Would you like to influence decisions in medical research? - <AUTHOR> Would you like to influence medical research. Decisions on medical research directions, strategy, are taken behind closed doors. Would you like to have a say? And why, why yes, why not? No matter if you have a health condition or if you are healthy. Thanks! <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, That's a great scenario indeed you are describing. I wasn't aware. I was actually focusing at first on the pre-commercial efforts as you call them, or pure medical research as I call it. Some research will reach its impact without going through commercialization, such as educative tools, prevention programs etc... So does generic drug repurposing. You can patent in some cases but this will prolong time to market by a few years and increase cost. If the price tag is low enough for philanthropic money it might be better to keep it this way. Do you think people in general are interested in getting involved in medical research? There doesn't seem to be much interest, unless I didn't formulate my question right

</comment><comment><USER2> Find research you like, find a syndicate of investors, and do the legwork to bring those two things together. This is going on today in the matter of rejuvenation research - people talking about and funding the early stage startups they like that happen to be following the SENS model for cell and tissue damage repair. You don't even have to be wealthy to do this, just someone who can talk to be people and knows something about the science. Scores of people in the network built around the SENS Research Foundation are doing their part to make relationships and get the right people talking to one another in order to launch startups working on the desired types of therapy.

That is how it is done.

From the point of view of people with funds to spend, there is more that can be done to influence research than just sitting around waiting for startups to present themselves.

Investing is something that investors do moderately well - there is a method and a discipline and a body of tradition and knowledge. But it isn't the only thing that investors can do to speed the development of longevity science. What the investment community should do, attempts to some degree, but remains very poor at accomplishing, is the process of nudging along pre-commercial scientific efforts, of strategically funding specific research projects in order to produce a new crop of longevity science companies. This seeding of the field can be highly effective, as the SENS Research Foundation has demonstrated over the past decade or so, yet for the most part even personally interested investors leave philanthropy in their field to other people. Thus funding for truly radical, high-risk, high-reward new research is next to non- existent. The other side of the coin, targeted funding for medical research projects with excellent prospects, or that are only a few years and a million dollars away from the leap to a candidate therapy and a startup, nudging them into the target zone, is also very thin on the ground.

This is a point that Peter Thiel has been making for a few years under the heading of "radical philanthropy." The investor community does conduct philanthropy, but in an ad-hoc fashion, without much organization, rigor, or discipline. There is no body of tradition and knowledge in the same way as exists in the business of for-profit investment. Thus great many philathropic ventures conducted by investors are ultimately largely a waste, failing to achieve the practical ends that are possible in principle because they fail to meaningfully advance research towards the clinic. Money is poorly used, and there is little in the way of deliberate, carefully efforts to nudge promising research across the line. This is strange given that it is a very good way to be positioned as the primary investor in ventures in a field that an individual might want to see move faster.

All of this is to note that the launch of a company happens a long way after the start of the development process, and investors should become involved well before that point if they want to better achieve their goals. Many of the donors to SENS rejuvenation research projects initiatives are investors themselves, and some are presently coming together as a loose community of peers to invest in the startups that are now beginning to emerge from research efforts. Yet this is still at the present time, even hard-won as it is, only one increment better than a collection of happenstance events and connections, tumbling in more or less the right direction and working out because everyone involved has much the same goal in mind - which is to say therapies to treat aging, and sooner rather than later. Building on what has been learned so far, better and more organized ways to meld philanthropy and investment might be assembled. A community with deep pockets that can build the intricate networking tools and the energetic, highly networked approach to for-profit investment that presently exists should be able to make the leap over the barrier to organize and assist the non-profit research pipeline as well.</comment>


Ignore the Web? Good luck with that - <AUTHOR> http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/12/23/ignore-the-web-good-luck-with-that/ <comment><USER2> This is an interesting/tragic aspect of (at least) organizations, professions and technologies: Once created, they become a sort of living thing. No matter how "obsolete" the world may see them now, they don't want to die and will do everything in their power to stay alive. Including doing immoral things, breaking laws or even murder.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've started keeping quiet when my colleagues in the newspaper industry talk about how to save newspapers. I'm no longer interested in saving them. if they can't support themselves, then they should die and entrepreneurs should put the pieces back together again into something that makes sense.

</comment><comment><USER4> Ouch.

The site is not only down, it's showing source code that includes the database username and password.

EDIT: up now</comment>


When a+b+c does not equal c+b+a - <AUTHOR> http://ruru.name/entries/when-a-plus-b-plus-c-equals-c-plus-b-plus-a/

<comment><USER2> I also imagined floating point arithmetic problems when seeing the title. What is really happening here is that a, b and c may themselves have different values depending on the operation - as adding a month here isn't a fixed number of days as month lengths differ.

The article states it perfectly at the end though: "When doing math that deals with time, specifically different units of time, it can lead to unexpected results if you are not careful with the ordering". I think this can generally be extended to "when doing any math that deals with time, it can lead to unexpected results if you are not careful with everything"!

<comment><USER3> > "When doing math that deals with time, specifically different units of time, > it can lead to unexpected results if you are not careful with the ordering"

Not arguing with you, but with the poster: I think that a deeper lesson might be the important realisation that, unlike 'day' or 'hour', 'month' is _not_ a unit of time! (At least, not any more than 'moment' is. (I know, I know, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_(time)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_\(time\)), but you know what I mean.))

<comment><USER4> > unlike 'day' or 'hour', 'month' is not a unit of time!

Not a 'fixed unit' of time. Where I define 'fixed' as being always of the same size (like gram or meter).

My next thought is that day is also not fixed in case of daylight saving and leap seconds. A day has many definitions: astronomical, 24 hours, calendar, etc.

Maybe we can also see this problem with 'hour'; but in that case it would be more contrived.

Bottom line: programming time is hard, be aware of that.

See this post for some common pitfalls:

[http://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods- programm...](http://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods-programmers- believe-about-time)

<comment><USER3> > Not a 'fixed unit' of time. Where I define 'fixed' as being always of the > same size (like gram or meter).

I would regard that as part of what 'unit' means ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Units_of_measurement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Units_of_measurement)), though I'm not sure that there's any universal agreement.

I think that it's fair to say that even, or perhaps especially, the most obvious concepts, when sufficiently well understood, exhibit subtleties. (I always tell students in my mathematics classes that the correct answer to every question is "it depends", and, though it's somewhat facetious, I honestly can't think of a mathematical statement so basic and obvious that a sufficiently sophisticated mathematician couldn't correctly raise this objection.)

With that said, while I agree that there may be different _colloquial_ definitions of 'day' and, as you mention, of 'hour', and even of 'second' ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second#Other_current_definitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second#Other_current_definitions)), they also have unambiguous scientific definitions that _can_ be pinned down by sufficiently precise reference; whereas 'month' simply does not.

EDIT: I should clarify that I'm not attempting by any of this to say that programming with times isn't hard—it absolutely is. I just think that a large part of it can be traced to confusion about what is _not_ a unit (which, as observed by cies above ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9665366](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9665366)) and DannoHung below ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9665472](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9665472)), can include such seemingly innocuous concepts as 'day'), and that it might be profitable explicitly to state this unifying idea as one way to guide attempts to program successfully with time.

<comment><USER5> As long as we're posting wikpedia links: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second)

I wouldn't trust any time unit larger than seconds if I was concerned about my units staying consistent. Hopefully time-keeping bodies don't decide we need leap-millis at some point.

Which is only to say that this is a problem that can't be solved _simply_ by discarding some concepts that you find problematic. There's a lot of shit about timekeeping that's problematic. I'd advise tossing all the problematic shit when trying to figure out some internal representation for the underlying time that more or less always makes sense and then building out more human- usable representations with the uglyness on top of it.

<comment><USER3> > Which is only to say that this is a problem that can't be solved simply by > discarding some concepts that you find problematic.

> I'd advise tossing all the problematic shit when trying to figure out some > internal representation for the underlying time that more or less always > makes sense and then building out more human-usable representations with the > uglyness on top of it.

I don't mean to be snarky, but these two sentences seem contradictory—you say that the problem can't be solved by discarding problematic concepts, then advise to discard problematic concepts. Are you making the point that, even if internally we work with an un-problematic representation of time (if such a thing exists!), at some point we have to convert to and fro? Certainly I agree with that. Though I seem to have said it badly, that's really what I meant to say above: trying to work directly with months (and, perhaps less dramatically, with days), which are not units of time, allows the problematic real-world notion of time to contaminate what should be the clean internal representation of it.

<comment><USER5> I guess? I'm saying that you can't realistically avoid working with the problematic units. Like, if you want to have a monthly payment system, at _some_ point, you have to bake in the human concept of months into your system, warts and all.

<comment><USER6> When my cell plan was with T-mobile, I was on a pre-paid plan. My bill was due once a month, so I set up monthly automatic billing. Well, the system that enabled or disabled my service depending on if I had paid considered that to be "every 30 days". The system that handled the automatic payments considered that to be the same day every month (IIRC, it charged my card on the 18th of every month; when I set it up my bill was due on the 20th). A couple of 31-day months later, and I lose service for a day because the automatic payments didn't keep up with the bill being due.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Being able to add timedeltas of a month seems like a spectacularly bad idea.

It's a rails extension.

