare time (I have a full time job, a 2 year old and another one coming, full time working wife), so spare time may be average of 4-5 hours a week.

With software you have to build the product AND market it, so that is two jobs. Selling stuff on an established market place may not be as profitable but seems more doable. And frankly I find it hard to code for hours after work doing the same, but I find it easy to do practical things or lower-grade computer work.

Having said that if I have a good idea I could take a day off work and MVP it. I have seen people who made $2k-$3k in a weekend doing that on blogs but I am not clear on how they got the customers. It was build it and they came magic. I presume they had a good email list or blog following and sold to them.

<comment><USER3> Then maybe you would prefer something like micropreneur where the mantra is "start small stay small".

I myself have small food business and also hosting business. Nothing fancy that HNer would be interested in, but its a nice side income to have. I spend 2-3hours a day on this.

patio11 always said that "there's always money in small niche market". No truer words were ever spoken. Most small business are tackling niche problem anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> I like start small stay small. That is my goal initially. In addition it should be a business where I can scale down the hours while keeping the earnings, and semi-retire early.

I was looking at ebay. But having spent some time on the Terapeek free trial, ebay.com.au and Alibaba looking at many products it seems to me that ebay sellers are making razor thin margins, or in some cases outright losses. I don't get it. I think the ones making good money are established stores who use ebay as an additional channel. They are trying to acquire new customers, so can take a hit on the first sale, offering free postage or whatever. I don't fancy competing with that.

So I am now leaning more towards the sensible suggestion in this thread to stick to what I know. IT/Programming.

My current idea is a simple one. To give 1 hour free consultation to a small business to see if I can help them save time/labour using automation.

If I can then I give them a quote for a solution, otherwise walk away. Even if I spend hours and don't sell anything, I get a lot of market research and new ideas, so it won't be wasted.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Peter Thiel interview - the un-scholarship (starts at 1:35 of podcast) - <AUTHOR> http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/qpodcast_20101108_40845.mp3

<comment><USER2> I'd actually love to apply for a fellowship, but I turned 20 a couple of months ago. That makes me ineligible. :(

.. might as well give it a try anyway I guess.

</comment><comment><USER3> The interviewer may just be playing devil's advocate, but he's doing a good job sounding like a "oh golly, dropping out of school is the worst thing that could ever happen!" kind of person. A little grating.

I hope to set my 3 year old son up for success and help him see all his options.

</comment><comment><USER4> [http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/11/my-application- for...](http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/11/my-application-for-peter- thiel/)</comment>


Linux bug leaves 1.4B Android users vulnerable to hijacking attacks - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/linux-bug-leaves-1-4-billion-android-users-vulnerable-to-hijacking-attacks/ <comment><USER2> "One of the more likely ways exploits might target Android users is for them to insert JavaScript into otherwise legitimate Internet traffic that isn't protected by the HTTPS cryptographic scheme."

Hypocritically, Ars will often post articles about the importance of HTTPS, but their own website won't even serve HTTPS to regular non-subscribers, because they need ad revenue. (HTTPS Everywhere is unable to upgrade my connection to HTTPS. Regardless, with privacy badger installed, I don't see ads in the article, other than sponsered stories below. )</comment>


Planet Zoo is, temporarily, a game about mass-producing knackered warthogs - <AUTHOR> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/11/18/planet-zoo-is-temporarily-a-game-about-mass-producing-knackered-warthogs/ <comment><USER2> This is fantastic! I love the unintended economic systems games create! I really wish this was a freemium game though... this seems really shitty for a $45 game to need to grind for hours on end.</comment>


Voyager carries this video on its way to the stars - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4Co1pWSj4M

<comment><AUTHOR> This video is encoded on the golden disc carried by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. The images on the disc were selected by a committee headed by Carl Sagan.

More info: [http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html](http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html)</comment>


Humans Were Born To Run Barefoot - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123031997&sc=fb&cc=fp <comment><USER2> Was this ever in doubt?</comment>


Ask HN: What do you think about receiving emails expressing interest in a job? - <AUTHOR>

The local market is dead so I'm looking for a remote job somewhere else. I've sent some resumes to companies advertising here and in WeWorkRemotely but I haven't had much success.<p>How bad would it be to start sending emails to companies and startups that look interesting asking if they have an opening for someone like me? <comment><USER2> The number one concern of substantially every company with more than 10 engineers right now is hiring additional engineers. You can't make a hiring manager who is looking for an engineer mad by offering to introduce him to an engineer.

