Show HN: Learned By Me  - $15 Spanish tutoring sessions with top professionals - <AUTHOR>

We recently started Learned By Me (www.learnedbyme.com), a company that connects terrific experienced Spanish professors and immersion school teachers from South America with students and learners from around the world for Skype tutoring sessions for $15 / 45 minute session.
Your feedback would be much appreciated! We can discount your first lesson to $1 if anyone would like to give a lesson a try. (Just sign up on our site and use the code: HackerNews at checkout)
Email Michael at learnedbyme dot com if you have any questions / comments that you would rather not share on HN. Thanks! <comment><USER2> Clickable - [https://www.learnedbyme.com/](https://www.learnedbyme.com/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Miscellaneous comments:

1\. Like 'iamthephpguy', I found the site design a bit out of keeping with what I imagined the positioning to be (I could be imagining wrongly!). The graphic design gives a sort of school-age learning vibe, but the copy gives more of an adult-professional vibe. What's the target audience?

2\. I like the basic pitch, though. If the price is actually possible to sustain while keeping up quality, $15 for 45 minutes of a professional's time is quite attractive.

3\. The site gives the feeling of a general-purpose tutoring market. I'm not sure this is the best way to go, versus picking a more targeted niche, like language tutoring. I could be wrong, but I think the pitch you have here, experienced South American teachers tutoring you for $15/session, is stronger than an open-ended tutoring-on-any-subject pitch. Especially because general platform sites can have a tendency to end up feeling like a ghost town, if only some categories have real activity.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good feedback. Ya, we ended up alpha testing our site with both Spanish and Chinese but ended up launching with just Spanish because its easier to try to initially build up a marketplace with only one subject as you point out (to avoid the ghost town feel).

Maybe gearing towards language tutoring at this point makes sense

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I grew up in a spanish household speaking english and spanish. Now I'm in my twenties and I've found that speaking spanish in the household is VERY different from speaking in public, like when you have to speak in a formal manner or an informal (friend-to-friend) manner. I end up feeling like I can't speak spanish very well in these social scenarios, like I'm speaking like a caveman due to all the bumps I hit when I don't know the formal way of saying things. Then I get super self-conscious

In that sense, I may give this a shot in the very near future. In the meantime, good luck on the venture, I like the idea :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep - everyone has different goals and reasons for learning spanish so having a one-on-one who can create lessons that are customized to your needs has been a real differentiator so far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> I may not be your target customer, so do take my design comment with a dash of salt.

1\. Your site design seems to be targeting young children with the colors overflowing outside the borders, or yellow highlights on the text. Unfortunately it also makes your site seem not very professional.

2\. After I choose a date for a lesson and a teacher, maybe the availability calendar could show me the same date I chose, so that I need not scroll to find the date I had already chosen

3\. In the FAQ/Support section, do put in some information on payment modes - credit card, paypal etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks - all good feedback and we'll work on it!</comment></comment>


Microsoft's homepage circa 1994 - <AUTHOR> http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/discover/1994/ <comment><USER2> I cannot navigate the site at all (unless I use the text menu), I always get:

 _Your current User-Agent string appears to be from an automated process, if this is incorrect, please click this link:United States English Microsoft Homepage_

when I click on the disk. I don't feel like a robot though.

<comment><USER3> You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it's crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on it's back. The tortoise lays on it's back, it's belly baking in the hot sun, beating it's legs trying to turn it'self over, but it can't, not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that?

<comment><USER4> It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response... Shall we continue?

<comment><USER5> Let me tell you about my mother

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> vezzy-fnord gopher.microsoft.com. Excellent.

There's also a readme.html with notes on reconstructing this: [https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/discover/1994/readme.html](https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/discover/1994/readme.html)

</comment><comment><USER6> Those variable names... `var varSegmentation=0;`

<comment><USER7> hungarian typing

<comment><USER8> Hungarian dynamic typing even - just prefix everything with var.

<comment><USER9> Thats pretty funny when taken literal, like this. On the other hand I often do file_str and file_num to help myself.

<comment><USER7> After a journey into functional programming where single letter variable is almost the norm, I came back hating this redundancy, but after a while I got to see that variables names will pop up in different places, you might as well stick a bit more information in their name just in case you're missing context deep down the stack or in a commit.

<comment><USER10> Hoon?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> And in 1998: [http://web.archive.org/web/19981205060735/http://microsoft.c...](http://web.archive.org/web/19981205060735/http://microsoft.com/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Internet Explorer was still a year away. Did they add a "Best Viewed with Internet Explorer" button later?

</comment><comment><USER13> ... and the associated readme with some background info:

[https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/discover/1994/readme.html](https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/discover/1994/readme.html)

</comment><comment><USER14> Darn, I was hoping to peruse the old HTML to see how they positioned the links in a fun little table structure. Just a big GIF. Or maybe this was the real deal and they used a Image Map (since removed).

<comment><USER15> That reminds me of the Publisher 97 method of creating web pages: One full size gif with a small HTML wrapper.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The Microsoft games circa 1997 was partially online too. Web Design Nostaligia in full effect.</comment>


MinUnit - a minimal unit testing framework for C - <AUTHOR> http://www.jera.com/techinfo/jtns/jtn002.html

<comment><AUTHOR> The essence is here - pasting the (whole) source code:

        /* file: minunit.h */
        #define mu_assert(message, test) do { if (!(test)) return message; } while (0)
        #define mu_run_test(test) do { char *message = test(); tests_run++; \
                                       if (message) return message; } while (0)
        extern int tests_run;

> Conclusion

> People think that writing a unit testing framework has to be complex. In > fact, you can write one in just a few lines of code, as this tech note > shows. Of course, if you have access to a full-featured testing framework > like JUnit, by all means use it. But if you don't, you can still use a > simple framework like MinUnit, or whip up your own in a few hours. _There's > no excuse for not unit testing._</comment>


Ask HN: What's your favourite datastore? - <AUTHOR> You are working on an MVP that might become a successful product someday, you want to use a datastore which is easy to scale and backup. Which one do you use? Lately, I've been using cloud datastore and I love it. But I am not able to use it with Rails/Django apps which seem to need Postgres.
But Postgres isn't like cloud datastore which you can back up with 1 click.
Then migrations aren't easy with cloud datastore.
We had a lot of issues with Mongo's availability and lost data too, so we no longer touch it. <comment><USER2> 1) is a your data relational or document. This should be the top decider if you're going to go for a relational database or a document store. Document stores can be easy to work within the beginning, but they can also get in your way. Many companies as they grow end up with both. What is the best for you today? What's the best way to model your data.

2) once you know that, then you can start asking questions about what type of datastore to use. Don't think too hard about it at this point, once you know what you need to do, the difference between the different engines is unlikely to sway your decisions much.

We started with DynamoDB, and recently ported over to MySQL (on RDS) prior to launch. DynamoDB was SO easy to get started with, but it wasn't too long before we were tripping over ourselves with things we could do very easily with an SQL database.

We'll add in a document store again when we're bigger and need that functionality.</comment>


Programmers Personas: What Microsoft Has Learned - <AUTHOR> http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2009/03/programmer-personas.html

<comment><USER2> I would say I was an opportunistic moved pragmatic...</comment>


Actionable Magento 2 site speed tips. 30+ Dev expertise, 6K words, 22 tips - <AUTHOR> https://onilab.com/blog/magento-2-performance-speed-optimization-guide/ <comment><USER2> not bad, definitely better than most of the stuff out there</comment>


Ask HN: Appropriate platform for a data crunching app - <AUTHOR>

I'm in the process of building a social Bayesian suggestion engine. I've coded out a large portion of it from scratch in PHP following an MVC design pattern, but I'm starting to wonder if this is the right environment for doing some Bayesian inference. Will good ol' MySQL work on a grand scale?
Reading about the obstacles Hunch has encountered has made me reconsider PHP, but that's what I know best. I'm fairly proficient in Python, so it wouldn't be such a leap to use Django, but I'd prefer not to if there's not a big performance difference. I've looked at MongoDB and it looks like I could replace MySQL without requiring me to rewrite too much of my code base. Node.js looks pretty exciting, but I know very little about it's proper application or whether it's stable enough.
I'm up for learning to work in a new environment if there's something that's just _right_ for the job. Any suggestions? <comment><USER2> Python is generally faster than PHP, particularly if you're not using APC or Zend. But the real benefit of using Python is the vast amount of software out there to do so many things. For example, PyBrain (<http://pybrain.org/>) may be right up your alley. The book "Programming Collective Intelligence" is all Python-based, and covers a wide range of algorithms including classifiers and so on, some of which use SQL backends. I thought the book was awesome, practical and inspiring, but I'm not a hardcore AI person.