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2699902/get-next- previous...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2699902/get-next-previous- month-from-a-time-object/2699925#2699925)

<comment><USER8> It's actually quite useful, because for us human beings thinking in months is natural. Think about a user setting for some kind of web notification service:

How often do you want to be notified:

* Once per month

* Once each quarter of a year

* Twice a year

It's straightforward if you can add the number of months to the sign up date. You simply need to define the edge conditions. Example in C#:

      The AddMonths method calculates the resulting month and year,
      taking into account leap years and the number of days in a month,
      then adjusts the day part of the resulting DateTime object. If the
      resulting day is not a valid day in the resulting month, the last
      valid day of the resulting month is used.
      For example, March 31st + 1 month = April 30th.

[https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/system.datetime.add...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/system.datetime.addmonths%28v=vs.110%29.aspx)

I think ruby does the same.

<comment><USER9> In typed languages, I'd suggest a case could be made that once you add a "month" to a time, you should get a different type out that should either support a grossly reduced set of operations, or one that would require formal unpacking to produce a "real" datetime that would once again support normal operations. Months and years are dangerous things. (Days technically aren't constant either, but there's a lot of applications like billing where a leap second won't bother you at all if your month & year code just deal with them.)

<comment><USER10> Add in timezones and you have a whole barrel full of monkeys to deal with. Especially if you have two integrated systems with databases in different timezone formats. Trying to teach computers how to interpret time the way we do intuitively is a peanut butter sandwich experiment. Tedious, frustrating, error prone, and messy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Was hoping for something more surprising. Dates and times are fertile ground.

Rephrased, this problem is that "unit quantity + container quantity yields different results when container quantity varies".

On Feb 26th:

      > Time.now + 1.month + 5.days => Mar 31st
      > Time.now + 5.days + 1.month => Apr 3rd

...

IIRC, #month is a Rails-ism, not part of Ruby.

</comment><comment><USER12> I thought this was going to be another example of floating point arithmetic "gotchas" similar to this:

      #!/usr/bin/python

      x = 1.
      a = 1.
      while a+x > a:
        x = x/2

      print x

      b = x
      c = x

      print a+b+c == c+b+a
      print (a+b)+c == a+(b+c)

Always interesting when the arithmetic system you use is non-commutative and non-associative.

*Edited to add the non-associative bit)

<comment><USER13> Which is the case for all vector × vector, vector × matrix and matrix × vector multiplications, for example.

(Taking math at university right now as part of studying compsci, non- commutative rings are annoying)

<comment><USER12> Yes, but at least they are all still associative. (Original comment edited to deal with that).

And non-commutivity is important. You can put on your socks then shoes, but get a different result if you put on your shoes then socks. In general you get different results in rotations if you change the order you do them. Similarly permutations.

Non-commutivity is important, it's just that most people don't expect addition to exhibit it. (And by definition, addition is still commutative in non- commutative rings)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> tl;dr

Time.now + 5.days + 1.month == Time.now + 1.month + 5.days

Isn't always true because months have different lengths

<comment><USER15> That expression wouldn't always be true even if months _did_ have the same lengths. Two calls to the clock in the same expression are not guaranteed to return the same time.

In the article, that problem is papered over by using string equality. That makes the problem much less likely (because it only occurs at rollovers of seconds) but it will still happen. Tests like this one - has a subscription expired? - should use inequalities, since that's all that's needed and it won't contain heisenbugs like the above.

Edited to add - just to demonstrate:

       irb(main):045:0> i=0; loop { i=i+1; raise "#{i}" unless Time.now.to_s == Time.now.to_s; }
       RuntimeError: 61473

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I had a physics teacher that used to tell us:

        vache + mouton = la honte

which translates to

        cow + sheep = shame

point being, if you add up things that don't match, i.e. do not have the same unit/dimension, you should expect some weird mistakes.

</comment><comment><USER17> Date math, calendars and all that is lumped in there together: my most hated of programming tasks.

Second most hated: anything to do with maps.

Seems like every new client or job I take on, I'm fixing or building a calendar or map.

</comment><comment><USER18> Operator overloading sucks. Especially when the expected properties such as commutativity do not hold.

<comment><USER5> Is it really overloading that's the problem here? Even if you used method names to do this, you'd still have to deal with the fact that the operation being performed is non-commutative.

I don't know that there is a way of expressing such a restriction even if you were using dependent types in such a way as to prevent shooting yourself in the foot here. Possibly you could not implement the month or year span elements altogether and only allow addition of days or seconds?

<comment><USER19> But nested method calls don't imply commutativity while addition does. So the code is misleading.

<comment><USER5> I don't follow. How do nested method calls fail to imply commutativity?

For example, using psuedo-Haskell notation:

        (+):: Int -> Int -> Int

        ; ncc short for non commutative combination
        ncc:: Time -> Time -> Time

        1 + 2 + 3

        ncc 03:00 (ncc 10:00 02:00)

<comment><USER19> It could be just me but I would expect something that looks like an addition to be commutative but not arbitrary function calls. But I see what you mean that the types are not much of a help here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> So if I sign up in February I get 28 days to enjoy the service; if I sign up in March I get 31? That seems like the fundamental problem here.

</comment><comment><USER4> It all stems from that `+` in Ruby is not something mathematical. It is merely a method that needs to be defined on the expression that it follows:

        Time.now.+(1.month).+(5.days)

Or:

        Time.now.send(:"+", 1.month).send(:"+", 5.days)

`Time.now` evaluates to an object of the class `Time`, which implements the method `+`.

If you are looking for a language basis itself more on "laws" then on "message passing", I found this is Haskell.

In Haskell `+` is a function that need to be implemented for all types in the `Num` type-class. `+` can only add two `Num`s of the same type (and evaluates to a value of that specific type), thus explicit conversion is needed. See the docs here:

[http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-22.214.171.124/docs/Prelude...](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-184.108.40.206/docs/Prelude.html#v:-43-)

</comment><comment><USER21> This was a bit misleading. It's about date handling, which is a complex scenario well outside 1 + 1.

<comment><USER22> I was directly thinking dates when I saw the headline :-)

I too have had my share of problems with date handling. One year is not always 52 weeks, A month is never 30 days, most days have 24 hours (but not all of them) and so on...

Not to mention the famous D/M/Y, M/D/Y, Y-M-D ordering problem...

<comment><USER23> Me to I recall fixing a bug with a major uk company BACS transfer tape where the accounts receivable system was instant that you could have more than 365 days in a year.

Which meant that we where unable to collect any Direct debits for 3/4 of year!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> A related one which I found is A + B - B != A

In pretty much the same case, where A==some time and B == 1 month

This came up in calculations for monthly subscriptions, trying to reach back in time to work out pro-rata charges for changing subscription details part way through a month.

</comment><comment><USER25> Hah, you think normal date math is bad, try dealing with the various calendars used in finance. US 30/360, Euro 30/360, Actual/365, Actual/360, etc, etc. That stuff will make you tear your hair out.

</comment><comment><USER26> It really depends on how you expect '+' to behave.

When seeing '+', I immediately think of a semigroup operation. I would expect it to be associative but not necessarily commutative.

<comment><USER27> Is it even associative? I don't use Ruby, but it seems like this might not even be defined:

        5.days + 1.month

<comment><USER28> > 5.days + 1.month => 1 month and 5 days

<comment><USER27> Well, right... but "1 month and 5 days" isn't particularly well-defined on its own, unless you have some starting date that you're measuring from.

<comment><USER28> Agreed, but technically it _is_ defined.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> On a first glance at the link, my guess was string concatenation.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Maybe worth mentioning: this was a bug that existed for ~2 years before I started on the project. It's easy for this kinda subtlety to slip past review and debugging.

<comment><USER30> That's interesting because if I understand the bug correctly, it should have failed as soon as you performed the test less than 5 days before the end of the current month. (Except in December and July for which the next month has the same number of days in it.).

<comment><AUTHOR> if i recall, it was a bug that would come and go from our tests depending on when you ran them. Sometimes the math worked out, other times it was off. We knew the code worked, but couldn't figure out why the specs kept failing for it randomly.

<comment><USER15> eek. Time tests should be using something like [https://github.com/travisjeffery/timecop](https://github.com/travisjeffery/timecop) for repeatability. If you do mean to allow random starting values like that, you should look into property-based testing [http://www.troikatech.com/blog/2014/04/02/property-based- tes...](http://www.troikatech.com/blog/2014/04/02/property-based-testing-in- ruby) \- test hundreds of possible values at a time, instead of just the one time you ran the tests at.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Tldr; a month is not a constant amount of days, it depends on the month of the year

<comment><USER32> And the year the month is in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Definitely happens with natural language judgementalistically.

</comment><comment><USER34> I was thinking quaternions when I saw the title.

<comment><USER12> But adding quaternions is both associative and commutative.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> yes your point is? Date math is not the same as arithmetic

<comment><AUTHOR> and arithmetic is not the same thing as sending + to different objects in ruby :)</comment></comment>


Reverse shell on a Node.js application - <AUTHOR> https://wiremask.eu/writeups/reverse-shell-on-a-nodejs-application/ <comment><USER2> Summary: eval without input sanitation is still a bad idea.</comment>


Ask HN: Recommendations on Freelance Agencies - <AUTHOR>

I'm looking to get back into doing some freelance work, and I haven't used sites like rentacoder in the past. I'm thinking they'll make it a bit easier on me - so I thought I'd open it up to all of you:<p>What freelance sites have you used in the past, and what was your experience with them? Specifically I'm looking to do software/IT. <comment><USER2> <http://elance.com> Heavy competition from overseas developers & development firms at rates as low as $12/hr. Can still find some clients with a preference for domestic contractors at slightly higher rates though. But most clients tend to be price-conscious. You may have to purchase a paid account to submit enough bids (known as Connects) to find some gigs. Your rating is very important. Starting out can be difficult because you'll have no rating, so building up your reputation will be the first priority if you want to make this a solid income stream.