I'd take time to customize the pitch and make it obvious that you're sending it to someone who may be or may know a good fit, as opposed to any routable inbox you can find from the Internet.

example one:

Dear sir,

I am a C# Java C++ engineer from $LOCATION with extensive experience in mobile applications, front-ends, ... <\-- absolutely nothing in here suggests that they know who I am, and they're imposing on me because they're offering nothing of value to me.

example two:

Hey Patrick!

I've read between the lines of some of your recent posts, and it seems like you are overwhelmed on Appointment Reminder. [Patrick notes: Someone _literally_ wrote this to me last week. Got my attention in a hurry.] I'm an experienced Rails engineer with 6 years of experience working with legacy codebases. I think I could take the engineering work for AR off of your plate, so that you can focus on marketing/sales. Would you like to have a chat about what that could look like? I am open on next Monday and Tuesday from $TIME to $TIME -- what half-hour in there works best for you? <\-- Even if I were not interested in this, I'd be interested in this. It is very respectful of my time, demonstrates unique understanding of my situation, etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> > The local market is dead...

Focus your search on networking with senior execs who you know how to help, ex local CIOs/CTOs.

Don't lead with a resume, instead ask them a question-- do know anyone who needs software development help? Asking for a referral opens up the conversation to more possibilities. It also makes you stand out as a peer, not a supplicant.

</comment><comment><USER4> Why not? The worst response you will get is "No".

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm worried about my email being seen as spam or worse.

<comment><USER5> Person-to-person e-mails, individually tailored and carefully laying out why you want to work for them and how you can provide value to their company, aren't generally seen as spam.

Where it gets into spam is if you send the same copy & pasted text to dozens of possible employers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I get queries about jobs all the time and I just wrote this: [https://medium.com/terms-conditions/if-you-think-the-job- hun...](https://medium.com/terms-conditions/if-you-think-the-job-hunt-sucks- try-recruiting-677921d7f897)

Not sure if it's helpful.</comment>


Sushi Science and Hamburger Science - <AUTHOR> http://www.motokawa.bio.titech.ac.jp/sushi.html

<comment><USER2> Great article. The gulf between Japan and the US is massive. Every article about it scratches the surface, but there is always more to learn. While I don't agree with all the oversimplifications in the article, I do enjoy it.</comment>


Portrait of the Entrepreneur as an Old Man - <AUTHOR> http://myjunto.com/portrait-of-the-entrepreneur-as-an-old-man <comment><USER2> The canonical case is Ray Kroc, who took over and ran a small company called McDonalds at age 52:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kroc>

</comment><comment><USER3> I think the reason many entrepreneurs are young is not so much that young people have inherently better ideas as that young people are in a better position to take some risk. That is why a good fraction of companies that are started by older people seem to be started by older people that already have money in the bank: they, too, are in a position to take some risk.

<comment><USER4> Great point. I constantly joke that I'm somewhere between being a gazzillionnaire and living in a van down by the river.

<comment><USER5> +1 for the Matt Foley/Chris Farley quote

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I agree completely. How much talent would be wasted because people believed someone who told them they couldn't do something? Does Steve Blank think institutional knowledge, business savvy, world experience, etc. count for nothing? There are other ways to achieve your goals besides being willing to kip up on someone's sofa.

</comment><comment><USER7> A question about Watchparty: isn't the trend for people to be not watching the same show at the same time? I mean, I can see networks desperate to stop this trend so I could see how some established network might want to acquire you. And that's not a bad plan but I'm not sure if that is going to reverse the trend.

I mean, if _anything_ gets people watching at the same time it will be social interaction. I just don't know if it will be enough? Or do you have some way to connect people who are viewing asynchronously? If so, I'd love that personally. I do often want to share with other people but I _never_ watch when originally aired. Somehow connecting me with everyone else sounds great except for the fact that at that point you're pretty much talking about a forum at that point and there's plenty of those.