MySql vs NoSql: you may find that sql is totally adequate for what you're trying to do. You may be able to factor the data access out to a data layer such that you can switch the underlying storage without too much work.

If your goal is to just get it finished, go with what you know. If your goal is to grow and/or earn street cred, leave your comfort zone asap!

<comment><AUTHOR> I've definitely been trying to abstract all my models out so that I can swap out a new DAL if needed. I've got a pretty extensive SQL class going, but the app still has some hard coded SQL queries in it.

I'm not too sure I'd be enticed to use lots of python modules. I think this may be a programming character flaw, but I am averse to using pre-built stuff in my code, otherwise I'd be using CakePHP or Codeigniter instead of my own framework right now. I always want to build everything from scratch.

<comment><USER2> If you're committed to the style points that you get from writing good software, seriously consider starting to do that in a language other than PHP.

But aside from that issue, consider this: You have probably create quite a war chest of software you've created for rocking and rolling problems, in PHP. Python's package structure makes it a lot easier to re-use software than it is in PHP. There are some amazing micro-frameworks out there, that let you use other people's code, just the parts you need, without any bloat. But even if you ignore what other people have written, and want to write it all yourself, Python is a way better place to be. Using WSGI you ahve all kinds of options for ultra-fast, lean and mean hosting of code that you write for frameworks.

But things like Flask may appeal to you: <http://flask.pocoo.org/> It's a collection of a handful of tiny things that together form an alternative to something like Django. Considering you've eschewed CakePHP, Flask may interest you greatly. There are actually a number of micro frameworks like this. Playing with, reading the code, or using some of these things may be fun for you.

Edit: "FLASK" not FLASH. Oops.</comment></comment></comment>


Know Your Flow - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jonathansmart1/know-your-flow-a436eb7c8af <comment><USER2> The "Creating and Interpreting Cumulative Flow Diagrams" post from 2006 explains a simple way to visualize and measure flow. The only data required to construct a cumulative flow diagram is state transition timestamps. A cumulative flow diagram can help identify bottlenecks, find resource constraints, and estimate delivery times for customers.

[http://leadinganswers.typepad.com/leading_answers/2006/09/cr...](http://leadinganswers.typepad.com/leading_answers/2006/09/creating_and_in.html)

This is the single most useful process analysis tool I've discovered in a decade of analyzing engineering development processes (at least when humans are responsible for tracking the data).</comment>


Do you trust this application? - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.gnome.org/mcatanzaro/2016/03/12/do-you-trust-this-application/ <comment> awinter-py Is the author saying we need mobile-style app permissions on the linux desktop? (I know there's apparmor but I don't understand it). That would be awesome.

Throw phone-home & disk access restrictions into the mix and I'm even happier.

I know there are sandboxing tools for linux desktop -- the community needs to identify one that's easy to use and start using it. Let's recruit closed- source OS users to linux by dangling easy-to-use privacy.

<comment><USER2> Sandboxing doesn't fix apps not validating SSL certificates?

<comment> awinter-py correct, but it limits the data they can exfiltrate. I can live more easily with my weather app downloading its upgrade patch over HTTP if there's a sandbox limiting what that hostile update will do when it lands.

<comment><USER2> The Linux kernel has had a lot of holes in the namespace stuff used for containers, I doubt that there will not be more. Not to mention all the local root exploits, seLinux-bypass, information leaks and so on. If you're relying on Linux features for security without at least using the grsec patches, you probably already lost.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> A piece of this issue is distributions, and it somewhat might be better for rolling release distros.

Also, at least for his examples, these are fairly low popularity products, as much as I like Gnome[0] and its ecosystem, it's the truth. Shotwell? He said it himself, no one develops it anymore. Epiphany (vs. Firefox vs. Chrome) Gnome Music, Weather? It doesn't help that the userbase is small and thus, the developer base is even smaller.

Would we see the same apathy with Firefox, VLC, mplayer, not to mention bash or openssl? Probably not (as we have seen especially with the last two).

[0] Not being sarcastic, imao, Gnome 3 blows Unity,Gnome 2,KDE, and even OS X out of the water in my book, which makes me sad it isn't as popular as Unity.

<comment><USER2> Most of the bugs he refers to aren't even fixed in git, so yeah, no. The one that is fixed didn't get a CVE so it isn't surprising none of the distro security teams heard about it.

<comment><USER3> I agree, the fact that the devs aren't even fixing it in the first place is a problem, although as I said, these are unpopular apps with few devs in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Debian has non-maintainer-uploads in case upstream refuses to fix issues or simply has vanished, and so has Ubuntu.

No idea how other distros solve this issue though. And on Windows with its lack of any package management or update facilities other than whatever homegrown stuff the vendor ships (which leads to dozens of updater processes eating up RAM) the situation is even worse.

</comment><comment><USER5> Author makes a good point reminding us that free software does not automatically mean secure.

But it's worth pointing out that at least with free software, we are able to assess just how (in)secure an application is. So we can find out which applications to use or avoid if we are interested in security. The same cannot be said for proprietary applications.

<comment><USER6> > we are able to assess just how (in)secure an application is

Realistically, most people aren't going to do this. A more pragmatic solution is to use a minimal system, where for every task, you always use the smallest application that will perform it in an adequate manner. With proprietary software, you seldom get the ability to set up such a minimal system.

In particular, this means that I will never use a desktop environment, because there is no task for which a desktop environment is the smallest, simplest possible solution.

<comment><USER7> Depends how you define minimal, functionality or code size and do we count libraries since once you pull in GTK, Qt or something on the JVM you are depending on millions of lines of code anyway.

<comment><USER6> All else being equal or irrelevant, I prefer the application with the fewest and smallest dependencies, as well as the least amount of features I won't use. For example, the only thing I want in a music player is that _it plays music_. I don't need to connect to online services to synchronize my playlists, discover new artists, or whatever else "music players" do these days. Thus my preference for moc instead of, say, Amarok.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The author points out the biggest issue I have with open source, there is no owner so their is no reputation so their is no incentive to fix reputation damaging but not functional issues.

Everyone was shocked that like one person was maintaining OpenSSL which everyone depended on, some of the mentioned programs have exactly zero people maintaining them. The package maintainers will do the minimum to get them to compile but that is it. So once you've got a remote execution bug in a commonly shipped but unowned piece of code, you can rootkit all your friends who use it, again and again and again.

<comment><USER9> Except that incentive doesn't work anyway. For example, last I heard Steam is shipping am ancient, known-vulnerable version of Chromium with sandboxing disabled. The biggest issue with open source security is the same as the biggest issue with closed source security: end users have no idea how secure the software is and can't really do much about it even if they did know.

<comment><USER8> Well said. I wasn't aware that Steam had continued to ship that Chromium version, what used it?</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is your favorite book written before 1900? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Hunger by Knut Hamsun, 1890. I consider it the first psychological novel.

"The novel has been hailed as the literary opening of the 20th century[1] and an outstanding example of modern, psychology-driven literature.[2] Hunger portrays the irrationality of the human mind in an intriguing and sometimes humorous manner." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_(Hamsun_novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_\(Hamsun_novel\))</comment>


25 tips that will help you promote on Reddit - <AUTHOR> https://serpstat.com/blog/25-tips-that-will-help-you-promote-on-reddit/ <comment><USER2> The main problem here is number 8. Advertisers can spam like crazy then trim it all back to just successful posts so it doesn't look like they are spamming. Not sure how reddit should handle that though.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice, Reddit will be pissed though.

<comment><USER4> Sounds like a Sybil attack [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack)</comment></comment>


Google Play Suspended All Apps Related to Coronavirus, Including Mine - <AUTHOR> https://www.flyingnobita.com/mobile/flutter/2020/03/02/first_google_play_submission_suspended/ <comment><AUTHOR> It seems what happened was that Google is following Apple's footsteps, allowing apps related to the coronavirus to be only from "recognized health organizations or the government".

I think this is fair and helpful in preventing the spread of misinformation. But Google should've been more transparent and tell developers the reasons for the app takedown. However, I'm still highly skeptical that suspension is needed as the data presented was purely factual and without misrepresentation.