<http://odesk.com> As a software/IT provider, you're required to prove that you're working through the day, either through a webcam or updating your work diary often. For this extra overhead (which isn't a big deal), you aren't required to purchase a paid account. The same level of competition exists here, however. Your reputation, and the need to build your reputation when you first start, also applies here.

<http://www.guru.com> Similar to Elance, you have better chances if you sign up for a paid account. Some gigs even require a paid account. Competition is also high, as is your reputation and the need to build your reputation when you first start.

<http://programmermeetdesigner.com> Haven't used this service before. Without the quality controls that Elance & oDesk have, I suspect the quality of the gigs & clients may vary. It's also not as well-known, so there is relatively less competition.

<http://craigslist.org> I don't think I have to tell you to avoid this site for finding freelance work like the plague.

Good luck!

<comment><USER3> Some people I know have had better success with craigslist than the others, precisely because it mainly results in local competition, rather than competing against people in India. However, it depends on what area you're in. The best paying areas tend to involve at least some aspect of design, and small-business clients. It's actually great for pure-design/no-tech gigs, like designing someone's logo, or doing a storyboard.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is Franz still in active development? (meetfranz.com) - sahin-boydas <comment> sahin-boydas What is happening to meetfranz.com and their app.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> The archduke, the composer, the band or the Lisp?

</comment><comment><USER2> This should likely be an Ask HN.

<comment> sahin-boydas thx. fixed.

</comment></comment><comment> sahin-boydas Franz ~= meetfranz.com</comment>


Two Weeks Notice Is Bullshit: The Modern Resignation Letter - <AUTHOR> https://www.conductor.com/blog/2017/12/two-weeks-notice-is-bs/ <comment><USER2> I was in the situation earlier this year where my new job contract wasn't yet signed and I was trying to figure out how long of a lead time to give my old employer. (Note: both old and new jobs are non-programming positions.)

Turns out that I didn't need to bother. When my boss found out that I was about to land a new position, he immediately called me, on my vacation, to lay me off. So much for a transition period. On the bright side, by getting laid off rather than resigning, I was owed a good chunk of severance.

My takeaway: only provide the minimum notice required by your employment contract, if any. Because your employer sure as hell won't return the favor if they decide to let you go. So if your employment contract doesn't require notice, don't give any.

*Minimal notice was actually an issue at my old firm before I left. I kept wondering why people would announce their resignations the day they were leaving, out of the blue, without providing any opportunity to transition clients and work. I found out the why the hard way.

<comment><USER3> > My takeaway: only provide the minimum notice required by your employment > contract, if any.

Employment at most states in US is 'at-will' per State Labor Laws. So even if an employment contracts states to the contrary, it won't hold up in Court.

California is also 'at-will' state. I think the reason most departing employees give "2 weeks notice" is because they don't want to burn bridges, because chances are that you will come across someone you worked with in the past, in a future company / at a future employer.

<comment><USER2> _So even if an employment contracts states to the contrary, it won 't hold up in Court._

That's not true at all...An employment contract can waive the at-will provisions of law; indeed, this is one of the fundamental hallmarks of most major league athlete contracts. These contracts have been upheld even in the reddest of states... Such contracts are also frequently common for high-level executive positions, especially in Hollywood.

You may be thinking of the opposite scenario: waiving the transition period. Some jurisdictions which do not have at-will employment do not allow employees to waive the transition period; others do if the employees are compensated (see, e.g., France).

 _California is also 'at-will' state. I think the reason most departing employees give "2 weeks notice" is because they don't want to burn bridges, because chances are that you will come across someone you worked with in the past, in a future company / at a future employer._

Yes, that's why employees used to give 2 weeks notice. Employers also used to give pensions, regular raises, pay for overtime, and not lay off people while they are on vacation. Times, and practices change.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> As much as it sucks for the employer, it shouldn't come as any surprise to them. Culturally businesses have no problems giving employees zero day notices when they're laid off or fired. Loyalty works both ways.

Some businesses (yes a small software company I have friends at) will walk you out the door the moment you give notice because they're in the banking industry and they're concerned about people stealing confidential data. As a result their only mobile software developer decided to give zero days notice. This left them in a lurch, and I got a nice 4 month sidework contract out of it...

</comment><comment><USER5> Let me tell you a short story.

I worked at a company for almost 2 years. One day my manager calls me into his office. He asks me: "Do you like working here?" I pause for a moment, then respond "No. Not really." He then says "Alright then. You are fired."

In my particular situation, I pretty much knew what was actually going on and why. I could have handed him a letter of my two week resignation instead of going through the ridiculous charade of "do you like working here?" There is good reason why people hand in resignations before asking for the details. The chance that you will get suddenly terminated for no apparent reason is very real.

Was I fired for a valid reason from the company? Nope. My performance reviews etc were very high. The manager just didn't like me and the feeling was mutual.

As another example, if one is not enough:

Another place I worked at, also for almost 2 years. I work there through a consulting group. One day my consulting group handler comes to the office and says we need to talk and asks me to come to lunch. No notice before he showed up. After leaving the secure facility, he asks me for my access card and informs me I have been fired.

I ask why. He says that no reason was given. I keep pestering the guy, who I know fairly well, to try to get some sort of explanation. Eventually he says that the only explanation he was given is that the company said I am too smart. He said it doesn't make any sense and he doesn't get it either. To this day I don't know why I was let go from that position.

If I'm at a job and things look like they are going sour; it is time for hardball. I assume that I could be fired at any moment at all times, and I make sure I am prepared for it.

You think "Two weeks is bullshit"? Two weeks is generous.

<comment><USER6> It should probably be 'one month' and it should go both ways.

Also - if you've ever been a manager, you'd realize that what is 'bs' is that you think you can just 'do your job' in the terms that you think it exists.

I literally have this problem right now with an Eng. who's decent, he technically moves the schedule forward roughly on time - but he's impossible to deal with, cynical at every turn, always negative, does not offer up flexible options when he should - and I hate having to speak to him, it ruins my day.

So does he 'do his job' \- he could argue that he does. I have only a few complaints about his ability - but working on a team goes quite a bit beyond that.

I'm about to let him go and I will accept someone who is not quite as good in his wake if they are a better communicator -this person will be more valuable to the company - and my peace of mind is worth something.

For professionals - if you 'don't like working somewhere' you should probably leave. Life is too short. It's probably worth taking a little bit of a pay cut to work where you get along.

<comment><USER5> I've found that many of the best engineers are quite terrible at interacting with other human beings. What matters to me is only if they deliver. If the bottom line is met and the work is getting done and done well, then it doesn't matter to me if the engineers are complete assholes.

Feel free to drop me a pm of the engineer you are canning; I'd be happy to connect with him on LinkedIn.

Your note of "If you don't like working somewhere you should leave" doesn't really work. You have to stay at companies for a specific amount of time or you will end up with too many different positions on your resume and be unemployable. It is better to stay suffering even at a place you hate to build your resume. Leaving when things aren't going well, or allowing them to get to the point where you need to leave is bad advice.

I am living proof of this. I have worked at 8 different positions in the past 17 years. By all reasonable notions I should be employed at a Principal Engineer level. That said, I am unemployable. I am on unemployment and apply to the most reasonably suited positions I can ever week, for 5 months now. I have only been contacted back maybe 10 times in that entire period and made it to 1 in person interview.

If you want to have a job, don't leave, even if it sucks, even if all you coworkers tell you "you can easily get another job". When you have an offer in hand; then feel free to quit. Otherwise stay put and try not to cause trouble.

<comment><USER7> > Otherwise stay put and try not to cause trouble.

or figure out how to work for yourself.

> I am living proof of this. I have worked at 8 different positions in the > past 17 years.

If you have 17 years of work history, consider applying to a place and only telling them about the last 5 years... see where that gets you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> >If you are close to landing a new job, let your manager know and ask them how much time they will need.

This is awful awful awful advice. It's not your problem how much time they need. It's not your responsibility to let your employer know they should start searching for your replacement, especially when nothing is certain for you.

<comment><USER2> Agreed. Unless your employment contract requires them to keep you on for the transition period, the most likely outcome is that they'll let you go immediately and you'll spend a few stressful weeks locking up the new job.

The only time a departing employee should give their old employer time to transition is if the employer is willing to pay for their salary and benefits during the full transition period.

<comment><USER9> or if they win the lottery.

<comment><USER8> If I win the lottery nobody I work with would blame me for not showing up ever again.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > If you communicate and be open, magical things will happen.

Sorry, but not always. I've had multiple jobs where employers tried to screw me out of a piddly amount of money when leaving. It's your job to figure out whether you work for nice people who respect you or not. I do agree companies _should_ be like this, where all people want what's best for one another. But let's not pretend everyone is at one of those companies.