<comment><USER8> On the XBox 360, Netflix coordinates with the XBox Live to enable a "watch with party" function. You watch a streaming movie in sync with the other people in your party -- an ad-hoc invite-only group -- while retaining the platform's built-in voice chat with your party.

<comment><USER4> Yes, we're looking at similar kinds of approaches for WatchParty users. In all likelihood we'll build something that works with GoogleTV and AppleTV, but who knows?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Its no surprise that people in our society spend so much time dealing with the fear of old age.

But the truth is that you grow old when you lose interest in life, when you cease to dream, to hunger for new truths, and to search for new worlds to conquer, and this can happen at any age.

But when your mind is open to new ideas, new interests, and when you raise the curtain and let in the sunshine and inspiration of new truths of life and the universe, you will be forever young and vital at any age.

</comment><comment><USER4> Live life with a child-like imagination no matter how old you are. Just don't be child-ish.

<comment><USER10> Indeed.

Get older, not old.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Ageism (in either direction) is like other forms of bigotry. It tells you nothing about any particular individual. It might be time for old rocker, Neal Young to bring out a song, "Young Man, take a look at your life. I'm a lot like you'll be."

<comment><USER4> I love that. Absolutely great line. And Neil Young is my all-time favorite performer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Sometimes it takes experience to come across a problem that needs a solution. It's hard to come up with an answer until you fully understand the problem.

</comment><comment><USER13> I agree completely. When does this "entrepreneurship" era end that young people are ostensibly good at, and what does it become that would account for the fact that most successful companies are not currently being ran by 20-somethings?

</comment><comment><USER14> hell yeah!</comment>


Ask HN: Stock data question (again) - <AUTHOR>

Hi everyone,
I posted a question a few days ago, but judging from the responses, I don't think I phrased my question properly.
I'm loonking to purchase historical stock and financial data that would cover every public company for the past 20 years or so.
For my purposes, querying a external source like yahoo for a single stock at a time would simply be way too slow. I would basically need to run mapreduce on the entire data set looking for certain patterns.
Does anyone know where I can purchase this type of data set? I'm guessing it tens of gigabytes in size.
Thanks <comment><USER2> Here's what I found:

 _Courtesy of Yahoo finance, it is possible to bulk download historical prices data. This script, borrowed from pycurl retriever-multi.py example, fetch series for several tickers at a time. It uses urllib to fetch web data, so it should work with a plain vanilla python distro._

<http://code.activestate.com/recipes/511444/>

 _Here's a neat way to download stock data from Yahoo, perhaps into a spreadsheet (so you can play with the data):_

<http://www.gummy-stuff.org/Yahoo-data.htm>

</comment><comment><USER3> Opentick used to provide this information for an EXTREMELY competitive price point (something like $5/month/exchange), but they are refactoring their business and are out of commission for the moment.

<http://www.opentick.com></comment>


Point it, call it, get it right (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2018/01/point-it-call-i <comment><USER2> I've started doing this re wearing safety glasses when using a power saw for hobby projects. Cutting things with the saw is only a small part of the overall work I'm doing, so I don't like to leave the glasses on the whole time. I realized there's a good chance I'd forget to put them back on when I needed to cut something new.

So every time, before I pull the trigger on the saw, I now touch the side of the safety glasses with my free hand and say out loud, "glasses on."

It felt super goofy at first, but after a while the safety check became part of the cadence and rhythm of turning on the saw. I feel much less likely to get a shard of wood or aluminum in my eye as long as I keep it up.

<comment><USER3> I tap my pockets for the same items in the same orders and say the item outline. Wallet, phone, keys and vape.

Done it everyday for years and I haven't left anything for about that long, it's pure auto pilot but I know straight away if I've forgotten something.

Silly the things that work sometimes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> When I fly and go through the checklists, I call out the setting and touch the pertinent item ("Fuel Selector - BOTH"), and sometimes even flip it to the other position and back ("Alternate Static Air - [move to on, then back to] OFF").

Benefits:

* makes it more likely that I actually check, rather than just see what I expect to be the case

* co-pilot (or passengers!) can follow and verify what I'm doing

* for rarely used items (such as the alternate static air) it makes sure that I know where it is and don't have to fumble for it,

* I check how it "feels", so I could detect if something feels off (for example, throttle cables have occasionally broken loose from the control knob).