[https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/05/apple-rejects-coronavirus- ap...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/05/apple-rejects-coronavirus-apps-that- arent-from-health-organizations.html?__source=sharebar%7Ctwitter&par=sharebar)

</comment><comment> _-___________-_ I support this suspension. Apps like this have a high risk of presenting a partial or incorrect view of the data, and trade on emotions by doing things like presenting "confirmed cases" in bright red. There is enough hysteria already without fueling it further.</comment>


Show HN: TablePad, a notepad app for structured data - <AUTHOR> https://tablepad.app/ <comment><AUTHOR> Author's note:

Everyone uses spreadsheets to manage small-scale tabular data because unlike a database they're usable by humans and let users immediately start entering data, but they're not great at "staying out of your way", in that you constantly have to resize columns to match the data width, style the header row separately and freeze it, maybe add a row count column, remember to sort columns in such a way that row integrity is preserved, etc. Doing that stuff drives me crazy. Also, launching a giant office application to manage a list of a couple dozen items feels silly. Or doing something in the cloud. It feels simultaneously like massive overkill yet still not having the right tool for the job, like using a Ferrari to haul lumber.

So out of pent-up frustration I built a simple free desktop app for editing tables that lets you just start typing like a spreadsheet, but actually knows what a table is and tries really hard to stay out of your way. So you can just edit your table rather than spending your time teaching an automatic infinite ledger how to be a tabular notepad. I've enjoyed having it in my toolbox so I thought I'd put it out there to see if anyone else finds it useful.

In the spirit of Show HN, this project is somewhere between a prototype and an MVP; there are obvious major missing features but it's actively used by enough people that the quality isn't terrible. If you have a use case for which you think TablePad is a good fit, I'd love to hear about it in the comments or you can email me at email@example.com.

</comment><comment><USER2> Nice app.

Features to consider: 1) F2 for editing cell contents 2) tab behavior like Excel where pressing tab on last column wraps to the next line+first column 3) C-; to enter current date.

I did get this error when trying to save or save as on Linux.

[https://i.imgur.com/0VmWKGw.png](https://i.imgur.com/0VmWKGw.png)

I was using file name: "New Table". I did not enter a file extension. I'm not sure what extension TablePad uses.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks very much for the feedback and bug report, which I have reproduced on Ubuntu. I'll fix the bug shortly and put the feature requests on the list.

Edit: fixed in 0.5.20</comment></comment>


When to use Excel, when to use R? - <AUTHOR> http://michaelmilton.net/?p=286 <comment><USER2> I would stress that with Excel, changing the underlying data set, especially dimensions of your data is annoying and not very automate-able. This is the case even when the analysis is the exact same or very similar as the original. You either need to copy formulas over for every data set/sheet or write VBA code to automate this, which still isn't as flexible as in R.

Excel is better if you want to pore over the data: study a piece, scroll down, study some more. R is better if you can easily pinpoint the areas you think are interesting and index directly into the array. Excel has indexing capabilities (F5 which goes to an address), but not by row/column names.

Additionally, you can't do multi-step analysis that involves segmentation/sub- setting of the data very easily with Excel. This is related to the first point about changing an underlying data set or its dimensions. There are ways around this, but they are VERY annoying.

I use R for the majority of my analysis. I used to be a Matlab user but needed to find a cheaper tool when I left my job. I still use excel for simple data inspection and when I need to send my analysis to other people to peruse.

<comment><USER3> "I would stress that with Excel, changing the underlying data set, especially dimensions of your data is annoying and not very automate-able. This is the case even when the analysis is the exact same or very similar as the original. You either need to copy formulas over for every data set/sheet or write VBA code to automate this, which still isn't as flexible as in R."

In certain circumstances you are right. Wanting to use the same spreadsheet for a very, very similar task is often annoying. This can be avoided if you knew from the start that you wanted to make something more reusable, but sadly that isn't always the case. Of course there are ways of automating them (VBA as you mentioned, or DB connections when appropriate, sometimes UDF, or just organizing the data in the correct way) but this is definitely one of my major annoyances.

"Excel has indexing capabilities (F5 which goes to an address), but not by row/column names."

Actually with the name manager you can do this. Simply name the row(s) and column(s) you want to index by, press F5, and type "my_col,my_row" and you are there. It even does the "and" selection for you, which you can easily exit out of if you want. Not sure if it is in versions prior to Excel 2010, but I don't really find myself using this all that much.

"Additionally, you can't do multi-step analysis that involves segmentation/sub-setting of the data very easily with Excel. This is related to the first point about changing an underlying data set or its dimensions. There are ways around this, but they are VERY annoying."

Your first statement is only correct if you mean "you can't do _some_ multi- step analyzes" because some of them are just plain simple. Also, I don't find the occasional annoyances (which typically have to do with using match(), vlookup(), cross_product(), or similar functions) anywhere nearly as annoying as some of the other things I have to deal with when programming. Dates can be a pain in the ass. Even in Ruby.

I'll be clear in saying I have no idea about what R can do. I've only toyed with it due to lack of time, but I do know that Excel can do a bunch of really cool things. Solver, remote UDFs written in any programming language (including Ruby running on a linux box), forms for pointy haired bosses, pretty awesome charts if you know what you are doing, cubes, goal seek, data tables, macros, formula auditing, db connections, etc.

What I don't like is the general vibe that Excel is, and only is, for MBAs and R is, and only is, for comp sci kids. That just isn't true, and I don't have to know anything about R to make that claim because I know some comp sci kids some of the time get a ton of value out of Excel. Right tool, right job.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The arguments are good and sound, but could be simpler:

If you can "grasp" your data by looking at it, use excel. If your data is too much to look at, use R.

Excel lends itself more to shallow exploratory approaches, while with R, you have to think first (or rather: always).

<comment><USER5> What about a graphical front end to R? I wonder if 90% of R's use cases could be represented in the form of a flowchart diagram, which then would generate R code. One could have the automatically re-run the script when the diagram changes and render graphs and other output. I was thinking of having a "remote control" for such an app on the iPad, with the ability to use the keyboard/mouse and script certain things by hand to enable the more esoteric 10%.

<comment><USER6> I wonder if Rcmdr would be up your alley:

<http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/>

Screenshot: [http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/Rcmdr- screenshot....](http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/Rcmdr- screenshot.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Please don't use spreadsheets for statistical analysis (even the simple kind that the spreadsheet claims to support).

<http://www.jstatsoft.org/v34/i04/paper>

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm just starting to go beyond Excel, but I chose to learn Python and scipy over R due to reading that R's scripting language didn't match up to Python. Am I handicapping myself by ignoring R?

<comment><USER9> You could always use sage if you want scientific computing in python. It makes interacting between different libraries like SciPy, NumPy, and a ton of other math libraries pretty strait forward. You can even choose your version of numbers if you want. It also has rpy.

www.sagemath.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The arguments are good, assuming you're the only person working on the analysis.

As a consultant I'm always constrained to use the greatest common denominator - that is, something that my clients can use, modify and extend _themselves_ after I leave. In 99.9% of the cases, that means Excel, regardless of the task.

<comment><USER2> While your clients need to look at the output of the analysis or the end result, they don't need to see every branch of it that you have explored.

I will do serious exploratory analysis in R and then show my conclusions and maybe a few alternatives in Excel, but that doesn't mean you have to always work in Excel. Further, I could not be anywhere near as productive in Excel as I could in R.

<comment><USER10> More often than not people are interested in tools and ability to generate answers themselves, not just answers.

<comment><USER4> A very valid point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So here's a hypothetical question: let's say you have a programmer who knows next to nothing about statistics, knows how to navigate around Excel fairly well, and once allowed himself to be scared away by R.

Let's further assume he's suddenly inherited a large volume of load testing data and a mandate to "make something out of it."

What's a starting point? I, I mean, _he_ hears about the great visualization stuff in R and understands the importance of it but has no clue where to start.

Would HN have any advice for him?

<comment><USER12> His book "Head First Data Analysis" seems a fairly gentle introduction to data analysis. I've read it and it's enough to learn a couple of tricks. Where to go from here it's harder to figure out. I'm refreshing my stats classes with the Pearson, and looking for a good introductory R book.

This stats course from Berkeley isn't bad, too: <http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/classes/s133/schedule.html>

<comment><USER11> Thanks :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> MBA: Excel

CS: {R, Python, Matlab, Mathematica}

<comment><USER14> CS people might be put off by the fact R is really a pretty lousy language if you've seen any other language (like, for example, Python). It's obvious that it wasn't a programmer who designed the language R uses.