</comment><comment><USER11> I wish it was this easy. Corporate employers have seemed more likely to just terminate you if you raise concerns, rather than work it out. HR is there to protect the company, not the employee. Admitting, my world of law and politics is different. Give any indication that you are unhappy, and the company is highly likely to terminate you (with severance) and then have security escort you out the door. There is far too much fear in this anti-employee world for employees to be honest and compassionate with their jobs.

</comment><comment><USER12> capitalism is a rough game. sometimes people fight dirty.

the caution i would add is, you could try to play nice & the employer gets pissed anyway and say "you know what, you can leave today!". one must prepare contingency plans on both sides.

if you want someone who will never quit, hire an independent consultant.

<comment><USER13> What? A consultant is _more_ likely to bail on a moment's notice if a better deal comes along. One reason for hiring an FTE is the inherent hysteresis.

Of course it's bad for a consultant to get the reputation of being unreliable so there's some moderation on the practice.

<comment><USER14> A decent consultant would never leave from one day to the other. If the employer/customer is doing their part, a consultant is reliable. The money's better, the reputation is what earns them more gigs. Also, there's not anything inherently bad with letting them go with zero notice, since that's what you pay for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm in Australia now and have been very surprised to find it common and expected to give 2-4 months notice.

The flip side of that is employers are mandated by law to pay severance and various leave accrued if they fire you.

<comment><USER16> 3 months is the standard in Norway, going both ways.

I have always found the way layoffs being done in the US very strange and unnecessarily dramatic for both parties. If you are leaving, you should be leaving in a professional manner. Do your best at work until the last day of your employment.

Same if you are letting someone go, treat them with dignity and respect until their last days at the company. Telling someone to pack their bags the same day they are getting the notice sounds very cruel.

I don't see how this "burn all bridges" strategy can benefit anyone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Ok the flip side, I've worked in jobs that fired people on the spot when giving their two weeks and this is hardly unusual. The advice in the article might make sense if the policies of the company are written down and the employee has reasonable cause to believe the company will follow them. Otherwise, the employee would be a total fool for following the advice here. It's not about starting the new job as early as possible. It's about not losing on two weeks of pay. Period. And more than two weeks? Yeah my current company wants four yet they won't pay a single cent in severance. They'll be lucky to get two. Sometimes there's also the revenge factor, though hopefully not in this particular case, one never knows. I do know that there's no loyalty from employers though and following the advice here is likely to lead to some unexpected and negative results for the employee in many cases.

</comment><comment><USER18> Author considers employees his slaves.

</comment><comment><USER19> The problem when quitting is that you have to optimize for the worst case outcome. Not every employer is understanding and considerate. The default behavior in a lot of larger companies is to terminate someone as soon as possible if they've given notice of leaving their job (specially when moving to a competitor).

</comment><comment><USER20> Is the two week notice period defined by law? Otherwise it would be enough to agree on a different notice period in the employment contract.

I (not in the US) have three months notice, which is plenty of time for me to find a new job, or for my employer to find a replacement.

</comment><comment><USER21> I would very much like a longer transition period. I really was gutted having to give two weeks notice at my last employer. I wanted a longer transition. But due to certain circumstances, I was worried I might just get 'let go' early if I told them in advance of having a confirmed position at my new employer, and they didn't really want to give me any more than two weeks before I started there.

First and foremost I'm concerned with my job security: That I'm not "leaving" my old job until a new job offer has been formally accepted. If both sides of that equation can provide me some sort of guarantee on a larger transition, I'd really love to do so.

As it was, I spent my final two weeks deactivating my own accounts, ensuring everyone else could easily step in and run the things I ran, etc. I left an open offer for them to get in touch if they had any questions about stuff I did or needed my help for a while.

</comment><comment><USER22> In India I have heard some companies have 3 Months notice period which is too long. The employee and employer just have too spend this time with all the negatives etc. I think 2 week is very generous and decent to transition anything.

</comment><comment><USER23> Two weeks is perfect.

<comment><USER8> Why is it better than say 1.5 weeks or 3 weeks?

<comment><USER24> Short notice periods are better for employees if:

* Transition is expensive for employer (handover, finding replacements) but cheap for the employee (moving costs).

* The labor market is tight.

It's better for employers if

* transition is expensive for the employee (e.g. high moving costs) but cheap for the employer (finding and training up a replacement is easy).

* The job market is tight.

Employees would do best to use their leverage as much as possible. It's not like employers won't do exactly the same.

This guy's blog sounds like a pretty standard employer whinge about sometimes not having leverage combined with a promise of non-monetary reward if the employee doesn't use their leverage.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Yeah _right_ , did I get warped back in time? This is the _opposite_ of modern.

2 weeks notice is an anachronism in the age of "human capital" and at-will employment. This is the world HBS biz school dbags made and its the world they'll have to live in.

</comment><comment><USER26> _the resignation duel," in which the employee senses an issue and wants to be the first one to draw their weapon._

Article assumes the only reason anyone resigns is to pre-empt being fired. What about better offers, or unrelated reasons like a partner relocation?

In the UK and Europe a 3-month notice period for key or senior engineers is not unusual.

<comment><USER27> Most places in the US exist in an At-Will or Right to Work state, people can walk out and be fired without notice. Companies fought hard for this and they got it. The 2 weeks is just a courtesy, I've seen people walk in Monday and hand in a piece of paper that was back dated 2 weeks and walkout the door.

<comment><USER28> I've seen people leave without even a notice. Gone one day and no indication afterwards. The employer is just worried that nothing bad happened to that person.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Great article. I fully agree with the author that the way one handles resignations and terminations says a lot about the character of the individual or company.

When I left my last corporate job to start my company I gave them six weeks notice and used this opportunity to train another team member so there would be continuity.

On the flip side we had to fire a non-performing employee earlier this year and we gave him eight weeks of full pay and decided officially to lay him off so that he could collect unemployment if need be.</comment>


Ask HN: offline programming tutorials? - <AUTHOR>

I have a school-age family member who is interested in programming, but does not have internet access.
As a beyond-last-minute Christmas gift, I'd like to make a CD, DVD, or thumb drive (as needed) with programming tools he can use offline.
He has access to Windows PC that was probably mid-grade when they got it about 3 years ago.
Can you suggest any environments or tutorials that are simple enough for a beginner and can be used without internet and without any major changes to the computer (such as installing IIS) <comment><USER2> Python for windows has a lot of batteries included, docs are available, and you can add any other docs you can think of via wget or other site crawling. Grab some of the online free books. Consider (strongly!) adding PyGame and any relevant documentation you can snarf, and poke around with Google for things like "learning python" and such. Take the extra moment to poke around for docs, when you can't just look things up it's much harder.

</comment><comment><USER3> Try converting some tutorials as pdf's. I'm learning python. I've been able to convert "Learn python the hard way" and "Invent with Python" into pdf's which I then save on my desktop. Check out this HN member's page <http://krainboltgreene.github.com/l/2/> for possible tutorials.

</comment><comment><USER4> you can do what candre717 said, but instead of converting to PDF's just save the page as HTML. The programming tools he will use really depend on the language you're aiming at, most have distributable installers, and if you give him/her this combined with the tutorials I think he/she will be a happy camper.

C++ <http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/>

C# <http://www.csharp-station.com/default.aspx>

</comment><comment><USER5> Why not give DVD from lynda.com a try</comment>


Ask HN: Current main obstacles to modern robotics - <AUTHOR> What are the current obstacles modern robotics is facing today? Is it the hardware, software, both? Is there not enough funding? Public perception? <comment><USER2> Expensive and complex. Off the shelf parts are not easy to program and don't generate enough force and don't have enough battery life to be particularly useful/cost efficient in consumer settings.</comment>


Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0) - <AUTHOR> http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2324

<comment><USER2> At Etsy, our coffee pot is hooked in to our IRC bot so that we can ask how many cups of coffee are left ("?coffee"). Someone from the ops team just opened a bug report due to non-compliance with RFC 2324.

The IRC coffee service uses a Pelouze postage scale and <https://github.com/morria/coffeed>

</comment><comment><USER3> There is, of course, an Emacs module for this protocol: <http://emarsden.chez.com/downloads/coffee.el>

</comment><comment><USER4> This is the RFC April fools from 1998. You can see a list of all the April Fools RFC's here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools_Day_RFC>

</comment><comment><USER5> Oldie but goody. Also, sounds like an arduino project waiting to happen.

<comment><USER6> Can't wait for the result. Seriously..

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> And an obligatory coffee-related IT classic - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot>

</comment><comment><USER8> I hear this protocol will become much more important with the advent of cloud brewing.

</comment><comment><USER9> You get here through the Mosaic story too? Netscape -> The Book of Mozilla -> about: URI scheme -> Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol

<comment><AUTHOR> Was working on a server and

418 I'm a teapot

...seemed worth investigating. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http_status_codes>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Funny in 1998.</comment>


Facebook censors 30,000 year-old Venus of Willendorf as 'pornographic' - <AUTHOR> https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/facebook-censors-famous-30-000-year-old-nude-statue-as-pornographic <comment><USER2> I don't think this statue is porn but I can understand why it could break Facebook's rules. Context is important. A photograph of a naked woman in a biology textbook isn't porn, but if you upload exactly the same picture to Pornhub _it becomes pornographic_. A statue of a naked woman in a museum clearly isn't porn, but that doesn't mean it can't be regarded as porn if you upload a picture of it to Facebook.