Several aircraft have come down just because crews "followed" the checklist, but didn't actually check.

* "After the aircraft was returned into service, the flight crew overlooked the pressurisation system state on three separate occasions: during the pre-flight procedure, the after-start check, and the after take-off check. During these checks, no one in the flight crew noticed the incorrect setting."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522)

* "The flight engineer was found to have failed to open the slat system bleed air valves as required on the pre-flight checklist."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Flight_540](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Flight_540)

<comment><USER5> I have "looked" and called out "airspeed alive" on a failed ASI before. (It clicked a moment later in time to abort, but if there were a CVR, the word "Alive" would have been on the tape.) Seeing what you expect from rote is a genuine problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I tried this, but my co-workers asked me to quit yelling "use strict" while pointing at the top of the file.

<comment><USER7> You'd think they'd already be yelling after reading the shebang...

<comment><USER8> maybe if william hung is on your team...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Brings to mind: Why Japan's Rail Workers Can't Stop Pointing at Things A seemingly silly gesture is done for the sake of safety. BY ALLAN RICHARZ MARCH 29, 2017 [https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pointing-and- calling-j...](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pointing-and-calling- japan-trains)

April 2018 HN discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14011793](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14011793)

</comment><comment><USER10> The nuclear industry has something very similar, and in my experience it's extremely effective. It also gives anyone else in the space with you a chance to speak up if you're about to do something wrong.

<comment><USER11> I do the same when commissioning our products - winch systems for the offshore industry. My assumption is that the big, bad piece of machinery is actively trying to kill me and anyone in the vicinity if we give it even half a chance.

Calling out the checklist items lead both me and others to not take any shortcuts and never assume anything, also ensuring everyone is up to speed on what is about to happen.

I knew I was doing something right when, after intentionally leaving out a step to see if the apprentice was paying attention, I immediately got a good dressing down for my trouble.

<comment><USER10> Amen, hermano. Good practices in mechanical systems industries seem to cross disciplines because they _work._

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Not being a UX/ergonomics buff, I wonder how something like this might be employed in software UIs, particularly those controlling/monitoring safety- critical systems.

Any UX experts in the house?

<comment><USER13> Maybe if you had to say "DELETE" out loud when hovering over the "are you sure you want to delete this?" confirmation to verify it.

<comment><USER14> That makes sense, but forcing the user to change modes is bad. If I'm using a touchscreen, I often can't make noises; if I'm using voice, I often can't touch the screen.

<comment><USER15> _> forcing the user to change modes is bad_

Congratulations, you named the very reason this technique is effective. I am not being facetious here.

The whole idea is to make the user perform disruptive, unfitting actions -both in the mind and physically- to improve chances of catching errors.

First, to both make the mind "shift gears", or perform a "context switch", with all the related cache-flushing and prediction-discarding and all that.

Second, to activate brain regions that were hitherto suspended; the ones associated with other senses and skills, in particular with vocal skills. Fleshing out abstract concepts into concrete words helps catch mistakes, just like putting abstract feature requests into concrete diagrams or code helps with catching errors or inconsistent expectations & assumptions.

<comment><USER14> Fair enough; I missed that mikro2nd mentioned safety-critical systems. In that case, sure, let's adapt the whole environment to allow for those mode changes.

I was thinking more about systems where no lives are at stake, and there I think there's no need to change modes, one can be DISRUPTIVE ENOUGH by using the same IO channels, which are quite flexible already.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This reminds me of somthing I tend to do when paring on an ops-like task. I will point and speek the resource name that I am about to delete or CMD I am about to run and get my pair to conferm before proceeding. Honestly makes tasks (espishaly production tasks) a lot less nerve racking. Would recommend it.

<comment><USER17> espishaly is especially special.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I do this after eating dinner, before going to bed. I do it for the door locks of the house, the knobs/dials of the stove, the gas valve behind the stove, the fridge door (giving it a push instead of pointing at it), the sink (to make sure it's clear of dishes), the windows.

I also do it for my car locks and windows to make sure they're closed and locked before leaving it. I'll make a point of it to touch the windows at the top edge and pull the handles.

<comment><USER19> Commitment but it makes me wonder where to draw the line.