This blog posts points out a list of specific gripes about the language: <http://tjic.com/?p=10739> There is some real weirdness to this language.

The R Programming Language for Programmers: <http://www.johndcook.com/R_language_for_programmers.html> does a lot to ameliorate this, but the fact the weirdness is there at all makes a programmer a little uneasy.

<comment><USER15> Think of it as a DSL, statisticians like to use. While it has its dark sides, its vector-orientation is well suited for a language whose main purpose is data manipulation.

<comment><USER14> > Think of it as a DSL

I can't let this stand as a blanket defense of crappy languages. We have Lua. We have Python. We have Scheme. We have multiple other languages that can be used as a good way to access the goodies provided by your wonderful hand- crafted libraries regardless of what they do. There is no reason for you to invent your own language just so people will be able to use your library code from a REPL.

Sadly, back in the dark ages, this was not true. However, in the future, anyone who tries to defend the horrible design of a new language with "Think of it as a DSL" gets to debug a 1000 KLOC application written in ANS COBOL 1968, which is a DSL for fixed-field database munging.

<comment><USER15> Let's put things in perspective: R is S and S had it's first appearance in the 1970s. It's current reincarnation is from the late 1980s. I remember that other statistical packages back then had a similar looking syntax. This is also the reason why lua/python stand no chance against R: they simply lack the vast abundance of statistical packages and tutorials. The best thing they can do is use R as an inferior process (IIRC there is a package for incanter that does that).

The point is though that S/R isn't that badly suited for what it was created for. There are a few pitfalls but those are explained in the langage definition. But unfortunately nobody RTFM nowadays (like people used to do back then in what you call the dark ages) because it's easier to start screaming for Mommy and write stupid blog posts that prove nothing but that those people haven't read the language definition.

And BTW, python sucks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I find R syntax to be really annoying, and I am trying to work more in Octave, a matlab compatible system. I don't like the mostly gratuituous complexity of the R type hierarchy, and prefer to have everything be a matrix. I also detest the use of periods as plain text. FWIW.

<http://www.octave.org>

</comment><comment><USER17> Honestly, once you learn them both, it's best to use Illustrator when you need good presentation and R all other times. I can think of very little that Excel can do that can't be done faster in R and prettier with Illustrator.

So I'd condense the argument to: if you're not comfortable with R/Illustrator and don't have time to learn, use Excel.

<comment><USER18> can you easily update data feeds to illustrator without having to redo your drafted work?

<comment><USER17> It's generally for finishing and publication. For rapidly updating graphics, the libraries lattice and ggplot2 are both good enough looking.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> matplotlib is my best friend, matlab is my second best friend

excel? are you kidding me

<comment><USER20> Yep, I use matplotlib pretty much exclusively for this kind of thing. I have my eye on clojure's Incanter, though.

<comment><USER21> Incanter is really shaping up. I can't say enough good things about it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> has anyone used both R and matlab/octave?

i've used matlab but not R. For machine learning, I found matlab great because of its great matrix support.

what's the pros/cons of R? what advantages does R have over matlab?</comment>


Microsoft strikes back: introduces docs for facebook - <AUTHOR> http://docs.com/Main/Home

<comment><USER2> Maybe it is just me, but everyone with whom I want to collaborate on a document is not my facebook friend and most probably never will be.

<comment><USER3> Most people are Facebook friends with classmates.

<comment><USER4> It seems to add another potential source of Facebook-friend awkwardness, though, where you have to friend someone you were assigned to work on a group project with, who isn't _really_ a friend, in order to access some docs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Probably one of the wisest business decisions I have seen Microsoft make in quite some time.

If you daydream a bit and think of the possible future implications with this partnership of sorts with Facebook (who I might add has been now aggressively taking measures to become the portal to the web) this could really be huge for Microsoft in terms of market share, mindshare, etc. if 1. online/cloud docs stay a relevant competitive space 2. somehow becomes a profitable model (direct or indirect) 3. become the exclusive provider of such service for Facebook.

Very interesting.

<comment><USER6> If this goes the way Microsoft and Facebook want it to, it's going to reopen antitrust investigations. At this point Microsoft is almost going out of their way to break cross-platform compatibility.

<comment><USER5> I'm not an antitrust expert, but I've learned a little bit in the last decade+ when it first really grabbed my attention and I can't think of one example to support your theory that this action by Microsoft is "almost going out of their way to break cross-platform compatibility."

I suppose the stretch would be that if Facebook DID indeed become the de facto destination and portal for the overwhelming majority of internet users and "docs" was the only service available that some companies may be able to raise issue, but even then I am not convinced since you don't and won't NEED Facebook as your portal for the internet and to share productivity documents (and I'm putting on my future goggles here).

And keep in mind this is coming from someone who is not a fan of Microsoft, but greatly respects Bill Gates, and was a former employee of Apple.

<comment><USER6> Sharepoint and Outlook web access have a significantly degraded user experience on anything but Internet Explorer running on Windows (client.) Full outlook web access isn't even supported.

The fact that Microsoft is building their new platform on top of these technologies is troubling.

<comment><USER7> ? Are you suggesting that the Office Web App _clients_ are being built on top of Sharepoint and Outlook web _clients_?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Please note, when I visited docs.com the app was automatically authorized to have access to my Facebook profile. I had to find the app under my Facebook App settings and remove it manually to deauthorize it. So, Facebook 3rd party partners do not need permission from the user to access the information?

<comment><USER9> This is Facebook's "instant personalization" feature that just launched. You can disable it in the privacy settings/applications. (it's opt out).

<comment><USER8> Thanks for the heads up, I'm definitely opting out.

From the blurb that was presented when I tried to opt out: "Please keep in mind that if you opt out, your friends may still share public Facebook information about you to personalize their experience on these partner sites unless you block the application."

Basically there's no way of preventing "select Facebook partners" from having access to my profile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is a great move on Microsoft's part. The general population on HN might not make a switch but there are a LOT of people who have no idea what google docs are but are on Facebook all the time. Think your average farmville player or your grandmother/parents/random cousin in high school.

</comment><comment><USER11> Don't see any reason to switch from google. "You need a SharePoint server and license in order to collaborate, and either: You need to pay license fees for an on-premise version of Office 2010 or You need to pay an as-yet-unspecified subscription fee." [http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10002712/the-hidden- cost...](http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10002712/the-hidden-cost-of- microsofts-free-online-office-suite/)

<comment><USER12> Good grief. $41,000 for a full set of CALs to run SharePoint. Does anyone know if that's per server or for a given site?

I understand Microsoft's motivation in trying to sell this but it's hard to fathom the reasoning of anyone who would buy it.

<comment><USER13> Sharepoint 3.0 was free to anyone with a Windows Server 2003 license. Once you build out that infrastructure a bit the marginal costs to upgrade into MOSS (SharePoint 2007/2010) start to look ok.

I personally prefer more socially focused solutions (e.g. Jive) but SharePoint is making huge strides as both a collaboration backbone and as a document management platform.

Some Fortune 500 companies are now building new intranet apps around SharePoint rather than standalone. There are a number of off the shelf solutions available as SharePoint "web parts".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I used to have an obsession about reserving a great name or two whenever a new service came out. I worked on my own shareware application, and I never knew where I would branch out for my next app.

I registered apps.facebook.com/docs when Facebook Apps first came out. Facebook took that name (the Canvas URL) away from me within days, however.

I still have my three letter twitter account name, as well as usernames like "Call" and "Cards" on one of the biggest and most-advertised poker sites, from when they were in beta. I've found it interesting to see which companies would take back their names after realizing they let a good one go, and which would not.

</comment><comment><USER15> Broken on OS X Firefox.

<comment><USER16> Mission accomplished!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Aren't most of the concerns people have with cloud computing related to privacy? I won't ever trust Mr. Zuckerberg with anything slightly private.

And I'm not very concerned with privacy in general.

</comment><comment><USER18> This is very interesting, indeed.

I think it may take a bit of time to anticipate the consequences.</comment>


Apple Reports Q2 2018 Results - <AUTHOR> https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/05/apple-reports-second-quarter-results/ <comment><USER2> One thing that is consistently amazing is how accurate Apple's guidance is.