<comment><USER3> I think in Facebook's case, it's important to ignore context, lest they get drawn into the awkward position of saying what is art and what isn't.</comment></comment>


Column Names as Contracts - <AUTHOR> https://emilyriederer.netlify.app/post/column-name-contracts/ <comment><USER2> > Using controlled vocabularies for column names is a low-tech, low-friction > approach to building a shared understanding of how each field in a data set > is intended to work.

Can't stress how useful this has been working on data science teams. There is really an art for getting a group of people to standardize around a vocabulary of column name pre/suffixes without being overly prescriptive.

Being able to unlock nifty tools / behaviors by naming your columns certain ways seems crazy powerful. (Like a form of function dispatching)

<comment><USER3> Yeah convention over configuration is great! It attributed to the great success of RoR kind of framework as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This sounds a lot like Hungarian notation [1].

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

<comment><USER5> Yeah, and like Hungarian notation it is mostly useful in an untyped system (like BCPL where Hungarian was invented).

If you have a type system, let it do the work for you.

One of the most bizarre conventions I have seen is prefixing table names with "TBL_" and column names "COL_". I suspect some people just really like abbreviations.

<comment><USER6> Haven't seen a COL_ prefix in a long time, but I still run across 'TBL_' prefixes sometimes. I've seen it in practice for more than 20 years, and never saw any value. Then... I realized you might be pulling from a 'view' vs an actual table, and perhaps there's a bit of value in that knowledge? I did run across someone joining a view against a table that was joining another view that was comprised of joining against that original table, and the query then did a few of these, and people wondered why it got slow. If the names had been prefixed with view_ perhaps it might have been more obvious this might cause problems? I think not though - the original person who put it together was apparently a DBA by trade and insisted this was normal and good, and 'my' code (which... he'd also written?) was the culprit. "Worked fine when I was there". Well... there were 1200 rows at that time; hitting 60000 rows, we ran in to large perf problems.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Now I remember my pain to work in a system with hundreds of tables and near 4-5 different column name schemas :/

</comment><comment><USER8> Reminds me of what clojure spec is trying to do: create data specifications that can be named and reused via a registry. The metadata is just data on the shape of the data so it can serve as doc, validation, data generation, property testing, etc. Spec names are namespaced but no specific guidelines are given it's just organizational.

Separately clojure also allows for namespaced names for map entries, but again provides no specific guidelines on what namespaces should be: in code this could be a library name, but it could also be an entity name as suggested by datomic best practices.

The combination of both features, namespaced var/entry names associated with namespaced specs, seems to make more sense than using name parts conventions, but if you're not clojure all the way then the latter might be the only way.

</comment><comment><USER9> I really like the idea of being more thoughtful about naming columns and being more explicit about the "type" of data contained in them.

Is this idea already known among data modelers or data engineers?

I'd love to read any other references, if available.

<comment><USER10> I am a data architect in my day job. Within the realm of data management, I'd say "metadata management" [1] is the general category this fits within.

I would say, yes this idea is known/very common, as data architecture is as much about the descriptive language we use as anything. I mean, "business glossaries", taxonomy, even just naming conventions [2] in coding, these are all related.

If you build enough databases/tables or even code yourself, you inevitably come across the "how to name things" problem [3]. If all you have to sort on for the known meaning of a thing (column, table, file, etc.) is a single string value, then encoding meaning into it is quite common. This way, a sort creates a kind of "grouping". Many database vendors follow standard naming conventions - such as Oracle, for example [4]. It is considered a best practice when designing/building the metadata for a large system, to establish a naming convention. Among other things, it makes finding things easier, as well as all the potential for automation.

You get all kinds of variations on this, such as, should the "ID_" come as a prefix or a suffix (i.e. "_ID"). One's initial thought is to use it as a prefix so all the related types group together, but then that becomes much more difficult if you want to sort items by their functional area (e.g. DRIVER_ID, DRIVER_IND, etc.).

One other place you see something similar is in "smart numbers" which is an eternal argument - should I use a "dumb identifier" (GUID, integer) or a "smart one" (one encoding additional meaning) [5].

I mean, basically, any time you can encode information in the meta-data of data, I think you can then operate on it by following "convention over configuration" (as mentioned elsewhere in the discussion comments).

The only problem I see is that such conventions can, at times be limiting - depending on the length of your metadata columns, and the variability you are trying to capture - which is why I believe, generally, metadata is often better separated and linked to the data it describes - this decoupling allows for much more descriptive metadata than one could encode in simple a single string value. Certainly, you can get a long way with an approach like this, but I suspect you would run into 80/20 rule limitations.

Using naming in this way is a form of tight coupling, which could be seen as an anti-pattern in terms of meta-data flexibility, in some cases.

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

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_convention_(programming...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_convention_\(programming\))

[3] [https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html](https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html)

[4] [https://oracle-base.com/articles/misc/naming-conventions](https://oracle- base.com/articles/misc/naming-conventions)

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

<comment><USER11> In terms of database normalization, delimiting multiple fields within a column name field violates the "atomic columns" requirement of the first though sixth normal forms (1NF - 6NF)

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

Are there standards for storing columnar metadata (that is, metadata about the columns; or column-level metadata)?

In terms of columns, SQL has (implicit ordinal, name, type) and then primary key, index, and [foreign key] constraints.

RDFS (RDF Schema) is an open W3C linked data standard. An rdf:Property may have a rdfs:domain and a rdfs:range; where the possible datatypes are listed as instances of rdfs:range. Primitive datatypes are often drawn from XSD (XML Schema Definition), or [https://schema.org/](https://schema.org/) . An rdfs:Class instance may be within the rdfs:domain and/or the rdfs:range of an rdf:Property.

RDFS is generally not sufficient for data validation; there are a number of standards which build upon RDFS: W3C SHACL (Shapes and Constraint Language), W3C CSVW (CSV on the Web).

There is some existing work on merging JSON Schema and SHACL.

CSVW builds upon the W3C "Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web"; which supports arbitrary "annotations" on columns. CSVW can be represented as any RDF representation: Turtle/Trig/M3, RDF/XML, JSON-LD.

[https://www.w3.org/TR/tabular-data-primer/](https://www.w3.org/TR/tabular- data-primer/)

[https://www.w3.org/TR/tabular-data-model/](https://www.w3.org/TR/tabular- data-model/) :

> _an annotated tabular data model: a model for tables that are annotated with > metadata. Annotations provide information about the cells, rows, columns, > tables, and groups of tables […]_

...

From [https://twitter.com/westurner/status/901992073846456321](https://twitter.com/westurner/status/901992073846456321) :

> _" 7 metadata header rows (column label, property URI path, DataType, unit, > accuracy, precision, significant figures)" > [https://wrdrd.github.io/docs/consulting/linkedreproducibilit...](https://wrdrd.github.io/docs/consulting/linkedreproducibility#csv- > csvw-and-metadata-rows) _

...

From [https://twitter.com/westurner/status/1295774405923147778](https://twitter.com/westurner/status/1295774405923147778) :

> _Relevant:[https://discuss.ossdata.org/](https://discuss.ossdata.org/) > topics: "Linked Data formats, tools, challenges, opportunities; CSVW, > [https://schema.org/Dataset](https://schema.org/Dataset) , > [https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle](https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle) " > [https://discuss.ossdata.org/t/linked-data-formats-tools- > chal...](https://discuss.ossdata.org/t/linked-data-formats-tools-challenges- > opportunities-csvw-schema-org-dataset-schema-org-scholarlyarticle/160) _

> _" A dataframe protocol for the PyData ecosystem" > [https://discuss.ossdata.org/t/a-dataframe-protocol-for- > the-p...](https://discuss.ossdata.org/t/a-dataframe-protocol-for-the-pydata- > ecosystem/267) _

> _A .meta protocol should implement the W3C Tabular Data Model: [...]_

...

The various methods of doing CSV2RDF and R2RML (SQL / RDB to RDF Mapping) each have a way to specify additional metadata annotations. None stuff data into a column name (which I'm also guilty of doing with e.g. "columnspecs" in a small line-parsing utility called pyline that can cast columns to Python types and output JSON lines).

...

Even JSON5 is insufficient when it comes to representing e.g. complex fractions: there must be a tbox (schema) in order to read the data out of the abox (assertions; e.g. JSON). JSON-LD is sufficient for representation; and there are also specs like RDFS, SHACL, and CSVW.

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

<comment><USER10> I see the line of thinking you're going down. There are ISO standards for data types, in a sense I could see why one would seek a standard language for defining the metadata/specification of a type as data. Have to really think about that some more.. in a way a regex could be seen as a compact form of expressing the capability of a column in terms of value ranges or domains, but to define the meaning of the data, not so much.

Your interpretation of the atomic columns requirement is a little different than my understanding. That requirement of normalization only applies to the "cells" of columnar data, it says nothing about encoding meaning into column names, which are themselves simply descriptive metadata.

I mean, for sure you wouldn't want to encode many values/meanings into a column name (some systems have length restrictions that would make that impossible, I'm not sure it makes sense anyway), but just pointing out that technically the spec does not make that illegal. Certainly, adding minor annotations within the name of a column separated by a supported delimiter does not, in my opinion, violate normalization rules at all. I mean things like "ID_" or similar.

Have you looked at INFORMATION_SCHEMA in SQL databases? [1] You mentioned SQL metadata and constraints, that is as close to a standard feature for querying that information there is, some databases do it using similar but non-standard ways (Oracle for example).