<comment><USER18> Checking toilet and sink faucet before leaving bathrooms?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Site looks like it's down. Text-only Google cache version: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hPbnMAa...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hPbnMAa- MpsJ:https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2018/01/point-it-call-it-get-it- right/&client=safari&hl=en&gl=uk&strip=1&vwsrc=0)

</comment><comment><USER21> This reminds me of lifeguards, which seem to have changed their techniques since I was a kid.

They seem to point at one end of the pool and move their finger back and forth to the othe end of the pool.

</comment><comment><USER22> Something a bit like this is practiced by NYC subway conductors: [https://youtu.be/i9jIsxQNz0M](https://youtu.be/i9jIsxQNz0M)

</comment><comment><USER23> I point left and right to look for oncoming cars before crossing the street. I feel safer and more aware of my surroundings this way.

</comment><comment><USER24> TDD in a nutshell.</comment>


Google says its quantum computer is 100M times faster than a regular chip - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/08/google-says-its-quantum-computer-is-more-than-100-million-times-faster-than-a-regular-computer-chip/ <comment><USER2> Of course, tech reporters everywhere yet again writing misleading headlines.

Google says it is that much faster, but only for certain operations, for instance, ones "involving nearly 1,000 binary variables".

It is unknown how this would translate to standard computer workloads/usage and what kind of performance increase would be seen in those instances instead.

Not trying to downplay the excitement, though, as this still could possibly have huge effects on being able to process certain data which could help with research and so on.

</comment><comment><USER3> Singularity, here we come.</comment>


WiSee prototype detects gestures from the next room using only Wi-Fi - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/4/4397458/wisee-prototype-detects-gestures-from-the-next-room-using-only-wi-fi <comment><USER2> Discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5824286>

Other sources:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5823511>

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5823936></comment>


Small Objects on the Lunar Surface - <AUTHOR> http://thenewinquisitor.blogspot.com/2013/08/small-objects-lunar-surface.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the phenomenon can be explained by the gravitational anomalies on the surface of the moon..

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

any other idea?

</comment><comment><USER2> oh for crying out loud. gravity is the only force acting on these objects.. of course they are not going to move. there is no wind or vibration. i guess if some micro meteorrite hit them then that would cause them to be displaced

low gravity is still gravity, and you may have noticed that dust particles on the moon also fall back to the surface.

the escape velocity of teh moon is: It is Escape Velocity: 2.38 km/s (5324 MPH) .</comment>


Snowden picked up hacking skills in India - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/in/snowden-picked-up-hacking-skills-in-india-7000023909/

<comment><USER2> Is it me, or article suggests that Snowden learned "hacking skills" on 4 day java programming and ethical hacking course, which skills then he used to obtain classified information form one of most technologically advanced three letter agency?

<comment><USER3> It's certainly good marketing for the outfit offering the course!

And it's not exactly verifiable now is it?</comment></comment>


Google Drive is down - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status <comment><USER2> Link to the concrete issue [https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=issue&sid=4&iid=76...](https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=issue&sid=4&iid=768deb9fad2a675680dbee7e8712bc41) (nothing interesting as of now).

It was not totally down for me, but really buggy on browsing/uploading/etc. (on a non GSuite account)

</comment><comment><USER3> Why did I just mis-read the announcement as "Google Drive to shut down"? :-)

<comment><USER4> Google Reader PTSD? ;-)

<comment><USER5> I wish I could upvote both of you twice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's up for me. Does this just pertain to certain users (e.g. corporate?).

The site specifies "Unless otherwise noted, this status information applies to consumer services as well as services for organizations using G Suite." and there's no note indicating otherwise.

<comment><USER7> Perhaps. Nobody in my organization can access their drives, and we are Google Apps (or I guess "G Suite" now) customers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> [https://gsuite.google.com/intl/en- GB/terms/sla.html](https://gsuite.google.com/intl/en-GB/terms/sla.html) ;)

</comment><comment><USER9> I hope they release a detailed postmortem on this once the issue is fixed.

</comment><comment><USER9> It's back up for me.

</comment><comment><USER10> In fact, currently, there is a service disruption. :/

</comment><comment><USER11> Google Keep isn't working either :'(

<comment><USER11> Although the G Suite Status Dashboard says Keep is up. It isn't!

[https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status](https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Weather: cloudy.</comment>