Horace Dediu: "How accurate is Apple's Guidance? Over the last 23 quarters the average error has been 2.63% (measuring from top of guidance range)." [0]

[0] - [https://twitter.com/asymco/status/991345104848867333](https://twitter.com/asymco/status/991345104848867333)

<comment><USER3> Imho this isn't chance but Apple management has several tools to realize it. My guesses are specific operator campaigns, pricing, supply.

What's surprising is the absence of extreme overshoot. I think smartphone market has matured enough.

<comment><USER4> They are also already a month into the next quarter by the time they announce it....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My notes:

Numbers:

\- Q Rev. $51.5B to $53.5B, Est. $51.4B

\- Q2 2018 revenue of $61 billion, equaling analyst's estimates. That's 16 percent growth from a year ago. It's the fastest year over year expansion since 2015

\- Apple sold 52 million iPhones in the second quarter, compared to 50.1 million units in the year-ago quarter. This represents year-over-year 3 percent unit growth and 14 revenue growth

\- services revenue up 31 percent from a year ago and 8 percent from the preceding three months.

\- Quarter over quarter, iPhone sales fell 32 percent in terms of units and 38 percent in terms of revenue. The average selling price was $728 per phone compared with an average estimate of $740.

\- The iPad made gains from a year ago. Apple sold 2 percent more in the second quarter from a year ago with a 6 percent revenue gain. It sold fewer Mac computers compared with a year ago and revenue was flat.

\- other revenue, watch, pay, tv, etc Revenue was up 38 percent from a year ago.

\- Cash at end of 2Q $267.2 billion vs $285.1 billion q/q

\- est. 3Q operating expenses $7.7 billion to $7.8 billion

\- est. 3Q tax rate about 14.5%

Commentary:

\- apple store now has 270 million paying subscribers - that's 100 million more than a year ago.

\- \- In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley said it expects Apple to hike its capital return program by $150 billion to a total of $450 billion in returns by 2020. This would be up from the $300 billion program announced last year, which was expected to run through March-2019. Apple is also expected to up its quarterly dividend to 0.945 cents per share, up from the current 63 cents, according to Morgan Stanley.

\- Apple was the largest non-financial issuer of U.S. investment-grade bonds last year.

and from Jon Elichman this was intersting

Number of iPhones sold in Q2:

Q2 2018: 52.2 million

Q2 2017: 50.8 million

Q2 2016: 51.2 million

Q2 2015: 61.2 million

Q2 2014: 43.7 million

Q2 2013: 37.4 million

Q2 2012: 35.1 million

Q2 2011: 18.6 million

Q2 2010: 8.8 million

Q2 2009: 3.8 million

Q2 2008: 1.7 million

<comment><USER6> >\- music now has 270 million paying subscribers - that's 100 million more than a year ago.

That has to be wrong. They were at 40 million a few months ago.

<comment><USER5> Your right, not apple music, I mistranslated there:). Appreciate the fact checking:)

<comment><USER7> You're

;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Some scale for the new $100b buyback program... Larger than the market cap of all but 51 of the S&P 500 (with one of those being Apple!). That's nuts!

<comment><USER3> Are there any risks with such a huge buyback in 2019 to 2020 in a mature smartphone market and in the absence of other growth drivers next to iPhone??

<comment><USER8> They have the cash and people generally invest in AAPL for reasons other than having a stake in a bond fund, so it makes some sense. Buybacks vs special dividend are debatable, but impossible to say what is better until you see the future share price. They did hike the dividend substantially too so they're playing both angles.

<comment><USER9> Buybacks will also increase the dividend yield as dividends are distributed across a smaller number of shares.

<comment><USER8> No, it will decrease the amount of money they have to pay out in dividends though... Theoretically the yield would decrease since the share price should increase as shares are bought back. That said, they did also announce a dividend increase which should counteract that.

Think about it in round numbers, if there are 1 billion shares and a $1 dividend it's $1bn per dividend payment. If they buy back 100m shares, the next dividend payment would be $900m.

tl;dr dividends are declared on a per share basis, not a total amount that is divided by the current number of shares.

<comment><USER10> Come on dude, this is totally wrong.

Dividends are expressed in per share basis but that's not actually how it works, a set amount of money is set for dividends.

Share buybacks increase your % ownership of a company (if you're a shareholder), directly increasing the intrinsic value of your shares

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That is a pretty stellar earnings release. Congratulations on another quarter of excellent execution!

I think what Apple needs are some barbarians at the gates. Something which challenges them to be greater than they are, rather than sitting back on their laurels. I continue to be surprised that they don't step into the cloud computing pool. There are some solid advantages to having a cloud infrastructure that you can use to deploy new initiatives at scale.

I also wish they would spin out their computer business (Macbook, Ma Pro, Mac Mini, iMac) into its own division. While I chided Google for creating Alphabet, having your own identity can sharpen your focus if it is done well. It would also let them decide where they wanted to go with some of the legacy product lines.

<comment><USER12> > I also wish they would spin out their computer business (Macbook, Ma Pro, > Mac Mini, iMac) into its own division

To me, one of the core strengths of Apple is integration of all its devices, and it seems to me that creating separate divisions competing with each other would risk undermining this integration.

In the late 90s, I heard hair raising stories of how various divisions at Sun were operating at cross purposes due to a myoptic focus on their own balance sheets. I believe you worked there. In your opinion, were the competing divisions a strength or a weakness of Sun?

<comment><USER11> It is true, Sun did it poorly :-) What Apple has that Sun didn't are vertical product stacks. A 'Macintosh' company has its own hardware, software, and (shared) sales channels. The 'iDevice' company has its own hardware, software, and (shared) sales channels. I think that separation could work.

From where I could watch, Sun's biggest issue was that they forgot they were a systems company and started trying to be a components company. They had also pretty much become completely afraid of 'open' systems at that point. Playing tricks on competing SPARC computer companies, screwing up the OS portability, etc.

<comment><USER12> As far as I can tell, Microsoft suffered similar problems, with their desktop oriented divisions occasionally holding back the mobile divisions. It's not like Apple never suffers from any organizational dysfunction, but I feel that separating divisions actively _incentivizes_ dysfunction.

macOS and iOS share quite a bit of software, both in the sense of code bases that have overlap on the two platforms, and code bases that need to work together (e.g. for handoff, or features like Apple Watch unlocking a Mac). Not so sure about the hardware situation, but there is at least some sharing going on. And in many cases, the _people_ behind the technology are shared as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm kind of thrilled to see Mac revenue flat and unit sales down 3%. I was really worried that these keyboard problems wouldn't have any effect on the bottom line and give them an excuse to ignore it; hopefully this is setting off alarm bells and getting them to see that, yes, it really unacceptable and needs to be fixed.

<comment><USER14> I hope that's Apple's response too. But I fear they might just conclude to that their expertise is in cell phones and they shouldn't invest too much in laptops after all. Maybe introduce some more gimmicks and see if anything sticks. I really hope I'm wrong. I'd love to see an MBP I could get excited about.

<comment><USER9> I think that would be a mistake. I believe at least, that Apple owes a lot to the size of it's developer computer. Get them off Apple and you're one step closer to Android, then you start developing apps for non-Apple products.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> MacStories has some visualizations with data from previous quarterly results [https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-q2-2018-results-xxx- bi...](https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-q2-2018-results-xxx-billion- revenue-xxx-million-iphones-xxx-million-ipads-sold/)

</comment><comment><USER16> _APPLE SEES 3Q REV. $51.5B TO $53.5B, EST. $51.4B

_ APPLE 2Q REV. $61.1B, EST. $60.9B

 _APPLE REPORTS NEW $100B BUYBACK PROGRAM, BOOSTS DIVIDEND BY 16%

_ APPLE 2Q IPHONE UNITS SOLD 52.2M, EST. 52.3M

<comment><AUTHOR> Also they have services at 9.2B vs consensus 8.4B, which is a fantastic beat and 31% growth YoY.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> $100 billion buyback? I thought cash repatriation was supposed to lead to an explosion of onshore investment.

<comment><USER18> It is an onshore investment. They are investing in Apple stock.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I think the Apple future may not look good for a few reasons:

1\. iPhones units sold stalled for 3 years in a row. This means the company need to seek every year some trick to earn more from each phone. It is not obvious if they'll be able to do for a long time.

2\. Top Android devices are improving and Google Pixel 2 is really an incredible device that is making some iOS users switching. I've no data but my nerd friends are doing this a lot, and sometimes what you see in the nerd- sphere in a few years happens in the normal market.