Also, not standard but, many relational databases support extended properties or Metadata for objects (tables, views, columns, etc.) - you can often come up with your own scheme although rarely do I see people utilize these features. [2] [3]

At some point it feels like we are more talking about type definitions and annotations, applied to data columns.

Maybe like, BNF [4] for purely data table columns (which are essentially types)?

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

[2] [http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql- comment.ht...](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-comment.html)

[3] [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational- databases/sy...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational- databases/system-stored-procedures/sp-addextendedproperty-transact-sql)

[4] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus%E2%80%93Naur_form](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus%E2%80%93Naur_form)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> There are two hard problems in computer science. Naming things, cache invalidation, and off-by-one errors.

The first is about people, not algorithms.</comment>


8.75 Pieces of Highly Pragmatic Startup Start'n Gold - <AUTHOR> http://www.monkeytainment.com/2010/04/875-practical-pieces-of-startn-startup.html <comment><USER2> These are good points to consider when building out your MVP. But the title is called "pragmatic startup gold". I would argue that a startup's initial push should be on _customer development_ not product development.

The author touches on the importance of using the product to build credibility, so that you have an audience to iterate from. Isn't that customer development?

Forget about the product, go talk to customers.

Consider the project mentioned in the post: <http://cydros.heroku.com/>

The app may be super-cool but the marketability of that website is really lacking. The video is very blurry and the presenter stumbles to get his message across. Make no mistake about it, I am not bashing on the project, I think it's a fantastic step just to have something up. I'd just like to throw it out there that maybe more time should be spent on doing marketing work, making the pitch absolutely melt in your customer's mouth and polishing up the experience a bit. That way you can optimize acquiring customer interest which in turn will give you insights on how to build the product.

</comment><comment><USER3> Giant green bars vibrating and making me physically nauseous

</comment><comment><USER4> unrelated to the article's contents; this page's bright green background absolutely made my eyes burn while trying to read the article.

<comment><AUTHOR> couldn't agree more. But, that's what readability (<http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/>) is for!</comment></comment>


Kan Extensions II: Adjunctions, Composition, Lifting - <AUTHOR> http://comonad.com/reader/2008/kan-extensions-ii/ <comment><USER2> If you like category theory, the lectures by The Catsters on YouTube at <http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCatsters> are entertaining. Their latest video describes Lawvere's example of generalized metric spaces as categories enriched over the set of nonnegative real numbers interpreted as a monoidal category.</comment>


World's Largest Solar Project Would Generate Electricity 24 Hours a Day - <AUTHOR> http://www.ecowatch.com/worlds-largest-solar-project-nevada-2041546638.html <comment><USER2> Great. Now we only need 330 more of those. Of course there are the heat islands that would skew weather patterns and actually cause more warming...</comment>


Is Apple Losing Its Way?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429315/is-apple-losing-its-way/ <comment><USER2> They're certainly not "losing" their way because they released a shitty product in Maps, a subpar OS release in Lion and other minor issues (so far).

However, Apple is certainly not innovating like they were when Steve was around and the market itself, in particular the smartphone market, is becoming very mature - smartphones can only get so small, thin and fast before they reach an apex. And think of the iPhone in relation to the Porsche 911. It's more or less the same car for the past 50 years. Every 2-3 years Porsche makes it better. It works for them, the consumer, the brand and the legacy. I'm not sure why some people were expecting a Phone in the i5 that would make them breakfast but it's a better product than already great product in the 5.

At this point, Apple is such a massive company lead by not a visionary, but a supply chain genius in Tim Cook.

Ive leads design, but Cook has the final say. Forstall and the iOS team don't really care to shift much and take risk in exciting new features (after all, why take risk, if it ain't broke, don't fix it). That's why there are barely any new and groundbreaking features in iOS 6 vs. 5 (BS on your "200 new features" - nothing but minor tweaks) Do not disturb? Come on. It's nice but not a keynote slide.

I LOVE Apple products, I used to destroy my eyes on Apple IIs back in the day and have always loved what they do. I've followed (and had) most every product they've launched. I still have a Newton somewhere and once in a while play Sim City on OS 9 classic like a super-nerd.

I also think consumerism expects A LOT from this company. When Steve was on stage announcing products and wowing audiences, there was innovation, risks, big bets were being placed on products - now, the empire just runs, like a conveyor belt. Every year, a minor upgrade. It works. It sells. It's fine. They're not losing their way, they are just becoming a part of the status quo. They're not challenging anything. At least in the last year or so. Leadership is strong but they're going in a straight line. Calculated moves.

You can't blame them - this is a massive public company and one mistake will lead to an uproar. The question is - will Apple's biggest mistake be not taking a risk and innovating.

Remember, even the Roman Empire fell.

<comment><USER3> > However, Apple is certainly not innovating like they were when Steve was > around and the market itself, in particular the smartphone market, is > becoming very mature - smartphones can only get so small, thin and fast > before they reach an apex. And think of the iPhone in relation to the > Porsche 911. It's more or less the same car for the past 50 years. Every 2-3 > years Porsche makes it better. It works for them, the consumer, the brand > and the legacy. I'm not sure why some people were expecting a Phone in the > i5 that would make them breakfast but it's a better product than already > great product in the 5.

That is a great way of saying it... love the Porsche analogy.

However, I challenge you on one point. I don't think Apple EVER innovated. Rather, they've iterated. And they did this wonderfully. Apple is notorious for not innovating but rather taking already established ideas and doing them much, much better than even the people who originally did them. That is their secret. They are great and simplifying and making it oh, so pretty.

EDIT: I should caveat the above to the modern Apple era. Post 2001 or so.

And not to take anything away from this, but when most people say "innovate" they typically mean something other than what I say above. In reality, the groundbreaking new features are never from Apple. If you looked at the marketplace, someone, somewhere already had those features. Apple just did it better a year later. That is what they do, no shame in it either...but they are not an innovative company.

<comment><USER4> > most people say "innovate" they typically mean something other than what I > say above.

Have you considered the possibility that you're misusing the word?

The word you're describing is "invent". But you'd still be violently wrong about Apple not doing it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines>

<comment><USER6> Great comment! From your wikipedia link: "...any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no". The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bollocks..."

<comment><USER7> Predictable comment, IMO.

Quoting Betteridge's Law of Headlines is this season's "You're not Google's customer, you're their product".

I can predict with great accuracy whether or not I'll see it referenced in any given HN comment thread based on the headline (ironically, in this case if the headline ends in a question mark, the answer is yes. If the headline is asking something negative about Apple, the answer is double yes).

<comment><USER8> _Quoting Betteridge's Law of Headlines is this season's "You're not Google's customer, you're their product"._

How is that not a true statement? A customer is somebody who gives you money. There's really no other definition at the end of the day.

<comment><USER7> I didn't say nor mean to imply that either statement was untrue, I'm just noting a pattern wherein certain meme phrases take hold on HN and then get over-quoted for the next 6 months or so. Referencing Betteridge's Law is currently one of the more popular current instances of this.

This is not entirely unlike reddit or 4chan or wherever, except the over- quoted phrases are some sort of startup/media/business wisdom rather than some geeky pop culture reference.

<comment><USER9> Well, its better than the "Apple sucks!" And "This new product from Apple [which is actually really great] is terrible and Apple's going to fail!"

I remember that when people were whining that the iPod sucked compared to archos media players and predicted it would fail.

This season its popular to claim that somehow the magical Steve Jobs's death means the end of Apple --- always from people who hope it is true.

The sad thing is, They are the ones who have all along insisted Steve Jobs was magical, becuase they refuse to understand why Apple is a success.

Which is why they constantly bash Apple products and claim they will fail (And then are silent about them when they win.)

iOS Maps is already far better than google maps. Further, Google maps hasn't really progressed in the last decade, while iOS Maps clearly is progressing pretty quickly.

The iPhone was going to suck, the iPas was the worst product name ever.... hell, this tradition goes all the way back to the original mac before most HN readres (I suspect) were even born.

I'm tired of the "Apple's product sucks because I don't know anything about technology or design but am a fan of [competitor]" junk.

<comment><USER7> "iOS Maps is already far better than google maps. Further, Google maps hasn't really progressed in the last decade, while iOS Maps clearly is progressing pretty quickly."

It has been a long while since I've used an iPhone on a daily basis (iPhone 3G for nearly two years), so perhaps what you're saying is correct for the iOS version of Google Maps, but the Android version has progressed tremendously and it continues to do so. Google Maps/Nav is 90% of the reason I'd never even consider using a non-Android phone platform right now.

"I'm tired of the "Apple's product sucks because I don't know anything about technology or design but am a fan of [competitor]" junk."

This goes both ways. Yes, there are Android fanbois who are overly critical and overly defensive, but there are _at least_ an equal number of Apple fanbois. If you only notice one side of this and noticing that makes you super defensive enough to post about it, odds are you yourself are a bit too much of a fanboi.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "The direction of Apple to go into maps is the right direction, but people will probably start questioning whether Apple products are as wonderful. It's been almost like a cult. We can always forgive people for one mistake, and for the post-Steve-Jobs era, this is the most significant. Another slip of this kind, people will start questioning Apple."

Apple has done lots of mistakes in the past. I've been an user of their products for only a few years, but even so I know.

It's not repeated mistakes that sink a company. It's unfixed mistakes. If users will find alternatives to iOS6 map app, they will use them. It's been like only a week since the new OS version was released. Not everyone has updated yet. People have been warned.

And the 'apple is cult/fanboys are blind followers' argument is one of the worst. Just like when non-religious persons belittle religious persons for being irrational, blind and manipulated. Which is stupid because it's not (generally) true.

Many make educated and conscious decisions. Buying a product is partially an irrational decision. BUT, the fact that Apple products produce those irrational decisions is the key to understanding the quality and the design thought that went into the products. And the fact that people keep on buying them, with every new version, tells that these products are really good. It's not magic. It's an illusion. It's just good products, and it's a damn successful company.

Mistakes can be fixed. Fixed ideas, hardly.

</comment><comment><USER11> Ok. We get it. Apple maps are subpar (for some people), they need to improve them soon. Is this YET ANOTHER STORY about it so interesting that it hits HN main page?

Btw, I've tried them and while there are some quirks, I really like them. Being vector is a huge win, it loads up quickly and whole experience is a lot smoother. As for accuracy, I live in a small town in Poland (not exactly Apple's main point of interest) and it's as accurate as Google Maps were.

<comment><USER12> Its the Apple haters having their day in the sun. They have to have something to distract them from their rubbishy phones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Apple is huge. When a company gets as big as Apple does, you'll always be able to find cracks and missteps.

Where I think Apple is failing is filling the gap of Jobs, and I don't mean the man, but the fear. Jobs was notorious for being an asshole and firing whole teams if they didn't deliver to "his standard". Without this fear, I wonder if things will begin to come out that would otherwise never have seen the light of day.

IMO, the last few products Apple has released have been much worse than the previous few. Lion was a bad release, Mountain Lion was better, but generally not a great release either. The new Nano with the round icons is, well, horrible looking. Would Jobs have let that go out? Would the team release that if Jobs was still alive and in charge?

I'm actually a huge fan of individuals being able to make autonomous decisions. I think that leads to healthier companies and better products. HOWEVER, Apple has never been structured that way and it could take some time before natural leaders step up inside the company. They have the money to weather storms and lets face it, the Apple fans are going to give them many years of free passes so there really isn't a fear of them ending anytime soon.

</comment><comment><USER13> "Google Maps is not available as an iPhone app, but Google Maps can still be used on a Firefox browser."

I stopped reading at this point.

</comment><comment><USER14> To answer the question in the headline. No, the company and brand has always been "arrogant" and occasionally "entitled". Just look at the iPhone 4 antenna problem. This is the same thing, they lose airports and train stations. Then they tell people to use it so they can find all the problems so they can start fixing it. I don't know about you people but I use the map app but I use it to find locations where I haven't been before. I find the response slightly arrogant to this whole maps deal. It is "your holding it wrong" all over again.

I have a bunch of Apple devices. But this maps thing and other things like Gatekeeper makes me hesitant to buy a device that is more expensive than the competitors. The thing is that I don't feel that the premium isn't simply worth it anymore.

</comment><comment><USER15> i'm no apple fan and i don't own any apple products but even i can say that companies make mistakes (after all its people who run them). its how they come out of the bad situation that counts.

obviously bad map app is an inconvenience especially when you buy a premium product that claims that it just works.

is it the end though? no.

did apple make more serious mistakes in the past? certainly, but it didnt kill them

just like the antenna issue, people will complain for a bit, and in a couple of month's time it won't be in the headlines anymore assuming they FIX it. if they don't then we should start considering that they might have lost their way.

</comment><comment><USER16> A lot of people feel the need to complain for some reason but I don't quite understand why. I don't see a smoking gun. There are no broken antennas, and MobileMe didn't crash. Sounds like a company just released a brand new product and there are some small bugs to work out. Which it what I would expect, from any company. We all know Samsung has bugs, MS Windows 8 has bugs, Nokia 920 has bugs. When I got a Galaxy S, 2 years ago, I received an OTA update v2.2.2, it bricked my phone. It bricked a lot of peoples phones. They stopped doing OTAs after that. Then the GPS didn't work. That was sort of accepted as a flaw in the GS v2.2.2. I had to root my phone and run a third party hack to get it to work. The mp3 player had a button to view music by album but tapping it would crash the player. That wasn't fixed until much later, v2.3.4, 9months after google released it. Had to use my brothers PC, install software on PC to install sw update on phone. Ridiculous. Virtually no updates to touchwiz UI. Garbage! Calls were always dropped constantly. Then I got a GS2. It would crash... all the time. I had to reboot nearly everyday. That is sort of expected with the GS2. Calls were dropped all the time. Text messages wound't come through on Google Voice. The control buttons on the headphones worked erratically but mostly not at all. TouchWiz is a disaster. Battery life was maybe 8 hours of standby. I had to charge to phone two times a day. The phone IS TOO FUCKING BIG! Trying to use the phone one handed, the thumb muscle would touch the screen before the tip of the thumb causing unintentional taps. These are 'real' user issues. What droidfans aren't saying is that Android is rough, and they like to fiddle with it, they like to mod it and install patches, and break it and reinstall it, and fuck with it some more. This is why there is no waiting lines for Samsung products. The 'sheeple' like expensive shit that works. I mean works as in 'doesn't crash everyday', not 'boo hoo, the bridge in my maps looks funny [frown-face], this is awful I think I will go shoot myself!1!!'

I understand people are having a problem with maps but most of the blogs are complete hyperbole right now, and the maps are working great for me in NYC. Public transit was never very helpful by google maps because "public transit is underground!" Welcome to the big city. Thus no network connectivity. No one is having "real" problems with the new iPhone. This is all BS for the purpose of getting visitors to a shitty blog. No Apple has not lost its way. iPhone 5 is amazing says nearly all reports. iOS 6 is great. There are some bugs. The total package is what I would expect from Apple, past or present.</comment>


Japan successfully lands robot rovers on an asteroid's surface - <AUTHOR> http://www.weny.com/story/39152229/japan-successfully-lands-robot-rovers-on-an-asteroids-surface <comment><USER2> Earlier post (95 points): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18046190](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18046190)

<comment><USER3> Thanks. Comments moved there.</comment></comment>


Indelible Ink: The Deep History of Tattoo Removal (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://theappendix.net/issues/2013/10/indelible-ink-the-deep-history-of-tattoo-removal <comment><USER2> As a guy who had a bit of a delinquent streak and was sleeved with homemade tattoos by my late teens (in the mid 90s) I am SO happy that tattoos have become socially acceptable. Through an accident of fashion all of those warnings about never being able to get a job or be taken seriously have been rendered moot. Now most of my original tattoos have been covered with much nicer, less embarrassing work and I blend in with every other vaguely edgy middle aged adult.

The tattoos I had when I was young meant something, but only in the sense that they were meant to signal a teenager's rebellious and dangerous nature. In a way you could say that the tattoos didn't have to be physically removed since the surrounding culture did that for me. The effect of the big sea change in fashion meant that the permanent marks on my body no longer kept me outside of polite society. Far less involved than lasers, that's for sure.

<comment><USER3> This feels especially true in the areas where I work (mostly backend web dev.) In an office where the dress code is jeans and a t-shirt or hoodie anyway, having some tattoos doesn't seem especially unprofessional. I had always been warned as a kid that I would never find a job if I got tattoos and have been relieved to find after nearly two full sleeves that this is not the case.

<comment><USER4> Slightly edgier tattoos still cause problems apparently, though there are other aspects to this guy that might make him a less-than-ideal employee [https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&object...](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11889732)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This story is still being written.

The removal business is 'medical', a different set of laws, liabilities and standards apply to tattooing. Because of this it means that the way removal gets done is not a fast moving, innovative business. A while ago it was worked out that if you put a glass slide on the skin and press hard then the blood cells get forced out of the way meaning the laser doesn't zap them and the trauma to the skin is minimised. Healing is quicker, the 'patient' is also more likely to return for follow up work. The pain is also a lot less.

However, despite these benefits, the removal business sticks to doing things the painful way where the blood vessels get zapped too. This is because of the 'medical' aspect and how experimentation with the better technique potentially opens up a world of medical liabilities.

<comment><USER6> I honestly wish people could just sign waivers and sidestep the red tape. There needs to be a bit of a precedent set in that area IMO.

Reminds me of a current-affairs segment I saw on Australian TV many years (~a decade) ago on someone who was pursuing an alternative cancer therapy for their young son.

It took me a couple of days to properly digest the slightly disorientating/uncharacteristic format/presentation used by this particular episode: I eventually realized there was no explanation other than that the presenter had been told to "bad cop"-interrogate the person on the show in order to get footage to make them look weak, and on further thought (just now) I reckon they probably didn't crumble as much as the show had hoped and the resulting edited-together footage was a bit cacophonic/disjointed, heheh.

Learned a bit about the media (and that presenters really have no rights if they want to keep their jobs) that week.

I don't even remember what the therapy was in question (or the country the family had traveled to to pursue it), but the person on the show was more or less close to demonized for their choices. I decided it was suspicious that this had been put on TV for whatever reason; why did I need to see this?

I mention this example to point out that setting the aforementioned precedent seems like it will generally be _very_ hard. :(</comment></comment>


Error Prone - <AUTHOR> http://errorprone.info/ <comment><USER2> I worked for Google for 2-3 years, and coming from C/C++ background into a Java/GWT team, this tool (under other name I think, and others related) helped a lot.

The tool, would kick in as soon as you've created your CL (if you are familiar with Perforce, and you are about to presubmit), and offer you changes to do, or it'll do it.