3\. They are struggling at competing in the space of the biggest ecosystems around phones. Cloud, computational photography, assistant.

<comment><USER20> 2\. No, iOS people are not switching. They are staying but not buying newer models due to lack of innovation. Personally I would never switch to the cesspool named Android. Laggy, malware infested garbage

<comment><USER21> > Laggy

At least Google isn't making your phone laggy on purpose! (too soon?)

Joking aside, there are a lot of sketchy, crappy Android devices, but there are also some decent ones (e.g. straight from Google). I suspect you've only been exposed to the crappy ones.

<comment><USER22> Google has tried to release a phone before and they fail hard. The phone stops getting updates. If you want an android device with updates you have to get a BlackBerry.

Android OS is horrible because it's always different. From release to release. From phone to phone. Everyone has their own little tidbit to add and makes it non uniform.

<comment><USER21> > The phone stops getting updates

What? They provide major OS updates for 2 years, and security updates for 3 years.

> Android OS is horrible because it's always different

Are you referring to OEM modifications to Android? It's really hard to follow your rant.

<comment><USER23> > They provide major OS updates for 2 years,

In iOS land, 2 years is just getting started for OS updates - generally you get 5 years or so. That's one of the reasons so many iPhones get handed down and resold compared to Android devices.

<comment><USER21> Hence the stalled iphones sales growth. I don't disagree that having a phone that is supported by the manufacturer for so long is a good thing, I very much agree with this! But if the manufacturer loses incentive to do so, then don't expect them to continue doing it for long.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Milk Might Not Be Doing You Much Good - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/upshot/got-milk-might-not-be-doing-you-much-good.html <comment><USER2> The conclusion is sort of weak - that milk isn't strictly necessary and doesn't do much good for you because most Americans aren't vitamin- or calorie- deficient.

That logic could be applied to literally anything. Is beef good for you? Most Americans aren't protein deficient and beef has a lot of saturated fat in it. Is chicken good for you? Most Americans aren't protein deficient. Are carrots good for you? Most Americans aren't Vitamin A-deficient. etc.

Milk is fine. Not everyone can tolerate it. You don't need to drink a gallon a day to stay alive. But it's a perfectly fine part of a normal diet. And for kids who are sometimes fussy eaters, yeah, milk can actually make the difference between getting enough calories or not.

<comment><USER3> The difference is what happens if you take them away. Most Americans aren't vitamin A deficient _because_ of carrots. If you removed carrots, you would end up with a huge explosion of vitamin A deficiency. If you removed milk, nothing would happen. And the notion that meat is simply protein is not accurate. Meat is a primary source of a few vitamins and minerals for many people (b12, zinc, iron, etc). The protein is not what makes it good, pretty much anything that a reasonable person would classify as "real food" contains plenty enough protein.

<comment><USER2> Vitamin D is added to milk because before they did that there were a lot of people with Vitamin D deficiency. The same thing is true of iodine in salt.

Most people can remove any one or two things from their diet and they won't suddenly get scurvy or pellagra.

<comment><USER3> That shows that vitamin D supplements are useful, not that milk is. Vitamin D can be added to anything (it is already in lots of orange juice for example). Coke with vitamin D in it isn't suddenly "a healthy part of a complete breakfast!". If most people removed carrots or beef from their diet without replacing it with some other source of the vitamins those provide, they would become deficient. If most people removed milk from their diet, nothing would happen. That's the point.

<comment><USER4> I have to agree. When I was into bodybuiding and gaining, I drank milk (and protein shakes) at about a gallon a day. I'm naturally lactose intolerant, but drinking lots of it seemed to make me produce enough lactase that I could digest it without much trouble.

But when I stopped working out, I soon stopped drinking milk and now I hardly touch the stuff except for a little in coffee or the occasional milkshake. As far as I can tell, it made no difference in my health.

I'm becoming a fat fuck, but that's lack of exercise, not lack of milk ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >In addition, milk is not a low-calorie beverage. Even if people drink nonfat milk, three cups a day can mean an additional 250 calories consumed. Low-fat or whole milk has even more calories. In an era when every other caloric beverage is being marginalized because of obesity concerns, it's odd that milk continues to get a pass.

I'm kind of upset that this is an argument here. It's as if the author thinks that because you drink a beverage instead of eat it, it can't make you any less hungry, and therefore you keep on eating and drinking and get fat.

If anything, when I drink a glass of milk I feel more satiated (less hungry) than I would for a lot of foods. Beverages can definitely make you feel full.

In addition, I've seen a good amount of evidence that protein (in milk or other foods) produces more satiation per unit calorie than carbs or fat. I'm too lazy to cite my sources right now, but a google search shows some merit to the idea that milk helps you lose weight.

<comment><USER6> I'm kind of upset that anyone things drinking low-fat or skim milk is a good idea. Milk contains many fat-soluble nutrients. If you remove the fat, you remove the nutrients.

Instead of low-fat milk, we should drink low-sugar milk. It is the milk sugar, lactose, that many people are intolerant to. If you want to get a feeling for how much sugar is in milk, try lactose free milk some time. It is made by introducing lactase which breaks the complex lactose down into simple galactose, and it tastes like a bowl of lucky charms.

Recently I have switched to drinking half-and-half instead, when I want some milk. I may even try out heavy cream eventually. Half and half has less sugar and more fat than whole milk. Consuming fat is a great way to dampen the glycemic index of sugary foods, so I think heavy cream or half and half is a much better mate to cookies than regular milk would be.

whole milk: [http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg- products/6...](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg- products/69/2) half and half: [http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and- egg-products/4...](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg- products/48/2) heavy cream: [http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and- egg-products/5...](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg- products/51/2)

<comment><USER3> Your link says you are mistaken. Milk has only a few vitamins and minerals in reasonable quantities. They are still there in skim milk, and still just as available. None of them are fat soluble other than the vitamin D if you are consuming milk with vitamin D added to it. Compare whole milk from your link to skim milk from the same site: [http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy- and-egg-products/1...](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg- products/139/2)

<comment><USER6> Guess I should have taken a closer look. Anyway, Vitamin A is fat-soluble and you can really tell, since it tracks the amount of milk fat so well in these tables.

<comment><USER3> Yes, but vitamin A content is low anyways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What I take away from this is that milk does not provide any particular benefits over other food. Which does not mean there's necessarily anything wrong with it.

Personally, I was a long-time vegetarian, and am now a pescetarian. I am also a very active person, training in power lifting and Brazilian jiu jitsu several times a week. I drink whole milk daily because it is calorie and protein dense, not because I think it has some magical properties.

<comment><USER8>
       Which does not mean there's necessarily anything wrong with it.

If it's nutritionally mundane, we should base our decision on other factors: environmental impact, sustainability and animal cruelty. In Australia, 400K-700 calves (< 30 days old) are sent to the slaughterhouse every year in order to sustain its milk industry.

<comment><USER9> ...to produce delicious veal, presumably?

More to the point: if we didn't drink the milk of the mothers, neither the mothers nor the calves would exist at all; we wouldn't maintain millions of head of cattle for nostalgia. I'm not at all clear that's morally superior.

<comment><USER10> Considering how factory farms often treat livestock, I think there's a very low moral bar we have to beat when considering not continuing the process.

Also, considering that many of the current cattle breeds are largely human creations, I don't think there's the same moral imperative to continue their existence like I believe there is with "natural" species, or even with animal breeds which could survive on their own.

<comment><USER4> Then that's a problem with factory farms, not with raising animals in general. It's quite possible, if a bit more expensive (sometimes...) to get meat that's humanely raised.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Does anyone drink milk daily? I once tried switching to chocolate milk to get rid of my addiction to Pepsi. It was going great, until about a week later, where I was having BM problems.. constipation. Then I remembered my schooling, and figured out that the milk was causing it. Today, I have accepted my addiction and just drink Pepsi :)

<comment><USER12> About a litre or so daily, sometimes more. Then again levels of lactose tolerance in southern parts of Scandinavia here I'm from is amongst the highest in the world.

I didn't really realise lactose intolerance was a thing until I was in mid 20's and moved to the UK.

<comment><USER13> colder climate -> bigger body is beneficial -> need bigger stronger bones -> milk as an efficient and stable source of calcium. I'm from Russia and also wasn't aware until few years ago that lactose intolerance is a norm on planet Earth, not an exception.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> A fatty/protein-filled drink like milk is still better for you than what a majority of americans consume gallons of a week: carbonated high fructose corn syrup.