The whole culture, of having team dedicated to a language, and pushing big company-wide changes (LSC? large-scale change, or was it something like this) was really helpful.

Not every company can afford something like this, but it's super useful - avoids useless bikesheddding, unifies coding style, and people would spent less time on code reviews judging the wrong un-important stuff.</comment>


Which colleges help grads snare top salaries? - <AUTHOR> http://www.marketwatch.com/story/which-colleges-help-grads-snare-top-salaries-2012-09-25-121034742

<comment><USER2> Georgia Tech student here. One thing I would like to point out is that although the education given by Georgia Tech is excellent, I think that the real reason graduates make so much money is because of the Coop/internship program and the international studies program. It was why I chose to come here in the first place. I don't know the exact statistic but I believe more than 50% of students in Georgia Tech do a coop. In my major (Industrial Engineering), 70% of students do some sort of study abroad or work abroad.

Students that do coops usually get hired by the companies they coop for and they are usually hired at a position higher than entry level. This I believe explains the higher starting salary.

</comment><comment><USER3> Citing Payscale? That's somewhere between desperate and useless.</comment>


Why there is so many bald people in business? - <AUTHOR> Are the CEOs and bosses so stressed or are they alpha males? <comment><USER2> Well, _are_ there so many bald people in business compared to the rest of the world?

</comment><comment><USER3> It just alpha/beta male posturing. A receding hairline makes a man look old and pathetic, but baldness can project power and virility.</comment>


2,000 Atoms Exist in Two Places at Once in Unprecedented Quantum Experiment - <AUTHOR> https://www.livescience.com/2000-atoms-in-two-places-at-once.html <comment><AUTHOR> This is the cited paper: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-019-0663-9?utm_source...](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-019-0663-9?utm_source=commission_junction&utm_medium=affiliate)</comment>


The story of the Rekursiv object-oriented CPU - <AUTHOR> http://www.slideshare.net/sebrose/rekursiv <comment><USER2> I remember ordering the information kit on the Rekursiv somewhere around the end of the eighties and going through the material.

In hindsight I am glad we didn't proceed ;)

[edit]

As an aside, this was in the time of the Transputer which also originated in Great Britain, so it was not too far fetched that the Rekursiv could be able to fly.

The Transputer OTOH did fly -- onboard the JAS 39 Gripen ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> Why do people submit slideshare and scribd links? Do they not respect the people they're trying to share the articles with enough to find a copy that we can keep and share after the original has bitrotted? Do they think we all caved and pay to extortionist middlemen to download copies of files whose informational content is free, but in degraded and degrading (to the reader) format? Do they upload the articles there themselves because it's simply too hard to find a couple gigabytes of cumulative bandwidth to share an article with the community directly?

Maybe HN should have a PDF upload form. The venture capitalists can afford the bandwidth costs.

The link you want is page 8 of this pdf: [http://accu.org/var/uploads/journals/CVu213.pdf](http://accu.org/var/uploads/journals/CVu213.pdf) (md5 5afbca5e575e66f4b9c071c5a6af579b, also saved in the web archive)

While I'm angry, fuck Google.

<comment><AUTHOR> While you're in a huff, why don't you go fix the Wikipedia article, which links to the same slideshare?</comment></comment>


How to work with Modifiers in Java - <AUTHOR> http://mrbool.com/working-with-modifiers-in-java/29170

<comment><USER2> Thanks for spending the time on this.

Here are some tips:

Don't list yourself as "Java and Android application developer with more than 3 years experience."

Just say, "Java and Android application developer" or even just "Android application developer".

When you ask for a job, call yourself "mid-level" until you hit >= 6 years and then list yourself as "Senior ... Developer". Until then, it's not good in this market to advertise so few years. There are just too many people out there with more, many who are unemployed, even.

Second, if you are doing it for the purpose of trying to get noticed, stop the Java posts and just do Android. Personally, I just write whatever I want to share to my blog, but you posted the link on HN, so I'm guessing you want traction. If you write a "How I made $(something more than $1000) writing (Android app name)", or "How to write your first Android app and sell it in no time", you'll get traction. A lot of people here want to do mobile, but don't have time to learn, or had a crappy experience with it when they tried, so tutorials and promise of money/success are important.

Good luck! If you decide to keep going with the Java stuff, that's nice too. It's not a bad field to be in. Plenty of jobs. Just not many people interested in the basics.</comment>


Jeff Bezos: Amazon Boss Accuses National Enquirer of Blackmail - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47166938 <comment><USER2> additional discussion about Jeff Bezos' essay: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19109474](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19109474)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is funny because you can't tell what are click bait ads and what is content.

</comment><comment><USER4> Will Bezos eat his own 2016 words to Peter Theil re Gawker:

[https://archive.is/Q6f09](https://archive.is/Q6f09)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has spoken out against Peter Thiel and in defense of Gawker, telling a Los Angeles audience: "Beautiful speech doesn't need protection. Ugly speech needs protection. That's where the rubber's gonna meet the road."

In reference to Peter Thiel's recent efforts to punish critical reporters in court, he said: "Seek revenge and you should dig two graves, one for yourself.

"Is that really how you want to spend your time? As a public figure the best defense to speech that you don't like is to develop a thick skin."

"I'm very willing to let any of my body parts go through a big fat wringer if need be," Bezos said.

<comment><USER5> How does this justify extortion? Serious question.

<comment><USER4> > I'm very willing to let any of my body parts go through a big fat wringer if > need be.

If you're willing, how can you be extorted?

<comment><USER5> Do X or I will do Y to hurt you and your company is blackmail and extortion, regardless of what Y is.

Digging up some past quote to somehow justify extortion is not very genuine.

<comment><USER4> I'm not justifying extortion, just reminding people of Bezos hypocritical statements.

He was piling pain into Theil but now the shoe is on the other foot his tough talk has a different tune.

He should have supported Peter / Hogan against the "everything you do in private is in the public interest" mentality. Especially when he owns a newspaper and a media network!

<comment><USER5> There's no hypocrisy here. If you have a personal issue with Bezos or his success, that's fine. Expecting Bezos to tell newspapers or media what to report sounds like something Donald Trump would do. Good on Bezos for not doing that.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


10 Things I Hate About Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/06/13/ten-things-i-hate-about-you-facebook/ <comment><USER2> I know her headline is just an attention grabber, but the entire writeup is just incredibly inapt.

You have to login? I think the whole point is that it's personal profiles with great access control. Users don't learn HTML and Javascript by adding apps? Are you kidding me?

<comment><USER3> Agreed. Many of the bad things she mentioned are things I consider positive things (privacy settings, non-customizable look). The article almost goes back and forth between describing things myspace has that facebook doesn't, and things that are easy to ask for but hard to do. Neither of these categories justifies hate, even if it is just an attention grabber.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I not convinced she's actually used facebook.</comment>


One man feeds Western Media on Syria  - <AUTHOR> http://bigstory.ap.org/article/england-one-man-feeds-western-media-syria

<comment><USER2> One man feeds western media on Syria .. That's one hell of a fast-food: The Media doesn't even bother digesting it, but they don't forget to wipe with news-papers they produce and throw them to readers.

It's apparently a sport practised at the highest levels of Office. Kerry apparently will be featured on CSI with his "Sarin" hair samples he pulled out of I don't know where...</comment>


The Next Decade in AI: Four Steps Towards Robust Artificial Intelligence - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.06177 <comment><USER2> This seems similar to the recent book Rebooting AI that he wrote with Ernest Davis.

Good read (both paper and their book).

A little off topic, but I have been an AI practitioner since the early 1980s. The beginning of my career was "symbolic" AI, the last 6 years were deep learning, and now I am also getting interested in hybrid AI which I mostly do in Common Lisp with some code calling out to Python and TensorFlow.</comment>


Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-2010 - <AUTHOR> http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/

<comment><USER2> I don't get it. Is he dead? I can find no credible evidence that he is. Wikipedia proclaims he is alive, there is no news indicating otherwise, nor any web reports. We only have this odd link to Taleb's homepage indicating that Mandelbrot has passed. Surely if you're going to submit a link regarding such an event there is more information and a better link to share other than two lines on Taleb's homepage--right?

EDIT: This is nothing more than a rumor right now. Even Wikipedia has a discussion topic on it, referencing Taleb's home page. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Benoît_Mandelbrot#Death_ru...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Benoît_Mandelbrot#Death_rumours)

<comment><USER3> reading the pages URL "fooled by randomness" I would consider this a bad joke. Could somebody mark this post as [dead] ?

<comment><USER4> That is Nassim Taleb's website. Fooled By Randomness was his first trade book. Taleb is Mandelbrot's protege in financial circles.

<comment><USER3> Oh, ok. Thank you for clarifying this point. I didn't know the book and thought it strange in combination with this unconfirmed information.

<comment><USER5> Nassim posted the same news on his facebook page too. I would guess the news is not hoax. I dont think his page is hacked.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> References/Confirmation at Tyler Cowen's site:

[http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/10...](http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/10/benoit- mandelbrot-has-passed-away.html)

<comment><USER2> He's just linking to twitter and Taleb. Whether or not its true is beyond me, what's sort of irresponsible is everyone pointing to everyone else for confirmation w/o any sort of definitive source.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> His TED Talk is great if you haven't seen him much: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay8OMOsf6AQ></comment>