<comment><USER15> > A fatty/protein-filled drink like milk is still better for you than what a > majority of americans consume gallons of a week: carbonated high fructose > corn syrup.

And less healthy than the water our ancestors drank exclusively for millions of years before we domesticated animals (except for babies and their mothers' milk).

<comment><USER16> Actually, before the advent of farming, the water our ancestors drank was probably pretty clean, since hunter-gatherer societies had fairly low population densities.

And you can't directly compare something that causes acute disease (dirty water) with something that causes chronic disease (soda).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > But there's very little evidence that most adults need it. There's also very > little evidence that it's doing them much good.

Isn't all foodstuff this way? I watched a BBC documentary a number of years ago about a woman who had reportedly lived entirely on crisps (potato chips) for years[0]. She wasn't entirely healthy by any means, but it speaks to the resilience of our biology when you can get by on basically anything provided you get enough calories and a few vitamins.

Once you get past a bit of common sense, the whole notion of "healthy food" and "unhealthy food" often looks pretty ridiculous. It's really not worth time debating the negligible pros and cons of one particular food item.

Disclaimer: I've been drinking a pint of semi-skimmed every night since I was a child... which according to Wolfram Alpha is almost a quarter of the volume of a Gray Whale

[0] [http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/12/eaten- on...](http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/12/eaten-only-crisps- for-ten-years)

<comment><USER10> Incidentally, she probably only survived because potatoes are very nearly nutritionally complete.

I've read that you can survive indefinitely on a diet of potatoes and milk. I don't remember a specific source, but a quick google search seems to back that up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is not really "news" at all. I stopped drinking dairy milk a couple years ago because I realized it offered no potential benefits, and only alleged risks that kept surfacing in these studies.

There is literally no up-side to drinking milk, only purported risks. Thus, IMO the only reason to drink it is if you REALLY REALLY REALLY like the taste and can't imagine your life without it.

Also, interestingly - I personally have seen absolutely zero studies that showed milk benefits, that was not funded by the dairy farmers.

<comment><USER2> Of course there's an upside to drinking milk - it has calories and nutrients. Is it a better source of those two things than anything else? No. But there is no "perfect" food - you need a little bit of everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Healthcare Triage has a video on milk being not particularly healthy or even beneficial in ways people think: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzyFZcuHmeI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzyFZcuHmeI)

<comment><USER20> And, in case this isn't clear to everyone, Aaron Carroll is the author of both the NYT article and the man in front of the camera at Healthcare Triage.

I think that Healthcare Triage does a pretty excellent job of presenting information. Just don't want anyone to consider them separate sources, as it's the same guy. :)

<comment><USER19> Haha. Oops. I didn't notice that. I wouldn't have posted this if I had. Thanks for pointing that out.

<comment><USER20> Anything that gives Heathcare Triage exposure is worth it in my book. It's great stuff, regardless of Dr. Carroll's personal vendetta against milk. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> jack-r-abbit I don't really drink milk very often. I rarely ever just have a glass of it. I have a bowl of cereal like 2-3 times a month (but really only because it is there for the kids). I don't think I would miss it in liquid form if it was suddenly unavailable. However, it is in a lot of things I eat: cheese, yogurt, sour cream, chocolate, pan cakes, etc. So on one hand, it is a little strange that humans are the only animal to drink the milk of another animal and to drink milk of any kind past infancy. But on the other hand, products made out of milk seem as natural and appropriate as products made out of hamburger.

</comment><comment><USER21> This certainly does not apply to everyone, but if you are trying to get strong, Mark Rippetoe recommends a gallon of milk a day, which lead to this hilarious exchange:

Rip: You need to drink one gallon of full fat milk everyday. It's almost mandatory.

Audience Member: I'm lactose intolerant, could I substitute yogurt for milk?

Rip: Gallon of yogurt.

</comment><comment><USER15> Why would anyone think drinking the milk of another animal, evolved to grow calves, not people?

The article's second-to-last paragraph tells you everything. We believe in milk because it's profitable for diary producers to promote it, which they do.

> _Politics are certainly at play here [...] the vast majority of Dairy > Management's funding for its marketing strategies comes from the producers > themselves. The U.S.D.A. 's role in promoting dairy was firmly established > in the 1983 Dairy Production and Stabilization Act, which made it the > business of the government to carry out a "coordinated program of promotion > designed to strengthen the dairy industry's position in the marketplace and > to maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets and uses for fluid milk > and dairy products."_

<comment><USER22> Well, I'm pretty sure nothing I eat specifically evolved to be eaten by me. Guess what, I eat anyway.

<comment><USER10> Well that depends on whether you consider what we do to plants "evolution".

<comment><USER7> To follow up your point: _everything_ we eat that comes from farms (so, most fruits, veggies and meat) has been heavily altered from its wild ancestors. In that way, we very much have, through artificial selection, made food adapted for us to eat.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Hacker News: how to drink milk like a hacker!

Use 2 hands, one on each side of the cup. Open mouth. Lift arms, remembering to keep back straight. Pour. DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK

Ask HN: How do you drink milk?

<comment><USER24> Is there an Emacs package to streamline this workflow?</comment></comment>


Embeddable Common-Lisp 16.0.0 released - <AUTHOR> https://common-lisp.net/project/ecl/files/ecl-16.0.0-announcement.html <comment><USER2> Congratulations! ECL is very mature, and this release seems to further solidify that aspect of the project. We've been using it heavily at our startup with no problems, embedded with c++. I think it's a very well done implementation. If you're thinking of trying ECL out but emacs/slime is too much to have to learn, rlwrap, is a readline wrapper that makes the REPL very friendly. To integrate with c++, the ECL manual [1] is a decent reference.

[1] [https://common-lisp.net/project/ecl/manual/](https://common- lisp.net/project/ecl/manual/)

<comment><USER3> Please share with us what are you using it for if you can. I'd love to hear it.

<comment><USER2> It's a very straightforward use case, actually. We have c++ code on the AI/ML side of our company, well integrated with the rest of the stack. For some of our ideas in this area though, lisp was clearly very suitable, so we tried ECL. We mostly call c++ functions from lisp, and eval some lisp code on the c++ side. It always worked without problems. I only had experience with sbcl and clisp before, but ECL proved very mature and well designed. We love it and don't intend on looking back.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Has anyone used the embedding aspect of ECL significantly? I've used ECL as a standalone Lisp system, and also done fairly trivial embedding where there isn't much more interaction than there would be if you communicated with an external Lisp system via a pipe. But curious how usable the API on the C side is for interacting with an embedded ECL, to call functions and pass data across the boundary in either direction (cl_object, cl_def_c_function, etc.). The documentation for that part seems pretty sparse.

<comment><AUTHOR> We're working on it (documentation that is). You may find interesting directory examples/ in the source distribution archive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> An issue of ECL Quarterly was also published recently including some release coverage: [https://common- lisp.net/project/ecl/quarterly/volume2.html](https://common- lisp.net/project/ecl/quarterly/volume2.html).</comment>


Serious localhost vulnerability found in FreeBSD - <AUTHOR> http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=0+0+current/freebsd-announce

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's Kingcope's exploit post:

      http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full-disclosure/2009-November/071686.html

Unix systems give userland processes a lot of control over the what libraries get loaded dynamically into programs, so that you can (for instance) pick and choose what versions of third-party libraries you're going to use, or interpose wrapper functions over standard library functions like malloc().

This is a problem for SUID programs, because they run with higher privileges. SUID programs are supposed to be hermetically sealed. So you can't LD_PRELOAD a library into an SUID program; rtld strips the LD_* variables out of the environment.

Except, oops:

      http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/lib/libc/stdlib/getenv.c?rev=1.16;content-type=text%2Fx-cvsweb-markup

If you create a malformed environment, the unsetenv() call rtld uses to strip the environment will fail. rtld didn't notice the failure and accepted the dangerous variables.

This flaw is a riff on one of the all-time greatest Unix localhost findings. Back on SunOS 4.1.3, the "loadmodule" program was SUID root and used system() to execute shell commands to do parts of its work. 8lgm found that if an attacker set the shell IFS variable, they could trick the Bourne shell into thinking the path seperator '/' was the token seperator ' ', and thus trick "loadmodule" into running a program out of their home directory instead of /sbin.

So Sun patched "loadmodule" to strip IFS out of the environemnt.

So 8lgm wrote a second exploit that set two IFS variables. "loadmodule" only caught the first.

Thanks for keeping the flame alive, FreeBSD! =)

</comment><comment><USER2> A patch is available: [http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd- security/2009-Dec...](http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd- security/2009-December/005369.html)

Something I forgot to mention in the above post is that this affects FreeBSD 7.x and 8.x only.

An advisory will be coming soon.

<comment><USER3> So this is not true ?

[http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full- disclosure/2009-Nove...](http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full- disclosure/2009-November/071694.html)

<comment><USER2> _So this is not true ?_

If you mean the bit about 7.0 not being vulnerable, yes. The exploit code posted is slightly buggy, which is probably responsible for the false positive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Localhost vulnerability" is a meaningless term. It's called a local root exploit.

EDIT: Since I got modded down for saying this, try to Google for it. There are less than 300 hits for "localhost vulnerability," with this article leading the charge. It's simply a mistake by someone who doesn't know the terminology.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm using the OpenBSD term, since it's what I got started with in the early 90's, when I wrote the OpenBSD advisories. It's not strictly a "root" vulnerability; if you have no SUIDs except for qmail-queue, it's a qmailq vulnerability.

I'm guessing you got downmodded because nobody cares, although being wrong couldn't have helped.

<comment><USER4> Huh? Sorry, but to quote the advisory:

 _A short time ago a "local root" exploit was posted to the full-disclosure mailing list;_

You don't know what you're talking about. This exploit appears to give local users root privileges, making it a local root exploit exactly as the security advisory states.

The phrase "localhost vulnerability" remains meaningless techno-babble. Localhost refers to a network address and this exploit appears to have nothing to do with that.

<comment><USER5> > You don't know what you're talking about.

I would bet pretty good money that he does:-)

<comment><USER4> I'm willing to take your bet.

He has claimed that "localhost vulnerability" was the term used on the OpenBSD list in the 1990s. Why don't you try to find it there: [http://emailthreads.org/list/openbsd-security- announce.en.ht...](http://emailthreads.org/list/openbsd-security- announce.en.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok. I'll officiate. What's the dollar amount? I recommend $100, and that the winner donate the proceeds to their preferred charity.

The bet is over when I demonstrate to you that (a) I didn't invent the term "localhost vulnerability", much as I wish I had, and (b) this vulnerability isn't strictly a "root" vulnerability. I'll withhold any further description in the interests of routing money from your bank account to a deserving charity, and I will match any dollar amount that davidw agrees to.

<comment><USER4> You mean "root exploit" not "root vulnerability." The second term is again mistaken, although it gets used a lot.

Did you even read the exploit code? He's figured out a way to overwrite LD_PRELOAD environment variable for anything SUID. That means that you get to tell the binary to load libraries other than what it planned on loading. And hence run arbitrary code.

This has nothing to do with "localhost." If you'd like to give examples of people using "localhost vulnerability" in the past, go right ahead and link to them.

<comment><AUTHOR> Are you going to accept the bet, like you said you were? If you are, I have no desire to screw a charity out of your money by helping you with this.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


ConnectU Spills Value of Facebook Deal: $65M - <AUTHOR> http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202428139731

<comment><USER2> $65 million for having an idea taken that they probably would have failed at if executed themselves.

That's a nice pay day (for the lawyers too)

<comment> old-gregg First, what makes you think that "they probably would have failed"?

Second, he stole not just "an idea", he stole the code, he participated in their in-house discussions and effectively was spying over his future competitors, and most importantly he stole a lot of _time_ \- ConnectU founders were lured into believing that their product was moving along for a while.

Nobody pays $65M in a settlement for "stealing an idea". The fact that Facebook settled for such amount only means that ConnectU lawyers were able to prove some of these nasty things above.

Personally I'm very disgusted by this accident, I regret that jail time wasn't even a question. Something very similar happened to one of the startups I was involved in, but in that case it was an opposite spin: an "idea guy" who contributed nothing but the idea, used cofounding developers to build a prototype and then diluted them to almost zero even _prior_ to A-round.

This undermines the entrepreneurial spirit. And the fact that you can get away with it (like Zuk did) in such visible manner is even worse, it's like O.J case for software.

<comment><USER3> You seem like you have pretty strong opinions so I'm not going to try to convince you, I'm just going to state my opinion.

The world is a better place for Zuckerberg acting as he did. Facebook has become an incredibly successful company with great products. He obviously made the decision that he could do a much better job running the show than the ConnectU guys, and he went ahead and proved it. I have nothing but respect for that.

As for stealing code--I think it's generally pretty trivial for any developer worth his salt to rewrite things from memory without having to steal it(given that I think he only worked for ConnectU parttime for a few weeks--not enough time to build a substantial codebase). I'd be surprised if any ConnectU code was "stolen". I wouldn't be shocked if some lines were reused out of laziness, but in general I think a few weeks of code in most cases is useless. A rewrite will often be better and easier.

I would hate it if we ever even considered putting people in jail for branching out because they believe they can do a better job at innovating and leading a business than their current employers. That's the heart of capitalism--creative destruction; upsetting of the status quo.

If you're concerned that one of your co-founders may branch off and compete with you, I'd say the problem is probably with you--there's not a lot of confidence in your abilities if that happens. Zuckerberg from what I've read had been coding for a decade--that's a significant investment of time that the ConnectU guys didn't make. I probably would have done the same thing.

<comment> old-gregg Good points, but the most damage has been made by him faking the development process: telling your cofounders that you're moving along, while secretly preparing to launch a competitor isn't what I call "branching" in my book.

You're right, I may come across as strongly opinionated on this matter, as someone who worked his ass off only to learn some day that our partner has had prepared a brand new corporate entity where he's been pumping our IP for stock, leaving us with stock of an empty "shell". Lawyers helped, sure, most of what we got back went straight to their own pockets. Having two guys work for $400/hour isn't going to help you much.

So... I wouldn't call it branching when you're essentially paying (with your time and effort) for someone else's product launch. If I remember the story correctly, Zuk launched Facebook within _weeks (!)_ after finally admitting to them that they're screwed.

<comment><USER3> Yeah I don't know the details. I'm definitely not in favor of going behind anyone's back to start a company. But if I was working on something with a few other people and they turned out to not be contributing much, I'd fork. But would certainly be open and upfront about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think I rather have $10 million in cash than $65 million in facebook stock.

<comment><USER5> Is there any mechanism stopping the sale of stock right now? If they feel like selling, there should be _somebody_ willing to take it, no?

<comment><USER6> In the interest of keeping Facebook private, I'm sure they would have given out the shares with some sort of stipulation against selling them without Facebook approval. Once too many people have shares, the company would be required to IPO.

<comment><USER7> You may be referring to something different, but Facebook was exempted from the SEC rule that requires companies with more than 500 shareholders to report their financials publicly (so a public company, but not publicly traded).

[http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/sec-gives-facebook- the-...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/sec-gives-facebook-the- greenlight-to-go-beyond-500-shareholders-without-going-public/)

<comment><USER6> That ruling only applies to the RSUs they give out to employees. If you check out the last page, it's quite explicit that normal Facebook shares and options aren't exempt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This whole thing forgets Aaron Greenspan, another Harvard alumni who has a claim on coming up with the concepts behind Facebook:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/01/technology/01facebook.html...](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/01/technology/01facebook.html?pagewanted=print)

<comment><USER6> AKA thinkcomp, as seen commenting elsewhere on this post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> That's $65 million more dollars than Facebook has ever profited. Not a bad deal.

<comment><USER10> Eh. It was probably paid mostly in shares of Facebook itself. So it's $65 million if you believe that Facebook is worth $15 billion.

<comment><USER11> _So it's $65 million if you believe that Facebook is worth $15 billion._

I don't. Why should anyone?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The title is misleading- ConnectU's former lawyers published the estimated value of the settlement inadvertently.

</comment><comment><USER5> I always thought this was a petty/trollish lawsuit, and never bothered to follow it, but does this say that there was merit behind ConnectU's lawsuit?

Ok, downmodded, now does that mean yes, or no? A mere click is a bit too abstract.

</comment><comment><USER13> Note that the stock:cash ratio was not disclosed. Depending on what it is, the payout could be significantly less (in the near future, at least; I am firmly in the camp that facebook is worth billions).

</comment><comment><USER14> "The $65 million is presumably an estimated value of the settlement, which was paid in a mix of cash and Facebook shares."

Because Facebook's valuation is completely stable and accurate.</comment>